The peasants of Vaud, of whom there were three and all of the lowest
class, became confused and dull in their faculties though louder and more
vehement in speech, each man appearing to balance the increasing
infirmities of his reason by stronger physical demonstrations of folly.
Conrad, the pilgrim, threw aside the mask entirely, if, indeed, so thin a
veil as that he ordinarily wore when not in the presence of his employers
deserved such a name, and appeared the miscreant he truly was,--a strange
admixture of cowardly superstition, (for few meddle with superstition
without getting more or less entangled in its meshes,) of low cunning, and
of the most abject and gross sensuality and vice. The invention and wit of
Pippo, at all times ready and ingenious, gained increased powers, but the
torrent of animal spirits that were let loose by his potations swept
before it all reserve, and he scarce opened his mouth but to betray the
thoughts of a man long practised in frauds and all other evil designs on
the rights of his fellow-creatures. On Maso the wine produced an effect
that might almost be termed characteristic, and which it is in some sort
germane to the moral of the tale to describe.
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