Condurzi, vested interests might be overlooked,
though I sincerely hope you might be
re-appointed. Then, as touching these weapons,
I need scarcely remind so perspicacious a
jurist that, as they were discovered by a
perquisition in direct contravention of international
rights, to the eye of judicial diplomacy
the weapons are invisible, intangible, and
therefore clearly undetainable. True, they
were discovered, and the rash persons who:
did so thereby laid themselves open to be
deprived of their functions. But, since these
weapons were thus illegally discovered, you
possess no legal cognizance of them whatever.
You legally see and know no more of them
than if they were at this moment still in my
pocket thus (here I took them up and put
them in my pocket, by way of illustration;
feeling assured that it was a great point to get
them out of sight).

"And now," I continued, " we were just
now talking theoretically of certain pistols,
knives, and powder-flasks, which, for my part,
I do not see before me: do you? But if you
have any, even the most remote, suspicion
that I have such things concealed about my
person, you are at perfect liberty to institute
a personal search,— but at the risk, I must
warn you, of placing yourself in the predicament
of the authorities of Oliveto."

I could perceive during this harangue, especially
in the passage relating to the change of
judiciate from Coudurzi to Oliveto, signs of
uneasiness in the countenance of the judge.
He was manifestly relieved at the disappearance
of the corpora delicti— and at the end of
it he took a long breath, rose, shook hands,
and wished me a prosperous journey. His
hand was in a clammy perspiration. I left
his presence as much elated with my successful
pleading, as I was when I frightened the
sheepskin-clad musketeer of La Mancha.

My interview had only cost me about half-
an-hour. My muleteer was in waiting with
my mule and bundle before the archway, and
it was only about nine o'clock, so that I
might still make a good day's journey. I saw
the corporal and capurbano slinking away
sulkily in the distance, as I mounted.

But though I was in so good spirits at the
happy termination of my troubles, the old
muleteer looked upon the affair in quite a
different light.

"What, are you not to be imprisoned after
all ? Caspite! You must pay me now for
the hire of my mule."

"My bargain was to come here and go back
to Oliveto. So move on."

"I never expected you would come back
at all. They said you were sure to be put
in prison."

"I don't care what they said— move on.
And so you hoped I might be put in prison,
that you might ride back home. O, wicked
and malevolent old man! Do you call yourself
a Christian, and wish evil to innocent
persons? There is no redemption for such a
dog's heart. Come, move a little faster. It
is no use being sulky. I am not a man to
be trifled with."

For a little while, he hung back doggedly,
and grumbled when I kicked the hollow-
sounding ribs of the mule; but, by degrees,
my objurgations and expostulations took
effect. He became interested, moreover, in
the account I gave him of my interview with
the giudice. After about two miles, as he
was old and stiff, and I wanted to get over
the ground, I let him ride a little, while I
stepped out at a round pace. This won him
over altogether to good humour, and he
became very communicative. He wanted to
know if it was true that I was a very great
English nobleman, and whether I was a
giudice in my own country?

During our conversation, it struck him
that I seemed unaware of the reason why I
had been arrested.

"And does your excellency not know what
they thought, and why it was they spoke
to the Corporal Salzalo and the giudice."

"No, indeed," said I, and to say the truth,
I had been so busy thinking of getting back
my weapons, that it had never occurred to me
to inquire of the judge under what suspicion
I had been arrested, setting it down to the
generally absurd police arrangements in the
kingdom of Naples.

"Why, you see, eccellenz, the cholera is
very rife, and they saw you were a foreigner,
though you talk almost Italian, and they
wondered what you could be, and the carretteri
could not tell them what you were. And
then you asked for a glass of water, and
asked if the water of the fountains was good,
and so they thought you were travelling to
spread the cholera— they thought you were a
poisoner of springs."

Now, at last, I saw through the whole mystery,
and laughed very heartily at the adventure,
which carried one back to the level of
European civilisation in the days of the
Plague. It was lucky, as it happened, that I
had no medicines with me, for if any suspicious-
looking powders had been found in my
bundle, the people of Oliveto at the time of
my arrest were quite in a humour to have
torn me in pieces.

Now ready, in Twenty-eight pages, stitched, Price
Fourpence, the HOUSEHOLD WORDS ALMANAC for
the Year 1857. Also, price Threepence, or stamped,
Fourpence,

THE

WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY;

Being the CAPTAIN'S ACCOUNT of the LOSS OF
THE SHIP, and the MATE'S ACCOUNT of the GREAT
DELIVERANCE OP HER PEOPLE IN AN OPEN
BOAT AT SEA; forming THE CHRISTMAS NUMBER
of HOUSEHOLD WORDS.

THE NEW VOLUME of Household Words, price 5s. 6d.,
is now ready.