I wrote a note to my counsel to tell him what had happened; he came to see me and assured me that I should only be under arrest for a few days.

As I was obliged to keep my room, I let my friends know of my confinement, and I received visits from dancers and ballet-girls, who were the only decent people I was acquainted with in that wretched Stuttgart, where I had better never have set foot.  My situation was not pleasant to contemplate:  I had been drugged, cheated, robbed, abused, imprisoned, threatened with a mulct of a hundred thousand francs, which would have stripped me to my shirt, as nobody knew the contents of my pocket-book.  I could think of nothing else.  I had written to Madame the Gardella, but to no purpose, as I got no answer.  All the consolation I got was from Binetti, Toscani, and Baletti, who dined or supped with me every day.  The three rascals came to see me one by one, and each tried to get me to give him money unknown to the other two, and each promised that if I would do that, he would get me out of the difficulty.  Each would have been content with three or four hundred louis, but even if I had given that sum to one of them I had no guarantee that the others would desist from their persecution.  Indeed, if I had done so I should have given some ground to their pretensions, and bad would have been made worse.  My answer was that they wearied me, and that I should be glad if they would desist from visiting me.

On the fifth day of my arrest the duke left for Frankfort; and the same day Binetti came and told me from her lover that the duke had promised the officers not to interfere, and that I was therefore in danger of an iniquitous sentence.  His advice was to neglect no means of getting out of the difficulty, to sacrifice all my property, diamonds, and jewellery, and thus to obtain a release from my enemies.  The Binetti, like a wise woman, disliked this counsel, and I relished it still less, but she had to perform her commission.

I had jewellery and lace to the value of more than a hundred thousand francs, but I could not resolve to make the sacrifice.  I did not know which way to turn or where to go, and while I was in this state of mind my barrister came in.  He spoke as follows: 

“Sir, all my endeavors on your behalf have been unsuccessful.  There is a party against you which seems to have support in some high quarter, and which silences the voice of justice.  It is my duty to warn you that unless you find some way of arranging matters with these rascals you are a ruined man.  The judgment given by the police magistrate, a rascal like the rest of them, is of a summary character, for as a stranger you will not be allowed to have recourse to the delays of the law.  You would require bail to do that.  They have managed to procure witnesses who swear that you are a professional gamester, that it was you who seduced the three officers into the house of your countryman Peccini, that it