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connected with the criminal-chancellor, and well acquainted with the coadjutor. In short, he procured my appointment as adjunct to the latter.

The period of the Venetian government is fixed; the gov ernors are changed every sixteen months. When I entered my place, four months had only elapsed. Besides, I was a supernumerary, and could not pretend to any kind of emoluments; but I enjoyed all the pleasures of society, a good table, abundance of plays, concerts, balls, and fêtes. It is a charming employment; but as they are not regular officers, and as the governor can give the commission to whomsoever he pleases, there are some of their chancellors who languish in inaction, and others who pass over the rest, and have no time to repose themselves. It is personal merit which brings them into repute; but most frequently protections carry the day.

I was aware of the necessity of securing a reputation to myself; and in my quality of supernumerary, I took every means of instructing myself, and making myself useful. The coadjutor was not too fond of employment; I assisted him as much as possible, and at the end of a few months I had become as competent as himself. The chancellor was not long in perceiving it; and he gave me thorny commissions without their passing through the channel of his coadjutor, which I was fortunate enough to execute to his satisfaction. . . .

The sixteen months' residence of the podesta drew to a close. Our criminal-chancellor was already retained for Feltre, and he proposed to me the place of principal coadjutor, if I would follow him. Charmed with this proposition, I took a suitable time to speak of it to my father; and next day an engagement was concluded between us.

Here I was at length settled. Hitherto I had looked only on employments at a distance; but now I held one which pleased and suited me. I resolved with myself never to quit it; but man proposes, and God disposes.

On the departure of our governor from Chiozza, all were eager to show him every sort of honor; and the wits of the town, or those who thought themselves such, had a literary assembly, in which the illustrious person by whom they had been governed was celebrated both in verse and prose.

I sung also all the sorts of glory of the hero of the festival, and I expatiated at great length on the virtues and personal qualities of the governor's lady; both of them had shown a

kindness for me; and at Bergamo, where I saw them in office some time afterwards, as well as at Venice, when his excellency was decorated with the rank of senator, they always continued to honor me with their protection.

Everybody went away, and I remained at Chiozza till M. Zabottini (this was the name of the chancellor) called me to Venice for the journey to Feltre. I had always cultivated the acquaintance of the nuns of Saint Francis, where there were charming boarders; the lady B * * * had one under her direction, who was very beautiful, very rich, and very amiable; she would have pleased me infinitely, but my age, my situation, and my fortune forbade me to flatter myself with the idea. The nun, however, did not despair; and when I called on her, she never failed to send for the young lady to the parlor. I felt that I was becoming seriously attached; the directress seemed satisfied; I did not comprehend her: I spoke to her one day of my inclination and my fear; and she encouraged me and confided the secret to me. This lady possessed merit and property; but there was a stain on her birth. "However, this small defect is nothing," said the lady with the veil; "the girl is prudent and well educated, and I answer for her character and conduct. She has," she continued, "a guardian, who must be gained over; but let me alone for that. This guardian, who is very old and very infirm, has, it is true, some pretensions to his ward; but he's in the wrong, and . . . as I stand for something in this business. . . let me alone, I say again; I shall arrange things for the best."

I own, from this discourse, this confidence, and this encouragement, I began to believe myself fortunate. Miss N*** did not look upon me with an unfavorable eye, and I reckoned the affair as good as concluded.

The whole convent perceived my inclination for the boarder, and there were ladies acquainted with the intrigues of the parlor who took pity on me, and informed me of what was passing. They did it in this way.

The windows of my room were exactly opposite to the steeple of the convent; several apertures were contrived in its construction, through which the figures of those who approached them were confusedly seen. I had several times observed figures and signs at these apertures, and I learned in time that those signs marked the letters of the alphabet, that words were formed of them, and that a conversation could thus be carried on at a

VOL. XIX. - -6

distance. I had almost every day a quarter of an hour of this mute conversation, which was of a discreet and decorous nature.

By means of this manual alphabet I learned that Miss N *** was on the point of being married to her guardian. Indignant at the proceedings of Lady B***, I called on her after dinner, determined to display my resentment. I demanded to see her; she came, and on looking steadily at me, perceived that I was chagrined, and dexterously took care not to give me time to speak; she began the attack herself with a sort of vigor and a degree of vehemence.

