about me. I was made to show him my abominable sketches upon bits of
paper and to sing to him, and caused him astonishment at my improvising
about the Madonna and himself and the buffalo. He finally asked Domenica
to bring me next morning to see him at the Borghese Palace. He was the
powerful prince himself, who had unwittingly been the cause of my poor
mother's death!


_II.--In the School of Life_


The prince, his daughter Francesca, and her fiance Fabiani, overwhelmed
me with kindness. The visit had to be frequently repeated; and I became
quite accustomed to the splendours of the palazzo. Finally, Eccellenza
decided to have me educated in the Jesuits' school; and I had to bid
farewell to good Domenica and to enter upon my school life. New
occupations engrossed me; new acquaintances presented themselves; the
dramatic portion of my life began to unfold itself. Here years compress
themselves together.

I became particularly attached to one of my school-fellows, Bernardo, a
gay, almost dissolute son of a Roman senator. When he suddenly left
school to join the Papal Guard the whole world seemed to me empty and
deserted. One day I saw him pass my window on a prancing horse. I rushed
out, but ran across the porter's wife of the Borghese Palace, who
informed me that the young Eccellenza and her husband had just arrived.
Would I not come to give them welcome? To the palace I went, was
graciously received by Fabiani and Francesca, who brought me their
little daughter Flaminia, the "little abbess," as she was called, having
been destined from her birth for the life of a nun. The child had