I played every day, and as I often lost money on my word of honour, the necessity of paying the next day often caused me the utmost anxiety.  When I had exhausted my credit with the bankers, I had recourse to the Jews who require pledges, and in this Desarmoises and the Renaud were my agents, the latter of whom ended by making herself mistress of all my property.  This was not the worst thing she did to me; for she, gave me a disease, which devoured her interior parts and left no marks outwardly, and was thus all the more dangerous, as the freshness of her complexion seemed to indicate the most perfect health.  In short, this serpent, who must have come from hell to destroy me, had acquired such a mastery over me that she persuaded me that she would be dishonoured if I called in a doctor during our stay at Munich, as everybody knew that we were living together as man and wife.

I cannot imagine what had become of my wits to let myself be so beguiled, while every day I renewed the poison that she had poured into my veins.

My stay at Munich was a kind of curse; throughout that dreadful month I seemed to have a foretaste of the pains of the damned.  The Renaud loved gaming, and Desarmoises was her partner.  I took care not to play with them, for the false marquis was an unmitigated cheat and often tricked with less skill than impudence.  He asked disreputable people to my house and treated them at my expense; every evening scenes of a disgraceful character took place.

The Dowager Electress mortified me extremely by the way she addressed me on my last two visits to her.

“Everybody knows what kind of a life you lead here, and the way the Renaud behaves, possibly without your knowing it.  I advise you to have done with her, as your character is suffering.”

She did not know what a thraldom I was under.  I had left Paris for a month, and I had neither heard of Madame d’Urfe nor of Costa.  I could not guess the reason, but I began to suspect my Italian’s fidelity.  I also feared lest my good Madame d’Urfe might be dead or have come to her senses, which would have come to the same thing so far as I was concerned; and I could not possibly return to Paris to obtain the information which was so necessary both for calming my mind and refilling my purse.

I was in a terrible state, and my sharpest pang was that I began to experience a certain abatement of my vigors, the natural result of advancing years.  I had no longer that daring born of youth and the knowledge of one’s strength, and I was not yet old enough to have learnt how to husband my forces.  Nevertheless, I made an effort and took a sudden leave of my mistress, telling her I would await her at Augsburg.  She did not try to detain me, but promised to rejoin me as soon as possible; she was engaged in selling her jewellery.  I set out preceded by Le Duc, feeling very glad that Desarmoises had chosen to stay with the wretched woman to whom he had introduced