Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33
Roman Bandits.

The next morning Franz woke first, and instantly rang the
bell. The sound had not yet died away when Signor Pastrini
himself entered.

"Well, excellency," said the landlord triumphantly, and
without waiting for Franz to question him, "I feared
yesterday, when I would not promise you anything, that you
were too late -- there is not a single carriage to be had --
that is, for the last three days of the carnival."

"Yes," returned Franz, "for the very three days it is most
needed."

"What is the matter?" said Albert, entering; "no carriage to
be had?"

"Just so," returned Franz, "you have guessed it."

"Well, your Eternal City is a nice sort of place."

"That is to say, excellency," replied Pastrini, who was
desirous of keeping up the dignity of the capital of the
Christian world in the eyes of his guest, "that there are no
carriages to be had from Sunday to Tuesday evening, but from
now till Sunday you can have fifty if you please."

"Ah, that is something," said Albert; "to-day is Thursday,
and who knows what may arrive between this and Sunday?"

"Ten or twelve thousand travellers will arrive," replied
Franz, "which will make it still more difficult."

"My friend," said Morcerf, "let us enjoy the present without
gloomy forebodings for the future."

"At least we can have a window?"

"Where?"

"In the Corso."

"Ah, a window!" exclaimed Signor Pastrini, -- "utterly
impossible; there was only one left on the fifth floor of
the Doria Palace, and that has been let to a Russian prince
for twenty sequins a day."

The two young men looked at each other with an air of
stupefaction.

"Well," said Franz to Albert, "do you know what is the best
thing we can do? It is to pass the Carnival at Venice; there
we are sure of obtaining gondolas if we cannot have
carriages."

"Ah, the devil, no," cried Albert; "I came to Rome to see
the Carnival, and I will, though I see it on stilts."

"Bravo! an excellent idea. We will disguise ourselves as
monster pulchinellos or shepherds of the Landes, and we
shall have complete success."

"Do your excellencies still wish for a carriage from now to
Sunday morning?"

"Parbleu!" said Albert, "do you think we are going to run
about on foot in the streets of Rome, like lawyer's clerks?"

"I hasten to comply with your excellencies' wishes; only, I
tell you beforehand, the carriage will cost you six piastres
a day."

"And, as I am not a millionaire, like the gentleman in the
next apartments," said Franz, "I warn you, that as I have
been four times before at Rome, I know the prices of all the