comforts and some books, I could wait well enough;
but I was astonished at the dexterity of my charming mistress in doing
all this without the knowledge of anybody in the house.

I spent three hours in reading, and three more in eating, and making
coffee and punch, and then I went to sleep. At ten o'clock my darling
came and awoke me. This second night was delicious, but not so much so as
the former, as we could not see each other, and the violence of our
ecstatic combats was restrained by the vicinity of the good husband. We
slept part of the time, and early in the morning I had to make good my
retreat. Thus ended my amour with this lady. The general went to
Westphalia, and she was soon to go into the country. I thus made my
preparations for leaving Cologne, promising to come and see her the year
following, which promise however I was precluded, as the reader will see,
from keeping. I took leave of my acquaintance and set out, regretted by
all.

The stay of two months and a half which I made in Cologne did not
diminish my monetary resources, although I lost whenever I was persuaded
to play. However, my winnings at Bonn made up all deficiencies, and my
banker, M. Franck, complained that I had not made any use of him.
However, I was obliged to be prudent so that those persons who spied into
my actions might find nothing reprehensible.

I left Cologne about the middle of March, and I stopped at Bonn, to
present my respects to the Elector, but he was away. I dined with Count
Verita and the Abbe Scampar, a favourite of the Elector's. After dinner
the count gave me a letter of introduction to a canoness at Coblentz, of
whom he spoke in very high terms. That obliged me to stop at Coblentz;
but when I got down at the inn, I found that the canoness was at Manheim,
while in her stead I encountered an actress named Toscani, who was going
to Stuttgart with her young and pretty daughter. She was on her way from
Paris, where her daughter had been learning character-dancing with the
famous Vestris. I had known her at Paris, but had not seen much of her,
though I had given her a little spaniel dog, which was the joy of her
daughter. This daughter was a perfect jewel, who had very little
difficulty in persuading me to come with them to Stuttgart, where I
expected, for other reasons, to have a very pleasant stay. The mother was
impatient to know what the duke would think of her daughter, for she had
destined her from her childhood to