a rouleau of
twenty Napoleons, which Lord K * *d, to whom he had, on some occasion,
lent that sum, had intrusted me with, at Milan, to deliver into his
hands. With the most joyous and diverting eagerness, he tore open the
paper, and, in counting over the sum, stopped frequently to congratulate
himself on the recovery of it.

Of his household frugalities I speak but on the authority of others; but
it is not difficult to conceive that, with a restless spirit like his,
which delighted always in having something to contend with, and which,
but a short time before, "for want," as he said, "of something craggy to
break upon," had tortured itself with the study of the Armenian
language, he should, in default of all better excitement, find a sort of
stir and amusement in the task of contesting, inch by inch, every
encroachment of expense, and endeavouring to suppress what he himself
calls

"That climax of all earthly ills,
The inflammation of our weekly bills."

In truth, his constant recurrence to the praise of avarice in Don Juan,
and the humorous zest with which he delights to dwell on it, shows how
new-fangled, as well as how far from serious, was his adoption of this
"good old-gentlemanly vice." In the same spirit he had, a short time
before my arrival at Venice, established a hoarding-box, with a slit in
the lid, into which he occasionally put sequins, and, at stated periods,
opened it to contemplate his treasures. His own ascetic style of living
enabled him, as far as himself was concerned, to gratify this taste for
economy in no ordinary degree,--his daily bill of fare, when the
Margarita was his companion, consisting, I have been assured, of but
four beccafichi, of which the Fornarina eat three, leaving even him
hungry.

That his parsimony, however (if this new phasis of his ever-shifting
character is to be called by such a name), was very far from being of
that kind which Bacon condemns, as "withholding men from works of
liberality," is apparent from all that is known of his munificence, at
this very period,--some particulars of which, from a most authentic
source, have just been cited, proving amply that while, for the
indulgence of a whim, he kept one hand closed, he gave free course to
his generous nature by dispensing lavishly from the other. It should be
remembered, too, that as long as money shall continue to be one of the
great sources of power, so long will they who seek influence over their
fel