de Mirepoix, who then commanded in
Provence, and to whom I was recommended. M. de Montaigu not being able
to do without me, wrote letter after letter, desiring I would hasten
my journey; this, however, an accident considerably prolonged.
It was at the time of the plague at Messina, and the English fleet
had anchored there, and visited the felucca, on board of which I
was, and this circumstance subjected us, on our arrival at Genoa,
after a long and difficult voyage, to a quarantine of one-and-twenty
days.
The passengers had the choice of performing it on board or in the
Lazaretto, which we were told was not yet furnished. They all chose
the felucca. The insupportable heat, the closeness of the vessel,
the impossibility of walking in it, and the vermin with which it
swarmed, made me at all risks prefer the Lazaretto. I was therefore
conducted to a large building of two stories, quite empty, in which
I found neither window, bed, table, nor chair, not so much as even a
joint-stool or bundle of straw. My night sack and my two trunks
being brought me, I was shut in by great doors with huge locks, and
remained at full liberty to walk at my ease from chamber to chamber
and story to story, everywhere finding the same solitude and
nakedness.
This, however, did not induce me to repent that I had preferred
the Lazaretto to the felucca; and, like another Robinson Crusoe, I
began to arrange myself for my one-and-twenty days, just as I should
have done for my whole life.
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