after me, by the refusal of all the gondoliers of the canal to
put out into the harbour in such a moment; and that then she sat
down on the steps in all the thickest of the squall, and would
neither be removed nor comforted. Her joy at seeing me again was
moderately mixed with ferocity, and gave me the idea of a tigress
over her recovered cubs.

"But her reign drew near a close. She became quite ungovernable
some months after, and a concurrence of complaints, some true, and
many false--'a favourite has no friends'--determined me to part
with her. I told her quietly that she must return home, (she had
acquired a sufficient provision for herself and mother, &c. in my
service,) and she refused to quit the house. I was firm, and she
went threatening knives and revenge. I told her that I had seen
knives drawn before her time, and that if she chose to begin, there
was a knife, and fork also, at her service on the table, and that
intimidation would not do. The next day, while I was at dinner, she
walked in, (having broken open a glass door that led from the hall
below to the staircase, by way of prologue,) and advancing straight
up to the table, snatched the knife from my hand, cutting me
slightly in the thumb in the operation. Whether she meant to use
this against herself or me, I know not--probably against
neither--but Fletcher seized her by the arms, and disarmed her. I
then called my boatmen, and desired them to get the gondola ready,
and conduct her to her own house again, seeing carefully that she
did herself no mischief by the way. She seemed quite quiet, and
walked down stairs. I resumed my dinner.

"We heard a great noise, and went out, and met them on the
staircase, carrying her up stairs. She had thrown herself into the
canal. That she intended to destroy herself, I do not believe; but
when we consider the fear women and men who can't swim have of deep
or even of shallow water, (and the Venetians in particular, though
they live on the waves,) and that it was also night, and dark, and
very cold, it shows that she had a devilish spirit of some sort
within her. They had got her out without much difficulty or damage,
excepting the salt water she had swallowed, and the wetting she had
undergone.

"I foresaw her intention to refix herself, an