The castle was a fortified building, and had sustained several sieges in
the civil wars. As its name, Pont-Carre, indicated, it was square, and
was flanked by four crenelated towers and surrounded by a broad moat. The
rooms were vast, and richly furnished in an old-fashioned way. The air
was full of venomous gnats who devoured us and covered our faces with
painful bites; but I had agreed to spend a week there, and I should have
been hard put to it to find a pretext for shortening the time. Madame
d'Urfe had a bed next, her own for her niece, but I was not afraid of her
attempting to satisfy herself as to the countess's virginity, as the
oracle had expressly forbidden it under pain or failure. The operation
was fixed for the fourteenth day of the April moon.

On that day we had a temperate supper, after which I went to bed. A
quarter of an hour afterwards Madame d'Urfe came, leading the virgin
Lascaris. She undressed her, scented her, cast a lovely veil over her
body, and when the countess was laid beside me she remained, wishing to
be present at an operation which was to result in her being born again in
the course of nine months.

The act was consummated in form, and then Madame d'Urfe left us alone for
the rest of the night, which was well employed. Afterwards, the countess
slept with her aunt till the last day of the moon, when I asked the
oracle if the Countess Lascaris had conceived. That well might be, for I
had spared nothing to that intent; but I thought it more prudent to make
the oracle reply that the operation had failed because the small Count
d'Aranda had watched us behind a screen. Madame d'Urfe was in despair,
but I consoled her by a second reply, in which the oracle declared that
though the operation could only be performed in France in April, it could
take place out of that realm in May; but the inquisitive young count,