saying cheerfully, "Now, now, do not say anything wrong, so that God may grant you his blessing." On one occasion a fellow-citizen had injured him very considerably, by claiming a sum of money from him unjustly, and employing the influence of his friends, and falsehood also to bring about the ruin of poor Jacomo. Still he would not hear his enemy spoken of in any way that could detract from him, and as Lapa thought it no fault he gently reproved her; saying, "let him alone, dear, let him alone, and God will bless you; he will show him his error, and will become our defence," This soon took place; the truth was discovered almost miraculously; the guilty man was condemned and acknowledged the injustice of his persecutions
The testimony of Lapa is above suspicion; all who are acquainted with her will easily credit her; she is an octogenarian, and is so simple that even would she, she could not invent anything false. The friends of Jacomo can also testify to his simplicity, uprightness and virtue; he was so reserved in his speech that his family especially the female portion of it, could not support the least irregularity in conversation. One of his daughters named Bonaventura, had married a young man of Sienna, named Nicolas. This young man received at his house friends of his own age, and their conversation sometimes savoured of levity. Bonaventura became so depressed in spirits on this account, that she fell into a languishing state of health, and sensibly wasted away. Her husband inquired the cause of her illness; she replied: "I have never been accustomed to hearing in the house of my father, language such as I hear in yours; my education has been widely different, and I assure you that if these
