They both remained with me for a week, and returned afterwards to the villa. Having passed two months more at Alcantara, during which I received the congratulatory visits of all the nobility of that city and its environs, I prepared to set out for Paris, whither two of my friends, Don Fernandos and Don Bernardo had already preceded me.
After a short and prosperous passage I reached the famous port of Marseilles, where I spent several days to view the beauties of the city and its environs. Returning one night with Alfonso who had accompanied me to town, we lost our way on a cross-road, and it being already midnight, I went to knock at a little cottage to ask accommodation for the night. A window in the first story being half open, and a light in the room, I resolved to knock at the door, to demand the hospitality of the owners, whose affability to strangers, like that of all the inhabitants of that part of France, had been described to me in a very flattering manner.
