be imagined when Fra Palamone returned without her. He demanded money to
prosecute his researches beyond the confines of Arezzo. "She's a deep
one," he said, "she's as deep as the sea. Who can tell where she is by
now? May be in Venice, may be in Rome, may be in the attics of this
inn." I gave him twenty guineas, and he disappeared again for ten days.
At the end of that time he returned once more, horribly dishevelled,
dirty and extended. He looked to be just out and about again after a
ruinous debauch. He talked in hollow whispers, he trembled in the limbs,
he started and turned pale at a shadow, or the sound of a mouse in the
wainscot. He said he had been to Ancona, Gubbio, Rimini, Ravenna,
Chioggia, Venice, Udine, Trieste. He demanded money--fifty guineas; but
this time I gave him nothing. I was preparing to go to Florence, and had
other agents than him in view. I dismissed him from my service, and told
him to go to the devil. He left me for the moment, vowing as he did it
that he should never, never quit my service, and I found that it was no
easier to get rid of him now than it had ever been. I saw him on the
morrow; I saw him every day. The more I saw of him the more I abhorred
him; and the more I made this plain the more devoted he professed
himself. Wherever I went he shadowed me. He lurked in the dark corners
of churches where I made my devotions, or studied the monuments until I
rose from my knees. If I rode in the country I knew that he was not far
away, if I frequented public assemblies I saw his keen eyes upon me, and
his wide mouth fixed at a patient grin. He was oppressively, sickeningly
affectionate, his role being that of the old friend of my family, who
had rocked my cradle and held me by my leading-strings. At meals he came
skipping about me with little offerings: "A rose-bud for my bosom's
king!" he would say; "Fresh-pulled radishes for my heart's blood!"; and
once, while I was at dinner, he danced up to the table with a large and
bleeding rabbit, saying, "A coney for my dear, of old Palamone's
wiring!" This was too much for my patience; I swung the beast about his