I appeared, as I generally did, in a black doming.
We arrived in the ball-room, and found it uncommonly crowded. We had not gone many yards, when our friend harlequin got himself hemmed in by some masks. We had put a red silken patch on his hat, unknown to him, that we might be the better able to recognize him. He was so little and weak, as to find it impossible, for some time, to get out of the crowd. The count and the dutchess, agreeable to their scheme, walked up and down the room for a few minutes, and then retired to a distant chamber of the ball-house, to change their dress. A carriage was waiting at the door, to convey them to a snug private house out of the neighborhood.
The count had given orders to his valet, who was much like himself in size, to appear with a girl, that bore some outward resemblance to the dutchess, in the same shepherd's dress, which he and his lady wore, and not to lose sight of the harlequin, whom he taught them to recognize by the patch of
