Volume I Part 11 (1/2)

IV

_I Embark upon a Galley, and Cross the Seas to Zara_

I was not slow to perceive that I had adopted a career by no means suited to my character, the properverse from Berni:

”Voleva far da se, non coeableness kept ns of any sort that I repented of my choice; and I reflected that abundant opportunities were now at least offered for observations on the ht sufficed to keep h all the vicissitudes ofto orders received from his Excellency, the Provveditore Generale Quirini, I ealley called _Generalizia_, which was riding at the port of Malamocco There I was to wait for his arrival A band of lances of courtesy and so fortune, each newcoarded with suspicion Whether he has to be reckoned with or arded on occasions of promotion, concerns the whole crew of officials, who, like him, are dependent on the will of the Provveditore It was perhaps insensibility which made me indifferent to these preoccupations; this the sequel of hts are very orreat quantity of questions, to which I replied with the laconic brevity of an inexperienced lad upon his guard Soentlemen had known my brother Francesco at Corfu When they discovered who I was, they seemed to be relieved of all anxiety on my account, and welcomed me with noisy demonstrations of soldierly comradeshi+p I expressed my thanks in modest, almostfellow, unobliging, and proud This was a mistake, as they freely confessed a few months later on I had retired intotheir characters and sketching my line of action The quick and penetrative intuition hich I was endowed at birth by God, together with the faculty of imperturbable reserve, enabled roup some men of noble birth and liberal culture, some nobles ruined by the worst of educations, and some plebeians ed their position to powerful protection

Ga, intemperance, and unbridled sensuality were deeply rooted in the whole company I laid my plans of conduct, and found them useful in the future My inti like ineradicable cancers to the rafted on ard for health, and the slenderness of my purse helped me to avoid their seductions At the saainst the the affection of ies I did not play the prude Without yielding ayest reveller at all those lawless s Some of my seniors, on who sihed at the inebriation of my comrades, studied the bent of divers characters, observed the animal brutality of men, and used our uproarious debauches as a school for fatho the depths of human frailty

Noill return to the point of alley _Generalizia_ in the port of Mala the arrival of the Provveditore, I had thole days and nights to spend in sad reflections on huested by the spectacle of some three hundred scoundrels, loaded with chains, conde their life out in a sea of miseries and torments, each of which was sufficient by itself to kill atheseaway its victims daily from the bread and water, the irons, and the whips of the slaveaunt black Franciscan friar, with thundering voice and jovial ht--I hope and think--for Paradise

[Illustration: THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY

_Original Etching by Ad Lalauze_]

The Provveditore's arrival amid the din of instruments and roar of cannon roused entleman ten times at least in his own palace, and had always been received with that playful welcouish the patricians of Venice He made his appearance now in crihtiness unknown to me, and fierceness stamped upon his features The other officers informed me that when he donned this uniform of state, he had to be addressed with profound and silent salaams, different indeed from the reverence one pays at Venice to a patrician in his civil gown[114] He boarded the galley, and see till their noses rubbed their toes The affability hich he touched our hands in Venice had disappeared; he looked at none of us; and sentenced the young captain of the guard, called Combat, to arrest in chains, because he had omitted some trifle of theat one another with open eyes This singular change froht of my boyish philosophy I seereat republic, elected general of an arovernor of tide provinces, on his first appearance in that office, felt bound to assume a totally different aspect from as natural to him in his private capacity He had to inspire fear and a spirit of subht have taken liberties upon the strength of for for thefellows, apt to boast about their favour with the general Formy duty without ambitious plans or dreams of fortune, this forreatimpression on me than on my companions I whispered to myself: ”He certainly inspires me with a kind of dread; but he has taken immense trouble to transform his nature in order to produce this effect; I areater than any discoeneral retired to his cabin in the bowels of our floating hell, and sent Lieutenant-Colonel Micheli, his major in the province, to make out a list of all the officers and volunteers on board, together with the names of their protectors nobody expected this; for we had been personally presented to the general at Venice, and had explained our affairs in frequent conversations Oncethe expectations which ed the politenesses of private life for the austerities of office The Maggiore della Provincia Micheli--a most excellent person and very fat--bustled about his business, sweating, and scribbling with a pencil on a sheet of paper, as though the ru under review in this way When my turn came, I answered frankly that I was called Carlo Gozzi, and that I had been recommended by the patrician Almor Cesare Tiepolo I withheld his title of senator and the fact that he wasit prudent not to seealley naot under way for the Adriatic;[116] and the night fell very dark upon the waters I shall not easily forget that night, because of a little incident which happened to alley is for youngtheir homes for the first time A natural necessity made me seek some corner for retire it, an Illyrian sentinel, with scowling visage, bushy whiskers, and levelled oes there?_” in a tremendous voice When he understood hted on a soft and yieldingsound, like the stifled breath of an asthhich responded with its inarticulate gurgling voice to the pressure of my feet He answered with the coldest indifference that it was the corpse of a galley-slave, who had succu there till he could be buried on the sea-shore sands in Istria The hair on my head bristled with horror But s soon came to my assistance

