oins, with which
we seemed forthwith to be vastly familiar; and no wonder; since, on
inspecting them, we found that the whole had been ours not twelve hours
before, we having disposed of them to a refiner for their weight in
silver, to melt. "Take them all, sir, _tutti quanti_, at three Carlines
and a half a-piece." "No; nor yet for two Carlines, Coco," said we,
putting the paper from us. Upon which the cunning fellow hoped _he_ had
not been taken in; having certainly purchased them in the persuasion of
reselling them, as a catch, to us. "The _Italian marquis_, of whom he
had bought them, assured him, on his honour, that he had made a rare
bargain with him." "Are the coins your own, Coco?" "To my cost are they,
signor, unless you re-purchase them." "I sold them only this morning,
Coco, for the weight of the silver; you must try somebody else." Upon
which Coco, with admirable presence of mind, replaced them in his bag,
and said "he had made a _mistake_!" "We regretted that he had not
purchased them from us at the rate of one Carline and a-half per piece;
in place of having been duped into paying three and a-half." Though he
saw plainly, from our manner, that we were aware of his roguery, he was
not put out; but shrugging his shoulders, and twitching the angles of a
mouth remarkable for its mobility, he merely said--"Pazienza! a
bargain's a bargain; we grow wiser as we grow older," and speedily
withdrew.

BIRBONE III.

BASSEGGIO.

"Unde habeas quaerit nemo, sed oportet habere."
"Fidarsi e bene, ma non fidarsi e meglio."--_Italian Proverb._

Near a fountain in one of the main streets of the west end of Rome, in
which a recumbent figure bends over his ever-gushing urn; his body half
hid from sight, and slowly dissolving in the water, under protection of
a dimly lit shrine of a gaily painted Madonna; a tarnished brass plate
with the word B---- engraved thereon, is inserted into the panels of a
dingy-looking door, out of which a long piece of dirty string dangles
through a hole. If you touch the electric cord, the shock is instantly
transmitted to the other end, and the importunate tinkling of a
well-hung bell is responded to by a clicking of the latch, when an
invisible arm pulls back the door, and your entrance is secured into a
passage encumbered with broken busts and bas-reliefs, tier above tier,
and a series of marble tablets, with _Dis manibus_ inscriptions, let
into the wall on either side. If, now, you pick