dispelled the wrinkles of old age. As he intended to
relinquish his business in my favour whenever I should
espouse Violctta, he instructed me, with great dili-



i-o THE- HISTORY OF

gence, on all the mysteries of his art, and I soon
learned to compound drugs and administer clysters
with great art and dexterity.

Potoschi soon discovered that I should make in a
short time a skilful pharmacopolist ; and I must
say that he spared no pains to teach me this pro-
found art, nor did I neglect to profit by his scientific
instructions.

I fancy, in this place, that I hear the jocose reader
say, " Master Vanillo, you do not disclose the whole
truth. The real cause of this zealous application to
the business may, however, oe easily discovered.
Beauty was to be the reward, and it impelled you to
industry."

I acknowledge it: the amiable Violetta appeared
to me the richest prize that could be proposed to ani-
mate my labours in the study of pharmacy. She was
between twenty-two and twenty-three years of age,
elegant in her person, accomplished in her mind, and,
what is very extraordinary in Sicily, where women in
general are boldly coquettish, extremely modest and
reserved in her manners. She had been educated,
since the death of her mother, which happened about
ten years before, under the eye of an old governess,
who still superintended her conduct. But the terms
on which I was introduced to the family afforded me
the opportunity of conversing with her whenever I
pleased. Our behaviour, however, to each other
never exceeded the bounds of distant respect on my
side, and modest timidity on hers ; for, to speak the
truth, I had too much diffidence to ask the question,
and she had too much virtue to urge me to it.

The merit of Potoschi was so extensive, that he
was more rjsorted to than any other apothecary in



VANILLO GONZALES. 121

Palermo. Patients sent for him from all parts ; but
as it was impossible for him to attend personally on
them all, he frequently sent me in his stead ; and I
was considered in the families which I visited as his
confidential assistant. One day, while Potoschi was
absent, a woman came into the shop, and asked for
the master of the house. " Madam," said I, " he is
gone into the city ; but I am his representative, and
you may safely intrust me with your commands."

" If that be the case," replied she, " my mistress
the Baroness de Conca desires the Doctor will call
upon her this evening."

" Very well," said I, " you may depend upon it
that he will not fail."

Upon which the girl dropped a low courtesy, and
without staying to gossip a single moment, Abigail
as she was, left the shop.

The Doctor, who had been to leave certain pow-
ders at the house of an old judge, who was to be
married in two days to a young lady of fifteen,
returned home in a few minutes afterwards.

" Sir," said I, " the Baroness de Conca desires your
attendance in the evening."

Potoschi smiled at these words in a way that
seemed mysterious, and the terms upon which we
lived together were so familiar, that I did not hesitate
a moment to ask him the reason of his smiling so signifi-
cantly when the name of the Baroness was mentioned.

" My dear son-in-law," said he, for this was my
usual appellation, " although you was one of the
Viceroy's pages, I perceive you are ignorant that the
Baroness is his mistress. Take care," continued he,
" not to reveal this secret. The secrecy of an apothe-
cary, as well as that of a surgeon, ought to be proof



122 THE HISTORY OF

against every temptation ; but between ourselves,
and for the sake of entertainment, there is no objec-
tion to disclose what we know."

To induce Potoschi to continue the conversation, I
affected an entire ignorance on the subject, and my
future father-in-law went on thus : " I have known
the Baroness de Conca," said he, " from her earliest
infancy, as well as Donna Blanche Sorba, her mother,
and have attended them as their apothecary for
many years. It was I who furnished them with
medicines for the disorders of which their husbands
died ; both of them rely upon me with implicit con-
fidence ; and they have good reason, for I afford both
of them very essential services. Blanche, who is by
nature as black as a beetle, and covered with pimples,
possesses by art the complexion of a cherub : thanks
to the lotion and pomade which I shall teach you to
make! The labour of three hours at her toilet
renders her person so different in its appearance, that
she is completely metamorphosed. It is no wonder
that Signor Thomas, the Duke of Ossuna's favourite,
makes her his idol."

" It appears," said I, " that this lady is under great
obligations to you, indeed."

"Her daughter," replied he, "is not under less.
The Baroness, young as she is, labours under certain
infirmities which oblige her to have a perpetual issue
in one of her legs, and by my care it is kept so clean
as to set the nicest sense of smelling completely at
defiance. She also is equally beholden to both my
lotion and my pomade. In short, if the Baroness
has really charmed the Viceroy, she is more indebted
to my art than to her own nature for her success."

