g days, my life was uniform and rather dull, but
on the sixth day the same French officer was on guard, and I was very
glad to see him. He told me, with a hearty laugh, that he was delighted
to find me still in the guard-house, and I accepted the compliment for
what it was worth. In the evening, we had the same bank at faro, with the
same result as the first time, except a violent blow from the stick of
one of the punters upon the back of the banker, of which the Greek
stoically feigned to take no notice. I saw the same man again nine years
afterwards in Vienna, captain in the service of Maria Theresa; he then
called himself d'Afflisso. Ten years later, I found him a colonel, and
some time after worth a million; but the last time I saw him, some
thirteen or fourteen years ago, he was a galley slave. He was handsome,
but (rather a singular thing) in spite of his beauty, he had a gallows
look. I have seen others with the same stamp--Cagliostro, for instance,
and another who has not yet been sent to the galleys, but who cannot fail
to pay them a visit. Should the reader feel any curiosity about it, I can
whisper the name in his ear.

Towards the ninth or tenth day everyone in the army knew and liked me,
and I was expecting the passport, which could not be delayed much longer.
I was almost free, and I would often walk about even out of sight of the
sentinel. They were quite right not to fear my running away, and I should
have been wrong if I had thought of escaping, but the most singular
adventure of my life happened to me then, and most unexpectedly.

It was about six in the morning. I was taking a walk within one hundred
yards of the sentinel, when an officer arrived and alighted from his
horse, threw the bridle on the neck of his steed, and walked off.
Admiring the docility of the horse, standing there like a faithful
servant to whom his master has given orders to wait for him I got up to
him, and without any purpose I get hold of the bridle, put my foot in the
stirrup, and find myself in the saddle. I was on horseback for the first
time in my life. I do not know whether I touched the horse with my cane
or with my heels, but suddenly the animal starts at full speed. My right
foot having slipped out of the stirrup, I press against the horse with my
heels, and, feeling the pressure, it gallops faster and faster, for I did
not know how to check it. At the last advanced post the sentinels call
out to me to stop; but I cannot