YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the Library of

WILLIAM M. OIX)M

THE

ENGLISHWOMAN IN ITALY
IMPRESSIONS OE LIEE
IN THE
ROMAN STATES AND SARDINIA,
DUEING A TEN YEAES' EESIDENCE.
By MRS. G. GRBTTON.

VIOTOE EMMANUEL.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON :
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
SUCCESSOES TO HENEY COLBUEN,
13, KBEAT MAEIiBOEOTJGH STEEET,
1860.
77ie right of Translation is reserved.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

CHAPTER I.
Conversazione continued — Match-making — The Co-
dini opposed to travelUng — Hopes of the liberals
centred in Piedmont — Volunnia's pleasantries —
Stojy of the young noble and his pasteboard
soldiers . . . . .

CHAPTER II.
Un-wiUingness o'f the Italians to speak on serious
topics — Indifference of the majority to literature —
Reasons for discouraging the cultivation of female
inteUect — The Marchesa Gentilina relates her con
vent experiences — Admiration of English domestic
life . .  10
CHAPTER ni.
On the study of music in the Marche — Neglect of
painting — The young artist — His hopeless love —
His "jealotisy— ^His subsequent struggles and con
stancy . . .... 35
CHAPTER IV.
From Ancona to Umana — MoonUght view — The coun
try-house — Indifference of the Anconitans to flowers
and gardening — Ascent of the mount — Magnificent
prospect at sunrise — Trappist convent . . 53
VOL. n. b

IV CONTENTS. 1>A0E
CHAPTER V.-VI.
The bishop's palace at Umana— Inroad of beggars —
The grotto of tiie slaves — The physician's poUtical
remarks — Approach to Loretto- — Bad reputation of
its inhabitants — Invitation from the Canonico . 69
CHAPTER VII.
The Santa Casa — ^Pilgrims— The treasury — ^Exquisite
statues and bassi-nUe-vi — Chocolate at the Canon-
ico's — ^La Signora Placida — A survey of the house
— The rich vestments  88
CHAPTER VIII.
Visit to the CarmeUtes at Jesi — Our joyous reception
• — The casino and theatre — Infractions of convent
discipUne — The dinner near the sacristy — In com
pany with the friars we -visit the nuns . . .107
CHAPTER IX.
The ¦writer's motives for not having dwelt minutely on
poUtical or historical subjects — Antiquity of Ancona
' — Its reputation under the Roman Empire — Its
celebrated resistance to the Emperor Frederic Bar
barossa' — Stratagem employed by its deUverers —
— Continues to be a free city till 1532, when it is
surprised by Gonzaga, General of Pope Clement
VII., and subjected to the Holy See — Flourishes
imder Napoleon— Restoration of the Papacy — Ponti
fical possessions — Explanation of the terms, Lega
tions, and Romagna-^Bologna conquered in 1506, by
JuUus II., but retains a separate form of govern
ment — Ferrara, Urbino, &c. — ^Dates of tiieir annex
ation  128
CHAPTER X.
Injudicious poUcy of the Government at the Restora
tion- — ^Non-fuliihnent of the Motu proprio of Pius
VIL- — ^Disappointment of the pontafical subjects — ¦
InabiUty of Cardinals Consalvi and Guerrieri to
contend against tiie narrow views of their colleagues
—Reasons of Austria's animosity agauist the former

CONTENTS.

— Guerrieii's projected reforms bring about Ms fall
— The constitutional movement of 1820-21 — Its
efiect in the Papal States — Abuse of Consalvi's in
structions — ^Exti-eme poUtical rigour under Leo XII.
¦ — Disb-aoted condition of tiie country — The Hniifc-
disti rising of 1831 — First Austi-ian armed inter
vention in Romagna — Conferences at Rome — Mr.
Seymour's protest— Fresh disturbances in the Le
gations — The Austiians again occupy Bologna — The
French land at Ancona — The reign of Gregory XVI. 139
CHAPTER XI.
Accession of Pius IX. — The amnesty — His unbounded
popularity — His reforms and concessions — Disas
ters entailed by the French Revolution— The encycU-
cal of the 29th April — Re-viilsion of feeUng — The
Mazzinians gain ground — ^Austrian intrigues — ^As
sassination of Count Rossi — The Pope's flight to
Gtieta — ^Efi'orts of the ConstitutionaUsts to bring
about an accommodation — The repubUc is pro
claimed in Rome — ^Excesses in Ancona and Seni-
gaUia — Moderation of the Bolognese — Their cou
rageous resistance to General Wimpfifen — Siege of
Ancona — ^Extreme severities of the -victors . . 161

CHAPTER XII.
Rome subjugated by the French — Leniency of Gene
ral Oudinot — Rigour of the Pope's Commissioners
¦ — Investigation into the opinions of Govemment
employes — ^Disfavour of the constitutionaUsts — The
Pope's edict and second amnesty — He returns to his
capital, April, 1850 — ^Bitter disappointment of tha
Romans — Count Cavour's appeal to the Congress of
Paris on their behalf — The Papal progress in 1857
— PubUc feeling at the opening of 1859 — Excite
ment in the Pontifical States at the outbreak of the
war — The Austrians evacuate Bologna — ^EstabUsh
ment of a Provisional Govemment — The revolt
spreads through the Legations — ^Ancona loses the
favourable moment — ^Declares itself too late — Ap
proach of the Swiss troops from Perugia and Pesaro
— Capitulates to General Allegrini — Arbitrary pro-

VI CONTENTS.

ceedings of General Kalbermatten — The Gonfalo
niere — His mendacious addresses to the Pope —
Misery of Ancona — Contrast presented by the Le
gations .... .... 178
CHAPTER XIp:.
The EngUsh community of Nice — -A pleasant meet
ing — The Corniche road — The smallest sovereignty
in the world — An oppressive right of the prince — -
Rumoured negotiation — Rencontre ¦with pilgrims —
An old Genoese villa — A Piedmontese dinner —
The culture of lemon trees — Piedmontese news
papers — The towers of the peasantry — Cultivation
of the oUve and the fig-tree — Popular mode of
fishing .  204
CHAPTER XIV.
Excursion to VentimigUa — The Duomo — Visit to a
convent — La Madre Teresa — Convent Ufe- — ^A local
Archaeologist- Cities of the coast — The presents of
a savant — ^End of a pleasant -visit . 235
CHAPTER XV.
A glance at Turin in 1858— The progress of Sardinia
— Exhibition of national industry — ^Productions of
Piedmont — Appearance of tiie Piedmontese — Rail
way enterprise — ^Progress in machinery . ' . 255
CHAPTER XVI.
Turin in 1858 — Partisans of the old regime — The
Native Protestants — The conservative party — Their
hostflity to Cavour — Clerical intolerance — The
fashionable promenade— Turinese characteristics —
The Piedmontese dialect— A marriage in high Ufe . 270
CHAPTER XVII.
The House of Savoy — Its warUlje princes — The Green
Count — Prostration of Piedmont — Persecution of
the Vaudois — The Island of Sardinia — Genoa added
to Piedmont— The constitution of 1848— War with
Austi-ia — Victor Emmanuel . . , . .299

THE

ENGLISHWOMAN IN ITALY.

CHAPTEE I.
Conversazione continued — Match-making — The Co-
dini opposed to travelling — Hopes of the liberals
centred in Piedmont — Volunnia's pleasantries —
Story of the young noble and his pasteboard
soldiers.
Meanwhile the representative of the
knights-hospitallers of St. John of Jeru
salem, and the defenders of Ehodes and of
Malta, did not seem at all to regard himself
as an object of commiseration, but went on
talking and laughing in the highest spirits,
giving a rapid summary of all the recent
Carnival gossip of Eome, and then asked,
in his turn, the news of Macerata in the
same gay, careless strain.
"So the Marchese Eidolfi has married
VOL. II. B

MATCH-MAKING.

his golUna daughter at last, I am told ? It
was no easy achievement, I should say.
Who arranged the affair?"
"As for that, I do not exactly know,"
answered the timid old count, brightening
up as he entered on a genial topic; for
having disposed of his own daughters very
advantageously some years before, he as
sumed an air of superiority whenever the
subject was introduced, conscious that he
was regarded with a sort of admiring envy
by fathers stiU burdened with the care of
settling theirs. "I do not exactly know,"
he repeated, rubbing his hands, " whether
it was some amico di casa (family friend) or
a matrimonial broker, who arranged the
partito ; but whoever did, it was clumsily
done enough! The sposo, a Neapolitan
baron, thought the dote very fair, and was
tolerably satisfied -with the portrait they
sent him before he signed. Eidolfi, on his
part, had no cause to complain of the in
formation he received concerning the young
man, his fortune, and so forth ; and accord
ingly, near the end of Carnival, he arrived

A COMPROMISE, 3
for the celebration of the marriage. Then
corbezzoli ! there is a pretty piece of work !
The baron perceives that one of the young
lady's shoulders is much higher than the
other, a fact the paiuter had omitted in her
portrait — ^by the bye, it was only a medal
lion that was sent — ^merely the head, ha !
ha! — and says, tutto scldetto, just in two
words, that unless a bag of three thousand
additional dollars is produced, to give her
form its required equipoise, he ¦will go back
to his O'wn coimtry as he came, and annul
the contract ! Tou should have seen the
way Eidolfi was in. Nothing could bring
biTTi to reason for some time, and a lawsuit
seemed inevitable. But then I and some
others who had not been consulted before,
came forward, and we mediated, and we
talked. Basia! there was a compromise,
and the wedding took place the last Tuesday
of Carnival. I was really glad, for I had
it upon my heart to get that poor girl
married." " I don't deny the sposo had some reason
on his side," said the other Nestor of the
b2

4 OBJECTIONS TO TRAVELLING.
group, the Marchese Testaferrata. "But
if Eidolfi had taken my advice, after what
we heard of his vagabond dispositions —
instead of thinking it a rather fine thing
that his future son-in-law had been to Paris,
and who knows where — he would have had
nothing to say to the match. ' Senti, caro,'
I said to him, 'I have lived a few more
years than you, and I never yet saw any
good from wandering about the world. Let
each man stay among his own people,
where his fathers lived and died. What
did for our parents, is surely good enough
for us.' But he thought he knew better,
voveretto ; he would not listen to me, so I
washed my hands of the business."
" What was he to do ? " returned the
other. " There was the girl to find a
husband for, and he was obliged to adapt
himself to what he could get. Besides, it
is agreed that the sposi are to spend alter
nately six months with her family here,
and six with his in Calabria."
I could not help mentally pitying the
young couple when I heard of this arrange-

NEGOTIATING A MARRIAGE. 5
ment; but the next moment's reflection
served to remind me that a menage tete-a-tete
between persons united under such circum
stances could present nothing very inviting,
and accordingly I withdrew my superfluous
sympathy. " And young Della Porta ? " asked Chec-
chino, " he has got into a lawsuit about
something like Eidolfi's affair — has he
not ? "
" No ; not precisely. It appears he em
ployed a regular sensale (broker) to negotiate
his marriage -with a rich heiress of Ancona ;
and as she was reaUy a capital match, and
several other candidates were in the field,
he promised him a large percentage — I do
not recollect how much — upon the total
amount of her fortune, should he succeed
in arranging it. Everything went on
smoothly, and the marriage took place ;
but somehow our good friend did not find
it convenient to fulfil his agreement. So
the broker cites him before the Tribunal,
where Delia Porta justifies himself by de
claring it is through other channels that

6 DAUGHTERS TO MARHT.
success was obtained, and that the plaintiff s
boasted influence alone would have been in
effectual. So they have gone regularly to
law, and a fine affair they wiU make of it.
To cro-wn the whole, the father of the sposa
is furious, for he finds the broker purposely
deceived him about DeUa Porta's fortune :
he is not half so well off as he gave him to
understand. Ah, well, I can pity him, poor
man : I pity all those who have daughters to
marry." " And I am sure I pity those who have
married his daughters ! " cried Checchino, as
the door closed upon the two old gentlemen,
who always went away together at the same
hour, to the evident relief of the rest of
the company. " And that old Testaferrata,
too, with his still more ultra-codiiio theories.
He ought certainly to have been a Chinese.
I remember when his grandson wanted to
visit the Grreat Exhibition of London.
Corpo di Bacco ! he might as well have re
quested leave to go to the infernal regions."
" Oh, as for that, I could tell you of
scores of young men whose passports were

A DANGEROUS EXPEDITION. 7
refused them by our most enlightened
Grovernment for that dangerous expedition."
" If I was to repeat that in England," I
said, "I should either be accused of wilful
exaggeration, or of being misled by party
feeling." " The signorina is right ! " exclaimed the
doctor. " It is easy to conceive that these
miserable puerilities, these minutiae of des
potism, are below the comprehension of a
people who have never been denied either
freedom of action or of speech."
" This condition of things cannot last,
however," said the Conte Muzio, who, since
the departure of the two codini, had become
more animated ; the presence of the old
conte, so exulting over all those oppressed
¦with matrimonial cares, always sensibly
affecting him — so they afterwards told me —
burdened as he was with five marriageable
nieces, for whose sake he had long laid aside
all projects for himself, devoting his Httle
patrimony to augmenting his widowed
sister's scanty resources. -"No, no, it can
not last. Erom what my nephew writes

8 ITALIAN UNITY.
me from Turin, of the steadiness of the
ministry amidst the attacks of the two
extreme parties — the Eetrogrades and Ee-
publicans — and their determination to up
hold the constitution to the utmost, I augur
better times for ourselves. Let it be but
consolidated by a few more years, that
precious constitution, the only reality left
of the dreams and hopes, and alas ! the
excesses of a period so bright in its dawn
ing, so dark in its close — let this be, and
all of us, lifting up our drooping heads,
looking to Piedmont as our example and
regenerator, wiU yet find those beautiful
words, ' Italia imita' are no delusion."
" Then he is as enthusiastic as ever with
his adopted country, your nephew, ehi?"
inquired Checchino. " He is quite a Pied
montese." "He is Italian, I hope," said Muzio,
quietly, "I look for the day when tliat
will be the only designation of aU born
within the length and breadth of the fairest
country in Europe."
"Tou are an optimist, caro, as well as

volunnia's PLEASANTRIES. 9
the king of uncles. I hope we shall see
him a general some day. Do you know,
signorina," turning to me, " that this un
paralleled Conte Muzio, to gratify his
nephew's martial genius, took him to Turin,
and has placed him in the military academy,
where  But who have we here at last?
Signora Volunnia, I congratulate myself on
seeing you so well. It appeared to me a
thousand years till I saw you again ! "
Volunnia received her cousin's greeting
with great friendliness, reciprocating his
compliments on the pleasure of meeting, but
assured him her health was far from good,
and announced that she purposed taking
some cream of tartar the next morning as a
rinfrescante, and would stay all day in bed.
These particulars having elicited great sym
pathy from the assembled friends, she next
playfully tapped the knight of Malta on the
lower part of his waistcoat, remarking: "Ah,
Checchino mio, comminci a metterti un po'
di pancia," which, delicately translated, sig
nifies, " Tou are gro^wing rather corpulent ;"
a proceeding I could not help looking upon

10 AN IRRITATING TOPIC.
as singular, especially after her strictures on
English propriety.
Checchino, who evidently piqued himself
upon his figure, bore the laugh this saUy
eHcited with tolerably good grace, but re
venged himself by telling Volunnia of the
marriages of two or three young ladies in
Eome whose mothers, he well knew, had
been her contemporaries; and asked with
tender interest after her sisters and their
children, which last topic always irritated
her extremely.
Then, when he thought her sufficiently
punished, with the tact that is almost in
stinctive to an Itahan, he brought back the
conversation to the Conte Muzio's nephew,
on whom the good uncle's hopes and affection
were evidently centered.
" So he passed his examinations well on
entering? That must have been a great
consolation to you, after all the sacrifices
you made, and the difficulties you had to
overcome beforehand. Ah, it is a fine
service, no doubt: the Piedmontese are
soldiers ! "

THE PIEDMONTESE. H
"My friend," said Muzio, "they are also
sailors and engineers, and manufacturers
and politicians — ^in a word, they are men.
I would sooner my nephew had chosen
another than the military profession: to
some honourable employment I had always
destined him ; for I resolved at any cost to
emancipate him from the life of caffes and
theatres, which foreigners say is the sole aim
of an Itahan's existence, but that, more truly
speaking, he is driven to by the peculiarities
of his social position; and it would have
suited better -with our limited fortune had
the boy made a different selection. But the
bias was too strong : it would have been
cruel to resist it."
" If he had not had you for his uncle,"
cried the marchesa, " he would have turned
out a second Paolo Pagano with his toy-
soldiers." " Who is he ? " I asked. " Is not Pagano
the name of the old gentleman who went
away with the Marchese Testaferrata ? "
"" Ber appunto" she answered, " he is his
father ; but yon do not hear so much of poor

12 THE TOUNG NOBLE
Paolo, though he is more than thirty years
old, as of the blessing of having disposed
of aU his daughters. He wanted to be a
soldier too, but it was not to be thought
of; so his military tendencies, denied their
natural vent, have displayed themselves in
a ludicrous form. Eor years he has been
employed in the construction of thousands
of little pasteboard figures, which he paints
and equips with the utmost care, according
to the uniform of different nations. To
place these in line of battle, to repeat ma
noeuvres he sees the Austrians practise while
out exercising, to go through the routine of
drill, parade, and bivouac, constitutes the
occupation and enjoyment of his life."
" But you should see the order in which
he keeps them," said Checchino : " the last
time I was here, I got a sight of the army,
all equipped for the winter campaign. Tou
must know, it is believed that, being per
plexed as to the means of providing for so
large a body, he once appropriated the ample
cloak of his uncle, a canon, and cut it up
into wrrappings for his soldiers ! "

AND HIS PASTEBOARD SOLDIERS. 13
" We laugh at this," broke out the young
doctor, rather fiercely ; " but we have more
need to weep at the reflections it calls up
on the condition of our country, where it is
impossible to gratify the yearning for mili
tary life so common to young men, unless by
following the example of Conte Muzio, and,
in addition to great personal sacrifice, incur
ring the suspicion and resentment of the
Grovernment — which there are few ready,
like him, to brave. Here, in our States, to
be a soldier is synonymous with disgrace !
No career, except the church, is open to
the patrician youth. And yet i^ is in pre
sence of these abuses, this palsying idleness,
that you find men of good faith, like Testa
ferrata and Pagano, whimpering after the
good old times, which means, if possible, a
greater state of slavery than the present,
and anathematizing every prospect of re
form ! "
" Carissimo dottore" said Checchino, taking
up his hat, "one must be just after all.
Trees of hberty bearing bullets and poniards,
do not tend to enlarge the understanding.

14 THE ASSASSINATIONS
or give a taste for another season of such
fruits and foHage. We laugh at Testaferrata,
and those who think like him ; but, upon
my conscience, if you or I had been stabbed
and shot at in the open daylight, as both
he and Pagano were in Ancona in 1849,
simply because it was known we did not
coincide with the party which had got the
uppermost (it was during the Pope's absence
at Graeta, and the short-lived republic at
Eome, signorina), I don't imagine we should
ever entertain very amiable sentiments to
wards the system whose advocates indulged
in such qilestionable pleasantries."
"Those were exceptions, not the rule,"
cried the marchesa. "Who can be answerable
for the excesses of a faction? It is not fair
to bring up the assassinations of Ancona to
the signorina."
"I am just — I am just," he answered,
laughing; "it is but right to show the
reverse of the medal. Tou were ha-nng it
all your own way, if I had not put in a word
on the other side. Tou have enough left to
make out a very good case, my friends :

OF ANCONA. 15
console yourselves ¦with that. As for me,
I do not expect to see better times, what
ever our excellent Muzio may say to the
contrary ; so I do not kiU. myself with care,
and endeavour to make the best of what we
have, laugh and amuse myself, and keep out
of politics. — Signori miei, good night."

IG THE OPERA.

CHAPTEE II.
Unwillingness of the Italians to speak on serious
topics— Indifference ofthe majority to literature —
Eeasons for discouraging the cultivation of female
intellect — The Marchesa Gentilina relates her con
vent experiences — Admiration of English domestic
life.
One day so closely resembles another in the
general course of existence in the provincial
towns of Central and Southern Italy, that it
would be difiicult, vdth any regard to truth,
to throw much more diversity into the
description of twelve months than of twelve
hours ; the only variation of any importance
being connected -with the seasons when the
Opera is open, for which the majority of the
population retain the absorbing attachment
that grave thinkers, like the good and en
lightened Ganganelli, so far back as a century
ago, lamented as the bane of the inhabitants
of the Marche. On this, however, as on a

ITALIAN LEVITY. 17
variety of other matters, his successors held
different opinions from Clement XIV. ; and
by their encouragement to the taste for
theatrical performances, fostered the le-vity
which that pontiff in his correspondence so
much deplores — well content to see the eager
ness, the interest, the hopes which in other
countries men are taught it is more fitting to
bestow on questions of science, politics, and
rehgion, centre among their own subjects,
on the trilli of a prima donna, or the legs of
a ballerina. That which, perhaps, out of a hundred
other traits, most forcibly attracted my
notice, as e^vincing the most striking contrast
to Enghsh manners — for, be it remembered,
I never set up for a cosmopohte,but, conscious
of my inherent insularities, measure every
thing by the gauge of English opinion and
English custom — was the complete absence,
in their familiar conversation, of all allusion
to a topic which, more or less, for better or
for worse, is always a predominant one
with us.
It was some time before I could assure
VOL. II. c

18 UNWILLINGNESS TO SPEAK
myself that the sUence connected with reli
gion, in aU save its most material forms —
such as just saying, " I am going to mass ;"
or, " How tiresome ! to-morrow is a vigU,
and we must eat maigre I" — did not arise
from reserve at the presence of a heretic;
but at length I was convinced that there was
no design in this avoidance of themes which,
in England, you can scarcely take up a maga
zine, or a fashionable novel, or pay a morn
ing visit, or go twenty mUes in a raUway,
without encountering. Instead of inter
weaving their conversation with phrases akin
to those which, either from piety, or habit,
or, alas ! from cant, are so frequently upon
the lips of English people, the Italians
seemed anxious to put aside whatever
tended to awaken such unpleasant con
siderations as the uncertainty of hfe or a
preparation for eternity; casting all their
cares in this last particular — when they
considered it worth caring for — upon their
priests, with a confidence it was marveUous
to witness.
Never, certainly, judging them as a total-

ON SERIOUS TOPICS. 19
ity, was there a set of people who " thought
lass about thinking, or felt less about feel
ing;" who went through life less troubled
with seU-questionings of what they Hved for,
or whether they Hved weU ; or who, dissatis
fied and Hstless as they might be in their
present condition, manifested less inclination
to dweU upon*the hopes and prospects of
futurity. Tet, although thus opposed to any serious
reference to sacred things, they resemble the
Erench in the le^sity ¦with which they wUl
introduce them on the most unseasonable
occasions, without any apparent conscious
ness of impropriety. Nay^ there was thought
to be nothing profane in a tableau vivant
which I heard them 'talking of, as having
recently taken place at the house of one of
the noble ladies of the society ; the subject —
a Descent from the Cross, or the Entomb
ment, I know not which — ^impersonated from
an ancient picture. Suffice it to say, that
our Saviour was represented by a remarkably
handsome yOung student from Bologna,
whose style of features and long brown hair
c 2

20 A TABLEAU VIVANT.
resembled the type which aU painters have
more or less foUowed in their pictures of
Christ ; and that the Magdalen was the lady
of the house, a Florentine contessa, whose
Eubens-like colouring and biUowy golden
hair had first suggested her fitness to sustain
a part for which her detractors, of course,
added she was also in othftr respects weU
qualified. The sentiments I expressed at this exhi
bition evidently caused surprise, as, in fact,
was invariably the case at the manifestation
of any religious tendency on my part. I
think I have before mentioned that Brotestant
amongst these worthy people was but a po
lite term for Atheist ; as in the case of the
Marchesa Silvia when I offered her one of our
prayer-books, the superstitious shrink from
being enlightened upon our tenets ; while to
the unbelieving, they are a matter of pro
found indifference, respecting which they
never dream of asking information. And
under these two heads, with but rare excep
tions, and a vast and increasing preponder
ance to the side of infidelity, it is no want

INDIFFERENCE TO LITERATURE. 21
of charity to say that the population of the
Pontifical States may be classified.
Second only to the avoidance of aU serious
subjects, that which most struck me was their
complete indifference to Hterature, even in its
simplest form. Unknown to them is the vene
ration we cherish for the popular authors of
the day, our famihar reference to their works,
our adoption oftheir sayings. During chUd
hood they have no story-books to fiU their
minds -with images which, converted into
pleasant memories in advancing Hfe, it is
like letting sunshine upon the soul to muse
over. Their ripening years see them with
the same void ; for, however it may be ob
jected that a nation possessing Dante and
Tasso, EUicaja and Alfieri, Monti and Leo
pardi, should never be taxed with the bar
renness of its literature, I reply that I am
here speaking of the requirements of the
generaHty of the masses, for whose capacity
such authors range too high. The only
attempts to supply this deficiency which the
present time has witnessed — or rather, it
should be said, the jealous surveiUance over

22 READING AND STUDY.
the press has permitted — have been half-a-
dozen historical novels from the pens of
Azeglio, Manzoni, Guerrazzi, and one or
two others. But as yet the experiment has
failed : you may say of the Italians as of a
backward chUd, "They do not love their
books !" Eeading is looked upon as insepa
rable from study ; as a monopoly in the
hands of a gifted few ; and the most hopeless
part of the case is, that they are not sensible
of their deficiency, nor lament the depriva
tion ! Were scores of what we consider un
exceptionable works for youth to be spread
before Italian parents and preceptors — ^tales,
travels, and biographies — ^they would not
bid the rising generation faU to and read.
" Let them alone," they would say ; " the
boys must attend to their education : read
ing for mere amusement wUl distract their
thoughts." As for girls, the refusal would
be still more decided, for they could be
expected to gather only pernicious notions
about seeing the world, or independence, or
choosing for themselves in marriage, from
the perusal !

ITALIAN WOMEN. 23
I talked this over one day, not long before
my return to Ancona, -with the Marchesa
GentUina, who was sufficiently free from
prejudice to listen quietly to some of my
remarks, and sometimes even. to acquiesce
in their justice. But on this last point she
was not amenable to my reasoning.
" It is aU very weU, carina ; in England,
I daresay, it may answer. But your women
are of a different temperament, and society
is differently constituted. As long as parents
have the right, as -with us, of disposing of
thefr daughters in the manner they think
best suited for thefr eventual benefit, the
less they learn beforehand of the tender
passion, the better. There are reforms
enough wanted amongst our pohtical abuses,
without seeking to introduce innovations
into private life. The whole system must
be changed, or else girls had better be left
in thefr present ignorance and simplicity."
" But, marchesa  ! This from you,
who are such an advocate for progress!"
" Cosa volete ? I do not think the warm
hearts of our daughters of the south could

24 FEMALE INTELLECT.
read as phlegmatically as Englishwomen
those tales in which love and courtship are
ever, must ever, be predominant.
"And if they could thereby learn to form
a more exalted idea of what we tax you
Italians as regarding in too common-place a
light ? If they were led to look upon mar
riage less as a worldly transaction than as a
solemn compact, not to be Hghtly entered
into, but to be lo-pingly and faithfuUy ob
served?" " If, if, my dear TJtopist ! If, instead of
aU these fine results, you gave them glimpses
of a liberty and privileges they could never
know, and so ended by making them miser
able? Take my own case for an example.
I was sixteen. I had never left the convent
for nine years ; I was always dressed in
cotton prints, of the simplest make and
description, and thick leather shoes, with
great soles, that clattered as I walked along
the mouldy old corridors, or ran about with
the other pupUs in the formal alleys of the
garden, of which the four frowning walls
had so long constituted our horizon. My

ITS CULTIVATION DISCOURAGED. 25
pursuits and acquirements had varied but
little from what they were when I entered
the convent ; and to give you in one word
the summary of the infantile guUelessness in
which the educande were presumed to exist,
I had never seen the refiection of my own
face except by stealth, in a little bit of
looking-glass, , about the size of a visiting-
card, which I had coaxed my old nurse to
bring me in one of her visits, and that
we smuggled through the grating of the
parlatojo concealed between two sHces of
cake! " I knew this was to go on tUl a partito
was arranged for me, for my parents did not
like it to be said they had an unmarried
daughter at home upon their hands; besides,
many men prefer a bride fresh from the
seclusion of the convent, and in those days
especiaUy, this was the strict etiquette. I
had seen my eldest sister discontented and
fretting tiU she was nearly twenty, before
the welcome sposo could be found, and I had
no inclination to be incarcerated so long,
though hope, and certain furtive glances at

26 CONVENT EXPERIENCES OF
my mirror, kept encouraging me to look for
a speedier deUverance.
" At last, one Easter Sunday — ^how weU
I remember it ! — I was summoned to the
parlatojo, and there, on the outer side ofthe
grating, stood a group of my relations : my
father and mother, my sister and her hus
band, and one or two of my aunts. I was
so flurried at the sight of so many people,
and so taken up with looking at the gay new
Easter dresses of my -visitors — my sister,
I recoUect, had an immense sort of high-
croTvned hat, with prodigious feathers, as
was the fashion then, which excited my
intense admiration and envy — that I had
not time to bestow much notice upon a Httle
dried-up old man who had come in with
them, and who kept taking huge pinches of
snuff and talking in a low tone -with my father.
My mother, on her side, was engaged in
whispering to the Mother-Superior, and from
her gestures, seemed in a veiy good humour ;
while the rest of the party drew off my atten
tion by cramming me with sweetmeats they
had brought for my Easter present.

