“Because it’s my name, but that doesn’t prevent my old friends calling me Casanova, for I am both.  You understand?”

“Oh, yes!  I understand.  Your mother is at Prague, and as she doesn’t get her pension on account of the war, I am afraid she must be rather in difficulties.”

“I know it, but I do not forget my filial duties.  I have sent her some money.”

“That’s right.  Where are you going to stay at Augsburg?”

“I shall take a house, and if you like you shall be the mistress and do the honours.”

“That would be delightful!  We will give little suppers, and play cards all night.”

“Your programme is an excellent one.”

“I will see that you get a good cook; all the Bavarian cooks are good.  We shall cut a fine figure, and people will say we love each other madly.”

“You must know, dearest, that I do not understand jokes at the expense of fidelity.”

“You may trust me for that.  You know how I lived at Dresden.”

“I will trust you, but not blindly, I promise you.  And now let us address each other in the same way; you must call me tu.  You must remember we are lovers.”

“Kiss me!”

The fair Renaud did not like traveling by night; she preferred to eat a good supper, to drink heavily, and to go to bed just as her head began to whirl.  The heat of the wine made her into a Bacchante, hard to appease; but when I could do no more I told her to leave me alone, and she had to obey.

When we reached Augsburg we alighted at the “Three Moors,” but the landlord told us that though he could give us a good dinner he could not put us up, as the whole of the hotel had been engaged by the French ambassador.  I called on M. Corti, the banker to whom I was accredited, and he soon got me a furnished house with a garden, which I took for six months.  The Renaud liked it immensely.

No one had yet arrived at Augsburg.  The Renaud contrived to make me feel that I should be lonely at Augsburg without her, and succeeded in persuading me to come with her to Munich.  We put up at the “Stag,” and made ourselves very comfortable, while Desarmoises went to stay somewhere else.  As my business and that of my new mate had nothing in common, I gave her a servant and a carriage to herself, and made myself the same allowance.

The Abbe Gama had given me a letter from the Commendatore Almada for Lord Stormont, the English ambassador at the Court of Bavaria.  This nobleman being then at Munich I hastened to deliver the letter.  He received me very well, and promised to do all he could as soon as he had time, as Lord Halifax had told him all about it.  On leaving his Britannic Lordship’s I called on M. de Folard, the French ambassador, and gave him a letter from M. de Choiseul.  M. de Folard gave me a hearty welcome, and asked me to dine with him the next day, and the day after introduced me to the Elector.

During the four fatal weeks I spent at Munich, the ambassador’s house was the only one I frequented.  I call these weeks fatal, and with reason, for in then I lost all my money, I pledged jewels (which I never recovered) to the amount of forty thousand francs, and finally I lost my health.  My assassins were the Renaud and Desarmoises, who owed me so much and paid me so badly.