 to
his conviction, that he promised to act more circumspectly for the future, and
drop all thoughts of the mousquetaire from that moment.
    A few days after he had taken this laudable resolution, Pipes, who had
carried a billet to his mistress, informed him, that he had perceived a laced
hat lying upon a marble slab in her apartment; and that when she came out of her
own chamber to receive the letter, she appeared in manifest disorder.
    From these hints of intelligence, our young gentleman suspected, or rather
made no doubt of her infidelity; and being by this time well nigh cloyed with
possession, was not sorry to find that she had given him cause to renounce her
correspondence. That he might therefore detect her in the very breach of duty,
and at the same time punish the gallant who had the presumption to invade his
territories, he concerted with himself a plan, which was executed in this
manner: During his next interview with his Dulcinea, far from discovering the
least sign of jealousy or discontent, he affected the appearance of
extraordinary fondness; and after having spent the afternoon with the shew of
uncommon satisfaction, told her he was engaged in a party for Fountainbleau, and
would set out from Paris that same evening; so that he should not have the
pleasure of seeing her again for some days.
    The lady, who was very well versed in the arts of her occupation, pretended
to receive this piece of news with great affliction, and conjured him with such
marks of real tenderness, to return as soon as possible to her longing arms,
that he went away almost convinced of her sincerity. Determined, however, to
prosecute his scheme, he actually departed from Paris with two or three
gentlemen of his acquaintance, who had hired a Remise for a jaunt to Versailles;
and having accompanied them as far as the village of Passé, returned in the dusk
of the evening on foot.
    He waited impatiently till midnight, and then arming himself with a pair of
pocket-pistols, and attended by trusty Tom with a cudgel in his hand, repaired
to the lodgings of his suspected inamorata; and having given Pipes his cue,
knocked gently at the door, which was no sooner opened by the lacquey than he
bolted in, before the fellow could recollect himself from the confusion
occasioned by his unexpected appearance; and leaving Tom to guard the door,
ordered the trembling valet to light him up stairs into his lady's apartment.
The first object that presented itself to his view, when he entered the
anti-chamber, was a sword upon the table, which he
