d, in that case, your country in general, and your house in
particular, will be well satisfied with him. If, through your
means, my brother should establish himself here, you may depend
on seeing me often, there being no brother or sister who has
a stronger affection for each other."

The Countess appeared to listen to what I said with great pleasure,
and acknowledged that she had not entered upon this discourse
without design. She observed that, having perceived I did her
the honour to have some regard for her, she had resolved within
herself not to let me depart out of the country without explaining
to me the situation of it, and begging me to procure the aid
of France to relieve them from the apprehensions of living in
a state of perpetual war or of submitting to Spanish tyranny.
She thereupon entreated me to allow her to relate our present
conversation to her husband, and permit them both to confer with
me on the subject the next day. To this I readily gave my consent.

Thus we passed the evening in discourse upon the object of my
mission, and I observed that she took a singular pleasure in
talking upon it in all our succeeding conferences when I thought
proper to introduce it. The ball being ended, we went to hear
vespers at the church of the Canonesses, an order of nuns of
which we have none in France. These are young ladies who are
entered in these communities at a tender age, in order to improve
their fortunes till they are of an age to be married. They do not
all sleep under the same roof, but in detached houses within an
enclosure. In each of these houses are three, four, or perhaps six
young girls, under the care of an old woman. These governesses,
together with the abbess, are of the number of such as have never
been married. These girls never wear the habit of the order but
in church; and the service there ended, they dress like others,
pay visits, frequent balls, and go where they please. They were
constant visitors at the Count's entertainments, and danced at
his balls.

The Countess thought the time long until the night, when she
had an opportunity of relating to the Count the conversation she
had with me, and the opening of the business. The next morning
she came to me, and brought her husband with her. He entered
into a detail of the grievances the country laboured under, and
the just reasons he had for ridding it of the tyranny of Spain.
In doing this, he said, he should not consider himself as a