This, however, did not induce me to repent that I had preferred the Lazaretto to the Felucca; and, like another Robinson Crusoe, I began to arrange myself for my one-and twenty days, just as I should have done for my whole life.  In the first place, I had the amusement of destroying the vermin I had caught in the Felucca.  As soon as I had got clear of these, by means of changing my clothes and linen, I proceeded to furnish the chamber I had chosen.  I made a good mattress with my waistcoats and shirts; my napkins I converted, by sewing them together, into sheets; my robe de chambre into a counterpane; and my cloak into a pillow.  I made myself a seat with one of my trunks laid flat, and a table with the other.  I took out some writing paper and an inkstand, and distributed, in the manner of a library, a dozen books which I had with me.  In a word, I so well arranged my few movables, that except curtains and windows, I was almost as commodiously lodged in this Lazeretto, absolutely empty as it was, as I had been at the Tennis Court in the Rue Verdelet.  My dinners were served with no small degree of pomp; they were escorted by two grenadiers with bayonets fixed; the staircase was my dining—­room, the landing-place my table, and the steps served me for a seat; and as soon as my dinner was served up a little bell was rung to inform me I might sit down to table.

Between my repasts, when I did not either read or write or work at the furnishing of my apartment, I went to walk in the burying-ground of the Protestants, which served me as a courtyard.  From this place I ascended to a lanthorn which looked into the harbor, and from which I could see the ships come in and go out.  In this manner I passed fourteen days, and should have thus passed the whole time of the quarantine without the least weariness had not M. Joinville, envoy from France, to whom I found means to send a letter, vinegared, perfumed, and half burnt, procured eight days of the time to be taken off:  these I went and spent at his house, where I confess I found myself better lodged than in the Lazaretto.  He was extremely civil to me.  Dupont, his secretary, was a good creature:  he introduced me, as well at Genoa as in the country, to several families, the company of which I found very entertaining and agreeable; and I formed with him an acquaintance and a correspondence which we kept up for a considerable length of time.  I continued my journey, very agreeably, through Lombardy.  I saw Milan, Verona, Brescie, and Padua, and at length arrived at Venice, where I was impatiently expected by the ambassador.