whole conduct. It may be that this my lot may be protracted from
month to month, even till I grow grey in my captivity. Perhaps this
little child may continue to grow under my eye, and become one in
the service of this large family of pain, and grief, and calamity.
With such a disposition as he has already shown, what would become
of him? Alas; he would at most be made only a good under-keeper, or
fill some similar place. Yet I shall surely have conferred on him
some benefit if I can succeed in giving him a desire to do kind
offices to the good and to himself, and to nourish sentiments of
habitual benevolence. This soliloquy was very natural in my
situation; I was always fond of children, and the office of an
instructor appeared to me a sublime duty. For a few years I had
acted in that capacity with Giacomo and Giulio Porro, two young men
of noble promise, whom I loved, and shall continue to love as if
they were my own sons. Often while in prison were my thoughts
busied with them; and how it grieved me not to be enabled to
complete their education. I sincerely prayed that they might meet
with a new master, who would be as much attached to them as I had
been.

At times I could not help exclaiming to myself, What a strange
burlesque is all this! instead of two noble youths, rich in all that
nature and fortune can endow them with, here I have a pupil, poor
little fellow! deaf, dumb, a castaway; the son of a robber, who at
most can aspire only to the rank of an under-jailer, and which, in a
little less softened phraseology, would mean to say a sbirro. {2}
This reflection confused and disquieted me; yet hardly did I hear
the strillo {3} of my little dummy than I felt my heart grow warm
again, just as a father when he hears the voice of a son. I lost
all anxiety about his mean estate. It is no fault of his if he be