The Doctor's discourse convinced me that my friend



VANILLO GONZALES. 123

Thomas's attachment was not very enviable ; and
while it reconciled me to the indiscretion I had been
guilty of in disclosing my conversation, and extin-
guished in my bosom all desire of becoming his
rival, it filled my mind with malignant joy. " If,"
said I, " I had concealed the particulars of our
nocturnal conference, I might, by the delusion of
vanity, have been at this moment desperately
enamoured with a black face under a mask of oint-
ment, instead of being, as at present, upon the verge
of matrimony with the charming Violetta, whose
beauty is not derived from her father's art."

That my deserts might enable me to gather this
fairest flower in Palermo, I worked night and day in
the shop, and surprised her father by the rapid
progress I made in a profession, which in reality has
nothing to do with magic, however the barbarous and
diabolical names of the drugs and compounds may
favour the idea.

I had already acquired the art of making every
species of composition, when two prescriptions were
sent in from Dr. Ariscador, a Navarrois physician,
who at that time passed for a second Hippocrates in
Palermo. There was not a baron, a count, or a
marquis that would die contentedly by any other
hand. These prescriptions were calculated to pro-
duce very opposite effects ; for the one of them was
intended for a counsellor, who had acquired a defluc-
tion of the lungs by elaborate pleading; and the
other for a divine, who had contracted a violent
pleurisy by running too precipitately after church
preferment. Having carefully mixed the drugs and
other articles, of which these respective medicines
were ordered to be composed, I carried them to the



i: 4 THE HISTORY OF

houses of the two patients ; but by a most melan*
choly mistake, like a stupid fellow as I was, I acci-
dentally delivered the potion which was intended for
the advocate to the divine, and that which was
intended for the divine to the advocate ; and still
more unfortunately, I did not recollect that I had
made this egregious blunder, until the patients had
drained their respective phials to the last drop.

Dexterous as I may be at concealing truth under
a varnish of falsehood, I could not excuse this gross
and dangerous act of carelessness even to myself;
and being certain that both these unfortunate men
must soon unavoidably be, if they were not already,
numbered among the dead, I returned home in the
most painful agitation, bitterly lamenting the mis-
fortune of their prescriptions having fallen into my
hands. An old and hackneyed practitioner would
have continued calmly in the shop, without being the
least embarrassed by the mistake he had made ; but
I had not yet had sufficient experience in pharmacy
to indurate my heart.

I was so perturbed by this dreadful event, that
Potoschi, observing my chagrin, asked me with great
concern what was the matter ; and urged by the
compunction I felt, I candidly confessed the crime
into which my negligence had betrayed me. Instead,
however, of expressing sorrow or commiseration for
this fatal disaster, he instantly burst into a fit of
laughter, and told me that it was easy to be seen, by
the excess of my affliction, that I was yet a mere
novice in the profession. " It is ridiculous, my dear
child," continued he, " to feel so sensibly the common
accidents of trade. You must learn not to take such
mi.sfortuncs as these so much to heart. Are man-



VANILLO GONZALES. 125

kind, and especially the members of our profession,
infallible ? Is it not a common saying, that such a
one has blundered like an apothecary? a saying
which presupposes that we frequently make mistakes.
Believe me truly," added he, " I have made many
worse mistakes in the course of my life ; but I never
thought it worth while to go to Rome to confess
them."

" But tell me, Signor Potoschi," said I, " you who
know all the properties of the drugs, tell me whether
you think the two gentlemen I have caused to take
them, be, in your opinion, alive or dead."

" I know nothing about that," replied Potoschi ;
" I am not so well acquainted with the properties of
drugs as to be certain of the effects they may pro-
duce. But, at all events, do not permit your fears to
betray your guilt ; we can boldly assert that we
precisely followed the direction of the physician in
making up the prescriptions, and then, by concealing
the change that has been made, if these patients
should die, which I confess is extremely probable,
Dr. Ariscador will bear the whole blame ; which,
indeed, is but common justice ; for if they should
miraculously live, he will, of course, have ail the
honour."

