My eldest sister had the good fortune to strike the fancy of a Prince, and to be chosen by him for his mistress. It became my humble lot, at that time, to wait on her, which, however, did not hinder me from conducting my own little concerns in private, for they were well worth continuing. What business had I to toil and work, whilst my admirers could administer to my wants and wishes! Ducats and fine clothes were my motto, and whoever would furnish me with these was sure to succeed. My sister, one day, happened to be off her guard with her favourite, for, besides the Prince, she had an intrigue with a Silesian Count, of the name of Matuschka. She was just sitting on the sopha, in a careless posture, when, all of a sudden, the Prince entered the room. His eyes sparkled with indignation, and in the first fit of his anger he took my sister by the hair, pulled her off the sopha, and then knocked the glasses, china, &c. girandoles, chandeliers, and every article of furniture in the room, to pieces. The Count, with the aid of my mother, fled through the window, and might thank his saints for the narrow escape, for his life was at stake, and the Prince would have ran him through without hesitation. He loaded my mother with all the reproaches his rage could suggest, called her a procuress, &c. Poor woman! she was innocent, and, of course, the treatment affected her to the very quick. But at once she took me by the hand, and, stepping up to the Prince, thus addressed him: “Please your Royal Highness, I protest to Heaven, and all his Saints, that I am quite innocent. The Count is the girl’s own choice. I am as innocent as the child unborn. Here, take my little Minna instead of her; she will keep true to you; she is susceptible of gratitude; I can pledge my word that you will find what I say to be true. Behold, and please your Royal Highness, behold this beautiful innocent; behold this lucid eye, this harmonious shape, this slender waist, and then the rosebud; her lively conversation will dissipate your cares, when collected on your brow; and then such sallies of wit, such sprightly sayings, such flashes of merriment, that time will dance away with down on his feet in her company.” The Prince smiled at this sublime piece of oratory, which my mother had got by rote, like a parrot; forgot all that had happened, and since that very moment chose me for his favourite.