XCV. But he grew rich, and with his riches grew so XCVI. Himself, and much (heaven knows how gotten) cash, XCVII. They reach'd the island, he transferr'd his lading, Or else the people would perhaps have shot him; And thus at Venice landed to reclaim His wife, religion, house, and Christian name. XCVIII. His wife received, the patriarch re-baptized him, (He made the church a present by the way); He then threw off the garments which disguised him, And borrow'd the Count's small-clothes for a day: His friends the more for his long absence prized him, Finding he'd wherewithal to make them gay, With dinners, where he oft became the laugh of them, For stories-but I don't believe the half of them. XCIX. Whate'er his youth had suffer'd, his old age I've heard the Count and he were always friends. My pen is at the bottom of a page, Which being finish'd, here the story ends; 'Tis to be wish'd it had been sooner done, But stories somehow lengthen when begun. NOTES. Note 1, page 359, last line. Like the lost Pleiad seen no more below. Note 2, page 363, line 16. His name Giuseppe, call'd more briefly, Beppo. Beppo is the Joe of the Italian Joseph. Note 3, page 367, line 11. The Spaniards call the person a "Cortejo." "Cortejo" is pronounced "Corteho," with an aspirate, according to the Arabesque guttural. It means what there is as yet no precise name for in England, though the practice is as common as in any tramontane country whatever. Note 4, page 370, line 11. Raphael, who died in thy embrace. For the received accounts of the cause of Raphael's death, see his Lives. |