first sight of him
has disarmed me. Imagine a man of the most enchanting figure, with
corresponding grace and dignity, a countenance full of thought and
genius, an expression frank and inviting; a persuasive tone of voice,
the most flowing eloquence, and a glow of youthful beauty, joined to all
the advantages of a most liberal education. He has none of that
contemptuous pride, none of that solemn starchness, which we disliked so
much in all the other nobles. His whole being is redolent of youthful
joyousness, benevolence, and warmth of feeling. His excesses must have
been much exaggerated; I never saw a more perfect picture of health. If
he is really so wholly abandoned as Biondello represents him he is a
syren whom none can resist.

Towards me he behaved with much frankness. He confessed with the most
pleasing sincerity that he was by no means on the best of terms with his
uncle, the cardinal, and that it was his own fault. But he was
seriously resolved to amend his life, and the merit would be entirely
the prince's. At the same time he hoped through his instrumentality to
be reconciled to his uncle, as the prince's influence with the cardinal
was unbounded. The only thing he had wanted till now was a friend and a
guide, and he trusted he should find both in the person of the prince.

The prince has now assumed the authority of a preceptor towards him, and
treats him with all the watchfulness fulness and strictness of a Mentor.
But this intimacy also gives the marquis a certain degree of influence,
of which he well knows how to avail himself. He hardly stirs from his
side; he is present at all parties where the prince is one of the
guests; for the Bucentauro alone he is fortunately as yet too young.
Wherever be appears in public with the prince he manages to draw him
away from the rest of the company by the pleasing manner in which he
engages him in conversation and arrests his attention. Nobody, they
say, has yet been able to reclaim him, and the prince will deserve to
be immortalized in an epic should he accomplish such an Herculean task.
I am much afraid, however, that the tables may be turned, and the guide
be led away by the pupil, of which, in fact, there seems to be every
prospect.

The Prince of ---d------ has taken his departure, much to the
satisfaction of us all, my master not excepted. What I predicted, my
dear O-----, has come to pass. Two characters so widely opposed must
inevitably clash together, an