Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/249

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

[ 235 ]

No, says the Lady, Sir William did not, but the other Appearance spoke to me, and frighted me to Death: Why, he asked me, to let him come to Bed to me; and, I thought, he offered to open the Bed, which waked me, and I was e'en dead with the Fright.

O, Madam, says the Cousin, then it was but a Dream, it seems; it was not the Devil.

No, it was a Dream; but it was the Devil, to be sure, says the Lady, for all that.

Well, but Madam, says the Cousin, if it was the Devil, what will a Husband signify?

Why, says the Lady, I can't bear to be alone in the Night, and be thus terrified.

Why, Madam, says the Cousin, will a Husband, and such a one as you propose, be able to drive the Devil away? I suppose your Woman lies with you; she is as able as he for such-a Thing; that is to say, she will be with you, and call for help, if need be; and he can do no more.

I do not know what to do, Cousin, not I, says the Lady, but, I think, I must have him; my Mind is so distracted I shall never be easy.

Nay, Madam, says the Cousin, then 'tis that makes you Dream so, it may be.

No, no, Cousin, says the Lady, don't have such Thoughts on me, pray.

Upon the whole, her Cousin found what Devil it was haunted her Ladyship; so she confessed, at last, that the Lady had good Reasons for marrying; but then she argued warmly against her taking the young Fellow; and after reckoning up a great many Gentlemen in the Neighbourhood, she press'd her earnestly not to marry below her self.

Why,