We resolved accordingly to place these two vic-
tims to the account of the physician, whose reputa-
tion, luckily for us, very much favoured our design.

The ensuing day, Dr. Ariscador came into the
shop, with visible emotion, to announce, as we con-
ceived, the sudden death of his unfortunate patients ;
but, on the contrary, he brought us the most agree-
able news.

" My friends," cried he, " I cannot contain my joy,



126 THE HISTORY OF

or rather my transport ; the two last prescriptions I
sent you ought to be consecrated in the temple of
^Esculapius, as two grand specifics for the pleurisy
and a defluction from the lungs. Can you credit
what I tell you ? Both the lawyer and the divine
had no sooner taken their medicines than they were
almost instantly relieved. They slept profoundly the
whole night, and found themselves, when they awoke
this morning, perfectly recovered. Oh, unheard-of
prodigy ! The fame of these marvellous cures
already spreads like wildfire throughout the city.
What honours shall I not gain in having so rapidly
subdued two such mortal diseases ? My dear
friends," continued he, " you ought also to rejoice
in this new victory; for you have contributed
towards it by the fidelity with which you prepared
the medicines ; and a portion of that glory which
must shine with so much lustre upon me, will be
reflected, in some degree, upon yourselves ! "

The Doctor was so overjoyed at the idea of his
extraordinary success, that he could not discontinue
his self-congratulations upon the occasion ; while we,
who were in the secret, with difficulty refrained from
laughing in his face; but the profound veneration
which apothecaries owe to the more exalted charac-
ters of physicians, saved us at the moment from the
guilt of such irreverence.



I'ANILLO CON Z ALES. 127



CHAPTER XVIII.

THE TRAGICAL ACCIDENT WHICH FOLLOWED THIS LUDI-
CROUS ADVENTURE, AND THE EXTREME PERIL IN
WHICH IT INVOLVED BOTH VANILLO AND POTOSCHI.

THIS event, however, was soon afterwards followed
by another, which did not terminate so happily.

The Baroness de Conca, being suddenly seized with
a violent fit of illness, sent as usual for the celebrated
Potoschi, who, not being able to discover the nature
of her complaint, called in Dr. Ariscador to her
assistance. The physician, although he knew as little
of the cause of her complaint as the apothecary, ven-
tured to give a decided opinion of it, and prescribed
accordingly certain medicines, which Potoschi care-
fully prepared with his own hands, and gave them to
me to carry to the patient, whose appearance on
entering her room filled my mind with apprehensions
for her safety ; but I hoped that the judgment of a
young apothecary might be less infallible than the
prognostics of an old physician.

The mother of the Baroness was kneeling at her
bedside in great agitation, and was so far from having
an opportunity to recollect me, that she never once
turned her eyes from the object of her attention. I
am sure, on my part, that if I had not known it was
Blanche, I should never have discovered her through
the slovenly negligence of dress in which she appeared.
Abandoned entirely to the care which maternal ten-
derness required her to take of her daughter, she had,



128 THE HISTORY OF

if I may be allowed the expression, let her charms
run fallow, and showed most clearly the want in which
she stood of cur pomade. Approaching the patient,
I administered the medicine, and returned immedi-
ately home, where we soon received information that
the patient having, almost immediately after the
mixture was taken, fallen into a deep sleep, awaked
in a short time in shrieks of direful agony, and at
length expired in her mother's arms.

Both Potoschi and myself were much afflicted by
this event ; not indeed at the loss of the patient, but
at the unpleasant consequences that might possibly
result from it. The public voice is always ready to
decry the profession, when a patient dies immediately
upon the application of the medicine ; and we were
extremely apprehensive for our credit with the world.
The first arrow, indeed, is always aimed at the phy-
sician, but it is seldom that the apothecary escapes
unhurt. We should indeed have been happy if the
loss of reputation had been all which threatened us
upon this occasion ; but the tide of our misfortunes ran
to a higher mark ; and on the ensuing day we were
both arrested by order of the Viceroy, and conducted
to separate prisons, where we were informed of the
cause of our arrest.

