"You tell me," said Franz, at the moment Signor Pastrini was about to open his mouth, "that you knew Luigi Vampa when he was a child--he is still a young man, then ?" "A young man?
he is only two and twenty;--he will gain himself a reputation." "What do you think of that, Albert ?--at two and twenty to be thus famous ?" "Yes, and at his age, Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, who have all made some noise in the world, were quite behind him." "So," continued Franz, "the hero of this history is only two and twenty ?" "Scarcely so much." "Is he tall or short ?" "Of the middle height--about the same stature as his excellency," returned the host, pointing to Albert.
"Thanks for the comparison," said Albert, with a bow.
"Go on, Signor Pastrini," continued Franz, smiling at his friend's susceptibility.

"To what class of society does he belong ?" "He was a shepherd-boy attached to the farm of the Count of San-Felice, situated between Palestrina and the lake of Gabri; he was born at Pampinara, and entered the count's service when he was five years old; his father was also a shepherd, who owned a small flock, and lived by the wool and the milk, which he sold at Rome.

When quite a child, the little Vampa displayed a most extraordinary precocity.

One day, when he was seven years old, he came to the curate of Palestrina, and asked to be taught to read; it was somewhat difficult, for he could not quit his flock; but the good curate went every day to say mass at a little hamlet too poor to pay a priest and which, having no other name, was called Borgo; he told Luigi that he might meet him on his return, and that then he would give him a lesson, warning him that it would be short, and that he must profit as much as possible by it.

The child accepted joyfully.
Every day Luigi led his flock to graze on the road that leads from Palestrina to Borgo; every day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the priest and the boy sat down on a bank by the wayside, and the little shepherd took his lesson out of the priest's breviary.