rmed me that she had signed the engagement. She had secured the
services of a woman whom she could present as her mother; she would reach
Naples towards the middle of May, and she would wait for me there till
she heard from me that I no longer wanted her.

Four days after the receipt of that letter, the last but one that Therese
wrote me, I left Bologna for Venice. Before my departure I had received
an answer form the French officer, advising me that my passport had
reached Pesaro, and that he was ready to forward it to me with my trunk,
if I would pay M. Marcello Birna, the proveditore of the Spanish army,
whose address he enclosed, the sum of fifty doubloons for the horse which
I had run away with, or which had run away with me. I repaired at once to
the house of the proveditore, well pleased to settle that affair, and I
received my trunk and my passport a few hours before leaving Bologna. But
as my paying for the horse was known all over the town, Monsignor Cornaro
was confirmed in his belief that I had killed my captain in a duel.

To go to Venice, it was necessary to submit to a quarantine, which had
been adhered to only because the two governments had fallen out. The
Venetians wanted the Pope to be the first in giving free passage through
his frontiers, and the Pope insisted that the Venetians should take the
initiative. The result of this trifling pique between the two governments
was great hindrance to commerce, but very often that which bears only
upon the private interest of the people is lightly treated by the rulers.
I did not wish to be quarantined, and determined on evading it. It was
rather a delicate undertaking, for in Venice the sanitary laws are very
strict, but in those days I delighted in doing, if not everything that
was forbidden, at least everything which offered real difficulties.

I knew that between the state of Mantua and that of Venice the passage
was free, and I knew likewise that there was no restriction in the
communication between Mantua and Modena; if I could therefore penetrate
into the state of Mantua by stating that I was coming from Modena, my
success would be certain, because I could then cross the Po and go
straight to Venice. I got a carrier to drive me to Revero, a city
situated on the river Po, and belonging to the state of Mantua.

The driver told me that, if he took the crossroads, he could go to
Revero, and say that we came from Mantua, and that the only difficulty
would b