me; he calls on me to pay fifty louis, he delivers me to the rage of his impudent menials and to the derision of the mob, from whom I had to rid myself by my money and the aid of this worthy man beside me.  I am treated like a scoundrel, and the man who should have been my defender and deliverer slinks away and hides himself, and adds to the insults I have received.  His myrmidons have turned my clothes upside down, and pitchforked my linen at the foot of the town gates, to revenge themselves on me for not giving them twenty, four sous.  To-morrow the manner in which I have been treated will be known to the diplomatic bodies at Versailles and Paris, and in a few days it will be in all the newspapers.  I will pay not a farthing because I owe not a farthing.  Now, sir, am I to send a courier to the Duc de Gesvres?”

“What you have got to do is to pay, and if you do not care to pay, you may do whatever you like.”

“Then, ladies and gentlemen, good-bye.  As for you, sir, we shall meet again.”

As I was rushing out of the room like a madman, I heard somebody calling out to me in good Italian to wait a minute.  I turned round, and saw the voice had proceeded from a man past middle age, who addressed the superintendent thus:—­

“Let this gentleman proceed on his journey; I will go bail for him.  Do you understand me, superintendent?  I will be his surety.  You don’t know these Italians.  I went through the whole of the last war in Italy, and I understand the national character.  Besides, I think the gentleman is in the right.”

“Very good,” said the official, turning to me.  “All you have to do is to pay a matter of thirty or forty francs at the customs’ office as the affair is already booked.”

“I thought I told you that I would not pay a single farthing, and I tell it you again.  But who are you, sir,” said I, turning to the worthy old man, “who are good enough to become surety for me without knowing me?”

“I am a commissary of musters, sir, and my name is de la Bretonniere.  I live in Paris at the ‘Hotel de Saxe,’ Rue Colombien, where I shall be glad to see you after to-morrow.  We will go together to M. Britard, who, after hearing your case, will discharge my bail.”

After I had expressed my gratitude, and told him that I would wait upon him without fail, I made my excuses to the mistress of the house and the guests, and left them.

I took my worthy attorney to dinner at the best inn in the place, and I gave him two louis for his trouble.  Without his help and that of the commissary I should have been in great difficulty; it would have been a case of the earthen pot and the iron pot over again; for with jacks-in-office reason is of no use, and though I had plenty of money I would never have let the wretches rob me of fifty louis.

My carriage was drawn up at the door of the tavern; and just as I was getting in, one of the excisemen who had searched my luggage came and told me that I should find everything just as I left it:—­