o advanced to greet me was a
fat man, who held out his hand and said we had been friends twenty-five
years ago, but that we were so young then that it would be no wonder if
we did not know each other. "We knew each other at Padua, at Dr.
Gozzi's," he added; "my name is Joseph da Loglio."

"I remember you," I replied, "in those days you were violoncello at the
Russian chapel."

"Exactly; and now I am returning to my native land to leave it no more. I
have the honour to introduce you to my wife, who was born at St.
Petersburg, but is a daughter of Modonis the violinist, whose reputation
is European. In a week I shall be at Dresden, where I hope to have the
honour of seeing Madame Casanova, your mother."

I was delighted to find myself in such congenial society, but I could see
that Madame Denis did not relish these recollections extending over a
quarter of a century, and I turned the conversation to the events at St.
Petersburg which had resulted in Catherine the Great ascending the
throne. Da Loglio told us that he had taken a small part in this
conspiracy, and had thought it prudent to get out of the way.
"Fortunately," he added, "this was a contingency I had long provided
against, and I am in a position to spend the rest of my days in comfort
in Italy."

Madame Denis then observed:

"A week ago a Piedmontese, named Audar, was introduced to me. He had been
a chief mover in the conspiracy, and the empress gave him a present of a
hundred thousand roubles and an order to leave Russia immediately."

I heard afterwards that this Audar bought an estate in Piedmont on which
he built a fine mansion. In two or three years it was struck by a
thunder-bolt, and the unfortunate man was killed in the ruins of his own
house. If this was a blow from an Almighty hand, it could not, at all
events, have been directed by the genius of Russia, for if the
unfortunate Peter III. had lived, he would have retarded Russian
civilization by a hundred years.

The Empress Catherine rewarded all the foreigners who had assisted her in
her plots most magnificently, and shewed herself grateful to the Russians
who had helped her to mount the throne; while, like a crafty politician,
she sent such nobles as she suspected to be averse to revolution out of
the country.

It was Da Loglio and his pretty wife who determined me to betake myself
to Russia in case the King of Prussia did not give me any employment. I
was assured that I should make my for