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be their boon companion for the next evening.

Farganacia was the Theodore Hook of Florence. Though of ignoble birth, his powers of conversation, and his drollery and mimicry, made him the welcome guest at the tables of high and low. He had always sufficient tact and command over himself to adapt the tone of his exhibition to the taste of his company for the time being, and he managed so skilfully that his mimicry or raillery of the absent never excited any deep enmity again him. He could not, however, resist the powers of good liquor when he happened to be in low company, and a debauch of three or four days was no uncommon thing in his pleasant

career.

Next evening the merchant, the superintendent, and the jester supped together. Farganacia exerted his utmost gifts of pleasing powers, nor did he exert them in vain. At first Cosmo seemed too downcast for relief by any exhibition of wit, or raillery, or humour; but he gradually relaxed; and when Malavotta was obliged to retire to attend to some needful duty, he was well pleased to leave the two together, so interested did they seem in each other.

That was the moment waited for by Cosmo. In a few words he made Farganacia aware of the critical position in which he stood, asked his services, mentioned the mode in which he required them, and promised instant compensation. The merryman was taken by surprise, but through his high esteem for the merchant, and probably the higher esteem for his resources, the request was complied with; and Malavotta, on his return to table, found his guests pleasantly occupied with some city news, flavoured by an infusion of scandal.

At dawn of next morning, Farganacia requested an audience of the Prior of the Jacobins, presented him

a half ring, got from Cosmo the evening before, and mentioned the will of the merchant, that he (the prior) should give him a hundred gold florins on the spot for himself, and a thousand to be handed over to Signor Guadagne, the Gonfalonier, who was then in the middle of the period of his two months' dictatorship. The money was handed over to him without a moment's hesitation, and he made no delay till he was in the Gonfalonier's bed-chamber, even before that great man was aroused from sleep. Farganacia was a privileged person. The first object on which Guadagne's eyes rested, on his awakening, was the jester counting gold crowns on his table, and the first sounds which reached his ears were the very agreeable ones, that a thousand of the precious pieces were intended for himself. On learning the danger in which Cosmo stood, and the service which was expected from himself, he did not show the slightest reluctance to undertake it. He did not belong to the party inimical to the great man; he held him in high esteem, and resolved to save his life. If the expectation of further favours weighed with him, let him be forgiven.

Guadagne's praisworthy design was difficult of execution; promptness and finesse were much needed. If time were lost, Malavotta would be inevitably induced to administer the poison; or if found incorruptible, the enemy was powerful and clever enough to excite the people to invest the prison, and have the merchant out to his death. He there1re opened a communication with the faction, pretended to be anxious for the destruction of their great rival, and expressed a confident opinion that the object could be attained in a legal mode without attaching obloquy to any one. This gave them much pleasure. They broke off the negotiation with Malavotta, and gave all their aid to the Gonfalonier in his measure for bring

ing Cosmo to justice. Guadagne lost no time; he prepared for the trial, sounded the magistrates, and induced them to come to such decision as he impressed on them to be the just and right one under the circumstances. Being determined to save his life, he felt it useless to have him declared innocent, or even punished in any way which should leave him liable to be set on by his enemies in a forceful and illegal

manner.

The trial was hurried; the sentence pronounced was exile, and all was over two days before the Perucci and their faction expected. The trial being over, the chief magistrate expressed his fears that unless the decree were put in execution at once, the prisoner's powerful friends would do something to prevent its being carried out. He therefore repaired to the prison at the head of the magistrates and their force, took out the prisoner, and had him sent under a strong guard beyond the boundary of the republic. It was not till they approached the limits of Florence that Cosmo became fully sensible of the friendliness and ability of the Gonfalonier. Great were the surprise and consternation of the cabal when they discovered what had been done. They called a council of the families to decide on some step, and the delay which the discussion necessarily occasioned enabled their foeman to get into his possession much of his portable property which had been in keeping here and there.

