[Letter XVI] About midnight our host proposed to sup. The cloth was laid in an instant, every one lending a hand. The "stingy" Don Ignazio treated us with a profusion of three or four different sorts of delicious shell-fish, Bologna sausages; salad of anchovies, &c. and plenty of his Abruzzo wine, uttering a thousand apologies for the mediocrity of his hasty entertainment. I never saw a man eat and drink so much, and with such glee. His partner too appeared as if she providently intended to lay in a stock for a few banyan days to come. Her repletion, however, did not prevent her from favouring the company with two or three songs; but she certainly performed better with an empty stomach. Don Carlo likewise gave us some beautiful airs, executed in a charming style, and with one of the best voices I ever heard. That man knew almost every opera by heart. You would have thought him a singer by profession, not a clerk at the Vicaria [the seat of the courts of justice], which I afterwards understood him to be.