FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   >>   >|  
y charming ball, to come as I do to your house, after the manner we parted eighteen months ago at Naples. Listen!--one goes for health-sake to Naples to pass the winter, to enjoy the Carnival in peace. After one or two intrigues with beautiful women having dark eyes, not, however, comparable with those of the Duchess of Palma, one fine night in the middle of a Pulcinello supper, you send us in place of a dessert a company of black-looking _sbirri_, who rush like vultures upon us, and rust with dirty hands our Venetian daggers which they wrest from us. Twelve to three, they then separate Taddeo, Von Apsbury and myself, and placing us in rickety carriages, take one of us to prison, another to the frontier, and hurry me on board a miserable little vessel, from which they tumble me like a package of damaged goods on the _quai_ of Marseilles. I had expected to make the tour of Italy." "Vicompte," said the Duke, with a smile, "the air of Italy was not healthy for you. Very excellent physicians told me your life was unsafe in that country, and that you should leave it as soon as possible. So complain to the faculty, but thank me for having followed their directions." "Now what mistakes," said the young man, "people make. I have always heard that the climate of Naples was excellent for the chest." "True," said the Duke, "but it is bad for the head." "Of that I know something," said Monte-Leone, bowing to the Duke. "Well, then, suppose it is," continued d'Harcourt, who wished at any price to avenge himself on the _sbirri_ of his Excellency, in the person of the Duke himself. "It may be the climate exaggerates and sometimes destroys the head, but it is excellent for the heart--a suffering heart--a heart which is attacked is easily cured in Naples. True, the remedies are sometimes priceless, but patients in desperate cases do not hesitate on that account." "I hope, Count," said the Duke, who would not understand the allusion of the young man to his marriage, "that the climate of Paris suits you better than that of Naples. Besides, the Duc d'Harcourt, your father, that most influential nobleman, will prevent you henceforth from endangering an existence you held too cheaply in Italy." "Luckily," said D'Harcourt, with a smile, "your Excellency watched over me, and it is no slight honor to have as a physician the minister of police of a kingdom. Excuse me, however," added he to the Duke, "I hear the prelude of Collinet'
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Naples
 

climate

 

Harcourt

 

excellent

 

sbirri

 
Excellency
 
person
 

avenge

 
exaggerates
 

remedies


priceless

 

easily

 
attacked
 

charming

 
destroys
 

suffering

 
wished
 
continued
 

parted

 

eighteen


people

 

months

 

manner

 

suppose

 

patients

 

bowing

 

watched

 

Luckily

 

cheaply

 

existence


slight

 
prelude
 

Collinet

 

Excuse

 

physician

 
minister
 

police

 
kingdom
 

endangering

 
henceforth

understand
 

allusion

 
marriage
 
mistakes
 

hesitate

 

account

 
influential
 

nobleman

 
prevent
 

father