Next day Mengs returned to Rome, and I supped with him and his family. He
had an exceedingly ugly sister, who for all that, was a good and talented
woman. She had fallen deeply in love with my brother, and it was easy to
see that the flame was not yet extinguished, but whenever she spoke to
him, which she did whenever she could get an opportunity, he looked
another way.

She was an exquisite painter of miniatures, and a capital hand at
catching a likeness. To the best of my belief she is still living at Rome
with Maroni her husband. She often used to speak of my brother to me, and
one day she said that he must be the most thankless of men or he would
not despise her so. I was not curious enough to enquire what claim she
had to his gratitude.

Mengs's wife was a good and pretty woman, attentive to her household
duties and very submissive to her husband, though she could not have
loved him, for he was anything but amiable. He was obstinate and fierce
in his manner, and when he dined at home he made a point of not leaving
the table before he was drunk; out of his own house he was temperate to
the extent of not drinking anything but water. His wife carried her
obedience so far as to serve as his model for all the nude figures he
painted. I spoke to her one day about this unpleasant obligation, and she
said that her confessor had charged her to fulfil it, "for," said he, "if
your husband has another woman for a model he will be sure to enjoy her
before painting her, and that sin would be laid to your charge."

After supper, Winckelmann, who was as far gone as all the other male
guests, played with Mengs's children. There was nothing of the pedant
about this philosopher; he loved children and young people, and his
cheerful disposition made him delight in all kinds of enjoyment.

Next day, as I was going to pay my court to the Pope, I saw Momolo in the
first ante-chamber, and I took care to remind him of the polenta for the
evening.

As soon as the Pope saw me, he said,--

"The Venetian ambassador has informed us that if you wish to return to
your native land, you must go and present yourself before the secretary
of the Tribunal."

"Most Holy Father, I am quite ready to take this step, if Your Holiness
will grant me a letter of commendation written with your own hand.
Without this powerful protection I should never dream of exposing myself
to the risk of being again shut up in a place from which I escaped by a
miracle