“The Crown asked the Duc de Nivernois to extradite him, and Louis XV. granted the request to make England assent to some articles of the peace.  It was an act unworthy of a king, for it violates the right of nations.  It is true that the man is a wretch, but that has nothing to do with the principle of the thing.”

“Of course they have got back the seventy thousand pounds?”

“Not a shilling of it.”

“How was that?”

“Because no money was found on him.  He has most likely left his little fortune to his wife, who can marry again as she is still young and pretty.”

“I wonder the police have not been after her.”

“Such a thing is never thought of.  What could they do?  It’s not likely that she would confess that her husband left her the stolen money.  The law says robbers shall be hanged, but it says nothing about what they have stolen, as they are supposed to have made away with it.  Then if we had to take into account the thieves who had kept their theft and thieves who had spent it, we should have to make two sets of laws, and make all manner of allowances; the end of it would be inextricable confusion.  It seems to us Englishmen that it would not be just to ordain two punishments for theft.  The robber becomes the owner of what he has stolen; true, he ’got it by violence, but it is none the less his, for he can do what he likes with it.  That being the case, everyone should be careful to keep what he has, since he knows that once stolen he will never see it again.  I have taken Havana from Spain:  this was robbery on a large scale.”

He talked at once like a philosopher and a faithful subject of his king.

Engaged in this discussion we walked towards the Duchess of Northumberland’s, where I made the acquaintance of Lady Rochefort, whose husband had just been appointed Spanish ambassador.  This lady’s gallantries were innumerable, and furnished a fresh topic of conversation every day.

The day before the assembly at Soho Square Martinelli dined with me, and told me that Madame Cornelis was heavily in debt, and dared not go out except on Sundays, when debtors are privileged.

“The enormous and unnecessary expense which she puts herself to,” said he, “will soon bring her to ruin.  She owes four times the amount of her assets, even counting in the house, which is a doubtful item, as it is the subject of litigation.”

This news only distressed me for her children’s sake, for I thought that she herself well deserved such a fate.

CHAPTER VIII

The Assembly—­Adventure at Ranelagh The English Courtezans—­Pauline

I went in due time to the assembly, and the secretary at the door wrote down my name as I handed in my ticket.  When Madame Cornelis saw me she said she was delighted I had come in by ticket, and that she had had some doubts as to whether I would come.