Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/204

 pose and betray her; that she would have her Maid lie with her every Night, that she might have good Witness of her Conduct; but that she would not trust her self any more to sleep with one that would betray her to the Devil, and then to all the World.

she not only told her husband, but told it to all her Friends and Tea Table Emissaries; and the Story was so plausible in its kind, and was told so much to her Advantage, that every Body justify'd her Conduct, said she was in the right, that she could do no less, and that no Woman in her Senses would sleep in Bed with a Man who was able to do such Things as those; and that, in short, it was all one as to sleep with the Devil.

Man had no Remedy but to deny the Charge, and to say he never had any thing to do with the Devil, or with any such People as Conjurers, Magicians, or any such Sort of Folks, in his life. But all that went but a little Way, for who would not deny it if they were the most guilty of any in the World; but the Woman vouched that so and so he had said, and such and such Things he had pretended; that h« could not do so without the help of the Devil; and that therefore it was not safe for her, by any means, to trust her self with him.

the guilty Wife got the Victory over the innocent Husband, by the meer dexterity of her Wit, and the Conduct of her Allies, not forgetting the assistance of a Publick Clamour; the Man himself, at the same time, was not famed for overmuch Sense or Conduct in this, or other Things, and therefore was the easier managed by a keen witted Wife. But the Inference from the whole Discourse comes in perfectly