salary the most celebrated professors, and to grant the utmost freedom to the young men attending their lessons.  The students acknowledged no authority but that of a chief, chosen among themselves, and called syndic.  He was usually a foreign nobleman, who could keep a large establishment, and who was responsible to the government for the behaviour of the scholars.  It was his duty to give them up to justice when they transgressed the laws, and the students never disputed his sentence, because he always defended them to the utmost, when they had the slightest shadow of right on their side.

The students, amongst other privileges, would not suffer their trunks to be searched by customhouse authorities, and no ordinary policeman would have dared to arrest one of them.  They carried about them forbidden weapons, seduced helpless girls, and often disturbed the public peace by their nocturnal broils and impudent practical jokes; in one word, they were a body of young fellows, whom nothing could restrain, who would gratify every whim, and enjoy their sport without regard or consideration for any human being.

It was about that time that a policeman entered a coffee-room, in which were seated two students.  One of them ordered him out, but the man taking no notice of it, the student fired a pistol at him, and missed his aim.  The policeman returned the fire, wounded the aggressor, and ran away.  The students immediately mustered together at the Bo, divided into bands, and went over the city, hunting the policemen to murder them, and avenge the insult they had received.  In one of the encounters two of the students were killed, and all the others, assembling in one troop, swore never to lay their arms down as long as there should be one policeman alive in Padua.  The authorities had to interfere, and the syndic of the students undertook to put a stop to hostilities provided proper satisfaction was given, as the police were in the wrong.  The man who had shot the student in the coffee-room was hanged, and peace was restored; but during the eight days of agitation, as I was anxious not to appear less brave than my comrades who were patrolling the city, I followed them in spite of Doctor Gozzi’s remonstrances.  Armed with a carbine and a pair of pistols, I ran about the town with the others, in quest of the enemy, and I recollect how disappointed I was because the troop to which I belonged did not meet one policeman.  When the war was over, the doctor laughed at me, but Bettina admired my valour.  Unfortunately, I indulged in expenses far above my means, owing to my unwillingness to seem poorer than my new friends.  I sold or pledged everything I possessed, and I contracted debts which I could not possibly pay.  This state of things caused my first sorrows, and they are the most poignant sorrows under which a young man can smart.  Not knowing which way to turn, I wrote to my excellent grandmother, begging her assistance, but instead of