He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,
he hears no music;
Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
that could be mov'd to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease,
While they behold a greater than themselves.
JULIUS CAESAR
Montoni and his companion did not return home, till many hours after the
dawn had blushed upon the Adriatic. The airy groups, which had danced
all night along the colonnade of St. Mark, dispersed before the morning,
like so many spirits. Montoni had been otherwise engaged; his soul was
little susceptible of light pleasures. He delighted in the energies of
the passions; the difficulties and tempests of life, which wreck the
happiness of others, roused and strengthened all the powers of his
mind, and afforded him the highest enjoyments, of which his nature was
capable. Without some object of strong interest, life was to him little
more than a sleep; and, when pursuits of real interest failed, he
substituted artificial ones, till habit changed their nature, and they
ceased to be unreal.
Of this kind was the habit of gaming, which he had
adopted, first, for the purpose of relieving him from the languor of
inaction, but had since pursued with the ardour of passion. In this
occupation he had passed the night with Cavigni and a party of young
men, who had more money than rank, and more vice than either. Montoni
despised the greater part of these for the inferiority of their talents,
rather than for their vicious inclinations, and associated with them
only to make them the instruments of his purposes. Among these, however,
were some of superior abilities, and a few whom Montoni admitted to
his intimacy, but even towards these he still preserved a decisive and
haughty air, which, while it imposed submission on weak and timid minds,
roused the fierce hatred of strong ones.
He had, of course, many and bitter enemies;
but the rancour of their hatred proved the degree of his
power; and, as power was his chief aim, he gloried more in such hatred,
than it was possible he could in being esteemed. A feeling so tempered
as that of esteem, he despised, and would have despised himself also had
he thought himself capable of being flattered by it.
Among the few whom he distinguished, were the Signors Bertolini,
Orsino, and Verezzi. The first was a man of gay temper, strong passions,
dissipated, and of unbounded extravagance, but generous, brave, and
unsuspicious. Orsino was reserved, and haughty; loving power more than
ostentation; of a cruel and suspicious temper; quick to feel an injury,
and relentless in avenging it; cunning and unsearchable in contrivance,
patient and indefatigable in the execution of his schemes. He had a
perfect command of feature and of his passions, of which he had scarcely
any, but pride, revenge and avarice; and, in the gratification of these,
few considerations had power to restrain him, few obstacles to withstand
the depth of his stratagems. This man was the chief favourite of
Montoni. Verezzi was a man of some talent, of fiery imagination, and the
slave of alternate passions. He was gay, voluptuous, and daring; yet had
neither perseverance or true courage, and was meanly selfish in all his
aims. Quick to form schemes, and sanguine in his hope of success, he
was the first to undertake, and to abandon, not only his own plans,
but those adopted from other persons. Proud and impetuous, he revolted
against all subordination; yet those who were acquainted with his
character, and watched the turn of his passions, could lead him like a
child. Such were the friends whom Montoni introduced to his family and his
table, on the day after his arrival at Venice. There were also of the
party a Venetian nobleman, Count Morano, and a Signora Livona, whom
Montoni had introduced to his wife, as a lady of distinguished merit,
and who, having called in the morning to welcome her to Venice, had been
requested to be of the dinner party.