The body of the Baroness, it seems, had been
opened by order of the Viceroy, and it clearly ap-
peared that poison had been the cause of her death.
His Excellency, informed of this fact, and being
anxious to discover the perpetrator of this horrid deed,
had thought it proper to secure the persons who pre-
pared and administered the potion. The following day
we were both examined. However innocent a prisoner
accused of so diabolical a crime may be, the testi-



VANILLO GONZALES. 129

mony of a clear conscience is scarcely sufficient
entirely to quell the perturbations of his mind, and
enable him to appear in the presence of his judge
with tranquillity and indifference. Potoschi, when
under examination, proved the truth of this observa-
tion ; for, instead of attesting my innocence while he
was justifying his own, he assured the court that he
had made up the prescription with fidelity, but that he
could not answer for my having carried the identical
medicine to the patient. It is true, that on my
examination I returned him the same compliment,
by asseverating, in the most positive manner, that I
had delivered the very same medicine he had pre-
pared, but that I could not answer whether he had
used the drugs which the physician had prescribed.
Thus each of us endeavoured to seek safety by insinu-
ating the other's guilt.

The Viceroy, who was very anxious to develop the
mystery of this affair, being dissatisfied with our
depositions, and conceiving that by taking an exami-
nation himself, he might, by the subtlety of his ques^
tions, draw from us the secret he wished to know,
came to the prison, and ordered us to be brought
before him. Having never seen me since the day of
my exile from the palace, or even heard what was
become of me, his astonishment, when I appeared
before him in the council-chamber, is not to be
expressed.

" How ! is it you, Vanillo ? " he exclaimed ; " is it
you, unhappy youth, who have deprived the Baroness
of her life?"

He immediately ordered every person, even the
apothecary himself, to retire from the room ; and
when we were alone, he continued his discourse to me

I



1 3 o THE HISTORY OF

in these words : " You know the reasons which
induce me to avenge the death of this lady, and
perhaps are acquainted with the concealed villain who
has taken her life. Name him instantly, and a free
pardon shall be your reward."

I calmly replied, " that if the Baroness had really
been poisoned, she must have been poisoned before I
administered the medicine; that I had not devoted
my time to the study of pharmacy for the purpose of
poisoning people ; and that I was totally ignorant of
the cause of her death."

"Since mercy will not induce you to reveal this
secret," exclaimed the Viceroy, " we will try whether
severity will not conquer your silence."

Alarmed by this threat, and as if I had been upon
the point of receiving the torture, I threw myself at
his knees. " Sire," cried I, in a flood of tears, " take
pity on your unhappy page. Can you, who are the
protector of innocence, condemn to cruel torments
one who can give you no information ? If you were
to cut me into pieces you would not be one step
forwarder. Can I tell you what I do not know ? "

Happily for me I had a judge whose penetration
was profound ; he saw that I was not guilty; and the
conversation he afterwards had with Potoschi con-
vinced him, that although the medicine we prepared
might have been the final cause of her death, we at
least were not the poisoners; but although he no
longer threatened me with the torture, he gave no
orders for my enlargement ; and I and the apothecary
were continued in prison for the longer space of fifteen
days, at the end of which we were set at liberty.

Resuming the business of the shop, our attention
was principally occupied by the ladies who resorted



VANILLO GONZALES. 131

to this fountain of youth and beauty, among whom
Blanche was not the least frequent ; for Potoschi con-
tinued to administer to her his lotion and pomade in
great quantities.

This lady one day held a conversation with him
which must not be silently passed over. " Signor
Potoschi," said she, " you cannot conceive the mor-
tification I feel for the sufferings you endured on
account of my daughter's death. If the Viceroy had
followed my advice, you would have avoided the igno-
miny of so odious and unfounded an accusation. The
Baroness, it is true, was poisoned ; but what occasion
had he to give himself so much trouble to discover
the perpetrator of the crime ? He need only to have
recollected the young Circassian, of whom he was
once enamoured, and who died a violent death. Her
murder was attributed to the jealousy of his wife, and
he might have found at the same source the assassin
of my daughter. The deed was perpetrated at the
instigation of the Duchess, by means of a female
domestic, who left my service three days afterwards.
The Duke," continued Blanche, " is now so completely
convinced of this fact, that he has dropped all further
inquiry, lest he should learn more than he wishes to
know." Certain it is, that all investigation into this
affair sunk very suddenly to rest.