THE MARCHESA GENTILINA. 27
" The next day but one, I was again sent
for, and, -with downcast eyes, but a bounding
heart, presented myself at the grating. There
I found my mother, as before, in deep con
versation -with the Superior, who, on my
bending to kiss her hand, according to cus
tom, saluted me on both, cheeks with an
unusual demonstration of tenderness."
"'WeU, GentUina,' said my mother, 'I
suppose you begin to wish to come out into
the world a little ?'
" I knew my mother so sHghtly, seldom
seeing her more than once a month, that I
stood in great awe of her; so I dropped a
deep coxuiesy, and faltered, 'Si, signora/
but I warrant you I imderstood it aU, and
afready saw myself in a hat and feathers
even more voluminous than my sister's !
" ' The Madre Superiore does not give you
a bad character, I am glad to find.'
" 'Ah davvero !' was the commentary upon
this, 'the contessina has always shown the
happiest dispositions. At one time, indeed,
I hoped, I fancied, that such rare virtues
wordd have been consecrated to the glory of

28 A SUITABLE MATCH.
our Blessed Lady, and the benefit of our
order ; but since the wUl of Heaven and of
her parents caU her from me, I can only
pray that in the splendour and enjoyments
that await her, she wiU not forget her who,
for nine years, has fiUed a mother's place.'
And at the conclusion of this harangue, I was
again embraced with unspeakable fervour.
"In my impatience to hear more, I scarcely
received these marks of affection with fitting
humUity ; whUe forgetting aU my lessons of
deportment, I opened my eyes to their fuUest
extent, and fixed them on my mother.
" ' Ha, ha ! GentiHna,' she said, laughing,
' I see you guess something at last ! Tes,
my child, I wiU keep you no longer in sus
pense. Tour father and I, ever since your
sister's marriage, have never ceased endea
vouring to find a suitable match for you.
The task was difiicult. Tou are young, very
young, Gentilina ; and we could not intrust
om- child to inexperienced hands. It was
necessary that your husband should be of
an age to counterbalance your extreme youth.
On no other condition could we consent to

MATRIMONIAL CONSIDERATIONS. 29
remove you from this so much earlier than
your sister. But at last a sposo whom your
parents, your family, the Madre Superiore
herself, think most suitable, has been se
lected for you ; and  '
"But I waited to hear no more. The
glorious vista of theatres, jewels, carriages,
diversions, which we all knew lay beyond
those dreary convent-walls, suddenly dis
closing itself before me, attainable through
that cabaHstic word matrimony, was too
much for my remaining composure; and
clapping my hands wildly, I exclaimed,
'Mamma mia — mamma mia, is it possible?
Am I going to be married ? Oh, what joy,
what happiness!' and then checking my
transports, I said earnestly, ' TeU me,
mamma, shaU I have as many fine dresses
as CamiUa ? '
" I declare to you, signorina, that the
name of my destined husband was but a
secondary consideration; and when they
told me he was rich and noble — the same
individual who had come to the grating on
the previous Sunday to satisfy his curiosity

30 THE DOMESTIC CODE.
respecting me — I acquiesced without re
pugnance, ugly, shriveUed, aged as he was,
in the selection of my parents. Knowing
nothing of the world, ha-ving scarcely seen
a man except our confessor, the convent
gardener, and my father, I went to the altar
eight days afterwards -without a tear ! —
This sounds very horrible to you, I dare
say," she resumed, after a short pause, in
which, notwithstanding her careless manner,
I saw some painful memories had been
awakened ; " but let me ask you — ^had my
head been fiUed with notions of fascinating
youths, as handsome as my Alessandro when
I first remember him kneeHng at my feet,
and saying, ' GentiHna, I adore you ! ' —
should I not have added a vast amount of
misery to what. Heaven knows, was already
in store for me — in resisting a fate which
was inevitable, or whose only alternative
would have been the cloister ? No, no ;
since our domestic code is thus constituted,
and as long as parents retain such arbitrary
sway, let girls be left in happy ignorance
that they have so much as a heart to give

CULTIVATION AFTER MARRIAGE. 31
away ! If they are to be married, they wiU
then not dream of any opposition ; if, on the
contrary, as in the case of my poor sister-
in-law, a suitable match has not been at
tainable, why, they will not, like her, be
fuU of romantic ideas gathered from thefr
books :' and so, instead of wearying their
famUy with thefr bhghted hopes, -wUl take
the veU, and retire contentedly to a con
vent, Umiting thefr notions of happiness to
standing high in the good graces of the
father-confessor, or the preparation of con
fectionary and cakes."
" If I beheved you to the letter, mar
chesa, you would have me conclude that aU
the women of the Eoman States are, or
should be, totaUy uncultivated."
, "Before marriage, I meant, remember
that ! Afterwards, aU is changed. A wo
man of inteUigence soon gets wearied of
the frivoHties she has been brought up to
prize so highly, and wiU eagerly seek to
instruct her mind. Study wiU then be her
greatest pastime and her greatest safeguard."
I knew she aUuded to her own expe-

32 THE husband's AFFAIR.
riences, but I could not forbear pressing the
subject : " And for those who have no re
fined understanding to cultivate, no desire
to study, and yet have learned too late they
have a heart which they were not taught
must be given with their hand — what safe
guard is there for those, marchesa?"
"Ber Bacco!" she cried, shrugging her
shoulders, "that is the husband's affafr;
nobody else need meddle with it ! Tou see,
my dear," she added, laughing at my dis
satisfied air, "we are a long way off from
the state of things you would desire to bring
us to ; and if you would wish for any refor
mation in this as weU as in any of our other
abuses, you must request your friends the
Enghsh ministers, next time we try to shake
them off, not to lure us on by sympathy
and approbation, and then abandon us to
worse than our former condition."*
¦* The tone now assumed by the British Govern
ment relative to Italian affairs, — I mean since the
liberal ministry came into office in the summer of
1859, — gives great delight to all who hold progressive
opinions, and has regained England's prestige in the
Peninsula.

RESTRICTIONS IN READING. 33
Subsequently, I ascertained that the mar
chesa did not advance any more than the
opinions generally held by her country-
people upon this subject; although there
seems a strange inconsistency in persons
ever disposed to rail at the defects of their
internal policy, upholding these rococo ideas,
aUeging in their justification that the im
pulsive Italian character in youth is unsuited
to the liberty conceded at so early an age to
EngHshwomen .
A lady I conversed -with upon this sys
tem, some time afterwards in Ancona — sup
posed to have had a Hberal education, ha-ving
been brought up in Northern Italy under
her mother's roof — told me that, although
she did not marry tUl twenty, she had not
previously been aUowed to peruse any work
of fiction, excepting one after she was be
trothed, and that was Baul and Virginia I
Eor which restriction, it may be parentheti
cally remarked, she iuUy indemnified herself
in the sequel, being of a studious turn, by
devouring aU the French novels she could
lay her hands upon. I must add, however,
VOL. II. D

34 AN ENGLISH MARRIAGE.
in fairness, that although they considered our
national manners in respect to the training
of young women Ul adapted to themselves,
they were all warm admirers of the virtue
and harmony in married life which they
beheved to be the general characteristic of
English people. TJn Matrimonio all' Inglese,
meant mutual fidelity, love, and devotion.
In arriving at this conclusion, they were
aided by an example of twenty years' stand
ing constantly before their eyes : that of the
English Consul at Ancona. From my uncle
they judged that Englishmen make good
fathers. Mr. * * * showed them what an
English husband is like. His famUy Hved
retired in the country, and mixed but rarely
in the society of the place ; but they were
sufiiciently known and respected to be stiU
quoted as an Ulustration of English wedded
happiness.

THE FINE ARTS. 35

CHAPTEE III.
On the study of music in the Marche — Neglect of
painting — The young artist — His hopeless love —
His jealousy— His subsequent struggles and con
stancy.
I MUST now devote a Httle space to speak
of the cultivation of the fine arts in the
Marche; which, judging by the limited
patronage and stUl scantier remuneration
accorded to thefr professors, would seem to
be considered by many as dangerous as
reading to a maiden's peace of mind. Of
late years, however, music enters much more
frequently into the Italian programme of
female education. Though not yet in
troduced into the native convents, it is
taught at the Sacre Coeur at Loretto, and in
many private famihes, happily as yet with
more discrimination than in England — the
absence of voice or ear being considered
D 2

36 THE STUDY OF MUSIC.
insurmountable disqualifications. The art,
especiaUy in its vocal department, can boast,
even in so remote a corner of Italy, of in
structors superior to any procurable in Eng
land, except at those rates which some
parents complacently mention as if to set
a higher value on their daughters' acquire
ments. Blessings on the Itahans in this
respect, for they have no purse-pride! If'
you admire a lady's 'singing — and it is no
rarity to hear streams of melody poured
from those fdl rounded throats, such as
would electrify a London dra-wing-room —
some member of her famUy wiU not imme
diately inform you that she learned from
the first masters at two guineas a lesson ;
that no expense was spared, and so forth.
They do not understand John Bull's delight
at framing all he does in rich gilding, and
can enjoy the fine singing of their country
women, notwithstanding that, in Ancona at
least, instruction from no mean professor
was attainable at two paids (tenpence) a
lesson. The music-master who taught my cousins

NEGLECT OF PAINTING. 37
was dfrector of the opera, composed and
understood music thoroughly, and devoted
himself, heart and soul, to his profession :
to these recommendations he added a very
handsome exterior, great attention to his
dress, gentlemanly and respectful bearing,
and, nevertheless, gave twelve lessons, of
an hour each, for a sum equivalent to ten
shiUings, and thought himself lucky too to
get pupils at that rate !
Painting, the t-win-sister of Music, does
not enjoy the same amount of popularity.
In a country, of which the churches and
palaces teem -with evidences of the estima
tion in which it was held scarcely two cen
turies ago, I saw only one instance, that of
Volunnia's miniatures, where, even in its
humblest branches, it was studied by one of
the higher ranks. It is cast as a reproach
upon the modern Italians that they can no
longer furnish good painters ; but the cen
sure is more appHcable to those who do not
care to foster the talent so often doomed
to languish in the ungenial atmosphere of
poverty and neglect. The young artist.

38 THE YOUNG ARTIST.
whose only pupils in Ancona were those
furnished by my uncle's famUy, had studied
several years in Eome, Florence, and Venice,
had distinguished himself in his academical
career, was full of enthusiasm and feehng,
and yet so little encouragement did he re
ceive in his native city, that it was difficult
for him to earn his bread. It is almost
superfluous to add that he was as poor as
any painter need be. He had one coat for
all seasons ; never ate but once a day, be
sides a cup of coffee at six in the morning,
which he procured at a caffe, no fire being
Hghted so early at his mother's, where he
lived ; and had a starved, hungry look, Hke
a lean greyhound, with large hoUow eyes,
and an attempt at an artistic beard. Poor
fellow ! his story presents so perfect an iUus-
tration of a new phase of Italian life, that I
must not be considered too discursive if I
fiU this chapter -with an account of it.
He had known my uncle's family for
years, and considered himself under obliga
tions to them, so that a Httle of the old
Eoman patron and client system was kept

HIS KNOWLEDGE OF ART. 39
up in thefr intercourse ; a respectful affec
tion on his side, and a kindly interest in his
welfare on theirs. His knowledge of art
was reaUy wonderful. As a boy, he had
drawn his first inspirations from Eaphael's
frescoes in the Vatican, and worshipped him
almost as a divinity ; then ascending a step
higher injo?«-/sfe principles, he devoted him
self to the study of that branch of the
Florentine school of which " II Beato An
gehco da Fiesole" is the chief; and to hear
him descant on his purity of outline and
grace of composition, was in itself a lecture
on design. A timely removal to Venice
luckUy saved him from the exaggerations
into which aU votaries of any peculiar style,
however exceUent in itself, must inevitably
faU ; on which, in fact, he was fast verging,
as two or three pictures he had in his
possession, painted whUe the impressions of
Florence were stUl predominant, of ashy-
hued saints, with marble-like draperies,
abundantly testified : and leaving his legi
timate admfration for the Beato Angehco
unsubdued, yet sent him back, at the con-

40 HIS CONVERSATION.
elusion of his studies, glowing with rapture
for Titian and Paolo Veronese. From the
great works of the former, he had made a
number of sketches and spirited copies;
while he thought — as what young artist
does not think ? — that he had discovered his
peculiar secret of colouring, detailed to us
as he held forth triumphantly upon his fiesh-
tints and impasto. In addition to aU these
artistic disquisitions, he used, .while we were
taking our lessons, to give us aU the poh
tical news, or rather the whispers which
were stealthily in circulation, and often re
peated that ours was the only house in
which it was safe to express an opinion.
Then he would teU us a great deal about
the crying evils of his country, much to the
purport of what I have afready stated ; the
ignorance of the women, the idleness of the
nobles, the extortion and injustice of the
Government, and the insolence of the Aus
trians who supported it — aU being related
in beautiful and poetic Italian ; for he spoke
his own language with great refinement,
although he did not speU it correctly.

ROMANTIC STORIES. 41
And yet, notwithstanding these constant
discussions and conversations, never was he
known to pass the Hmits of difference tacitly
laid do-wn, never once to venture on the verge
of famUiarity : years of intercourse, resumed
at intervals since his boyhood, made no
difference. He never came to the house
but as a teacher ; and at the end of each
lesson, he always bowed with the same
ceremonious respect, and backed out of the
room with the same "servo umilissimo" as
if he had been a mere stranger.
I -wish I could detaU some of the stories
we heard from him — ^Httle romances in them
selves, and admirably illustrative of the
quick feehngs and exaggerated sensibUity
of the Itahan temperament, aUowed more
room for the development in the mezzo cetto
than in the strict etiquette of the nobihty.
How a young cousin, becoming desperately
in love with a young man she had only
seen fr-om an opposite window, pined rapidly
away ; and on hearing he was afready affi
anced, insisted on taking the veU in a con
vent of a very strict order : how his o-wn

42 A SUDDEN CHANGE.
sister, a very beautiful girl, nearly broke
her heart from the cruelty exercised by her
mother-in-law, who tried to sow discord
between her and her husband, opened aU
the letters she received from her parents,
took away aU her best clothes, and distri
buted them among her own daughters — in
fact, behaved like a suocera in all the accep
tation of the term. But nothing interested
us so much as his own history, in which he
at last made us the recipients of the misery
and uncertainty that were destined to be
inseparable from his existence.
We had observed that for some weeks he
looked more than ordinarily woe-begone,
scarcely spoke, and his unbrushed hair stood
erect with an afr of distraction it was piti
able to witness. The usual inquiries about
England, the lectures upon art, the pseans
to Eaphael, were aU at an end, and our
lessons were becoming very stupid, common
place affairs, when, one day, as he was
cutting a crayon, he suddenly laid it down,
and said, falteringly : " Signorine, wiU you
excuse my temerity, if, knowing aU your

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 43
benevolent interest in me, I teU you what
makes me so Ul. I have faUen in love."
"Indeed!" we exclaimed; "tell us all
about it. Where is the lady ? — how long
has it been going on? — when wiU the
sposalizio take place?"
" Alas !" he repHed, " what can I say ? I
have never spoken to her ; it is two months
since I first saw her ; it was one evening
outside the gates : she was -with her mother.
I beheld that modest ingenuous face, and
my fate was decided. Miserable was I born,
miserable have I always been, but never so
miserable as now."
"Wherefore?" I inquired, -with a per
plexed expression.
" Because I have no means of maintain
ing her — not even a few hundred dollars of
my Own : therefore it is of no use attempt
ing to make the acquaintance of her family,
or presenting myself as a suitor. 0 sig
norine ! I have suffered so long, my secret
was wearing me to the grave."
" But you have an avvenire — a future, at
least," said my cousin Lucy, who, under all

44 THE artist's
her sedateness, was rather of an enthusiastic
turn. "Ah!" answered he, shaking his head,
" that is easy to say for you EngHsh : we
poor Italians have no future ; we never can
rise ; we are but fools to dream of it."
" Then do you not mean even to try to
improve your fortunes, so as one day to be
able to marry ? "
" Heaven knows whether I do not try,"
was the rueful response ; " but the days for
art in Italy are gone by. Tou are witness,
ladies, to the patronage accorded to me
here. What have I to look back upon since
I established myself in Ancona? One or
two commissions from convents for the apo
theosis of some new saint — a few portraits
— at such rare intervals, and on such hard
terms, that I verUy beHeve, if I were a
house-painter, I should succeed better than
with my aspirations to be an historical one."
" Tet, why despair ? " I persisted ; " why
not obtain an introduction to the family of
the fair incognita, explain your views, and if
they hold out any hopes of your ultimately

HOPELESS CONDITION, 45
being accepted, you wiU work away with
redoubled energy. Tou might go and paint
signs in California." (That was all the rage
just then.)
" The signorina is^laughing at me, I see ;
but it would not be right according to our
ideas. She had better know nothing of me ;
her peace of mind might be disturbed.
Those friends whom I have consulted, teU
me I ought even to avoid passing her when
she is out walking, or going to look at her
at mass. Her character is evidently so full
of sensibUity that it would be easy to de
stroy her happiness."
"How can you be so sure of aU this, if
you have never spoken to her ? "
"I see it all perfectly in her face," he
answered, with a determined belief in his
o-wn powers of observation, which no ridi
cule or reasoning could shake. His romantic
passion amused us aU excessively, and as he
evidently liked to talk of it, the disclosure
having been once made, we were in future
kept fully informed of all his tortures, fears,
and despondency ; but fancied that an attach-

46 HIS JEALOUSY.
ment, hopeless and baseless as this, could not
be of long duration. Contrary, however, to
what we anticipated, he became more and
more in love ; he looked every day thinner,
his hair more wiry, his eyes unnaturaUy
brilliant and deeper sunk.
One moming — a real wintry morning,
one of the few we ever saw — ^he came in,
livid and trembling, with a wUdness in his
appearance that was startling. He did not
leave his hat in the haU, as was his custom,
but entered with it in his hand, and making
a few steps forward, paused abruptly, and
said in a hoarse voice :
" The signorine will excuse me if I pray
them to dispense me from my attendance
for a few days. I am going into the country
— ^yes, into the country!"
When an ItaHan goes into the country at
such a season of the year, he must be in a
desperate plight, and we anxiously demanded
the reason of this rash step.
" Signorine, I am mad — I am jealous !
Testerday, I was looking up furtively at
her window ; another man was standing in

ITS EFFECTS. 47
the street near me; I fancied I had seen
him there before : stUl a suspicion never
crossed my brain, when the window opened,
and she looked out. Never had she deigned
to do this for me. As I live, her eyes rested
upon him ! AU the furies seized me ; I rushed
to the house of my friend, my best friend,
the Avvocato D  . I raved, I tore my
hafr, I imprecated curses upon her. He took
me by the arm. ' To-morrow, you must go
into the country,' he said ; ' I will accom
pany you.' Tes, signorine, with twelve
inches of snow upon the ground, I go into
the country !"
And into the country he went, and from
the country he retumed in two or three
weeks' time, unrecovered; although con
vinced that his jealousy was groundless, the
national specific had faUed in this case.
Then I fear we did him harm, for on the
"nothing venture, nothing have" principle,
we counseUed him to embody his hopes,
prospects, and honest determinations in a
letter to be submitted to the young lady's
family, belonging, like his own, to the middle

48 HIS HOPELESS SUIT.
classes, though more affluent in their cir
cumstances. Taking an injudicious mezzo termine, he
humbly presented this epistle to the fair
Dulcinea herself, as she was coming one
day out of church under the care of some
aunt or elderly female relation.
Haughtily flinging it on the ground, the
damsel indignantly said, "I do not know
how to read letters of this description," and
passed on. Her -virtue and discretion in
creased his admiration, while the repulse
almost broke his heart. He never made
any farther attempt to press his suit, but
moped and pined away perceptibly ; in fact,
he was dying of mortification and grief — so
common an occurrence in this part of Italy,
that they have a distinct name for the affec
tion, and call it passione.
At this juncture, some friends of his,
who had emigrated to Tunis in the recent
troubles of Italy, wrote to recommend his
joining them there ; and urged on by the
representations of all who were interested
in his welfare — his desperate condition

A LETTER FROM HIM. 4^9
sanctioning so desperate a step as foreign
travel was usually looked upon — encouraged
especially by ourselves, with our restless,
enterprising British notions, he embarked
in a smaU trading- vessel, almost reduced to
a skeleton. Months, nay, years have passed since
then, and it seemed as if all clue to the
poor young painter were completely lost,
when, by a strange coincidence, I received
a letter from him at the very moment when
the ink was stUl wet upon the page where
I had been relating his iU-starred attach
ment. I wish I could transcribe the whole
of this letter — I wish it could be laid
tangibly before my readers — so clumsily,
squarely folded, -with its coarse red seal,
stamped with some copper coin very pro
bably, its stiff hand-writing and deficient
orthography ; and its contents, so simple,
so poetical, so unassuming, of which a few
extracts, to give the continuation of his
vicissitudes, can furnish but a very imper
fect idea.
After relating the faUure of the hopes
VOL. II. E

50 THE ARTIST IN THE EAST.
• with which he had landed at Tunis, he
says that, resolved to leave no path that
might lead to independence unexplored, he
even set his beloved art comparatively aside,
and had betaken himseU to whatever honest
employment he might find. Entering the
ser-vice of the Pacha of Tripoli, he had been
sent as a mineralogist — " for amongst the
Turks," he naively remarks, "one may do
anything — far into the interior, amongst
men and manners completely different from
our own, to explore a mine reported to be
of silver, but which, -with my usual iU-luck,
turned out of very inferior iron." Then,
encouraged by the Pacha's promises, he
accompanied him to Constantinople, where,
finding to his cost that he must put no
faith in princes, he turned to his painting
again. But the city was swarming with
Italian refugees, artists among the rest, aU
contending for the bare means of subsist
ence ; so, after a few months of painful
struggles, he went back to Africa, and
entered into some trading speculations.
Neither in this new career was he sue-

REVERSE OF FORTUNE. 51
cessful. Perhaps he worked with a sinking
heart, for the tidings reached him that the
young girl so faithfuUy loved was about to
be married ; and " what imbittered this an
nouncement, was learning that the character
of her future husband offered but slender
prospects for her happiness." His little
ventures faUed; his resources were ex
hausted ; and he was under the necessity of
returning to his native country. There he
found strange reverses had suddenly befallen
her whom he had schooled himself to look
upon as irrevocably lost. Her parents were
both dead ; the marriage had been broken
off; and from comparative affluence, she
was so reduced as, jointly -with a -widowed
sister, to have opened a day-school for little
gfrls. " I saw her then," he goes on, " under
the pressure of sorrow. I found her in the
words of Petrarch, piu bella, ma meno altera ;
and yet, even at that moment, my cruel
destiny prevented me from saying, 'I am
here to comfort and sustain you ! ' "
Once more he went forth, hoping against
E 2

52

STILL STRUGGLING.

hope, with the aim of establishing himself
as a portrait-painter and drawing-master at
 , on the shores of the Mediterranean,
whither many English families annuaUy
resort ; and the object of his letter was
modestly and unaffectedly to request that if
I knew any of my country-people intending
to winter there, I would recommend him to
their notice.
I felt very sad to perceive how he over
rated the signorina forestiera s infiuence, and
the extent of her acquaintance; or else in
his simplicity imagining that to be English
is synonymous with belonging to a vast
brotherhood, giving and demanding the
hand of fellowship on every side. I wish
it were thus in this instance at least, for the
first use I should make of this blissful state
of fraternity, would be to claim patronage
and encouragement for the poor artist,
whose history then could soon be pleasantly
wound up like orthodox story-books, in
these words, " and so they were married,
and lived very happily aU the rest of their
days,"

HOLY HOUSE OF LORETTO.

CHAPTEE IV.
From Ancona to Umana — Moonlight view — The
country-house — Indifference of the Anconftans to
flowers and gardening — Ascent of the mount —
Magnificent prospect at sunrise — Trappist convent.
The famous Santa Casa, or Holy House of
Loretto, has long been recognized as the
principal attraction of the Marche ; indeed,
it is so well known to tourists, that I should
have left my excursion thither unrecorded,
had not this omission rendered my picture
of local manners and customs incomplete.
Little as the Anconitans are given to loco
motion, I never met an instance of one who
had not -visited the shrine at least once in
his or her Hfe, whilst a few make it a point of
conscience to repair thither every year. The
distance from Ancona, by the high-road, is
twenty mUes — a journey of five hours, in

54 PILGRIMAGE TO LORETTO.
that country of steep hills and slow coaches ;
but traveUers are generaUy disposed to over
look the tedium ofthe way in their admfration
of the scenery it discloses. Few, however,
have any conception of the still more pic
turesque features of the circuitous route
through which, one lovely evening in June,
we pursued our pUgrimage to Loretto.
There was nothing very original or brilU
ant in our party. The V  family — the
same with whom we went to the rural
christening — joined the expedition, too ad
venturous for any of our Italian friends ; the
consul, the Chevalier V  , this time es
corting his wife and lively Polish daughters,
very proud, as he protested, of the charge
my uncle had delegated to him as his repre
sentative towards my cousins and unworthy
seU. He was a good man, that dear cheva
lier, in every acceptation of the term, but
his sphere was certainly not a scrambling
gipsying enterprise, such as we contemplated,
and his presence would have proved hope
lessly depressing, had it not been for the
antidote furnished by the indomitable spirits

OUR COMPANIONS. 5a
of a Ueutenant and two little midshipmen
belonging to an English frigate lying in
the harbour, who had obtained permission to
accompany us. The fair hair and ruddy
cheeks of the middies, reminding Madame
V  of her own absent boys, had pleaded
frresistibly in their favour; their extreme
juvenility too, she argued, screened her from
any breach of the convenances she was always
so soUcitous to maintain. As to the young
lieutenant, he was a married man, carried
about his baby's likeness in a locket, and
spent fabulous sums in presents for his wife.
No anxiety could therefore be felt on his
score, no dread of exciting the remonstrance
of a certain black-browed parish priest, who,
I very weU know, left the poor lady no peace
on the improprietyofthro-wing her daughters
into the temptations of EngHsh male here
tical society.
It had been arranged that we should walk
the first five miles of the way, with the ex
ception of the consolessa, who was provided
-with a donkey, as far as an unoccupied
country-house, or casino, kindly placed at our

56 MONTE d'aNCONA.
disposal by its owners ; thence, after needful
rest and refreshment, we were to ascend the
Monte d' Ancona, a lofty mountain, famed for
a Trappist convent on its summit, and a mag
nificent range of prospect. To reach the
top before daybreak, in order to see the sun
rise, was an essential feature in our pro
gramme ; it was the only subject connected
with nature on which the Anconitans ever
showed any enthusiasm. Several of our
acquaintances had, in their youth, they told
us, braved the exertion and loss of rest to
witness the levata del sole from the mount.
Others regretted they had not the energy to
attempt it. None ridiculed our undertaking.
I felt very curious to behold what awoke
such unusual admfration.
We were aU in a cheerful mood, and not
a little diverted, as we passed through the
narrow streets on our way to the gate, at
the astonishment excited by the appearance
of Madame V  on a very antiquated
chair-saddle, upon her long-eared steed.
The people fiocked to look at her with un
restrained curiosity, tUl the consul turned

OUR ROUTE. 57
suddenly round, and apostrophizing the
gazers, inquired sternly whether they con
sidered the foreign custom of riding upon
an ass more wonderful than their own of
being driven by a cow. The justness of
this reasoning, or rather the energy with
which it was enunciated, having produced
an instantaneous effect in the dispersion of
the crowd, we were suffered to proceed un
molested, foUowed by a second donkey laden
with pro-visions.
Our route, immediately after quitting the
town, lay near the chffs forming the line of
coast behind the promontory on which An
cona is buUt, in singular contrast to the
sandy beach extending northward towards
Sinigagha and Pesaro. Sometimes the road
quite skfrted the edge of the precipice, and
•de-viating from the undulations of the cliffs,
woiUd change the marine to a pastoral
landscape, and lead to paths shaded by trees
and fiowering hedges, admitting occasional
glimpses of mountains in the distance.
For the next two or three mUes, our course
lay entirely between hedges, screening the

58 the young MIDDIES.
possessioni, or smaU farms, into which the
land is subdi-dded, from the road. It was
rapidly growing dark ; for it must not be
forgotten there is no t-wihght in Italy, and
the moon was not yet visible ; so we had
nothing to do but admire the firefiies which
the midshipmen ruthlessly persisted in en
snaring in their caps and handkerchiefs, or
laugh at the efforts of Vofficier marie, as our
friends had named the young lieutenant, to
sustain a conversation in French. No fear
of robbers crossed our minds; the consul
and our countrymen were armed, it is true,
but more as a security against danger in the
vicinity of Loretto, than in the unfrequented
districts we were traversing, where there
were no traveUers or wealthy householders
to attract the gangs which swarmed on the
papal highways.
At last, after the consul's lamentations on
the weariness of the way had begun to find
an echo in our own hearts, we emerged from
a narrow path, shut in by steep banks, upon
the casino. But it was not on its open doors,
or the hospitable Hghts kindhng for our re-

MAGNIFICENT PROSPECT. 59
ception, that our eyes were turned. I do
not remember being ever so enchanted by
any view as that now presented to us. I
know not whether daylight would rob it of
any portion of its beauty and soothing influ
ence ; I can only speak of it as it impressed
me then — so calm, so pure, so stiU. We
were standing on the verge of a lofty cHff
that stretched precipitously forward like a
crescent, and formed a bay on whose waters
the moon, which had just risen, poured a
flood of trembling sUvery Hght; whUe, on
one side, dark, ominous, and frowning, rose
the mount, projecting far into the sea, and
towering in its suUen grandeur above the
rippHng waves which bore their snowy
wreaths of foam in tribute to its feet.
Clear and defined against the moonlit sky,
with no trees or verdure to clothe its rocky
steeps, there was something inexpressibly
subHme in the aspect of this mountain, and
the lonely character of the surrounding
scenery. No sound invaded the perfect
quietude of the hour except the reverential
murmur ofthe sea, and faintly in the distance.

