“I thought I told you that I would not pay a single farthing, and I tell it you again.  But who are you, sir,” said I, turning to the worthy old man, “who are good enough to become surety for me without knowing me?”

“I am a commissary of musters, sir, and my name is de la Bretonniere.  I live in Paris at the ‘Hotel de Saxe,’ Rue Colombien, where I shall be glad to see you after to-morrow.  We will go together to M. Britard, who, after hearing your case, will discharge my bail.”

After I had expressed my gratitude, and told him that I would wait upon him without fail, I made my excuses to the mistress of the house and the guests, and left them.

I took my worthy attorney to dinner at the best inn in the place, and I gave him two louis for his trouble.  Without his help and that of the commissary I should have been in great difficulty; it would have been a case of the earthen pot and the iron pot over again; for with jacks-in-office reason is of no use, and though I had plenty of money I would never have let the wretches rob me of fifty louis.

My carriage was drawn up at the door of the tavern; and just as I was getting in, one of the excisemen who had searched my luggage came and told me that I should find everything just as I left it:—­

“I wonder at that since it has been left in the hands of men of your stamp; shall I find the snuff?”

“The snuff has been confiscated, my lord.”

“I am sorry for you, then; for if it had been there I would have given you a louis.”

“I will go and look for it directly.”

“I have no time to wait for it.  Drive on, postillion.”

I got to Paris the next day, and four days after I waited on M. de la Bretonniere, who gave me a hearty welcome, and took me to M. Britard, the fermier-general, who discharged his bail.  This M. Britard was a pleasant young man.  He blushed when he heard all I had gone through.

I took my report to M. de Bernis, at the “Hotel Bourbon,” and his excellence spent two hours over it, making me take out all unnecessary matter.  I spent the time in making a fair copy, and the next day I took it to M. de la Ville, who read it through in silence, and told me that he would let me know the result.  A month after I received five hundred louis, and I had the pleasure of hearing that M. de Cremille, the first lord of the admiralty, had pronounced my report to be not only perfectly accurate but very suggestive.  Certain reasonable apprehensions prevented me from making myself known to him—­an honour which M. de Bernis wished to procure for me.

When I told him my adventures on the way back, he laughed, but said that the highest merit of a secret agent was to keep out of difficulties; for though he might have the tact to extricate himself from them, yet he got talked of, which it should be his chief care to avoid.