At the beginning of the Carnival of 1750 I won a prize of three thousand ducats at the lottery.  Fortune made me that present when I did not require it, for I had held the bank during the autumn, and had won.  It was at a casino where no nobleman dared to present himself, because one of the partners was an officer in the service of the Duke de Montalegre, the Spanish Ambassador.  The citizens of Venice felt ill at ease with the patricians, and that is always the case under an aristocratic government, because equality exists in reality only between the members of such a government.

As I intended to take a trip to Paris, I placed one thousand sequins in M. de Bragadin’s hands, and with that project in view I had the courage to pass the carnival without risking my money at the faro-table.  I had taken a share of one-fourth in the bank of an honest patrician, and early in Lent he handed me a large sum.

Towards mid-Lent my friend Baletti returned from Mantua to Venice.  He was engaged at the St. Moses Theatre as ballet-master during the Fair of the Assumption.  He was with Marina, but they did not live together.  She made the conquest of an English Jew, called Mendez, who spent a great deal of money for her.  That Jew gave me good news of Therese, whom he had known in Naples, and in whose hands he had left some of his spoils.  The information pleased me, and I was very glad to have been prevented by Henriette from joining Therese in Naples, as I had intended, for I should certainly have fallen in love with her again, and God knows what the consequences might have been.

It was at that time that Bavois was appointed captain in the service of the Republic; he rose rapidly in his profession, as I shall mention hereafter.

De la Haye undertook the education of a young nobleman called Felix Calvi, and a short time afterwards he accompanied him to Poland.  I met him again in Vienna three years later.

I was making my preparations to go to the Fair of Reggio, then to Turin, where the whole of Italy was congregating for the marriage of the Duke of Savoy with a princess of Spain, daughter of Philip V., and lastly to Paris, where, Madame la Dauphine being pregnant, magnificent preparations were made in the expectation of the birth of a prince.  Baletti was likewise on the point of undertaking the same journey.  He was recalled by his parents, who were dramatic artists:  his mother was the celebrated Silvia.

Baletti was engaged at the Italian Theatre in Paris as dancer and first gentleman.  I could not choose a companion more to my taste, more agreeable, or in a better position to procure me numerous advantageous acquaintances in Paris.

I bade farewell to my three excellent friends, promising to return within two years.

I left my brother Francois in the studio of Simonetti, the painter of battle pieces, known as the Parmesan.  I gave him a promise to think of him in Paris, where, at that time particularly, great talent was always certain of a high fortune.  My readers will see how I kept my word.