have not the slightest doubt as to the goodness of the
bill, I will take it up myself, and this very morning: thus you will be
able to leave when you like. Farewell, chevalier! I wish you a pleasant
journey."

With this compliment the prince left me, without giving me time to answer
him. I might have felt inclined to tell him that by taking up the bill he
would give the Jew and everyone else to understand that it was a favour
done to me, to the great hurt of my honour, and that consequently I
should be obliged by his doing nothing of the kind. But though the prince
was a man of generosity and magnanimity, he was deficient in that
delicate quality which we call tact. This defect, common amongst princes,
arises from their education, which places them above the politeness which
is considered necessary in ordinary mortals.

He could not have treated me worse than he did, if he had been certain of
my dishonesty, and wished me to understand that I was forgiven, and that
he would bear all the consequences of my misdemeanour. With this idea in
my head, I said to myself; "Perhaps, indeed, this is exactly what the
prince does think. Is it the Jew or me that he pities? If the latter, I
think I must give him a lesson, though I do not wish to cause him any
humiliation."

Feeling deeply humiliated myself, and pondering on my position, I walked
away, directing my attention especially to the duke's concluding words. I
thought his wish for a pleasant journey supremely out of place, under the
circumstances, in the mouth of one who enjoyed almost absolute power. It
was equivalent to an order to leave the town, and I felt indignant at the
thought.

I therefore resolved to vindicate my honour by neither going away nor
remaining.

"If I stay," I said to myself, "the Jew will be adjudged to be in the
right; and if I go the duke will think I have profited by his favour, and
so to speak, by his present of fifty louis if the bill were protested. I
will not let anyone enjoy a satisfaction which is no one due."

After these considerations, which I thought worthy of a wiser head than
mine, I packed up my trunk, ordered horses, and after a good dinner and
the payment of my bill I went to Wolfenbuttel with the idea of spending
week there. I was sure of finding amusement, for Wolfenbuttel contains
the third largest library in Europe, and I had long been anxious to see
it.

The learned librarian, whose politeness was all the better for being
c