he bishop's house I told the prelate that I did not
feel in me the vocation to die within a few months a martyr in this
miserable city.

"Give me your blessing," I added, "and let me go; or, rather, come with
me. I promise you that we shall make a fortune somewhere else."

The proposal made him laugh repeatedly during the day. Had he agreed to
it he would not have died two years afterwards in the prime of manhood.
The worthy man, feeling how natural was my repugnance, begged me to
forgive him for having summoned me to him, and, considering it his duty
to send me back to Venice, having no money himself and not being aware
that I had any, he told me that he would give me an introduction to a
worthy citizen of Naples who would lend me sixty ducati-di-regno to
enable me to reach my native city. I accepted his offer with gratitude,
and going to my room I took out of my trunk the case of fine razors which
the Greek had given me, and I begged his acceptance of it as a souvenir
of me. I had great difficulty in forcing it upon him, for it was worth
the sixty ducats, and to conquer his resistance I had to threaten to
remain with him if he refused my present. He gave me a very flattering
letter of recommendation for the Archbishop of Cosenza, in which he
requested him to forward me as far as Naples without any expense to
myself. It was thus I left Martorano sixty hours after my arrival,
pitying the bishop whom I was leaving behind, and who wept as he was
pouring heartfelt blessings upon me.

The Archbishop of Cosenza, a man of wealth and of intelligence, offered
me a room in his palace. During the dinner I made, with an overflowing
heart, the eulogy of the Bishop of Martorano; but I railed mercilessly at
his diocese and at the whole of Calabria in so cutting a manner that I
greatly amused the archbishop and all his guests, amongst whom were two
ladies, his relatives, who did the honours of the dinner-table. The
youngest, however, objected to the satirical style in which I had
depicted her country, and declared war against me; but I contrived to
obtain peace again by telling her that Calabria would be a delightful
country if one-fourth only of its inhabitants were like her. Perhaps it
was with the idea of proving to me that I had been wrong in my opinion
that the archbishop gave on the following day a splendid supper.

Cosenza is a city in which a gentleman can find plenty of amusement; the
nobility are wealthy, the women are pr