ort conversation,
he asked me if I would remain with him with the title of adjutant. I did
not hesitate one instant, but accepted, saying how deeply honoured I felt
by his offer, and assuring him that he would always find me ready to
carry out his orders. He immediately had me taken to my room, and, the
next day, I found myself established in his house. I obtained from my
captain a French soldier to serve me, and I was well pleased when I found
that the man was a hairdresser by trade, and a great talker by nature,
for he could take care of my beautiful head of hair, and I wanted to
practise French conversation. He was a good-for-nothing fellow, a
drunkard and a debauchee, a peasant from Picardy, and he could hardly
read or write, but I did not mind all that; all I wanted from him was to
serve me, and to talk to me, and his French was pretty good. He was an
amusing rogue, knowing by heart a quantity of erotic songs and of smutty
stories which he could tell in the most laughable manner.

When I had sold my stock of goods from Constantinople (except the wines),
I found myself the owner of nearly five hundred sequins. I redeemed all
the articles which I had pledged in the hands of Jews, and turned into
money everything of which I had no need. I was determined not to play any
longer as a dupe, but to secure in gambling all the advantages which a
prudent young man could obtain without sullying his honour.

I must now make my readers acquainted with the sort of life we were at
that time leading in Corfu. As to the city itself, I will not describe
it, because there are already many descriptions better than the one I
could offer in these pages.

We had then in Corfu the 'proveditore-generale' who had sovereign
authority, and lived in a style of great magnificence. That post was then
filled by M. Andre Dolfin, a man sixty years of age, strict, headstrong,
and ignorant. He no longer cared for women, but liked to be courted by
them. He received every evening, and the supper-table was always laid for
twenty-four persons.

We had three field-officers of the marines who did duty on the galleys,
and three field-officers for the troops of the line on board the
men-of-war. Each galeass had a captain called 'sopracomito', and we had
ten of those captains; we had likewise ten commanders, one for each
man-of-war, including three 'capi di mare', or admirals. They all
belonged to the nobility of Venice. Ten young Venetian noblemen, from
t