Volume I Part 7 (1/2)
The next day Doctor Olivo found her very feverish, and told her brother that she would most likely be excited and delirious, but that it would be the effect of the fever and not the work of the devil And truly, Bettina was raving all day, but Dr Gozzi, placing implicit confidence in the physician, would not listen to his mother, and did not send for the Jacobin friar The fever increased in violence, and on the fourth day the small-pox broke out Cordiani and the two brothers Feitrini, who had so far escaped that disease, were immediately sent away, but as I had had it before I reirl was so fearfully covered with the loathsome eruption, that on the sixth day her skin could not be seen on any part of her body Her eyes closed, and her life was despaired of, when it was found that her ree that she could s nothing but a few drops of honey She was perfectly motionless; she breathed and that was all Her ht a saint when I carried my table and irl had becoht to look upon; her head was dreadfully swollen, the nose could no longer be seen, and much fear was entertained for her eyes, in case her life should be spared
The odour of her perspiration wasave her absolution, and after ad extreme unction, he left her, as he said, in the hands of God In the midst of so much sadness, the conversation of the mother with her son, would, in spite of ood wo in her child could still influence her to perforant follies, and ould becohter's death, for, as she expressed it, she could not think of his being so stupid as to remain in so loathsome a body She particularly wanted to ascertain whether the demon had power to carry off the soul of her child Doctor Gozzi, as an ubiquitarian, made to all those questions anshich had not even the shadow of good sense, and which of course had no other effect than to increase a hundred-fold the perplexity of his poorthe tenth and eleventh days, Bettina was so bad that we thought every moment likely to be her last The disease had reached its worst period; the smell was unbearable; I alone would not leave her, so sorely did I pity her The heart of man is indeed an unfathomable abyss, for, however incredible it may appear, it hile in that fearful state that Bettina inspired me with the fondness which I showed her after her recovery
On the thirteenth day the fever abated, but the patient began to experience great irritation, owing to a dreadful itching, which no remedy could have allayed as effectually as these powerful words which I kept constantly pouring into her ear: ”Bettina, you are getting better; but if you dare to scratch yourself, you will becoht that nobody will ever love you” All the physicians in the universe ainst itching for a girl who, aware that she has been pretty, finds herself exposed to the loss of her beauty through her own fault, if she scratches herself
At last her fine eyes opened again to the light of heaven; she was moved to her own room, but she had to keep her bed until Easter She inoculated me with a few pocks, three of which have left upon ave reat devotedness, for they were a proof of my constant care, and she felt that I indeed deserved her whole love And she truly loved h I never plucked a flohich fate and prejudice kept in store for a husband But what a contemptible husband!
Two years later she ozzo--a base, arrant knave who beggared and ill-treated her to such an extent that her brother had to take her ho been appointed arch-priest at Saint-George de la Vallee, he took her there with hio, I found Bettina old, ill, and dying She breathed her last in my arms in 1776, twenty-four hours after ood time
About that period, , where the Empress Anne Ia had not approved of the Italian comedy The whole of the troop had already returned to Italy, and my mother had travelled with Carlin Bertinazzi, the harlequin, who died in Paris in the year 1783 As soon as she had reached Padua, she informed Doctor Gozzi of her arrival, and he lost no ti me to the inn where she had put up We dined with her, and before bidding us adieu, she presented the doctor with a splendid fur, and gave me the skin of a lynx for Bettina Six months afterwards she su for Dresden, where she had contracted an engageustus III, King of Poland She took with herbitterly when he left; I thought hiic in that departure He is the only one in the family holly indebted to our h he was not her favourite child
I spent another year in Padua, studying lahich I took the degree of Doctor inin the civil law, 'de testamentis', and in the canon law, 'utruas'
My vocation was to study reat inclination for that profession, but no heed was given to my wishes, and I was compelled to apply myself to the study of the law, for which I had an invincible repugnance My friends were of opinion that I could not make my fortune in any profession but that of an advocate, and, what is still worse, of an ecclesiastical advocate If they had given the iven me leave to follow my own inclinations, and I would have been a physician--a profession in which quackery is of still greater avail than in the legal business I never became either a physician or an advocate, and I never would apply to a lawyer, when I had any legal business, nor call in a physician when I happened to be ill Lawsuits and pettifoggery reater proportion is ruined by them, and those who perish in the hands, of physicians areevidence in my opinion, that mankind would be much less miserable without either lawyers or doctors
To attend the lectures of the professors, I had to go to the university called the Bo, and it becareat wonder to me, for until then I had never considered myself a free ht I had just conquered, it was not long before I had st the most renowned students As a matter of course, the amblers, frequenters of disorderly houses, hard drinkers, debauchees, torirls, liars, and wholly incapable of any good or virtuous feeling In the coinmy lesson from the book of experience
The theory of h the life ofover the index of a book before reading it e have perused that index we know nothing but the subject of the work This is like the school for morals offered by the sermons, the precepts, and the tales which our instructors recite for our especial benefit We lend our whole attention to those lessons, but when an opportunity offers of profiting by the advice thus bestowed upon us, we feel inclined to ascertain for ourselves whether the result will turn out as predicted; we give way to that very natural inclination, and punishment speedily folloith concomitant repentance Our only consolation lies in the fact that in such e, and consider ourselves as having earned the right to instruct others; but those to ish to impart our experience act exactly as we have acted before them, and, as a roorse and worse
