For a moment the natural timidity of her sex made Polly shrink from the swarthy figures they were approaching, the next moment she was reassured, for a young girl, with eyes black as night, hair dark and glossy as a raven's wing, and a scarlet shawl showing off her lithe figure, approached her.
"Tell your fortune, fair lady?" said she. "Can the gorjio lady stop to have her fortune read; the gypsy girl will tell truly what the stars foretell."
"You have just hit it, my girl," said Capias; "tell the lady her fortune. Show us into one of your tents, and as bright a guinea as ever carried King George's head shall be yours."
Thrusting aside the curtain of a tent, Mildred, the darkeyed girl, led them into the interior. A great fire smouldered in the centre, the air of the tent was warmed and even perfumed by its smoke. A bed of heath and soft moss was in one corner of the tent, and being spread over with a rich scarlet shawl, it looked a couch which a gipsey queen would not disdain to employ as the scene of a sacrifice to Priapus.
Needless to repeat the pretty phrases which Mildred poured into Polly's willing ears. How she promised her all sorts of good things in the future, and then, with a meaning look at Capias, slipped out of the tent, so taking care that Polly should have a good thing in the present.
Before many minutes had elapsed the coy lady was spread upon the heath couch, and Capias was duly "entering an appearance" in a court in which he had not practised before; but which, as there was no "bar" to his "pleading," he contrived to make a very sensible impression. His few "motions" were rewarded with a verdict of approval; his "attachment" was pronounced a valid one, and soft caresses, murmured thanks, and close endearments rewarded him for his successful issue into the "court of love."
It did not take long to remove from their flushed cheeks and disordered dress the evidence of the encounter, and Polly and Capias issued into the open air to meet Mildred and reward her for her considerate attention.
The sounds of singing and revelry from a large tent well lit next attracted our lawyer's attention, and thereto he went.
Around a large fire was seated a group which might well have employed the brush of Murillo or Rembrandt. The luscious leer on the faces of the men and women showed how keenly they were enjoying a highly spiced song of one of the company; and the right hand of most of the men, being hid in the folds of the drapery of the women, gave evidence of a desire to practically realize some of the stanzas.
A bold-looking, bronze-faced youth was singing, and the following verses give a fair example of his song:
Capias listened, so did Polly, with mixed feelings to this very irreverent song, but the night was wearing on, and they had some thought of the long journey before them.
Mildred approached Capias with a smile, and said — "The gorjio gentleman will not stop long in the gypsy's tent. Only let the gentleman be generous, and Mildred will show him and the lady a rare sight."
Capias was generous, and Mildred quietly led the way to a tent some little distance off.
"Step lightly," said she. "There are two of our people; they have eaten bread and salt to-day — they are now man and wife. Would you like to see the joys of their wedding night?"
Of course an affirmative answer was soon given, and Capias and Polly were led to a hole in the canvas wall, and witnessed the following curious scene.
At first only the dim outlines of two figures could be discerned in the interior of the tent.
"Wait a moment," Mildred whispered to Polly. "Gypsies always have a good light; no one would have his bride in the dark on his wedding night."
The peepers kept very still, and presently Mildred whispered again — "Zach is going to light up; you'll see him look Miriam all over before he really has her for better or worse, as your marriage service says."
The obscure figures now released themselves from a long embrace, the female giving an audible sigh, which seemed to give expression both to her amorous desires and timidity as to what was coming. Striking a match the swarthy bridegroom lighted up three candles, stuck in a common tin triangle suspended from the centre of the tent, which was a rather large one, set apart for the use of various members of the tribe on such special occasions.
"Now strip thee, lass, and gie us a sight of thy juicy koont afore I fook thee!" said Zach, imperatively. 'Thou's now all mine or now't, as I find thee."
Setting her a good example, he threw off jacket, vest, and breeks till he stood a dingy-looking Hercules in shirt and stockings, the former of which seemed anything but a clean wedding garment, looking a fair match in its unwashed tints to his olive-coloured skin. She, too, was too dark for it to be seen if her blushes betrayed the shock to her modesty which the sight of his tremendous yard, the big purple head of which jutted out beneath that dingy shirt.
"Tak't in thee hond gal, and feel how randy 'tis!" he said, lifting up her smock the moment she stepped out of her skirts, and the pair could then be seen standing side by side in the full light of the candles, their lips glued together in a sucking kiss, whilst each one's hands were busy caressing the other's privates. She was a fine plump young woman of about eighteen, with a mass of black hair falling loose over her shoulders, but her lovely eyes were hidden by the closing lids, as if afraid to look in his face, or see her fate in any way.
"Oh! you hurt me Zach; did you think I'd lost my maidenhead?" she said, flinching from the insertion of his big middle finger.
"Thou'll do; thou's right, my gal. Now kiss my p — k, and swear to be true to it, and never take another as long as you have me," he said.
She knelt down before him, and almost reverently imprinted two or three ardent kisses on the object of her desires, swearing the required oath in a peculiar kind of lingo quite im159 possible for Capias and Polly to understand, but they could see he was tremendously excited, for, lifting the fine girl fairly up in his brawny arms, he carried her to a heap of blankets, amp;c, evidently laid over a soft bed of ferns and heather, and falling upon it with her by his side his hands opened her willing thighs, giving a delicious view of a black bushy mount, with just a discernable vermillion slit at the bottom of the swarthy belly. He was between those plump thighs quicker than it takes to say so, and throwing his body over her began to kiss her face and neck in the most passionate manner, being too long in the body to do so to her heaving bosom, which he caressed and moulded with one hand. The girl seemed instinctively to open her thighs yet wider, as he put the head of his tremendous cock to the small-looking mark, opening the lips with his fingers till the head got in about an inch. Her hands pressed his buttocks down with all her force, and both seemed to quiver with emotion and spend at this moment, as they then lay motionless for a few seconds, till she gave his bottom a rare slap with one hand, and loudly whispered — "Try again Zach, my love; you did make me feel nice, as you spurted into me then; I shan't be so tight now!