replied _Philander_, ‘we had of this affair, but I never could learn by what artifice the Prince brought about his good fortune at Court; but of your own escape I have heard nothing, pray oblige me with the relation of it.’ ‘Sir,’ said _Tomaso_, ‘there is so little worthy the trouble you will take in hearing it, that you may spare yourself the curiosity.’ ‘Sir,’ replied Philander, ‘I always had too great a share in what concerned you, not to be curious of the story.’ ‘In which,’ replied _Tomaso_, ‘though there be nothing novel, I will satisfy you.’ ’.e pleased to know, my lord, that about a week before our design was fully discovered by some of our own under-rogues, I had taken a great house in _Faubourg St Germain_, for my mistress, whom you know, my lord, I had lived with the space of a year. She was gone to drink the waters of _Bourbon_, for some indisposition, and I had promised her all things should be fitted against her return, agreeable to her humour and desire; and indeed, I spared no cost to make her apartment magnificent: and I believe few women of quality could purchase one so rich; for I loved the young woman, who had beauty and discretion enough to charm, though the _Parisians_ of the royal party called her _Nicky Nacky_, which was given her in derision to me, not to her, for whom every body, for her own sake, had a considerable esteem. Besides, my lord, I had taken up money out of the Orphans’ and Widows’ Bank, from the Chamber of _Paris_, and could very well afford to be lavish, when I spent upon the public stock. While I was thus ordering all things, my valet came running out of breath, to tell me, that being at the _Louvre_, he saw several persons carried to the secretary’s office, with messengers; and that inquiring who they might be, he found they were two _Parisians_, who had offered themselves to the messengers to be carried to be examined about a plot, the Prince _Cesario_ and those of the Reformed Religion, had to surprise His Majesty, kill Monsieur his brother, and set all _Paris_ in a flame: and as to what particularly related to myself, he said, that I was named as the person designed to seize upon the King’s guards, and dispatch Monsieur. This my own conscience told me was too true, for me to make any doubt but I was discovered: I therefore left a servant in the house, and in a hackney-coach took my flight. I drove a little out of _Paris_ till night, and then returned again, as the surest part of the world where I could conceal myself: I was not long in studying who I should trust with my life and safety, but went directly to the palace of Madam, the Countess of----who you know, my lord, was a widow, and a woman who had, for a year past, a most violent passion for me; but she being a lady, who had made many such gallantries, and past her youth, I had only a very great respect and acknowledgement for her, and her quality, and being obliged to her, for the effects of