112 The Admirable Crichton. 



which I lately dwelt with the utmost delight should be so quickly 

 taken away ; as if, now and again, a moment — a mere breathing 

 time — is conceded to me, I am immediately left desolate, in 

 lamentation and sorrow, as if by the death of my parents. For 

 who are they who sustain the care of my liberty and safety ? 

 Truly, those who strive to give stability to the laws and cer- 

 tainly to justice, who praise illustrious men, who extol the good 

 and punish the wicked, and who also exhort my children to what 

 is honourable and restrain them from what is base with so much 

 devotion as those whom I am compelled by the most lively order 

 of affection to mention, to wit, the most illustrious D[omini 

 Tobias Palavicinus, Francisus Tagliacarnis, Vincentius Zoagliu.s- 

 Stephanus Francus, and Baptista Turrius, upon whose bound- 

 less kindness to me, whenever I reflect, I find myself severed, not 

 without the most profound grief and sighing, from their official 

 guardianship of me. Do Thou, then. Immortal and Best Up- 

 holder of the Republic of Genoa, Who has never at any time 

 refused assistance to the afflicted, aid me with Thy present help, 

 for Thou knowest how, according to my deserts, I am beset on 

 all sides with fear, grief, and suspicion ! 



Oh ! Republic too much reduced to sorrow and prostration ! 

 For if you had recognised into whose hands you have fallen, and 

 who they are whom you praise deservedly but can never praise 

 sufficiently, you would not have thus begun to be terrified and 

 alarmed ! For you have by this time already apprehended how 

 much delight you are about to derive from this mourning and 

 wretchedness. It is, forsooth, the same as when a girl who 

 has lost a gold ring, in whose bezel is set a priceless stone, is 

 observed to fret, to storm, and to rave, to examine the same 

 place several times over, to turn over the whole of the furniture, 

 to feel in her bosom, and to reject every thing one after the 

 other; and when at length she has found it again on the table, 

 or in some other place, she snatches it up with incredible delight 

 and at one moment clasps and at another fondly kisses the ring, 

 manifesting a greater delight in its recovery than if she had never 

 lost it. So I acknowledge that when these most noble citizens 

 retired from the Senate, the State itself thereby lost a ring, and 

 seems to have borne the heavy loss in a manner worthy of itself ; 

 for never did the Republic of Rome see either Fabii, or Opiraii, 



