Now, at the Court of Spain it was well known that my aunt's influence was
vast, and so, the boon I craved was that she should aid me to a position in
the Spanish service that would allow me during my exile to find occupation
and perchance renown. To this my aunt most graciously acceded, and when at
length I took my leave--with such gratitude in my heart that what words I
could think of seemed but clumsily to express it--I bore in the breast of
my doublet a letter to Don Juan de Cordova--a noble of great prominence at
the Spanish Court--and in the pocket of my haut-de-chausses a rouleau of
two hundred gold pistoles, as welcome as they were heavy.
CHAPTER XXII
OF MY SECOND JOURNEY TO CANAPLES
An hour after I had quitted the H?tel de Luynes, Michelot and I left Paris
by the barrier St. Michel and took the Orleans road. How different it
looked in the bright June sunshine, to the picture which it had presented
to our eyes on that February evening, four months ago, when last we had set
out upon that same journey!
Not only in nature had a change been wrought, but in my very self.
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