Volume I Part 3 (1/2)

The following April my iven her as soon as she had heard that my father had proe This is a proirls they marry, and which they never fulfil, si from them the perfor for e, for nine years later, having been left a ith six children, she could not have brought them up if it had not been for the resources she found in that profession

I was only one year old when ereat city that e, and in that city likewise that she gave birth to my brother Francois, a celebrated painter of battles, now residing in Vienna, where he has followed his profession since 1783

Towards the end of the year 1728 my mother returned to Venice with her husband, and as she had become an actress she continued her artistic life In 1730 she was delivered of my brother Jean, who beca at Dresden, and died there in 1795; and during the three following years she becahters, one of whoe, while the other married in Dresden, where she still lived in 1798 I had also a posthumous brother, who becao

Let us now co being

The organ of ust, 1733 I had at that tiht years and four months Of what may have happened to me before that period I have not the faintest recollection This is the circu towards the wall, supportingfrorandmother, Marzia, whose pet I was, came to me, bathed my face with cold water, and, unknown to everyone in the house, took ondola as far as Muran, a thickly-populated island only half a league distant froondola, we enter a wretched hole, where we find an old wo a black cat in her ar around her The two old cronies held together a long discourse of which, ue, which was carried on in the patois of Forli, the witch having received a silver ducat frorandmother, opened a box, took me in her ar htened--a piece of advice which would certainly have had the contrary effect, if I had had any wits about me, but I was stupefied I kepta handkerchief to , and otherwise very indifferent to the uproar going on outside I could hear in turn, laughter, weeping, singing, screaainst the box, but for all that I cared nought At last I a The wonderful old witch, after lavishi+ng caresses upon s, gathers the smoke in a sheet which she wraps around ives reeable taste Then she immediately rubsa delightful perfuain She told e would little by little leave me, provided I should never disclose to any one what she had done to cure me, and she threatened me, on the other hand, with the loss of all my blood and with death, should I ever breathe a word concerning those ht me my lesson, she infor the following night, and that she would make me happy, on condition that I should have sufficient control overreceived such a visit Upon this we left and returned home

I fell asleep alht to the beautiful visitor I was to receive; but, waking up a few hours afterwards, I saw, or fancied I saw, co wo on her head a crown set with precious stones, which see with fire

With slow steps, but with a majestic and sweet countenance, she ca several small boxes from her pocket, she e a feords, and after giving utterance to a long speech, not a single word of which I understood, she kissed ain to sleep

The next randmother came to dress me, and the moment she was nearht's adventures This command, laid upon me by the only woman who had complete authority over me, and whose orders I was accustomed to obey blindly, caused me to remember the vision, and to store it, with the seal of secrecy, in the inhtest inclination to mention the circumstances to anyone; in the first place, because I did not suppose it would interest anybody, and in the second because I would not have knohom to make a confidant of My disease had rendered me dull and retired; everybody pitied me and left me to myself; my life was considered likely to be but a short one, and as to my parents, they never spoke to me

After the journey to Muran, and the nocturnal visit of the fairy, I continued to have bleeding at the nose, but less from day to day, and my memory slowly developed itself I learned to read in less than a month

It would be ridiculous, of course, to attribute this cure to such follies, but at the sa to assert that they did not in any way contribute to it As far as the apparition of the beautiful queen is concerned, I have always deemed it to be a dreaot up for the occasion, but it is not always in the druggist's shop that are found the best renorance is every day proved by some wonderful phenomenon, and I believe this to be the reason why it is so difficult to meet with a learned man entirely untainted with superstition We know, as a matter of course, that there never have been any sorcerers in this world, yet it is true that their power has always existed in the estimation of those to whom crafty knaves have passed themselves off as such 'Somnio nocturnos les becoination, and, as a natural consequence, many facts which have been attributed to Faith h they are true miracles for those who lend to Faith a boundless power

