Volume I Part 46 (1/2)
”The story cannot be anything but true, and your doubts surprise nor, because I happen to have positive infor the families of La Rochefoucault and Du Plessis Besides, I have seen too much of the ant jester I have never seen him write, and he has told me himself a score of times that he had never learned”
”The paper he has written proves the contrary His ars; but perhaps you are not aware that M de la Rochefoucault is a duke and peer of the French real your eminence's pardon; I know all about it; I know even hter of the house of Vivonne”
”You know nothing”
When I heard this re silent, and it ith souests at what they thought an insult and a blow to my vanity An officer remarked that the deceased was a fine man, a wittyup his assumed character so well that no one ever had the faintest suspicion of what he really was A lady said that, if she had known him, she would have been certain to find hi to that reat and wealthy of the earth, assured us that the late prince had always shewn hihtiness towards his co beautifully ”He was only twenty-five years of age,” said Mada me full in the face, ”and if he was endoith all those qualities, you ive you, madam, a true likeness of the ay, often even to folly, for he could throw a sos of a very erotic kind, full of stories and of popular tales of hosts, and a thousand marvellous feats which common-sense refused to believe, and which, for that very reason, provoked the mirth of his hearers His faults were that he was drunken, dirty, quarrelsome, dissolute, and somewhat of a cheat I put up with all his deficiences, because he dressedofferedthe colloquial French which cannot be acquired from books He has always assured me that he was born in Picardy, the son of a common peasant, and that he had deserted from the French army
He may have deceived me when he said that he could not write”
Just then Camporese rushed into the rooeneral, looking at hted if the nor, but his confessor will certainly kill hiht”
”Why should the father confessor kill hialleys to which your excellency would not fail to send hi violated the secrecy of the confessional”
Everybody burst out laughing, but the foolish old general knitted his brows The guests retired soon afterwards, and Madae, M D---- R---- having offered her his ar It was the first time that she had bestowed such an honour upon me
”I am of your opinion about that prince,” she said, ”but you have incurred the displeasure of the proveditore”
”I am very sorry, madam, but it could not have been avoided, for I cannot help speaking the truth openly”
”Youjest of the confessor killing the false prince”
”You are right, sir, but I thought it would h as well as it enerally do not object to a witty jest causing hter”
”True; only those who have not wit enough to laugh do not like the jest”
”I bet a hundred sequins that the eneral on his side, he will reap all the advantages of his i love to Mada the last words, Madahed heartily, and, as ere getting out of the carriage, M
D---- R---- invitedhalf an hour alone with her at her own house when they had taken supper together with the general, for her husband never shewed himself It was the first time that the happy couple admitted a third person to their tete-a-tete I felt very proud of the coht have important results for me My satisfaction, which I concealed as well as I could, did not preventa coht forward by the lady or by her lord
We kept up our pleasant trio for four hours; and returned to theIt was during that night that Madame F---- and M D---- R---- really made hed so ined that a conversation, in appearance so simple, could afford so much pleasure and merriment On my side, I discovered in her so much wit and cheerfulness, that I became deeply enamoured, and went to bed fully satisfied that, in the future, I could not keep up the show of indifference which I had so far assu, I heard from the new soldier who served me that La Valeur was better, and had been pronounced out of danger by the physician At dinner the conversation fell upon hieneral gave orders to have him removed to a comfortable apartment, sent him a servant, clothed hi paid hiht it their duty to ieneral curiosity was excited, there was a rush to see the new prince M D---- R---- followed his leaders, and Mada set the ladies in motion, they all called upon hily that she would not pay hied to be excused The knave was called your highness, and the wonderful prince styled Madaredo his princess M D---- R---- tried to persuade ue, but I told hieous nor h to retract my words The whole imposture would soon have been discovered if anyone had possessed a peerage, but it just happened that there was not a copy in Corfu, and the French consul, a fat blockhead, likeof faan to walk out a week after his metamorphosis into a prince He dined and had supper every day with the general, and every evening he was present at the reception, during which, owing to his intemperance, he alent fast asleep
Yet, there were two reasons which kept up the belief of his being a prince: the first was that he did not seem afraid of the news expected from Venice, where the proveditore had written immediately after the discovery; the second was that he solicited from the bishop the punish the seal of confession The poor priest had already been sent to prison, and the proveditore had not the courage to defend him The new prince had been invited to dinner by all the naval officers, but M D---- R---- had not made up his mind to imitate them so far, because Madame F---- had clearly warned him that she would dine at her own house on the day he was invited I had likewise respectfully intimated that, on the sa so out of the old fortress leading to the esplanade He stopped, and reproached hed, and advised him to think of his safety before the arrival of the nehich would expose all the imposture, in which case the proveditore was certain to treat hiht froet a Neapolitan captain, whose shi+p was ready to sail, to conceal hiMada proud that a French prince should have given her the preference over all the other ladies One day that she was dining in great ceremony at M D---- R-----'s house, she asked me why I had advised the prince to run away
”I have it from his own lips,” she added, ”and he cannothiiven himent sane”
”Then we are all of us as many fools, the proveditore included?”
”That deduction would not be right, madam An opinion contrary to that of another does not necessarily ht possibly turn out, in ten or twelve days, that I have been entirely mistaken myself, but I should not consider myself a fool in consequence In the ence must have discovered whether that man is a peasant or a prince by his education and manners For instance, does he dance well?”
”He does not know one step, but he is the first to laugh about it; he says he never would learn dancing”