60 PREPARATIONS FOR SUPPER.
the voices of some fishermen, whose barks
were gliding forth, their sails fiUing with the
evening breeze, and glistening in the moon
beams. The preparations for supper were soon
completed. The peasants left in charge of
the house had eggs and fruit and wine in
readiness, and Madame V  had taken
care that our donkey's panniers should con
tain all the substantial requisites for a
repast. The midshipmen delightedly super
intended the laying of the cloth, and then
summoned us to table, where their bibations
of the sparkling Muscatel, profusely sup
plied, did credit to the exceUence of our
friend the conte's vintage.
When the meal was over, the old contadina,
who officiated as housekeeper, her Sunday
costume and strings of pearls donned in
honour of our visit, recommended us to take
a little sleep before midnight, at which hour
we were to set out for the mount in birocci
— ^those primitive-shaped carts drawn by
oxen or cows, that I have elsewhere minutely
described. This reasonable advice the con-

THE COUNTRY HOUSE. 61
sul forthwith enforced by example as well
as precept, and was soon slumbering sonor
ously on a sofa in the dining-room. Not
feeling inclined to follow his admonitions
-while the moonlight shone almost as bright
as da}", we aU preferred exploring the casino
and stroUing in its -vicinity, accompanied by
the dear patient consolessa, who evidently.did
not think the coiivenances permitted her to
lose sight of us, and consequently protested
that she -was not in the least fatigued.
The house was soon looked over. No arm-
chafr'S, no couches, no ottomans; nothing
but stiff high-backed cane sofas, that seemed
intended for anything but repose. There
was a bilHard-room, and a little chapel, or
rather recess, divided by a pair of folding-
doors from the principal sitting-room, where
mass was celebrated when the family were
in the country : but we could discover no
books or traces of aught resembhng a library.
In fact, as I have before remarked, as most
Itahans consider reading a studg, and have
no idea of it as a recreation, all appliances
thereto are generaUy left behind when they

62 INDIFFERENCE TO FLOWERS.
come professedly in search of health and
mental relaxation to their vileggiature. From
six weeks to two months is the utmost
amount of time they devote for this purpose.
What -with looking after their farms and a
Httle shooting, the men get through this
period with tolerable* satisfaction; to the
ladies, it is always fraught with intense
ennui. The resources of fioriculture, with rare
exceptions, are unknown to the women of
the Marche. There was one lady of i'ank
in Ancona who had laid out a garden at
one of her country-houses -with considerable
taste. It was the only innovation I -wit
nessed upon the orthodox quadrangular
enclosure, fenced in by high waUs -with espa-
Hers of lemons, and Httle three-cornered
fiower-beds, intersected by gravel-paths,
which graced a few of the casini of the
wealthiest proprietors. Her example, how
ever, found no imitators ; and with a soil
and climate exquisitely adapted for their
cultivation, flowers receive less attention
and seem less prized in the Eoman States

OUR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE. 63
than in any other part of Italy. Here, in
this secluded -villa, where the interest and
occupation attendant on such a pursuit
would have beguiled the weariness of the
contessa' s banishment from the fleas, bad
smeUs, and stifling atmosphere which render
Ancona, during the hottest months, a some
what questionable Elysium, a smaU wood
adjoining the house, a few rose-bushes
planted round cabbages, and two or three
cobwebby arbours, were aU the e-vidences of
ornamental gardening we could trace.
About midnight, we heard the slow drag
ging of wheels, and presently the peasants
of the possessione came up -with two birocci
to the gate. Mattresses were then placed at
the bottom of each, on which we were to
sit ; and after Madame V  had carefuUy
arranged the cloaks and shawls her prudent
care foresaw would ere long be necessary,
we took our places, and in good earnest
commenced the ascent. With a singular
defiance of aU engineering, it was carried
abruptly up to the tops of hUls, merely to
descend -ydth corresponding rapidity on the

64 ASCENT OF THE MOUNT.
other side, reminding me more of the
Eussian sliding mountains than any other
iUustration I can think of, and occasionally
becoming so disagreeably perpendicular, and
so distressing to the poor cows, which
panted loudly at every step, that we often
preferred getting out to walk, to overtask
ing their strength and risking our own
safety. When the moon went down, the air
became chUl, and aU of us gave tokens of
weariness. As it approached three o'clock,
our conductors, pointing to a faint break in
the horizon, urged us to hasten our steps,
as day would soon be dawning. Thus ad
monished, a few minutes of brisk walking
brought us to the top of the mountain,
which, so far as we could distinguish in the
duU greyness pervading every object, was
an irregular platform, on three sides over
hanging the sea, and on the fourth com
manding a wide, dark, boundless expanse, on
which the blackness of night stiU rested.
A little lower down, in a sheltered hoUow,
amid dusky groves of evergreen, cold, stern.

TRAPPIST CONVENT. 65
and desolate, rose the white waUs of
the celebrated Trappist monastery. The
strange tales current of the austerities of its
inmates, and of the disappointment or re
morse which had driven them to its seclu
sion, seemed appropriate to the surrounding
gloom and the spectral aspect of the build
ing, when the tones of the matin-beU broke
the oppressive sUence that prevailed, and the
Ave Maria del giorno summoned the monks
to their orisons in the choir. Our guides,
reverently uncovering, made the sign of the
cross, and then flung themselves wearUy
upon the ground, screened by a low parapet
from the -wind, which circled in keen gusts
around ; whUe we looked forth upon the sea,
and the glo-wing light that was stealing fast
upon it.
Brighter and brighter grows that radi
ance, untU, as by the Hfting of a veil, the
distant peaks of the mountains on the op
posite Dalmatian shores become distinctly
visible, thro-wn into bold relief by the illu
minated background, and we span the
breadth and borders of the beauteous Adri-
VOL. II. F

66 MAGNIFICENT SUNRISE.
atic. Fleeting as a dream is that unwonted
spectacle, for lo ! the glorious sun has leaped
upwards from his mountain-bed, and the
glad waters quiver and exult beneath his
presence. Higher and higher stUl he rises,
and Night flies scared before him, as if
seeking a refuge in that vague dim space
where yet she holds her sway. It is a
wondrous contrast, the golden sparkhng
sea and sable land, nature's mingled waking
and repose — but short-lived as wondrous,
for like the gradual uproUing of a scroU, so
does the darkness recede which covers the
face of the fair and wide-spread prospect ;
and hamlets and towns, hUls and vaUeys,
fields thick with corn, ohve trees and -vine
yards, seem to start into being whUe we
gaze. The peasants pointed out exultingly a
number of towns distinguishable with the
naked eye — Osimo, Loretto, Eecanati, Ma
cerata, besides many others, aU with an
individual history of their own, in feudal
times having boasted of an independent ex
istence, and waged petty wars with each

UNRIVALLED PROSPECT. 67
other. Nearly a hundred to-wns and -viUages
are said to be discernible from this height ;
but it was not on any of these in particular
that the attention of a stranger would be
admiringly dfrected, but rather to the grand
panoramic effect of the whole, bounded by
its unrivaUed background of Apennines,
rising in terrace-hke succession, tUl the last
range blended with the clouds.
After nearly an hour's survey — it was
much longer according to the chevalier's
impatient calculation, in which he was
abetted by the midshipmen — we prepared
to depart. After bidding fareweU to our
birocci, we descended upon the opposite side
of the mount on foot, accompanied only by
a boy to act as guide ; not -without casting
many lingering looks at the convent, and
longing for a glimpse of those white-robed
monks who — each isolated in his own cell,
and occupied in the cultivation of the patch
of ground whence he derives his subsistence
— holding no communion of speech -without
the permission of the superior, except on
three great festivals in the year, and never
F 2

68 SILENT LIFE OF THE MONKS.
permitted to go beyond the waUs of the
convent, — have voluntarily dehvered them
selves to a foretaste of the sUence and con
finement of the tomb.

UMANA. 69

CHAPTEE V.-VI.
The bishop's palace at Umana — Inroad of beggars —
The grotto of the slaves — The physician's political
remarks — Approach to Loretto — ^Bad reputation
of its inhabitants — Invitation from the Canonico.

An hour's quick walking brought us to
Umana, where carriages were to be in readi
ness to convey us across the country to
Loretto. Formerly of some importance as
an episcopal see, Umana is now reduced to
a mere harbour for flshing-boats ; stiU, how
ever, containing some handsome though
half-ruined buUdings, and having its grass-
gro-wn piazza, dingy caffe, and aristocratic
loungers. The bishopric has been merged
into that of Ancona, but the palace yet re
mains, in readiness for an occasional pastoral
visitation. We had been courteously pro
mised we should. find it open for our recep-

70 THE bishop's PALACE.
tion; and dusty, tired, and hungry, we
were glad to cross its threshold. But before
aUowing us to sit down, the old couple who
had charge of the palazzo insisted on con
ducting us through aU the apartments, that
we might see the best accommodation they
had to offer was placed at our disposal.
Accordingly, we were forced to perambulate
long corridors and innumerable rooms fuU
of doors, opening one into the other, through
which it seemed vain to search for one that
was not simply a passage to the rest. The
brick fioors were sunken and uneven ; and
the farniture, which consisted of tarnished
mirrors, high-backed stamped-leather chairs,
carved worm-eaten tables, with discoloured
gUding, aU looked faded and decaying. The
beds, -with thefr hea-vy brocaded quUts,
canopies, and hangings, did not look par
ticularly in-viting ; but in the total absence
of sofas, they served for an hour or two of
repose : after which, refreshed by such ab
lutions as the scanty washing arrangements
permitted — nothing beyond the usual tripod
containing a smaU basin and jug being al-

REVERENCE FOR THE PRIESTHOOD. 71
lotted to each chamber, or procurable
throughout the whole palace — we assembled
for breakfast. Here one of the middies
narrowly missed upsetting the general har
mony by relating his fruitless attempts to
obtain a tub, winding up his narrative by
the remark, "that these padres must be a
queer set, .decidedly not hydropathic." This
observation being unfortunately overheard
by the chevaHer, who perfectly understood
Enghsh, was immediately interpreted into
a want of reverence for the priesthood.
Turning very red, he said with emphasis,
" It was extremely unfafr and narrow^.
minded to cast that as an imputation, upon one
class of the community, which was decidedly
a national characteristic ;" and an awkward
pause ensuing, we should aU have felt very
uncomfortable, if the entrance of several
bottegas, waiters from the cafe, bearing a
number of Httle brass trays containing each
person's cup, tiny coffee-pot, mUk-jug, and
allowance of powdered sugar, had not given
a happy turn to the state of affafrs. The
price of this coUation, including a liberal

72 sensation in umana.
supply of roUs and cakes, did not exceed
five bajocchi a head (twopence-haUpenny).
More substantial fare was supplied by the
remaining contents of the basket that had
furnished last night's supper; and being
now completely recruited, we aU' saUied out
to see something of Umana.
Our appearance on the piazza created an
immense sensation. It was evident that the
presence of strangers was no common occur
rence to the industrious citizens pursuing
there the dolce far niente. Then, too, in
addition to the fiattering notice of the out
door population — the barber, the apothecary,
the keeper of the lottery-office, the tobac
conist, besides whoever happened to be
making conversazione with them at the
moment, aU stood at thefr respective doors
to look at us, and bowed with fiattering
urbanity. This tranquil demonstration,
however, was soon eclipsed by an inroad of
beggars, who had at first presented them
selves in limited detachments ; but as nothing
could restrain our saUor-friends from dis
tributing small coins in profusion, their

INROAD OF BEGGARS. 73
numbers soon became astounding, and we
ran the risk of being puUed to pieces in
thefr eagerness, or deafened by their clamour.
At this juncture, the consiJ and the three
delinquents, forming themselves into a body
guard, faced round and menaced the most
importunate -with thefr sticks, whUe we
avaUed ourselves ofthe opportunity to escape
further pursuit, and laughingly descended a
steep stony path leading to the beach.
Here some fishermen at once gathered
round, and assaUed us with inquiries as to
whether we would not like to see the famous
Grotta de' Schiavi, distant half an hour's
row along the coast. This had not formed
part of our projected itinerary ; but the sea
being exquisitely calm, and the weather
dehghtful, the majority of the party were
strongly inchiied to foUow the suggestion.
WhUe the point was stUl in discussion, aa
unexpected ally in surmounting the opposing
side presented himself in the Chiarissimo and
Bottissimo Signor Bottore  (most enhght
ened and most learned, thus he would be
styled officiaUy), the most popular physician

74 A VISIT TO
in Ancona, and an especial favourite, as I
have already mentioned, in my uncle's
household. Summoned the previous night
to Umana for a consultation, he had pro
mised to remain till evening to await the
result of the treatment he enjoined, and
not being a frequenter of caffes, was now
beguihng the time by a stroU on the sea
shore. Assuring the consolessa, who had a ¦vision
of banditti before her eyes, that even a delay
of two hours would not hinder our reaching
Loretto before sunset, and offering his escort
in lieu of Monsieur V  , whose poHteness
was combated by his dislike to any marine
expeditions, we soon obtained the good pafr's
acquiescence. The consul went back to the
episcopal palace to take a second nap ; his
spouse, faithful to her duties, cheerfully pre
pared to accompany us, too amiable to give
herseU the satisfaction of looking victim
ized. Two boats were soon selected from a
host of applicants, who remained furiously
wrangling among themselves, and hurhng
imprecations at the head of their successful

THE GROTTA De' SCHIAVI. 75
comrades, long after we had pushed out to
sea. Although the men puUed vigorously,
rather more than the stipulated time elapsed
before we descried a dark speck at the base
of the white chffs which rose, without a strip
of intervening shingle, abruptly from the
water's edge. As we approached, this proved
to be an aperture -wide enough to admit the
entrance of a boat, and crouching as we
ghded under the low, dark passage, we
found ourselves in a lofty circular cavern,
-with no place for the foot to rest upon
except a narrow ledge of rock, two or three
feet -wide, that ran round it. A mournful in
terest, derived from well-authenticated facts,
is attached to the Grotta de' Schiavi — that is,
of the slaves — ^to which its name especiaUy
bears reference. It was here, as the saUors
told us, and the dottore confirmed, that in
those times when the Adriatic coast was ruth
lessly swept by the Algerine corsairs, they
used temporarily to confine their prisoners,
and deposit the booty they had coUected.

76 MOURNFUL FANCIES.
Landing them upon the narrow le.dge within
the grotto, they would leave them securely
bound while they went in quest of further
plunder, confident that no means of egress,
or possibiHty of rescue, lay before the
-wretched victims they had torn from their
homes and kindred.
Upon this natural platform the party
now landed ; and while the greater number,
laughing and talking, made the circuit of
the rocks, the physician stood near my
cousin Lucy and me, and dwelt upon the
associations to which such a spot naturaUy
gave rise.
" I never come here," he said, " without
a host of mournful fancies presenting them
selves to my mind. What shrieks and
wailings, what moans of agoiiy must have
resounded within this gloomy cave ! — How
truly must hope have died in the hearts of
those who entered it ! — How many forms of
beauty, and strength, and helpless child
hood, have here writhed and struggled, and
swayed to and fro in impotent despair.

SUPPRESSION OF PIRACY. 77
waiting tUl their pitiless captors should re
turn with fresh companions in slavery to
greet them ! " ' :
" And I," exclaimed Lucy, the wonderful
English spirit which animated those Itahan-
born girls causing the blood to mantle in
her cheeks, "I, in a scene like this, can
never sufficiently thank God for having
made me of a nation to whom it is owing
that such things have ceased to be ! If
was my dear England which sent forth
Lord Exmouth's fleet in 1816 to the
bombardment of Algiers, the liberation
of Christian captives, and the suppression
of pfracy in aU the Barbary States. Oh,
Signor Dottore, it is a noble privilege to
be English ! — I value it next to being a
Christian ! "
He had kno-wn her from childhood, and
smiled at her enthusiasm, whUe he rejoined :
— " Would to Heaven, Signora Lucia, that
your country, great and wonderful as she is,
would not now-a-days content herself with
reminiscences of her past exertions in the

78 THE doctor's
cause of freedom.* Tou say such things
have ceased to be. What has ceased ? . .
The inroads of Algerine corsairs, I grant
you — but not the tears of Italian captives."
He looked round. Madame V  and
the others were still at some distance ; the
boatmen were resting on thefr oars at the
mouth of the cave. Eagerly, as if catch
ing at every moment, he went on : — ¦
"Who can count the pohtical prisoners rot
ting in loathsome dungeons in various parts
of Italy at this moment ? Tour countryman
Gladstone has laid bare the horrors of the
Neapolitan state prisons; but he did not
teU you of Mantua, of Ferrara, of Paghano !
In the gaUeys of Ancona, many persons,
guilty of no other crime than the unguarded
expression of their Hberal opinions, are now
wearing the felon's dress and chain. I know
* As before remarked, the anger against the luke-
-warmness of England, which was so general amongst
Italian liberals, has given way since the firm attitude
she has assumed on tJie quastion of leaving them free
to choose their own form of government, immolested
by foreign armed intervention.

POLITICAL REMARKS. 79
of some young men now languishing there,
who, for having let off a few fireworks on
the anniversary of the proclamation of the
Eoman Eepublic, were sentenced by the
restored Papal Government to t^w'-enty years'
companionship — daUy and nightly compa
nionship — ^with the foxUest murderers. I
could relate to you such stories of our pri
sons, — of men v/^orn. to premature dotage;
of strong hearts crushed ; of noble intellects
palsied, — as would make you own that a
worse slavery than that of Algiers exists
for us !"
We would -wilHngly have heard more, but
the approach of Madame V-— — checked the
speaker. Good, amiable as she was, she
was known to be too completely under the
control of her confessor, for any Hberal to
venture to speak unreservedly on poHtics
before her. The conversation was at once
tumed into a new channel; and in a few
instants more, the bright sunshine, the
sparkling waters, the ineffable beauty of
the cloudless sky, as we emerged from the
grotto, proved irresistible spells to chase

80 A GUARD OF HONOUR.
away the gloomy impression of what the
doctor had just related.
Duly drawn up on the piazza, we found,
on regaining the shore, the two vetture pre
viously bespoken, surpassing specimens of
that delectable style of equipage — each with
three spectral horses, whose mean bodily
appearance was supposed to be atoned for
by an extra supply of jingling beUs and
scarlet worsted tufts ; the drivers, fierce and
bravo-like ; and the interiors painfnUy redo
lent of musty straw. There were six places
in each, two in the cabriolet, and four
inside ; and the consul and Madame V 
respectively taking the command of a divi
sion, with many expressions of thanks and
good-will to the dottore, whose presence had
formed a very agreeable interlude to some
amongst the party, we set forth in great
style. The whole mendicant population, at
least haU apparently of the inhabitants of
Umana, escorted us, like a guard of honour,
as a tribute to the largesses of our good-
humoured tars, and fiUed the air with their
benedictions ; while a number of boys and

THE PEASANTRY. 81
girls, even after the horses had been urged
into' a feeble trot, pursued us indefatigably
for at least a mile, the former making
wheels of themselves, and bowling along
after the most approved fashion; and the
latter springing up to the windows to offer
thefr bunches of flowers, and obtain a fare
weU token of EngHsh liberality.
After a drive of four hours or thereabouts,
through country equaUy fertUe and diversi
fied, we drew near Loretto, situated on the
brow of a very steep hUl, crowned by the
church of the Santa Casa. As we wound
slowly up the ascent, we met the peasants
in large numbers returning from some neigh
bouring fafr, and were struck by the scowl
ing looks -with which they eyed us, and a
general afr of menace and defiance. Singu
larly enough, it is notorious that the popu
lation in the vicinity of this venerated
shrine is the worst throughout the whole
pontifical dominions. This is a perplexing
fact to persons who, Hke the V  family,
were perfectly sincere in their belief of the
legend of the holy house's miraculous trans-
VOL. II. G

82 UNFAVOURABLE IMPRESSIONS.
portation by angels from Nazareth ; and who
naturally would infer that the immediate
presence of such a relic ought to have pro
duced a salutary effect upon pubhc morals.
Their explanation of this inconsistency was
briefly, that the town having been for cen
turies the resort of pilgrims of aU ranks and
from every clime, the Loretani had become
corrupted by ever- changing intercourse -with
these strangers : an hypothesis we unques -
tioningly accepted, for it must not be for
gotten we were now on delicate ground, and
many an observation that might have jarred
on our foreign companions, had to be alto
gether suppressed or carefuUy kept amongst
ourselves. The sinister aspects of the groups
we encountered gave a clue to the numerous
robberies perpetrated in the neighbourhood ;
to say nothing of the darker tales of murder
and revenge, of which the way-side crosses,
so frequent during the last few mUes, were
ominously suggestive.
EquaUy unfavourable were our first im
pressions of the town, as we drove through
a narrow street, lined on each side -with

MENDICANTS. 83
booths, where every description of medals,
chaplets, rosaries, and other objects of devo
tion lay exposed for sale, which we were
loudly caUed upon to purchase. Slipshod
women, their black hair escaping, matted and
disordered, from the coloured handkerchiefs
bound about their heads ; beggars in every
stage and form of human misery — ^blind,
palsied, maimed; squalid chUdren; lean,
fighting dogs ; portly priests ; dirty pUgrims
-with staff and scaUop-sheU : such is the ap
pearance of the crowd that greets the tra
veUer on entering Loretto.
On reaching the inn, we found a fresh
assemblage of mendicants drawn up in array
in the courtyard; objects so dirty and re
volting, that one involuntarily shrunk from
contact -svith them: and clamorous, even
peremptory, in thefr demands, which are in
general HberaUy compHed with. Their trade
is supposed to be a thriving one, since the
majority of persons repairing to the town,
do so from religious motives, and esteem
this promiscuous alms-giving a stringent
duty. Besides these, we encountered upon
G 2

84 DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES.
the unswept stafrs several women with
baskets of rosaries and medals, which they
kept importuning us to buy, that we might
have them blessed at the Santa Casa ; and
lastly, two or three tottering old men way
laid us on the landing, and pressingly
offered themselves as our ciceroni to the
shrine. But it was too late, or rather we
were too weary for any more sight-seeing
that day ; and as soon as dinner was con
cluded, we were glad enough to betake our
selves to repose.
Eecruited by a night of weU-earned sleep,
the next morning found us assembled in
the general sala of the inn, waiting for
breakfast and the return of the V 
family, who, the servants told us, had gone
out soon after dawn. They speedily came in
-with cheerful faces, ha-ving fulfilled aU the
devotional exercises prescribed to devout
Eoman CathoHcs on thefr first visit to the
Santa Casa, and were now ready to enter
cordially into the survey of the church and
aU the curiosities it contained.
While we were still at table, we heard

IL SIGNOR CANONICO. 85
a voice in rich oUy tones, accompanied by a
boisterous laugh, inquiring for the Signorine
Inglesi. Presently a short, stout, very stout,
priest entered the room, and, apostrophized
as il Signor Canonico, was greeted by my
cousins -with unfeigned friendliness. It ap
peared he had kno-wn the famUy some years
before, having been the curate of their
parish in Ancona. The exercise of his
duties used occasionaUy to lead him to
my uncle's house — at such times, for in
stance, as blessing it at Easter, or dis
tributing the tickets for confession to the
servants — opportunities which he never
faUed to improve in a Httle attempt at con
verting the signorine. Now it would be
the present of a Hfe of Santa FUomena, or
some other saintly legend, which they were
implored to substitute for other reading;
or again, a medal or rehc to be suspended
round their necks, and -win them to the
fold. These simple devices invariably proving
abortive, the poor padre would shake his
head, look at them with tears in his eyes,
and plunging his hand into a capacious

86 AMICABLE INTERCOURSE.
pocket, draw thence a goodly packet of
sugar -plums, in the discussion whereof
all controversial bitterness was soon for
gotten. These amicable relations had for some
time been suspended, o-wing to his prospering
in the world, and ha-ving been translated to
a canon's staU at Loretto— e-vidently an easy
and thriving post. As soon as the first ex
pressions of pleasure at this unexpected
meeting were over, the canonico was in
troduced in form to the V  s, the officers,
and the cugina forestiera, and had a varied
compliment for each member of the party ;
after which, without the slightest modula
tion of voice, but rather, if possible, pitching
it in a higher key, and with an indescribable
play of feature and -vivacity of gesture, he
began inveighing against his young friends
for not gi-ving him timely notice that they
were coming to Loretto, when they might
have eaten due bocconi (two mouthfuls) at
his house. Precisely for this reason, they
replied, had they determined not to apprize
him beforehand, knowing his hospitality

AN INVITATION. 87
would have led to the commission of some
pazzia or foUy upon thefr account. At this
pleasantry he laughed and wheezed tiU he
was nearly black in the face ; but on re
covering his breath, insisted that, although
it was certainly too late to think of pre
paring a dinner, they should not be let off
so easUy as they expected, and must there
fore, -with aU the honourable company^ —
making a cfrcular movement with his hands
— come at noon and take la doccolata under
his poor roof.
The good man was clearly so much in
earnest, that it would have been ungracious
to decline, and an appointment was accord
ingly made for that hour. This important
business being satisfactorUy adjusted, he took
his leave, and we set forth to visit the fane
-where pUgrim-kings have worshipped.

88 THE SANTA CASA.

CHAPTEE VII.
The Santa Casa — Pilgrims — The treasury — Exquisite
statues and bassi-rilievi — Chocolate at the Canon-
ico's — La Signora Placida — A survey of the house
— The rich vestments.
Strangers were e-vidently no rarity in Lo
retto, and the admiring gaze of the popula
tion did not greet our appearance as at
Umana. Simply looked upon as traveUers,
and legitimate objects of prey, we were soon
beset by the vendors of the trinkets pecuHar
to the place, and imposed on -without mercy.
I have no hesitation in saying that the
corone, or chaplets, with which the mid
shipmen persisted in filling their pockets,
and the bracelets of ten beads caUed corone
alia moda — an indefinite supply whereof
Vofficier marie seemed to consider indispen
sable to his wife — were charged them at
least three times their value. The main

the interior. 89
street, afready noticed, opens upon a spacious
square, adorned by a fountain and two hand
some colonnades, and fianked by the palace
of the bishop and the Jesuits' College ; at
the upper end, on a rising ground, stands
the church of the Santa Casa, a large and
commanding edifice.
The interior is profusely decorated, and
contains numerous side - chapels enriched
¦with pictures in mosaic ; but the object on
which the eye first rests on entering is a
structure of an oblong form of white Carrara
marble, completely incrusted with statues,
Corinthian columns, and exquisite bass-
rehefs, placed on a platform accessible by
three or four broad steps, immediately be
neath the cupola. Tins is the far-famed
Holy House, or, more properly speaking,
the costly building raised over the reputed
cottage of Nazareth, at once to impede its
future migrations, and preserve it for the
edification of the faithful. Passing into the
sacred tabernacle, a gorgeous vision strikes
upon the senses — golden lamps, suspended
from the ceihng, shed a meUow but subdued

90 the offerings of votaries.
light upon an altar, where jeweUed chalices,
crucifixes, and candelabras are arrayed in
glittering profusion, surmounted by an
image, whence literally a blaze of diamonds
is radiating. Here prostrate forms are al
ways seen, and brows bent low in penance
or adoration; and here many a guilt- worn
wretch, coming from distant realms, in
penury and toil, has sunk rejoicing on his
knees, and deemed his pardon won !
Above, around, on every side, are evi
dences of the piety and liberahty of the
princely votaries to the shrine, whose offer
ings were pointed out with conscious pride
by the young priest who had attached him
self to our party. The figure of the Madonna
and Child, rudely carved in cedar, and said
to be the workmanship of St. Luke, is ab
solutely covered with gems. The two heads
are encfrcled with tiaras of immense value,
and the black velvet in which the shapeless
trunk of the image is enswathed, is scarcely
discernible amid the ear-rings, necklaces,
and chains of the most sparkling brilHants
overlaying it. Each jewel, and candlestick,

LEGEND OF THE SANTA CASA. 91
and lamp, has its donor and its history, all
duly registered in printed catalogues annexed
to the authenticated relation of the house
and its mysterious fittings. This book sets
forth how, in the year 1294, the Santa Casa,
where the Vfrgin had meekly dwelt, and
watched the chUdhood of her son, was first
lifted from its foundations by angel hands,
and borne from Palestine to Dalmatia.
After a short interval, the same super
natural agency transported it across the
Adriatic to a hill in the vicinity of Ancona ;
thence, after one or two brief baitings, it
was finaUy conveyed to Loretto, where the
speedy erection of a church over the precious
deposit, attested the piety of the inhabitants,
and secured them, the continuance of its
presence. From that time the cottage of Nazareth
went on increasing in fame and riches ;
mfracles were wrought by its influence, and
princes and pontiffs contended who should
do it honour, untU 1797, when the sun of
its prosperity became clouded. The pitiless
exactions of the French compeUed Pius VT.

