Volume I Part 57 (1/2)
With an education which ought to have ensured ence, wit, good literary and scientific knowledge, and endoith those accidental physical qualities which are such a good passport into society, I found e of twenty, the reat talent is rightly adhtly despised I was compelled by poverty to become a member of a musical band, in which I could expect neither esteem nor consideration, and I ell aware that I should be the laughing-stock of the persons who had known me as a doctor in divinity, as an ecclesiastic, and as an officer in the arhest society
I knew all that, for I was not blind toto which I could not have remained indifferent, never shewed itself anywhere under a for despised, and I set it at defiance, because I was satisfied that contempt is due only to cowardly, uilty of any As to public esteem, which I had ever been anxious to secure,my head about the future I felt that in my first profession, as I was not blessed with the vocation necessary to it, I should have succeeded only by dint of hypocrisy, and I should have been despicable in my own estimation, even if I had seen the purple nities cannot silence a man's own conscience If, on the other hand, I had continued to seek fortune in a lory, but is otherwise the worst of professions for the constant self-abnegation, for the complete surrender of one's hich passive obedience demands, I should have required a patience to which I could not lay any clai to me, and as I could not bear to feel myself dependent
Besides, I was of opinion that a ht to supply hih money to satisfy all his wants; and the very poor pay of an officer would never have been sufficient to cover reater wants than those of officers in general By scrapinganybody's assistance, and I have always thought that the rant that my profession was not a brilliant one, but I did not s which rose inall the habits of raded comrades When the play was over, I ith the-booth, which we often left intoxicated to spend the night in houses of ill-fame When we happened to find those places already tenanted by other men, we forced them by violence to quit the premises, and defrauded the miserable victims of prostitution of thethes often exposed us to the greatest danger
We would very often spend the whole night ra into execution the most impertinent, practical jokes One of our favourite pleasures was to unondolas, and to let the by anticipation all the curses that gondoliers would not fail to indulge in We would rouse up hurriedly, in theher to hasten to Madanant, was sure to tell her she was a fool when she called at the house We did the same with physicians, e often sent half dressed to so excellent health The priests fared no better; ould send them to carry the last sacra near their wives, and not thinking of extre the wires of the bells in every house, and if we chanced to find a gate open ould go up the stairs in the dark, and frighten the sleeping in them very loudly that the house door was not closed, after which ould go down,as ate wide open
During a very dark night we forelo's Square, on which it was said that in the days of the League of Cambray the co the bounty to the recruits who engaged to fight under the standard of St Mark--a circumstance which secured for the table a sort of public veneration
Whenever we could contrive to get into a church toe thought it great fun to frighten all the parish by ringing the alarm bell, as if some fire had broken out; but that was not all, ays cut the bell ropes, so that in thethe faithful to early mass Sometiondola, and take to our heels without paying as soon as we landed on the opposite side, in order to ondoliers run after us
The city was alive with cohed at the useless search made by the police to find out those who disturbed the peace of the inhabitants We took good care to be careful, for if we had been discovered we stood a very fair chance of being sent to practice rowing at the expense of the Council of Ten
We were seven, and so ave hiies But at last fear put a stop to our criminal jokes, which in those days I used to call only the frolics of youngadventure which closed our exploits
In every one of the seventy-two parishes of the city of Venice, there is a large public-house called 'ht, and wine is retailed there at a cheaper price than in all the other drinking houses People can likewise eat in the 'azzino', but they must obtain what they want from the pork butcher near by, who has the exclusive sale of eatables, and likewise keeps his shop open throughout the night
The pork butcher is usually a very poor cook, but as he is cheap, poor people are willingly satisfied with him, and these resorts are considered very useful to the lower class The nobility, the ood circuazzino', for cleanliness is not exactly worshi+pped in such places Yet there are a few private rooms which contain a table surrounded with benches, in which a respectable family or a few friends can enjoy the the Carnival of 1745, after ether with our masks on, in quest of soazzino of the parish of the Holy Cross to get so to drink We found the public room empty, but in one of the private cha and pretty wo their wine
Our chief, a noble Venetian belonging to the Balbi faood joke to carry off those three blockheads, and to keep the pretty woman in our possession” He immediately explained his plan, and under cover of our masks we entered their room, Balbi at the head of us Our sudden appearance rather surprised the good people, but you may fancy their astonishment when they heard Balbi say to them: ”Under penalty of death, and by order of the Council of Ten, I cohtest noise; as to you, htened, you will be escorted to your house” When he had finished his speech, two of us got hold of the woed beforehand, and the others seized the three poor felloere tre any resistance
The waiter of the ave hi silence under penalty of death We took our three prisoners to a large boat Balbi went to the stern, ordered the boatman to stand at the bow, and told hi, that he would steer hiht fit Not one of us knehere Balbi wanted to take the three poor devils
He sails all along the canal, gets out of it, takes several turnings, and in a quarter of an hour, we reach Saint George where Balbi lands our prisoners, who are delighted to find themselves at liberty After this, the boatman is ordered to take us to Saint Genevieve, where we land, after paying for the boat
We proceed at once to Palombo Square, wherefor us with our lovely prisoner, as crying
”Do not weep, my beauty,” says Balbi to her, ”ill not hurt you We intend only to take some refreshment at the Rialto, and then ill take you home in safety”
”Where is ain to-entle as a laood fire in a private roo been brought in, we send the waiter away, and reht young, healthy faces seems to please the beauty we had so unceree to reconcile her to her fate by the gallantry of our proceedings; encouraged by a good supper and by the stimulus of wine, prepared by our compliments and by a few kisses, she realizes what is in store for her, and does not seem to have any unconquerable objection Our chief, as athe ball; and by dint of sords he overco the sacrifice in so nureeable, for, when I present myself as the priest appointed to sacrifice a second tiratitude, and she cannot conceal her joy when she finds out that she is destined to make us all happy My brother Francois alone exe that he was ill, the only excuse which could render his refusal valid, for we had established as a law that every member of our society was bound to do whatever was done by the others
After that fine exploit, we put on ourpaid, escorted the happy victim to Saint Job, where she lived, and did not leave her till we had seen her safe in her house, and the street door closed
My readers h when the char us all with perfect good faith!
Two days afterwards, our nocturnal orgy began to be talked of The young woman's husband was a weaver by trade, and so were his two friends
They joined together to address a complaint to the Council of Ten The co but the truth, but the criminal portion of the truth was veiled by a circurave countenances of the judges, and highly a forth that the eight reeable to the wife It went on to say that the two men who had carried her off had taken her to such a place, where they had, an hour later, been met by the other six, and that they had all repaired to the ”Tords,” where they had spent an hour in drinking The said lady having been handsoht masked men, had been escorted to her house, where she had been politely requested to excuse the joke perpetrated upon her husband The three plaintiffs had not been able to leave the island of Saint George until day-break, and the husband, on reaching his house, had found his wife quietly asleep in her bed She had infor but of the great fright she had experienced on account of her husband, and on that count she entreated justice and the punishuilty parties
That coues shewed the that they would certainly not have given way so easily if the dread authority of the council had not been put forth by the leader of the band The document produced three different results; in the first place, it amused the town; in the second, all the idlers of Venice went to Saint Job to hear the account of the adventure froot many presents from her numerous visitors; in the third place, the Council of Ten offered a reward of five hundred ducats to any person giving such information as would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of the practical joke, even if the infored to the band, provided he was not the leader