st, while a third was to be set up in a goldbeater's
establishment at Florence. In such objects the greatest part of his
fortune was soon consumed. At length the Carnival season was at hand;
the festival of St. John was to be celebrated, and the whole city, as
usual, was in a ferment. Numbers of the noblest families were about to
vie with each other in the splendour of their parties, and the Lady
Onesta, being resolved not to be outshone by her acquaintance,
insisted that Roderigo should exceed them all in the richness of their
feasts. For the reasons above stated, he submitted to her will; nor,
indeed, would he have scrupled at doing much more, however difficult
it might have been, could he have flattered himself with a hope of
preserving the peace and comfort of his household, and of awaiting
quietly the consummation of his ruin. But this was not the case,
inasmuch as the arrogant temper of his wife had grown to such a height
of asperity by long indulgence, that he was at a loss in what way to
act. His domestics, male and female, would no longer remain in the
house, being unable to support for any length of time the intolerable
life they led. The inconvenience which he suffered in consequence of
having no one to whom he could intrust his affairs it is impossible to
express. Even his own familiar devils, whom he had brought along with
him, had already deserted him, choosing to return below rather than
longer submit to the tyranny of his wife. Left, then, to himself,
amidst this turbulent and unhappy life, and having dissipated all the
ready money he possessed, he was compelled to live upon the hopes of
the returns expected from his ventures in the East and the West. Being
still in good credit, in order to support his rank he resorted to
bills of exchange; nor was it long before, accounts running against
him, he found himself in the same situation as many other unhappy
speculators in that market. Just as his case became extremely
delicate, there arrived sudden tidings both from East and West that
one of his wife's brothers had dissipated the whole of Roderigo's
profits in play, and that while the other was returning with a rich
cargo uninsured, his ship had the misfortune to be wrecked, and he
himself was lost. No sooner did this affair transpire than his
creditors assembled, and supposing it must be all over with him,
though their bills had not yet become due, they resolved to keep a
strict watch over him in fear that h