92 BASSI-RILlEVI.
to have recourse to the treasures of the
Madonna di Loretto to meet his conquerors'
demands; and in the foUowing year, the
fierce invaders captured the town, and sent
the venerated image to Paris. It was re
stored, however, a few years afterwards, to
the joy of aU sincere adherents to the
church, and was solemnly crowned by Pius
VII. with those same diadems whose rain
bow lustre dazzles the beholder.
The internal dimensions, of the Santa
Casa are those of a mere hut — 27 EngHsh
feet in length, 12-| in breadth, and propor
tionably low. The ceihng is blackened by
the smoke of the many lamps which are
perpetually burning ; the lower waUs are
covered with plates of sUver, gUded and
-wrought into bass-reliefs, except on one side
where a portion of the original masonry is
left exposed. It is of course brickwork)
discoloured by time, and worn smooth by
the kisses continuaUy pressed upon it. The
priest pointed to a rude sort of recess, which
he told us was the fire-place of the Holy
Family, and then produced a cup or bowl,

A REVOLTING PENANCE. 93
caUed La Scodella Santa, from which the
Madonna used to drink. AU the faithful
reverently press their lips to this relic, and
then place in it thefr chaplets, crosses, or
medals, to be blessed.
The weU-known story of a channel being
worn on the pavement immediately sur
rounding the Holy House, by the knees of
pUgrims, is not in the least exaggerated.
There are two distinct furrows in the
marble, traced there by the thousands who
have yearly dragged themselves, in this at
titude of devotion, for a given number of
times around its waUs. At the moment of
our visit, several peasant- women were thus
shuffling along, seemingly without much
inconvenience, -with the exception of one,
whose attitude and appearance produced a
painful impression on my mind. She was
working her way round on her hands and
knees, dra-wing as she went a line with her
tongue upon the pavement. I know not
how long she had been in that position, but
it was horrible to view : her face was black
and swoUen; her eyes starting from thefr

94 THE TREASURY.
sockets ; the veins on her forehead standing
out like tight strained cords, and mingled
blood and saliva fio-wing from her mouth.
Our conductor looked unconcernedly at the
poor wretch as we passed, and said in an
swer to my appealing glances : " It is only
a great penance; you may be sure she richly
deserves it : there are many who come here
in this way to expiate their sins ; " and then
walked on, leading the way to the treasury,
as if the subject were too commonplace for
further consideration.
The Sala del Tesoro is a magnificent hajl,
richly painted in fresco, the ceUing repre
senting the death of the Madonna, sur
rounded by the apostles, and the waUs fur
nished with immense presses with glass
doors, in which are deposited the numerous
and yearly increasing offerings to the shrine.
Many of these are of great value, although
of course not equaUing the splendour of
those displayed upon and around the image.
Some e-vidence considerable eccentricity in
the donors, such as the king of Saxony's
wedding-suit, a full court costume of gold

THE CHURCH. 95
and sUver brocade, estimated at I forget
how many thousand crowns ; others, again,
are of a devotional type — silver statuettes
of saints, crucifixes, and church vessels ;
but the majority of giPts comprise necklaces,
gold chains, rings, brooches, watches, cups,
flagons, sUver hearts— contributions from
every nation and every class ^ — from the
gemmed sevigne that lately sparkled in the
saloons of the Quartier St. Germain, to the
coral pendants a poor contadina has prof
fered in gratitude for last year's -vintage.
At a moderate computation, the present
coUection would amply stock a score of jew-
eUers' shops ; nevertheless, as a grey-haired
sacristan informed us with a sigh, it is not
worthy to be named in the same breath
with the glories of the ancient treasury.
Thence we were reconducted to the church,
to see the mosaic pictures in the side-chapels,
fuU- sized admirable copies of celebrated
masters, and of course most valuable from
the tedium and minuteness requisite in their
execution. Besides these, there are some
originals by Guercino, and other celebrated

96 THE MARBLE CASING.
artists, their subjects mostly referring to
different passages in the life of the Virgin,
as suppHed by legends of the east, the
¦writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, and
other traditional sources. But of aU the
monuments of the piety or ostentation of
the Eoman pontiffs, who for centuries
lavished large sums on the adornment of
this ediflce, nothing can compete with the
marble casing that encloses the Santa Casa.
This costly monument of the best times of
Italian art, projected by Julius IL, was
commenced under Leo X. ; and in its exe
cution the most eminent sculptors seem to
have vied in leaving worthy memorials of
their skUl. Designed by Bramante — San
sovino, Bandinelli, Giovanni da Bologna,
besides others scarcely less Ulustrious, were
employed on the bass-rehefs, and those
groups of prophets and sibyls, which in
majestic beauty stiU rivet the admiration
of the beholder. There is a figure of Jere
miah, by Sansovino, at the angle of the
western facade, the sublime mournfulness
of which haunts me even now.

THE CANONICO'S DWELLING. 97
We were stUl engaged in our survey,
when we were joined by my cousins' friend
the canonico, panting for breath, who had
come to remind us of our engagement.
Accordingly, we adjourned en masse to his
habitation, situated in a very miserable
narrow street, or rather lane ; and climbing
up a steep, dark, and indescribably dirty
staircase, arrived at last at the ultimo piano,
where the door was opened with many cour
tesies by a middle-aged, demure-looking
personage, introduced by the canonico as
La Signora Placida, his niece and house
keeper. The entrance-haU was in the usual style
of dweUings of this description, with four
carved-back settles or benches, some undis
tinguishable oU-paintings in frames that had
once been gilded, a clothes-horse, a broom,
and dust-pan — whose offices were mere sine
cures, to judge by the appearance of the
floor — and so on. From this we were
ushered into the sola, which contained a
horse-hafr sofa, so hard and high that one
was perpetuaUy slipping off, and six chairs
VOL. II. H

98 . OUR RECEPTION.
to correspond ; a folded card-table whereon
stood a sUver lucema, and a press -with glass
doors, in which a set of cups and saucers
was displayed.
To accommodate their numerous guests,
our host and his niece brought in a number
of chafrs from adjoining rooms, and seated
us with great bustle and ceremony; an opera
tion diversified by the Signora Placida' s con
tinuaUy darting into some obscure region of
the house, whence she could be overheard
disputing with a shriU- voiced attendant, or
energetically clattering glasses and plates, in
a manner that singularly belied her name.
Meantime, the canonico talked and gesticu
lated, patted the youngest midshipman on
the head, to his evident disgust, entertained
Madame V  with the history of his rela
tive, on whose vfrtues he pronounced a glow
ing panegyric, and recounted to the consul
the latest miracles performed at the Santa
Casa, whUe he shook his finger playfuUy at
my cousins, as if menacing them with a
return to thefr ancient hostihties. Presently
the circle received an addition in the shape

AN ITALIAN- FRIENDSHIP. 99
of another priest, Don Antonio, a great
friend of our canonico's, and almost as rosy,
and pursy, and jovial as himself, who now
came to have his share of the good things
and see ^e, forestieri.
This was one of those quaint Italian
friendships I have so often noticed. It com
menced in boyhood at the seminary, had
been renewed on our host's establishing him
seU at Loretto, and would probably continue
unbroken tUl the end of thefr days. Eegu-
larly as clock-work used Don Antonio to
come every evening to make la sodeta —
Hmited to himself, I beHeve — play at cards,.
and discuss the petty scandal of the place.
I asked him U they ever read, at which he
shrugged his shoulders, and said that after
going through the daUy office in the breviary,,
for his part he must o-wn he had had enough
of study. This facetious response was loudly
echoed by the canonico, and they laughed
over it in chorus, with a sound more resem
bling the shaking of stones in a barrel than
any human manifestation of hUarity.
The chocolate was now brought in by the
H 2

100 OUR ENTERTAINMENT.
serva, and handed to us by the two friends
and the niece. It was made thick, and served
in cups without handles, and tea-spoons not
being apparently considered requisite, the
uninitiated found some difficulty in discuss
ing it with propriety ; but after watching
our entertainers, we perceived that the ap
proved method was to steep in it morsels of
rusks which had been distributed at the
same time, and then convey them daintUy
to one's lips through the medium of the
thumb and forefinger. This was foUowed
by trays of ices and sweetmeats from the
caffe, the canonico obser-ving significantly,
he weU remembered the signorine were
always fond of dolci ; and when, to please
him, every one had eaten as much as he
possibly could, he insisted on pouring all
the remaining bon-bons into our handker
chiefs, to amuse us, as he expressed it, on
our way home.
When it was time to think of going, he
declared we must first see the house, and
took us into a smaU adjoining room, con
taining a writing-table with a dried-up ink-

SURVEY OF THE HOUSE. 101
stand, and two or three shelves adorned with
some very dusty, dry-looking folios in parch
ment covers. This den, he told us, he retired
to when he studied or had letters to write —
both rare occurrences, it was evident. Next
we were shown the dining-room, with no
furniture but a table and rush-bottomed
chairs, and opening into the kitchen — a cus
tom also generaUy foUowed in houses of
higher pretensions, but opposed to all our
notions of quiet or refinement; and, lastly,
into his and the niece's sleeping apartments
in each a clumsy wooden bedstead, rickety
chest of drawers — on which, under a glass
shade, stood a figure of the infant St. John
in wax, -with staring blue eyes and fiaxen
curls — two chafrs, the usual tripod-shaped
washing-stand, and an engraving of some
devotional subject, •with a crucifix, a httle
receptacle for holy water, and a palm that
had been blessed at Easter, hanging near
the piUow. Tou may enter a hundred bed
rooms in famUies of the middle class in this
part of Italy, and see them fitted up after
the same pattern ; those of the provincial

103 THE canonico's CHAMBER.
nobility have a little more display in mfr-
rors or pictures, but no greater comfort.
The introduction of aU the visitors into
the canonico's chamber was not, I suspect,
whoUy without design; for our attention
was speedily attracted to a cotta or alb of
fine white cambric lying upon the bed ; the
most elaborate specimen of the art of crimp
ing it was possible to behold. The niece
immediately held it up for our closer inspec
tion, whUe the uncle stood by smUing ; and
in answer to our praises of the exquisite
designs of fiowers, leaves, &c., with which it
was wrought, entirely by a manual process,
told us it was ihe work of the nuns of a par
ticular order — I forget the name — a very
strict one, moreover, who, by way of serving
the altar, dedicate themselves to the pre
paration of this part of the priestly vest
ments. This marveUous example of fine
plaiting, however, was but the least recom
mendation of the ephod, which was trimmed
with a deep flounce of the most magnificent
point-lace. " Look at that, look at that ! " chuckled

HIS SPLENDID VESTMENTS. 103
the canonico, rubbing his hands with glee ;
"that is the lace which all the ladies of
Loretto, and Eecanati, and Macerata — yes,
aU of them together — are envious of, when
I walk in the procesaon of the Corp^as
Domini. I have been offered^ five hundred
doUars for it by a Eussian princess who
came here on a pUgrimage ; but I could not
make up my mind to part with it. Look at
that tracery — look at that ground, it is per
fect — ^not a thread broken ; " and he de
scanted on it with the zest of a connoisseur.
When he paused in his raptures — " Signor
Canonico," meekly suggested La Signora
Placida, ''may I fetch the stole you have
just had worked? "
" Ah, the Httle vain thing ! " was the
rejoinder; "she is so proud of my vest
ments ! It is a trifle though  ^WeU, well,
bring it out." And from a long pasteboard
box, duly enveloped in tissue paper, the
Signora Placida drew forth a gorgeous stole,
the original texture cloth of sUver, but almo^
concealed by raised embroidery in gold.
" The canonico has not worn this yet; it

104 THE NEEDLEWORK OF NUNS.
is for the great funzione — that is, church-
ceremony — of the Madonna in August," said
the niece, -with as much earnestness as if she
were a lady's-maid talking of her mistress's
preparations for a baU, and disposing it so
that it might be ¦viewed to the greatest
advantage. It reaUy was beautiful as a
work of art, due to the skUl, as Don Antonio
informed us, of another set of nuns, who
exclusively applied themselves to needlework
in gold and silver.
The pleasure this good man took in the
display of his friend's possessions, impressed
me very favourably. " Ber Bacco ! " he ex
claimed, handling the vestment with respect
— " each time I see it, it strikes me more !
It is worth — ss — ss — ss — ss," emitting a
long sibiUatory whistle, expressive in the
Marche of something unlimited, whether of
good cheer, astonishment, money, or so
forth. " Via, via," said the canonico modestly,
" it is not much a poor priest can do. StiU,
we may place it at the same value as the
lace, and be -within the mark."

THE PHARMACY OF SANTA CASA. 105
Our reiterated admiration evidently en
chanted the trio ; in fact, it was altogether
-with the most amiable feelings, and with
mutual thanks and protestations, we took
our leave, the poHteness of our entertainer
and Don Antonio leading them to give us
thefr company in -visiting the bishop's palace
and the Farmacea, or pharmacy of the Santa
Casa, the last reno-wned for its collection of
majolica, consisting of three hundred vases
coloured from designs by Eaphael and his
pupUs. No adventures befeU us in these perambu
lations, except that we were more beset and
pestered than before, if possible, by th^ beg
gars, who foUowed us in troops, and for
whom I learned, with astonishment, no alms
house or refuge of any kind existed. Con
cluding our sight-seeing with another ( visit
to the Santa Casa, there remained but time
for a hasty dinner, ere we set out on our
retum to Ancona — the state of the neigh
bourhood, as we were repeatedly reminded,
necessitating our departure in broad day
hght.

106 THE BEGGARS OF XiORETTO.
The usual scene of clamour, begging, im
precations, and blessings attended our exit
.from Loretto, a place which presents the
strongest contrast of wealth and poverty it
has ever been my lot to witness, or entered
my imagination to conceive.

VISIT TO .JESI. 107

CHAPTEE VIIL
Visit to the Carmelites at Jesi — Our joyous recep
tion — The Casino and Theatre — Infractions of
Convent Discipline — The Dinner near the Sa
cristy — In company with the Friars we visit some
Nuns.
A PEW days after my excursion to Loretto, I
had my last glimpse of real scenes and Hfe
in the Marches, in a -visit to Jesi, a smaU
city of great antiqnity, about twenty mUes
distant from Ancona. The circumstances
that led us thither hinged upon the acquaint
ance of my uncle's famUy with an Irish
priest who belonged to a convent of Car-
mehtes in that place. Father O'Grady was
a jovial, burly personage, with a round
buUet-head, an athletic frame, and a stento
rian Toice, that always reminded me of the
holy clerk of Copmanhurst in Ivamhoe. His
great .delight in his occasional -visits to An-

108 FATHER o'gRADY.
cona, where he always lodged in a monastery
of the same order, was to be in-vited to our
house to have " a raal EngHsh dhinner," as
he termed it, which he dolorously contrasted
with the fare provided by the cook at the
Jesi convent. Once, too, the pro-vincial of
the order, a fine, dignified old man of seventy-
five, with a sUvery fringe of hair, and regular,
impressive features, like one of Perugino's
saints, came to dine with its, attended by
another monk, a certain Padre Fiorenzo, as
well as Father O'Grady — both of them very
much subdued in his presence. Our Hiber
nian friend, however, always protested him
seU indemnified for this restraint, by his
gratification at the approval the entertain
ment drew from his superior, who, as the
spring advanced, was urgent that we should
test the hospitality of Jesi in retum.
Some English traveUing friends, waiting
for the steamer to Trieste, were comprised
in this in-^-itation, which my uncle, though
not without some sighs at the long hours of
conversazione, and making the amiable -with
the brotherhood, which lay before him, was

COUNTRY SCENERY. 109
coaxed into accepting ; and a beautiful morn
ing in the latter part of June saw the two
famUies in motion.
After foUo-wing the high road towards
SenigalHa along the curve of the bay for
some mUes, the way to Jesi turns inland in
a westward direction. Long rows of mul
berry-trees, connected by ample festoons of
-vines ; cornfields nearly ripe for the sickle,
interspersed with plantations of young maize,
beans, and ohves, equally indicated the fer
tiHty of the country and its staple produc
tions. Less hilly and romantic than the
scenery near Loretto, it stUl had no lack of
beauty; a background of mountains was
never wanting, and gifted with that marvel
lous brightness and diversity of colouring
pecuHar to this clime, the landscape rarely
sank into monotony.
Jesi is an interesting Httle to-wn, of some
5000 inhabitants, tracing its origin to an'
indefinite number of centuries before the
foundation of Eome, and famed in the
middle ages as the birthplace of Frederick
II. , the great emperor of Germany, whose

110 OUR JOYOUS RECEPTION.
constant wars with the Eoman pontiffs and
encouragement of literature, render his
memory very popular amongst Italian
writers. A thriving trade in sUk has pre
served it from the squahd misery dis
cernible in most of the iiUand towns of the
Marche ; and it can boast of some palaces
in tolerable preservation, a casino, a very
pretty theatre, and several churches, that of
the Carmelites being amongst the principal.
Father O'Grady, radiant with joy, was
awaiting us in the street, to show' the way
to the hotel where we were to take up our
quarters — ^for -within the cloister itseU no
woman may set her foot — ^untU two rooms
adjoining the church and sacristy were pre
pared for the day's festivities. They had
been up since daybreak, the good man said,.
but " the last touch was stUl wanting."
The last touch being a lengthy process,
and the inn barren of resources, a walk was
proposed. We were condncted by the
father and Padre Fiorenzo, his great friend,
through the market, the principal square,
and the main street called the Corso, the

CASINOS. Ill
worthy pair being evidently desirous the
citizens of Jesi should aU participate in the
novelty of the presence of strangers, for
the town, lying out of the general route of
traveUers, is very rarely. visited. After this
promenade, somewhat fatiguing under a
noonday's sun, we went over the casino.
The billiard, conversazione, and baU-rooms,,
aU weU arranged, and in good taste, incom
parably superior to any corresponding estab
Hshment in towns of far higher pretensions
in England ; but then, as Lucy was at hand
patrioticaUy to remark, had we not me
chanics' libraries, and schools, and charit
able institutions, to atone for this deficiency ?
Admitting all this to its fuUest extent, I
cannot see why casinos, on the same simple
footing as those so common in Southern
Italy, should not be advantageously grafted
on EngHsh county society. In towns too
smaU to have a casino de' nobili to them
selves, the higher and middle classes are
content to waive questions of caste, and
meet, as at Ancona, or Macerata, or Jesi,
on this neutral territory. Once a week.

112 REUNIONS FOR CARDS AND MUSIC.
during Lent or Advent, when there is no
opera to serve as a raUying-point, reunions
for music and cards draw together the sub
scribers, without any extravagance in dress
on the part of the wealthier ladies, pro
voking the less affluent to foolish emulation.
Two or three times in the course of the
year, balls are given, where a greater display
is permitted, yet still without the inequalities
of fortune thus rendered more apparent
leading to any offensive afrs of superiority.
No refreshments are suppHed on these oc
casions, the low amount of the subscription,
twelve doUars a year for each member —
inclusive of his family, however numerous
— not furnishing funds beyond those neces
sary for attendance, lights, and music, and
keeping up the estabHshment for the old
bachelors and heads of houses, who frequent
it regularly every day and every evening
the whole twelvemonth round.
We concluded our peregrinations by the
inspection of the theatre. Padre Fiorenzo
having an acquaintance with one of the
employes, through whom access to it was

FATHER o'gRADy's MIRTH. 113
obtained. Even with the disadvantages of
being seen by daylight, it might be pro
nounced a very elegant little structure ; the
columns and ceUing ornamented in white
and gold, and the three tiers of private
boxes draperied with blue silk. Father
O'Grady trod the stage with a mock-heroic
air, and favoured us with two or three
roulades of so much effect, that we protested
he must often be hearing operas, and hinted
he perhaps occasionally ventured there in
disguise. At this insinuation, he shook his
portly sides with laughter ; but Padre Fio
renzo related -with complacency that in fact,
one night the previous Carnival, they and
several others of the brotherhood had been
present at a concert given in that same
theatre on behalf of the poor, which the
bishop permitted aU the clergy and religiosi
to attend; dweUing with the simplicity of
a chUd upon the great enjoyment this had
afforded them.
Erom these mundane resorts — a messen
ger having come to say aU ' was now in
readiness — we adjourned to the church of
VOL. II. I

114 CHURCH OF THE CARMELITES.
the CarmeUtes, where a side-door gave ad
mission to the sacristy, and beyond this to
a dark, low-ceiled room, lined with massive
walnut-wood presses, in wbich aU the vest
ments and ornaments for the great reHgious
solemnities were deposited. An fron-barred
window looked linto the inner quadrangle of
the monastery ; and through a half-opened
door we had ghmpses of a long taible spread
for dinner ; around which several dark-robed
figures were hovering, the silvery head of
the provincial himself now and then dis
cernible as he directed the arrangements.
Eather O'Grady being troubled in his
mind about a certain plum-pudding, on the
manipulation of which the dawn of morn
ing had fonnd him engaged, now ceded his
post as chief spokesman and sqnfre to Padre
Fiorenzo, who, with two other elderly
monks, very gladly engaged to do the
honours. The next haU hour saw the good father
revolving perpetuaUy between us and the
kitchen, now disputing with the cook, an
octogenarian artist, who liad no sympathy

CONVENT DISCIPLINE. 115
for such outlandish compounds; now re
straining the merriment of some of the
yonng'er visitosrs, for whom the idea of
transgressing conTcnt etiquette was irre
sistibly attractive. A door from the sacristy
temptingly stood open, leading do-wn by
two or three steps into the court, of which
the church and the rooms we occupied
formed the southern extremity and barrier.
Under pain of the severest excommuni
cation, the monks repeatedly assured us,
females were initeirdicted from proceeding
further; the threshold on which we crowded
on hearing these particulars, being the
utmost boundary. The two blooming,
joyous sisters, just out of the school-room,
who had accompanied ns from Ancona, -with
a mother too indulgent to act as any check
on thefr spfrits, and an elder brother, a
barrister, almost as fuU of sport as them
selves, proved lamnsingly refractory on this
occasion. Whenever the pro-vincial — ^who
had come in once or twice to pay his com-
phments — was out of the way, or my
uncle's attention was engaged, they made
I 2

116 CONVENT JOKES.
a feint of dancing down the steps and
rushing into the forbidden ground ; just for
the amusement of being chased back again
by the terrified Padre Fiorenzo, and rebuked
by Father O'Grady, who evidently enjoyed
the joke, though he tried to look serious
upon it, with : " Childhren dhear, why can't
ye remain quiet ? Shure, now, it 's excom
municated ye 'U be ! Ah ! more 's the pity
that ye don't care for that ! Now jist be
asy, and don't turn the house out of win
dows." But as the " childhren " would not
be " asy," after one or two more escapades,
the door was locked ; and they were fain to
resort to some new device to beguile the
time. Visible from the iron-barred window
were some of the younger brethren walking
up and down the prohibited quadrangle,
trying to get a glimpse of the EngHsh
heretics, whose -visit had thrown the whole
community into such pleasurable excitement.
With black silk scarfs and white handker
chiefs, the delighted mad-caps extemporized
some nuns' costumes, in which they took
their stations at the -window, and confronted

THE CHURCH VESTMENTS. 117
Father O'Grady as he was crossing the
enclosure on his return from one of his
expeditions to the kitchen.
The admfration of Mother Hubbard, in
that reno-wned epic of our infancy, on find
ing her faithful canine attendant travestied
in a court-suit, has its paraUel in the father's
astonishment and laughter at this appari
tion, in which he was chorused by Padre
Fiorenzo, and the others ; until, hearing the
pro-vincial approaching, they wiped their
eyes, and entreated them to remove thefr
impromptu attfre ; whUe, to keep them out
of further mischief, and provide some em
ployment for the more sober members of
the party, they asked the superior's permis
sion to show us the church vestments. This
was graciously accorded ; and one after
another the presses were opened by the
monks; and rich brocades, tissues of gold
and sUver, silks embroidered in various
colours, were successively drawn forth, the
provincial himself deigning to explain for
what they were designed.
The welcome announcement of dinner

118 DINNER NEAR THE SACRISTY.
stiU found us thus engaged. We were
ushered -with great glee — for I cannot repeat
too often that, with the exception of the
provincial, they all seemed as easily set
laughing as a parcel of school-boys — ^into
the next room, -where our venerable host
and the fathers who had previously been
making conversazione, took thefr seats -with
us at the table. We were waited upon by
two lay-brothers, whose broad smiles and
occasional remarks showed they partici
pated in the general hUarity ; the provincial
himself playing the courteous, attentive host
to perfection, seeming to sanction and ap
prove it. To say the repast was seasoned
with Attic salt would be a fiower of speech ;
neither was there anything peculiarly droU
in the saUies -with which Padre Alberto, the
bel esprit of the convent,, sustained, or, in
Father O'Grady's opinion, enhanced his re
putation ; but there was something so plea
sant in the intense chUdUke happiness of
these good Carme!ites, that it would have
been invidious to scan their inteUectual
attainments at such a^ moment. Dr. Prim-

BILL OF FARE, 119
rose's oft-quoted words were exactly ap
plicable to that party : " I can't say whether
we had more wit among- us than usual, but
certainly we had more laughing."
Of the dinner itself, I shaU say but Httle ;
the readers of these sketches must be by
this time famUiar with Italian biUs of fare.
The soup of clear broth, wherein floated
Httle squares of a compound resembling
hai'd custard ; the unfaUing lesso ;: ^fi-ittura
of brains and bread-crumbs, sprinkled with
powdered sugar ; larded capons ; a dish of
fennel-root, dressed -with butter and cheese ;
roast kid ; a pie, of which cockscombs were
the principal ingredients, with a sweet
crust ; a zuppa Inglese, " on purpose," the
provincial said, "for the English ladies,
accustomed from, childhood to mix spirits
with their food;" and, lastly. Father
O'Grady's plum-pudding, but, alas ! served
in a soup-tureen, for the- fiour had been
forgotten in its composition, and no amount
of boUing had avaUed to give it the desired
consistency. StUl the innumerable' jokes
this furnished, amply compensated for its

120 FRA CARMELO.
partial failure; the young barrister told
them it was exactly like the plum-broth
served out at Christmas at St. Cross's
Hospital, one of the most famous insti
tutions in England, he asserted, for good
cheer, and incited every one by example as
weU as precept to do justice to Father
O'Grady's culinary achievements. Though
he had afready shown himself emulous of a
boa constrictor's capacity, he now sent his
plate for a second supply, compelling Padre
Fiorenzo, as a tribute to friendship, to do
the same.
At the conclusion of the banquet, Fra
Carmelo, the old cook of whom we had
heard so much, and who was declared to have
acquitted himseU right manfully, was sum
moned to receive the thanks of the com
pany. The messenger found him playing
the guitar, with which he was wont daUy
to solace himself at the completion of his
duties in the kitchen, and triumphantly led
him forward. In his brown Carmelite dress,
he certainly looked a most interesting cook.
Though past eighty, his tall spare figure

VISIT TO A NUNNERY. 121
was only slightly bowed ; and there was a
vivacity in his light-blue eyes and ruddy
complexion, which led to the conclusion
that his aUeged occasional shortcomings in
his art were more the result of inattention
than incapacity.
On rising from table, the provincial offered
\>o fare due passi, a great distinction, which
was of course accepted. Again the whole
party saUied forth, he and iny uncle — who
won golden opinions, though suffering mar
tyrdom throughout the day — ^leading the
van. We went to see two or three churches,
and then, at Eather O'Grady's suggestion,
were taken to a nunnery, which he knew
would be a treat for us. AU the sisters
crowded to iheparlatorio to see the strangers.
It was not a grating, as in the stricter
orders, but simply a large aperture Hke a
-wide imglazed -window, at which they clus
tered, talking eagerly to the monks, asking
questions about the Httle world of Jesi, and
gazing with unrestrained and delighted
curiosity upon us.
Amongst fifteen or sixteen thus assembled

122 THE NUNS.
Httle beauty, less mind, was discernible. I
saw but one interesting face — a face that
had, or might have had, a history written
on it. Indeed, several of these nuns were
positively ill-favoured, evidently devoted to
the cloister because their parents had found
it impracticable to get them other-wise dis
posed of Some told us they had never left
the convent since their first entrance as
educande, seven or eight years of age ; they
grew attached to the nuns and thefr com
panions, and as the time for returning home
drew nigh, estranged by many years' separa
tion from thefr famihes, besought that they
might not be removed, and passed through
thefr no-vitiate, and took the veU, without
ever going beyond the waUs. They aU
talked as fast as possible, as if to make the
most of the opportunity; interspersing what
ever they said, or commenting on what
ever they heard, with invocations to the
Madonna and saints, and ejaculations of
simple wonder. I was amused, though,, at
noticing how weU informed they were of
aU that was passing in Jesi society ; thefr

THEIR LIMITED CAPACITY. 123
information being derived, the monks told
us with an afr of pitying superiority, through
whatever they could glean from occasional
-visitors ; but especiaUy from the gossip col
lected at market, by the woman charged
every morning to purchase their supplies,
and who, in consigning the pro-visions at
the convent- wicket, communicates any novel
ties she has picked up. A single observa
tion denoting deep thought or enthusiasm, I
sought in vain to hear ; indeed, as I reflected
at the time, it would be difflcult to convey
any notion of thefr limited capacity. Not
tending the sick, not instructing the poor ;
-with only four or five educande to bring up
tUl the age of sixteen or seventeen, exactly
as they themselves have been educated —
embroidery and the making of confectionery
filHng up aU the leisure left after the per
formance of their stated reHgious exercises,
which caU them for several hours daily to
the chofr, what a dreary, unsatisfactory hfe,
according to our notions of existence and its
duties, stretches itself before these women.
But they said they were happy ; and, look-

124 PLEASURE AFFORDED BY OUB VISIT.
ing at the be-vy of EngHsh girls before
them, lifted up thefr eyes and hands in sad
ness to think their hearts were not disposed
to foUow their example.
It was pleasant to know what delight our
-visit had afforded them, and to note the
earnestness with which they begged us to
return to Jesi and come to see them; to
have the conviction that we had furnished
the whole sisterhood with materials for at
least a fortnight's conversation, and several
years' reminiscences.
The good Carmelites, too, if our self-pride
did not greatly mislead us, marked this day
with a white stone; and long after the
pursuits and interests of a busier life have
dimmed its recoUections with the majority
of their guests, wiU continue to treasure
every incident of their visit.
My leave-taking of the good monks of
Jesi was soon foUowed by a long fareweU to
Ancona and its kindly people. In bringing
these sketches to a conclusion, I feel as if
the pain of parting were renewed, whUe
many unrecorded traits of courtesy, sym-

TRUTH OP OUR REMINISCENCES. 125
pathy, and friendship crowd upon me. If
such omissions have arisen, it has been from
no spirit of depreciation. In reminiscences
hke the foregoing, the peculiarities a stranger
cannot but faU to remark, must be promi
nently brought forward; those good quali
ties no impartial observer can deny to the
national character being often left in the
backgroimd, simply because offering less
scope for comment or description.
The sole merit of what I have written is
its truth. Not an anecdote, not an incident,
is here given but what is scrupulously au
thentic. With a little exaggeration, I might
have been much more amusing, but I pre
ferred dehneating these things as they
reaUy are — in their light and darkness, in
their fairness and deformity — in ^vhat our
pride might stoop to imitate, or our grati
tude make us thankful that we differ.