All the fury of the Perucci, the Albizzi, and the Strozzi, was now turned against the Gonfalonier. Some of the younger members of the families would even exert themselves to depose him from his high office before the month was expired. The elders did not choose to proceed to such lengths, but the moment he was divested of power, they had him arraigned for various assumed infringements on his offi

cial duties and privileges. They imputed guilt to his most innocent actions, and raised such a clamour, and excited the resentment of the people to such a degree that, but for the influence of his relatives and the nobility, he would have lost his head. He was sent into exile, and his grateful friend, Cosmo, gave him a hearty welcome in Venice.

Each heartily longed for his recal, but Cosmo was endowed with more patience and insight into the most certain means of obtaining it, and brought his more impatient companion into his views. They wrote to their most influential friends to unite their interests in the election of an active and friendly Gonfalonier, and these wrought in concert with such energy, that when the election day arrived, the choice fell on the worthy Nicolas Cocco, notwithstanding the strenuous but too lately organised opposition of the hostile families, with whose names our readers are familiar.

The new ruler was a favourite both with the nobility and the people, and he set about the recal of Guadagne so prudently and skilfully, that the audience in the public meetings began to wonder why he had been banished. For, after all, what had he done? Merely sent a fellow citizen into exile rather hurriedly in order to keep his head on his shoulders. Farganacia religiously kept within his own breast the little scene at early dawn in the late Gonfalonier's bed-chamber, when the gold florins of Florence played their part.

The unstable citizens soon were incapable of recollecting a single instance in Guadagne's conduct worthy of blame, and he was recalled with general acclaim, the objections of Perucci and Co. notwithstanding.

So far all was pleasant, but no one as yet had dared to raise his voice for the reversal of Cosmo's sentence. That far-seeing man, however, adopted a very simple but effective plan

to oblige his ungrateful countrymen to send for him in a hurry. He established his counting-house in Venice. He resumed his manufacturing business, and by ways wellknown to himself, he turned to his new place of refuge that tide of traffic which had formerly brought affluence into his native city. The merchants and manufacturers of that emporium found their receipts every day diminishing, and the artisans and labourers felt their daily employment and their daily earnings slipping from their hands as water through the meshes of a net. The friends of the great capitalist did not neglect to improve the occasion in his favour, and as the popular choice rested between opulence with Cosmo, or sorded poverty without him, merchants, and tradesmen, and labourers, hastily arrived at the resolve of a harmonious call, and something between an ovation and a triumph greeted the great merchant on re-entering his native city.

Among those who came to congratulate him upon his restoration, was the good Malavotta, who was received by him in the presence of several other visitors with every mark of friendship and respect. Taking occasion to say how much he owed him for his kind treatment while in his custody, Malavotta who, perhaps, expected something more solid than mere grateful effusions, made reply, "Ah, you are aware how much more you owe me !" Cosmo rather surprised, went on to say that he felt all imaginable gratitude to him. "But you do not seem to be aware that you owe me your life." Cosmo still more surprised, but mastering the emotion, made a still more obliging answer, and not wish ing for a scene before his company, he turned to some others among the visitors, and chatted with them.

Malavotta's words did not fall into the water. Cosmo took an opportunity of a private interview with him, and in the course of con

versation, requested him to explain his words. Malavotta somewhat fearful of the vengeance of the Petrucci, was now anxious to keep his secret to himself; but Cosmo was not a trader and Florentine for nothing. By turning and winding he secured the secret, and the horrified man lost no time till the Gonfalonier was cognisant of the confession of Malavotta.

A well-attended officer was at once sent to the house of the Perucci, and in his custody the guilty chief was brought before the head magistrate. He, at first denied everything, but being confronted with Malavotta, his courage failed, and he confessed the crime. He was unwilling to mention any of the partners of his guilt, but on being informed that he would be put to the question by torture, he very reluctantly revealed his associates, and Nicolas Albizzi and Pallasso Strozzi were secured.

The council of eight heard the evidence, drew up the accusation, and no one had any opinion that any other than that a capital sentence would be pronounced. But Cosmo was no more disposed to take vengeance for personal injuries than the great Julius Cæsar himself. He interceded, both personally and by the mediation of his friends for the lives of the guilty men, and the judges were not sorry to be spared the unwelcome and serious duty of dooming to death delinquents of their high position. The sentence pronounced was that of perpetual exile. So the great merchant escaped obloquy, and was thenceforward freed from the annoyance of living in the same city with men disposed to do him every injury in their power.

