THE FOOL ERRANT - World eBook Library - World Public Library

CHAPTER XXX. I MARRY AND GO TO LUCCA
Virginia was pleased to be very mysterious on the subject of our marriage, keeping me in the Sagrestia for three or four days,
visiting me only to give me food and such news as she cared to impart. She told me, for instance, that Professor Lanfranchi had
undoubtedly arrived in Florence, and that he was staying with Aurelia at the Villa San Giorgio. As to our own affair, she said
that everything was in good train. She had found a church and a priest in the Ghetto; she would need a little money—not very
much—and promised, directly the coast was clear, to get me over to that safe quarter. To be done with this part of my history,
so she did, and was made mine in the church of Sant' Andrea on October 24, 1724, three years, almost to a day, since my
arrival in Padua in 1721. I took her back to a mean lodging in that meanest part of Florence, and spent three days with her
there alone. I then wrote to my father, as I felt bound in duty to do—fully, unreservedly, with candour and, I hope, modesty. I
wrote to Father Carnesecchi, to Professor Lanfranchi. Such money as I could consider mine by right I converted into cash; the
rest, which I thought to be my father's—being that share of my monthly allowance which I had received after I had decided to
disobey him—I returned by bills of exchange to his London bankers. I believe that, on the day of my departure from Florence, I
stood up possessed of some fifty guineas—no great capital upon which a man and his young wife could begin the world. Nor
had I any great idea how I should increase or husband my little store. But I was young, zealous, proud. I believed in myself, I
loved Virginia. In a word, as always happened to me, I looked studiously forward, and was happy. As for her, she hardly
touched the ground with her feet when she walked. You never saw so radiant a creature.
We left the Ghetto at a good hour of the morning, intending for Lucca; but at the gate of San Frediano a difficulty about
post-horses bade fair to detain us for a day in very unfortunate publicity. The man of whom we had bespoken them met us there
with despair upon his face. He was vexed, he was harrowed, his nicest feelings of honour were wounded—at least he said that
they were. The horses had been fed and watered; he was about to put them to, when an order which he dared not disobey had
supervened. No less was this than a precept from the Pratica Segreta that the horses were to be put at the disposition of the
Cavaliere Aquamorta, of whom the State was most anxious to be rid. Had it been anything under a Government order, said he,
he would have laughed in the bearer's face. Not even the Grand Duke could make an honest man break his word, but I could
see he was helpless. I saw nothing so clearly as that I was. I expostulated, offered more money than I could afford. Virginia
stormed. All to no purpose. I was for walking, and was about to command Virginia to accompany me, when who should
appear but my gentleman himself, the Cavaliere Aquamorta, inquiring the cause of the uproar. He presented a truly magnificent
appearance in that squalid place.
No sooner was he informed that he was the cause of our distress than he addressed himself to me with elaborate politeness—all
the more singular as that my appearance and equipage contrasted most unfavourably with his. My clothes had not been
improved by the adventures I had undergone; my linen was soiled; I had no baggage. Virginia was respectably dressed and
looked beautiful, but had no pretensions to a rank which she did not possess of herself and which I did not propose to give her.
For I had thought it only honourable in me, as I was dispensing with my father's injunctions, to dispense also with his money. I
had renounced the world in which I had gained nothing but misery and crime. In this fine gentleman's eyes, therefore, I must
have seemed a simple young artisan, and Virginia a pretty country girl. However, he begged to be of service to us. He was
himself going to Lucca, he said. If he took our horses it was only fair we should take seats in his chariot. In fine, we should hurt
him deeply if we did not. All this was put before me with so much frankness and good humour that I could not well refuse it. I
saw, moreover, that in addition to my horses he had two of his own. I accepted his offer, therefore, with many thanks. He
handed Virginia in with a bow; he begged me to precede him, which I did, but to the back seat. He took the place next my
wife, and we left Florence.
"If," said this remarkable man, "I lay it down as an indispensable preliminary to our acquaintance, which I hope may be long and
warm, that you accept me for a gentleman, it is because, as I do not happen to be one, I have devoted all my energies to
demonstrating the exact contrary. No man can help the accident of his birth. My mother was an actress of Venice: God knows
who was my father, but I tell myself that he was peculiarly mine. I was educated in the slips of the theatre of San Moise; at ten I
ran away from home, and from the age of twelve made my fortune my own care. It was then that I found out the advantages of
being what I was not, for I observed that while nobody scrupled to cheat a gentleman if he could safely do it, nobody (on the
other hand) resented the fact that a gentleman cheated him. At the age of fifteen, when I served in Zante in the company of the
noble Mocenigo, and received a decoration for gallantry and a commission of lieutenant, I killed my captain for permitting
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