126 REASONS EOR AVOIDING

CHAPTEE IX.
The writer's motives Jor not having dwelt minutely on
political or historical subjects — -Antiquity of Ancona
— Its reputation under the Homan Empire — Its
celebrated resistance to the Emperor Erederie
Barbarossa — Stratagem employed by its deliverers
— Continues to be a free city till 1533, when it is
surprised by Gonzaga, General of i'ope Clement
VII., and subjected to fhe Holy See — Flourishes
under Napoleon — Eestoration of the Papacy — Pon
tifical possessions — Explanation of the terms,
legations, and Eomagna — Bologna conquered in
1506, by Julius II., but retains a separate form of
government — Ferrara, Urbino, &c. — Dates of their
annexation.
The foregoing pages were written solely with
the view of describing the social and domes
tic condition of a part of Italy Httle visited
by travellers, but which presents features of
quaintness and originahty, not easUy met
with in this era. Even in the Marche these
peculiarities risk speedy annihilation. Should

POLITICAL SUBJECTS. 127
they be fortunate enough to be included in the
emancipation from Pontifical government,
of which the neighbouring Legations now
seem secure, these sketches in ten years' time
wiU be looked upon as monstrous caricatures.
Should they on the contrary undergo no
change of regime, what I have said wUl be
as applicable a hundred years hence as it was
six months ago.
The fear of compromising my friends was
one great motive of my avoidance of pohtical
subjects, further than in the exact measure
necessary to iUustrate the life and conver
sation ofthe Ancona and Macerata sodeta,
I have been guUty of no breach of confidence
in quoting thefr sentiments or anecdotes;
for even if the veU of fictitious names were
seen through, the expressions attributed to
them are to be found in the mouths of every
man or woman in the Papal States, who
combines inteUigence with honesty. It is
no want of charity to say that no member
of the anti-liberal party unites both these
qualities. I know and esteem a great many
Codini, but their mental capacity is undeni-

128 ANTIQUITY OF ANCONA.
ably limited. It is only those whom no one
esteems who are reaUy clever.
Any historical retrospections I also pur
posely left aside, as out of keeping to the
purpose I had in hand, and not likely to
interest the generality of readers, overdone
with " the ItaHan question." The condition
of the Eoman States, however, has of late
been so -widely discussed and inquired into,
that I believe an outHne of the history of
Ancona, and the provinces adjoining it, wiU
now be found interesting, though with refer
ence to the events of last summer and autumn,
much minuteness of detaU is purposely
avoided. The consequences might be fatal
to many, were I to give publicity to their
revelations, thefr sufferings, and their hopes.
Ancona, as already observed, lays claim
to high antiquity. It is supposed to have
been founded by a Doric colony, and its
Greek name is derived from the angular,
elbow-like form of the promontory on which
the town is situated. In the time of Csesar
it was a celebrated port ; and its importance
under Trajan is attested by the magnificent

SIEGES OF ANCONA. 129
works undertaken by that emperor, upon
which more than seventeen centuries have
scarce left a trace. The mole he built at
the entrance of the inner harbour, is a
monument of true Eoman durability, formed
of huge stones, bound together by iron, and
rising to a considerable height above the
level of the sea. The triumphal arch which
bears his name, was erected by his wife and
sister in his honour. Considered by many
as the finest marble arch now extant, it stands
on the old mole, more vigorous in its decay
than aught of the present which surrounds
it. During the dark ages the city sustained
many -vicissitudes, and was successively ra
vaged by TotUa, the Saracens, and the
Lombards. The latter placed over it a
governor, whose title, Marchese, gave rise to
the general term of Marchesato to the pro-
-vinces under his rule. Hence the abbre-via-
tion of La Marca, or Le Marche, stiU in use.
In the latter part of the eleventh century,
the March of Ancona was bequeathed to
the Church by the famous Countess Matilda,
VOL. II. K

130 FREDERIC BARBAROSSA.
whose sway extended oven a considerable
part of central Italy, but the town was not.
comprehended in this donation. It main
tained itself as a free city, fiourishing in
trade, and steadily opposed to the Ghibeline,
or imperialist faction. For this Frederic
Barbarossa, in 1174, brought it to a deadly
reckoning, and jointly with the Venetians,
who were jealous ofits commercial prosperity,
entered upon the famous siege which is one
of the most brilliant episodes in ItaHan
mediseval annals.
Then, as now, the harbour had no adequate
defences, and the Venetian gaUeys were able
to moor themselves in the very face of the
quays, establish the most strict blockade,
and harass the town by thefr military engines,
while the German army ravaged the country,
and hemmed the garrison -within the narrow
compass of the waUs. Time had failed the
inhabitants to lay in suppHes before the
approach of the enemy, and the pressure of
famine early made itself felt. Ere long they
were reduced to such grievous straits that
the skins of animals, whose flesh is commonly

DEVOTION OF A NOBLE LADY. 131
rejected as unclean, as weU as sea-weed, and
the -wUd herbs growing on the ramparts,
were aU eagerly devoured. A young and
beautiful woman, of the noble class, bearing
an infant at her breast, one day remarked a
sentinel who had sunk upon the ground
at his post. To her rebuke for his neglect,.
he answered that he was perishing from
exhaustion. Her reply has been preserved
as worthy of a Eoman matron. "Fifteen
days," she said, " have passed, during which
my lUe has been barely supported by loath
some sustenance, and a mother's stores are
beginning to be dried up from my babe.
Place your Hps however upon this bosom,.
and U aught yet remains there, drink it,
and recover strength for the defence of our
country." Dauntless courage, as weU as subHme
endurance, was displayed by the besieged.
On one occasion the Venetians took advan
tage of the garrison's attention being dra-wn
off by an assault of the imperiahsts on the
land side, to effect a disembarkation. They
afready thought the to-wn thefr o-wn, when
k2

132 DARING OF A PRIEST.
they were charged by the inhabitants, who
drove them back in confrision ; and a woman
rushing forward with a blazing torch, under
a shower of stones and arrows, set fire to a
lofty wooden tower which was the most
formidable of their beleaguering works.
The daring of a priest infiicted another loss
of equal importance upon the Venetians.
Among their ships employed in the blockade,
was one distinguished for its enormous bulk,
bearing towers on its deck, and kno-wn by
the name of // Mondo. To destroy this was
the brave priest's aim. Carrying an axe in
his teeth, he swam across the harbour, and
succeeded in cutting the cable which moored
the vessel to her anchorage. II Mondo
drifted among the rest of the shipping,
and caused the loss of seven gaUeys ere it
could be secured, at the cost moreover of
its cumbrous engines, and much of its
stores. The hardness and arrogance of Christian,
the Arch-chancellor of the Empire, to whom
Frederic had delegated the chief command,
contributed to the Anconitans' obstinate

A CLASSICAL STRATAGEM. 133
resistance. His disdainful rejection of their
proposals to treat on honourable terms,
nerved them to face the deadUest extremity
ere they yielded to his mercy. Help came
at last from the Guelphs of Ferrara and
Eavenna. Much inferior in numbers to the
enemy, a classical stratagem adopted by
thefr leader MarcheseUi, deceived even the
astute Christian. It was night when they
reached -the heights of Falconara, whence
Ancona is plainly seen. To give notice of
his approach to the besieged, and at the
same time strike terror into the German
host, he ordered every soldier to bind to the
head of his lance as many lighted torches
as he could dispose around it, and extending
his ranks, deployed slowly from the moun
tain. Dismayed at the long and glittering lines
of Hght bearing down upon him, the Arch-
ch^nceUor imagined a force was marching to
the reUef of the city, of such magnitude as
his o-wn troops, afready jaded and dispirited
at thefr want of success, were in no condition
to encounter. He precipitately broke up his

134 DOMINION OF THE HOLY SEE
«amp, and retired upon Spoleto. ¦ The Ve
netians at the same time raised the block
ade, and Ancona remained a memorable
example of what may be bome and done
by a free people in the preservation of thefr
freedom. Ancona enjoyed its independence untU
1532, when it was surprised by Gonzaga^
general of Clement VII., who, under the pre
tence of defending it against the incursions
of the Turks, erected a fort, and filled the
city -with Papal troops. The magistiates,
or Anziani, were expeUed, the principal nobles
beheaded or banished, and the absolute
dominion of the Holy See was established
beyond the power of the inhabitants to re
sist the usurpation. From that time Ancona
remained in subjection to the Church untU
the wars of the French Directory, when the
¦Ebman States were occupied by Napoleon ;
and subsequently, incorporated by him with
the rest of Central and Northern Italy into
the Begno d' Italia, under the -viceroyalty of
Eugene Beauhamais, enjoyed a brief season
of unaccustomed prosperity.

ESTABLISHED IN ANCONA. L3'5
The pacification of Europe placed Italy
on its former footing. The award of the
Congress of Vienna restored the successor
.of St. Peter to the possessions of which he
had been stripped by the French Eevolution.
By conquest, cession, or inheritance, these
possessions had increased from the original
scanty and barren territory, bestowed by
Pepin and Charlemagne, to a State contain
ing three mUHons of inhabitants, and ex
tending from the shores of the Adriatic to
those of the Mediterranean.
In 1815 the pontifical dominions were
divided into twenty provinces, sis styled
Legations, governed by cardinals ; thirteen
Delegations, under prelates; and the Comarca
of Eome. I shaU merely name those on the
Mediterranean : — ^the legation of VeUetri,
.and the delegations of Perugia, Spoleto,
Eieti, Viterbo, Orvieto, Civita Vecchia, Fro
sinone and Benevento. Itis on the provinces
lying on the^other side of the Apennines
that at the present moment general interest
is concentrated. The most important of
these are the four legations of Bologna,

136 TERRITORIES AND TOWNS
Ferrara, Forli, and Eavenna, lying between
the Po and La Cattohca,* and usuaUy known
as the Eomagne ; — ^the legation of Urbino
and Pesaro ; and the delegation of Ancona.
The delegations of Macerata, Camerino,
Fermo and Ascoli, are of less extent and
less political importance. The coUective
designation of Le Marche is applied to the
entire tract between La Cattolica and the
Neapolitan frontier.
Most of these territories and towns do
not belong to the Holy See by -the ancient
tenure commonly supposed. We have seen
how the city of Ancona became annexed in
1532. Nearly thirty years before Bologna
had been conquered from its Signori, the
Bentivogli, by the soldier-pontiff, JuHus TL,
who, however, aUowed it to continue, except
in name, almost independent of his autho
rity. The same pope also extended his
victories over Eavenna, which he obtained
from the Venetians; and cornpeUed Csesar
* La Cattolica, the boundary between the Eomagne
and the province of Pesaro, is a small village, about
ten miles to the south of Eimini.

OF THE HOLY SEE. 137
Borgia to yield up to the Holy See, ForH,
Cesena, Eimini, and other smaUer towns of
the Eomagne that he had -wrested from their
petty princes, and of which the sovereignty
had been conferred on him by Alexander
VI. Ferrara was attached to the Church
in 1598 by Clement VTII., after the extinc
tion of the direct line of the house of Este
in the person of Duke Alfonso II. , on the
plea that Csesar D'Este, the representative
of the famUy by a coUateral branch, was
disquahfied by iUegitimacy. The pro-vinces
of Urbino and Pesaro were ceded in 1626
by their last duke, Francesco Maria della
Eovere, to Pope Urban VIIL, along with
SenigalHa, an appanage of the same family.
The towns which give their names to the
four delegations last enumerated, besides
Osimo, Eecanati, Tolentino, &c., were ac
qufred at different times, under similar cir
cumstances. Camerino was given up by
treaty ; others which had been taken under
the special protection of the German empe
rors, who in the Middle Ages claimed a sort
of suzerainship over Italy, reverted to the

138 SERVICES OF CjESAR BORGIA.
popes on the decline of Ghibehne infiuence ;
the rest were governed by thefr o-wn Signori
tiU subjugated by Csesar Borgia, who, whUe
shaping out his o-wn ambitious ends, did
Eome good ser-vice by bringing these ele
ments of feud and bloodshed into the recog
nition of one supreme authority.

INJUDICIOUS POLICY. 139

CHAPTEE X.
Injudicious policy of the Govemment at the Eestora
tion — Non-fulfilment of the Motti proprio of Pius
VII. — Disappointment of the pontifical subjects —
Inability of cardinals Consalvi and Guerrieri to
contend against the narrow views of their col
leagues — Eeasons of Austria's animosity against
the former — Guerrieri's projected reforms bring
about his fall — The constitutional movement of
1820-21 — Its effect in the Papal States — Abuse of
Consalvi's instructions — Extreme political rigour
under Leo XII. — Distracted condition of the
country — The Sanfedisti rising of 1831 — First
Austrian armed intervention in Eomagna — Con
ferences at Eome — Mr. Seymour's protest — Fresh
disturbances in the Legations— the Austrians
again occupy Bologna — The French land at
Ancona — The reign of Gregory XVI.
The Italian princes summoned back from
exUe or capti-vity, by the do-wnfaU of Napo
leon, to the exercise of sovereignty, had, aU
-of them, learnt Httle from adversity. Upon

140 THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT.
none, however, had its lessons been so com
pletely thro-wn away, as the Pope, — or, to
speak more correctly, the Papacy.
Prom the first resumption of its functions,
the aim of the Eoman Government seems to
have been to blot out aU traces of the en
lightened and vigorous administration of the
French; not by continuing whatever they
had introduced of good, or impro-ving on
whatever they had left imperfect, but by
forcibly re-vi-ving the usages of an almost
obsolete generation. It was seriously deemed
possible, by the most puerile restrictions, the
most inquisitorial surveiUance, to compel
men to recede a quarter of a century, and
return submissively to the stagnation which
characterized Italy before the Eevolution —
a period when literature, art, morals, were
aU at their lowest ebb, and the test of a
good citizen was to be regular at his bar
ber's, spotless in his ruffles, and assiduous
as a cicisbee.
At the restoration of Pius VIL, promises
had been held out of a thorough revision of
the Legislature ; but before long the publica-

NON-FULFILMENT OF PROMISES. 141
tion of a civil and criminal code, based upon
by-gone institutions and totaUy opposed to
the requirements of the age, coupled with
the augmenting infiuence of the clergy,
opened the way for a weary succession of
evils. It soon became apparent that neither
the moderation of the pontiff, nor the good
intentions and activity of one or two
amongst the cardinals, could counterbalance
the hostihty of the vast majority of the
Sacred CoUege to aught connected -with re
form. Victims of one revolution, they fan-
' cied any innovation on time-haUowed obser
vances would infalHbly precipitate them into
a second. Consalvi and Guerrieri, the one Prime
Minister, the other Cardinal-Treasurer, stood
alone in their endeavours to remedy the
most crying abuses. Unsupported as they
were, for a few years at least they kept up
a semblance of decency and justice. With
thefr disgrace every vestige of common
sense departed from the councils of the
Vatican. Italians always date the com
mencement of thefr worst times from the

142 AUSTRIAN INTRIGUES.
triumph of the Austrian intrigues which
brought about Cardinal Consal-vi's do-wnfaU.
Mettemich had never forgiven his ener
getic protest at the Congress of Vienna
against the occupation of the citadels of
Ferrara and Comacchio in the papal terri
tory. Though the protest remains a dead
letter, and both received Austrian garrisons,
the independence of spfrit, the impatience
of foreign control, which he had revealed,
were Httle in accordance with imperial
policy ; and conjoined to his successful op
position to designs upon Ancona in 1821,
stamped him as too national for Austria
to tolerate in the Church Cabinet. Imme
diately upon the decease of his firm friend
Pius VIL, Consalvi was displaced ; and
Cardinal Albani, *of avowedly absolutist
principles, succeeded him in the dfrection
of affairs.
Guerrieri was the victim of his devotion
to pohtical economy, and his projected
financial reforms. Amongst these was a
thorough revision of the land-tax, to effect
which he sent for experienced engineers

CONSTITUTIONAL MOVEMENTS. 143
from abroad. But Albani would not suffer
him to carry out this much-needed under
taking. When interrogated as to the motive
of this hostUity, he is said to have replied :
" My large estates in the Marche are not
probably assessed at more than a third of
thefr value. I do not choose to treble the
tax at my expense."
The years 1820-21 were equaUy memo
rable and disastrous for the whole of Italy.
Eevolutions broke out in Naples and Pied
mont, of which the object was to obtain a
Constitution. But neither Ferdinand of
Bourbon, nor Charles FeHx of Savoy, were
reformers. Both monarchs had recourse to
arms ; the one solicited, the other accepted,
the assistance of Austria, who, dreading
nothing so much as the establishment of
representative institutions in Italy, eagerly
seized on this opportunity for intervention.
Naples was guarded for six years by the
Imperial troops; — the Piedmontese sus
tained what they stUl remember as the'
indignity of a six months' occupation of the
citadel of Alessandria.

144 EFFECT ON THE PAPAL STATES.
Though the Eoman States had taken no
part in these disturbances, it was apparent
that a dangerous amount of sympathy for
thefr purpose existed in the population.
The absolutist party urged stringent mea
sures of precaution; and Austria was de
sirous of throwing a garrison into Ancona.
By diplomatic address Consalvi eluded com
pliance with this proffer ; but to clear him
self from the imputation of inabihty or
disinclination to make head against the
liberals, took a step which entailed conse
quences he was the first to deplore. He
wrote to the four legates of the Eomagne,
authorizing them to send temporarily out of
the country a certain number of indi-viduals
suspected to be members of the Carbonari,
Freemasons, and other secret revolutionary
societies. The cardinal-legates used this
faculty with indiscriminating rigour; and
drew upon themselves the prime minister's
grave rebuke. Shocked at finding the arrests
considerably exceeded one hundred, Con
salvi declared that the pope would pass for
the most relentless of persecutors, depre^

POLITICAL RIGOUR. 145
cated the abuse offeree andof justice which
had been employed, and gave orders to
desist from any further proceedings.*
But this act had been as the letting in of
waters. The proscriptions which Consalvi
lamented as being so large, were insigni
ficant to those that desolated the Eomagne
two years later under the blind intolerance
of Leo XIL, and Albani, when he himself
had been thrust from offlce. Five hundred
and eight persons were accused of high
treason by the tribunals presided over by
the fanatical Cardinal Eivarola. Of these
offenders, a hundred and twenty-one, belong
ing to the upper classes of society, were.
exiled into Tuscany. But ere long the
Government became apprehensive that they
would conspire afresh if left at large. They
were, therefore, summoned back to their
own residences. With a fatal rehance on
the good intentions of their sovereign, into
* See the State Papers and Documents in the
Marquis Gualterio's Bivolgimenti Italiani, to which
work, as full of research and reliable information, I
can conscientiously refer the reader.
VOL. II. L

146 STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
which no Eoman subject wiU ever again be
be betrayed, they obeyed the command.
Scarcely had they entered the country when
they were seized, imprisoned, and, after a
protracted trial, condemned. Seven were
beheaded, forty-five sent to the galleys, and
the remainder imprisoned in State fortresses.
The hatred generated by this violation of
humanity and good faith, hopelessly widened
the breach between the people and their
rulers. Political assassinations and con
spiracies grew more and more frequent, and
these in thefr tum led to fresh arrests and
fresh severities. But it is with pohtical as
in reHgious persecutions; the secret socie
ties, which had not comprised more than
two thousand members before 1824, rapidly
acquired a vast number of proselytes.
The organization of the Sanfedisti by the
Government, introduced another element of
discord, terror, and oppression. This asso
ciation, intended as a counterpoise to those
of the liberals, required of its adepts the
utmost mystery and devotion ; they were
bound together by the most solemn oath

THE SANFEDISTI RISING. 147
for the defence of the holy Eoman, Apos
tolic faith, and the temporal authority of
the Pope. No famUy tie, no impulse of
compassion, neither " the tears of women,
nor the cries of chUdren," were to stand in
the way of its fulfilment. So long as they
were faithful to the material obhgations of
this pledge, the Sanfedisti enjoyed almost
complete immunity for any amount of crime,
and thefr services were requited with a libe
rahty which attracted many to thefr ranks.
The spy and the informer phed thriving
trades, and no class of society was secure
from thefr baneful presence.
In 1831 the smouldering ember-s again
kindled into fiame. The revolutions of
France and Belgium re-vived the desire of
the Itahans for emancipation. Eisings
took place in Piedmont, Modena, Parma,,
the Eomagne, and Marche. But this time
the insurgents were less moderate in thefr
aims. The tyranny of the last ten years
had bome its accustomed fruit, and a large
leaven of repubUcanism was now mingled
with what had been the constitutional party
l2

148 AUSTRIAN INTERVENTION.
of '31. In the papal provinces, however,
the malcontents demanded little beyond the
accomplishment of the reforms promised by
Pius VII. But Gregory XVL, the newly-
elected Pope, at once tumed to Austria,
and three large bodies of imperial troops
speedily restored these importunate subjects
to his authority.
Subdued, but not con-vinced, the Eomag-
nuoH addressed such indignant remon
strances to France, whose support they had
been led to anticipate before the commence
ment of the struggle, as aroused that Power
to seek some mitigation of their sufferings.
A Conference was proposed to be held in
Eome, at which the representatives of
France, England, Eussia, Austria, and
Prussia were to deliberate on the means
of bringing about an amicable settlement
of the differences between the Pope and his
people. They were not long in discerning the
main defects of the Eoman administration,
and in their memorandum of 10th May,
1831, pointed out the appropriate remedies.

CONFERENCES AT ROME, 149
These embraced the secularization of many
of the chief offices under Government, and
in the courts of law, hitherto an ecclesias
tical monopoly; the complete revision of
the civU and criminal code ; the nomination
of municipal councUs by their respective
communes, instead of by the State; the
selection from these of a dehberative body
for each pro-vince, to protect local interests ;
lastly, these pro-vincial assembhes to fur
nish the members of a Consulta, which was
to have its seat at Eome, regulate the
pubhc debt, and have a voice in the general
management of affairs.
These suggestions, it is scarcely neces
sary to say, were not carried out. It is
universaUy beheved that, though ostensibly
favouring thefr adoption, Austria, and
Eussia also, secretly backed the Papal
Court in evading aU compliance. Gregory
XVL, a native of BeUuno, was an Austrian
subject by birth, and showed himself
throughout his career a steady partisan of
the House of Hapsburg. He began his
reign -with the promise that a new era was

150' MR. Seymour's protest.
about to open;* but how littie was done
towards its realization may be gathered from
the protest of Mr. Seymour, the EngHsh
minister, on -withdrawing from the con
ferences. " More than fourteen months," he says,
" have elapsed since the memorandum was-
given in, and not one of the recommenda
tions it contains has- been fully adopted by
the Papal Govemment. For even the edicts
which have either been prepared or pub
Hshed, and which profess to carry some of
those recommendations into effect, differ
essentiaUy from the measures recommended
in the memorandum. The consequence of
this state of things has been that which
it was natural to expect. The Papal Go
vernment having taken no effectual steps to
remedy the defects which had created the
discontent, that discontent has been in
creased by the disappointment of hopes
which the negotiations at Eome were cal
culated to excite : and thus, after the Five
* Notification of Cardinal Bernetti, Secretary of
State, April 2, 1831.

MR. Seymour's protest. 151
Powers have for more than a year been
occupied in endeavoiu'ing to restore tran-
quUHty to the Eoman State, the prospect of
voluntary obedience by the population to
the authority of the Sovereign, seems not
to be nearer than it was when the nego
tiations first commenced.
" The Court of Eome appears to rely
upon the temporary presence of foreign
troops, and upon the expected service of an
auxihary Swiss force, for the maintenance
of order in its territories. But foreign oc
cupation cannot be indefinitely prolonged ;
and it is not likely that any Swiss force of
such an amount as could be maintained
by the financial means of the Eoman Go
vernment could be capable of suppressing'
the discontent of a whole population; and
even if tranquillity coxUd be restored by such
means, it could not be considered to be per
manently re-estabUshed, nor would such a
condition of things be the kind of pacifi
cation the British Government intended
to be a party in endeavouring to bring
about." ....

152 FRESH DISTURBANCES.
The concluding sentence is prophetic : —
" The British Government foresees that if
the present system is persevered in, fresh
disturbances must be expected to take place
in the Papal States, of a character progres
sively more and more serious, and that out
of those disturbances may spring compli
cations dangerous to the peace of Europe."*
The EngHsh minister needed but to have
appealed to the events which had transpired
during his stay in Eome to give weight to
his assertions. The Austrian troops had
scarcely been withdrawn when the Eo
magne began to demand the unreserved
accomplishment of the promised reforms.
Meetings were held in their principal towns,
the representatives of the Five Powers were
memorialized, and deputations sent to the
Pope. But in vain. After a few months
of growing irritation and suspicion, the
tri-coloured flag was raised in several towns
of the four Legations and the Marches.
Upon this, the pontifical troops, who had
* Note to Count de St. Aulaire, French Ambas
sador at Eome, Sept. 7, 1832.

THE FRENCH IN ANCONA. 153
been collecting in the \'icinity for some
time previous, attacked ForH and Cesena,
while Austria a second time poured an
army across the Po for the reduction of the
country. Ancona soon afterwards (February, 1832)
received a French garrison. Jealous of the
position assumed by Austria in Italy, this
measure was resolved upon by France to
counterbalance that ascendancy. This joint
mUitary occupation of the two nations
lasted untU the end of 1838. The tears
shed by the Anconitans on the departure
of the French were significant of their
forebodings for the future. Evil indeed
must be the condition of a people who
prefer foreign occupation to thefr own
sovereign's rule.
The period that foUowed, until the death
of Gregory XVL, was, indeed, dark. The
clergy, ignorant, grasping, and corrupt,
monopoHzed ahnost every channel to emo
lument or advancement. Ministers, judges,
heads of coUeges, directors of hospitals,
governors of to-wns — aU were prelates; a

154 REIGN OF GREGORY XVI.
few, indeed, had not received the tonsure,
and were free to marry, on gi-ving up thefr
appointments ; but the cases in which the
advantages accruing from ceHbacy and the
clerical habit were renounced, are of rare
occurrence.* The introduction of railways,
evening schools for the working classes, and
scientific congresses, were all systematicaUy
opposed. Euinous loans were contracted,
and unjust monopoHes conceded, to defray
the expenses of the Swiss mercenaries, and
the army of spies and police agents neces
sary to keep the population in check. Not
withstanding these precautions, and the
utter hopelessness of any effort so long as
Austria was on the frontier, ready to pour
in her troops when needed, conspiracies
were frequently breaking out, which gave a
colour to the increasing blind, fanatical
severity of the Government, only bent on
retaining its grasp for the moment, without
* I can only remember one, that of Monsignor
de Medici Spada, who relinquished the purple stock
ings for the hand of a beautiful Pole ; and yet my
acquaintance with Italian ecclesiastics is very exten
sive.

SEVERE MEASURES. 155
a thought on the heritage of hatred and
ruin stored up for its successors. In 1843,
partial insurrectionary movements in the
Eomagne were punished as in the days of
Cardinal Eivarola. MUitary commissions
were instituted, and in Bologna seven
^opolami, leaders of the populace, who for
the first time were found joined with the
more inteUectual classes in opposition to
the Gt)vernment, were executed, and many
more imprisoned. The chief conspirators
having escaped, vengeance was thus wreaked
on thefr subordinates. At Eavenna, the
five chiefs of the movement, amongst whom
was Farini, since so celebrated, also suc
ceeded in eluding arrest ;- but the commis
sion was relentless in its inquisition after
those on whom a shadow of suspicion could
be fastened. The most barbarous mea
sures were pursued to extort confession ;
solitary confinement, intimidation, false in
teUigence, even to the terror of impending
death. Thirty-six condemnations to the
gaUeys crowned this investigation. Again
in 1846, at Eimini, fresh disturbances broke

156 DISTURBANCES AT RIMINI.
out, of which the aim was no republican
Utopia, but simply to demand moderate
reforms. The noble manifesto addressed
by the insurgents to the peoples of Europe,
seconded by a vigorous exposition of their
wrongs from the pen of Massimo d'Azeglio,
struck powerfuUy, it is said, upon Cardinal
Mastai, shortly afterwards named Pope.
But the ad-visers of Gregory XVI. dealt
with this movement as with those that had
preceded it. Arrests were made all over
the country, and gloom and apprehension
fiUed every heart.
The highways swarmed with robbers and
murderers, whUe the prisons were tenanted
by honest men, arrested as political deUn-
quents, often ignorant of the offences laid
to their charge, and detained for years with
out a trial. Commerce languished ; bribery
and fraud were rife in every department.
Eeligion had never been in such low esti
mation, yet conformity to its most solemn
practices was enforced under severe penal
ties. Language fails me to describe the
misery, the idleness, the decay, which were

ROME NO CRITERION. 157
the characteristics, at that time, both of the
Eomagne and the Marche ; and which, un
happily, continue to be applicable to the
latter. This picture -wiU, I know, be considered
exaggerated by those who have not inha
bited these pro-vinces. The appearance of
Eome may be cited in contradiction to my
statements. But Eome cannot be taken as
a criterion of the Eoman States. It is a
cosmopoHte city, resorted to by strangers
from all parts of the world, animated and
enriched by their presence. Take away the
artists' studios, the shops of the dealers in
mosaic and cameos, statuettes - and sarco
phagi, — and those who purchase them, —
and grass would be growing in the streets
of Eome, as it did six months ago in the
half-depopulated cities of the Legations.

