Volume V Part 79 (1/2)
The next day, when I went to dine with Madame Denis, I found a nureeteddancer named Aubri, who been the lover of one of the most exalted Venetian ladies, and at the same time her husband's pathic It was said that this scandalous intimacy was of such a nature that Aubri used to sleep between the husband and wife At the beginning of Lent the State Inquisitors sent him to Trieste He introduced me to his wife, who danced like hi He had , fro to spend the winter in Paris The next person who advanced to greet me was a fat man, who held out his hand and said we had been friends twenty-five years ago, but that ere so young then that it would be no wonder if we did not know each other ”We knew each other at Padua, at Dr Gozzi's,” he added; ”lio”
”I remember you,” I replied, ”in those days you were violoncello at the Russian chapel”
”Exactly; and now I a to my native land to leave it no more
I have the honour to introduce you to hter of Modonis the violinist, whose reputation is European In a week I shall be at Dresden, where I hope to have the honour of seeing Madahted to find enial society, but I could see that Mada over a quarter of a century, and I turned the conversation to the events at St Petersburg which had resulted in Catherine the Great ascending the throne Da Loglio told us that he had taken a set out of the way
”Fortunately,” he added, ”this was a contingency I had long provided against, and I am in a position to spend the rest of my days in comfort in Italy”
Madao a Piedmontese, named Audar, was introduced to me He had been a chief ave him a present of a hundred thousand roubles and an order to leave Russia iht an estate in Piedmont on which he built a fine mansion In two or three years it was struck by a thunder-bolt, and the unfortunate man was killed in the ruins of his own house If this was a blow frohty hand, it could not, at all events, have been directed by the genius of Russia, for if the unfortunate Peter III had lived, he would have retarded Russian civilization by a hundred years
The Eners who had assisted her in her plots rateful to the Russians who had helped her to mount the throne; while, like a crafty politician, she sent such nobles as she suspected to be averse to revolution out of the country
It was Da Loglio and his pretty ho deter of Prussia did not give me any employment I was assured that I should ood instructions
As soon as this worthy man left Berlin ht when I was supping with her she was seized with convulsions which lasted all the night I did not leave her for a ratitude finished what un twenty-six years before, and our amorous comain at Florence six years later
Some days after Madahts of the town Our intienerally believed to be eneral who kept her either believed the report, or like a st other notable things I saw at Potsda the first battalion of his grenadiers, all picked men, the flower of the Prussian army
The roo passed when he came from the castle The shutters were all closed, and our landlady told us that on one occasion when a pretty dancer called La Reggiana was sleeping in the sa had seen her in 'puris naturalibus' This was too much for his modesty, and he had ordered the shutters to be closed, and closed they had re had some cause to fear, for he had been severely treated by La Barbarina In the king's bedroomher portrait, that of La Cochois, sister to the actress who becaens, and that of Marie Theresa, hom Frederick had been in love, or rather he had been in love with the idea of becoance of the castle, we could not help aded
He had a mean room, and slept on a little bed with a screen around it
There was no dressing-gown and no slippers The valet shewed us an old cap which the king put on when he had a cold; it looked as if it must be very uncomfortable His majesty's bureau was a table covered with pens, paper, half-burnt manuscripts, and an ink-pot; beside it was a sofa The valet told us that these manuscripts contained the history of the last Prussian war, and the king had been so annoyed by their accidentally getting burnt that he had resolved to have no ed his mind, for the book, which is little esteemed, was published shortly after his death
Five or six weeks after my curious conversation with the monarch, Marshal Keith told me that his majesty had been pleased to create me a tutor to the new corps of Po There were to be fifteen cadets and five tutors, so that each should have the care of three pupils The salary was six hundred crowns and board found The duty of the tutors was to follow or accompany the cadets wherever they went, Court included I had to be quick inup my mind, for the four others were already installed, and hisI asked Lord Keith where the college was, and I proive him a reply by the next day
I had to summon all my powers of self-restraint to ant proposal as cos, but my astonish noblereat rooms almost devoid of furniture, several ashed bedroo a wretched bed, a deal table, and two deal chairs
The young cadets, boys of twelve or thirteen, all looked dirty and untidy, and were boxed up in a wretched uniform which matched admirably their rude and rustic faces They were in coovernors, whom I took for their servants, and who looked atto think that I was to be their future colleague
Just as I was going to bid an eternal farewell to this abode of overnors put his head out of theand exclai up”
I could not avoid ain, especially in such a place
His , and saw antly dressed, and wore my cross set with brilliants But I had to bitewhen Frederick the Great got in a towering rage at a chamber utensil which stood beside one of the beds, and which did not appear to be in a very cleanly condition