appearance. Believing them to be dead, after so long a time, he came to
this city, where he took the name he now bears, without for twelve years
ever having discovered any traces of this Alberto, or of his son
Horatio. This is the substance of the story, which I have repeated so
that you may better remember the groundwork of the plot. Now, you are to
personate an Armenian merchant, who has seen them both safe and sound in
Turkey. If I have invented this scheme, in preference to any other, of
bringing them to life again according to his dream, it is because it is
very common in adventures for people to be taken at sea by some Turkish
pirate, and afterwards restored to their families in the very nick of
time, when thought lost for fifteen or twenty years. For my part, I have
heard a hundred of that kind of stories. Without giving ourselves the
trouble of inventing something fresh, let us make use of this one; what
does it matter? You must say you heard the story of their being made
slaves from their own mouths, and also that you lent them money to pay
their ransom; but that as urgent business obliged you to set out before
them, Horatio asked you to go and visit his father here, whose
adventures he was acquainted with, and with whom you were to stay a few
days till their arrival. I have given you a long lesson now.

LEL. These repetitions are superfluous. From the very beginning I
understood it all.

MASC. I shall go in and prepare the way.

LEL. Listen, Mascarille, there is only one thing that troubles me;
suppose he should ask me to describe his son's countenance?

MASC. There is no difficulty in answering that! You know he was very
little when he saw him last. Besides it is very likely that increase of