The only favour which he requested was, to be permitted to live free
and independent in Venice during a year, at the end of which he
promised to name that employment which he esteemed the best adapted
to his abilities and inclination.
Flodoardo was lodged in the magnificent palace of his good old
patron, Lomellino, here he lived in the closest retirement, studied
the most valuable parts of ancient and modern literature, remained
for whole days together in his own apartment, and was seldom to be
seen in public except upon some great solemnity.
But the Doge, Lomellino, Manfrone, and Conari, men who had
established the fame of Venice on so firm a basis that it would
require centuries to undermine it; men in whose society one seemed
to be withdrawn from the circle of ordinary mortals, and honoured by
the intercourse of superior beings, men who now graciously received
the Florentine stranger into their intimacy, and resolved to spare
no pains in forming him to support the character of a great man; it
could not long escape the observation of men like these, that
Flodoardo's gaiety was assumed, and that a secret sorrow preyed upon
his heart.
In vain did Lomellino, who loved him like a father, endeavour to
discover the source of his melancholy; in vain did the venerable
Doge exert himself to dispel the gloom which oppressed his young
favourite. Flodoardo remained silent and sad.
And Rosabella? Rosabella would have belied her sex had she remained
gay while Flodoardo sorrowed.
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