I resolved, then, on going to Stuttgart in company with the two nymphs, and I expected to see there the Binetti, who was always an enthusiastic admirer of mine.  This actress was the daughter of a Roman boatman.  I had helped her to get on the boards the same year that Madame de Valmarana had married her to a French dancer named Binet, whose name she had Italianized by the addition of one syllable, like those who ennoble themselves by adding another syllable to their names.  I also expected to see the Gardella, young Baletti, of whom I was very fond, his young wife the Vulcani, and several other of my old friends, who I thought would combine to make my stay at Stuttgart a very pleasant one.  But it will be seen that it is a risky thing to reckon without one’s host.  At the last posting station I bid adieu to my two friends, and went to the “Bear.”

CHAPTER XII

Gardella Portrait of The Duke of Wurtemburg—­My Dinner with Gardella, And its Consequences—­Unfortunate Meeting I Play and Lose Four Thousand Louis—­Lawsuit—­Lucky Flight—­My Arrival at Zurich—­Church Consecrated By Jesus Christ Himself

At that period the Court of the Duke of Wurtemburg was the most brilliant in Europe.  The heavy subsidies paid by France for quartering ten thousand men upon him furnished him with the means for indulging in luxury and debauchery.  The army in question was a fine body of men, but during the war it was distinguished only by its blunders.

The duke was sumptuous in his tastes, which were for splendid palaces, hunting establishments on a large scale, enormous stables—­in short, every whim imaginable; but his chief expense was the large salaries he paid his theatre, and, above all, his mistresses.  He had a French play, an Italian opera, grand and comic, and twenty Italian dancers, all of whom had been principal dancers in Italian theatres.  His director of ballets was Novers, and sometimes five hundred dancers appeared at once.  A clever machinist and the best scene painters did their best to make the audience believe in magic.  All the ballet-girls were pretty, and all of them boasted of having been enjoyed at least once by my lord.  The chief of them was a Venetian, daughter of a gondolier named Gardella.  She was brought up by the senator Malipiero, whom my readers know for his good offices towards myself, who had her taught for the theatre, and gave her a dancing-master.  I found her at Munich, after my flight from The Leads, married to Michel Agata.  The duke took a fancy to her, and asked her husband, who was only too happy to agree, to yield her; but he was satisfied with her charms in a year, and put her on the retired list with the title of madame.

This honour had made all the other ballet-girls jealous, and they all thought themselves as fit as she to be taken to the duke’s titular mistress, especially as she only enjoyed the honour without the pleasure.  They all intrigued to procure her dismissal, but the Venetian lady succeeded in holding her ground against all cabals.