Volume I Part 38 (1/2)
But, pray where is thefroht I passed in the guardhouse of St
Mary resulted for ain The s certain of seeing her within ten days, the ain, it was in experience the true school for a htlessness, a systeht Youman who has once lost his purse or his passport, will not lose either a second time Each of those ht have been very often the victiht htless fellow is a man who has not yet found the word dread in the dictionary of his life
The officer who relievedday see countenance pleased me much He was a Frenchman, and I must say that I have always liked the French, and never the Spaniards; there is in the , that you feel attracted towards thehtiness gives to the second a dark, forbidding countenance which certainly does not prepossess in their favour Yet I have often been duped by Frenchht tome very politely, said to me,--
”To what chance, reverend sir, a you inwhich restored to ave him all the particulars ofBut a reeable to me, for it proved that the turn of his ave me at once a soldier to serve me, and I had very quickly a bed, a table, and a few chairs He was kind enough to have rateful to hiave a he saw that I was no match for him; he told me so, and he warned me that the officer ould relieve him the next day was a better player even than he was himself; I lost three or four ducats He advisedday, and I followed his advice He told me also that he would have coa a Greek and a crafty player, I ought not to play I thought his advice very considerate, particularly when I saw that all the punters lost, and that the Greek, very cal treat hisa share to the officer who had taken an interest in the bank The name of the banker was Don Pepe il Cadetto, and by his accent I kneas a Neapolitan I co him why he had toldof the word greek applied to a gambler, and the lesson which followed his explanation proved very useful todays, my life was uniform and rather dull, but on the sixth day the salad to see hihted to find uard-house, and I accepted the co, we had the same bank at faro, with the same result as the first time, except a violent blow from the stick of one of the punters upon the back of the banker, of which the Greek stoically feigned to take no notice I saw the saain nine years afterwards in Vienna, captain in the service of Maria Theresa; he then called himself d'Afflisso Ten years later, I found him a colonel, and some time after worth a million; but the last tialley slave He was handso) in spite of his beauty, he had a gallows look I have seen others with the saliostro, for instance, and another who has not yet been sent to the galleys, but who cannot fail to pay them a visit Should the reader feel any curiosity about it, I can whisper the name in his ear
Towards the ninth or tenth day everyone in the ar the passport, which could not be delayed er I was alht of the sentinel They were quite right not to fear ht of escaping, but the ular adventure of my life happened to me then, andI was taking a ithin one hundred yards of the sentinel, when an officer arrived and alighted from his horse, threw the bridle on the neck of his steed, and walked off
Ad there like a faithful servant to whoot up to hiet hold of the bridle, put my foot in the stirrup, and find myself in the saddle I was on horseback for the first time in my life I do not knohether I touched the horse with my cane or with ht foot having slipped out of the stirrup, I press against the horse with allops faster and faster, for I did not kno to check it At the last advanced post the sentinels call out to me to stop; but I cannot obey the order, and the horse carryingof a few musket balls, the natural consequence of my involuntary disobedience At last, when I reach the first advanced picket of the Austrians, the horse is stopped, and I get off his back thanking God
An officer of Hussars asks where I aht, ansithout any privity on my part, that I can render no account but to Prince Lobkowitz, commander-in-chief of the ar et on horseback, a fresh one is given allop to Riuard has hness alone, and I tell him candidly what has just happened to h he observes that it is hardly credible
”I ought,” he says, ”to put you under arrest, but I a to save you that unpleasantness” With that he called one of his officers and ordered hio wherever you please,” he added, turning round to ain enter the lines of ht fare badly”
I asked hiain, but he answered that the aniot to ask hiretted it; but after all perhaps I did for the best
The officer who acco a coffee-house, whether I would like to take sooing by, and availingto someone, I told him not to appear to be acquainted with me, but to tell me where he lived When we had taken our chocolate the officer paid and ent out Along the road we kept up the conversation; he told ave him mine, and I explained how I found myself in Rimini He asked me whether I had not remained some time in Ancona; I answered in the affiret a passport in Bologna, return to Rimini and to Pesaro without any fear, and recoverthe officer for the horse he had lost We reached the gate, he wished me a pleasant journey, and we parted coold and jewels, but without my trunk Therese was in Rio to Bologna as quickly as possible in order to get a passport, and to return to Pesaro, where I should find my passport from Rome, for I could not make up my mind to lose my trunk, and I did not want to be separated froer of the Ris on, and I longed for a carriage I took shelter under the portal of a church, and turned my fine overcoat inside out, so as not to look like an abbe At that , and I asked hie could be had to drive me to Cesena ”I have one, sir,” he said, ”but I live half a league froet it, I ait for you here”
While I aiting for the return of the peasant with his vehicle, so the road towards Ri close by me, I placed my handthe slow pace of the ani taken of ave some money to the first street urchin I met, and he took ht-cap, my hat pulled down over my face, and my fine cane concealed under ure I enquired for Bellino's mother, and the mistress of the house took me to a room where I found all the family, and Therese in a wo the, and they were expecting htened at the danger that threatened me, and in spite of her love, told na, as I had been advised by M Vais, the officer
”I know him,” she said, ”and he is a worthy , and you ht o'clock in the ; we had the whole day before us, and everyone pro her that I could easily contrive to leave the city without being observed
Therese took me to her own rooer of the theatre on her arrival in Riaged for the family She had informed him that she was a woman, and that she had made up her mind not to appear as a castrato any hted at such news, because woe at Riate as Ancona She added that her engagement would be at an end by the 1st of May, and that she would reeable to et a passport,” I said, ”there is nothing to hinder ement But as M
Vais calls upon you, tellspent a few days in Ancona?”
”I did, and I even told him that you had been arrested because you had lost your passport”
I understood why the officer had s with me After my conversation with Therese, I received the co sisters who appeared to me less cheerful and less free than they had been in Ancona They felt that Bellino, transformed into Therese, was too formidable a rival I listened patiently to all the co up the character of castrato, Therese had bidden adieu to fortune, because she ht have earned a thousand sequins a year in Roood woman,” I said, ”the false Bellino would have been found out, and Therese would have been consigned to a miserable convent for which she was never er of my position, I spent the whole of the day alone with ave her fresh beauties and increasedso in, she left me, and I remained in the dark, but in such a position that I could see everything and hear every word The Baron Vais carace of a pretty wo he told her was the news about ned indifference, when he said that he had advised me to return with a passport He spent an hour with her, and I was thoroughly well pleased with her manners and behaviour, which had been such as to leave hted hiether, and, as ere getting ready to go to bed, Petronio came to inform me that ten muleteers would start for Cesena two hours before day-break, and that he was sure I could leave the city with theo and meet them a quarter of an hour before their departure, and treat the to drink I was of the same opinion, and made up my mind to make the atteood time It proved an unnecessary precaution, for I was ready before the time, and left Therese satisfied with my love, without any doubt of my constancy, but rather anxious as toto leave Rimini She had sixty sequins which she wanted to force back upon me, but I asked her what opinion she would have of me if I accepted them, and we said notreated one of the ly ride one of his nan