I did not return to the hotel till after the play, and I then heard that
the Frenchman, after having the surgeon with him for an hour, had set out
for Rotterdam with his friend. We had a pleasant supper and talked
cheerfully together without a word being said about the duel, with the
exception that an English lady said, I forget in what connection, that a
man of honour should never risk sitting down to dinner at an hotel unless
he felt inclined, if necessary, to fight. The remark was very true at
that time, when one had to draw the sword for an idle word, and to expose
one's self to the consequences of a duel, or else be pointed at, even by
the ladies, with the finger of scorn.

I had nothing more to keep me at the Hague, and I set out next morning
before day-break for Amsterdam. On the way I stopped for dinner and
recognized Sir James Walpole, who told me that he had started from
Amsterdam the evening before, an hour after giving the countess into her
husband's charge. He said that he had got very tired of her, as he had
nothing more to get from a woman who gave more than one asked, if one's
purse-strings were opened wide enough. I got to Amsterdam about midnight
and took up my abode at "The Old Bible." The neighbourhood of Esther had
awakened my love for that charming girl, and I was so impatient to see
her that I could not sleep.

I went out about ten o'clock and called on M. d'O, who welcomed me in the
friendliest manner and reproached me for not having alighted at his
house. When he heard that I had given up business he congratulated me on
not having removed it into Holland, as I should have been ruined. I did
not tell him that I had nearly come to that in France, as I considered
such a piece of information would not assist my designs. He complained
bitterly of the bad faith of the French Government, which had involved