Volume V Part 75 (1/2)
This was too ave hi day I then dressed and dined with Nicolini, without thinking or speaking of this disagreeable incident
The next day as I was taking a walk outside the toalls, I room I bowed to him as he passed, but he ca Brunswick, chevalier?”
”In two or three days, your highness”
”I heard this ainst you for beating hiive hie which he was afraid of”
”My lord, I cannot answer for the effects of ainst a rascal who dared to come and insult iven hined my own honour
The impertinent scoundrel threatened to have me arrested, but I know that a just Governht; it would be unjust to have you arrested, but he is afraid for his ducats”
”He need not be afraid, my lord, for the bill is drawn by a person of honour and of high station in society”
”I ahted to hear it The Jew said he would never have discounted the bill if you had not hness' name never passed, my lips”
”He also says that you endorsed the bill with a false naalt, and that name is mine”
”In short, it is a case of a Jeho has been beaten, and is afraid of being duped I pity such an ani you here till he learns the fate of the bill at Aoodness of the bill, I will take it up : thus you will be able to leave when you like Farewell, chevalier! I wish you a pleasant journey”
With this co ht have felt inclined to tell hiive the Jew and everyone else to understand that it was a favour done to reat hurt of ed by his doing nothing of the kind But though the prince was a nanimity, he was deficient in that delicate quality which we call tact This defect, cost princes, arises from their education, which places them above the politeness which is considered necessary in ordinary mortals
He could not have treated me worse than he did, if he had been certain of iven, and that he would bear all the consequences of my misdemeanour With this idea in my head, I said to myself; ”Perhaps, indeed, this is exactly what the prince does think Is it the Jew or ive hih I do not wish to cause hi deeply hu onwords
I thought his wish for a pleasant journey supremely out of place, under the circumstances, in the mouth of one who enjoyed almost absolute power It was equivalent to an order to leave the town, and I felt indignant at the thought
I therefore resolved to vindicate
”If I stay,” I said to ht; and if I go the duke will think I have profited by his favour, and so to speak, by his present of fifty louis if the bill were protested I will not let anyone enjoy a satisfaction which is no one due”
After these considerations, which I thought worthy of a wiser head than ood dinner and the payment ofweek there I was sure of finding aest library in Europe, and I had long been anxious to see it
The learned librarian, whose politeness was all the better for being completely devoid of affection, told me that not only could I have whatever books I wished to see, but that I could take the the manuscripts, which are the chief feature in that fine library
I spent a week in the library, only leaving it to take o to bed, and I count this week as one of the happiest I have ever spent, for then I forgot ht of study, the past, the present, and the future were entirely blotted out Of some such sort, I think, must be the joys of the redee little circue And here I must note a circumstance which my readers may scarcely believe, but which, for all that, is quite true-namely, that I have always preferred virtue to vice, and that when I sinned I did so out of htness of heart, for which, no doubt, I shall be blaive an account of his actions to two beings, to himself here and to God hereafter
At Wolfenbuttel I gathered a good many hints on the ”Iliad” and ”Odyssey,” which will not be found in any co Some of these considerations will be found in my translation of the ”Iliad,” the rest are still in ht However, I burn nothing, not even these Me so, but the time never comes
At the end of the week I returned to the same inn at Brunshich I had occupied before, and let hted to hear that no one suspected that I had spent the fortnight within five leagues of Brunswick Daturi told eneral belief was that I had returned the Jew his e back Nevertheless I felt sure that the bill had been honoured at A at Wolfenbuttel