Volume V Part 80 (1/2)

Ten or twelve days later I received a letter fro that the na, and that no cadet had been killed or wounded

When I shewed Lambert this letter he said that as he wished to enter the arht it would be of service to hi that as this lie had not been told with the idea of iive it

”Poverty,” said he, ”is a rascally teacher, that gives a man some bad lessons I am not a liar by disposition, but I have nevertheless told you a lie on another and a more important matter I don't expect any money whatever from my poor mother, who rather needs that I should send ive me, and be sure I shall be a faithful servant to you”

I was always ready to forgive other men's peccadilloes, and not without cause I liked Laument, and told him that ould set out in five or six days

Baron Bodisson, a Venetian anted to sell the king a picture by Andrea del Sarto, askedthe ain made me accept the invitation When I reached Potsdam I went to see the parade at which Frederick was nearly always to be found When he saw oing to start for St Petersburg

”In five or six days, if your majesty has no objection”

”I wish you a pleasant journey; but what do you hope to do in that land?”

”What I hoped to do in this land, naot an introduction to the empress?”

”No, but I have an introduction to a banker”

”Ah! that's h Prussia on your return I shall be delighted to hear of your adventures in Russia”

”Farewell, sire”

Such was the second interview I had with this great king, whoain

After I had taken leave of all ave , lord-chancellor at Mitau, and another letter for his sister, the duchess of Courland, and I spent the last night with the charht my post-chaise, and I started with two hundred ducats in my purse This would have been ample for the whole journey if I had not been so foolish as to reduce it by half at a party of pleasure with so merchants at Dantzic I was thus unable to stay a few days at Koenigsberg, though I had a letter to Field-Marshal von Lewald, as the governor of the place I could only stay one day to dine with this pleasant old soldier, who gave me a letter for his friend General Woiakoff, the Governor of Riga

I found I was rich enough to arrive at Mitau in state, and I therefore took a carriage and six, and reached my destination in three days At the inn where I put up I found a Florentine artiste na me that I had loved her when I was a boy and wore the cassock I saw her six years later at Florence, where she was living with Madame Denis

The day after my departure from Menized as a Jew He informed me that I was on Polish territory, and that I must pay duty on whatever merchandise I had with et nothing out of ht to examine your effects,” replied the Israelite, ”and I mean to make use of it”

”You are a madman,” I exclaimed, and I ordered the postillion to whip him off

But the Jew ran and seized the fore horses by the bridle and stopped us, and the postillion, instead of whipping him, waited with Teutonic cale, and leaping out with my cane in one hand and a pistol in the other I soon put the Jew to flight after applying about a dozen good sound blows to his back I noticed that during the combat my fellow-traveller, my Archimedes-in-ordinary, who had been asleep all the way, did not offer to stir I reproached him for his cowardice; but he told me that he did not want the Jew to say that we had set on him two to one

I arrived at Mitau two days after this burlesque adventure and got down at the inn facing the castle I had only three ducats left

The next , who read the Baron de Treidel's letter, and introduced me to his wife, and left me with her to take the baron's letter to his sister

Madaht irl, who stood before iveher at ease As I looked at her a whim came into my head, and, as the reader is aware, I have never resisted any of my whims However, this was a curious one As I have said, I had only three ducats left, but after I had emptied the cup of chocolate I put it back on the plate and the three ducats with it

The chancellor came back and told me that the duchess could not see me just then, but that she invitedI accepted the supper and refused the ball, on the pretext that I had only su of October, and the cold was already co to make itself felt The chancellor returned to the Court, and I tohness's compliments, and to inform me that the ball would be a masked one, and that I could appear in doet one from the Jews,” he added He further informed me that the ball was to have been a full-dress one, but that the duchess had sent word to all the guests that it would be er as to be present had sent on his trunks