When Doctor Gozzi granted ave me an opportunity for the discovery of several truths which, until then, were not only unknown to me, but the very existence of which I had never suspected On ot hold of h freshman, they undertook my education, and with that worthy purpose in view they allowed , won the little I possessed, and then they made me play upon trust, and put me up to dishonest practices in order to procure thedebts; but I acquired at the same time the sad experience of sorrow! Yet these hard lessons proved useful, for they taught me to mistrust the impudent sycophants who openly flatter their dupes, and never to rely upon the offers ht me likewise how to behave in the coht to be avoided, unless we er I was not caught in the snares of professional leomen, because not one of them was in my eyes as pretty as Bettina, but I did not resist so well the desire for that species of vain glory which is the reward of holding life at a cheap price
In those days the students in Padua enjoyed very great privileges, which were in reality abuses h prescription, the pries, which differ essentially froality of their privileges, the students often couilty were dealt with tenderly, because the interest of the city dereat influx of scholars who flocked to that renowned university froovernh salary the rant the ut their lessons The students acknowledged no authority but that of a chief, chosen an noblee establishovernive theressed the laws, and the students never disputed his sentence, because he always defended theht on their side
The students, aes, would not suffer their trunks to be searched by customhouse authorities, and no ordinary policeman would have dared to arrest one of them They carried about theirls, and often disturbed the public peace by their nocturnal broils and impudent practical jokes; in one word, they were a body of young fellohoratify every whiard or consideration for any hu
It was about that time that a policeman entered a coffee-room, in which were seated two students One of the no notice of it, the student fired a pistol at him, and missed his airessor, and ran away The students iether at the Bo, divided into bands, and went over the city, hunting the policee the insult they had received In one of the encounters two of the students were killed, and all the others, asse in one troop, swore never to lay their ar as there should be one policeman alive in Padua The authorities had to interfere, and the syndic of the students undertook to put a stop to hostilities provided proper satisfaction was given, as the police were in the wrong The ed, and peace was restored; but during the eight days of agitation, as I was anxious not to appear less brave thanthe city, I followed them in spite of Doctor Gozzi's remonstrances Armed with a carbine and a pair of pistols, I ran about the toith the others, in quest of the enemy, and I recollect how disappointed I was because the troop to which I belonged did not hed at ed in expenses far above ness to see I possessed, and I contracted debts which I could not possibly pay This state of things caused nant sorrows under which a youngwhich way to turn, I wrote toher assistance, but instead of sending me some money, she ca the doctor and Bettina for all their affectionate care, she bought me back to Venice As he took leave of ave me what he prized ht have kept to this very day, had not the setting been of gold It perfor of service to reat need Whenever I visited Padua, to complete my study of the law, I stayed at the house of the kind doctor, but I was always grieved at seeing near Bettina the brute to who of such a wife I have always regretted that a prejudice, of which I soon got rid, should have made me preserve for that man a flohich I could have plucked so easily
CHAPTER IV
I receive the et acquainted with Senator Malipiero, with Therese Imer, with the niece of the Curate, with Madame Orio, with Nanette and Marton, and with the Cavamacchia--I become a preacher-- My adventure with Lucie at Pasean A rendezvous on the third story
”He comes from Padua, where he has completed his studies” Such were the words by which I was everywhere introduced, and which, the moment they were uttered, called upon e and condition, the compliments of all fathers, and the caresses of old woh not old, were not sorry to be considered so for the sake of e man without impropriety The curate of Saint-Sanor Correre, Patriarch of Venice, who gave me the tonsure, and who, four months afterwards, by special favour, admitted me to the four minor orders No words could express the joy and the pride of iven to me to continue my studies, and M Baffo chose the Abbe Schiavo to teach me a pure Italian style, especially poetry, for which I had a decided talent
I was very co theatrical architecture My sister and randam in a house of her own, in which it was her wish to die, because her husband had there breathed his last The house in which I das the same in which my father had died, and the rent of which e and well furnished
Although Abbe Grimani was my chief protector, I seldom saw him, and I particularly attached myself to M de Malipiero, to whom I had been presented by the Curate Josello M de Malipiero was a senator, as unwilling at seventy years of age to attend any more to State affairs, and enjoyed a happy, su by a well-chosen party of ladies who had all kno to entlemen ere always acquainted with the news of the town He was a bachelor and wealthy, but, unfortunately, he had three or four tiout, which always left him crippled in some part or other of his body, so that all his person was disabled His head, his lungs, and his stomach had alone escaped this cruel havoc He was still a fine e of wine; his as keen, his knowledge of the world extensive, his eloquence worthy of a son of Venice, and he had that wisdo to a senator who for forty years has had the ement of public affairs, and to apossessed twenty mistresses, and only when he felt hier be accepted by any woh almost entirely crippled, he did not appear to be so when he was seated, when he talked, or when he was at table He had only onetoothless and unable to eat otherwise than very slowly, he did not wish to hurry hiuests, and would have been sorry to see the deprived hi at his board friendly and agreeable guests, and caused great sorrow to his excellent cook
The first ti introduced to him by the curate, I opposed earnestly the reason which made him eat his meals in solitude, and I said that his excellency had only to invite guests whose appetite was good enough to enable them to eat a double share