e would let me know as soon as possible what she wanted most. I
remarked that as I should soon be leaving for Rome, I should like to sup
with her niece every evening. She thought this a very natural wish on my
part, and so we went to Callimena, who was delighted to hear the result
of our interview.

I lost no time, but supped and passed that night with her. I made her all
my own by the power of my love, and by buying her such things as she most
needed, such as linen, dresses, etc. It cost me about a hundred louis,
and in spite of the smallness of my means I thought I had made a good
bargain. Agatha, whom I told of my good luck, was delighted to have
helped me to procure it.

Two or three days after I gave a dinner to my English friends, the two
Saxons, Bartoldi their governor, and Goudar and his wife.

We were all ready, and only waiting for M. and Madame Goudar, when I saw
the fair Irishwoman come in with Count Medini. This piece of insolence
made all the blood in my body rush to my head. However, I restrained
myself till Goudar came in, and then I gave him a piece of my mind. It
had been agreed that his wife should come with him. The rascally fellow
prevaricated, and tried hard to induce me to believe that Medini had not
plotted the breaking of the bank, but his eloquence was in vain.

Our dinner was a most agreeable one, and Sara cut a brilliant figure, for
she possessed every pleasing quality that can make a woman attractive. In
good truth, this tavern girl would have filled a throne with any queen;
but Fortune is blind.

When the dinner was over, M. de Buturlin, a distinguished Russian, and a
great lover of pretty women, paid me a visit. He had been attracted by
the sweet voice of the fair Sara, who was singing a Neapolitan air to the
guitar. I shone only with a borrowed light, but I was far from being
offended. Buturlin fell in love with Sara on the spot, and a few months
after I left he got her for five hundred Louis, which Goudar required to
carry out the order he had received, namely, to leave Naples in three
days.

This stroke came from the queen, who found out that the king met Madame
Goudar secretly at Procida. She found her royal husband laughing heartily
at a letter which he would not shew her.

The queen's curiosity was excited, and at last the king gave in, and her
majesty read the following:

"Ti aspettero nel medesimo luogo, ed alla stessa ora, coll' impazienza
medesima che ha una vacca che de