Volume VI Part 100 (1/2)
The servant who escorted me to my room asked me at what time I should like breakfast I told hiht in the coffee-pot and the sugar in the sugar basin
The valet did ed, and I iiven the count a little lesson, and that I should have no more trouble with him Here, however, I was mistaken, as the reader will discover
Three or four days later the priest ca, to ask when I would like dinner, as I was to dine in my room
”Why so?” I asked
”Because the count left yesterday for Gorice, telling me he did not knohen he should coive you your ood I will dine at one”
No one could be more in favour of liberty and independence than h host should have toldto Gorice He stayed a week, and I should have died of weariness if it had not been for my daily visits to the Baron del Mestre Otherwise there was no company, the priest was an uneducated irls I felt as if I could not bear another four weeks of such a doleful exile
When the count came back, I spoke to him plainly
”I came to Spessa,” I said, ”to keep you company and to amuse myself; but I see that I am in the way, so I hope you will take me back to Gorice and leave me there You must know that I like society as much as you do, and I do not feel inclined to die of solitary weariness in your house”
He assured one to Gorice to meet an actress, who had come there purposely to see hin a contract of e with a Venetian lady
These excuses and the apparently polite tone in which they were uttered inducedmy stay with the extraordinary count
He drew the whole of his income from vineyards, which produced an excellent white wine and a revenue of a thousand sequins a year
However, as the count did his best to spend double that a himself He had a fixed impression that all the tenants robbed hie he proceeded to beat the occupants unless they could prove that the grapes did not co pardon, but they were thrashed all the sa witness of several of these arbitrary and cruel actions, when one day I had the pleasure of seeing the count soundly beaten by two peasants He had struck the first blow hi the worst of it he prudently took to his heels
He wasa mere spectator of the fray; but I told hi, and in the second place I was not going to expose myself to be beaten to a jelly by two lusty peasants in another ue he dared to tell me that I was a scurvy coward not to know that it was my duty to defend a friend to the death
In spite of these offensive relance of conte the whole village had heard what had happened, and the joy was universal, for the count had the singular privilege of being feared by all and loved by none The two rebellious peasants had taken to their heels But when it became known that his lordshi+p had announced his resolution to carry pistols with him in all future visits, everybody was alar him that all his tenants would quit the estate in a week's tiave them a promise to leave them in peace in their humble abodes
The rude eloquence of the two peasants struck me as sublime, but the count pronounced theood a right to taste the vines which we have watered with the sweat of our brow,” said they, ”as your cook has to taste the dishes before they are served on your table”
The threat of deserting just at the vintage season frightened the count, and he had to give in, and the elee at its success
Next Sunday ent to the chapel to hear mass, and e ca the Credo The count looked furious, and after un to abuse and beat the poor priest, in spite of the surplice which he was still wearing It was really a shocking sight
The priest spat in his face and cried help, that being the only revenge in his power
Several persons ran in, so we left the sacristy I was scandalised, and I told the count that the priest would be certain to go to Udine, and that it ht turn out a very aard business
”Try to prevent his doing so,” I added, ”even by violence, but in the first place endeavour to pacify him”