to each other to fulfil the requirements of the oracle,
Semiramis herself suggested that Lyons was watered by the Rhone and the
Saone, and that it would be an excellent place for the ceremony. As may
be imagined, I immediately agreed with her. On asking Paralis if there
were any preparations to be made, he replied that it Would be necessary
to pour a bottle of sea-water into each river a fortnight before the
sacrifice, and that this ceremony was to be performed by Semiramis in
person, at the first diurnal hour of the moon.

"Then," said the marchioness, "the bottles must be filled here, for the
other French ports are farther off. I will go as soon as ever I can leave
my bed, and will wait for you at Lyons; for as you have to perform
expiatory sacrifices to Saturn in this place, you cannot come with me."

I assented, pretending sorrow at not being able to accompany her. The
next morning I brought her two well-sealed bottles of sea-water, telling
her that she was to pour them out into the two rivers on the 15th of May
(the current month). We fixed her departure for the 11th, and I promised
to rejoin her before the expiration of the fortnight. I gave her the
hours of the moon in writing, and also directions for the journey.

As soon as the marchioness had gone I left the "Treize Cantons" and went
to live with Marcoline, giving her four hundred and sixty louis, which,
with the hundred and forty she had won at biribi, gave her a total of six
hundred louis, or fourteen thousand four hundred francs. With this sum
she could look the future in the face fearlessly.

The day after Madame d'Urfe's departure, the betrothed of Mdlle. Crosin
arrived at Marseilles with a letter from Rosalie, which he handed to me
on the day of his arrival. She begged me in the name of our common honour
to introduce the bearer in person to the father of the betrothed. Rosalie
was right, but as the lady was not my real niece there were some
difficulties in the way. I welcomed the young man and told him that I
would first take him to Madame Audibert, and that we could then go
together to his father-in-law in prospective.

The young Genoese had gone to the "Treize Cantons," where he thought I
was staying. He was delighted to find himself so near the goal of his
desires, and his ecstacy received a new momentum when he saw how
cordially Madame Audibert received him. We all got into my carriage and
drove to the father's who gave him an excellent reception