Old Avelli declares that Zanoni does not seem a day older than when they met at Milan.

He says that even then at Milan--mark this--where, though under another name, this Zanoni appeared in the same splendour, he was attended also by the same mystery.

And that an old man THERE remembered to have seen him sixty years before, in Sweden." "Tush," returned Cetoxa, "the same thing has been said of the quack Cagliostro,--mere fables.

I will believe them when I see this diamond turn to a wisp of hay.

For the rest," he added gravely, "I consider this illustrious gentleman my friend; and a whisper against his honour and repute will in future be equivalent to an affront to myself." Cetoxa was a redoubted swordsman, and excelled in a peculiarly awkward manoeuvre, which he himself had added to the variations of the stoccata.
The grave gentleman, however anxious for the spiritual weal of the count, had an equal regard for his own corporeal safety.