and morals, &c. &c. &c. which he insists on her accepting, and she persists in refusing.  I am expressly, it should seem, excluded by this treaty, as an indispensable preliminary; so that they are in high dissension, and what the result may be I know not, particularly as they are consulting friends.

“To-night, as Countess Guiccioli observed me poring over ’Don Juan,’ she stumbled by mere chance on the 137th stanza of the first Canto, and asked me what it meant.  I told her, ’Nothing—­but “your husband is coming."’ As I said this in Italian, with some emphasis, she started up in a fright, and said, ’Oh, my God, is he coming?’ thinking it was her own, who either was or ought to have been at the theatre.  You may suppose we laughed when she found out the mistake.  You will be amused, as I was;—­it happened not three hours ago.

“I wrote to you last week, but have added nothing to the third Canto since my fever, nor to ‘The Prophecy of Dante.’  Of the former there are about 100 octaves done; of the latter about 500 lines—­perhaps more.  Moore saw the third Juan, as far as it then went.  I do not know if my fever will let me go on with either, and the tertian lasts, they say, a good while.  I had it in Malta on my way home, and the malaria fever in Greece the year before that.  The Venetian is not very fierce, but I was delirious one of the nights with it, for an hour or two, and, on my senses coming back, found Fletcher sobbing on one side of the bed, and La Contessa Guiccioli[60] weeping on the other; so that I had no want of attendance.  I have not yet taken any physician, because, though I think they may relieve in chronic disorders, such as gout and the like, &c. &c. &c. (though they can’t cure them)—­just as surgeons are necessary to set bones and tend wounds—­yet I think fevers quite out of their reach, and remediable only by diet and nature.

     “I don’t like the taste of bark, but I suppose that I must take it
     soon.

“Tell Rose that somebody at Milan (an Austrian, Mr. Hoppner says) is answering his book.  William Bankes is in quarantine at Trieste.  I have not lately heard from you.  Excuse this paper:  it is long paper shortened for the occasion.  What folly is this of Carlile’s trial? why let him have the honours of a martyr? it will only advertise the books in question.  Yours, &c.

“P.S.  As I tell you that the Guiccioli business is on the eve of exploding in one way or the other, I will just add that, without attempting to influence the decision of the Contessa, a good deal depends upon it.  If she and her husband make it up, you will, perhaps, see me in England sooner than you expect.  If not, I shall retire with her to France or America, change my name, and lead a quiet provincial life.  All this may seem odd, but I have got the poor girl into a scrape; and as neither her birth, nor her rank, nor her connections by birth or marriage