"Ravenna, September 3. 1821.
"By Mr. Mawman (a paymaster in the corps, in which you and I are
privates) I yesterday expedited to your address, under cover one,
two paper books, containing the _Giaour_-nal, and a thing or two.
It won't _all_ do--even for the posthumous public--but extracts
from it may. It is a brief and faithful chronicle of a month or
so--parts of it not very discreet, but sufficiently sincere. Mr.
Mawman saith that he will, in person or per friend, have it
delivered to you in your Elysian fields.
"If you have got the new Juans, recollect that there are some very
gross printer's blunders, particularly in the fifth Canto,--such as
'praise' for 'pair'--'precarious' for 'precocious'--'Adriatic' for
'Asiatic'--'case' for 'chase'--besides gifts of additional words
and syllables, which make but a cacophonous rhythmus. Put the pen
through the said, as I would mine through * *'s ears, if I were
alongside him. As it is, I have sent him a rattling letter, as
abusive as possible. Though he is publisher to the 'Board of
_Longitude_,' he is in no danger of discovering it.
"I am packing for Pisa--but direct your letters _here_, till
further notice. Yours ever," &c.
* * * * *
One of the "paper-books" mentioned in this letter as intrusted to Mr.
Mawman for me, contained a portion, to the amount of nearly a hundred
pages, of a prose story, relating the adventures of a young Andalusian
nobleman, which had been begun by him, at Venice, in 1817. The following
passage is all I shall extract from this amusing Fragment:--
"A few hours afterwards we were very good friends, and a few days
after she set out for Arragon, with my son, on a visit to her
father and mother. I did not accompany her immediately, having been
in Arragon before, but was to join the family in their Moorish
château within a few weeks.
"During her journey I received a very affectionate letter from
Donna Josepha, apprising me of the welfare of herself and my son.
On her arrival at the château, I received another still more
affectionate, pressing me, in very fond, and rather foolish, terms,
to join her immediately. As I was preparing to set out from
Seville, I received a third--this was from her father, Don Jose di
Cardozo, who requested me, in the politest manner, to dissolve my
marriage. I answered him with equal politeness, that I would do no
such thing. A fourth letter arrived--it was from Donna Josepha, in
which she informed me that her father's letter was written by her
particular desire. I requested the reason by return of post--she
replied, by express, that as reason had nothing to do with the
matter, it was unnecessary to give any--but that she was an injured
and excellent woman. I then enquired why she had written to me the
two preceding affectionate letters, requesting me to come to
Arragon. She answered, that was because she believed me out of my
senses--that, being unfit to take care of myself, I had only to set
out on this journey alone, and making my way without difficulty to
Don Jose di Cardozo's, I should there have found the tenderest of
wives and--a strait waistcoat.
"I had nothing to reply to this piece of affection but a
reiteration of my request for some lights upon the subject. I was
answered that they would only be related to the Inquisition. In the
mean time, our domestic discrepancy had become a public topic of
discussion: and the world, which always decides justly, not only in
Arragon but in Andalusia, determined that I was not only to blame,
but that all Spain could produce nobody so blamable. My case was
supposed to comprise all the crimes which could, and several which
could not, be committed, and little less than an auto-da-fé was
anticipated as the result. But let no man say that we are abandoned
by our friends in adversity--it was just the reverse. Mine thronged
around me to condemn, advise, and console me with their
disapprobation.--They told me all that was, would, or could be said
on the subject. They shook their heads--they exhorted me--deplored
me, with tears in their eyes, and--went to dinner."
* * * * *