676 The Poriote Doctor. [JUNE, 



meno" in drink. He attributed great credit to himself for the share he 

 had had in the transaction, and insinuated that some compensation for the 

 trouble he had taken would be very acceptable. Kleber, who appeared 

 to look upon the renowned Papathopolo as, at least, an accessary after 

 the fact, demurred to this, but taking into his consideration the wan 

 condition of the doctor, he gave him a six piastre piece, about two shil- 

 lings, being six times the fee usually paid for the medical services of this 

 learned Theban. 



I afterwards ascertained some particulars of this man's history. His 

 first start in life was as a cabin-boy on board a Hydriot trader, employed in 

 carrying corn to the French ports during the war with England. The 

 vessel being chased by an English cruizer, Papathopolo, who, perhaps, like 

 Shakspeare's fop, " but for this vile gunpowder," might himself have been 

 a soldier, was nowhere to be found, till, after strict search, he was at length 

 discovered in the lazaret, a hole under the cabin flooring. The ship ran up the 

 Adriatic to Ancona, where the future doctor, being convinced of his unfitness 

 for pursuits of danger, "faisoit son paquet," and levanted, not forgetting to 

 take with him such superfluous articles as he could lay his hands on ; not 

 by the way of peculation, but only as a precautionary measure lest he 

 should change his mind and return, as men who drown themselves, tie 

 their hands together to assist their resolution. His grotesque appearance 

 and outlandish dialect won for him the attention of a Dutch mountebank, 

 who happened at that time to be curing the incurables in the dominions of 

 his holiness the Pope. In this man's service, Papathopolo was in the pre- 

 cise station for which nature fitted him. Great was the influx of clients 

 to the delighted Dutchman, in consequence of this addition to his caravan, 

 and accordingly he recompensed Papathopolo with as much macaroni as he 

 could eat coin, once passed into the pockets of Mynheer Van Windergelt, 

 like the souls that had once sat in the state-room of old Charon's wherry- 

 never being known to return. Orpheus, though he had asked but the value 

 of a single horsehair to his fiddle-stick, would have whistled in vain. 

 Papathopolo continued to eat his macaroni, and pocket his kicks, till he had 

 acquired the figure of his master, and got a thorough initiation into the 

 mystery of making bread-pills. Van Windergelt, after evading all other 

 creditors, was obliged to pay the debt of nature j and Papathopolo, not caring 

 to go through the ceremony of a legal administration, decamped without 

 beat of drum, taking with him his master's stock of nostrums, and leaving 

 the obsequies of the defunct Doctor to be performed by the hands of 

 strangers. With these " drugs potential," and a round Frank hat, Papa- 

 thopolo returned to his native island. Passing through Venice, where there 

 is a Greek press, he got some handbills struck off, describing himself as the 

 renowned Doctor Demetrius Papathopolo, professor of medicine in the 

 university of Padua, and further setting forth his skill in astrology, thief- 

 finding, and other abstruse sciences. In the pride of his heart he took to 

 himself a wife, and indulged in pleasing anticipations of a brilliant future ; 

 but, alas ! for his hopes in computing the gullibility of the islanders, he 

 had forgotten to take into account their powerful dislike to part with their 

 money, and although they accorded to him the high-sounding titles of 

 your excellency, and your brilliancy, yet small was the profit that accrued 

 and had it not been for such occasional adventures as that I have here 

 recorded, starvation would long since have put an end to the exploits of the 

 Poriote Doctor. J. G. S. 



