“A week later they married her to King Theodore in the Cathedral of Corte, and crowned her beside him.  Before the winter he left the island and sailed to Holland to raise moneys! for the promises of the Great Powers had come to nothing, even if they were genuinely given.  For myself, I had bidden good-bye to Corsica and sailed for Tuscany on the same day that Emilia was married.

“Now I must tell you that on the eve of sailing I wrote a letter to the queen—­as queen she would be by the time it reached her—­wishing her all happiness, and adding that if, in the time to come, fate should bring her into poverty or danger, my estate and my life would ever be at her service.  To this I received, as I had expected, no answer:  nor did she, if ever she received it, impart its contents to her husband.  He—­the rascal—­had a genius for borrowing, and yet ’twas I that had to begin by seeking him out to feed him with money.

“News came to me that he was in straits in Holland, and had for a year been drumming the banks in vain:  also that the Genoese, whom his incursion had merely confounded, were beginning to lift their heads and take the offensive again.  At first he had terrified them like a mad dog; the one expedient they could hit on was to set a price upon his head.  Certainly he had gifts.  He contrived—­and by sheer audacity, mark you, backed by a fine presence—­to drive them into such a panic that, months after he had sailed, they were petitioning France to send over troops to help them.  The Corsicans sent a counter-embassy.  ‘If,’ said they to King Louis, ’your Majesty force us to yield to Genoa, then let us drink this bitter cup to the health of the Most Christian King, and die.’  King Louis admired the speech but nibbled at the opportunity.  Our own Government meanwhile had either lost heart or suffered itself to be persuaded by the Genoese Minister in London.  In the July after my Emilia’s marriage, our late Queen Caroline, as regent for the time of Great Britain, issued a proclamation forbidding any subject of King George to furnish arms or provisions to the Corsican malcontents.

“And now you know, my dear Prosper, why I cast away the career on which I had started with some ambition.  My lady lacked help, which as a British subject I was prohibited from offering.  My conscience allowed me to disobey:  but not to disobey and eat His Majesty’s bread.  I flung up my post, and as a private man hunted across Europe for King Theodore.”

I ran him to earth in Amsterdam.  He was in handsome lodgings, but penniless.  It was the first time I had conversed with him; and he, I believe, had never seen my face.  I found him affable, specious, sanguine, but hollow as a drum.  For her sake I took up and renewed the campaign among the Jew bankers.