th. I did not permit him to exert
himself further; but, without loss of time, returned the post-house,
applied to my medicine-chest, and prepared a dose of calomel, which was
administered that evening with due solemnity. I then retired to rest.

The next morning I repaired to his bedside, and there, to my great
satisfaction, found that my medicine had performed wonders. The
patient's eyes were opened, the headache had in great measure ceased,
and he was, in short, a different person. I was received by him and his
servants with all the honours due to the greatest sage, and they could
not collect words sufficiently expressive of their admiration of my
profound skill. As they were pouring forth their thanks and gratitude,
looking up I saw a strange figure in the room, whose person I must take
the liberty to describe, so highly ludicrous and extravagant did it
appear. He was of the middle size, rather inclined to be corpulent, with
thick black eyebrows, dark eyes, a three days' beard, and mustachios.
He wore the Turkish bag dress, from his shoulders downwards, yellow
_pabouches_, shawl to his waist, and carried a long cane in his hand;
but from his shoulders up he was an European, a neckcloth, his hair
dressed in the _aile de pigeon_ fashion, a thick tail clubbed, and
over all an old-fashioned, three-cornered laced hat. This redoubtable
personage made me a bow, and at the same time accosted me in Italian. I
was not long in discovering that he was my rival the doctor, and that he
was precisely what, from the description of the Mirza, I expected him
to be, viz. an itinerant quack, who, perhaps, might once have mixed
medicines in some apothecary's shop in Italy or Constantinople, and who
had now set up for himself in this remote corner of Asia where he might
physic and kill at his pleasure.

I did not shrink from his acquaintance, because I was certain that
the life and adventures of such a person must be highly curious and
entertaining, and I cordially encouraged him in his advances, hoping
thus to acquire his confidence.

He very soon informed me who he was, and what were his pursuits, and
did not seem to take the least umbrage at my having prescribed for
his patient without previously consulting him. His name was Ludovico
Pestello, and he pretended to have studied at Padua, where he had
got his diploma. He had not long arrived at Constantinople, with the
intention of setting up for himself, where, finding that the city
o