The next circumstance of any importance to myself which I recollect happened three months after ive it to my readers only to convey so

One day, about the middle of Noveer than I, inat optics A large lump of crystal, round and cut into facets, attracted ht it near hted to see that it ot hold ofmyself unobserved I took my opportunity and hid it in my pocket

A few minutes after this my father looked about for his crystal, and unable to find it, he concluded that one of us must have taken it My brother asserted that he had not touched it, and I, although guilty, said the same; but my father, satisfied that he could not be mistaken, threatened to search us and to thrash the one who had told him a story

I pretended to look for the crystal in every corner of the roo my opportunity I slyly slipped it in the pocket of my brother's jacket At first I was sorry for what I had done, for I ned to find the crystal somewhere about the roo that ere looking in vain, lost patience, searched us, found the unlucky ball of crystal in the pocket of the innocent boy, and inflicted upon hi Three or four years later I was foolish enough to boast before my brother of the trick I had then played on hiave e whenever the opportunity offered

However, having at a later period gone to confession, and accused myself to the priest of the sin with every circue which afforded reat satisfaction My confessor, as a Jesuit, toldof my first name, Jacques, which, he said, ed for that reason the name of the ancient patriarch into that of Israel, which ” He had deceived his brother Esau

Six weeks after the above adventure my father was attacked with an abscess in the head which carried hiave hi hiscastoreum, which sent his patient into convulsions and killed hih the ear onehier any business with him My father departed this life in the very prie, but he was followed to his grave by the regrets of the public, and st whom he was held as above his profession, not less on account of his gentlee inthat his end was at hand, my father expressed a wish to see us all around his bed, in the presence of his wife and of the Messieurs Grimani, three Venetian noblemen whose protection he wished to entreat in our favour After giving us his blessing, he requested our ive her sacred proe, on which he never would have appeared himself had he not been led to it by an unfortunate attachave her promise, and the three noble faithfully kept

Circumstances helped our mother to fulfill her word

At that tinant for six e until after Easter Beautiful and young as she was, she declined all the offers ofher trust in Providence, she courageously devoted herself to the task of bringing up her young family

She considered it a duty to think ofof preference as in consequence of my disease, which had such an effect upon me that it was difficult to knohat to do with me I was very weak, without any appetite, unable to apply , and I had all the appearance of an idiot Physicians disagreed as to the cause of the disease He loses, they would say, two pounds of blood every week; yet there cannot be hteen pounds in his body What, then, can cause so abundant a bleeding? One asserted that in me all the chyle turned into blood; another was of opinion that the air I was breathing must, at each inhalation, increase the quantity of blood in s, and contended that this was the reason for which I always kept my mouth open I heard of it all six years afterward froreat friend of my late father

This M Baffo consulted the celebrated Doctor Macop, of Padua, who sent hi This consultation, which I have still in my possession, says that our blood is an elastic fluid which is liable to diminish or to increase in thickness, but never in quantity, and that e could only proceed from the thickness of the mass of my blood, which relieved itself in a natural way in order to facilitate circulation The doctor added that I would have died long before, had not nature, in its wish for life, assisted itself, and he concluded by stating that the cause of the thickness ofand that consequently I e of air, or every hope of cure be abandoned He thought likewise, that the stupidity so apparent onelse but the thickness of enius, a inal poet, was therefore instru about the decision which was then taken to send me to Padua, and to him I am indebted for my life He died twenty years after, the last of his ancient patrician fa fame to his name The state-inquisitors of Venice have contributed to his celebrity by their mistaken strictness Their persecutions caused his ht to have been aware that despised things are forgotten

As soon as the verdict given by Professor Macop had been approved of, the Abbe Gri-house in Padua for h a chemist of his acquaintance who resided in that city His name was Ottaviani, and he was also an antiquarian of so-house was found, and on the 2nd day of April, 1734, on the very day I had accomplishedthe Brenta Canal We e, immediately after supper