call coffee; and as for another world, I know only of that from whence
I came, and do assure you, we have no chocolate there.

_Duke._--The world of which we tell you, madam, is a continent, called
America, almost as large as Europe, Asia, and Africa, put together; and
of which we have a knowledge less vague, than of the world from whence
you came.

_Tullia._--What! Did we then, who styled ourselves masters of the world,
possess only half of it? The reflection is truly humiliating!

The _Savant._--(piqued that Tullia had pronounced his verses bad,
replies dryly:) Yes, your countrymen who boasted of having made
themselves masters of the world, had scarce conquered the twentieth part
of it. We have at this moment, at the further end of Europe, an empire
larger in itself than the Roman:[5] it is governed, too, by a woman, who
excels you in intellect and beauty, and who wears _chemises;_ had she
read my verses, I am certain she would have thought them good.

(The Marchioness commands silence on the part of the author, who has
treated a Roman lady, the daughter of Cicero, with disrespect. The duke
explains the discovery of America, and taking out his watch, to which is
appended, by way of trinket, a small mariner's compass, shows her how,
by means of a needle, another hemisphere is reached. The amazement of
the fair Roman redoubles at every word which she hears, and every thing
she beholds; and she at length exclaims:)

_Tullia._--I begin to fear that the moderns really do surpass the
ancients; on this point I came to satisfy myself, and doubt not I shall
have to carry back a melancholy report to my father.