After the usual ceremonies of introduction, suffice it to say that I met with every honour and applause that my most sanguine expectations could demand.

I had always a taste for the fashionable _je ne sais quoi_ of the most elegant society, and in the presence of all the sovereigns of Europe I ever found myself quite at home, and experienced from the whole court the most flattering esteem and admiration.

I remember, one particular day, the fate of the unfortunate Marquis de Bellecourt.

The Countess of Rassinda, who accompanied him, looked most divinely.

"Yes, I am confident," said the Marquis de Bellecourt to me, "that I have acted according to the strictest sentiments of justice and of loyalty to my sovereign.