application to the walls was again the pupil's device. I allowed her
willingly to write "Don Francesco ama Donna Aurelia," but forbade her to
reverse the names. One day when I was out she put "Virginia Strozzi ama
Don Francesco." I did not know it till long afterwards.

I gave her the rudiments of literature also: I grounded her in letters
as well as in lettering. Amongst my few possessions were still my
"Aminta" and my "Fioretti": and I knew much of Dante's comedy by heart.
Virginia had a retentive memory and great aptitude for learning.
Whenever she did well I called her a good child, and she was so
dreadfully afraid lest I might withhold the praise that she toiled at
her ciphering and pothooks long after I was asleep. There is no doubt
that this was a happy time for both adventurers--full of interest for
me, and of extreme comfort for the girl whom I was able to befriend.

It is not to be pretended that we kept good company. We were outcasts,
and were thrown of necessity amongst those who had been cast out. But
the standards of life vary with those who live, and I never could see
that a man was less of a thief because he thieved from a throne, or less
a profligate because he debauched a princess. I was, no doubt, in
advance of my time; these are the ideas of Monsieur Voltaire. I believe
that I saw a great deal of iniquity, for the taverns and gaming-dens to
which I sometimes resorted for shelter or entertainment were filled with
desperadoes of all sorts--deserters from the army, thieves, coin-
clippers in hiding, assassins elect, women of the town, and even worse.
But while I expect my reader to believe that I never sinned with them, I
shall find him harder to convince that I was never invited to sin. Such,
however, is the fact, and of course it is open to the retort that you do
not invite a drunkard to be drunk. Be that as it may, I met these
unfortunates upon the common ground of civility, conversed with them as