t 



GRIMALDI. 405 



meeting with the mailer ; but much more at not find- 

 ing any money in the houfe. 



Three months elapfed without any tidings of Gri- 

 maldi, either as dead or alive. As foon as Fazio per- 

 ceived that there was no longer any talk about his fud-> 

 den di (appearance* he on his part began to let fall a 

 word or two concerning his chemical difcoveries. 

 Shortly after he even fpread a report under hand about 

 fomething of a bar of gold. People laughed at him to 

 his face, as they had already had fo many examples of 

 his having been deceived in his operations. But Fazio 

 for this time flood firm to his affertions, prudently 

 obferved a certain gradation in his difcourfes and exhi- 

 bitions of joy, and at lad went fo -far as to talk of a 

 journey to France for converting his bar into current 

 coin. 



The better to conceal his real deiign, he pretended 

 to be in want of cam for his travelling charges, and 

 borrowed a hundred florins on a farm, which he had 

 not yet fent up the chimney. Fifty of them he kept 

 to his own ufes, and fifty he gave to his wife, at the 

 fame time affuring her of his fpeedy return. This in- 

 formation threw her into a tremor. She feared it was 

 the ruin of his fortune that forced Fazio to fly his 

 Country : Ihe never expected to fee him again, and 

 thought of nothing but the being fhortly reduced to 

 the extremity of difcrefs, and left forlorn, with her two 

 fatherlefs children, defdtute of bread. She begged and 

 conjured him not to travel. She fpoke with fo much 

 eloquence and pathos, that Fazio was affected to that 

 degree, as no longer to be able to conceal his fecrer, 

 notwithftanding his refolution to keep it for life. He 



d d j took 



