hand on my heart, "and God alone knows
what happiness it has given me."

"You have drunk my blood with happiness! Are you then a cannibal?"

"I believe not, madam; but it would have been sacrilege in my eyes if I
had suffered one single drop of your blood to be lost."

One evening, there was an unusually large attendance at M. D---- R-----'s
assembly, and we were talking of the carnival which was near at hand.
Everybody was regretting the lack of actors, and the impossibility of
enjoying the pleasures of the theatre. I immediately offered to procure a
good company at my expense, if the boxes were at once subscribed for, and
the monopoly of the faro bank granted to me. No time was to be lost, for
the carnival was approaching, and I had to go to Otranto to engage a
troop. My proposal was accepted with great joy, and the
proveditore-generale placed a felucca at my disposal. The boxes were all
taken in three days, and a Jew took the pit, two nights a week excepted,
which I reserved for my own profit.

The carnival being very long that year, I had every chance of success. It
is said generally that the profession of theatrical manager is difficult,
but, if that is the case, I have not found it so by experience, and am
bound to affirm the contrary.

I left Corfu in the evening, and having a good breeze in my favour, I
reached Otranto by day-break the following morning, without the oarsmen
having had to row a stroke. The distance from Corfu to Otranto is only
about fifteen leagues.

I had no idea of landing, owing to the quarantine which is always
enforced for any ship or boat coming to Italy from the east. I only went
to the parlour of the lazaretto, where, placed behind a grating, you can
speak to any person who calls, and who must stand behind another grating
placed opposite, at a distance of six feet.

As soon as I announced that I had come for the purpose of engaging a
troupe of actors to perform in Corfu, the managers of the two companies
then in Otranto came to the parlour to speak to me. I told them at once
that I wished to see all the performers, one company at a time.

The two rival managers gave me then a very comic scene, each manager
wanting the other to bring his troupe first. The harbour-master told me
that the only way to settle the matter was to say myself which of the two
companies I would see first: one was from Naples, the other from Sicily.
Not knowing either I gave the preference to the first. Don