“Am I a dog, to meet this end!” demanded Pippo, fiercely—­“or that I should not know my own bones from those of some infidel rascal, who may happen to be my neighbor!”

“We have had one disturbance about brutes, let us not have another;” sarcastically rejoined Il Maledetto.  “Princes and nobles,” he added, with affected gravity, “we are here bound by the heels, during the good pleasure of those who rule in Vevey; the wisest course will be to pass the time in good-humor with each other, and as pleasantly as our condition will allow.  The reverend Conrad shall have all the honors of a cardinal, Pippo shall have the led horse at his funeral, and, as for these worthy Vaudois, who, no doubt, are men of substance in their way, they shall be bailiffs sent by Berne to rule between the four walls of our palace!  Life is but a graver sort of mummery, gentlemen, and the second of its barest secrets is to make others fancy us what we wish to appear—­the first being, without question, the faculty of deceiving ourselves.  Now each one has only to imagine that he is the high personage I have just named, and the most difficult part of the work is achieved to his hands.”

“Thou hast forgotten to name thine own quality,” cried Pippo, who was too much used to buffoonery not to relish the whim of Maso, and who, with Neapolitan fickleness, forgot his anger the instant he had given it vent.

“I will represent the sapient public, and, being well disposed to be duped, the whole job is complete.  Practise away, worthies, and ye shall see with what open eyes and wide gullet I am ready to admire and swallow all your philosophy.”

This sally produced a hearty laugh, which rarely fails to establish momentary good fellowship.  The Vaudois, who had the thirsty propensities of mountaineers, ordered wine, and, as their guardians looked upon their confinement more as a measure of temporary policy than of serious moment, the command was obeyed.  In a short time, this little group of worldlings were making the best of circumstances, by calling in the aid of physical stimulants to cheer their solitude.  As they washed their throats with the liquor, which was both good and cheap and by consequence doubly agreeable, the true characters of the different individuals began to show themselves in stronger colors.

The peasants of Vaud, of whom there were three and all of the lowest class, became confused and dull in their faculties though louder and more vehement in speech, each man appearing to balance the increasing infirmities of his reason by stronger physical demonstrations of folly.