1826.) The Cup of Honours. 389 
him look in the man’s face. « Malatesta!” said he, ‘ why, can you be 
that prince of smugglers? Impossible! I have been hearing of him 
since I was in the cradle, and then they talked of him as a very old man : 
he-must be ninety or a hundred by this time.”—The boatman laughed 
out loud, « Aye, those are Neapolitan stories; give the honest people 
there enough of sun-shine, macaroni, and nothing to do, and they will 
find tongue for the world. Look at me, do you take me for ninety or a 
hundred ?” 
o Quite the contrary,” said the Italian, “ you look scarcely as old as 
myself; but I have had troubles enough to make me old at thirty, and it 
is ease’of mind after all that keeps one young. Yet you are remarka- 
bly active, strong-looking, and tresh-coloured.”—“ Aye, ease of mind,” 
muttered the boatman, and his countenance lost its open expression.— 
«“ Words, words, human folly; but this is no talk for us. Come, let us 
see what provision there is on board.” He now pulled down a few stones 
from the side of the cell, and shewed a rude receptacle of wine-flasks 
and sea stores. ‘“ Here,” said he, “is the true receipt for good looks of 
all kinds. Look at the sallow faces of Naples; the nobles lolling in their 
coaches, the citizens stuffing themselves with every beast of the earth, 
fowl of heaven, and fish of the sea, without taking an hour’s real 
labour for it in the four and twenty! Money is not a bad thing in its 
way, nor title neither; but if men were not three-fourths fools, there would 
beno physicians in the world. I would not have the gout or the dropsy 
for all the strings or stars that ever glittered on the Chiaja—no, not for 
a pile of gold as high as St.Elmo. Drink, friend, and thank your 
night's work, bad as it was, that you are both hungry and thirsty.” 
The Italian acknowledged that he had earned at least an appetite ; and 
the wine and salt-fish appeared to him delicious. He remarked the 
singular pleasure which he felt in this simple fare, and acknowledged that,” 
hunger and fatigue were the true secrets of enjoyment after all. « Yet 
said his jovial entertainer, “an hour ago you would have tossed your- 
self down the side of the Solfatara, or jumped into Vesuvius supperless. 
You see the advantage of waiting awhile in the worst of times—you 
would have been a cinder already, but for my luck in seeing you as I 
stept out of my boat. I had amused myself long enough with the king 
and his fools—long enough to bring them in the way of the gale—as it 
happened ; and if the gale‘does not give a handsome account of some of - 
them, it is no fault of mine.” He laughed long and loud. “ Aye, by 
to-morrow morning there will be something besides fish to be caught in 
the bay, and something to be seen in the palace yonder besides bowing 
knaves covered over with gold,lace and rascality. I saw, aye, it was 
the very last look I gave them; I saw,” said he, in a low wild voice, and 
with one of those strongly derisive gestures peculiar to the Neapolitans, 
one royal fool the less in the world.” The Italian started and _pro- 
nounced, “ ‘The king lost !”— Well,” said the boatman, ‘ and where’s 
the wonder?—there are heirs enough to follow him. When his time is 
‘come, what is to hinder his going, in the way of quiet, like yours,—or 
‘mine—" He broke off, and writhed on his seat, as if with an internal 
pang. “ No—not mine! No—never, never!” He buried his forehead 
am his ‘huge hand, and’remained for awhile convulsed, but. in silence; 
“then ‘recovering suddenly and conipletely, he said, with a flashing eye 
‘anda’ reddened cheek, “ Come, another flask, brother, and Jet me hear 
‘what brought you on the hill. I found you on my way to this den; the 
