Falieri.--Pshaw! pshaw! Everything would go to rack and ruin were
it not for the wiser heads of this triumvirate of counsellors, whom
Heaven confound! Deprive him of Paolo Manfrone, Conari, and
Lomellino, and the Doge would stand there looking as foolish as a
schoolboy who was going to be examined and had forgotten his lesson.
Parozzi.--Falieri is in the right.
Memmo.--Quite, quite.
Falieri.--And then Andreas is as proud as a beggar grown rich and
dressed in his first suit of embroidery. By St. Anthony, he is
become quite insupportable. Do you not observe how he increases the
number of his attendants daily?
Memmo.--Nay, that is an undoubted fact.
Contarino.--And then, to what an unbounded extent has he carried his
influence. The Signoria, the Quaranti, the Procurators of St. Mark,
the Avocatori, all think and act exactly as it suits the Doge's
pleasure and convenience! Every soul of them depends as much on
that one man's honour and caprices as puppets do who nod or shake
their wooden heads just as the fellow behind the curtain thinks
proper to move the wires.
Parozzi.--And yet the populace idolises this Andreas.
Memmo.--Ay, that is the worst part of the story.
Falieri.--But never credit me again if he does not experience a
reverse of fortune speedily.
Contarino.--That might happen would we but set our shoulders to the
wheel stoutly. But what do we do? We pass our time in taverns;
drink and game, and throw ourselves headlong into such an ocean of
debts, that the best swimmer must sink at last. Let us resolve to
make the attempt. Let us seek recruits on all sides; let us labour
with all our might and main. Things must change, or if they do not,
take my word for it, my friends, this world is no longer a world for
us.
Memmo.--Nay, it's a melancholy truth, that during the last half-year
my creditors have been ready to beat my door down with knocking. I
am awakened out of my sleep in the morning, and lulled to rest again
at night with no other music than their eternal clamour.
Parozzi.--Ha! ha! ha! As for me, I need not tell you how I am
suited.
Falieri.--Had we been less extravagant, we might at this moment have
been sitting quietly in our palaces; but as things stand now Parozzi.--Well, as things stand now--I verily believe that Falieri
is going to moralise.
Contarino.--That is ever the way with old sinners when they have
lost the power to sin any longer. Then they are ready enough to
weep over their past life, and talk loudly about repentance and
reformation. Now, for my own part, I am perfectly well satisfied
with my wanderings from the common beaten paths of morality and
prudence. They serve to convince me that I am not one of your
every-day men, who sit cramped up in the chimney-corner, lifeless,
phlegmatic, and shudder when they hear of any extraordinary
occurrence. Nature evidently has intended me to be a libertine, and
I am determined to fulfil my destination. Why, if spirits like ours
were not produced every now and then, the world would absolutely go
fast asleep, but we rouse it by deranging the old order of things,
force mankind to quicken their snail's pace, furnish a million of
idlers with riddles which they puzzle their brains about without
being able to comprehend, infuse some hundreds of new ideas into the
heads of the great multitude, and, in short, are as useful to the
world as tempests are, which dissipate those exhalations with which
Nature otherwise would poison herself.