ne day, I
crossed first so as to give them courage, but suddenly, when I reached
the middle of the plank, it gave way under me, and there I was in the
ditch, up to the chin in stinking mud, and, in spite of my inward rage,
obliged, according to the general understanding, to join in the merry
laughter of all my companions. But the merriment did not last long, for
the joke was too bad, and everyone declared it to be so. Some peasants
were called to the rescue, and with much difficulty they dragged me out
in the most awful state. An entirely new dress, embroidered with
spangles, my silk stockings, my lace, everything, was of course spoiled,
but not minding it, I laughed more heartily that anybody else, although I
had already made an inward vow to have the most cruel revenge. In order
to know the author of that bitter joke I had only to appear calm and
indifferent about it. It was evident that the plank had been purposely
sawn. I was taken back to the house, a shirt, a coat, a complete costume,
were lent me, for I had come that time only for twenty-four hours, and
had not brought anything with me. I went to the city the next morning,
and towards the evening I returned to the gay company. Fabris, who had
been as angry as myself, observed to me that the perpetrator of the joke
evidently felt his guilt, because he took good care not to discover
himself. But I unveiled the mystery by promising one sequin to a peasant
woman if she could find out who had sawn the plank. She contrived to
discover the young man who had done the work. I called on him, and the
offer of a sequin, together with my threats, compelled him to confess
that he had been paid for his work by Signor Demetrio, a Greek, dealer in
spices, a good and amiable man of between forty-five and fifty years, on
whom I never played any trick, except in the case of a pretty, young
servant girl whom he was courting, and whom I had juggled from him.

Satisfied with my discovery, I was racking my brain to invent a good
practical joke, but to obtain complete revenge it was necessary that my
trick should prove worse than the one he had played upon me.
Unfortunately my imagination was at bay. I could not find anything. A
funeral put an end to my difficulties.

Armed with my hunting-knife, I went alone to the cemetery a little after
midnight, and opening the grave of the dead man who had been buried that
very day, I cut off one of the arms near the shoulder, not without some
trou