Tullia.
Withal Caviceo did not even pierce thee with his lance[1]? it did not enter into thy trench[1]?
Ottavia.
I seized it and held it aside, but unlucky event! I felt myself completely drenched with a shower like fire, and, naked as I was, wet up to the navel. I put my hand to it again; but when falling on that sort of slimy fluid with which the mad fellow had flooded me, my hand recoiled from fright and horror.
Tullia.
Therefore neither was he vanquished nor thou victorious, since he was very near carrying off a real victory.
Ottavia.
Caviceo was far more agreable to me since that day. Nor do I know the powerful desire that doth agitate my soul. I ignore what I long for, and cannot mention it. All I know is that Caviceo pleaseth me far more than all mortals; I expect from him alone the supreme pleasure which I do not understand, as I ignore what it may be like. I desire naught and yet desire……
Here we end our extract from Luisa's Dialogues. We shall have occasion to quote from them again in subsequent volumes of Anthologia Rarissima.
173
