450

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

on showing him how he ought to act. He took my lessonsadmirably; we fenced all that day, the next morning wewent out, and, keeping close beside him, I kept inculcatingmy directions, so that, in less than five minutes, I saw abouta foot length of his sword pass out behind poor Campomele'sright shoulder. I rushed between them and stopped thefight. Campomele had received the point of Scotti’s swordupon a rib, it then run round his body, and, gathering theinteguments, curved and bent round so as to make its exitbehind, just as if it had passed straight through the thorax,which it had not touched. The wound inflicted by me uponthe second was precisely of a similar nature; and all thefaculty of Naples flocked to examine two such extraordinaryinstances of escape from death occurring at one and thesame instant. The name of Campomele’s second, whom Iwounded, was Piccoluomini, and to an over anxiety for hisfriend alone, can I attribute his attack upon me, who wasactually interposing my sword on his own friend’s behalf.He lives at present, I believe, respected by all parties, thehappy husband of Mary Maccarani, of Rome , and the father ofseveral children. Piccoluomini did not answerto the meaningof his name, for he was, at least, six feet high, and of veryathletic make. If ever this book gets into his hands, he willremember me with pleasure, as we, after this affray, becameintimate friends. Often when bathing, did he show me thetwo holes I had made in his Herculean body, and wonderhow he could ever have made me an object of attack. Buthe felt so keenly for his wounded friend, that, attributingthe disaster to my directions, his feelings blinded him forthe moment.

In the account of my personal career, I have forgotten tostate how it was that I left the house of Mr. Bottalin, andafterwards lived without any further application to com-mercial learning.