“Believe me,” said he, “my dear Raymond, you will hereafter feel the benefits of this temporary degradation. ’Tis true, that as the Condé de las Cisternas you would have been received with open arms; and your youthful vanity might have felt gratified by the attentions showered upon you from all sides. At present, much will depend upon yourself: you have excellent recommendations, but it must be your own business to make them of use to you. You must lay yourself out to please; you must labour to gain the approbation of those, to whom you are presented: they who would have courted the friendship of the Condé de las Cisternas will have no interest in finding out the merits, or bearing patiently with the faults, of Alphonso d’Alvarada.

Consequently, when you find yourself really liked, you may safely ascribe it to your good qualities, not your rank, and the distinction shown you will be infinitely more flattering. Besides, your exalted birth would not permit your mixing with the lower classes of society, which will now be in your power, and from which, in my opinion, you will derive considerable benefit. Do not confine yourself to the illustrious of those countries through which you pass. Examine the manners and customs of the multitude: enter into the cottages; and by observing how the vassals of foreigners are treated, learn to diminish the burdens and augment the comforts of your own. According to my ideas, of those advantages which a youth destined to the possession of power and wealth may reap from travel, he should not consider as the least essential, the opportunity of mixing with the classes below him, and becoming an eyewitness of the sufferings of the people.”