was not sufficient to defend the king against the dagger of the Jesuits, an accursed race, the enemy of nations as well as of kings.  The present king, who is weak and entirely led by his ministers, said candidly at the time he was just recovering from illness, ’I am surprised at the rejoicings of the people in consequence of my health being restored, for I cannot imagine why they should love me so dearly.’  Many kings might repeat the same words, at least if love is to be measured according to the amount of good actually done.  That candid remark of Louis XV. has been highly praised, but some philosopher of the court ought to have informed him that he was so much loved because he had been surnamed ’le bien aime’.”

“Surname or nickname; but are there any philosophers at the court of France?”

“No, for philosophers and courtiers are as widely different as light and darkness; but there are some men of intelligence who champ the bit from motives of ambition and interest.”

As we were thus conversing, M. Patu (such was the name of my new acquaintance) escorted me as far as the door of Silvia’s house; he congratulated me upon being one of her friends, and we parted company.

I found the amiable actress in good company.  She introduced me to all her guests, and gave me some particulars respecting every one of them.  The name of Crebillon struck my ear.

“What, sir!” I said to him, “am I fortunate enough to see you?  For eight years you have charmed me, for eight years I have longed to know you.  Listen, I beg ’of you.”

I then recited the finest passage of his ‘Zenobie et Rhadamiste’, which I had translated into blank verse.  Silvia was delighted to see the pleasure enjoyed by Crebillon in hearing, at the age of eighty, his own lines in a language which he knew thoroughly and loved as much as his own.  He himself recited the same passage in French, and politely pointed out the parts in which he thought that I had improved on the original.  I thanked him, but I was not deceived by his compliment.

We sat down to supper, and, being asked what I had already seen in Paris, I related everything I had done, omitting only my conversation with Patu.  After I had spoken for a long time, Crebillon, who had evidently observed better than anyone else the road I had chosen in order to learn the good as well as the bad qualities by his countrymen, said to me,

“For the first day, sir, I think that what you have done gives great hopes of you, and without any doubt you will make rapid progress.  You tell your story well, and you speak French in such a way as to be perfectly understood; yet all you say is only Italian dressed in French.  That is a novelty which causes you to be listened to with interest, and which captivates the attention of your audience; I must even add that your Franco-Italian language is just the thing to enlist in your favour the sympathy of those who listen to you, because it is singular, new, and because you are in a country where everybody worships those two divinities—­novelty and singularity.  Nevertheless, you must begin to-morrow and apply yourself in good earnest, in order to acquire a thorough knowledge of our language, for the same persons who warmly applaud you now, will, in two or three months, laugh at you.”