ecome acquainted with at the coffee house, and I
walked along the promenade with them.

"We are going," said one of them, "to visit certain ladies of easy
virtue; we shall be glad to have you of our company."

"I only speak a few words of German," I answered, "and if I join you I
shall be bored."

"Ah! but the ladies are Italians," they exclaimed, "nothing could suit
you better."

I did not at all like following them, but my evil genius led me in that
wretched town from one blunder to another, and so I went in spite of
myself.

We turned back into the town, and I let myself be led up to the third
floor of an ill-looking house, and in the meanest of rooms I saw the
pretended nieces of Peccini. A moment after Peccini appeared, and had the
impudence to throw his arms around my neck, calling me his best friend.
His nieces overwhelmed me with caresses, and seemed to confirm the idea
that we were old friends. I did nothing and held my tongue.

The officers prepared for a debauch; I did not imitate their example, but
this made no difference to them. I saw into what an evil place I had been
decoyed, but a false shame prevented me from leaving the house without
ceremony. I was wrong, but I determined to be more prudent for the
future.

Before long a pot-house supper was served, of which I did not partake;
but not wishing to seem bad company I drank two or three small glasses of
Hungarian wine. After supper, which did not last very long, cards were
produced, and one of the officers held a bank at faro. I punted and lost
the fifty or sixty Louis I had about me. I felt that I was drunk, my head
was reeling, and I would have gladly given over playing and gone away,
but I have never been so possessed as on that day, either from false
shame or from the effects of the drugged wine they gave me. My noble
officers seemed vexed that I had lost, and would give me my revenge. They
made me hold a bank of a hundred Louis in fish, which they counted out to
me. I did so, and lost. I made a bank again, and again I lost. My
inflamed understanding, my increasing drunkenness, and my anger, deprived
me of all sense, and I kept increasing my bank, losing all the time, till
at midnight my good rascals declared they would play no more. They made a
calculation, and declared that I had lost nearly a hundred thousand
francs. So great was my intoxication, although I had had no more wine,
that they were obliged to send for a sedan chair to take me t