promissory note for two thousand! These amounts were supplemented by others, sent presently by postal-orders. The Dijon victim thus paid over sums of one thousand, six thousand, three thousand francs, and so on. He knew that he had done nothing whatever criminal under the French law—Peyrin had no real 'hold'. But the scandal was not to be faced. In this way, G—paid out to Peyrin not less than twenty-one thousand francs; until he decided, half-bankrupt, that he must turn to the law for aid. The defense of the villainous young Parisian shark was that all the money "had been given him" by G—, as merely friendly expressions of regard, as compensation for their sexual relations, and so on. The tribunal could sentence Peyrin only to two years of prison and five-hundred francs fine. G—, at last free of such bloodsucking, left for Dijon by the first train on the conclusion of the trial. One exclaims, "Requiescat in pace!"
Some years ago an English gentleman (a completely homosexual type) of high family, distinguished in literature, happened on an Italian instance of blackmailing "bluff". In Rome, walking one afternoon in the Villa Doria, he chanced on a handsome well-mannered young male prostitute, who mentioned himself as employed in the Villa. This was not the fact, as he had been discharged some months earlier. After half-an-hour's strolling about in the garden (which at the time had no other promenaders) the Englishman suggested that "—si diverterebbe un momentino," if the other was inclined. They turned into the shrubbery, and remained for a few minutes. (Onan. mut). Soon after, the stranger and his "friend" left the gardens; the Italian insisting on accompanying the Englishman toward his hotel. The Englishman had given his companion five lire—a liberal amount for such informal "services rendered". The Italian demanded, more, and threatened a scandal in the street. The Englishman much dreaded that turn of the situation. However he vigorously ridiculed
— 488 —
