h that wretched bauble? It's a drug in the market,
and no one but an impostor would wear it now."

The Popes knew this quite well, but they continued to give the cross to
ambassadors while they also gave it to their 'valets de chambre'. One has
to wink at a good many things in Rome.

In the evening Momolo gave me a supper by way of celebrating my new
dignity. I recouped him for the expense by holding a bank at faro, at
which I was dexterous enough to lose forty crowns to the family, without
having the slightest partiality to Mariuccia who won like the rest. She
found the opportunity to tell me that her confessor had called on her,
that she had told him where her future husband lived, and that the worthy
monk had obtained her mother's consent to the hundred crowns being spent
on her trousseau.

I noticed that Momolo's second daughter had taken a fancy to Costa, and I
told Momolo that I was going to Naples, but that I would leave my man in
Rome, and that if I found a marriage had been arranged on my return I
would gladly pay the expenses of the wedding.

Costa liked the girl, but he did not marry her then for fear of my
claiming the first-fruits. He was a fool of a peculiar kind, though fools
of all sorts are common enough. He married her a year later after robbing
me, but I shall speak of that again.

Next day, after I had breakfasted and duly embraced my brother, I set out
in a nice carriage with the Abbe Alfani, Le Duc preceding me on
horseback, and I reached Naples at a time when everybody was in a state
of excitement because an eruption of Vesuvius seemed imminent. At the
last stage the inn-keeper made me read the will of his father who had
died during the eruption of 1754. He said that in the year 1761 God would
overwhelm the sinful town of Naples, and the worthy host consequently
advised me to return to Rome. Alfani took the thing seriously, and said
that we should do well to be warned by so evident an indication of the
will of God. The event was predicted, therefore it had to happen. Thus a
good many people reason, but as I was not of the number I proceeded on my
way.

CHAPTER IX

My Short But Happy Stay at Naples--The Duke de Matalone My
Daughter--Donna Lucrezia--My Departure

I shall not, dear reader, attempt the impossible, however much I should
like to describe the joy, the happiness, I may say the ecstasy, which I
experienced in returning to Naples, of which I had such pleasant
memories, and w