take notice that he was speaking to the Spanish Ambassador,
who had strong reasons for wishing to see the persons
in question. The innkeeper said they wished
not to be known, and that they had absolutely forbidden
him to admit anybody into their apartment who did not
ask for them by name; but that, since the Ambassador
desired it, he would show him their room. He
then conducted them up to a dirty, miserable garret.
He knocked at the door, and waited for some time; he
then knocked again pretty, loudly, upon which the
door was half-opened. At the sight of the Ambassador
and his suite, the person who opened it immediately
closed it again, exclaiming that they, had made a
mistake. The Ambassador pushed hard against
him, forced his way, in, made a sign to his people
to wait outside, and remained in the room. He
saw before him a very handsome young man, whose appearance
perfectly, corresponded with the description, and
a young woman, of great beauty, and remarkably fine
person, whose countenance, form, colour of the hair,
etc., were also precisely those described by
the Count of Moncade. The young man spoke first.
He complained of the violence used in breaking into
the apartment of a stranger, living in a free country,
and under the protection of its laws. The Ambassador
stepped forward to embrace him, and said, ’It
is useless to feign, my dear Count; I know you, and
I do not come here—to give pain to you
or to this lady, whose appearance interests me extremely.’
The young man replied that he was totally mistaken;
that he was not a Count, but the son of a merchant
of Cadiz; that the lady was his wife; and, that they
were travelling for pleasure. The Ambassador,
casting his eyes round the miserably furnished room,
which contained but one bed, and some packages of
the shabbiest kind, lying in disorder about the room,
’Is this, my dear child (allow me to address
you by a title which is warranted by my tender regard
for your father), is this a fit residence for the
son of the Count of Moncade?’ The young man
still protested against the use of any such language,
as addressed to him. At length, overcome by
the entreaties of the Ambassador, he confessed, weeping,
that he was the son of the Count of Moncade, but declared
that nothing should induce him to return to his father,
if he must abandon a woman he adored. The young
woman burst into tears, and threw herself at the feet
of the Ambassador, telling him that she would not
be the cause of the ruin of the young Count; and that
generosity, or rather, love, would enable her to disregard
her own happiness, and, for his sake, to separate herself
from him. The Ambassador admired her noble disinterestedness.
The young man, on the contrary, received her declaration
with the most desperate grief. He reproached
his mistress, and declared that he would never abandon
so estimable a creature, nor suffer the sublime generosity
of her heart to be turned against herself. The
Ambassador told him that the Count of Moncade was