ognisance of the affair, and we were
both powerless to stir a finger. All the same, at Maffei's request, I
was willing to meet Gratarol, although I could not conceive what object
he had in ferreting me out.

If I had but known, while my friend was pleading for him, that this
horned serpent had just presented an information to the Inquisitors of
State, denouncing me in person, and deliberately aiming at my honour and
my safety, I should have returned a very different answer.[66]

In the end, after enumerating all that had occurred in the long history
of my unlucky drama, I gave my consent, suggesting at the same time that
the meeting had better not take place in my house, and expressly begging
Signor Maffei to let Gratarol clearly understand beforehand that I was
utterly helpless with regard to the _Droghe d'Amore_.

Maffei left the box at once, repaired to Signor Gratarol, and soon
returned with the answer that his friend was absolutely determined to
come to my house for the interview.

I spent a large part of that night in racking my brains to imagine what
Gratarol could possibly hope to gain by this new step of his. Giving the
problem up as insoluble, I laid a scheme of my own, the only one which
seemed to me at all practicable, and which I resolved to propose to him
upon the morning of the 16th. It was as follows. I should write a
prologue addressed to the public, saying that my comedy was going to be
stopped after the evening of the 17th, at my own request, because it had
been turned to bad account and misinterpreted, to the injury of myself
and persons whom I esteemed as friends. This prologue could be printed
and distributed before the performance of the play. Then Signor Gratarol
and I would go together, and take our places amicably side by side in a
front box of the theatre. The whole world would see that we were not at
enmity, and I should be able to convince him, as the play proceeded,
that Don Adone was not intended to be a personal satire on himself.

The plan approved itself to my judgment, and I went to sleep, persuaded
that I had found a satisfactory way out of our worst difficulties.

Next morning, the 16th of January, I rose betimes, entered my study, and
hurriedly composed a little prologue of twenty-four lines. Hardly had I
finished the last verse, when my servant announced Signor Gratarol in a
sonorous voice. Yes, there was the raging Cerberus Gratarol, accompanied
by the gentle lamb Maffei! And