The Cavaliere Baratelli of Ferrara, who was as
sassinated in 1847, acquired an unenviable notoriety
amongst his countrymen as the head of the Sodeta
Ferdinandea, a secret society in the Eoman States, of
which the scope was to promote the ascendancy of

15,8 NOTE TO CHAPTER .X.
Austria and the spread of its principles. Tbe Mar
quis Gualterio thus sketches his biography : — " Ba
ratelli was a man on whom the Imperial Government
could securely count. His parents, belonging to
Migliarino, in the province of Ferrara, lived upon
alms ; and in his childhood he shared their misery,
going to beg his daily food from families whom he
afterwards brought to ruin. In one of these houses
an interest was excited in behalf of the little mendi
cant, which led to his removal to Ferrara, where he
was educated. In the political turmoil of 1796, lie
made himself remarkable for his ultra-revolutionary
opinions, and was named one of the Commissioners of
the Cisalpine Eepublic. He was one of a committee
charged with le-vying a tax on the opinion of the aristo
crats ; and through bribes or intimidation laid the
foundation of a large fortune. His private life was
most scandalous ; he tricked a woman of some wealth,
whom he had seduced from her husband's protection,
into making over to him the whole of her property,
and then left her to die in utter destitution. For
this transaction no lodge of Freemasons would re
ceive him as a member, neither could he obtain
employment under the 'Eegno dltalia.' In 1815
he entered into the service of Austria as a spy, and
was commissary of police, under General Nugent, at
Parma, where, amongst other misdeeds, the robbery
of several valuable works from the public and a con
ventual library was universally laid to his charge.
In 1821 he accompanied .the Austrians to Naples
with the same appointment, which he exercised with
the most flagrant defiance of justice ; Uberatiag those

NOTE TO CHAPTER X. 159
prisoners who bid sufificiently high to satisfy his
rapacity, and cruelly oppressing such as couldnot, or
would not, purchase tlieir enlargement. Under these
circumstances 25,000 dollars were very soon remitted
to Ferrara. The Neapolitan Government, having
dishonest officials enough amongst its own subjects,
complained of his practices, and demanded his re
moval ; but this Austria would not permit, without
the promise of an indemnity for Baratelli of 20,000
ducats. Not satisfied with this provision, his patrons
insisted on the Pope's nominating him Administrator
of Comacchio, with a salary of a hundred dollars a
month; a perfect sinecure, inasmuch as he simply
drew his pay, and never went to Comacchio. In 1831
he again filled an important situation as Papal Com
missary at Bologna; but here his exclusive devotion
to the Imperial Government, in his capacity of chief
of the Ferdinandea, which aimed at no less than the
gradual preparation of the Pontifical States for ab
sorption into the Austrian empire, roused the sus
picions of the authorities at Eome, and.he was desired
to quit the country. But the jpro tection of Austria
enabled him to evade this order. The Papal Govem
ment was constrained to preffent him with 30,000
dollars, as an acknowledgment of his services ; and
his exile never existed but in name. He announced
that he chose Modena for his residence, but never
quitted Ferrara, where he remained, under the safe
guard of the Austrian garrison, to serve the police of
the Vienna Cabinet.''
Continuing its favours beyond the grave, the cha
racter of Baratelli was painted in flattering colours

160 NOTE TO CHAPTER X.
by the Imperial Govemment to Lord Ponsonby, who
describes him as follows : —
Extract from a despatch from Lord Ponsonby to Lord
Palmerston. Vienna, 28th June, 1847.
" Baratelli was a landed proprietor in easy circum
stances in the Legation of Ferrara ; and during the
period of the conquests of the French in Italy, theii^
great adversary.
"When in 1813 Austria declared war against Na
poleon, the Austrian armies advanced rapidly beyond
the Alps, and Baratelli formed friendly relations with
General Count Nugent.
"Baratelli always remained faithfiil to his prin
ciples of public order. In the revolutionary move
ments in the States of the Church, he always took the
side of constituted authority, and was in consequence
even persecuted by the Carbonaro party.
" Baron Baratelli was in communication with the
Austrian authorities, &c."
See " Eivolgimenti Italiani," by the Marquis Gual
terio, vol. I., chap. X. Also " Gli Interventi dell'
Austria nello Stato Eomano," by the same author.

ACCESSION OF PIUS IX. 161

CHAPTEE XI.
Accession of Pius IX. — The amnesty —His imbounded
popularity — His reforms and concessions — Disas
ters entailed by the French Eevolution — The ency
clical of the 29 th April — Eevulsion of feeling —
The Mazzinians gain ground — ^Austrian intrigues —
Assassination of Count Eossi — The Pope's flight to
Gaeta — Efforts of the Constitutionalists to bring
about an accommodation — The republic is pro
claimed in Eome — Excesses in Ancona and Seni-
gallia — Moderation of the Bolognese — Their
courageous resistance to General Wimpffen — Siege
of Ancona — Extreme severities of the victors.
The amnesty to aU political offenders with
which, in July, 1846, Pius IX. inaugurated
his reign, spread joy and gratitude through
out the pontifical dominions. Thousands
of famUies received back thefr loved ones
from exUe or captivity, and the country
awoke from the lethargy of despair. This
act of grace, it was argued, would be fol
lowed by acts of justice ; — nor did the
Pope's career for nearly two years belie this
VOL. II. M

162 the AMNESTY.
conclusion. He coUected around him the
most enlightened men, lay as weU as eccle
siastic, of the country, and in spite of the
Ul-humour of Austria, who did not scruple
to express her disapproval of the course on
which he had entered^* proceeded steadUy
with his ameUor ations.
Men spoke Httle in those times but of
what the Pope was doing, or purposed to
do. Unlike his predecessor, who shrunk
from any discussion on pubhc affafrs, Pius
in-vited aU who had any grievances to report,
or plans of improvement to propose, to
come freely to his presence. He removed
the most frksome restraints from the Je-wish
population ; lent a faTOurable ear to projects
of raUroads and other scientific and indus
trial enterprises, as weU as to the diffusion
of instruction among the lower classes ; and
permitted the estabHshment at Eome of a
pohtical journal, the first known in Italy.
The pro-vincial councUs, ineffectuaUy recom
mended in the Memorandum of 1831, were
organized; and the Supreme Consulta se
lected from their members was convoked.

beginning' OF DISASTERS. 163
FinaUy, on the Sth of March, 1848, con
strained by the example of the other Itahan
sovereigns, who themselves had yielded to
the impetus of the French revolution of
February, he granted a Constitution.
The proclamation of the EepubHc at
Paris was a dfre misfortune for the Italians.
It precipitated events for which they were
not yet prepared, and exposed a people ^tiU
giddy -with thefr sudden emancipation from
a system of degrading oppression and re
straint, to the contagion of the most level
ling and socialistic doctrines. Their recently
acqufred privUeges of discussion and in
qufry were grossly abused, and many and
grievous errors committed, which they them
selves are now the first to acknowledge.
But it is only fafr to remember that the
Pope took the first step in sundering the
bonds which had hitherto bound the people
of Italy so ardently to him. The famous
encycHcal of the 29th AprU, in which he
pubUcly disavowed the Italian war of libe
ration against Austria, then waging on the
plains of Lombardy, — notwithstanding that,
M 2

164 REVULSION OF FEELING.
only one month before, he had given un
equivocal proofs of his sympathy for the
national cause, and had blessed the volun
teers on their departure from Eome, — for
ever destroyed his prestige in Italy. Most
disastrous in its immediate consequences to
the success of the Italian arms, the results-
to the papacy, though more remote, were
stiU.more irremediable.
The re-vulsion of feehng all over the
Peninsula was terrible ; but nowhere more
bitter or hostile than in the States of the
Church, where this declaration was received
as a formal retractation of the Hberal pohcy
which had won Pius his popularity.
The war he now branded as unjust and
HURTFUL, had been preached in his own
dominions, with his fuU knowledge and
consent, as a new crusade ; his condem
nation of it stamped him as Austria's
vassal. The acts and deeds which had been
a steady protest against the principles and
the supremacy of the Cabinet of Vienna
were at once and for ever annulled. His
conscience had taken alarm : he remembered

THE ENCYCLICAL. 165
that above his obhgations as an ItaHan king
were those of Universal Bishop, and the
conflicting principles of the temporal and
spfritual attributes of the Papacy were
brought into open antagonism.
From the encyclical may be dated the
beginning of the end. The warnings, the
threatenings, so long bravely resisted, all
appeared suddenly to take effect. As if
aroused to the con-viction that the inno
vations he had sanctioned clashed with the
independence of the Church, his mind now
bent itseU solely to repair the evil into
which he had been led by the sympathies
and weakness of the man usurping the
higher duties of the priest. The Constitu
tion especiaUy clashed with the hierarchical
polity; and hence the summer of 1848 was
passed in unseemly contentions between the
Pope and his lay-ministers, zealous on their
side to maintain in-violate the power and at
tributes of the Chambers. These dissensions
were no secret in the country, and unhajipUy
opened a door to Mazzini, the chief of the
republican party in Italy, and his adherents,

166 AUSTRIAN INTRIGUES.
who pre-viously, in the enthusiastic confi
dence inspired by Pius IX., had found no
hearing. Side by side -with these revo
lutionists were agents of the Austrian
police, and. the reactionary party, seeking.
Under the disguise of the most fanatical
democracy, to urge the population into
excesses which should speedUy justify an
Austrian intervention. "We can all re
member," -writes Massimo d'AzegUo to the
inhabitants of the Legations, cautioning
them against being this time the dupes of
simUar intrigues, " we can aU remember, in
1848-9, certain journalists and street ora
tors, who were only too successful in drag
ging the most ignorant and infiammable
of the population into extravagant lengths ;
and whom afterwards, on the return of the
Austrian army, we saw impudently walking
about arm-in-arm -with the ofl&cers, and
sneering in the face of those they had led
into error."*
* Massimo d'Azeglio's letter of September, 1859. —
What he says of the Eoman States was applicable to
the whole of Italy. Proofs have been discovered, in

REVERSES OP CHARLES AI/BERT. 167
StUl the catastrophe wotdd not have been
so immediate, but for the total defeat of the
Sardinian army in Lombardy, in the month
of August. The misfortunes of Charles
-Albert extended their infiuence to the
furthest parts of the Peninsula. The Con
stitutionalists lost heart ; the Eepubhcans
grew more overbearing. In the Eoman
States the dagger of an assassin took the
lUe of the only man who yet stood between
the Pope and the Eevolution.
all the centres of agitation during the Eevolution of
1848, of the presence of Austro-Jesuit emissaries,
foremost in every seditious movement. At Milan, a
certain Urbino, one of Mazzini's most violent par
tisans, was conspicuous as the leader of the rabble
in the disgraceful opposition to the annexation of
Lombardy to Piedmont, and in the hostile demon
strations against the king, whieh furnished plausible
arguments to those who inveighed against the fickle
ness and disunion of the Italians. He is now known
to have been all along a paid Austrian spy. In
Tuscany, about the same period, an individual of
infamous reputation, the author of a number of
libels against Charles Alber't, was cleariy convicted
of exciting revolutionary tumults, and thrown into
prison. But the Austrian ambassador interfered
promptly on his behalf (a proceeding the more ex
traordinary as the man was a Piedmontese subject),

168 MURDER OF COUNT ROSSI.
The prime minister. Count Eossi, was
murdered in open dayhght as he was enter
ing the Capitol, where the parhament held
its sittings. The upper and middle classes
were paralyzed by this calamity; and the
Eoman populace, headed by a handful of
furious demagogues, were suffered to assail
the Pope in his own palace, and forced him
to sanction the nomination of a democratic
ministry. What foUowed is weU known. Indignant
at this coercion, Pius fied from his capital,
but unhappily, instead of accepting either
of the asylums offered by France and Spain,
he was induced to claim the protection of
the King of Naples, which was tantamount
to throwing himseU into the hands of
Austria. From the moment he became the
guest of the unrelenting Ferdinand, his
pohcy bore the impress of the infiuences
surrounding him.
Great as had been the errors and ingrati-
procured his liberation, sent him out of the country,
and discharged all his debts. — Gualterio, Le Riforme,
Vol. I., p. 553, with documents, &c.

THE REPUBLIC PROCLAIMED. 169
tude of the Eomans, they did not abandon
themselves to anarchy and Hcence. Count
Terenzio Mamiani, recognized as the leader
of the constitutionaUsts, and aU the local
authorities, were strenuous in their efforts
to avert the crisis which was equaUy desired
by the two extreme parties. The Sardinian
cabinet also laboured ta save the constitu
tion, and bring back the Pope to Eome,
-without ha-ving recourse to foreign Powers.
It was not tUl the Sth of February, 1849,
nearly three months after his departure,
that the Eepublic was proclaimed — not till
after the Pontiff had rejected every overture
for an accommodation.
The scenes of bloodshed and excess
ascribed to Eome at this time are ahnost
entfrely -without foundation. Seven priests
feU victims to popular fury on the discovery
of some reactionary plot of which they were
the promoters ; but beyond this crime, there
is nothing to lay to the charge of a popu
lation to whom murder is more famUiar
than to any other in Christendom. On the
contrary, fewer vendette, assassinations from

170 EXCESSES IN ANCONA.
personal motives, and fewer robberies, took
place that winter in the Eternal City, than
in pre-vious years.
But this moderation was not followed in
Ancona, which has acquired a fatal notoriety
from the atrocities perpetrated by its " In
fernal Association" in the name of Hberty
and the people. In a previous chapter, I
have related the fear and prostiation occa
sioned by this secret tribunal. The gross
culpabUity of Mazzini, when Chief Trium-vfr
at Eome, in not immediately commanding
the arrest of the assassins, — ^the inexpHcable
supineness of Mattioh, the governor or
Breside — have left an indeHble stain on the
short-lived republic. The pusillanimity of
the Anconitans in submitting to this reign
of terror, has also not contributed to raise
them in the estimation of Europe. It was
too evident they had degenerated since the
days of Barbarossa.
The only other city in which these cjimes
were at all emulated was SenigalHa, the
birthplace of the Pope, about twenty mUes
distant from Ancona. Several members of

MODERATION OF THE BOLOGNESE. 171
the Mastai famUy were threatened, and had
to escape for their Hves ; and in a popula
tion of eleven or twelve thousand, upwards
of twenty persons, marked out for vengeance,
were either kiUed or wounded by the self-
styled patriots. Amongst the assassins, both
here and in Ancona, were men zealous as San
fedisti under Gregory. A band of the vilest
rabble were about to commence simUar pro
ceedings at Imola, a town between Bologna
and Eavenna, when they were summarily
dealt with by Count Laderchi, the Preside.
He did at once what Mattioh only did after
months ; or rather what it required a Com
missioner from Eome to compel him to do
at aU. He coUected the national guard by
night, surrounded the haunts of the assas
sins, and arrested every one on whom a
suspicion rested. "
Bologna throughout these agitated times
held a firm yet temperate attitude. The
long continuance of thefr free institutions- —
for thefr distinct autonomy was respected
tiU the end of the eighteenth century — had
given this people a resoluteness of purpose.

172 THEIR COURAGEOUS RESISTANCE
and inteUectual development, not shared by
their brethren in the more southern pro
vinces, whom they had long ago nick-named
the " Somari of the Marche." * The city,
which contained 75,000 inhabitants, ranked
next in importance to Eome, and had long
been celebrated for its university, the fame
of which, in the Middle Ages, attracted
students from all parts of Europe ;t and its
schools of painting and music. But since
the restoration it had participated in the
general decline. Political restrictions and
rehgious bigotry scared away the votaries
of science and art.
In August, 1848, before any disturbances
had taken place in Eome, an unjustifiable
attempt of the Austrian general, Welden, to
possess himself of Bologna, was repulsed
with great bravery by the inhabitants, and
the invading force compelled to recross the
* Asses of the Marches.
f In 126S, the number of students congregated in
Bologna amounted to 10,000. It was the first
medical school where dissection of the human body
was practised ; and claims the discovery of Gal
vanism.

TO GENERAL WIMPFFEN. 173
Po. This outrage on the rights of nations
having been protested against by the Pope's
ministers, Austria was obliged to wait for
her revenge until officiaUy summoned to
invade the Legations. The long-desfred
moment, brought about by the madness of
the Eepubhcans, the weakness of the Consti
tutionalists, and the far-spreading intrigues
ofthe Austro- Jesuits, came at last. In the
spring of 1849, the Pontiff formaUy invoked
the armed intervention of the CathoHc
Powers. France undertook to reinstate him
in Eome; Austria was to deal -with Eomagna
and the Marche.
Even the most sanguine might now be
permitted to despair. Charles Albert, the
champion of Italy, who had ventured upon
'a second appeal to arms, had just sustained
a second overthrow. The bloody field of
Novara seemed destined to be the grave of
national liberty. General Wimpffen, at the
head of 15,000 men, in aU the flush and ex
ultation of victory, advanced against Bo
logna. The town had no fortiflcations, and
the inhabitants were -without leaders, regular

174 SIEGE OF ANCONA.
troops, or artillery; Nevertheless, they re
fiised to open their gates to the Austrians,
and resisted gaUantly for ten days. No
farther opposition was encountered by the
enemy tiU they reached Ancona.
Here a few undiscipHned troops and
volunteers had been got together, and the
citadel put into a posture of defence. A short
time before this, the assassins had aU been
placed in confinement ; and the inhabitants,
reheved from the palsying terror with which
they had been oppressed, gave many re
deeming proofs of courage and endurance
during the four weeks of the siege. Un-
-wUHng to restore only a heap of ruins to the
Pope, the Austrians were sparing of their
fire, and contented themselves with harassing
the citadel, whUe thefr ships of war inter
cepted aU suppHes or reinforcements from
entering the port. At intervals, however,
they would try the effect of more -vigorous
measures; and four or five bombardments
of several hours, one of a whole night's
duration, put the constancy of the Anconi
tans to the test. Numbers of houses were

FEMALE COURAGE. 175
struck, much damage to property inflicted,
many Hves lost, but none shrank from
danger. Even ladies of the nobUity went
forth amidst faUing shot and sheUs to con
tinue thefr ministrations to the wounded in
the hospitals.
The defence of Ancona was rather a pro
test of the citizens against the forcible resto
ration ofthe Pontifical Government, than the
death-struggle of the repubhc. Gtambeccari,
the commander of the garrison, and the
Preside, Mattioh, passed thefr time in* a
bomb-proof vault of the Ci-vic Palace, playing
cards, satisfied -with the knowledge that when
the to-wn thought fit to capitulate, an Eng- '
Hsh man-of-war was waiting in the roads to
carry them in safety to Corfu.*
The reconquered pro-vinces were brought
* So calmly did they anticipate this denouement,
that they provided themselves with an appropriate
token of gratitude to their future deliverer. The ring
•with the inscription, " From the exiles of Ancona,"
which they presented to the excellent and gallant
Captain Nicholas Vansittart, of H.M.S. Frolic, on
their taking leave of him at Corfu, had been made
beforehand by a jeweUer in Ancona.

176 SEVERITIES OF THE VICTORS.
to a heavy reckoning. I have afready
quoted some instances of the severity -with
which martial law was enforced in An
cona. In Bologna, the executions for tri
fiing infractions of this Draconian code,
amounted to fifteen. The retention of a
rusty fowHng-piece, a broken bayonet, or
even the simple possession of a few ounces
of powder and shot, was there punished
with death. As in Ancona, so also in the
Eomagne, the disarmament was so rigidly
enforced, that landed proprietors were not
allowed to retain the firearms necessary for
the defence of their country-houses against
brigands. The arms thus sequestrated in
the Marche were laid up in the fortress of
Ancona, with a promise of restitution. But
some years a-fterwards, the greater part were
broken up and sold as old fron; the Austrian
officers, meantime, having made use of the
best in their shooting excursions. The com
munes were saddled with the large expenses
always incidental upon a miHtary occupation
like the present ; in addition to wliich, they
were required to provide new barracks.

CHASTISEMENT OF REBELLION. 177
riding-schools, and simUar estabUshments, for
thefr unwelcome guests at Bologna, and to
defray the cost of additional fortifications at
Ancona. These restraints and grievances, as well
as the domineering insolence of the Austrian
authorities, >yere looked upon by the Papal
Court as a part only of the chastisement of
its rebeUious chUdren. The remainder it
took upon itseU to inflict.

VOL. II.

178 SUBJUGATION OP ROME.

CHAPTEE XII.
Eome subjugated by the French — Leniency of Ge
neral Oudinot — Eigour of the Pope's Commis
sioners — Investigation into the opinions of Govem
ment employes — Disfavour of the constitutionalists
— The Pope's edict and second amnesty — He
returns to his capital, April, 1850 — Bitter disap
pointment of the Eomans — Count Cavour's appeal
to the Congress of Paris on their behalf — The
Papal progress in 1857 — Public feeling at the
opening of 1859 — Excitement in the Pontifical
States at the outbreak of the war — The Austrians
evacuate Bologna — Establishment of a Provisional
Government — The revolt spreads through the
Legations — Ancona loses the favourable moment
— Declares itself too late — Approach of the Swiss
troops from Perugia and Pesaro — Capitulates to
General Allegrini — Arbitrary proceedings of Gene
ral Kalbermatten — The Gonfaloniere — His menda
cious addresses to the Pope — Misery of Ancona —
Contrast presented by the Legations — Conclusion.
Contemporarily with the re- establishment
of the pontifical authority by the Austrians
in the Legations and Marche, the French,

LENIENCY OF OUDINOT. 179
under General Oudinot, fulfilled their part
of the compact, and brought the Eternal
City into subjection. They were not pre
pared for the obstinate and spirited resist
ance they encountered. False reports of
the anarchy prevailing in Eome had led
Oudinot to anticipate that he would be
haUed by the vast majority of the inhabi
tants as their dehverer from the Hcence of
a demagogical faction; and no disappoint
ment was ever more gaUing than that of the
-victor when he found himself regarded with
aversion as the instrument of replacing a
detested yoke upon an indignant popula
tion. It is but his due to state that he
descended to no reprisals for the undis
guised iU--wUl and contempt* with which
he was received. Although the hostUity of
the Eomans left him no alternative but to
impose martial law, the greatest forbear
ance was shown in enforcing it ; whUe all
who had cause to dread the retum of the
* The people nicknamed him Cardinal Oudinot,
a pleasantry which stung him to the quick. N 2

180 INQUISITORIAL SCRUTINY.
Papal ftmctionaries were at fuU liberty to
depart. It was not untU a commission, composed
of three cardinals,- arrived from Gaeta -with
full powers to assume the government, that
the reaction may be said to have com
menced. Whoever had not shown himseU
a partisan of absolute government was at
once treated as an enemy. To their utter
astonishment the constitutionalists were
classed in the same category as the demo
crats, and soon had cause to deplore not
having foUowed the example of all the per
sons connected with the short-lived Eepub
Hc, who had timely qui-tted the country. A
censorship or councU was instituted to in
vestigate the opinions of government officials
of every class; but as every appointment
made subsequently to the Pope's flight was
canceUed as a preUminary, this inquiry
limited itseU to such persons as were in
office before the commencement of disturb
ances. The result of this inquisitorial
scrutiny was the loss of their situations to

THE CONSTITUTION WITHDRAWN. 181
seven hundred moderati, and the sudden beg
gary of an almost equal number of famUies.
As if this measure had not sufficiently
eliminated the dangerous liberal element,
persons who had been absent from pubhc
view ever since the death of Gregory XVL,
were now in-vited forth from their hiding-
places or from prison. Spies and perjurers in
old times, they returned -with alacrity to thefr
former caUing; confiscation, imprisonment,
exUe, the gaUeys, feU to the lot of those
who had crossed their path. The universi
ties were closed; the most stringent laws
enacted on the Press ; the Holy Office re
instated in full vigour.
The Constitution was withdrawn. Pius
IX. was the first amongst the princes of
Europe to set the example of revoking the
franchises with so much solemnity accorded.
Not that the statute was ever publicly an
nuUed: it was through his famous m(j)tu
proprio of the 12th September, 1849, which
laid down a totaUy opposite system as the
basis of his resumption of the government,
that the Eomans understood its doom was

182 THE pope's AMNESTY.
sealed. The institutions he now promised
were to be such " as should bring no danger
to our liberty, lohich we are obliged to main
tain intact before tJie universal world!' In
those words lies ' the clue to the Papal
pohcy. An amnesty was appended to this decree,
but as it excluded from its pro-visions who
ever had taken any share in pubhc affafrs
since the assassination of Count Eossi,
numbers of the most temperate pohticians
in the State, who had given thefr support
to Mamiani during his efforts at an accom
modation -with the Pope, fared no better
than the Mazzinians who had set aU con
stituted authority at defiance. All were
equaUy proscribed. The Eomans, jesting,
as is thefr wont, whether in pleasure or in
bitterness, compared it to a register of con
demnation rather than an instrument of
pardon. In AprU, 1850, Pius re-entered his domi
nions. The Eomans had looked anxiously
for this, and trusting in the benevolence of
his character, imagined that he wovdd at

RETURN TO HIS CAPITAL. 183
least put a stop to the cruelty and injustice
exercised in his name. But the Pope who
came back from Gaeta had nothing of the
Pio Nono of four years back. As if in ex
piation of his previous errors, and to screen
the Church from being again jeopardized
by his weakness, he withdrew all attention
from secular affairs, and henceforth lived
only for the glory of religion. So little
did he inform himseU of the state of the
country, that the few who could obtain his
ear unobserved, declare that they found
liim perfectly ignorant of passing occur
rences. Nothing was suffered to reach him
save through the medium of his detested
minister. Cardinal AntoneUi,^his subjects'
murmurings and prayers had no other expo
sitor ; while the same channel conveyed to
them nought save harshness, intolerance,
and -vindictiveness, as tokens of their sove
reign's existence.
When the Eomans once thoroughly real
ized this change, with the extinction of
thefr hopes departed every -vestige of
affection. Never was there a prince who

184 COUNT cavour's appeal.
fell from such a height of love, reverence,
and admfration, to be regarded -with such
utter indifference.
In 1856, the e-vils which affected the
Eoman States were brought before Europe
by Count Cavour, the Sardinian plenipo
tentiary at the Congress of Paris. He
sketched their history since the restoration
in 1815, and demonstrated the pressure
Austria had always exercised upon the
Papal government, to whom a loophole was
thus given for throwing on its powerful ally
the odium of its past and actual regime. As
the first condition of the reforms the Pope
should be invited to adopt, he insisted
on the withdrawal of the two foreign armies
in occupation of the country.
It being well understood that France
only continued to garrison Eome as a check
npon Austria, it was without any fear of
opposition from the former that the ItaHan
statesman dwelt on the crying necessity of
this measure, and appealed to the deplorable
situation of the Legations and Marche,
where a state of siege and martial law had

PROTEST OF THE CLERICAL PARTY. 185
been subsisting for seven years, to evidence
whether the system now in force was salu
tary in its results; while he wound up
his representations by urging the constant
danger which threatened the tranquilhty of
neighbouring States by the existence of such
a focus of intrigue and discontent.
This movement on the part of the Sar
dinian Government was loudly protested
against by the clerical party as pandering
to the revolutionists; but it saved Italy
from becoming once more the prey of so-
ciaUsts and red republicans. Convinced that
their cause was in able hands, the people
were induced to wait patiently a little
longer, to desist from the plottings and
insurrections which had only been fruitful
in bloodshed and desolation, and give their
infatuated rulers another and final chance
of averting the day of reckoning which was
rapidly approaching.
Even then, at the eleventh hour, a little
judgment, a Httle generosity, might have
propped the tottering edifice. In 1867, the
announcement that the Pope was about to

186 THE PAPAL PROGRESS.
undertake a journey through his dominions
awoke a hope of brighter days. The state
of siege and martial law in Bologna and
Ancona were removed; the beggars who
peopled aU the towns through which he
passed were locked up ; a good np,ny buUd
ings were whitewashed ; and the municipal
bodies (government nominees) presented
congratulatory addresses. Other addresses,
too, were prepared, couched in less flowery
language, signed by many of the pro-vincial
nobUity and landowners, in which an
earnest appeal was made to their sove
reign's justice and humanity. But these
were not permitted to reach his hands.
Cold and languid was the pontifical pro
gress. Pius -visited shrines and churches,
but he unbarred no prisons, and left no
thankful hearts behind him.
The memorable words of Victor Emma
nuel on opening the Chambers at Turin in
January, 1859, — "We are not insensible to
the cry of anguish which reaches us from
every part of Italy," — were not spoken too
soon. Without a pubhc assurance of sympa-

STATE OF PUBLIC FEELING. 187
thy and protection to those suffering popula
tions who, for three years, under increasing
grievances, had waited for the result of Sar
dinia's interposition in their behalf, they
could not any longer have been restrained
from the -wUdest excesses of vengeance and
despair. Without the firm trust in the
Be galantuomo generated by his faithful
observance of the Constitution in Piedmont,
under difficiUties of no ordinary kind, Maz
zini would never have lost his influence in
the Peninsula.
In the Eoman States, where republicanism
had been as it were enthroned, this altered
tone of public feeling was the more remark
able. The priests who raU at the constitu
tional king as the instigator of the revolu
tion in the Legations, should rather thank
the magic influence of his name, and the
exhortations of the noble and enlightened
men he has raUied around him, for restrain
ing the fiery and -vindictive Eomagnuoli
from abusing thefr hour of triumph. Not
a Codino in the country but anticipated,
whenever the Austrian troops should be

