“ ‘Good Signor,’ said the fellow, evidently ill at his ease, ‘patience for heaven’s sake—be not rash.’
“ ’I give you five seconds,’ replied I, ‘to bring me to a horse: at the end of that time, the condition unfulfilled, I will shoot you through the head, as sure as God is in heaven. Look at those corpses—you see I am in earnest.’
“The fellow said not one word more; but, being himself unarmed, led me quietly from the door of the inn at which we stood to that of the stable. I all the time holding him by the back of the collar, with the pistol close by his head.
“ ‘Choose a strong one, scoundrel,’ said I, as we entered the stable, in which stood several horses ready saddled. I compelled him to lead out the steed, and to mount first himself, and springing up behind him, I commanded him to ride on the shortest track leading to the high road to Rome. The moon had gone down, and the night was now so dark that I could not see many yards before me. In obedience to my directions the fellow rode at a hard trot. We had scarcely crossed the bridge, when two figures loomed suddenly in sight, and so directly in advance of us that it required a sudden and violent exertion of the bit which threw the animal back upon his haunches, to prevent our running foul of this nocturnal patrol.
“ ‘Who rides so hard?’ inquired one in no very dulcet accents. Here I pressed the muzzle of the pistol against my companion’s head, as a salutary hint.
“ ‘Who should it be,’ exclaimed my comrade, ‘but a friend—do not you know me?’
“ ‘Faith, brother,’ replied the same harsh voice, it is well we did not rob thee, and thou us;’ and marvellously tickled with this pleasant conceit he laughed long and lustily. ‘Any news?’ added he—‘any rabbits in the burrow? any nightingales in the cage—eh?’
“ ‘Ay, two,’ replied my companion, ‘with their necks wrung. You will see more at the inn. Good night.’
“We were passing on, when again one of them exclaimed—
“ ‘Hey! what the devil have you gotten behind you?’
“Again, I let my honest companion feel that the weapon rested upon his skull; and with much nonchalance, he replied—
“ ‘What is behind me? why a bag of bloody carrion, if you must have it—but we bandy words too long—when I get rid of this, I’ll find you at old Beppo’s.’
“ ‘Well, good luck, most holy sexton,’ replied the horseman; ‘and as for your burden, requiescat in pace—amen.’
“ ‘So saying, the two horsemen rode on, and we pursued our way, at the same hard pace, until the morning’s light began to streak the east.
“Watching my opportunity as we rode rapidly down a steep declivity, I bestowed my companion a vigorous shove, which sent him clean over the horse’s head; and before he had well done rolling I had left him four hundred yards behind me. With a courteous valediction I rode on, and without another adventure reached the glorious city of Rome, where strange things befell me, as I shall tell you. But first give me a cup of wine.”
Part II
“In the heart of a gay capital, possessed of funds which, to my shortsighted inexperience, seemed all but inexhaustible, full of ardour, curiosity, and passion, I threw myself heart and soul into the intoxication and excitement of all the folly, vice, and extravagance which revolved around me; with more of inquisitiveness than of depravity, I hunted out vice in all its secure and secret haunts, where, undisguised, and maddening, and terrible, it ruled and rioted. The adventures and perils of the wild scenes in which I mixed, had for me a strange attraction; I panted to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; I longed to try and prove those old and mighty rulers of the human kind—the ancient vices of the world in the high places of their power; recklessly I courted danger: wildly I plunged into the unfathomable gulf of sin, and madly did time fly by.
“My acquaintances were among the madcap young nobles of the city. There was nothing to withdraw me from the headlong career of sins and follies in which I was borne, except prudence or religion—and I had neither. I resolutely closed my eyes against all distant consequences: I saw but the present—I would see no more. I felt that when my wealth was squandered, I would find a way to get more; I cared not how, provided it were boldly, and in the manner of a soldier of fortune. Even then my coming destiny filled the vision of my mind; I beheld it perhaps with awe, but undismayed; for me it had a dreadful fascination—I rushed towards it with a bosom full of defiance and scornful recklessness.
“Fagged and jaded with the last night’s debauch, I rose towards evening from the numb and heavy sleep of excess, and wandered forth to breathe the fresh air upon the Corso. It was the carnival—the streets were thronged with masks, jugglers, itinerant gamesters with their various apparatus for cheating the incautious; mountebanks and empirics holding forth upon their crazy stages; noble ladies in rich attire walking with their highborn protectors, and shouldered and jostled by countrymen and beggars—all mingled up in the fantastic mazes of a bewildering and gorgeous dream. Captivated by the never-ending variety of the scene before me; hour after hour flew by; and when at length the sun went down, and twilight was succeeded by the wan splendour of the moon, I still
