had to expend 17,000 _lire_ on the costs of
this suit; and had it not been for the generosity of friends, among whom
Signor Innocenzio Massimo stood first, Marchese Terzi would have scored
one of those victories which make us inclined to doubt of Providence.
Beside the anxiety and incessant labour which preyed upon my health and
spirits, I was annoyed by my adversary's powerful friends, who went
about the town denouncing me for a quarrelsome, vexatious, captious, and
inequitable fellow. Rude rebukes addressed to me by such persons I met
with significant smiles and silence, never deigning to take up the
cudgels in my own defence against accusations which I knew to be
discourteous and baseless. In addition to all these sources of
discomfort, I had to fight the battle single-handed; for my excellent
friend and advocate, Signor Antonio Testa, was compelled by stress of
business to leave me in the heat of action.

It is not to be wondered at that I fell ill at last. But what will seem
more wonderful, nay, almost incredible, is that I sought distraction
during my few leisure hours in planning and composing dramatic pieces. I
used to take sheets of paper on which I had sketched the outlines of
scenes in my pocket down to a coffee-house on the Riva degli Schiavoni.
There I engaged a room facing San Giorgio, had coffee brought, and
ordered pen and ink. Thus furnished, I forgot my troubles for a while in
the elaboration of soliloquies and dialogues. It was in this way that,
while my suit dragged on through three tempestuous years, I produced the
_Augel Belverde_, the _Re de'Genj_, the _Donna Vendicativa_, the _Caduta
di Donna Elvera_, and the _Pubblico Segreto_. I flatter myself that none
of these plays betrayed the melancholy and distraction of a harassed
brain. They were welcomed with enthusiasm by the public, and brought
fame and profit to my friends the actors.

After a long course of anxious litigation, complicated by somewhat
tortuous proceedings on the part of my opponents, the cause was settled
in the following way. I obtained as compensation for my claims a farm of
about forty-six acres in the Paduan district, several houses in Venice,
some substantial and some ruinous, a sum of money in the funds of the
Mint, and three thousand ducats by way of repayment of arrears. A solemn
agreement was signed, which may God preserve unbroken through all the
centuries to come! After paying the costs and debts contracted in this
long