any from that of
M. St. Cyr, with whom, next to M. le Blond, I was the most intimately
connected. I returned thanks to the rest; and, till my departure, went
to lodge at the house of the chancellor of the consulship, to prove to
the public, the nation was not an accomplice in the injustice of the
ambassador.

His excellency, furious at seeing me taken notice of in my misfortune, at
the same time that, notwithstanding his being an ambassador, nobody went
near his house, quite lost his senses and behaved like a madman. He
forgot himself so far as to present a memoir to the senate to get me
arrested. On being informed of this by the Abbe de Binis, I resolved to
remain a fortnight longer, instead of setting off the next day as I had
intended. My conduct had been known and approved of by everybody; I was
universally esteemed. The senate did not deign to return an answer to
the extravagant memoir of the ambassador, but sent me word I might remain
in Venice as long as I thought proper, without making myself uneasy about
the attempts of a madman. I continued to see my friends: I went to take
leave of the ambassador from Spain, who received me well, and of the
Comte de Finochietti, minister from Naples, whom I did not find at home.
I wrote him a letter and received from his excellency the most polite and
obliging answer. At length I took my departure, leaving behind me,
notwithstanding my embarrassment, no other debts than the two sums I had
borrowed, and of which I have just spoken; and an account of fifty crowns
with a shopkeeper, of the name of Morandi, which Carrio promised to pay,
and which I have never reimbursed him, although we have frequently met
since that time; but with respect to the two sums of money, I returned
them very exactly the moment I had it in my power.

I cannot take leave of Venice without saying something of the celebrated
amusements of that city, or at least of the little part of them of which
I partook during my residence there. It has been seen how little in my
youth I ran after the pleasures of that age, or those that are so called.
My inclinations did not change at Venice, but my occupations, which
moreover would have prevented this, rendered more agreeable to me the
simple recreations I permitted myself. The first and most pleasing of
all was the society of men of merit. M. le Blond, de St. Cyr, Carrio
Altuna, and a Forlinian gentleman, whose name I am very sorry to have
forgotten, and w