DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53553#0260
226
I have been told, have been purchased at the price of two
and more hundred ounces, according* to the workmanship
and the neatness of the subject.
It is natural, my dear T. to suppose that the reflections
elicited by the view of this villa formed the subject of our
conversation for some time after leaving* it, the more so,
as Don Michele, with the most calm inquisitiveness, asked
for every minute particular which my recollection of the ac-
counts of the ancient authors enabled me to furnish him with.
His interrogatory resembled the cross examination with
which an able counsellor endeavours to worry his victim
stuck up in the witness box. I knew him too well to ex-
pect any good from it, When he had fished out of my com-
municative disposition every thing he deemed meet for his
purpose, he stopped short, coughed significantly three or
four times, took out his tabatiere (double the size of one of
our tinder-boxes), and equitably dispensing to each of his
nostrils a dose of the narcotic dust, with a power of suction,
which, in all probability, conveyed the. stimulant to the vici-
nity of the pineal gland, and, with a strength of nasal into-
nation, which reverberated an audible echo from every
cavity of the cranium, and disencumbering, moreover, his
frill and the folds of his waiscoat from the surplus of the
dose which had settled thereon, by a quick and repeated
sweep of the hand spread into the shape of a broom,—he
began as follows : fC Signor Don Luigi! were I less con-
vinced of your veracity, and your mode of thinking and ac-
ting, I should fancy all that you have been trying to per-
suade me of, with regard to this emperor Tiberio, was a mere
invention of your imagination by way of a frolic, to make a
fool of your humble servant. But as I entertain a better
opinion of your principles, I am inclined to believe, that if
any body is made a fool of, it is not me at least. I make
no doubt but these nursery tales of your Tacito and Sue-
tonio,
I have been told, have been purchased at the price of two
and more hundred ounces, according* to the workmanship
and the neatness of the subject.
It is natural, my dear T. to suppose that the reflections
elicited by the view of this villa formed the subject of our
conversation for some time after leaving* it, the more so,
as Don Michele, with the most calm inquisitiveness, asked
for every minute particular which my recollection of the ac-
counts of the ancient authors enabled me to furnish him with.
His interrogatory resembled the cross examination with
which an able counsellor endeavours to worry his victim
stuck up in the witness box. I knew him too well to ex-
pect any good from it, When he had fished out of my com-
municative disposition every thing he deemed meet for his
purpose, he stopped short, coughed significantly three or
four times, took out his tabatiere (double the size of one of
our tinder-boxes), and equitably dispensing to each of his
nostrils a dose of the narcotic dust, with a power of suction,
which, in all probability, conveyed the. stimulant to the vici-
nity of the pineal gland, and, with a strength of nasal into-
nation, which reverberated an audible echo from every
cavity of the cranium, and disencumbering, moreover, his
frill and the folds of his waiscoat from the surplus of the
dose which had settled thereon, by a quick and repeated
sweep of the hand spread into the shape of a broom,—he
began as follows : fC Signor Don Luigi! were I less con-
vinced of your veracity, and your mode of thinking and ac-
ting, I should fancy all that you have been trying to per-
suade me of, with regard to this emperor Tiberio, was a mere
invention of your imagination by way of a frolic, to make a
fool of your humble servant. But as I entertain a better
opinion of your principles, I am inclined to believe, that if
any body is made a fool of, it is not me at least. I make
no doubt but these nursery tales of your Tacito and Sue-
tonio,