t each other all round! No, no--it won't
do to have the truth coming out, in politics at any rate! Away with
Roback! I will not give him another word--not a single chance--not even
to explain his great power over what he calls "Fits! Fits! Fits! Fits!
Fits!"

CHAPTER XXX.

MONSIGNORE CRISTOFORO RISCHIO; OR, IL CRESO, THE NOSTRUM-VENDER OF
FLORENCE.--A MODEL FOR OUR QUACK DOCTORS.

Every visitor to Florence during the last twenty years must have noticed
on the grand piazza before the Ducal Palace, the strange genius known
as Monsignore Creso, or, in plain English, Mr. Croesus. He is so called
because of his reputed great wealth; but his real name is Christoforo
Rischio, which I may again translate, as Christopher Risk. Mrs. Browning
refers to him in one of her poems--the "Casa Guidi Windows," I
think--and he has also been the staple of a tale by one of the Trollope
brothers.

Twice every week, he comes into the city in a strange vehicle, drawn by
two fine Lombardy ponies, and unharnesses them in the very centre of the
square. His assistant, a capital vocalist, begins to sing immediately,
and a crowd soon collects around the wagon. Then Monsignore takes from
the box beneath his seat a splendidly jointed human skeleton, which he
suspends from a tall rod and hook, and also a number of human skulls.
The latter are carefully arranged on an adjustable shelf, and Creso
takes his place behind them, while in his rear a perfect chemist's shop
of flasks, bottles, and pillboxes is disclosed. Very soon his singer
ceases, and in the purest Tuscan dialect--the very utterance of which is
music--the Florentine quack-doctor proceeds to address the assemblage.
Not being conversant with the Italian, I am only able to give the
substance of his harangue, and pronounce indifferently upon the merit of
his elocution. I am assured, however, that not only the common people,
who are his chief patrons, but numbers of the most intelligent citizens,
are always entertained by what he has to say; and certainly his gestures
and style of expressions seem to betray great excellence of oratory.
Having turned the skeleton round and round on its pivot, and minutely
explained the various anatomical parts, in order to show his proficiency
in the basis of medical science, he next lifts the skulls, one by one,
and descants upon their relative perfection, throwing in a shrewd
anecdote now and then, as to the life of the original owner of each
cranium.