SPEAKING together thus, they went into her room, where they passed such a night as, I imagine, the two lovers spent, when Paris had carried off Helen in his tall ship; so sweet a night that both said Mars and Venus could not have been better together.

‘You are my Ganymede, my Hippolytus, my Diomedes,’ said Lucretia.

‘And you my Polyxena,’ he replied, ‘my Aemilia, Venus herself.’ And now he praised her mouth, now her cheeks, and now her eyes. And sometimes, raising the blanket, he gazed at those secret parts he had not seen before, and cried:

‘I find more than I had expected. Thus must Diana have appeared to Actaeon, when she bathed in the spring. Could anything be lovelier or whiter than your body? Now I am rewarded for all perils. What would I not suffer for your sake? Oh lovely bosom, most glorious breasts! Can it be that I touch you, possess you, hold you in my hands? Smooth limbs, sweet-scented body, are you really mine? Now it were well to die, with such a joy still fresh, before any misfortune could befall.

‘My darling, do I hold you, or is it a dream? Is all this pleasure true, or am I mad to think so? No, it is no dream, it is the very truth. Dear kisses, soft embraces, bites sweet as honey! No one was ever happier than I, no one more fortunate!

‘But woe is me! how swift the hours. Jealous night, why do you fly? Stay, Apollo, tarry a little longer among the dead. Why in such a hurry to yoke your steeds? Let them still graze. Give me such a night as you gave Alcmenus. And you, Aurora, why in such haste to leave Tithonus’ bed? If you were half as dear to him as Lucretia is to me, he’d never let you rise so early. Never have I known a night so short as this, although I have been in Britain and the land of the Dacians.’

Thus Euryalus, and Lucretia echoed him. She returned him kiss for kiss, and word for word. They clasped each other close; nor were they wearied by their love, but as Antaeus rose stronger from the earth, so they gained strength and energy from their strife.

When the night was over, and Aurora was lifting her tresses out of the sea, they ceased; nor could they begin again for many days, for every hour Lucretia was more closely guarded. But love conquered all, and at last they found a way to meet, as lovers will.