Volume I Part 40 (1/2)
”True; but I advise you to enter the Venetian service like Major Pelodoro”
As I was leaving the ducal palace, I met the Abbe Grimani who told me that the abrupt manner in which I had left his house had displeased everybody
”Even the Spanish officer?”
”No, for he remarked that, if you had truly been with the army, you could not act differently, and he has himself assured me that you were there, and to prove what he asserted he made me read an article in the newspaper, in which it is stated that you killed your captain in a duel
Of course it is only a fable?”
”How do you know that it is not a fact?”
”Is it true, then?”
”I do not say so, but itbeen with the Spanish aro”
”But that is ih the quarantine”
”I have broken nothing I have openly crossed the Po at Revero, and here I am I am sorry not to be able to present myself at your excellency's palace, but I cannot do so until I have received the iven me the lie I could put up with an insult when I wore the livery of huarb of honour”
”You are wrong to take it in such a high tone The person who attacked your veracity is M Valmarana, the proveditore of the sanitary departh the cordon, it would be impossible for you to be here Satisfaction, indeed! Have you forgotten who you are?”
”No, I knoho I am; and I know likewise that, if I was taken for a coward before leaving Venice, now that I have returned no one shall insultit”
”Come and dine with me”
”No, because the Spanish officer would know it”
”He would even see you, for he dines with o, and I will let hie of my quarrel with M Valmarana”
I dined that day with Major Pelodoro and several other officers, who agreed in advising me to enter the service of the Republic, and I resolved to do so ”I a lieutenant whose health is not sufficiently strong to allow hilad to sell his commission, for which he wants one hundred sequins But it would be necessary to obtain the consent of the secretary of war” ”Mention the matter to him,” I replied, ”the one hundred sequins are ready” TheI went to Madaed After supper, the aunt told her nieces to shew me, to htful night After that they took the agreeable duty by turns, and in order to avoid any surprise in case the aunt should take it into her head to pay them a visit, we skilfully displaced a part of the partition, which allowed the the door But the good lady believed us three living speci us to the test
Two or three days afterwards, M Grimani contrived an intervieeen me and M Valmarana, who told me that, if he had been aware that the sanitary line could be eluded, he would never have ined iven hied, and until my departure I honoured M Grimani's excellent dinner with my presence every day
Towards the end of the month I entered the service of the Republic in the capacity of ensign in the Bala regiiical virtue of my one hundred sequins was lieutenant, but the secretary of war objected tothat rank for reasons to which I had to submit, if I wished to enter the army; but he promised rade of lieutenant, and he granted o to Constantinople I accepted, for I was determined to serve in the army
M Pierre Vendramin, an illustrious senator, obtained e to Constantinople with the Chevalier Venier, as proceeding to that city in the quality of bailo, but as he would arrive in Corfu a month after me, the chevalier very kindly promised to take me as he called at Corfu
A few days before my departure, I received a letter fronano escorted her everywhere ”The duke is old,” she wrote, ”but even if he were young, you would have no cause for uneasiness on my account Should you ever want any money, draw upon me from any place where you may happen to be, and be quite certain that your letters of exchange will be paid, even if I had to sell everything I possess to honour your signature”