Thus had I brought a pretty load upon my shoulders with these letters, and the recommendation of the Ambassador. Had I attempted by a letter to beg of him to make my fortune, in owning me for his nephew, God knows how his Eminence would have caused me to be treated by the Grand Duke at Florence, and in what fine style he would have recommended me. Therefore I was by no means whatever inclined to adopt such a plan; I rather preferred, and indeed it was the only resource left to me, to make the last effort, by prevailing upon my mistress to marry me instantly. I flew to her house as soon as her old relations had left me; accosted her with a sad countenance, and related what had passed between us, and how I saw myself doomed to die with impatience. “This delay,” said my widow, “will not be so dreadful as you may think.” “Excuse me, Madam,” said I, with the greatest emotion, “I may easily obtain from the Ambassador to write in my favour to the Grand Duke, and to your relations; I may venture to say that he will give this proof of his regard for his nephew. But allow me to tell you, his temper is the cause of my fear. He has too much prudence and delicacy not to get information first about your family, and even about yourself, dear Madam, if I may venture the word, for fear it might be only the amour of a young man. Such an inquiry will require time that will appear an eternity to me, and almost maddens me to think of.” I then expressed my sentiments on the subject, in a manner which I cannot now detail; for when a lover speaks from the dictates of his heart, he expresses himself at the time much more pathetically than he can afterwards describe to another. All I now remember is, that my lovely widow was moved at my representation of the sufferings I should endure by so long a delay; and being perhaps no less impatient than I was to bend to the yoke of matrimony, she replied, to comfort me, that she did not depend entirely on her relations; that what she had done was for decency’s sake, and out of respect to them. “I only desire three days respite,” she continued, “to get the consent of such of my relations as are the best disposed to it, and if unluckily they all oppose my design, we may be married privately, and leave them and Monsieur Ambassador to settle their business together afterwards by themselves.” It was not possible for me to hear words more kind, and my whole frame was in a rapture. In a word I shewed myself so sensible of her goodness to me, that I threw her into great disorder, and the lady would have willingly spared me the three days to hasten my felicity.