The friendship of the cardinal for the prince’s wife also gave him the advantage of getting silks from Lyons without the Pope’s treasurer being able to say anything, as the packets were addressed to the French ambassador.  It must also be noted that the cardinal’s patronage kept other lovers from the house.  The High Constable Colonna was very much taken with her.  The prince had surprised this gentleman talking to the princess in a room of the palace and at an hour when she was certain that the cardinal would not be in the way.  Scarcely had the Colonna gone when the prince told his wife that she would accompany him into the country the next day.  She protested, saying that this sudden order was only a caprice and that her honour would not allow of her obeying him.  The prince, however, was very determined, and she would have been obliged to go if the cardinal had not come in and heard the story from the mouth of the innocent princess.  He shewed the husband that it was to his own interests to go into the country by himself, and to let his wife remain in Rome.  He spoke for her, assuring the prince that she would take more care for the future and avoid such meetings, always unpleasant in a house.

In less than a month I became the shadow of the three principal persons in the play.  I listened and admired and became as necessary to the personages as a marker at billiards.  When any of the parties were afflicted I consoled them with tales or amusing comments, and, naturally, they were grateful to me.  The cardinal, the prince, and his fair wife amused each other and offended no one.

The Duchess of Fiano was proud of being the possessor of the prince who left his wife to the cardinal, but no one was deceived but herself.  The good lady wondered why no one acknowledged that the reason why the princess never came to see her was mere jealousy.  She spoke to me on the subject with so much fire that I had to suppress my good sense to keep her good graces.

I had to express my astonishment as to what the cardinal could see in the princess, who, according to her, was skinny in person and silly in mind, altogether a woman of no consequence.  I agreed to all this, but I was far from thinking so, for the princess was just the woman to amuse a voluptuous and philosophic lover like the cardinal.

I could not help thinking now and again that the cardinal was happier in the possession of this treasure of a woman than in his honours and dignities.

I loved the princess, but as I did not hope for success I confined myself strictly to the limits of my position.

I might, no doubt, have succeeded, but more probably I should have raised her pride against me, and wounded the feelings of the cardinal, who was no longer the same as when we shared M——­ M——­ in common.  He had told me that his affection for her was of a purely fatherly character, and I took that as a hint not to trespass on his preserves.