After twelve days of hts, passed in broken slualley, which only too well deserved its name, our little fleet entered the port of Zara We went on shore at first privately and quietly; and after a few days the public cereh The Provveditore Generale Jacopo Cavalli handed his baton of command over to the Provveditore Generale Girolamo Quirini with all the formalities proper to the occasion This solemnity, which is performed upon the open sea, to the sound ofof musket-shots, deserves to be witnessed by all who take an interest in i spectacles An old man, fat and short of stature, with a pair ofup beneath his nostrils, a merry and most honest fellow to boot, who bore the name of Captain Girolamo Visinoni, was appointed master of these ceremonies, on account of his intimate acquaintance with their details I had no other duty that day but to wear my best clothes, which did not cost erously Ill; Recover; Form the only Intiency had been established and the Court settled, I had but eight days to learn my duties as volunteer or adjutant[117] to his Excellency, as it is called there, before I fell ill of a fever which was declared to bepeople whom I hardly knew, at the co in a wretched room, the s of which were closed with torn and rotten paper instead of glass, I could not but compare my present destitution with the co with a mortal disease in solitude There, at the least touch of illness, I enjoyed the tender solicitude of a sister or a servant at my pillow, to brush away the flies which settled on ly attached to life as to be rendered s

It happened one day, as I lay there burning, that a convict presented himself at the door ofwhich he could fetch me He was one of those men who prowl around the officers' quarters, wrapped in an old blanket with a bit of rope about the waist, ready to do any dirty business and to pilfer if they find the opportunity I gave his and told him to send me a confessor--an errand very different froood Doe of an ancient Roh at this plebeian wish of mine to make my peace with Heaven; but I have never been able to dissociate philosophy froion Satisfied to remain a little child before the ement from spiritual terrors

The chief physician, Danieli, a ious corpulence and blackness, who had been sent to my assistance by the Governor, spared no attentions and no re; and he badethe holy sacrament I suh this ceremony with devotion There seemed to be so little difference between a sepulchre and the rooust at relinquishi+ng ers I was now ready for the last unction, when an attack of hee froht me to death's door, recalled atures, powders, herbs, astringent plasters, sympathetic stones, muttered charms, old wives'

talis two basons with blood, I lapsed into a profound swoon, which the doctor styled a syncope To all appearances I was dead; but the blood stopped; in a quarter of an hour I revived; and three days afterwards I found myself, weak indeed, but wholly free fronorance could not reconcile this salutary crisis with Danieli's absolute prohibition of blood-letting in my malady But I suppose that a score of learned physicians, each of them upon a different system of hypotheses, conjectures, well-based calculations, and trains of lucid argument, would be able to demonstrate the phenomenon to their own satisfaction and to the illumination or confusion of my stupid brain Stupendous indeed are the hty God has bestowed on men!

The readers of these Memoirs will hardly need to be infor in it at the termination of this illness

Under these painful circunor Innocenzio Massimo, nobleman of Padua, and captain of halbardiers at the Dalentleman, of rare distinction for his y, and honour, was the only inti my three years' absence from home When they were over, our friendshi+p continued undiminished by lapse of time, distance, and the various vicissitudes of life I have enjoyed it through thirty-five years, and am sure that it will never fail me Some qualities of his character have exposed hi these I may mention a particular sensitiveness to affronts, an intolerance of atteether with a firance and fashi+onable waste in his own family His many virtues, the decent comfort of his household, his hospitality to friends and acquaintances, his careful provision for the well-being of his posterity, his benevolence to the poor and afflicted, his successful efforts as a peace discordant fellow-citizens, his expenditure of time and trouble upon all who come to him for advice or assistance, have not sufficed to disarar crowd, corrupted by the false philosophy of our century, which goes from bad to worse in dissolution and ill manners

VI