was the first thing I saw in his antechamber, where it was framed and
glazed so that all visitors might see it in the quarter of an hour they
were kept waiting.

The count received me with an easy and cordiale manner, which seemed to
say that he renounced all the dignities of his rank. He thanked Don Diego
for introducing me, and talked a good deal about Colonel Royas. He asked
me if I had seen the English girl he was keeping at Saragossa, and on my
replying in the affirmative, he told me in a whisper that he had slept
with her.

He took me to his stables, where he had some splendid horses, and then
asked me to dine with him the next day.

The viceroy received me in a very different manner; he stood up so that
he might not have to offer me a chair, and though I spoke Italian, with
which language I knew him to be well acquainted, he answered me in
Spanish, styling me 'ussia' (a contraction of 'vuestra senoria', your
lordship, and used by everyone in Spain), while I gave him his proper
title of excellence.

He talked a good deal about Madrid, and complained that M. de Mocenigo
had gone to Paris by Bayonne instead of Barcelona, as he had promised
him.

I tried to excuse my ambassador by saying that by taking the other route
he had saved fifty leagues of his journey, but the viceroy replied that
'tenir la palabra' (keeping to one's words) comes before all else.

He asked me if I thought of staying long at Barcelona, and seemed