ormed with him an acquaintance and a correspondence
which we kept up for a considerable length of time. I continued my
journey, very agreeably, through Lombardy. I saw Milan, Verona, Brescie,
and Padua, and at length arrived at Venice, where I was impatiently
expected by the ambassador.

I found there piles of despatches, from the court and from other
ambassadors, the ciphered part of which he had not been able to read,
although he had all the ciphers necessary for that purpose, never having
been employed in any office, nor even seen the cipher of a minister. I
was at first apprehensive of meeting with some embarrassment; but I found
nothing could be more easy, and in less than a week I had deciphered the
whole, which certainly was not worth the trouble; for not to mention the
little activity required in the embassy of Venice, it was not to such a
man as M. de Montaigu that government would confide a negotiation of even
the most trifling importance. Until my arrival he had been much
embarrassed, neither knowing how to dictate nor to write legibly. I was
very useful to him, of which he was sensible; and he treated me well. To
this he was also induced by another motive. Since the time of M. de
Froulay, his predecessor, whose head became deranged, the consul from
France, M. le Blond, had been charged with the affairs of the embassy,
and after the arrival of M. de Montaigu, continued to manage them until
he had put him into the track. M. de Montaigu, hurt at this discharge of
his duty by another, although he himself was incapable of it, became
disgusted with the consul, and as soon as I arrived deprived him of the
functions of secretary to the embassy to give them to me. They were
inseparable from the title, and he told me to take it. As long as I
remained with him he never sent any person except myself under this title
to the senate, or to conference, and upon the whole it was natural enough
he should prefer having for secretary to the embassy a man attached to
him, to a consul or a clerk of office named by the court.

This rendered my situation very agreeable, and prevented his gentlemen,
who were Italians, as well as his pages, and most of his suite from
disputing precedence with me in his house. I made an advantageous use of
the authority annexed to the title he had conferred upon me, by
maintaining his right of protection, that is, the freedom of his
neighborhood, against the attempts several times made to i