“I should think M. d’Afri might assist you.”

“I do not require his assistance.  Probably I shall not even call upon him, as he might say he helped me.  No, I shall have all the trouble, and I mean to have all the glory, too.”

“I presume you will be going to Court, where the Duke of Brunswick may be of service to you?”

“Why should I go to Court?  As for the Duke of Brunswick, I do not care to know him.  All I have got to do is to go to Amsterdam, where my credit is sufficiently good for anything.  I am fond of the King of France; there’s not a better man in the kingdom.”

“Well, come and dine at the high table, the company is of the best and will please you.”

“You know I never eat; moreover, I never sit down at a table where I may meet persons who are unknown to me.”

“Then, my lord, farewell; we shall see each other again at Amsterdam.”

I went down to the dining-roam, where, while dinner was being served, I conversed with some officers.  They asked me if I knew Prince Piccolomini, to which I answered that he was not a prince but a count, and that it was many years since I had seen him.

When the count and his fair wife (who only spoke Italian) came down, I shewed them some polite attentions, and we then sat down to dinner.