188 EXCITEMENT IN ROME.
¦withdrawn, a repetition of the horrors of
the first French revolution.
As the excitement which pervaded aU
North Italy last -winter extended itseU to
the Papal States, the Austrians redoubled
in vigilance and severity. While the French
general in command at Eome -winked at the
enthusiasm of the inhabitants, and offered
no opposition to the departure of the volun
teers who flocked to Victor Emmanuel's
standard, the Pope's alhes on the other
side of the Apennines, strengthened their
garrisons, re-established martial law, inter
cepted the volunteers as they stole towards
the frontiers, and threw up fresh fortifica
tions round the citadel at Ancona.
The Government, dependent for its very
existence upon two Powers on the verge of
open colHsion, was torn by anxiety. Its
leanings were unequivocaUy Austrian ; but
these, to a certain extent, fear of the French
compeUed it to dissemble. When the war
at length broke out at the end of April, and
the invasion of Piedmont by the Austrians
was responded to by the landing of a French

THE BATTLE OF MAGENTA. 189
army at Genoa to support Victor Emmanuel,
the fever of expectation in both parties, hbe
ral and absolutist, in the pontifical dominions,
reached a maddening pitch.
The suspense was not of long duration.
The battle of Magenta brought things to a
crisis. On the 8th of June, Bologna first
learned the rumours of the -victory. The
ferment was indescribable, and the people,
intoxicated with joy, were with difficulty
restrained from rising on the Austrians.
Written handbUls were actively circulated,
admonishing them to prudence : " Be ready,
but calm and discipUned," was the burthen
of these injunctions. Two days of torturing
suspense followed; an embargo had been
laid on aU newspapers or bulletins from the
seat of war, and the mUitary and pontifical
authorities spread a contradiction of the
previous inteUigence.
But the truth could not for ever .be con
cealed, and when Gyulais defeat was con
firmed, the excitement rose almost beyond
the control of the self-constituted chiefs of
the national party, — men conspicuous in

190 AUSTRIANS EVACUATE BOLOGNA.
Bologna for intellect, birth, and local in
fluence, — to whose sagacity, firmness, and
moderation at that momentous period their
countrymen owe an incalculable debt of
gratitude. In spite of thefr endeavours to
avoid any grounds of provocation, how
ever, a confiict between the populace and
mihtary seemed imminent, when General
Habermann telegraphed to head-quarters
for instructions, and was ordered to evacu
ate the city.
In the dead of the night the dislodgment
was effected ; nor was it untU the last Aus
trian soldier had defiled through the gates,
that the restraint so -wisely imposed, per
mitted any pubhc display of exultation. In
a moment, the houses were aU Uluminated,
and the people poured into the streets, scarce
venturing to credit thefr wondrous dehver-
ance. The Marquis PepoH, Count Malvezzi,
Count . Tanari, Professor Montanari, and
other infiuential Bolognese, meantime pro
ceeded to the palace of the Cardinal Legate,
and requested an audience. After a long
conference, Cardinal Milesi was convinced

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 191
of the unanimity of the aims of the Hberal
party, bent on placing themselves under
the protection of Piedmont, and of the hope
lessness of opposing them ; accordingly, the
papal arms were lowered from the gateway
of the Palazzo Governativo, amid the frantic
joy of a large concourse of by-standers, and
at an early hour in the moming he took
his departure from Bologna.
Aprovisional Govemment was now formed,
until an answer could be received from
Victor Emmanuel, to whom the dictatorship
of the province was offered, pending the
duration of the war. Besides the Marquis
PepoH, and others whom I have afready
named. Prince Hercolani, Prince Einaldo
Simonetti, and Count Csesare Albicini, of
the first nobihty of the country, took part
in the administration : a fact of itseU suffi
cient to confute the absurd statements put
forward in England at pro-papal meetings,
of the movement in the Legations being
confined to a few adventurers and Pied
montese agents.
Wisely eschewing aU subordinate ques-

192 SPREAD OF THE REVOLT.
tions, as well as the discussion of eventu-
aUties, the Bolognese devoted themselves to
the organization of a sufficient force to de
fend their frontiers, and with the financial
provisions indispensable to this end. Every
day brought encouraging inteUigence. As
the Austrians retreated from the Legations,
the cities they left in their rear raised the
Sardinian fiag, and sent in thefr adherence
to the central Government at Bologna. Up
to La Cattolica, a vUlage a few mUes to the
south of Eimini and the classic Eubicon,
the insurrection received no check ; but
Pesaro, a town on the sea-coast of some im
portance, about forty mUes from Ancona,
was unable to declare itself It was the
head-quarters of some Swiss regiments,
under General Kalbermatten, who were
soon to do the Pope good service in the
reduction of the Marche.
Ancona had its revolution of a few days,
for which it is stUl doing penance in sack
cloth and ashes. On the 12th of June, the
Austrians abandoned the town, but the
citadel was almost immediately occupied by

AN IRREPARABLE OVERSIGHT. 193
some Papal troops, despatched from Mace
rata. A few hours only elapsed between the
departure of the former and the arrival of
their substitutes ; but it was the Anconitans'
-visant of energy in turning that interval to
account which decided the fate of the
Marche. They lacked the master-minds
w'h.odLireciedLth.epro?mnciamiento at Bologna,
and Avho alone could have grasped the re
quirements of the situation. The oversight
of not declaring themselves at once, and
seizing upon the citadel, with the vast mili
tary stores left there by the Austrians, and
its almost impregnable positions, was irre
parable. Before finaUy committing them
selves, they waited for tidings from Eo
magna, and lost the decisive moment.
It was not till two or three days after
General Allegrini had occupied the fortress,
that Ancona proclaimed the dictatorship of
the King of Sardinia, and appointed a
Junta, in which the nobility and middle
classes were severaUy represented by Count
Cresci, a wealthy landowner ; Dr. Benedetto
Monti, an eminent physician ; Signor Mari-
VOL. II. o

194 THE CONDUCT OF ALIiEGRINI.
ano Ploner, a merchant ; and Signor Feoli,
a lawyer : aU men of mature age and un
questioned honour. Upon this the delegate
retfred from his post, ¦ and without a shot
being fired, all emblems of the Pope's
authority were eftaced or removed. AUe-
grini's conduct in oflfering no interference
during these proceedings, while a few sheUs
from the heights in his possession would
have made fearful havoc among the insur
gents, subsequently earned him a court-
martial, and the loss of his command. Mean
time, two soldiers of a different stamp were
ordered to deal with the rebellious city.
The inhabitants had scarcely learned the
fall of Perugia,* with all its horrible accom
paniments, when they were terrified, by the
announcement that Colonel Schmidt, with
the Sv/iss troops engaged in the assault, was
advancing by forced marches upon them
from one quarter, while General Kalber
matten was approaching from another.
* 18th June. This city had also declared for the
protectorate of Victor Emmanuel, and a participation
in the wai- of independence.

CAPITULATION OP A>,-C0NA. 195
Without arms, without leaders, resistance
was clearly impossible; it was, therefore,
decided to surrender to Allegrini, who as
sured them of better terms than Kalber
matten would be likely to concede, and con
nived at the evasion of thirty of the most
compromised among the citizens, who escaped
by sea before the en-ferance of the Swiss.
Dissatisfied with AUegrini's leniency,
Kalbermatten had no scruple in setting'
aside the capitulation. He immediately
imposed a fine of a hundred thousand dollars
upon the town, enacted a number of strin
gent and inquisitorial regulations, enforced
under hea-vy penalties,* and secured himself
a zealous coadjutor in public affairs by con
ferring the office of gonfaloniere, or chief
* The possession of revolutionary emblems, such
as tri-coloured cockades, scarfs, kc, was punishable,
or rather is punishable, with from three to five years
in the galleys. Private families were enjoined, under
a penalty of ten dollars for the first of ence, to report
to the police the arrival of any guest from abroad,
(the nearest town was comprised in this designation),
with a statement of his purpose in coming, his station
in life, &c.
0 2

196 KALBERMATTEN.
civil magistrate, on the Marquis D * * *,
the man of all others most hateful and
loathsome to the population. It is no ex
aggeration to say of this nobleman, that he
has one of the most infamous reputations in
a country, and amongst a party, where every
species of vice is very efficiently represented.
He was even too notorious to be made use of
by the Government of Gregory XVL, not-
-withstanding his devotion to the Holy See,
his very high rank, and considerable wealth.
It remained for a Kalbermatten, — like him
self, too, in bad odour in the previous reign,
— to pass the last indignity upon the Anconi
tans, by placing him at their head. His
very first measure after entering into office
was a characteristic one. He sent a depu
tation from the municipality of Ancona, to
impress on Pius IX. that recent events were
the work of an evil-minded minority, and
assuring him of the Anconitans' unbounded
loyalty and contentment. The Boman
Gazette, of course, hastened to proclaim this
fact, but omitted some elucidations which
rendered -the announcement even more men-

HIS SEVERITY. 197
dacious than the general run of its intelli-

t3

gence.

At that moment no municipal body ex
isted in Ancona. The nobles and citizens
who composed it had either fied the country
or were in concealment, or declared them
selves to be iU, or flatly refused to retain
office under thefr new gonfaloniere. The
deputation, lyingly reported to the world
as embodying the sentiments of the town-
councU and civU authorities of this miser
able city, was composed of two of the Pope's
cousins, and an underling of the Neapolitan
consulate. General Kalbermatten, however, deter
mined that the Marchese should not, on an
other occasion, be forced thus to extemporize
a foUowing. He imposed a fine of five doUars
a day upon the sick or refractory members
of the Municipio, which at last told so
heavily upon thefr resources, that such as
could not escape* into the free atmosphere of
* I am acquainted with a large landed proprietor
in the Marche, who, debarred by peculiar circum
stances from taking an open part in the liberal move

198 RESIGNATION OF THE ANZIANI.
Eomagna — professional men and merch.aiits,
whose famihes and avocations chained them
to the spot — were compeUed to give in. But
in a few months the corporation was again
fatally at issue with its chief.
His first essay at addresses had apparently
been so gratifying, that in December the
zealous gonfaloniere sent up a second to
Eome, couched as before in the name of the
whole Municipio, to be laid before the then
expected Congress, protesting against any
changes in the actual political regime under
which they had the happiness of Hving.
Deep and irrepressible was the indignation
of the Anconitans on discovering what he
had had the audacity to affirm, for not one
— no, not one — of the Anziani -ivas cogni
zant of the proceeding; and with a spirit
wbich can only be appreciated by those who
understand their critical position, they simul
taneously threw up office.
ment, passed his time last summer in assisting the
flight of the Anconitan refugees. He told me the
number who had been forced to expatriate themselves
was immense, and yet many are in prison.

CONDITION 0? ANCONA. 199
Since then I knov/- not v.diat expedient has
been adopted to bring these contumacious
subjects to obedience, for private letters from
that centre of desolation are more eloquent
in tlieir silence than their details. This
much I know positively, that none of the
accounts which from time to time find their
way into the "Times" or "Daily News" of
the actual condition of Ancona, of the con
tinual landing of Austrian recruits for the
Papal army, of the stagnation of trade, and
the despairing, sullen attitude of the popula
tion — are in anywise exaggerated.
It is sad to turn from the scene of so many
pleasant associations, leaving it so wretched
in the present, in such utter uncertainty for
the future ; but my limits are weU nigh
attained, and I should only be going over a
thrice-told tale if I enumerated all the griev
ances which it shares in common with the
other provinces stiU under Papal rule. These
are forcibly condensed in the address lately
presented to the Emperor of the French by
the refugees fi-om Ancona, Perugia, and, in
fine, every other part of the Eoman States

200 THE ROMAGNE.
not yet emancipated from the priestly
yoke. — " A destructive blast has swept over
the country. No responsibility in those
who govern, no publicity in the administra
tion, no safeguard before the tribunals, canon
law above the civU code — these are the
inevitable consequences of a Government at
the head of which stands a prince, who,
bound by religious ties, and declaring him
seU infaUible, is free from all control. AU
modification of an essentially corrupt system
would be fruitless. Principles may be cor-,
rected, persons may be changed, but the
intrinsic nature of a thing admits neither of
correction nor change. The clerical system
is incompatible with the customs and civi
lization of the present day ; to endeavom-
to mend it would be to galvanize a corpse.''
The Eomagne stand out in bright relief
against this gloomy background. A fierce
ordeal had to be encountered when, close
upon the rapture -with which the population
received Massimo d'Azeglio as Commissioner
Extraordinary from Victor Emmanuel, came
the unlooked for, palsying announcement of

THE ELECTIONS. 201
the Convention of VUlafranca. But right
nobly did they surmount the dangers that
menaced them on every side. Though the
soldier-statesman, the Bayard of politicians,
-whose writings, whose eloquence, whose ex
ample had so potently contributed to purify
and exalt the national character, was com
pelled to withdraw from the post so recently
assumed, they loved and trusted him and
his royal master too implicitly to be false to
his exhortations.
^ Hence it w^as that, abandoned to them
selves at a conjuncture the most critical and
perplexing, the Eomagnuoli, so long noted
for their turbulence and lawlessness, seemed
suddenly to have acquired a ripeness of
judgment and power of self-control worthy
of a long apprenticeship to freedom. By
the middle of July a body of 12,000 men
were already equipped and on their way to
La Cattolica, to ward off any attack of the
pontifical troops; and before the end of
August the elections had taken place for the
National Assembly. The four Legations,
containing about a million of inhabitants.

202 VOTE OF THE ASSEMBLY.
returned one hundred and twenty-six depu
ties, the leading men in the country,
whether in respect of rank, learning, or
public estimation.
The assembly met in Bologna for a two
fold purpose ; first, to pass in solemn review
the conduct of the late Government, and set
forth the reasons for which the people cast off
its authority ; next, to vote the annexation
to the constitutional monarchy of Sardinia.
These acts accomplished, it separated, pa
tiently waiting until the sanction of Europe
shoiQd permit Victor Emmanuel to ratify
their choice.
Meanwhile, though the suspense is long,
and the tension of public feeling extreme,
the calmness and confidence of the population
have never wavered. There has been no
retahation ' for the excesses of Perugia, no
reckoning sought for the fearful arrears of
oppression which the publication of the late
Government's state-papers have brought to
light. The highways were never so safe before ;
travellers now pass through the whole

CONDITION OF EOMAGNA. 203
of Eomagna -without a shadow of appre
hension. Wliatever be the fate in store for these
provinces, no impartial mind can deny them,
in common with the three other States of
Central Italy, where an analogous Hne of
conduct has been held, a just title to the
respect and admiration of posterity.

204 NICE.

CHAPTEE XIII.
The English Community of Nice — A Pleasant Meeting
— The Corniche Eoad— The Smallest Sovereignty
in the World — An Oppressive Eight of the Prince —
Eumoured Negotiation — Eencontre ¦n'ith Pilgrims —
An Old Genoese Villa — A Piedmontese Dinner —
The Culture of Lemon Trees — Piedmontese News
papers — The Towers of the Peasantry — Cultivation
of the Olive and the Fig-tree — Popular Mode of
Fishing.
Not very long ago I was at Nice — beautiful
Nice, with its wondrous skies and sapphire
like sea ; its olive woods, and palms, and
aloes ; its mountains, luxurious valleys, and
rich pasture-lands ; and yet I was not con
tent. When from the scenery around I
turned to examine Nice itseU — when, after
paying a due tribute of admiration to the
country thus lavishly endowed, I sought to
learn something of its inhabitants, their cus
toms, their social life, my dissatisfaction com
menced. There seemed no individuality in

TUE ENGLISH COMMUNITY. 205
this town ; no leading features among its
population. I found no interior to peep into,
no traits of national character to record.
Nice takes its tone from the English and
French, Bavarians and Eussians, who make
it their -winter residence; the Englisli in
fluence, however, being predominant, as is
e-videnced by the number of British com
forts and indispensabilities our country-
people have introduced; English bathing-
machines on the sunny beach; English
goods and warehouses at every turning;
chemists' shops, complete in all their time-
honoured insignia; stay-makers to royal
English duchesses ; EngHsh groceries, ho
siery, baby-Unen ; all are here to be found,
besides EngHsh clubs, English doctors, Eng
lish agency-offices — in fact, every imaginable
device where^with John Bull delights to
surround himself when abroad.
Now all this may be very delightful, but
it is certainly not instructive ; and to those
who think some improvement may be
gleaned from foreign travel beyond seeing
aU the sights and taking aU the drives set

206 A PLEASANT MEETING.
do^wn in Murray's HandbooJc, it is particu
larly annoying to find themselves in a
society where the prejudice and party-spirit,
gossip and twaddle, mto which a number of
idle people must inevitably fall, are actively
at v^ork ; within whose circles a native is
rarely seen, and where a total indifference
as to the history or condition of the country
where they are sojourning is displayed. I
v/as beginning to fret under this exclusive
ness, and ¦was endeavouring to resign myself
to the conviction that my visit to Nice
would be barren of reminiscence, w^hen my
good genius came to my aid, and one day,
on the Promenade des Anglais, brought me
face to face with the Comtesse de Laval, a
Piedmontese widow lady I had kno-wn two
or three years previously in Tuscany. She
had lately come with her brother, a veteran
general, who had lost an arm in the cam
paigns of '48-49 against the Austrians, to
reside on some property they had purchased
in the neighbourhood. It was a most charm
ing rencontre for me ; and they really seemed
so cordial, that, making all requisite aUow-

MATRIMONY, OR RESTRICTION. 207
ances for Italian exaggeration, I could not
but believe the pleasure was mutual. The
comtesse's first inqufry was if I 'were a
-fiancee, for in this respect all Italians are
alike — ^Piedmontese or Neapolitans, from
the north or from the south, they equally
consider matrimony the sole object of a
woman's Hfe. Disappointed at my reply,
she glanced nervousl}^ round to see whether
I was unattended ; but the sight of a servant
reassured her, while I vainly attempted to
demonstrate that my advancing years would
speedily render any escort superfluous.
With a fixed determination to defer to
the vassalage under Vsrhich she considered I
ought to be restricted, she begged me to
take her to caU upon the friends with whom
I v,"as staying, in order to proffer a request
that I might be permitted to accompany
her for a foAv days to her brother's villa at
Latte, some thirty miles' distance from
Nice — her own house in the vicinity being
under repair. We were all amused at the
stately old lady's punctilio; but the kind
invitation, it is needless to say, was wil-

208 THE CORNICHE ROAD.
lingly accepted, and an early day appointed
to set out.
Everybody has heard of the Corniche
Eoad — the Eiviera di Ponente ; that is, the
Shore of the West — which connects Nice
with Genoa, and that portion of it leading
to Latte is perhaps the most beautiful of
the whole. October had already commenced,
but no trace of autumn had as yet stolen
over the landscape, no chillness in the
balmy air reminded one of the lateness of
the season. Our way at first wound along
a gradual ascent, bordered with ohves,
cherubias, cypresses, orange-trees, and the
maritime pine, and commanding the most
extensive inland prospect, where mountains
upon mountains displayed exquisite varie
ties of colouring and form ; whence a sud
den turn of the road brought us to heights
overhanging the Mediterranean, with its
endless succession of headlands and bays,
towns nestling beneath the shelter of a pro
tecting rock, or cresting some rugged emi
nence ; while the blue waters stretched forth
in their calm majesty, scarcely a ripple on

MONACO. 209
their glass-like surface, scarcely a murmur
as they Avafted their wreaths of spray to-
-wards that highly -favoured shore.
Soon after passing Turbia — a village con
structed of Eoman ruins — the road began
to descend, always overhanging the sea ;
and then, far, far beneath us, accessible only
by a very cfrcuitous route, we saw Monaco,
the capital of the smaUest sovereignty in
the world, -with its towers and fortifications
rising along a rugged promontory, which
flung its arms protectingly around the tiny
city, and formed a bay, so graceful in its
curve, in the outline of the hills which rose
above it, that the scene looked like a gem
worthy of Italy's diadem of beauty. From
this I was directed to turn my gaze in the
direction of Eoccabruna, another town in this
same LUiputian principality, situated upon
the shelving side of a mountain, so exceed
ingly precipitous, that the marvel is how it
ever could have been built, or men found
agUe enough to climb there ; the popular
legend being, that, some hundred years ago,
the whole slid some distance down the face
VOL. II. P

210 THE PRINCE OF MONACO.
of the rock to its present locality, w-ibhout
destroying its castle or other structures.
Florestan, Prince of Monaco, and Duke
of Valentinois, spends in Paris the re
venues he obtains from his subjects by
exactions which have rendered him de
servedly unpopular. One op]3ressive right
he possesses, is that of compeUing aU the
population to grind their corn at his mUls,
and to buy their bread at his bakers' ; the
result of vfhich is, that the 5000 or 6000
subjects of the principality eat the worst
bread in Italy. So the general said ; and
as he was of an agricultural turn, and had
gone through the metaphorical act of beat
ing his sword into a ploughshare, he vv^as a
great authority on such matters.
There has since been a rumour going the
round of many of the newspapers, that the
noble Florestan was treating vvfith the Go
vernment of the United States for the sale
of his territories — a ne.^i'otiation that vrorJd,
no doubt, be equally gratifying to the pride
and suitable to the interests of our transat
lantic kinsmen, but one v/hich the European

PPvOPOSED SALE OF MONACO. 211
Powers "VN^ould probably never permit to be
carried into effect-. Piedmont would greatly
desire to become the purchaser ; and situated
as is the principality— lying like a wedge
in her beautiful line of coast, -w^hich com
mences at Nice and terminates at Spezzia —
such a transfer seems most natural ; but the
Prince of Monaco has a grudge against the
Sardinian Government, and is obstinately
opposed to treating with it on the subject.
Through avenues of rhododendrons and
oleanders, through w^oods where the rich
green of the fig, bending beneath its lus
cious fruit, contrasted with the dusky
foliage of the olive, -we next came u-oon
Mentone, of late years much resorted to
by English as a sheltered and beautiful
winter residence. If the contemplated
transfer of Nice to France is carried out,
the pass of the Turbia will form the
boundar}^ ; and Mentone, as the Italian
rival of Nice, is expected to rise into great
importance. Soon after lea-ving this town we again
dismounted, to have a better view of a rocky

212 THE TWO PILGRIMS.
defile which seems to have riven the moun
tains asunder ; and while sitting on the low
parapet of the bridge thrown over the
chasm, we were attracted by two fi-gures
advancing slowly in the direction whence
we had come, in the costume of pilgrims,
real bond fide pilgrims. Their appearance
at once reminded me of those descriptions
with which many of Sir Walter Scott's
opening chapters abound. The elder of
the two was a man of middle age, with
handsome regular features, somewhat of a
Moorish cast, to which his coal-black hair
and bronzed complexion imparted an addi
tional resemblance. His companion, whom
we at once concluded to be his son, was a
boy of eleven or twelve, with that golden
hair so often observable in children in the
south, which darkens rapidly as they grow
up ; a gentle suffering face, and an air of
weariness in his gait, that, with the ad
juncts of his picturesque attire, rendered
him a very interesting little palmer. Both
were dressed alike : in loose cloaks or robes
of dark-green serge, with large oil-skin

THEIR EQUIPMENT. 213
capes, thickly overlaid with scallop-shells,
the largest between the shoulders, and
smaUer ones placed around, and in the
front two crosses coarsely embroidered. A
low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat — a long
wooden staff, surmounted by a cross — a
string of beads at the girdle — and a crucifix
hanging from the neck, completed this
equipment, which had neither wallet nor
bag, nor any sort of receptacle for carrying
food or raiment.
As they passed us, we perceived how
coarse and travel-worn their apparel was,
and how the little boy lagged behind, re-
qufring often an encouraging word from
the elder pilgrim to urge him on ; and
being curious to learn somewhat respecting
them, as an introductory speech, the gene
ral called out to inquire if they had come
from a great distance, and whither they
were bound. The man repHed in broken
Italian, they came from Murcia, in Spain,
'and that their destination was Eome ; then,
with an inclination of the head, was pro
ceeding, when their interrogator approached

' 214 THEIR ORISONS.
the little boy, and dropped a few coins into
his hand. The child looked up at his com
panion inquiringly, and receiving a gesture
of acquiescence, accepted the money wdth
downcast eyes, and kissed it, but without
proffering? a syllable. The father then took
off his hat, and crossing himself, remained
for a few seconds in the attitude of prayer,
his Hps moving silently, the boy sedulously
following his example. When their orisons
v/ere concluded, the child drew from his
bosom a small brass medal, with an image
of the Madonna, -which he presented to the
general, always keeping the same silence,
which augured ill for the gratification of
our curiosity. Plowever, as they stood still
for a few minutes, looldng over the preci
pice, I mustered up courage to be spokes
woman ; and in the few words of Spanish I
could put together, inquired if the little
boy was not very much fatigued with his
long travel.
" Sometimes," was the replj^ ; " although
I purposely make very short days' journeys.
We have already been four months on the

CCNVERS.ITICN V,"ITH THEM. 215
way, and w^e have stUl one hundred and
fifty leagues to traverse before reachin?'
Eome." " Always on foot ? "
Si, seiiora."
" It is part of yciir vow ? "
¦ Si, senora."
' And that little boy is your son ? "
' Ily Q-^ly one."
" Tou have undertaken this pilgrimage
from a religious motive ? "
"Pardon me, senora, but there are sub
jects which can only be dividged between
our conscience and our God."
We had now arrived at the domain, and
found a peasant in waiting, T.itli a mule
to receive the packages, which the servants
handed down from the carriage.
" Ah, here you are ! and here is Madda
lena, too ! " said the kind master in the
Nizzardo patois, as a comely young woman,
wearing a round straw hat, trimmed with
black velvet, shaped Hke the mandarin hats
on tea-chests, and large gold earings, came
iorvv'ard with a smiling face to welcome us.

216 ARRIVAL AT THE VILLA.
" Ah weU, eh ? — the children, and the
dog, and the cows, and the chickens. Ah,
briccona, I see you ! " poking at a little roll-
about girl, who had hidden herself in her
mother's skirts, and now peered at us out of
her almond-shaped eyes — the eyes of Pro
vence, soft and long. "Now, mademoiselle,"
turning to me, and addressing me in French,
which was the language of the family among
themselves, although, whenever he and his
sister engaged in any animated discussion,
they went off to Piedmontese — a hopeless
compound of gutturals and abbreviations to
my untutored ears — "now, mademoiseUe,
let me do the honours of a ruined -villa
-without a road;" and he led the way, for
about a quarter of a mile, through vine
yards and olives, and orchards laden -with
fruit, till we came to a lane, and a large
old-fashioned gateway, originally very much
ornamented, with trophies and armorial-
bearings. A large watch-dog now bounded
forward, and greeted his master by putting
his paws on his shoulders, and brushing his
nose against the general's grey moustaches ;

DESCRIPTION OF IT. 217
after which salutations, passing under a
long trelHs-walk of roses and vines, the
latter trained along tall white columns,
after the fashion of the old Genoese villas,
we came upon a lawn studded with palms
and oleanders, and bordered with thick
groves of lemon-trees, in the centre of
which stood a beautiful palace, such as I
had Httle expected to see in this secluded
spot. A magnificent outer staircase, spriug-
ing in double fiights from the portico, and
converging in a broad platform, conducted
into a vestibule with glass doors, from
whence opened a spacious sala, or sitting-
room. At the further end of this were two
long windows, with closed Persian blinds,
which the general threw open on my ap
proach, and then I found myself upon a
balcony overhanging the sea — so close, so
very close beneath us, that I could have
flung a pebble into it from where we stood.
Both he and the comtesse enjoyed my sur
prise at the sudden transition, from the
wooded scenery in the front of the palazzo,
to the -wide range of sea-view thus suddenly

218 A BEAUTIFUL VIEW.
presented to me. The house, in fact, was
built upon the shore of a beautiful little
bay, shut in on one side by a promontory
covered with feathered pines, and on the
other by a ridge of rocks, which darted for
ward as if to complete its crescent-like
shape, and form a safe harbour for the
fishing-barks w^hich now lay idly on the
beach : beyond them appeared three suc
cessive headlands, each with its little town
rising from the bosom of the waters — the
whole so calm, so sunny, so briUiant, with
its background of perfumed groves, and
palms, and flowers, that it realized every
anticipation, and concentrated in a glance
aU the varied attractions of the Eiviera.
I was not allowed a long time to gaze
uninterrupted, for the general reminded his
sister that the dinner-hour had nearly ar
rived, and suggested we had better take off
our bonnets. Any regular dinner-toilet, it
may here be remarked, is very unusual
amongst Italians when in the country, even
in much more modern establishments than
the one I am describing. The short sleeves

LIVING IN NORTHERN ITALY. 219
and low dresses in which English ladies arc
wont to appear in everyday routine, would
be considered by them the extreme of folly
and bad taste. As the comtesse conducted
me to my room — one of six large bed
chambers opening from the sala — in her
gentle yet stately manner she renev/ed her
apologies for receiving me with so little
ceremony, repeating her declaration that
we were literaUy ci la campagne, in a dilapi
dated palace that her brother had purchased
through a whim, because it had belonged
to a decayed family in whom he felt an
interest. There was no necessity for these
excuses, however ; and I was enabled to
judge from what the Piedmontese called
a rustic v/ay of living, how much more
luxury and expenditm-e were prevalent in
Northem Italy, than in those southern parts
of the peninsula in which my former ex
periences had lain.
The dinner, to which v/e were speedily
summoned, was served in a large room on
the ground-floor, corresponding in size with
the sala upstairs, the doors at the end, which

220 A PLAIN ITALIAN DINNER.
were thro-ivn open, disclosing an enchanting
view of the sea and the skiffs gliding along
its sparkling waters. Here we found the
general in conversation with a middle-aged,
intelhgent-looking man, whom he introdu
ced as Signor Bonaventura Eicci, his friend
and factotum, a resident of VentimigUa, the
adjacent town ; and then, without further
delay, we sat down to table, the comtesse
alone making the sign of the cross, which is
equivalent to saying grace with us. The
dinner was a specimen of simple ItaHan
fare, and as such I shall record it for the
benefit of the curious in these matters : it
commenced with a tureen full of tagliarini ;
a paste composed of fiour and eggs, roUed
out exceedingly thin, and cut into shreds —
on the lightness and evenness of which the
talent of the cook is displayed — boiled in
broth, and seasoned with Parmesan cheese.
SHces of Bologna sausage, and fresh green
figs, for which, the general exultingly
informed me, the neighbourhood of Ven
timigUa was justly celebrated, were next
handed round ; and then appeared the lesso.

