water," said he, "and I will prove clearly what I assert." This was soon supplied; the surgeon rubbed and washed my leg, which became in an instant so clean and healthful that I dared not utter a syllable in defence of my knavery.

The governor, thinking that he was bound to reward me for my address, gave me the shirt he had been so kind as to promise, which was fitted on my back in a moment by one of his lusty servants, who applied thirty hearty lashes by his master's directions, by way of recompense for my journey. After which I was ordered to leave the town immediately, with the promise that I should be doubly remunerated if I ever ventured to make my appearance in it again. This was a very superfluous prohibition, for the pleasant treatment I had met with in Gaeta was of itself quite sufficient to divest me of all desire of visiting that place again. I left this cursed town therefore without further delay, shrugging up my shoulders all the way I went, until I arrived once more in the pope's territories. I greeted my dear Rome with a thousand blessings as I entered it, and no sooner saw it at a distance than tears of joy trickled from my eyes, and I could not refrain from wishing my arms long enough to have embraced it.

I soon rejoined my old comrades, but took good care not to communicate my late disgrace to them; had they known it, I should never have heard the last of my flogging adventure at Gaeta, which would have been an everlasting joke against me. I told them that I had merely taken a trip out of curiosity

to some of the neighbouring villages; but that I had found by experience that there was no place like Rome for persons of our calling. I must indeed have been half mad when I thought of leaving this blessed city, where we all lived so well, never failing to collect daily as much money as we wanted. Every fowl fills its crop by a single grain at a time. In like manner we accumulated our money; and after having converted it into gold, we carried it about with us sewed to our garments under rags, which frequently concealed a sufficient sum to buy a complete new suit. We might be said to have been stitched up with gold; and there were some few old rascals among us who were worth a very considerable sum, which they always carried about their persons. Persons of our class generally possess the vices of avarice and cruelty in the highest degree. I will illustrate this assertion by relating to you a very singular example in the history of a beggar of my own acquaintance, which is well worth the recital.

A poor beggar, named Pantalon Castello, a native of Genoa, having married at Florence, had one son by his wife, whom he intended so to establish in life as to render it unnecessary for him either to work, or go into service, to obtain his livelihood; with this view, taking advantage of the facility with which the delicate members of a new-born infant may be dislocated, he determined on the barbarity of crippling his own child. Perchance, reader, you will feel inclined to stop me here, to tell me that this is by no means extraordinary among beggars. I am ready to

allow that beggars of every nation in the world are in the habit of availing themselves of such inhuman means to excite compassion; but our Pantalon, like a true Genoese, was willing to surpass all his predecessors in this point, and disfigured his poor son so dreadfully that there was scarcely such another monster in the world. This unfortunate child, who, with the exception of his arms and tongue, which had not been touched, was deformed all over, was no sooner out of his infancy, than he began to exhibit himself through the streets in a kind of cage, on a little ass which he guided with his own hands.

If, however, his body had but little of the human form in it, by way of amends he had a great deal of wit, which shone the more brilliantly as he advanced in age. His repartees were so pleasant and so much to the purpose, that he was the admiration of all who knew him, and received great alms, which he owed no less to his facetious and good-natured manner than to the compassion excited by his unfortunate person. Deformed and ugly as he was, however, he lived until seventy-two years of age, after which he fell sick; and, knowing well that his illness must be fatal, he began to reflect on his past life, and sent for a confessor, a pious and learned man, with whom he was acquainted. Having discoursed with him about all his affairs, as well spiritual as temporal, he called in a notary, to whom he indited his will in the following terms:-" I recommend my soul to God who created it, and my body to the earth, and I wished to be interred in my own parish.

" Item. I desire that my ass be sold, and that the money accruing therefrom be employed in defraying the expenses of my burial. As for the pack-saddle, I bequeath it to the grand duke my lord, to whom it of right belongs, and whom I hereby nominate executor to this my will, and universal heir to my property."

This beggar died a few days after, and his will, being made public, became the talk of the city of Florence. As every one had known him to be a merry-conceited fellow all his life, it was the general opinion that he had hoped, by this seeming burlesque, to make folks laugh at him even after his death. But the duke somewhat differed from them; for, having frequently heard of the testator and his pleasantries, he suspected there might be some mystery in it. To unravel it, therefore, he ordered the pack-saddle which was bequeathed to him to be brought to his palace, where he caused it to be unripped in the presence of the whole court, who were not a little surprised at discovering in it several pieces of gold of all kinds, to the value of three thousand six hundred crowns, of four hundred maravedis each. It came afterwards to be known that it was by the advice of his confessor that he had thus disposed of his property, which the grand duke, like a just and pious prince, made a good use of by employing the whole of it in founding a perpetual mass to be said for the testator's soul.

CHAPTER XXV.

HOW GUZMAN EXCITED THE COMPASSION OF A

CARDINAL, AND WHAT FOLLOWED.

HAVING risen one fine morning betimes, as was usual with me, I seated myself at the gate of a cardinal who passed for one of the most charitable men in Rome, having first taken great pains to swell and dress up one of my legs into an ulcer, which might have deceived the most skilful surgeons. had 'not on this occasion forgotten to make my face. as pale as possible, for I should have been inexcusable indeed had I committed the same fault twice. I began begging in the most dolorous tone that my voice was capable of, and several of the servants who were passing in and out were much affected by my plaintive moans; but this was merely practising for the game I had in view. It was the pity of their master that I hoped to excite, who no sooner made his appearance than I redoubled my cries and complaints, addressing him in these words: "O noble Christian! friend of Jesus Christ! take pity on a poor afflicted sinner, diseased and crippled in the flower of his age; be pleased, your eminence, to take compassion on my misery, and praised be the passion of our Redeemer."

The cardinal, who was a holy man, stopped to