first. Tormented by the fear of new visitors I redoubled my efforts, and
in three weeks I had pierced the three boards of which the floor was
composed; and then I thought that all was lost, for I found I had to
pierce a bed of small pieces of marble known at Venice as terrazzo
marmorin. This forms the usual floor of venetian houses of all kinds,
except the cottages, for even the high nobility prefer the terrazzo to
the finest boarded floor. I was thunderstruck to find that my bar made no
impression on this composition; but, nevertheless, I was not altogether
discouraged and cast down. I remembered Hannibal, who, according to Livy,
opened up a passage through the Alps by breaking the rocks with axes and
other instruments, having previously softened them with vinegar. I
thought that Hannibal had succeeded not by aceto, but aceta, which in the
Latin of Padua might well be the same as ascia; and who can guarantee the
text to be free from the blunders of the copyist? All the same, I poured
into the hole a bottle of strong vinegar I had by me, and in the morning,
either because of the vinegar or because I, refreshed and rested, put
more strength and patience into the work, I saw that I should overcome
this new difficulty; for I had not to break the pieces of marble, but
only to pulverize with the end of my bar the cement which kept them
together. I soon perceived that the greatest difficulty was on the
surface, and in four days the whole mosaic was destroyed without the
point of my pike being at all damaged.

Below the pavement I found another plank, but I had expected as much. I
concluded that this would be the last; that is the first to be put down
when the rooms below were being ceiled. I pierced it with some
difficulty, as, the hole being ten inches deep, it had become troublesome
to work the pike. A thousand times I commended myself to the mercy of
God. Those Free-thinkers who say that praying is no good do not know what
they are talking about; for I know by experience that, having prayed to