d'Havrincourt, the news from Sweden; to M.de Chetardie, that from Petersbourg; and sometimes to each of those the news they had respectively sent to him, and which I was employed to dress up in terms different from those in which it was conveyed to us.As he read nothing of what I laid before him, except the despatches for the court, and signed those to other ambassadors without reading them, this left me more at liberty to give what turn I thought proper to the latter, and in these, therefore, I made the articles of information cross each other.But it was impossible for me to do the same by despatches of importance; and I thought myself happy when M.de Montaigu did not take it into his head to cram into them an impromptu of a few lines after his manner.This obliged me to return, and hastily transcribe the whole despatch decorated with his new nonsense, and honor it with the cipher, without which he would have refused his signature.I was frequently almost tempted, for the sake of his reputation, to cipher something different from what he had written, but feeling that nothing could authorize such a deception, I left him to answer for his own folly, satisfying myself with having spoken to him with freedom, and discharged at my own peril the duties of my station.This is what I always did with an uprightness, a zeal and courage, which merited on his part a very different recompense from that which in the end I received from him.
It was time I should once be what Heaven, which had endowed me with a happy disposition, what the education that had been given me by the best of women, and that I had given myself, had prepared me for, and I became so.Left to my own reflections, without a friend or advice, without experience, and in a foreign country, in the service of a foreign nation, surrounded by a crowd of knaves, who, for their own interest, and to avoid the scandal of good example, endeavored to prevail upon me to imitate them; far from yielding to their solicitations, I served France well, to which I owed nothing, and the ambassador still better, as it was right and just I should do to the utmost of my power.Irreproachable in a post, sufficiently exposed to censure, I merited and obtained the esteem of the republic, that of all the ambassadors with whom we were in correspondence, and the affection of the French who resided at Venice, not even excepting the consul, whom with regret I supplanted in the functions which Iknew belonged to him, and which occasioned me more embarrassment than they afforded me satisfaction.
M.de Montaigu, confiding without reserve to the Marquis Mari, who did not thoroughly understand his duty, neglected it to such a degree that without me the French who were at Venice would not have perceived that an ambassador from their nation resided there.Always put off without being heard when they stood in need of his protection, they became disgusted and no longer appeared in his company or at his table, to which indeed he never invited them.I frequently did from myself what it was his duty to have done; I rendered to the French, who applied to me, all the services in my power.In any other country I should have done more, but, on account of my employment, not being able to see persons in place, I was often obliged to apply to the consul, and the consul, who was settled in the country with his family, had many persons to oblige, which prevented him from acting as he otherwise would have done.However, perceiving him unwilling and afraid to speak, I ventured hazardous measures, which sometimes succeeded.I recollect one which still makes me laugh.
No person would suspect it was to me the lovers of the theater at Paris owe Coralline and her sister Camille; nothing, however, can be more true.Veronese, their father, had engaged himself with his children in the Italian company, and after having received two thousand livres for the expenses of his journey, instead of setting out for France, quietly continued at Venice, and accepted an engagement in the theater of Saint Luke,* to which Coralline, a child as she still was, drew great numbers of people.The Duke de Gesvres, as first gentleman of the chamber, wrote to the ambassador to claim the father and the daughter.M.de Montaigu when he gave me the letter, confined his instructions to saying, voyez cela, without giving me further details.I went to M.Blond to beg he would speak to the patrician, to whom the theater belonged, and who, I believe, was named Zustinian, that he might discharge Veronese, who had engaged in the name of the king.Le Blond, to whom the commission was not very agreeable, executed it badly.
* I doubt if it was St.Samuel; proper names absolutely escape my memory.
Zustinian answered vaguely, and Veronese was not discharged.I was piqued at this.It was during the carnival, and having taken the bahute and a mask, I set out for the palace Zustinian.Those who saw my gondola arrive with the livery of the ambassador, were lost in astonishment.Venice had never seen such a thing.I entered, and announced myself as Una Siora Maschera (a lady in a mask).As soon as I was introduced I took off my mask and told my name.The senator turned pale and appeared stupefied with surprise."Sir," said I to him in Venetian, "it is with much regret I importune your excellency with this visit; but you have in your theater of Saint Luke, a man of the name of Veronese, who is engaged in the service of the king, and whom you have been requested, but in vain, to give up: I come to claim him in the name of his majesty." My short harangue was effectual.I had no sooner left the palace than Zustinian ran to communicate the adventure to the state inquisitors, by whom he was severely reprehended.Veronese was discharged the same day.I sent him word that if he did not set off within a week I would have him arrested.He did not wait for my giving him this intimation a second time.
