felt inclined to have him hanged. I shewed him by proof positive that I
could do so if I liked; but he had resource to tears and supplications,
and to the intercession of a worthy man named Bertrand, who lived with
the ambassador of the King of Sardinia. I esteemed this individual, and
he appealed to me successfully to pardon Costa. I asked the wretch what
he had done with the gold and jewels he had stolen from me, and he told
me that he had lost the whole of it in furnishing funds for a bank at
Biribi, that he had been despoiled by his own associates, and had been
poor and miserable ever since.

In the same year in which he robbed me he married Momolo's daughter, and
after making her a mother he abandoned her.

To pursue our story.

At Turin I lodged in a private house with the Abbe Gama, who had been
expecting me. In spite of the good abbe's sermon on economy, I took the
whole of the first floor, and a fine suite it was.

We discussed diplomatic topics, and he assured me that I should be
accredited in May, and that he would give me instructions as to the part
I was to play. I was pleased with his commission, and I told the abbe
that I should be ready to go to Augsburg whenever the ambassadors of the
belligerent powers met there.

After making the necessary arrangements with my landlady with regard to
my meals I went to a coffeehouse to read the papers, and the first person
I saw was the Marquis Desarmoises, whom I had known in Savoy. The first
thing he said was that all games of chance were forbidden, and that the
ladies I had met would no doubt be delighted to see me. As for himself,
he said that he lived by playing backgammon, though he was not at all
lucky at it, as talent went for more than luck at that game. I can
understand how, if fortune is neutral, the best player will win, but I do
not see how the contrary can take place.

We went for a walk in the promenade leading to the citadel, where I saw
numerous extremely pretty women. In Turin the fair sex is most
delightful, but the police regulations are troublesome to a degree. Owing
to the town being a small one and thinly peopled, the police spies find
out everything. Thus one cannot enjoy any little freedoms without great
precautions and the aid of cunning procuresses, who have to be well paid,
as they would be cruelly punished if they were found out. No prostitutes
and no kept women are allowed, much to the delight of the married women,
and with result