once furnished
the means of meeting this new difficulty, as, indeed, of every other
connected with our finances at this period, and we consoled ourselves
with the assurance that one of us at least was in employment. Our
disgust was only equalled by our despondency when, upon reaching home, we
were met with the news that my new Herr refused to complete his
engagement, having met with an old workman whom he preferred to a
stranger. By law he was bound to furnish me with a fortnight's work, and
I threatened him with an enforcement of my claim; but I knew I should
come off the worse in the struggle, and submitted to the injustice.

In the meantime two of our silversmiths were under fictitious
engagements--a common occurrence, and almost excusable under the
circumstances--and were dining upon credit. The times were bad. I did
not really commence work till the fourth week, and Alcibiade a week
later. But, these first difficulties overcome, our condition improved
daily; and for myself I can say with gratitude, that nowhere in Germany
was I more happy than in Vienna. Our position was this: Alcibiade was
engaged as a diamond jeweller at a weekly sum of six guldens, or twelve
shillings, a little more than half the sum he had earned in Berlin; but
no doubt, had he remained longer in the Austrian capital, he would have
increased his rate of pay. Unfortunately, after three months' stay there
came word from Paris requiring his presence by a certain day at the
military court of the department of Seine et Oise, to which, being a
native of Argenteuil, he belonged, to draw for the conscription.
Alcibiade was too good a Frenchman to hesitate about obeying this
summons, or even to murmur at the sacrifice it demanded of him. He left
Vienna with regret, but with the utmost alacrity; and thus I lost for a
time my best companion and sincerest friend. My first essay as a workman
in Vienna was discouraging, for I undertook, in my extremity, to execute
work to which I was unaccustomed, and made such indifferent progress at
the outset, that the Herr, a Russian from St. Petersburg, would only pay
me five guldens, or ten shillings a week. We worked twelve hours a day,
commencing at six o'clock in the morning in summer time; but there were a
number of fete and saint days in the year, which were paid for--I think
eight in all--including St. Leopold, the patron saint of Vienna; the
birth of the Virgin; _Corpus Christi Die_, and other church ho