“‘Musicians, break your instruments about your heads, and let each one
of you arm himself with a poniard. Think no more about holidays and
rejoicings. Climb into the boxes, and stab their occupants, one and all.
And let the women steep their timid hands in blood.
“‘Quit this room, for you are free! Tear your king from his throne, and
your God from his sanctuary.’
“Well, and how many of these charming men will obey this tiger’s voice.
How many of them thought, perhaps, of such deeds before they entered?
Who can tell? Was there no dancing in Paris five years ago?”
Joannetti! shut the door and windows! I do not wish to see the light!
Let no one enter my room. Put my sword within reach. Go out yourself,
and keep away from me.
XXXIII.
_Consolation._
No, no! Stay, Joannetti, my good fellow! And you too, Rose, you who
guess what are my sorrows, and soften them by your caresses, come!
V forms the resting-place.
XXXIV.
_Correspondence._
The upset of my post-chaise has rendered the reader the service of
shortening my journey by a good dozen chapters, for, upon getting up, I
found myself close to my bureau, and saw that I had no time left for any
observations upon a number of engravings and pictures which had yet to
be surveyed, and which might have lengthened my excursions into the
realm of painting.
Leaving to the right the portraits of Raphael and his mistress, the
Chevalier d’Assas and the Shepherdess of the Alps, and taking the left,
the side on which the window is situated, my bureau comes into view. It
is the first and the most prominent object the traveller’s eyes light
upon, taking the route I have indicated.
It is surmounted by a few shelves that serve as a book-case, and the
whole is terminated by a bust which completes the pyramid, and
contributes more than any other object to the adornment of this region.
Upon opening the first drawer to the left, we find an inkstand, paper of
all kinds, pens ready mended, and sealing-wax; all which set the most
indolent person longing to write.
I am sure, dear Jenny, that if you chanced to open this drawer, you
would reply to the letter I wrote you a year ago.
In the opposite drawer lies a confused heap of materials for a touching
history of the prisoner of Pignerol,[5] which, my dear friends, you will
ere long read.
Between these two drawers is a recess into which I throw whatever
letters I receive. All that have reached me during the last ten years
are there. The oldest of them are arranged according to date in several
packets; the new ones lie pell-mell. Besides these, I have several
dating from my early boyhood.
How great a pleasure it is to behold again through the medium of these
letters the interesting scenes of our early years, to be once again
transported into those happy days that we shall see no more!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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