tinate constitutions which are able to
withstand his powerful remedies, it generally happens that he gets his
picture out of the chattels left by the poor foreigner, who meanwhile
has been carried to the Pyramid of Cestius, and buried there. It need
hardly be said that Signor Splendiano always picks out the best of the
pictures the painter has finished, and also does not forget to bid the
men take several others along with it. The cemetery near the Pyramid of
Cestius is Doctor Splendiano Accoramboni's corn-field, which he
diligently cultivates, and for that reason he is called the Pyramid
Doctor. Dame Caterina had taken great pains, of course with the best
intentions, to make the Doctor believe that you had brought a fine
picture with you; you may imagine therefore with what eagerness he
concocted his potions for you. It was a fortunate thing that in the
paroxysm of fever you threw the Doctor's bottles at his head, it was
also a fortunate thing that he left you in anger, and no less fortunate
was it that Dame Caterina, who believed you were in the agonies of
death, fetched Father Boniface to come and administer to you the
sacrament. Father Boniface understands something of the art of healing;
he formed a correct diagnosis of your condition and fetched me"----

"Then you also are a doctor?" asked Salvator in a faint whining tone.

"No," replied the young man, a deep blush mantling his cheeks, "no, my
estimable and worthy sir, I am not in the least a doctor like Signor
Splendiano Accoramboni; I am however a chirurgeon. I felt as if I
should sink into the earth with fear--with joy--when Father Boniface
came and told me that Salvator Rosa lay sick unto death in the Via
Bergognona, and required my help. I hastened here, opened a vein in
your left arm, and you were saved. Then we brought you up into this
cool airy room that you formerly occupied. Look, there's the easel
which you left behind you; yonder are a few sketches which Dame
Caterina has treasured up as if they were relics. The virulence of your
disease is subdued; simple remedies such as Father Boniface can prepare
is all that you want, except good nursing, to bring back your strength
again. And now permit me once more to kiss this hand--this creative
hand that charms from Nature her deepest secrets and clothes them in
living form. Permit poor Antonio Scacciati to pour out all the
gratitude and immeasurable joy of his heart that Heaven has granted him
to save the li