, "and where Spain _offers_ twenty ducats, France _pays_
six-and-thirty!--Forward, my youngsters! To the kitchen of the French
ambassador!"

And urgently pushing back Don Bempo, Gianettino solemnly marched through
the crowd with his retinue, the people readily making a path for him and
cheering him as he went.

It was a brilliant triumph in the person of the chief cook of their
ambassador, which the French celebrated to-day; it was a shameful defeat
which Spain suffered to-day in the person of her ambassador's chief
cook.

Proud and happy marched Signor Gianettino through the streets,
accompanied by his gigantic fish, and followed by the shouts of a Roman
mob.

Humiliated, with eyes cast down, with rage in his heart sneaked Don
Bempo toward the Spanish ambassador's hotel, and long heard behind him
the whistling, laughter, and catcalls of the Roman people.

THE FISH FEUD

Cardinal Bernis was in his boudoir. Before him lay the list of those
persons whom he had invited to his entertainment of the next day, and he
saw with proud satisfaction that all had accepted his invitation.

"I shall, then, have a brilliant and stately society to meet this
Austrian archduke," said the well-contented cardinal to himself. "The
_elite_ of the nobility, all the cardinals and ambassadors, will make
their appearance, and Austria will be compelled to acknowledge that
France maintains the best understanding with all the European powers,
and that she is not the less respected because the Marquise de Pompadour
is in fact King of France."

"Ah, this good marquise," continued the cardinal, stretching himself
comfortably upon his lounge and taking an open letter from the table,
"this good marquise gives me in fact some cause for anxiety. She writes
me here that France is in favor of the project of Portugal for the
suppression of the order of the Jesuits, and I am so to inform the pope!
This is a dangerous thing, marquise, and may possibly burn your tender
fingers. The suppression of the Jesuits! Is not that to explode a
powder-barrel in the midst of Europe, that may shatter all the states?
No, no, it is foolhardiness, and I have not the courage to apply the
match to this powder-barrel! I fear it may blow us all into the air."

And the cardinal began to read anew the letter of Madame de Pompadour
which a French courier had brought him a few hours before.

"Ahem, that will be dangerous for the good father!" said he, shaking his
hea