osal made me roar with laughter, and certainly it was of a
nature to excite the hilarity of a sufferer from confirmed melancholia,
which I was far from being. However, I stopped laughing when I saw how
the poor count blushed from shame. I kissed him affectionately to calm
him, but at last I was cruel enough to say,

"I will willingly assist you in this arrangement. I will sell the dress
to the marquis as soon as you please, but I won't lend you the money.
I'll give it to you in the person of your wife at a private interview;
but when she receives me she must not only be polite and complaisant, but
as gentle as a lamb. Go and see if it can be arranged, my dear count;
'tis absolutely my last word."

"I will see," said the poor husband; and with that he went out.

Barbaro kept his appointment with exactitude. I made him get into my
carriage, and we alighted at a house at the end of Milan. We went to the
first floor, and there I was introduced to a fine-looking old man, an
amiable lady of pleasing appearance, and then to two charming cousins. He
introduced me as a Venetian gentleman in disgrace with the State
Inquisitors, like himself, adding, that as I was a rich bachelor their
good or ill favour made no difference to me.

He said I was rich, and I looked like it. My luxury of attire was
dazzling: My rings, my snuff-boxes, my chains, my diamonds, my jewelled
cross hanging on my breast-all gave me the air of an important personage.
The cross belonged to the Order of the Spur the Pope had given me, but as
I had carefully taken the spur away it was not known to what order I
belonged. Those who might be curious did not dare to ask me, for one can
no more enquire of a knight what order he belongs to, than one can say to
a lady how old are you? I wore it till 1785, when the Prince Palatine of
Russia told me in private that I would do well to get rid of the thing.

"It only serves to dazzle fools," said he, "and here you have none such
to deal with."

I followed his advice, for he was a man of profound intelligence.
Nevertheless, he removed the corner-stone of the kingdom of Poland. He
ruined it by the same means by which he had made it greater.

The old man to whom Barbaro presented me was a marquis. He told me that
he knew Venice, and as I was not a patrician I could live as pleasantly
anywhere else. He told me to consider his house and all he possessed as
mine.

The two young marchionesses had enchanted me; they were a