The sentinel calls the corporal; we alight, the officer who accompanied me introduces me to the major, and presents a letter to him.  The major, after reading its contents, gives orders to M. Zen, his adjutant, to consign me to the guard-house.  In another quarter of an hour my conductors take their departure, and M. Zen brings me three livres and a half, stating that I would receive the same amount every week.  It was exactly the pay of a private.

I did not give way to any burst of passion, but I felt the most intense indignation.  Late in the evening I expressed a wish to have some food bought, for I could not starve; then, stretching myself upon a hard camp bed, I passed the night amongst the soldiers without closing my eyes, for these Sclavonians were singing, eating garlic, smoking a bad tobacco which was most noxious, and drinking a wine of their own country, as black as ink, which nobody else could swallow.

Early next morning Major Pelodoro (the governor of the fortress) called me up to his room, and told me that, in compelling me to spend the night in the guard-house, he had only obeyed the orders he had received from Venice from the secretary of war.  “Now, reverend sir,” he added, “my further orders are only to keep you a prisoner in the fort, and I am responsible for your remaining here.  I give you the whole of the fortress for your prison.  You shall have a good room in which you will find your bed and all your luggage.  Walk anywhere you please; but recollect that, if you should escape, you would cause my ruin.  I am sorry that my instructions are to give you only ten sous a day, but if you have any friends in Venice able to send you some money, write to them, and trust to me for the security of your letters.  Now you may go to bed, if you need rest.”

I was taken to my room; it was large and on the first story, with two windows from which I had a very fine view.  I found my bed, and I ascertained with great satisfaction that my trunk, of which I had the keys, had not been forced open.  The major had kindly supplied my table with all the implements necessary for writing.  A Sclavonian soldier informed me very politely that he would attend upon me, and that I would pay him for his services whenever I could, for everyone knew that I had only ten sous a day.  I began by ordering some soup, and, when I had dispatched it, I went to bed and slept for nine hours.  When I woke, I received an invitation to supper from the major, and I began to imagine that things, after all, would not be so very bad.

I went to the honest governor, whom I found in numerous company.  He presented me to his wife and to every person present.  I met there several officers, the chaplain of the fortress, a certain Paoli Vida, one of the singers of St. Mark’s Church, and his wife, a pretty woman, sister-in-law of the major, whom the husband chose to confine in the fort because he was very jealous (jealous men are not comfortable at Venice), together with several other ladies, not very young, but whom I thought very agreeable, owing to their kind welcome.