MALVAGNA.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,

Dorset Street, Fleet Street.

A ROMANCE

OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

"Nor would I have you believe nor yet altogether discredit those tales
(whereof I myself might say something) which learned authors have
recounted unto us concerning secret sympathies and influences, whereby
some men, albeit of themselves well disposed and harmless, have
been known to work ill unto others by their bare presence, or even by
a casual glance of the eye."
BROWN'S Vulgar Errors.

PREFACE.

THE superstition, so often alluded to in the following pages, is one which, however childish

it

may appear to the English reader, prevails universally in the country where the scene of the present romance is laid. It is received from the palace to the cottage; by the prince not less than by the lazzarone. The sage, whose better judgment should discard it, will not openly deride it; and the sceptic who believes in little else, will not deny a lingering dread of the Jettatura, or power of the Evil Eye.

In confirmation of this assertion, the travelled reader will doubtless recollect the many shops

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