st, but it was not the
remedies or the abstinence I dreaded most; I feared the effects of ennui;
I thought I should die of it. No doubt the doctor saw the danger as well
as myself, for he asked me if I would mind his sister coming and working
in my room occasionally with a few of her friends. I replied that,
despite my shame of shewing myself to young ladies in such a condition, I
accepted her offer with delight. The sister was very grateful for what
she was pleased to call my kindness, for my room was the only one which
looked in the street, and as everyone knows girls are very fond of
inspecting the passers-by. Unfortunately this arrangement turned out ill
for Daturi. The poor young man had only received the education of a
mountebank, and it was tiresome for him to pass all his time in my
company. When he saw that I had plenty of friends, he thought I could
dispense with his society, and only thought of amusing himself. On the
third day towards the evening he was carried home covered with bruises.
He had been in the guard-room with the soldiers, and some quarrel having
arisen he had got a severe beating. He was in a pitiable state; all over
blood and with three teeth missing. He told me the story with tears, and
begged me to take vengeance on his foes.

I sent my doctor to General Bekw----, who said that all he could do was
to give the poor man a bed in the hospital. Baturi had no bones broken,
and in a few days was quite well, so I sent him on to Brunswick with a
passport from General Salomon. The loss of his teeth secured him from the
conscription; this, at any rate, was a good thing.

The treatment of the young doctor was even more successful than he had
anticipated, for in a month I was perfectly well again, though terribly
thin. The worthy people of the house must have taken an idea of me not in
the least like myself; I was thought to be the most patient of men, and
the sister and her young lady friends must have considered me as modesty
personified; but these virtues only resulted from my illness and my great
depression. If you want to discover the character of a man, view him in
health and freedom; a captive and in sickness he is no longer the same
man.

I gave a beautiful dress to the sister, and twenty louis to the doctor,
and both seemed to me extremely satisfied.

On the eve of my departure I received a letter from Madame du Rumain, who
had heard I was in want from my friend Baletti, and sent me a bill o