This, however, did not induce me to repent that I had preferred the Lazaretto to the felucca; and, like another Robinson Crusoe, Ibegan to arrange myself for my one-and-twenty days, just as I should have done for my whole life.In the first place, I had the amusement of destroying the vermin I had caught in the felucca.As soon as I had got clear of these, by means of changing my clothes and linen, Iproceeded to furnish the chamber I had chosen.I made a good mattress with my waistcoats and shirts; my napkins I converted, by sewing them together, into sheets; my robe de chamber into a counterpane; and my cloak into a pillow.I made myself a seat with one of my trunks laid flat, and a table with the other.I took out some writing paper and an inkstand, and distributed, in the manner of a library, a dozen books which I had with me.In a word, I so well arranged my few movables, that, except curtains and windows, I was almost as commodiously lodged in this Lazaretto, absolutely empty as it was, as I had been at the Tennis Court in the Rue Verdelet.My dinners were served with no small degree of pomp; they were escorted by two grenadiers with bayonets fixed; the staircase was my dining-room, the landing-place my table, and the step served me for a seat; and as soon as my dinner was served up a little bell was rung to inform me I might sit down to table.
Between my repasts, when I did not either read or write or work at the furnishing of my apartment, I went to walk in the burying-ground of the Protestants, which served me as a courtyard.From this place I ascended to a lanthorn which looked into the harbor, and from which I could see the ships come in and go out.In this manner Ipassed fourteen days, and should have thus passed the whole time of the quarantine without the least weariness had not M.Jonville, envoy from France, to whom I found means to send a letter, vinegared, perfumed and half burnt, procured eight days of the time to be taken off: these I went and spent at his house, where I confess Ifound myself better lodged than in the Lazaretto.He was extremely civil to me.Dupont, his secretary, was, good creature: he introduced me, as well at Genoa as in the country, to several families, the company of which I found very entertaining and agreeable; and I formed 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, Brescia, 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 infringe it; a privilege which his Venetian officers took no care to defend.But I never permitted banditti to take refuge there, although this would have produced me advantages of which his excellency would not have disdained to partake.He thought proper, however, to claim a part of those of the secretaryship, which is called the chancery.It was in time of war, and there were many passports issued.For each of these passports a sequin was paid to the secretary who made it out and countersigned it.All my predecessors had been paid this sequin by Frenchmen and others without distinction.
