One evening, there was an unusually large attendance at M. D---- R-----’s
assembly, and we were talking of the carnival which was near at hand. 
Everybody was regretting the lack of actors, and the impossibility of
enjoying the pleasures of the theatre.  I immediately offered to procure a
good company at my expense, if the boxes were at once subscribed for, and
the monopoly of the faro bank granted to me.  No time was to be lost, for
the carnival was approaching, and I had to go to Otranto to engage a
troop.  My proposal was accepted with great joy, and the
proveditore-generale placed a felucca at my disposal.  The boxes were all
taken in three days, and a Jew took the pit, two nights a week excepted,
which I reserved for my own profit.

The carnival being very long that year, I had every chance of success.  It is said generally that the profession of theatrical manager is difficult, but, if that is the case, I have not found it so by experience, and am bound to affirm the contrary.

I left Corfu in the evening, and having a good breeze in my favour, I reached Otranto by day-break the following morning, without the oarsmen having had to row a stroke.  The distance from Corfu to Otranto is only about fifteen leagues.

I had no idea of landing, owing to the quarantine which is always enforced for any ship or boat coming to Italy from the east.  I only went to the parlour of the lazaretto, where, placed behind a grating, you can speak to any person who calls, and who must stand behind another grating placed opposite, at a distance of six feet.

As soon as I announced that I had come for the purpose of engaging a troupe of actors to perform in Corfu, the managers of the two companies then in Otranto came to the parlour to speak to me.  I told them at once that I wished to see all the performers, one company at a time.

The two rival managers gave me then a very comic scene, each manager wanting the other to bring his troupe first.  The harbour-master told me that the only way to settle the matter was to say myself which of the two companies I would see first:  one was from Naples, the other from Sicily.  Not knowing either I gave the preference to the first.  Don Fastidio, the manager, was very vexed, while Battipaglia, the director of the second, was delighted because he hoped that, after seeing the Neapolitan troupe, I would engage his own.

An hour afterwards, Fastidio returned with all his performers, and my surprise may be imagined when amongst them I recognized Petronio and his sister Marina, who, the moment she saw me, screamed for joy, jumped over the grating, and threw herself in my arms.  A terrible hubbub followed, and high words passed between Fastidio and the harbour-master.  Marina being in the service of Fastidio, the captain compelled him to confine her to the lazaretto, where she would have to perform quarantine at his expense.  The poor girl cried bitterly, but I could not remedy her imprudence.