Florence to Trieste | Page 7

of that term I will pay you."
He thought it over for a few moments, and then said,--
"Very good, sir, but I am not going to pay any legal expenses."
I enquired how much the costs amounted to, and paid them, laughing at
the policemen's claim of damages for blows they had received.
Then the two rascally servants said that if I would not be surety in the
same manner on their account, they would have Medini arrested.

However, Medini called out to me to pay no attention to them
whatever.
When I had given the vetturino his acknowledgment and paid the four
or five crowns charged by the police, Medini told me that he had more
to say to me; but I turned my back on him, and went home to dinner.
Two hours later one of his servants came to me and promised if I would
give him six sequins to warn me if his master made any preparations
for flight.
I told him drily that his zeal was useless to me, as I was quite sure that
the count would pay all his debts within the term; and the next morning
I wrote to Medini informing him of the step his servant had taken. He
replied with a long letter full of thanks, in which he exerted all his
eloquence to persuade me to repair his fortunes. I did not answer.
However, his good genius, who still protected him, brought a person to
Florence who drew him out of the difficulty. This person was Premislas
Zanovitch, who afterwards became as famous as his brother who
cheated the Amsterdam merchants, and adopted the style of Prince
Scanderbeck. I shall speak of him later on. Both these finished cheats
came to a bad end.
Premislas Zanovitch was then at the happy age of twenty-five; he was
the son of a gentleman of Budua, a town on the borders of Albania and
Dalmatia, formerly subject to the Venetian Republic and now to the
Grand Turk. In classic times it was known as Epirus.
Premislas was a young man of great intelligence, and after having
studied at Venice, and contracted a Venetian taste for pleasures and
enjoyments of all sorts, he could not make up his mind to return to
Budua, where his only associates would be dull Sclavs--uneducated,
unintellectual, coarse, and brutish. Consequently, when Premislas and
his still more talented brother Stephen were ordered by the Council of
Ten to enjoy the vast sums they had gained at play in their own country,
they resolved to become adventurers. One took the north and the other
the south of Europe, and both cheated and duped whenever the
opportunity for doing so presented itself.
I had seen Premislas when he was a child, and had already heard
reports of a notable achievement of his. At Naples he had cheated the
Chevalier de Morosini by persuading him to become his surety to the
extent of six thousand ducats, and now he arrived in Florence in a

handsome carriage, bringing his mistress with him, and having two tall
lackeys and a valet in his service.
He took good apartments, hired a carriage, rented a box at the opera,
had a skilled cook, and gave his mistress a lady-in-waiting. He then
shewed himself at the best club, richly dressed, and covered with
jewellery. He introduced himself under the name of Count Premislas
Zanovitch.
There is a club in Florence devoted to the use of the nobility. Any
stranger can go there without being introduced, but so much the worse
for him if his appearance fails to indicate his right to be present. The
Florentines are ice towards him, leave him alone, and behave in such a
manner that the visit is seldom repeated. The club is at once decent and
licentious, the papers are to be read there, games of all kinds are played,
food and drink may be had, and even love is available, for ladies
frequent the club.
Zanovitch did not wait to be spoken to, but made himself agreeable to
everyone, and congratulated himself on mixing in such distinguished
company, talked about Naples which he had just left, brought in his
own name with great adroitness, played high, lost merrily, paid after
pretending to forget all about his debts, and in short pleased everyone. I
heard all this the next day from the Marquis Capponi, who said that
someone had asked him if he knew me, whereat he answered that when
I left Venice he was at college, but that he had often heard his father
speak of me in very high terms. He knew both the Chevalier Morosini
and Count Medini, and had a good deal to say in praise of the latter.
The marquis asked me if I knew him, and