torment, I think it had gone hard with me if Rovigo had stood another
half-league away. I shall not readily forget the noble charity of one of
those boys, who, seeing the inflammation set up by the thorn in my foot,
ripped off the sleeve of his shirt and bound it round the instep--my
first experience of the magnanimity of the poor, but by no means my
last.

I limped into Rovigo and learned the direction of the hospital, at whose
gate I was kept with a sorry crew of wretches for a mortal hour while
the brother-in-charge finished his siesta.

Two friars, a soldier disguised in drink, a young Jew, and myself
completed the company, which was allowed to make itself free of a
flagged and whitewashed hall, absolutely devoid of furniture, and
smelling at once sour and stale. I am sorry and ashamed to remember that
the Jew was the only person of my four fellows in misfortune who kept up
any semblance of manners or proper reserve. He differed, indeed,
markedly from the others, not only in his behaviour, which was at least
conformable, but in his appearance of alacrity and cheerful health.
Seeing that I suffered as much from the ribaldry of my fellow-guests as
from my bodily pains, he came and sat by my side, and encouraged me with
the assurance that it was far better to wait for the brother-in-charge
to awake in the course of nature than to disturb him out of his sleep.
"Mighty little chance for me, for example," he said, "if Brother
Hyacinth don't have his nap to the full. He'll be as savage as a starved
wolf, understand, and will send a man to hell sooner than to admit him
if he have a good foot left to take him there."

"Why, then," said I, "he will never send me for sure, for I have no
feet."