As one example of such writing, let us glance at a comparatively inoffensive survival from the period just before the Revolution. It is taken from _L’Espion Anglais_ (1777-1778), eleven rambling volumes probably from several pens. In imitation of the more reputable journalistic correspondence of the time, this work is cast in the form of letters from “Milord All’eye” in Paris to his friend “Milord All’ear” in London. Mayeur de Saint-Paul is credited with the authorship of three very long letters[20] recording the career of a young girl from the provinces who runs away to Paris, finds a place in the most elite _maison_ of the day, and is there groomed for the service of a prominent lesbian actress. The latter’s luxurious maisonette, which is secluded in a wooded park, is described in detail, as are the stages of the girl’s initiation into the erotic services of her mistress and into a large lesbian cult whose temple is located within the grounds. Action and setting are portrayed with some art and the narrative seldom becomes indelicately specific. Unhappily for the lesbian, the girl’s personal maid, who lives outside the grounds, gives her male lover an eloquent account of her young mistress’s charms. By masquerading as a delivery girl from a modiste’s shop the boy insinuates himself into the actress’s paradise, converts the lavishly-kept prisoner to the superior delights of _jouissance_ with him, and brings about her expulsion by her outraged lesbian lover. This rococo gem was said to be based upon actual persons and circumstances of the decade in which it was written. As a kind of last gasp of the _galant_ school’s attempt to conform to later standards of acceptability one may cite the work of Felicité de Choiseul-Meuse, an author of uncertain identity who produced a number of racy novels just after 1800. Her _Julie, ou J’ai Sauvé ma Rose_ (1807) is a lushly romantic tale in which, as its title suggests, a professional flirt contrives to be all but seduced by every type of lover from timorous stripling to middle-aged man-about-town, and in every sort of setting from her own boudoir to a Gothic cavern where she is held by a kidnaper. Throughout the story she is attracted by lovely women, but she becomes involved with one only in the final chapter. A woman of boyish type seems to have captivated the man Julie really loves, and, by way of revenge on both, Julie seduces her rival, who proves to be an already active lesbian. She finds this dalliance pleasanter than anything thus far experienced with men, and as it does not constitute defloration, she ends by marrying happily the original lover who advised her in adolescence that women’s power over men consists in never sacrificing their technical virginity.