"Very well, sir," said she, "you are displeased, I see by your countenance." I wished to speak then, but she would not listen to me; she raised her voice and continued: "Yes, sir, Miss N*** is to be married, and her guardian is to marry her." I wished to speak loud in my turn. "Silence, silence," cried she, "listen to me; this marriage is my contrivance; I have, after mature consideration, been induced to second it, and it was for you that I solicited it." "For me!" said I. "Yes, silence," said she, "and you shall see the design of an honest woman, who is attached to you. Are you," continued she, "in a situation to marry? No, for a hundred reasons. Would the young lady have waited your conveniency? No, for it was not in her power; she must have married; a young man would have married her, and you would have lost her forever. Now she is to be married to an old man, to a valetudinary, who cannot live long : and, though I am unacquainted with the pleasures and inconveniences of marriage, I know this much, that a young wife must shorten the days of an old husband; you will receive a pretty widow who has been a wife merely in name; on that subject you may rest contented: she will even be better off, for she will be richer than she is at present; and in the mean time you can go on in your own way. Fear nothing on her account; no, my dear friend, fear nothing; she will mix in the world with her dotard, but I shall watch over her conduct. Yes, yes, she is yours; I pledge myself for that; I give you my word of honor."

Miss N*** now made her appearance and approached the grate. The directress said to me, with a mysterious air, "Compliment miss on her marriage." I could hold out no longer: I made my bow, and went away without saying a word.

I never saw either the directress or the boarder again; and happily I soon forgot both of them.

On arriving in Venice, after embracing my mother and aunt, whose joy was excessive, I paid a visit to my uncle the attorney; whom I solicited to obtain a place for me with an advocate for instruction in the forms and practice of the bar. My uncle, who was enabled to make a choice, recommended me to M. Terzi, one of the best pleaders and chamber-counsel in the republic, with whom I was to remain two years; but I entered in the month of October, 1731, and left him in May, 1732; when I was received as an advocate. In all probability they looked merely to the date of the year and not to that of the months. There was always something extraordinary in all my arrangements, and, to say the truth, almost always to my advantage. I was born lucky, and when I have not been so the fault has been entirely my own.

The advocates at Venice must have their lodgings and be at their chambers in the quarter della Roba. I took apartments at Saint Paternieu, and my mother and aunt did not quit me. I equipped myself in my professional gown, the same as that of the patricians, enveloped my head in an immense wig, and waited with great impatience for the day of my presentation in court. The presentation does not take place without ceremony. The novice must have two assistants, called at Venice Compari di Palazzo, whom the young man selects from among those old advocates who are the most attached to him. I chose M. Uccelli and M. Roberti, both my neighbors.

I went between my two friends to the bottom of the great staircase in the great hall of the court, and for half an hour I was obliged to make so many bows and contortions that my back was almost broken, and my wig resembled the mane of a lion. Every one who passed me had something to say respecting me; some observed that I was a lad with some expression in my countenance; others, that I was a new sweeper of the courts; some embraced me, and others laughed in my face. At length I ascended and sent my servant in quest of a gondola, not daring to make my appearance in the open street in my then equipment, and I appointed him to meet me in the hall of the great council, where I seated myself on a bench, and where I saw everybody pass without being seen by anybody.

I began to reflect on the profession of which I had made choice. There are generally two hundred and forty advocates in the list at Venice; of these there are from ten to twelve in first rank, twenty perhaps in the second, and all the rest are

obliged to hunt for clients, and the pettifogging attorneys are willing enough to become their hounds on the condition of sharing together the prey. I was in apprehension for myself, as I was last on the list, and I regretted the chanceries which I had abandoned.

But then, on the other hand, I saw no profession so lucrative and honorable as that of an advocate. A noble Venetian, a patrician, a member of the republic, who would not deign to become merchant, banker, notary, physician, or professor of a university, has no hesitation in embracing the profession of an advocate, which he follows in the courts, and he calls the other advocates his brothers. Everything depended on good fortune: and why was I to be less fortunate than another? The attempt required to be made, and it was incumbent on me to plunge into the chaos of the bar, where perseverance and probity lead to the temple of fortune.

While I was thus musing by myself, and building castles in Spain, I observed a fair, round, and plump woman of about thirty, advancing towards me, of a tolerable figure, with a flat nose, roguish eyes, a profusion of gold about her neck, ears, arms, and fingers, and in a dress which announced her to be of the inferior orders, but in easy circumstances; she accosted and saluted me.

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"Good day, sir."-"Good day, madam."—"Will you allow me to pay you my compliments?"-"On what?""On your admission; I observed you making your obeisance at court; upon my word, sir, you are prettily equipped!". "Am I not? Do you think me handsome?"-"Oh, the dress is nothing; M. Goldoni becomes everything."-"So you know me, madam?" "Have not I seen you four years ago in the land of litigation, in a long peruque and a short robe? "You are in the right, when I was with an attorney?"—"Yes, with M. Indric.""So you know my uncle, then?"—"I ? I know every person here, from the doge to the clerks of court." -"Are you married?"—"No."-"Are you a widow?" "No."-"I dare not ask you more. "You are right." However, from your appearance woman."—"I am so in then?" "None at all."

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you seem a decent reality." "You have a revenue

"But you are well equipped; and "I am a girl of the courts, and the courts maintain me."-"Upon my word, that is very singular! You belong to the courts, you say!"-"Yes, sir; my father

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