ldn't have cost him any more to be made a prince, a duke, or
a marquis; but he preferred the title of count. He had a magnificent
estate called La Sauceda, and he wanted to be the Count de la Sauceda.

Caesar comprehended that this gentleman might be fortune coming in the
guise of chance, and he set himself to making good with him, to telling
him stories of aristocratic life in Rome, some of which he had read in
books, and some of which he had heard somewhere or other.

"What vices must exist here!" Don Calixto kept exclaiming. "That is why
they say: _'Roma veduta, fede perduta.'_"

Caesar noted that Don Calixto had a great enthusiasm for the
aristocracy; and so he took pains, every time he talked with him, to mix
the names of a few princes and marquises into the conversation; he also
gave him to understand that he lived among them, and went so far as to
hint the possibility of being of service to him in Rome, but in a
manner ambiguous enough to permit of withdrawing the offer in case of
necessity. Fortunately for Caesar, Don Calixto had his affairs all
completely arranged; the one thing he desired was that Caesar, whom he
supposed to be an expert on archeological questions, should go about
with him the three or four days he expected to remain in Rome. He had
spent a whole week making calls, and as yet had seen nothing.

Caesar had no other recourse but to buy a Baedeker and read it and learn
a lot of things quite devoid of interest for him.

The next day Don Calixto was waiting for him in a carriage at the door,
and they went to see the sights.

Don Calixto was a man that made phrases and ornamented them with many
adverbs ending in -ly.

"Verily," he said, after his first archeological walk in Rome, "verily,
it seems strange that after more than two thousand years have passed,
all these monuments should still remain."

"That is most true," replied Caesar, looking at him with his impassive
air.

"I understand why Rome is the real school for learning, integrally, both
ancient and modern history."

"Most certainly," agreed Caesar.

Don Calixto, who knew neither Italian nor French, found a source of
help, for the days he was to spend in Rome, in Caesar's friendship,
and made him accompany him everywhere. Caesar was able to collect and
preserve, though not precisely cut in brass, the phrases Don Calixto
uttered in front of the principal monuments of Rome.

In front of the Colosseum, his first exclamation was: