to be better, wished to join
our party. He gave his arm to the elderly dame; I offered mine to the
blooming girl. He walked slowly, limping on his gouty toes. I walked
slowly for a different reason; my heart, and not my toe, was smitten;
besides, my sweetheart and I were more at liberty together, if we kept
the other couple well in front. Meanwhile night began to fall. After
taking a short turn, the officer complained of pain in his feet, and
begged leave to go back with his elderly companion, adding that I could
see my lady home when we had enjoyed enough of the evening cool
together. The pair departed, while I remained with my innamorata, lost
in the ecstasies of love.

[At this point Gozzi proceeds to relate how the liaison between these
two young people became most intimate. It had begun, as we have seen,
with advances on the part of the girl, and now it was carried forward
chiefly by her address and pertinacity.]

The intrigue continued for two months, with equal ardour on both sides.
Blinded as we were by passion, we thought that it was hidden from all
eyes; and yet perchance we were but playing the comedy of _Il Pubblico
Secreto_.[3] At any rate, I must admit that I found in this girl a
mistress exactly suited to my metaphysical ineptitude. She showed
herself always tender, always in ecstasy, always afraid to lose me,
always candid. Knowing how poor she was, I often wanted to divide my
poverty with her. I used prayers, almost violence, to win her consent to
this partition of my substance. But she took it as an unbearable insult,
and broke into rage in her refusals, exclaiming with kisses which drew
my soul forth to her crimson lips: "Thy heart is my true riches."

Certainly, a young man in his first love-passage sees awry, and makes
mistakes through mere stupidity. The end of this amour, which seemed
interminable, was brought about by an incident sufficiently absurd, and
far removed from my delicate idealism. It happened that the Provveditore
Generale was summoned to Bocche di Cataro, in order to settle some
disputes between the tribe called Pastrovicchi and the Turks. I had to
take sail with the Court. Good God! what agonies there were, what
rendings of the heart, what tears, what vows of fidelity, at this cruel
parting between two young creatures drowned in love! My absence lasted
about forty days, which seemed to me as many years. Scarcely had I
returned, and was rushing to my goddess, when a certain Count