Volume I Part 36 (1/2)
As supper-tinificently-furnished apartments The table was loaded with silver plate, and his servants were in livery He was alone, but all his guests arrived soon after me--Cecilia, Marina, and Bellino, who, either by caprice or fro sisters, prettily arranged, looked char, but Bellino, in his female costume, so completely threw them into the shade, that my last doubt vanished
”Are you satisfied,” I said to Don Sancio, ”that Bellino is a woman?”
”Woman or man, what do I care! I think he is a very pretty 'castrato', and 'I have seenas he is”
”But are you sure he is a 'castrato'?”
”'Valgahtest wish to ascertain the truth”
Oh, hoidely different our thoughts were! I admired in him the wisdom of which I was so much in need, and did not venture upon any reedy eyes could not leave that char; my vicious nature causedhi
Don Sancio's supper was excellent, and, as a matter of course, superior to mine; otherwise the pride of the Castilian would have felt hueneral rule, ood; they want the best, or, to speak ave us white truffles, several sorts of shell-fish, the best fish of the Adriatic, dry chane, peralta, sherry and pedroximenes wines
After that supper worthy of Lucullus, Bellino sang with a voice of such beauty that it deprived us of the small amount of reason left in us by the excellent wine His ait, his walk, his countenance, his voice, and, above all, my own instinct, which told me that I could not possibly feel for a castrato what I felt for Bellino, confirmed me in my hopes; yet it was necessary that my eyes should ascertain the truth
After rand Spaniard, and went to my room, where the mystery was at last to be unravelled I called upon Bellino to keep his word, or I threatened to leave hi at day-break
I took him by the hand, and we seated ourselves near the fire I dismissed Cecilia and Marina, and I said to hi must have an end; you have promised: it will soon be over If you are what you represent yourself to be, I will let you go back to your own room; if you are what I believe you to be, and if you consent to reive you one hundred sequins, and ill start together toive me if I cannot fulfil my promise I am what I told you, and I can neither reconcilemy shame before you, nor lay ht follow the solution of your doubts”
”There can be no consequences, since there will be an end to it at the h to be what you say, and without ever ain, I promise to take you with me to-morrow and to leave you at Rimini”
”No, my mind is made up; I cannot satisfy your curiosity”
Driven toviolence, but subduing entle ht to the spot where the mystery could be solved I was very near it, when his hand opposed a very strong resistance I repeatedsuddenly, repulsed me, and I foundI should take him by surprise, I extended my hand, but I drew back terrified, for I fancied that I had recognized in hiraded radation than for the want of feeling I thought I could read on his countenance Disgusted, confused, and al for myself, I sent him away
His sisters ca word to their brother that he o with me, without any fear of further indiscretion on ht I had acquired, Bellino, even such as I believe hihts; I could notI left Ancona with hi sisters and loaded with the blessings of the mother ith beads in hand, mumbled her 'paternoster', and repeated her constant theme: 'Dio provedera'
The trust placed in Providence byby soion is neither absurd, nor false, nor deceitful; it is real and even Godly, for it flows from an excellent source Whatever s e it in its action, and those who call upon Providence independently of all external consideration ressing its laws
'Pulchra Laverna, Da mihi fallere; da justo sanctoque videri; Noctem peccatis, et fraudibus objice nubem'
Such was the way in which, in the days of Horace, robbers addressed their Goddess, and I recollect a Jesuit who told e, if he had said justo sanctoque: but there were ignorant st the Jesuits, and robbers ra I started with Bellino, who, believing me to be undeceived, could suppose that I would not shew any more curiosity about hiether when he found out his mistake, for I could not letin nited I told him that all his features were those of a woman, and that I wanted the testimony of my eyes before I could feel perfectly satisfied, because the protuberance I had felt in a certain place ht be only a freak of nature ”Should it be the case,” I added, ”I should have no difficulty in passing over a deforhable Bellino, the inetism, your bosom worthy of Venus herself, which you have once abandoned to er hand, the sound of your voice, everyto my sex Let ht, depend upon my faithful love; if, on the contrary, I find that I have been mistaken, you can rely upon my friendshi+p If you refuse me, I shall be co my misery, and that you have learned in thehimself of an aree with me that, to put such tyranny in practice, it is necessary to hate the person it is practised upon, and, if that be so, I ought to call upon th necessary to hate you likewise”