the house without revealing his name.

This, however, was discovered by a servant who had recognized Biondello.
Already on the following morning the cardinal, an old acquaintance from
the Bucentauro, waited upon the prince. The interview lasted an hour;
the cardinal was much moved; tears stood in his eyes when they parted;
the prince, too, was affected. The same evening a visit was paid to the
sick man, of whose case the surgeon gives a very favorable report; the
mantle in which he was wrapped had rendered the thrusts unsteady, and
weakened their force. Since this event not a day has passed without the
prince's paying a visit at the cardinal's, or receiving one from him,
and a close intimacy has begun to exist between him and the cardinal's
family.

The cardinal is a venerable man of sixty, with a majestic aspect, but
full of gayety and good health. He is said to be the richest prelate
throughout all the dominions of the republic. He is reported to manage
his immense fortune in a very liberal manner, and, although prudently
economical, to despise none of the joys of this life. This nephew, who
is his sole heir, is not always on the best of terms with his uncle.
For, although the cardinal is anything but an enemy to youthful
pleasures, the conduct of the nephew must exhaust the utmost tolerance.
His loose principles and dissipated manner of living, aided unhappily by
all the attractions which can make vice tempting and excite sensuality,
have rendered him the terror of all fathers and the bane of all
husbands; this last attack also was said to have been caused by an
intrigue he had begun with the wife of the ambassador, without speaking
of other serious broils from which the power and the money of the
cardinal could scarcely extricate him. But for this the cardinal would
be the happiest man in Italy, for he possesses everything that can make
life agreeable; but by this one domestic misfortune all the gifts of
fortune are annulled, and the enjoyment of his wealth is embittered to
the cardinal by the continual fear of finding nobody to inherit it.

The whole of this information I have obtained from Biondello. The
prince has found in this man a real treasure. Every day he becomes more
indispensable, and we are continually discovering in him some new
talent. Some days ago the prince felt feverish and could not sleep; the
night-lamp was extinguished, and all his ringing failed to arouse the
valet-de-chambre, who had gone t