of walking in this place shews how the character of a nation changes.  The Venetians of old time who made as great a mystery of love as of state affairs, have been replaced by the modern Venetians, whose most prominent characteristic is to make a mystery of nothing.  Those who come to the Erberia with women wish to excite the envy of their friends by thus publishing their good fortune.  Those who come alone are on the watch for discoveries, or on the look-out for materials to make wives or husbands jealous, the women only come to be seen, glad to let everybody know that they are without any restraint upon their actions.  There was certainly no question of smartness there, considering the disordered style of dress worn.  The women seemed to have agreed to shew all the signs of disorder imaginable, to give those who saw them something to talk about.  As for the men, on whose arms they leaned, their careless and lounging airs were intended to give the idea of a surfeit of pleasure, and to make one think that the disordered appearance of their companions was a sure triumph they had enjoyed.  In short it was the correct thing to look tired out, and as if one stood in need of sleep.

This veracious description, reader, will not give you a very high opinion of the morals of my dear fellow citizens; but what object should I have at my age for deceiving?  Venice is not at the world’s end, but is well enough known to those whose curiosity brings them into Italy; and everyone can see for himself if my pictures are overdrawn.

After walking up and down for half an hour, I came away, and thinking the whole house still a-bed I drew my key out to open the door, but what was my astonishment to find it useless, as the door was open, and what is more, the lock burst off.  I ran upstairs, and found them all up, and my landlady uttering bitter lamentations.

“Messer-Grande,” she told me, “has entered my house forcibly, accompanied by a band of sbirri.  He turned everything upside down, on the pretext that he was in search of a portmanteau full of salt—­a highly contraband article.  He said he knew that a portmanteau had been landed there the evening before, which was quite true; but it belonged to Count S——­, and only contained linen and clothes.  Messer-Grande, after inspecting it, went out without saying a word.”

He had also paid my room a visit.  She told me that she must have some reparation made her, and thinking she was in the right I promised to speak to M. de Bragadin on the matter the same day.  Needing rest above all things, I lay down, but my nervous excitement, which I attributed to my heavy losses at play, made me rise after three or four hours, and I went to see M. de Bragadin, to whom I told the whole story begging him to press for some signal amends.  I made a lively representation to him of all the grounds on which my landlady required proportionate amends to be made, since the laws guaranteed the peace of all law-abiding people.