alogue of ills, all irremediable consequences of a sufficiently
excusable weakness to which the prince in an unguarded moment gave way.

We have, it is true, got rid of our rival, but the harm he has done will
not so soon be remedied. The finances of the prince are exhausted; all
that he had saved by the wise economy of years is spent; and he must
hasten from Venice if he would escape plunging into debt, which till now
he has most scrupulously avoided. It is decisively settled that we
leave as soon as fresh remittances arrive.

I should not have minded all this splendor if the prince had but reaped
the least real satisfaction from it. But he was never less happy than
at present. He feels that he is not what he formerly was; he seeks to
regain his self-respect; he is dissatisfied with himself, and launches
into fresh dissipation in order to drown the recollection of the last.
One new acquaintance follows another, and each involves him more deeply.
I know not where this will end. We must away--there is no other chance
of safety--we must away from Venice.

But, my dear friend, I have not yet received a single line from you.
How am I to interpret this long and obstinate silence?

LETTER IV.

BARON VON F------ TO COUNT VON O------.
June 12.

I thank you, my dear friend, for the token of your remembrance which
young B---hl brought me. But what is it you say about letters I ought
to have received? I have received no letter from you; not a single one.
What a circuitous route must they have taken. In future, dear O------,
when you honor me with an epistle despatch it via Trent, under cover to
the prince, my master.

We have at length been compelled, my dear friend, to resort to a measure
which till now we had so happily avoided. Our remittances have failed
to arrive--failed, for the first time, in this pressing emergency, and
we have been obliged to have recourse to a usurer, as the prince is
willing to pay handsomely to keep the affair secret. The worst of this
disagreeable occurrence is, that it retards our departure. On this
affair the prince and I have had an explanation. The whole transaction
had been arranged by Biondello, and the son of Israel was there before I
had any suspicion of the fact. It grieved me to the heart to see the
prince reduced to such an extremity, and revived all my recollections of
the past, and fears for the future; and I suppose I may have looked
rather sorrowful and gloomy when the usu