Volume I Part 15 (2/2)

”That uilt, as he used coue in a very forcible way, and the very reverend rector must by this time be satisfied that the inmates of our dormitory are more learned than he is himself”

No hts after, I had not in my turn taken a fancy to return the visit paid by et out of bed, and hearing the loud snoring of the prefect, I quickly put out the lantern and went to lie beside ladly receivedof our keeper, and when it ceased, understanding our danger, I got up and reached ot to it I had a double surprise In the first place I felt so in my bed, and in the second I saw the prefect, with a candle in his hand, coht and left

I could understand the prefect suddenly lighting a candle, but how could I realize what I saw--na soundly in my bed, with his back turned to n sleep After two or three shakings given by the prefect, I pretended to wake up, andhiy:

”I have made a mistake,” he said, ”as I returned from a certain place in the dark, I found your bed empty, and mistook it for et up, too”

”Yes,” remarked the prefect; ”but how does it happen that you went to bed withoutany remark when, on your return, you found your bed already tenanted? And how is it that, being in the dark, you did not suppose that you were mistaken yourself?”

”I could not be mistaken, for I felt the pedestal of this crucifix of ht; as to my companion here, I did not feel hius; and he went to the lantern, the wick of which he found crushed down

”The wick has been forced into the oil, gentleone out of itself; it has been the handiwork of one of you, but it will be seen to in the ”

My stupid cohted the lamp and retired to his rest, and after this scene, which had broken the repose of every pupil, I quietly slept until the appearance of the rector, who, at the dawn of day, careat fury, escorted by his satellite, the prefect

The rector, after exaatory first uilty, and thencould convict of the offence, ordered us to get up and go to church to attend mass As soon as ere dressed, he ca us both, he said, kindly:

”You stand both convicted of a scandalous connivance, and it is proved by the fact of the lantern having been wilfully extinguished I am disposed to believe that the cause of all this disorder is, if not entirely innocent, at least due only to extreiven to all your coe offered to the discipline and to the established rules of the seminary, call loudly for punishment Leave the room”

We obeyed; but hardly e between the double doors of the dormitory than ere seized by four servants, who tied our hands behind us, and led us to the class rooreat crucifix The rector told them to execute his orders, and, as ere in that position, the wretches adht bloith a stick, or with a rope, which I received, as well as my companion, without a murmur But the moment my hands were free, I asked the rector whether I could write two lines at the very foot of the cross He gave orders to bring ink and paper, and I traced the folloords:

”I solemnly swear by this God that I have never spoken to the seminarist as found in ainst this shameful violence I shall appeal to the justice of his lordshi+p the patriarch”

My coned this protest withupon them to speak the truth if any one could say the contrary of what I had written They, with one voice, iether, and that no one kneho had put the lamp out The rector left the room in the midst of hisses and curses, but he sent us to prison all the same at the top of the house and in separate cells An hour afterwards, I had ht to me every day On the fourth day, the Abbe Tosello ca me to Venice I asked him whether he had sifted this unpleasant affair; he told me that he had enquired into it, that he had seen the other seminarist, and that he believed ere both innocent; but the rector would not confess hi, and he did not see what could be done

I threw off my seminarist's habit, and dressed myself in the clothes I used to wear in Venice, and, while e was carried to a boat, I accoondola in which he had come, and we took our departure On our way, the abbe ordered the boat that he was instructed by M

Grimani to tell me that, if I had the audacity to present myself at his mansion, his servants had received orders to turn me away

He landed me near the convent of the Jesuits, without anybut what I had ona dinner frohed heartily at the realization of her prediction After dinner I called upon M Rosa to see whether the law could protect ainst the tyranny of my enemies, and after he had been made acquainted with the circu, at Madame Orio's house, an extra-judicial act I repaired to the place of appointment to wait for hi friends at reat, and the recital of my adventures did not astonish them less than my unexpected presence M Rosa came and made me read the act which he had prepared; he had not had tirossed by the notary, but he undertook to have it ready the next day

I left Madame Orio to take supper with my brother Francois, who resided with a painter called Guardi; he was, like me, much oppressed by the tyranny of Griht I returned to the two a impatience, but, I am bound to confess it with all humility, ht of absence and of abstinence They were themselves deeply affected to see me so unhappy, and pitied me with all their hearts I endeavoured to console them, and assured them that all my misery would soon come to an end, and that ouldno o, I went to St Mark's Library, where I re with Madame Manzoni, but I was suddenly accosted by a soldier who inforondola to which he pointed I answered that the person ht as well come out, but he quietly remarked that he had a friend at hand to conduct ondola, if necessary, and without any reat dislike to noise or to anything like a public exhibition I ht have resisted, for the soldiers were unarmed, and I would not have been taken up, this sort of arrest not being legal in Venice, but I did not think of it The 'sequere deu its part; I felt no reluctance Besides, there are e, or disdains to shew it

I enter the gondola, the curtain is drawn aside, and I see enius, Razetta, with an officer The two soldiers sit down at the prow; I recognize M Gri and takes the direction of the Lido No one spoke to , the gondola stopped before the small entrance of the Fortress St Andre, at the mouth of the Adriatic, on the very spot where the Bucentaur stands, when, on Ascension Day, the doge comes to espouse the sea

The sentinel calls the corporal; we alight, the officer who accompanied me introduces me to theits contents, gives orders to M Zen, his adjutant, to consign uard-house In another quarter of an hour sthat I would receive the same amount every week It was exactly the pay of a private

I did not give way to any burst of passion, but I felt theI expressed a wish to have so st the soldiers without closing arlic, s a wine of their own country, as black as ink, which nobody else could s