I
grew up, and improved in beauty, wit, and every graceful
accomplishment; and in the midst of pleasures, homage, and the highest
expectations. I already began to inspire the men with love. My
breast began to take its right form, and such a breast! white, firm,
and formed like that of the Venus de' Medici; my eyebrows were as
black as jet, and as for my eyes, they darted flames and eclipsed
the luster of the stars, as I was told by the poets of our part of the
world. My maids, when they dressed and undressed me, used to fall into
an ecstasy in viewing me before and behind; and all the men longed
to be in their places.
"I was contracted in marriage to a sovereign prince of Massa
Carrara. Such a prince! as handsome as myself, sweet-tempered,
agreeable, witty, and in love with me over head and ears. I loved him,
too, as our sex generally do for the first time, with rapture,
transport, and idolatry. The nuptials were prepared with surprising
pomp and magnificence; the ceremony was attended with feasts,
carousals, and burlesques: all Italy composed sonnets in my praise,
though not one of them was tolerable.
"I was on the point of reaching the summit of bliss, when an old
marchioness, who had been mistress to the Prince, my husband,
invited him to drink chocolate.
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