ng out the truth; and the results
of these inquiries had also been favorable to these itinerants, whose
habits of vagabondism might otherwise very justly have brought them within
the pale of suspicion.

The flippant Pippo was the principal speaker in the short investigation,
and his answers were given with a ready frankness, that, under the
circumstances, did him and his companion infinite service. The buffoon,
though accustomed to deception and frauds, had sufficient mother-wit to
comprehend the critical position in which he was now placed, and that it
was wiser to be sincere, than to attempt effecting his ends by any of the
usual means of prevarication. He answered the judge, therefore, with a
simplicity which his ordinary pursuits would not have given reason to
expect, and apparently with some touches of feeling that did credit to his
heart.

"This frankness is thy friend," added the chatelain, after he had nearly
exhausted his questions, the answers having convinced him that there was
no ground of suspicion, beyond the adventitious circumstance of their
having been travellers on the same road as the deceased; "it has done much
towards convincing me of thy innocence, and it is in general the best
shield for those who have committed no crime. I only marvel that one of
thy habits should have had the sense to discover it!"

"Suffer me to tell you, Signor Castellano, or Podesta, whichever may be
your eccellenza's proper title, that you have not given Pippo credit for
the wit he really hath. It is true I live by throwing dust into men's
eyes, and by making others think the wrong is the right: but mother Nature
has given us all an insight into our own interests, and mine is quite
clear enough to let me know when the true is better than the false."

"Happy would it be if all had the same faculty and the same disposition to
put it in use."

"I shall not presume to teach one as wise and as experienced as yourself,
eccellenza, but if an humble man might speak freely in this honorable
presence, he would say that it is not common to meet with a fact without
finding it a very near neighbor to a lie. They pass for the wisest and the
most virtuous who best know how to mix the two so artfully together, that,
like the sweets we put upon healing bitters, the palatable may make the
useful go down. Such at least is the opinion of a poor street buffoon,
who has no better claim to merit than having learned his art on the Mole
and in