I had no sooner expressed my desire of entering into his service, than he testified the utmost willingness to receive me. He had often condescended to honor with a smile the jests and stories he had heard from me at the palace of the cardinal. He considered me as a dexterous young fellow, and very well adapted for his buffoon and pimp. This last honorable employment was what he chiefly designed for me, as you will soon perceive. But first I must depict the character of this minister.
He was chosen to conduct an embassy to Rome, at a very critical period; this situation required a penetrating genius, and a man of great address. His excellency perfectly justified the confidence which the king reposed in him. But he had a foible, a little too common amongst men of rank,--that of being too much addicted to women. But for this circumstance, he would have been more esteemed than any other Ambassador at that court. Having, then, judged me worthy to have the management of his intrigues, he began to inform me of his virtuous intentions. Then, that I might give him a specimen of my abilities, he employed me in some trifling messages of gallantry, in which I had the good fortune to acquit myself to his entire satisfaction. This coup d’essai was followed by two or three commissions of the same nature, though of somewhat more difficulty, which were conducted with equal success. Nothing more was necessary to establish me perfectly in his good graces, and he conceived such a friendship for me that I soon became his favorite page. From this moment Signor Guzman was all in all in his master’s house. I did as I pleased, and every thing that I did was well done. The other domestics did not see my growing greatness without envy, especially those of longest standing; some called me my master’s buffoon, and some his pimp in ordinary. Nevertheless I did not presume upon the favor of the Ambassador, and was so far from doing these spiteful gentry any ill offices with his excellency, that I gladly seized every opportunity of serving them, in consequence of which they forbore to shew me any particular mark of their ill will, and we lived together on pretty tolerable terms.
While I was with the Ambassador, I did not disgrace the reputation I had acquired on account of my frolics at the palace of the Cardinal, and I was not very sparing of my tricks, as there could not be any place in the world that could open a wider field for them than the house of my new master. Parasites often came in at dinner time. My fellow pages and I were not at a loss to distinguish them from respectable people whom my master was really happy to see at his table. We took care to be very attentive to the latter, but as for the spungers who were most of them mere adventurers, they had but scurvy commons, which diverted the Ambassador exceedingly. One was suffered to ask in vain for drink during the whole meal; it was of no use to make signs, we pretended not to understand them. Another had his glass handed to him half full, and the glass shaped in such a fashion, that half the liquor would remain in the glass; which only tantalized his thirst. Another was served with water prepared of a red colour.--If a dainty morsel was carved for any one of these gentry, we changed his plate so quickly that the poor devil had scarcely time to taste it. In a word, we did every thing in our power to drive them all from his Excellency’s table, and were sometimes lucky enough to succeed.