the rate of ten sequins a day at
the bishop's expense.

The officer left us, and a moment afterwards the landlord came in
respectfully, to inform the captain that he was free, but the captain
having begged me to tell the scoundrel that he owed him a sound
thrashing, he lost no time in gaining the door.

I left my friends alone to get dressed, and to attend to my own toilet,
as I dined with them at the general's. An hour afterwards I found them
ready in their military costumes. The uniform of the Frenchwoman was of
course a fancy one, but very elegant. The moment I saw her, I gave up all
idea of Naples, and decided upon accompanying the two friends to Parma.
The beauty of the lovely Frenchwoman had already captivated me. The
captain was certainly on the threshold of sixty, and, as a matter of
course, I thought such a union very badly assorted. I imagined that the
affair which I was already concocting in my brain could be arranged
amicably.

The adjutant came back with a priest sent by the bishop, who told the
captain that he should have the satisfaction as well as the damages he
had claimed, but that he must be content with fifteen sequins.

"Thirty or nothing," dryly answered the Hungarian.

They were at last given to him, and thus the matter ended. The victory
was due to my exertions, and I had won the friendship of the captain and
his lovely companion.

In order to guess, even at first sight, that the friend of the worthy
captain was not a man, it was enough to look at the hips. She was too
well made as a woman ever to pass for a man, and the women who disguise
themselves in male attire, and boast of being like men, are very wrong,
for by such a boast they confess themselves deficient in one of the
greatest perfections appertaining to woman.

A little before dinner-time we repaired to General Spada's mansion, and
the general presented the two officers to all the ladies. Not one of them
was deceived in the young officer, but, being already acquainted with the
adventure, they were all delighted to dine with the hero of the comedy,
and treated the handsome officer exactly as if he had truly been a man,
but I am bound to confess that the male guests offered the Frenchwoman
homages more worthy of her sex.

Madame Querini alone did not seem pleased, because the lovely stranger
monopolized the general attention, and it was a blow to her vanity to see
herself neglected. She never spoke to her, except to shew off her