CHAPTER V.
I Stop at Ferrara, Where I Have a Comic Adventure--My Arrival in Paris Precisely at twelve o'clock the peotta landed me at Ponte di Lago Oscuro, and I immediately took a post-chaise to reach Ferrara in time for dinner.
I put up at St.Mark's Hotel.

I was following the waiter up the stairs, when a joyful uproar, which suddenly burst from a room the door of which was open, made me curious to ascertain the cause of so much mirth.

I peeped into the room, and saw some twelve persons, men and women, seated round a well-supplied table.

It was a very natural thing, and I was moving on, when I was stopped by the exclamation, "Ah, here he is!" uttered by the pretty voice of a woman, and at the same moment, the speaker, leaving the table, came to me with open arms and embraced me, saying, "Quick, quick, a seat for him near me; take his luggage to his room." A young man came up, and she said to him, "Well, I told you he would arrive to-day ?" She made me sit near her at the table, after I had been saluted by all the guests who had risen to do me honour.
"My dear cousin," she said, addressing me, "you must be hungry;" and as she spoke she squeezed my foot under the table.

"Here is my intended husband whom I beg to introduce to you, as well as my father and mother-in-law.