I answered that I could only recall my visit with delight after the
kindness with which she had deigned to treat me that evening; and, in
fact, my recollections of Naples were always of the happiest description.

After I had treated the duke's attendants with generosity, the poor
nobleman, whom fortune had favoured, and whom nature had deprived of the
sweetest of all enjoyments, came with me to the door of my carriage and I
went on my way.




CHAPTER X

My Carriage Broken--Mariuccia's Wedding-Flight of Lord Lismore--My Return
to Florence, and My Departure with the Corticelli

My Spaniard was going on before us on horseback, and I was sleeping
profoundly beside Don Ciccio Alfani in my comfortable carriage, drawn by
four horses, when a violent shock aroused me. The carriage had been
overturned on the highway, at midnight, beyond Francolisa and four miles
from St. Agatha.

Alfani was beneath me and uttered piercing shrieks, for he thought he had
broken his left arm. Le Duc rode back and told me that the postillions
had taken flight, possibly to give notice of our mishap to highwaymen,
who are very common in the States of the Church and Naples.

I got out of the carriage easily enough, but poor old Alfani, who was
unwieldly with fat, badly hurt, and half dead with fright, could not