Four days after I had been at Dunkirk, one of the captains asked me to
dinner on his ship, and after that all the others did the same; and on
every occasion I stayed in the ship for the rest of the day. I was
curious about everything--and Jack is so trustful! I went into the hold,
I asked questions innumerable, and I found plenty of young officers
delighted to shew their own importance, who gossipped without needing any
encouragement from me. I took care, however, to learn everything which
would be of service to me, and in the evenings I put down on paper all
the mental notes I had made during the day. Four or five hours was all I
allowed myself for sleep, and in fifteen days I had learnt enough.

Pleasure, gaming, and idleness--my usual companions--had no part in this
expedition, and I devoted all my energies to the object of my mission. I
dined once with the banker, once with Madame P----, in the town, and once
in a pretty country house which her husband had, at about a league's
distance from Dunkirk. She took me there herself, and on finding myself
alone with the woman I had loved so well I delighted her by the delicacy
of my behaviour, which was marked only by respect and friendship. As I
still thought her charming, and as our connection had only ended six
weeks ago, I was astonished to see myself so quiet, knowing my
disposition too well to attribute my restraint to virtue. What, then, was
the reason? An Italian proverb, speaking for nature, gives the true
solution of the riddle.

'La Mona non vuol pensieri', and my head was full of thought.

My task was done, and bidding good-bye to all my friends, I set out in my
post-chaise for Paris, going by another way for the sake of the change.
About midnight, on my asking for horses at some stage, the name of which
I forget, they told me that the next stage was the fortified town of