Volume II Part 16 (1/2)

I hoped to be delivered from this well-meant tyranny But such was not the case Doctor Bartolommeo Bevilacqua, rector of the public schools of Venice, and ood friend, arrived at Padua He had been sent off post-haste by the lady to persuade ht it a folly to refuse I repeated all that I had previously urged, and declared that istracy Imadman to the end

Perhaps I shall be conde the slave of great folk and public interests; but this point in my character is fixed and ineradicable I otiations was to free ainst which I rebelled with my whole nature

Under these various anxieties and the heat of the season ave away I was seized with a violent fever, which confinedthat tireorse and worse When I was able to leave my room, I went to Mme Cenet She told me that a priest had been sue fro his expectoration, found that it consisted of pure s, bruised by his fall, had begun to gangrene, and that he had only a few hours to live I asked whether Professor della Bona had repeated his visit She answered, No Happening just then to catch sight of that e the Prato della Valle, I ran out, and besought hi brother He willingly complied; and on the way I told him what the doctors had discovered

At this point I aic tone for coainst my will

The worthy professor listened attentively a long ti Then he said: ”The respiration is certainly weak, but unirene Where is that purulent expectoration?” We brought him the vessel, which he inspected closely, and laid aside with these words: ”There is no pus there; it is only butter” And so it was The butter which Mme Cenet administered had been spat up from time to time by the patient ”Our invalid,” continued the physician, ”is dying of nothing else but an acute fever Has he drunk the manna-water I recommended, and have you made the injections of quinine?” Mme Cenet answered that these remedies had not been used, because the other doctors disapproved of the me in? I a to s upon a thread I cannot answer for it in the state of extreh the case looks desperate, follow ed him not to abandon the sick man, and superintended the treatment he had ordered Gradually the fever abated My brother opened his eyes, and began to utter a feords He took ser food, and sed moderate doses of quinine Then arrived a terrible crisis His whole alius to the rectum, was covered with those ulcers which arded this as very serious But in a few days th, sat up in bed, and joked with the doctor Then, at the end of another period, he left his couch, ate with appetite, and composed some sonnets His health, undere, and a ood a state as could be expected under the circu hiht to add, that when I went to express my heartfelt thanks to Professor Della Bona, and to press a fee upon hi He was paid enough, he said, by the recovery of one whoations which he owed to the great lady who had recommended my brother to his care

LXIII

_Once he d'Amore”--I leave my readers to decide upon the truth of my narration--Final dissolution of Sacchi's company--Sacchi leaves Venice for ever_

In this chapter I shall wind up the history of he d'A connection with Sacchi's company of actors

Sacchi, who had proceeded on his suht fit to exhibit the notorious play in that city Although it could not win the _succes de scandale_ which made it so profitable to his pocket at Venice, the perfornor Gratarol

News reached Venice that the actor Giovanni Vitalba, who played the too famous part of Don Adone, had been assaulted by a ruffian one night, going to or returning froe bottle of ink full in his face, with the object of spoiling his beauty

Fortunately for Vitalba, the bottle, which was hurled with force enough to smash his skull, hit him on the thickly-wadded collar of his coat To this circuned by the abominable malice of some unknown ill-wisher

The peaceable character of this poor co his bread upon the stage, and i Sacchi's orders, was so well known that no one suspected the hand of a private enemy Suspicion fell not unnaturally upon Gratarol For myself, I ossip which disturbed the town; but it is certain that this act of violence inflamed Gratarol's political adversaries, and made them remorseless when he applied for the ratification of his appointment to the embassy at Naples[82]

On ed him to speak as warmly as he could in Gratarol's behalf to the Procuratore Tron and his all-powerful lady Everybody knew that Gratarol was expecting a decree of the Senate granting him some thousands of ducats for the expenses of his outfit; it was also asserted that, having received the usual allowance for an embassy to Turin, which he had not been able to employ upon that mission, his ene his appointe Gasparo's influence with that noble couple for the benefit of my would-be foe and rival in his present difficulty What Gratarol may think about ine Not imatise it as an act of officious hypocrisy Yet I am certain that it was sincerely and cordially ed his mission, and returned with a verbal answer from the Procuratessa and her husband, to the effect that ”insuperable obstacles lay in the way of sending the Secretary to the Court of Naples; Pietro Antonio Gratarol cannot and will not go; the best course for hination” That was the ostensible pith of their reply; but the gist, if gist it was, lurked froht in a cloud of political and economical considerations, anecdotes about Gratarol's ways of life and fortune, personalities, piques, private spites, and evidences of an unbecoar will to trae of evil intentions by setting down Mme Dolfin Tron's malicious ultimatum in full here I wrote it out, however, and have kept thethe papers locked up init forth and read it

Gratarol, at the close of these transactions, finding himself disfavoured by the Senate, did not take the prudent course of sending in his resignation and lying by for a better turn of affairs, such as is always to be looked for in a govern out with all the violence of his headstrong and indo himself and his relatives to the thunderbolts which were hurled upon him, partly by the mechanical operation of our laws, but also by the force of a rapacious and inhuman tyranny

[Illustration: LEANDRE

_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Ie upon what followed after Gratarol's flight to foreign lands These circumstances, disastrous to himself and prejudicial to the enemies he left behind hie in one philosopher's reflection The acies and excesses, gifted with exuberant health and physical vigour Considering his mental parts and moral qualities, it is a pity that he did not suffer from a tertian or a quartan fever, the headache, the colic, or peradventure piles Handicapped in this salutary way, he ht have continued to be a prosperous and able servant of the State So true is it that men often find the faculty on which they -block in life!

After Signer Gratarol's departure to the frozen North, I felt strongly inclined to have done, at once and for ever, with e Friends, however, pointed out that a sudden retirement fronant coly, I completed two plays which I had already planned--_Il Metafisico_ and _Bianca Contessa di Melfi_--giving theraph and all the copies of he d'Amore_ Thosethat the coain

It will not be ie-affairs, to relate the dissolution of Sacchi's company in detail

I had patronised my friends with heroico-comical perseverance for a quarter of a century The tied in years, was falling rapidly to pieces Absurd octogenarian love-affairs cohter, who not unreasonably expected to inherit money, plate, and jewels of considerable value, never ceased inveighing against her father's anachronistic fondnesses These invectives reached his ears, and exasperated a naturally irritable temper Meanwhile, his partners in the company resented the despotism hich he claimed to rule the roost and use their common purse for benefactions to his mistresses

Detected in these private foibles, yet far froht the error of his ways, old Sacchi beca his daughter, his partners, and the whole troupe I do not expect ine that their replies were sweetmeats