ing your
short stay at Naples, and that you will sometimes think of your visit
with pleasure."

I answered that I could only recall my visit with delight after the
kindness with which she had deigned to treat me that evening; and, in
fact, my recollections of Naples were always of the happiest description.

After I had treated the duke's attendants with generosity, the poor
nobleman, whom fortune had favoured, and whom nature had deprived of the
sweetest of all enjoyments, came with me to the door of my carriage and I
went on my way.

CHAPTER X

My Carriage Broken--Mariuccia's Wedding-Flight of Lord
Lismore--My Return to Florence, and My Departure with the
Corticelli

My Spaniard was going on before us on horseback, and I was sleeping
profoundly beside Don Ciccio Alfani in my comfortable carriage, drawn by
four horses, when a violent shock aroused me. The carriage had been
overturned on the highway, at midnight, beyond Francolisa and four miles
from St. Agatha.

Alfani was beneath me and uttered piercing shrieks, for he thought he had
broken his left arm. Le Duc rode back and told me that the postillions
had taken flight, possibly to give notice of our mishap to highwaymen,
who are very common in the States of the Church and Naples.

I got out of the carriage easily enough, but poor old Alfani, who was
unwieldly with fat, badly hurt, and half dead with fright, could not
extricate himself without assistance. It took us a quarter of an hour to
get him free. The poor wretch amused me by the blasphemies which he
mingled with prayers to his patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi.

I was not without experience of such accidents and was not at all hurt,
for one's safety depends a good deal on the position one is in. Don
Ciccio had probably hurt his arm by stretching it out just as the
accident took place.

I took my sword, my musket, and my horse-pistols out of the carriage, and
I made them and my pockets pistols ready so as to offer a stiff
resistance to the brigands if they came; and I then told Le Duc to take
some money and ride off and see if he could bring some peasants to our
assistance.

Don Ciccio groaned over the accident, but I, resolving to sell my money
and my life dearly, made a rampart of the carriage and four horses, and
stood sentry, with my arms ready.

I then felt prepared for all hazards, and was quite calm, but my
unfortunate companion continued to pour forth his groans, and