And, indeed, from the period of his recal to his death, his life was exempt from any annoyance given by his fellow-citizens. He employed himself in his commerce, and would never accept office in the magistracy.

This influence, however, though very quietly and noiselessly exerted was not the less. The "Council of Eight" seldom came to a resolution on the doubtful matter without consulting him, and the neighbouring states, who wished to be on good terms with Florence, did not neglect to pay their court to him. Though liberal almost to excess, he affected a simple style of living, kept no servants but such as had really work to do, and his house was plainly but comfortably furnished. In his relations with his fellow-citizens, he demeaned himself as a well-to-do man of business. His charitable acts were many and frequent, and professors of letters met in him a most generous encourager. In all his suc

cessful negotiations and transactions, some of his fellow-citizens were always sure to obtain more or less profit. So taking his active and liberal mode of doing business into account, it is little to be wondered at that he came to be considered and called the father of his country.

He died, A.D. 1464, at the ripe age of 75, surrounded by sorrowing friends, and was interred in the church of St. Laurence, which had been erected by himself. On his mausoleum, which was erected at the public expense, was cut this inscription in Latin. "Here is intered Cosmo de Medicis, surnamed the Father of his Country, by order of the Republic."

(To be continued.)

FORBIDDEN FRUIT.

CHAPTER IX.

ERNEST'S CONFESSION.-KATE GLOVER.

We have before observed that scarce any remnant of the ancient city of the Pharaohs is now to be seen. Our lionisers had already, as they conversed, passed several relics of what might once have been magnificent temples, but were now only scattered and isolated stones, on the outer face of which hieroglyphics and bas-reliefs were carved. A row of headless trunks and trunkless heads fragments of pillars-a small sphynx, and other carved remains of what had been, were collected at a spot to which Paolo drew their special attention. Some French explorers had placed them there. Further on, half-buried in the earth, lay prostrate a colossal figure of Rameses the Great, a gift to the British Museum, which the guardians of that collection had long suffered to lie there, deeming it too heavy to remove.

"I fear," said Ernest, "you will all say that I have brought you on a wild-goose chase. Ah! if you could only have seen the splendid Temple of Carnac, with its mighty and countless painted columns, and its avenue of granite sphinxes, two miles long! Or the tombs of the Kings at Thebes, with their walls one mass of paintings thousands of years old, but as fresh as though they had been executed yesterday!"

"But as we have not seen Carnac or the Tombs, and are not, therefore, as blase as you are, my dear friend, we are really much interested in the scattered relics here.-Are we not, ladies ?" said the Major. "That we are," answered both the ladies in a breath. "And look," added Minnie, "at that charming distant

view of the Pyramids! That palmgrove on the promontory, jutting out into the piece of water before us, and the hill with its scattered palmtrees on the left, make it a perfect picture! I should so like to sketch it, if it would not be keeping everybody too long."

"By no means," said Mrs. Montagu. "You know we have come out for an afternoon's stroll, and why should we not saunter about this lovely spot as well as elsewhere? It is so nice and shady, too, under the trees; and so pleasant to hear the cooing of those sweet ringdoves. You only require animal life to complete your picture. think you should introduce some of those buffaloes which we passed as we were coming along from the village."

I

"I really think I must," said Minnie, who had already found a favourable spot at the foot of a palm-tree, and was beginning to produce and arrange her drawing materials. "But won't you all go on with your walk, and leave me to sketch here by myself?"

"May not I stay and keep the flies off you? They will never let you draw in peace," said Ernest. "I wonder what they must have been when they were made a special plague in Egypt. I never knew any nuisance to equal them in their ordinary capacity and numbers!"

The Major and Mrs. Montagu soon fell deep into a discussion on the points of resemblance between India and Egypt, walking up and down as they talked. Ernest sat by Minnie in his capacity of fly-flapper;

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