y, gentlemen, and the second of its barest
secrets is to make others fancy us what we wish to appear--the first
being, without question, the faculty of deceiving ourselves. Now each one
has only to imagine that he is the high personage I have just named, and
the most difficult part of the work is achieved to his hands."

"Thou hast forgotten to name thine own quality," cried Pippo, who was too
much used to buffoonery not to relish the whim of Maso, and who, with
Neapolitan fickleness, forgot his anger the instant he had given it vent.

"I will represent the sapient public, and, being well disposed to be
duped, the whole job is complete. Practise away, worthies, and ye shall
see with what open eyes and wide gullet I am ready to admire and swallow
all your philosophy."

This sally produced a hearty laugh, which rarely fails to establish
momentary good fellowship. The Vaudois, who had the thirsty propensities
of mountaineers, ordered wine, and, as their guardians looked upon their
confinement more as a measure of temporary policy than of serious moment,
the command was obeyed. In a short time, this little group of worldlings
were making the best of circumstances, by calling in the aid of physical
stimulants to cheer their solitude. As they washed their throats with the
liquor, which was both good and cheap and by consequence doubly agreeable,
the true characters of the different individuals began to show themselves
in stronger colors.

The peasants of Vaud, of whom there were three and all of the lowest
class, became confused and dull in their faculties though louder and more
vehement in speech, each man appearing to balance the increasing
infirmities of his reason by stronger physical demonstrations of folly.

Conrad, the pilgrim, threw aside the mask entirely, if, indeed, so thin a
veil as that he ordinarily wore when not in the presence of his employers
deserved such a name, and appeared the miscreant he truly was,--a strange
admixture of cowardly superstition, (for few meddle with superstition
without getting more or less entangled in its meshes,) of low cunning, and
of the most abject and gross sensuality and vice. The invention and wit of
Pippo, at all times ready and ingenious, gained increased powers, but the
torrent of animal spirits that were let loose by his potations swept
before it all reserve, and he scarce opened his mouth but to betray the
thoughts of a man long practised in frauds and all other evil des