hire a Palazzo or a barrack for them, but we managed very comfortably in
one large room. There were fourteen of us besides la Antonietta. There was
only one bed, but what a size! We managed well enough by sleeping in two
relays. However, even in two relays it took some organisation to get us
all in. It was a fine double bed, you know, evidently intended for three
or four ... even for five it was suitable enough, but when it came to
seven!... there was not much room for exercise, I can tell you.... But
with four at the top and three at the bottom, we managed, and Antonietta
slept on a rug in a cupboard. We did our best to make her comfortable by
sacrificing half our clothes to keep her warm, but we might have saved
ourselves the trouble, for she deserted us for the first bourgeois who
came along. She was not a true comrade, but I will tell you all about her
later on.

"We had some trouble with the landlord, a thick-headed bourgeois who got
some stupid idea into his head about overcrowding. I have no patience with
these bourgeois prejudices. One day he came round to complain about our
numbers, and at not receiving his rent. But we were prepared for him. We
assembled in full force, and sang the _Marseillaise_ and the _Inno
dei Lavoratori_, and danced the _Carmagnole_. I took out my eye
and looked very threatening--one glance at us was enough for the old
fellow. He made the sign of the cross and fled before we had time to tear
him to pieces.

"Well, my two hundred francs was a very large sum, and not paying the
rent was economical, but it dwindled, and I had to look round again for
ways and means to feed us all. The money came to an end at last and then
the real struggle began. Old Castellani, the landlord, kept a large stock
of sacks of potatoes in a cellar, and every day he used to go in and take
a few out for his own use, and then lock the cellar up again, mean old