"'Very good, my friends,' I said, 'to-morrow I will go and pay my respects to Monsieur the ambassador, but do not be angry if I take certain steps before I see him. The only thing I ask of you is to keep my arrival here absolutely secret.'
"Promptly I had a costume taken from my trunk, and hastily adjusting it, went directly to the house of Joseph Clavico, guard of the archives of the king. He was not at home. I was told where he might be found; I hastened thither and without making myself known I requested an interview at his earliest possible convenience, as I was charged with certain commissions for him from France. He invited me to take my chocolate with him at nine o'clock the next morning; I accepted for myself and my traveling companion.
"The next morning, the 19th of May, I arrived at half-past eight. I found him superbly lodged in the house of a man prominent at court, who is so much his friend, that absent from Madrid he allowed him the use of his home as though it were his own.
"'I am charged,' I said to him, 'by a society of men of letters, to establish in the cities where I pass a literary correspondence with the most learned men of the country. As no other Spaniard writes better than the author of _el Pensador_, to whom I have the honor of speaking, it seems to me that I cannot better serve my friends, than in connecting myself with a man of your merits.'
"I saw that he was enchanted with my proposition, so better to judge the man with whom I had to deal, I allowed him to discourse lengthily upon the advantages which different nations might obtain from similar correspondence. He talked like an angel and simply glowed with pleasure.
"In the midst of his joy, he asked me what was the business which drew me to Spain, saying he would be happy if he might be of any service to me.
"'I accept with gratitude your flattering offer,' I replied, 'and I assure you that for you I have no secrets.' Then desiring to mystify him completely so that the end of my discourse alone would explain its import, I presented my friend a second time, saying, 'Monsieur here is not an entire stranger to what I have to say to you, and will not be the least in our way.' This exordium caused him to regard my friend with much curiosity. Then I began: