The servant sent in my name, and the fop gave himself airs, and pretended that he could not receive me. In my indignation I wrote to him saying that I had not called to pay my court to the secretary, but to demand a passport which was my right. I gave my name and my degree (doctor of law), and begged him to leave the passport with the porter, as I should call for it on the following day. I presented myself accordingly, and the porter told me that the ambassador had left verbal orders that I was not to have a passport. I wrote immediately to the Marquis Grimaldi and to the Duke of Lossada, begging them to request the ambassador to send me a passport in the usual form, or else I should publish the shameful reasons for which his uncle Mocenigo had disgraced me. I do not know whether these gentlemen shewed my letters to Querini, but I do know that the secretary Oliviera sent me my passport. Thereupon the Count Aranda furnished me with a passport signed by the king. On the last day of the year I left Barcelona with a servant who sat behind my chaise, and I agreed with my driver to take me to Perpignan by January 3rd, 1769. The driver was a Piedmontese and a worthy man: The next day he came into the room of the wayside inn where I was dining, and in the presence of my man asked me whether I had any suspicion that I was being followed. "Well, I may be," I said, "but what makes you ask that question?" "As you were leaving Barcelona yesterday, I noticed three ill-looking fellows watching us, armed to the teeth. Last night they slept in the stable with my mules. They dined here to-day, and they went on three quarters of an hour ago. They don't speak to anyone, and I don't like the looks of them." "What shall we do to avoid assassination, or the dread of it?" "We must start late, and stop at an inn I know of, a league this side of the ordinary stage where they will be awaiting us. If they turn back, and sleep at the same inn as ourselves, we shall be certain." I thought the idea a sensible one, and we started, I going on foot nearly the whole way; and at five o'clock we halted at a wretched inn, but we saw no signs of the sinister trio. At eight o'clock I was at supper, when my man came in and told me that the three fellows had come back, and were drinking with our driver in the stable. My hair stood on end. There could be no more doubt about the matter. At present, it was true, I had nothing to fear; but it would be getting dark when we arrived at the frontier, and then my peril would come. I told my servant to shew no sign, but to ask the driver to come and speak with me when the assassins were asleep. He came at ten o'clock, and told me plainly that we should be all murdered as we approached the French frontier. "Then you have been drinking with them?"