Volume I Part 18 (2/2)

I asked hi

”You can come to e bed with the cook, whose wife remains on board”

Unable to devise any better plan, I accepted the offer, and a sailor, carryingof the honest captain

My trunk had to be placed under the bed which filled up the room I was amused at this, for I was not in a position to be over-fastidious, and, after partaking of some dinner at the inn, I went about the town Chiozza is a peninsula, a sea-port belonging to Venice, with a population of ten thousand inhabitants, seaovernment clerks

I entered a coffee-roo doctor-at-lahom I had studied in Padua, caist whose shop was near by, saying that his house was the rendezvous of all the literary men of the place A few minutes afterwards, a tall Jacobin friar, blind of one eye, called Corsini, whom I had known in Venice, came in and paid me many coo to a picnic got up by the Macaronic acade of the acade of his coratify thewith the delivery of one of my productions I accepted the invitation, and, after the reading of ten stanzas which I had written for the occasion, I was unanireater, for I disposed of such a quantity of macaroni that I was found worthy of the title of prince of the acade doctor, himself one of the academicians, introduced me to his family His parents, ere in easy circumstances, received me very kindly One of his sisters was very amiable, but the other, a professed nun, appeared to ht have enjoyedfa my stay in Chiozza, but I suppose that it wasbut sorrows The young doctor forewarned me that the monk Corsini was a very worthless fellow, despised by everybody, and advised me to avoid hihtlessness prevented iddy to fear any snares, I was foolish enough to believe that the monk would, on the contrary, be the very man to throw plenty of amuse took one without his introduction, and, in order to shew ht to have been a sufficient antidote against any fleshly desire On leaving the place, he brought me for supper to an inn where we met four scoundrels of his own staan a bank of faro, and I was invited to join in the ga of false pride which so often causes the ruin of youngfour sequins I expressed a wish to retire, but my honest friend, the Jacobin contrived to make me risk four more sequins in partnershi+p with him He held the bank, and it was broken I did not wish to play any reat sorrow at being the cause of my loss, induced me to try myself a bank of twenty-five sequins;backI had

Deeply grieved, I went away and laid myself down near the cook, oke up and said I was a libertine

”You are right,” was all I could answer

I orn out with fatigue and sorrow, and I slept soundly My vile tormentor, the monk, woke me at noon, and infor man had been invited by his friends to supper, that he would be sure to play and to lose, and that it would be a good opportunity for me to retrieve my losses

”I have lost all my money Lend me twenty sequins”

”When I lend money I am sure to lose; you may call it superstition, but I have tried it too often Try to find money somewhere else, and come

Farewell”

I felt asha for, a money-lender I emptied my trunk before hiavethat if I did not redees would become his property I am bound to call him an honest man, for he advised s, and a few handkerchiefs; I was disposed to let hi a presentiment that I would win back all I had lost; a very coe by writing a diatribe against presenti in which man can have any sort of faith is the one which forbodes evil, because it comes froin in the heart, and the heart is a fool worthy of reckoning foolishly upon fickle fortune

I did not lose any ti the honest co , but hly praised, and it was decided that a brilliant fortune awaitedway to e I was told that if I would take the bank everyone would punt I took the bank, lost every sequin I had, and retired, begging the monk to pay what I owed to the landlord, which he promised to do

I was in despair, and to crownho specimen of the Greek woman, less beautiful but as perfidious I went to bed stunned by rief, and I believe that I must have fainted into a heavy sleep, which lasted eleven hours; ht of heaven, of which he felt hi to sleep for a little while longer I dreaded to rousethat I would then have to take so to Venice, which would have been the very best thing to do, and I would have destroyeddoctor I eary ofwhere I ithout leaving ot up if M Alban, theuponme that the boat was ready to sail

The reat perplexity, no matter by what means, feels himself relieved It seemed toI could possibly do; I dressedall my worldly possessions in a handkerchief I went on board

Soon afterwards we left the shore, and in thewe cast anchor in Orsara, a seaport of Istria We all landed to visit the city, which would s to the Pope, the Republic of Venice having abandoned it to the Holy See

A young monk of the order of the Recollects who called himself Friar Stephano of Belun, and had obtained a free passage from the devout Captain Alban, joined me as we landed and enquired whether I felt sick

”Reverend father, I aet all your sorrow, if you will come and dine with me at the house of one of our devout friends”

I had not brokensuffered ht, my stomach was quite empty My erotic inconvenience made me very uncoradation, and I did not possess a groat! I was in such a th to accept or to refuse anything I was thoroughly torpid, and I followed thethat he was acco me to Rousted me, and under any other circumstances I would not have let it pass without protest, but in ood lady gave us a good dinner of fish cooked in oil, which in Orsara is delicious, and we drank so our meal, a priest happened to drop in, and, after a short conversation, he told ht on board the tartan, and pressed ood dinner for the next day in case the wind should not allow us to sail; I accepted without hesitation I offered ood old lady, and the priest took ht me to his house where we partook of an excellent supper prepared by his housekeeper, who sat down to the table with us, and hom I was much pleased The refosco, still better than that which I had drunk at dinner, scattered all aily with the priest He offered to read tothat ed he would excuseday

I went to bed, and in the , after ten hours of theforwoman, but, alas! I was not in a fit state to prove to her the high estimation in which I held her beauty