I resolved to keep on the mask, and replied that her proposition was undoubtedly a very great honour for me, but it was also a very important question, and so I begged her to allow me some time for consideration.

When I got back to my room I found there the mistress of the wretched Marquis Petina, who told me that her happiness depended on a certificate from the Neapolitan ambassador that her lover was really the person he professed to be.  With this document he would be able to claim a sum of two hundred guineas, and then they could both go to Naples, and he would marry her there.  “He will easily obtain the royal pardon,” said she.  “You, and you alone, can help us in the matter, and I commend myself to your kindness.”

I promised to do all I could for her.  In fact, I called on the ambassador, who made no difficulty about giving the required certificate.  For the moment my chilly conquest was perfectly happy, but though I saw she was very grateful to me I did not ask her to prove her gratitude.

CHAPTER XVI

Augusta Becomes Lord Pembroke’s Titular Mistress The King of Corsica’s
Son—­M. du Claude, or the Jesuit Lavalette—­Departure of the Hanoverians
I Balance My Accounts—­The Baron Stenau—­The English Girl, and What She
Gave Me—­Daturi—­My Flight from London—­Comte St. Germain—­Wesel

Lord Pembroke wrote to Augusta offering her fifty guineas a month for three years, with lodging, board, servants, and carriage at St. Albans, without reckoning what she might expect from his grateful affection if it were returned.

Augusta translated the letter for me, and asked for my advice.

“I can’t give you any counsel,” said I, “in a matter which only concerns your own heart and your own interests.”

She went up to her mother, who would come to no conclusion without first consulting me, because, as she said, I was the wisest and most virtuous of men.  I am afraid the reader will differ from her here, but I comfort myself by the thought that I, too, think like the reader.  At last it was agreed that Augusta should accept the offer if Lord Pembroke would find a surety in the person of some reputable London merchant, for with her beauty and numerous graces she was sure to, become Lady Pembroke before long.  Indeed, the mother said she was perfectly certain of it, as otherwise she could not have given her consent, as her daughters were countesses, and too good to be any man’s mistresses.

The consequence was that Augusta wrote my lord a letter, and in three days it was all settled.  The merchant duly signed the contract, at the foot of which I had the honour of inscribing my name as a witness, and then I took the merchant to the mother, and he witnessed her cession of her daughter.  She would not see Pembroke, but she kissed her daughter, and held a private colloquy with her.

The day on which Augusta left my house was signalized by an event which I must set down.