This M. Condulmer was sixty years old, but with all the greenness of youth he was still fond of women, gaming, and money, and he was, in fact, a money-lender, but he knew how to pass for a saint, as he took care to go to mass every morning at St. Mark’s, and never omitted to shed tears before the crucifix.  The following year he was made a councillor, and in that capacity he was for eight months a State Inquisitor.  Having thus attained this diabolically-eminent, or eminently-diabolical, position, he had not much difficulty in shewing his colleagues the necessity of putting me under The Leads as a disturber of the peace of the Republic.  In the beginning of the winter the astounding news of the treaty between France and Austria was divulged—­a treaty by which the political balance was entirely readjusted, and which was received with incredulity by the Powers.  The whole of Italy had reason to rejoice, for the treaty guarded that fair land from becoming the theatre of war on the slightest difference which might arise between the two Powers.  What astonished the most acute was that this wonderful treaty was conceived and carried out by a young ambassador who had hitherto been famed only as a wit.  The first foundations had been laid in 1750 by Madame de Pompadour, Count Canes (who was created a prince), and M. l’Abbe de Bernis, who was not known till the following year, when the king made him ambassador to Venice.  The House of Bourbon and the House of Hapsburg had been foes for two hundred and forty years when this famous treaty was concluded, but it only lasted for forty years, and it is not likely that any treaty will last longer between two courts so essentially opposed to one another.

The Abbe de Bernis was created minister for foreign affairs some time after the ratification of the treaty; three years after he re-established the parliament, became a cardinal, was disgraced, and finally sent to Rome, where he died.  ‘Mors ultimo linea rerum est’.

Affairs fell out as I had foreseen, for nine months after he left Venice he conveyed to M——­ M——­ the news of his recall, though he did it in the most delicate manner.  Nevertheless, M——­ M——­ felt the blow so severely that she would very possibly have succumbed, had I not been preparing her for it in every way I could think of M. de Bernis sent me all instructions.

He directed that all the contents of the casino should be sold and the proceeds given to M——­ M——­, with the exception of the books and prints which the housekeeper was ordered to bring to Paris.  It was a nice breviary for a cardinal, but would to God they had nothing worse!

Whilst M——­ M——­ abandoned herself to grief I carried out the orders of M. de Bernis, and by the middle of January we had no longer a casino.  She kept by her two thousand sequins and her pearls, intending to sell them later on to buy herself an annuity.