A man who is discharged from prison, although
completely purged of the crime he was falsely accused
of, cannot avoid thinking that the world squints at
him with an awkward eye. At least I imagined
people did so at me. The idea sunk so deeply into
my mind, that I could not live in Palermo with any
pleasure. To complete my disgust, it was only
necessary for me to lose the affection of Violetta, for



132 THE HISTORY OF

whom I entertained a real regard ; and in a short
time I had good reason to be dissatisfied with her
conduct.

A young officer of the Inquisition became my rival,
and, happily for me, rendered his addresses agreeable
to Violetta; I say happily for me, for if she had
unfortunately given me the preference, my rival, in
revenge, might easily have procured me a place in
one of the dungeons of the Inquisition, where I might
possibly have remained until this hour.

I showed upon this occasion that I was one of those
pertinacious lovers who resolve to surmount every
obstacle. The moment I discovered that Violetta
was inclined to sacrifice me to her new gallant, I
consigned her and all the drugs in her father's shop
to the devil ; and without bidding adieu to any person,
I repaired to the port, where, finding a Genoese
vessel ready to depart for Leghorn, I took my passage
on board her, and quitted Palermo.



I'ANILLO GONZALES. 133



CHAPTER XIX.

VANILLO, ON HIS PASSAGE TO LEGHORN, GAINS THE
FRIENDSHIP OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN, WHO CONDUCTS
HIM TO PISA THE UNION IN WHICH THEY LIVED TO-
GETHER, AND THE CAUSE OF THEIR SEPARATION.

HAVING no particular reason for going to Leghorn
rather than to any other place, but being unable,
after the repeated mortifications I had received, to
reside any longer at Palermo, my only object was a
change of scene. During the voyage, I formed an
acquaintance with a young gentleman from Pisa,
whose name was Ferrairi, and who was then return-
ing home from a visit he had been making to his
relations at Montreal, but particularly to an aunt
whose wealth he expected to inherit.

As the honorary page of a Viceroy might fairly put
himself upon an equality with a private gentleman, I
engaged in easy and familiar conversation with my
new associate, who soon convinced me that he pos-
sessed an excellent understanding. Mutually pleased
with each other's manners, a warm attachment im-
mediately took place ; and, to cement our rising
friendship, we interchanged assurances of esteem and
confidence, in which it was impossible that he could
be more sincere on his part than I was on mine.
Conscious, however, that gentlemen always despise
persons of low and vulgar extraction, it was not with-
out reason that I boldly assumed with Ferrairi the
character of a man of family ; for had I acquainted



134 THE HISTORY OF

him with my real condition, he would probably have
disdained to converse with me ; but, taking me for
the descendant of a noble stock, he yielded without
the least restraint to the predilection he felt in my
favour.

On our arrival at Leghorn, we found it impossible
to quit each other's company. " We will not separate,"
said Ferrairi ; "you shall go with me to Pisa, where
you shall continue as long as you please;" and
he repeated the invitation with such pressing impor-
tunity, that I found it impossible to refuse his re-
quest. We accordingly proceeded together towards
Pisa, where he assured me I should find a comfort-
able residence, which he would render as agreeable
as possible by the variety of pleasures he proposed to
procure; and, to do him justice, he took so much
pains to render my visit pleasant and satisfactory,
that I passed a month at his mansion with infinite
delight. Fearful of trespassing any longer on his
time, I announced my intention to depart ; but instead
of suffering me to leave him, he reproached me with
impatience to abandon a friend, who, he hoped I was
convinced, entertained for me the most unfeigned
affection. "Why should you quit me?" said he.
" You have frequently assured me that you are happy
in my company; I am equally so in yours; and I
possess a fortune sufficiently ample to maintain us
both. Continue, therefore, your abode in this house ;
and we will live together with fraternal fondness."

Penetrated by these affectionate expressions, I
determined, from feelings of gratitude, to live entirely
at his expense, since he so ardently requested it. I
was even forced, for the sake of quiet, to suffer him
to clolhc me from head to feet at his own cost. In



VANILLO GONZALES. 135

short, to accommodate myself to his disposition, I
had the complaisance to submit to all his inclinations.
The acquisition of so firm a friend obliterated all
recollection of my misfortunes from my mind ; or
rather, I considered, from the present situation of my
affairs, my fortune made; although mature reflection
might have convinced me that a friendship so warm
and urgent is seldom of long duration.

o o

While we were thus enjoying the pleasures of