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THE

FLORENTINE KINSMEN.

Ir is a true proverb, that we are hawks in discerning the faults of others, but buzzards in spying out our own: and so is the other, that no man will act wickedly before a mirror; both of which sayings, I hope to illustrate in the following story.

The hereditary domains of the Malatesti, formerly a very ancient and noble family of Florence, were large and princely, though now they are alienated and parcelled out amongst numerous possessors; and the race which then

owned them is extinct. After many generations, the greater portion of the estates descended to a distant relation of the house, and the remainder to his kinsman, who had already some very large possessions of his own.

This man, notwithstanding he was so rich, and able to live, if he chose, in the greatest luxury and profusion, was still so covetous as to cast an envious and grudging eye on the property of his noble kinsman, and he did nothing but devise secretly how he should get the rest of the estates of the Malatesti into his own hands. His kinsman, however, though generous and hospitable, was no prodigal or gambler, likely to stand in need of usurious loans; neither a dissolute liver, that might die prematurely, nor a soldier; but addicted to peaceful literary studies, and very temperate in his habits.

The miserly man, therefore, saw no hope of obtaining his wishes, except at the price of blood-and he did not scruple at last to admit

this horrible alternative into his nightly meditations. He resolved, therefore, to bribe the notorious Pazzo, a famous robber of that time, to his purpose: but ashamed, perhaps, to avow his inordinate longings, even to a robber, or else grudging the high wages of such a servant of iniquity, he afterwards revoked this design, and took upon his own hands the office of an

assassin.

Accordingly he invited his unsuspecting kinsman, with much specious kindness, to his own house, under a pretence of consulting him on some rare old manuscripts, which he had lately purchased, a temptation which the other was not likely to resist. He repaired, therefore, very readily to the miser's country seat, where they spent a few days together very amicably though not sumptuously: but the learned gentleman was contented with the entertainment, which he hoped to meet with in the antique papyri. At last, growing more impatient than was strictly polite to behold the manuscripts, he enquired

for them so continually, that his crafty host thought it was full time to show him an improvement which he had designed upon his estate, and which intended, as may be guessed, the addition of another territory to his own.

The gentleman, who, along with alchemy and the other sciences, had studied landscape gardening, made no difficulties; so mounting their horses, they rode towards the middle of the estate into a deep forest, the gentleman discoursing by the way, for the last time in his life possibly, on the cultivation of the cedar. The miser, with a dagger in his sleeve, rode closely by his side, commenting from time to time on the growth of his trees, and at length bade his companion look towards the right, through a certain little vista, which opened towards the setting sun, now shining very gorgeously in the west. The unwary gentleman, accordingly turned his head on that side-but he had scarcely glanced on that golden light of heaven, when the miser suddenly smote him a savage

blow on the left breast, which tumbled him off his horse.

The stroke, however, though so well directed, alighted luckily on a small volume of a favourite author, which the gentleman wore constantly in his bosom. So that learning, which has brought so many to poverty and a miserable end, was for this once the salvation of a life.

At first the victim was stunned awhile by the fall, and especially by the shocking treachery of his relation, who seeing how matters went, leapt quickly down to dispatch him, but the gentleman, though a scholar, made a vigorous defence, and catching hold of the miser's arm with the dagger, he began to plead in very natural terms (for at other times he was a little pedantical) for his life.

"Oh, my kinsman," said he, "why will you kill me, who have never wished you any harm in my days, but on the contrary have always loved you faithfully, and concerned myself at every opportunity about your health and well

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