erything he
showed me.

What valuable pains were here thrown away upon one who he was sure, at
last, to abandon with regret! How below himself did a man of quality and
of a thousand accomplishments behave in all this! It is one of my
reasons for entering into this part, which otherwise would not be worth
relating. Had I been a daughter or a wife, of whom it might be said that
he had a just concern in their instruction or improvement, it had been
an admirable step; but all this to a whore; to one who he carried with
him upon no account that could be rationally agreeable, and none but to
gratify the meanest of human frailties--this was the wonder of it. But
such is the power of a vicious inclination. Whoring was, in a word, his
darling crime, the worst excursion he made, for he was otherwise one of
the most excellent persons in the world. No passions, no furious
excursions, no ostentatious pride; the most humble, courteous, affable
person in the world. Not an oath, not an indecent word, or the least
blemish in behaviour was to be seen in all his conversation, except as
before excepted; and it has given me occasion for many dark reflections
since, to look back and think that I should be the snare of such a
person's life; that I should influence him to so much wickedness, and
that I should be the instrument in the hand of the devil to do him so
much prejudice.

We were near two years upon this grand tour, as it may be called, during
most of which I resided at Rome or at Venice, having only been twice at
Florence and once at Naples. I made some very diverting and useful
observations in all these places, and particularly of the conduct of the
ladies; for I had opportunity to converse very much among them, by the
help of the old witch that travelled with us. She had been at Naples and
at Venice, and had lived in the former several years, where, as I found,
she had lived but a loose life, as indeed the women of Naples generally
do; and, in short, I found she was fully acquainted with all the
intriguing arts of that part of the world.

Here my lord bought me a little female Turkish slave, who, being taken
at sea by a Maltese man-of-war, was brought in there, and of her I
learnt the Turkish language, their way of dressing and dancing, and some
Turkish, or rather Moorish, songs, of which I made use to my advantage
on an extraordinary occasion some years after, as you shall hear in its
place. I need not say I learnt Italian too,