WINE AND DESSERT. 221
a large piece of boiled beef, from which the
broth had been made, with the accompani
ment of tomato sauce. After this there
came a large dish of fried fish, and the
arrosto — roast veal, or roast chickens, or
something of tlie kind — which, wdth a dolce,
or sweet, completed the repast. Several
sorts of wdne, the produce of the last year's
vintage, were produced by Signor Bonaven
tura, who had the keys of the cellar in his
keeping, and their different merits were
eagerly pointed out. Notwithstanding their
interest in the subject, however, neither hc-
nor the general seemed to think of drinking
a few glasses by way of test, but contented
themselves with merely tasting the wdne
pure, and then mixing it wdth water. The
dessert consisted of oranges, peaches, grapes,
figs, and a melon, all gathered that morning
in the garden ; which, considering how far
the autumn was advanced, was wonderful
even for Italy, and bore witness that the
exceeding mildness of the temperature —
whence, it is said, the name of Lacte or
Latte is derived — has not been exaggerated.

222 CULTIVATION OF LEMON-TREES.
After dinner, we walked in the grounds,
it being too late for a longer excursion ;
and the general and Signor Bonaventura,
whose surname was certainly a superfluity,
since nobody ever addressed him by it, ex
plained to me sundry matters connected v/itli
the culture of the lemon-trees, v/hich con
stituted the princi|)al revenue of the estate.
It is certainly a graceful harvest, gathered
every two months aU the year round; the
500 trees in the garden having yielded
upwards of 100,000 lemons in less than
ten months, and 20,000 or 30,000 more
being looked for before Christmas. These
are sold at from 40 to 50 francs per 1000 — -
a franc is equal to lOi^. — to traders, vdio
either send them in car,fjoes to Encrhmd and
the United States, or else retail them at
large profits to fruit-cTealers for home con
sumption. The lemon-tree requires great
care, and is manured every three years with
¥/oolleii rags — a process likewise applied in
many parts of the Riviera to the olives,
which certainly attain to a size and thick
ness of foliage not seen elsewhere. They

showed me some lemon-trees which -were
being* prepared for the reception of the
rags. A circular trench, about a foot deep
and two feet wide, is d.ucr round the trunk,
and in this the rags, mostly procured in
bales frcm Na.ples, are laid ; a curious
assemblage of slireds of cloth gai'cers, sleeves
of jackets, bits of blankets, horse-rugs, and
so forth — the whole conveying a.n uncom
fortable idea of a lazza,rone's cast-off clothes.
A quantity not exceeding twenty pounds
English weight is allotted to each tree, and
then the earth, which had been displaced.
for their reception, is thrown over them, and
they are left to ferment and grad-ually
decompose. Some agriculturists throw a
layer of common manure over the rags
before covering them with earth, but Signor
Bonaventura said many experienced persons
contended it was unnecessary. Great pre
caution is requisite to prevent any blight
from settling on the leaves, and- in our
walk, black specks were discovered on the
glossy foliage, which it was agreed, should
be summarily dealt -wdth ; accordingly, next

224 POLITICAL DISCUSSION.
morning, four or five peasant-girls were
hard at work, mounted on ladders, carefully
wiping each leaf, and removing the specks,
which, if allowed to spread, would have
endangered the life of the tree.
When it grew dusk, we went upstairs to
the sala, and looked over the letters and
newspapers brought in from the VentimigUa
post-office. PoHtics are now^ in Piedmont'
an engrossing theme, domestic as well as
foreign being freely discussed ; and no
restrictions on the press existing since the
Constitution of 1848, newspapers of every
shade of opinion are in circulation. The
peculiar views of each member of the family
found a response in the journals they
habitually perused. The comtesse used to
groan over the Armonia, the only periodical
she ever looked at — the organ of the ultra-
retrograde party, which invariably repre
sented the country as on the eve of an
atheistical and socialistic revolution, the
fruits of the innovations on the ancient
order of things ; the only glimmering of
light amid the foreboding darkness being

PIEDMONTESE NEWSPAPERS. 225
the rapid return of heretical England to the
bosom of the church — such events as the
abjuration of the Archbishop of Canterbury
and a hundred bishops being confidently
announced one week, and the approaching
conversion of the whole royal family the
next. All this was balm to the good old
lady's heart, and I often detected her gazing
bn me -with a beaming look, as if praying I
might foUow this good example, although
she abstained from any direct allusion to
the subject. The general, who sided with
the ministry, pinned his faith on the Bied-
montese Gazette and the Barlamento, though
his old exclusive feelings could not always
be laid aside, and he sometimes grumbled
at aU the privileges of caste being done
away ; declaring there was no longer any
advantage in being born noble, since he
might find the son of his doctor or lawyer
sitting by his side on the benches of the
Chamber of Deputies, or wearing the uni
form of the Guards, unattainable formerly
to a bourgeois. As for Signor Bonaventura,
he confided to me that, notwithstanding
VOL. II. q

226 AN EVENING ON THE BEACH.
he should always uphold a constitu
tional monarchy, he thought there was
no treason in looking at aU sides of the
question, so that he occasionaUy glanced at
the ItaUa e Bopolo — the organ of Mazzini,
a perfect firebrand of repubUcanism and
discontent; but "Zitto, zitto," he added,
laying his finger on his Hps, "they would
faint" — pointing to the comtesse and
his patron — "at the mere notion of such
a thing." At nuie we were summoned to supper;
after which we sat for some time on the
beach, enjoying the beauty ofthe moonlight
and the softness of the air, though, as far
as the majority of the party were concerned,
it was, more properly speaking, the physical
comfort, the sensation of repose, which
caused their satisfaction ; for, as respects
the enthusiasm which almost every English
person feels, or at anyrate expresses, beneath
the influence of beautiful scenerv, Itahans,
generaUy considered, are provokingly de
ficient. The next morning we had -visitors. Sig-

ITALIAN GIRLS. 227
nor Bonaventura's two daughters, damsels
of eighteen, or thereabouts, came by ap
pointment to spend the day, and arrived
soon after the breakfast of cafe au lait and
chocolate had been served ; this, with dinner
at two, and supper in the evening, is the
old-fashioned Piedmontese and Nizzardo
system of refection. The sisters were fair
specimens of ItaHan girls of the mezzo cetto,
convent-educated, with ideas that never
ranged beyond an excursion to Nice, or
reading more extensive than the Missal
or the Almanac. Immeasurably beneath
country -bred EngHsh girls of a correspond
ing class in aU intellectual points, they
were undeniably superior in ease of manner,
and the good taste and simplicity of their
dress. As they stood upon the beach,
w^atching the general bathing his large dog,
looking so fresh and girl-hke in their pretty,
weU-fitting Hght-blue muslins, and large
round hats, they made me wish my young
countrywomen would take a lesson in har
mony and gracefulness of costume from
continental maidens. They evidently look-
Q 2

228 A day's ramble.
ed upon the comtesse with profound awe,
and upon me with great curiosity, as some
rare animal escaped from a menagerie. It
being impossible to carry on any conver
sation -with them beyond monosyUables, I
proposed we should walk out ; and, accord
ingly, we passed most of the day, both
before and after dinner, in exploring the
neighbourhood, to their infinite delight, as
I discovered that they rarely left the house
except on Sundays ; Italians of that class
considering daily exercise for their woman
kind a su-perfluity, tending to form idle
habits. Signor Bonaventura accompanied
us, and towards me was very affable and
communicative, although, with regard to
his daughters, he e-vidently entertained
very Oriental notions of their mental
inferiority, and treated them as U they
were incapable of receiving information, or
as if it was not worth while to impart it to
them. In the com-se of our rambles, I was struck
with the singular appearance of some of the
dwellings of the peasantry near the shore

towers of the PEASANTRY. 229
— high narrow towers, only accessible by a
steep fiight of steps, detached from the main
buUding, with which they were connected
by a wooden bridge. He told me these
were vestiges of the times when the coasts
of the Mediterranean were so often ravaged
by the Algerine corsairs, that no hamlet
was safe from their dreaded inroads. T®
secure the inhabitants as far as possible,
these towers were constructed, to which, on
the first alarm, they might fly for refuge,
and raising the drawbridge, be at least
secure from being carried off into slavery,
though forced to be passive witnesses of the
seizure of thefr cattle and the piUaging of
thefr stores. In case of an attack, they
defended themselves by hurling stone
through spaces in the battlements upon
their assaUants, a few of a more modern
description having loopholes in the waUs
for musketry. HappUy, in these more
peaceful days, the peasants have almost
forgotten for what such fortresses were
originaUy intended, and flxing their habita-
¦tions in what have survived the inroads of

230 CULTIVATION OF THE OLIVE.
time, can look down complacently upon
their olives and fig-trees, -without trembUng
at every saU that rises upon the clear
horizon. As we passed through woods of ohves,
Sifirnor Bonaventura descanted con amore
upon their value and utihty; and classing
them above my favourite lemon-trees, which
can be cultivated only in sheltered situations,
assured me that they were the great staple
of the Eiviera, although a good crop is only
reahzed every second year — ^the produce of
the intervening one being very inconsider
able. In the good years, the yield of each
tree is estimated, according to its size, at
from five to eleven francs clear profit. The
trees are carefiiUy numbered on each estate,
and from 1000 to 1200 constitute a very
fafr proprieta. When the ohves tmm black
and begin to fall, sheets are laid beneath
the branches, which are gently shaken to
detach the fruit ; whatever is thus obtained,
is carefully spread on the floor of some
rooms set apart for the purpose, and day
by day, as the remaining olives successively

OLIVE-PRESSING AND CRUSHING. 231
ripen, they are shaken down and added to
the store, untU sufficient is collected to be
sent to the mUl, where it is pressed, and
the oil flows out clear and sparkling. After
this first process of pressing the fruit, there
is a second one of crushing or grinding it,
by which oU of an inferior quality, requiring
some time to settle, is obtained; lastly,
water is poured on the mass of stones and
pulp, and the oU that rises to the surface is
carefidly skimmed, being the perquisite of
the proprietor of the miU, who receives no
other remuneration for his share in the
transaction. The produce of the fig-trees
is another, though less lucrative, source of
revenue ; great quantities are dried in the
sun, and afterwards sold, not only for the
supply of the country itseU, but for the
French market, where the figs of Venti-
migha, Signor Bonaventura declared, were as
much prized as those of Smyrna. He showed
me large suppHes in course of preparation,
laid on long frameworks of reed lightly
interwoven, which as soon as the sun rose
were carried out, and remained all day

232 HONESTY OP THE PEASANTRY.
exposed on the low parapet which di-vided the
jardin potager from the beach. No guard
was ever kept over them, and no fear seemed
to be entertained of their being stolen.
Indeed, the honesty of the peasantry and
fishermen is marveUous, for in this same
kitchen-garden — a strip of sandy soil stolen
from the sea-shore — green peas, tomatos,
cucumbers, melons, and a variety of vege
tables, were gro-wn in profusion ; and
nevertheless, unprotected as it was, being
without the precincts of the iron gate at
the back of the house, which was closed for
form's sake every night, nothing was ever
missed — not a single fruit or vegetable
misappropriated. Our walk after dinner was so prolonged,
that darkness overtook us on our way back,
as we were scrambling through the dry bed
of a torrent ; but the kind comtesse had fore
seen this, and a peasant, despatched by her
to meet us, soon made his appearance -with a
blazing branch of pine-wood, which diffused
a grateful fragrance. Some remarks on the
picturesque appearance of this torch, and th©

FISHING ALLA FUCINA, 233
properties of the pine, led to my hearing
about the popular mode of fishing, allafuci-
na, which I was promised I should see the
first cloudy night, moonlight being a bar to
this pastime — a promise, by the bye, that
stUl remains to be fulfiUed, thanks to the
unbroken serenity of the weather during my
stay at Latte. However, they showed me
the implements, which are simple enough.
Projecting from the stem of the boat, and
elevated above the heads of those engaged
in the sport, is the fudna, an iron grating,
pUed with flaming pine-fagots, which cast a
briUiant Hght upon the waters, iUuminating
thefr recesses with extraordinary clearness.
The boat gUdes into aU the little bays and
rocky inlets, and the fish, scared, yet attract
ed, by the unwonted glare, are seen shooting
rapidly along in aU directions; whUe the
fishermen, each pro-vided with an instrument
somewhat resembling a harpoon, with a staff
twelve or fourteen feet long, spear them with
great dexterity as they dart through the iUu
minated space. Fish of considerable size are
thus taken frequently, and the enthusiasm

234 SPIRIT OF THE FISHERMEN.
attendant on the enterprise being extreme,
a stormy night and a tempestuous sea prove
only additional inducements to the adven
turous fishermen.

EXCURSION TO VENTIMIGLIA. 235

CHAPTEE XIV.
Excursion to Ventimiglia — The Duomo — Visit to a
convent — La Madre Teresa — Convent life — A.
local archaeologist — Cities of the coast — The
presents of a savant — End of a pleasant visit.
The next day an excursion to VentimigUa,
about two miles distant, was proposed ; and
after some demur from the comtesse, who
did not feel equal to the fatigue, and yet
hesitated at confiding me to the joint care
of the general, Signor Bonaventura, and
one of his daughters, whom we were to pick
up at her own residence, every difficulty
was adjusted, and we departed, the whole
estabHshment being as much excited as if
we were going on a journey. They had
left their o-wn horses at Nice, but a carriage;.
the handsomest Signor Bonaventura could
procure in VentimigUa, was in waiting at
the road, so exquisitely antique, rickety,

236 OUR GRATIFYING RECEPTION.
and inaccessible, that in itself it was a
refreshing departure from the routine of
everyday life. Our drive along the coast
was as beautiful as any part of the road
pre-viously traversed, and soon brought us
to the town, built on the side of a hUl
sloping towards the sea — a wonderful Httle
place to be so near a modern resort like
Nice, and yet retaining so much originaUty.
Whether o-wing to the splendour of our
equipage, or the charm of our personal
appearance, it becomes me not to determine,
but it is undeniable that as our steeds
shambled up the steep narrow street, every
-window was garnished -with curious faces ;
and as we passed the apothecary's, where
the priests and doctors gossiped, and the
caffe,' where the gentry lounged and smoked,
hats were doffed on aU sides, and a gratify
ing effect was evidently created. The gene
ral, excessively deUghted, t-wirled his grey
moustache, and affably returned the greet
ing; then, Signor Bonaventura's daughter'
having joined us, marshaUing the party
with miHtary precision, he took upon him-

THE DUOMO. 237
self the office of cicerone, and led the way
to the Duomo, a very ancient structure,
built on the site of a temple of Juno. On
the piazza before it, until very recently,
stood some oak-trees of great antiquity,
which popular tradition had pronounced to
form part of the wood sacred to the god
dess. The ruthless canons of the cathedral,
a few years ago, caused the old church to
be thoroughly cleaned, and actually had the
whole exterior painted over, although it was
of stone, of the earliest period of ecclesias
tical architecture. In the inside is preserved
a marble slab, the sole relic of the ancient
temple, containing a dedicatory inscription
to the ox-eyed goddess, whereon antiquaries
have puzzled and disputed to an edifying
extent. A few faded pictures and tawdry
ornaments were the only attempts at embel-
Hshment ; and even these seemed at a very
low ebb, for there was a printed notice near
one of the confessionals, asking for contri
butions towards the purchase of a new
image of the Madonna — a box, with a slit
in the cover, being placed beneath it, to

238 VISIT TO A CONVENT.
receive any offerings for that purpose. Next
we went to a convent belonging to the
Canonichesse Lateranensi — a visit to which
had been the desire of my heart ever since
my arrival at Latte, to the amusement of
the whole family, who could not understand
why such an everyday sight, as this and
simUar establishments appear to thei;n,
should interest me so much. The convent
was a large, irregularly -built pUe, until the
end of the seventeenth century the palace
of the Counts of VentimigUa, who here for
a long period maintained a struggling feudal
supremacy, waging wars -with the neigh
bouring petty States, or else making common
cause with them in resisting the suzerain-
ship of the House of Savoy ; which, in the
gradual annexation of the territories con
stituting the present kingdom of Sardinia,
had separately to contend with numberless
principalities, marquisates, and republics,
each jealous of its own independence, and
regardless of the claims of the common
weal. Up a broken open staircase to a portico

THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS. 239
in front of the convent church — where two
or three slipshod women were seated al
fresco, plaiting each other's hair, or engaged
in that animating chase an old Florentine
painter has facetiously designated "the
Murder of the Innocents " — we passed to a
side-door, at which an old woman presented
herself, and inquired what we wanted. This
indi-vidual officiated as portress to the nuns,
went to market, executed their commissions^
and brought them aU the Ventimiglia news.
In her appearance there was nothing poeti
cal or impressive; she had not even two
great rusty keys at her girdle, but was
attired in a print gown, somewhat the worse
for wear, -with an obvious deficiency of neat
ness in the tiring of her silvery tresses, and
of freshness in her chaussure.
The general gave his name and title, and
asked for La Madre Teresa, although, as he
O'wned to me, he had but a dim recollection
of her face, aU minor associations being lost
in the halo cast around a certain beautiful
abbess, now no more, a distant connection
of his family, whom, many years before,

240 THE GRATING.
when staying with some relations at Ven
timiglia, he had often conversed -with at the
grating. With great respect, we were now
ushered into a sort of gaUery, lighted by
-windows, around which the dust and cob
webs of many months had been suffered to
gather unmolested. Opposite to these were
two large apertures in the wall, defended by
a double grating of thick iron bars, just
wide enough to admit of passing a hand
between their interstices, but placed at such
a distance from each other, that the hand
thus advanced could only reach far enough
to grasp a hand similarly extended from the
opposite side; so that even to press a kiss
upon some fair nun's taper fingers was out
of the question — a contingency, no doubt,
had in view in the placing of the grating.
The general said facetiously, that in his
visits to the abbess he had adopted the
English fashion, and used to shake her
heartily by the hand ; " and it must be
confessed, poor soul," he added with a sigh,
" she did press mine cordially in return."
And now a rustlins: of robes was heard.

LA MADRE TERESA. 241
as a door, in-visible from where we stood,
opened, and La Madre Teresa came forward,
having e-vidently made some slight changes
in her toUet, and not a httle fluttered by
this unexpected summons. She was a smaU,
spare woman, with that waxen complexion
which a sedentary, unvarying routine of ex
istence generaUy produces, peering, light-
grey eyes, sharp features, but a kindly
expression about the mouth and chin. As
she stood behind the grating, courtesying
first to one and then to the other, she would
have made a very picturesque study in her
white wooUen robes and black mantle, the
light from the -window in the corridor falling
upon her figure, and detaching it from the
gloomy background. Still, the effect was
nothing- — ^the general found an opportunity
of whispering — ^nothing to be compared to
that produced by his lamented abbess, who
used to come sweeping in with the dignity
of a queen, every fold and plait of her
drapery exquisitely adjusted. But to return
to La Madre Teresa. After a few compli
mentary phrases, she inquired to what she
VOL. II. R

242" A PRETEXT FOR MY VISIT.
might attribute the honour of this visit, of
which the real motive was simply the grati
fication of my prying curiosity : the osten
sible one, I grieve to acknowledge,, was of
an. ignoble nature, although, when commu
nicated by Signor Bonaventura, previously
instructed in his part,, it did not appear as
such to strike the old nun. It regarded
the purchase of cakes ! With as much good
grace as he could assume whUe talking to a
nun-— for Signor Bonaventura was of the
new school, and -violently, intolerantly op
posed to aU monastic institutions, notwith
standing which, to please his wife, and for
the sake of peace, his own daughters had
been brought up in a convent — he began to
relate " how an EngHsh lady of distinction,"
pointing to me — La Madre courtesied more
deeply than before — " having heard in her
o-wn country of the famous cakes made by
the nuns of Ventimiglia, was now come in
person to test their exceUence. Did the
sisterhood chance to have any upon sale?"
The old lady was evidently pleased ; and
begging to be excused for an instant, retfred

THE madre's conversation. 248
to give her directions to the slatternly out
door attendant apparently; for when the
conference broke up, we found her in wait
ing with some neatly-papered packets of
these celebrated comestibles — which, by the
bye, were reaUy exceUent, masterly com
pounds of almonds, oHve-oil, and honey.
Eetuming herseU speedUy to the grating,
she engaged in an animated conversation in
the Genoese dialect, which, or something
very nearly approaching to it, is spoken at
VentimigUa — ^the general being evidently
her favourite, and the one to whom most
of her remarks were addressed. Her local
memory was wonderful: she spoke about
people he had utterly lost sight of; knew
aU their histories for thirty years past;
thefr children's ages, marriages, and so
forth; combined with a minuteness of
detaU, that nothing but the prolonged con
centration of her faculties wdthin a most
circumscribed sphere could have enabled her
to attain.
"Does Vou Scia" — a corruption of the
Erench Voire seigneurie — " Does Vou Scia
R 2

244 HER OPINION OF MARRIAGE.
remember the Conte L — — •, who lived in
the street just opposite the barber's and had
an oiUy daughter, whom he married to the
son of the Marchese of A  , who went
away -with the French to fight, and died of
cold in England when the great Napoleon
burnt that town? — Ah, dear, I forget the
name — stop — yes, yes, it was London.
WeU, as I was saying, his daughter, grand
daughter to the conte, was placed with us
for her education, and then married at
sixteen, the day after she left these walls :
the spouse was rather gobbo — ^that is, hump
backed — and fifty years old, but very rich ;
so it was a good match. Vou Scia has
surely not forgotten her : you were a young
man then."
" Oh, I recoUect perfectly, perfectly,"
groaned the general.
"Well, she was not happy — as indeed
who is in marriage? — and her youngest
daughter being externally like her father in
person, the Madonna gave her grace to see
the vanity of the world; so that nearly a
year ago her solemn admission amongst us

CONVENT LIFE. 245
took place. In another month or so, she
wUl take the final vows. Oh, it is a peace
ful, blessed Hfe to those who are caUed to
enter it ! Does Vou Scia imagine that the
-wicked Government intends shortly to sup
press aU the reHgious communities?"
" The question they always ask," observed
Signor Bonaventura in an under-tone.
"Ah! we must hope," said the general
gravely. "It would be terrible, you have
been here so many years."
" Thirty-seven completed on the Festival
of the Assumption."
" Impossible ! You must have entered a
mere chUd."
"I took the veU at sixteen," said the
Madre Teresa, -with a simpering smUe,
which demonstrated that she, too, was not
invulnerable on aU women's weak point.
" How strange," I said, " to think that
since then you have never stirred beyond
these waUs ! "
"Never, signora. But we have a large
-vineyard and orchard from which there is a
ftne view of the sea and the high-road, and

246 DECLINE OF THE CONVENT.
we can see the dihgence passing at some
distance. It is the finest situation in all
Ventimiglia," she added proudly.
" Tou do not even go out to attend the
sick?" "No, signora; that is not one of the
duties of our order: we are cloistered
religiose. We pray and meditate, embroider
and make the confectionery you have heard
so much praised — I fear beyond our poor
deserts." " Do you take pnpUs ? "
"In former years, signora, before these
unfortunate changes, this decline of religion
in the State, we had many educande ; at this
moment, we have but one young lady under
our care." And then, -with great volubUity,
she went on lamenting the degeneracy of
the present day, and telHng us how
changed times were since her youth, when
every cell in the convent had its occupant.
"We were upwards of seventy then," she
said with a suppressed sigh " now we only
number eighteen."
" Out of which I have heard that several

THE CONVENT CHAPEL. 247
are infirm and bedridden," remarked Signor
Bonaventura, -with an affected air of com
miseration. It made one shudder to think how ghostly
the long corridors and fifty-two empty
chambers must look, and how dreary in
their hearts the poor nuns must feel, dwind-
Hng away, tiU four or five withered, shadowy
forms would soon be aU that remained to
talk over the glories of the days gone by.
The poor mm seemed quite sorry when
we broke up the conference, and gazed at
us wistfuUy through the bars, taking in all
the peculiarities of our appearance for the
benefit of the whole sisterhood, when re
peating the detaUs of what would constitute
a memorable incident in her life. After
quitting the parlatojo, we went into the
convent chapel, rather a pretty structure,
with some indifferent paintings, and a good
deal of gilding. Over the altar there was a
latticed gaUery, in which the nuns could
assist unseen at the celebration of mass,
and another behind the organ, for those
who formed the choir. Though the sun

248 THE CHURCH OF SAN MICHELE.
was shining so brightly outside, an xmac-
eountable chiUness and gloom pervaded the
building, which Signor Bonaventura con
tended was Hke a Hving tomb, fit to be the
receptacle of decrepit nuns. At this remark
his daughter, who stood in great awe of her
father, and had not opened her Hps the
whole time, ventured a word in defence of
the convent in which she had been edu
cated; but being told that women knew
nothing of such matters, relapsed into the
silent study of my bonnet and mantle,
wherein she had hitherto been happUy
engrossed. As for the general, he took
Signor Bonaventura's pleasantries in such
good part, that it was weU the comtesse was
not present ; what with these, and the
aUusions to the abbess, the poor lady would
have been grievously discomposed.
From this we went clambering up narrow
streets of steps to the church of San Mi
chele, whUom a temple of Castor and
PoUux, afterwards a convent of Bene
dictines, fuU of Eoman antiquities, -with
a very old crypt, a number of inscrip-

A LOCAL ARCHiEOLOGIST. 249
tions, and a variety of other memorabUia
which I was surveying in helpless igno
rance, when the general, who had sent Sig
nor Bonaventura away on some mysterious
mission, darted forward joyfully at seeing
him appear -with a young man, whom it
tumed out he had been despatched to
simimon. " Here he is — ^here he is," he exclaimed ;
" our archseologist, our poet, our historian !"
and then, wdth a mahcious twinkle in
his eye, presented him to questa Signora
Inglese molto dotta — this learned English
lady, who was making researches on the
classical remains of VentimigUa, and wished
for authentic information concerning them.
The general then seated himseU near a
confessional, and indulged in a Httle weU-
eamed repose, whUe the youth, who was not
more than nineteen or twenty, attired in a
suit of chessboard-Uke checks, plunged at
once into the duties that had been assigned
him. He was a Httle nervous at first, but
had none of the distressing bashfulness
which would have overpowered an EngUsh

250 A LEARNED DISSERTATION.
lad, a complete book-worm and wholly
unused to society; in fact, it is rare to
see an Italian thoroughly awkward, or tho
roughly timid. Their native loquacity al
ways stands them in good stead. In this
instance, moreover, a certain amount of
modest assurance was not wanting. With
surprising fiuency the young savant favoured
us -with a dissertation on the temple, the
church, the crypt, Eoman mile- stones, Etrus
can vases, and mediseval architecture. The
effect was remarkable ; no orator could have
desfred a greater testimony in his favour.
The lean sacristan, -with the keys of the
crypt in his hand, stood transfixed with ad
miration ; Signor Bonaventura tried to look
very wise; the general, awaking from his
nap, made no effort at comprehending the
discourse, but kept nodding his approba
tion; and the eight-and-twenty children,
who had accompanied us into the church,
ceased begging for centimes, and main
tained a respectful sUence. As for me,
in whose honour this antiquarian lore was
displayed, I felt incompetent to proffer more

VIEW FROM THE BASTION. 261
than a yes or no, hazarded at intervals,
trembling lest some inappropriate rejoinder
should discover my lamentable deficiency,
and mortify the poor student, who was evi
dently so happy in holding forth to one he
considered a kindred spirit, that it would
have been a pity to dispel the harmless de
lusion. When at last we got out of the
church, he grew more intelUgible to my
capacity ; and leaving the past to itseU, be
thought himself of the attractions of the
present, and conducted us to a bastion, just
outside one of the gates of the city, which,
smaU as it now is, -with not more than
3000 inhabitants, was really of importance
in the time of the Eomans, or a stUl earlier
period ; from this grassy eminence, he said,
one of the loveliest views in the whole
Ei-viera was to be seen ; and that he had
Ugo Eoscolo's authority for the assertion.
And, in truth, he was not far -wrong. Look
ing inland, there was a fertUe plain, rich
in the golden fruits and meUow tints of
autumn, through which the river Eoja ran
its sparlding course, the mountains from

252 CITIES OP THE COAST.
whence it took its rise closing graduaUy on
aU sides, till a vast amphitheatre of hUls
formed the majestic background, towering
in grandeur, piled one above another, the
peaks of the last alpine range capped -with
snow, and suffused with a rosy light from
the reflection of the setting sun. Then,
turning to the sea, reposing in the gorgeous
beauty of that hour, the close of a cloudless
day, we saw the glittering towers and stee
ples of the cities of the coast — Bordighera,
called the Jericho of Italy, from the palm-
trees with which its environs are thickly
studded; a few miles further on, the
venerable waUs of San Eemo ; more distant
stiU, Porto Maurizio ; and others, and others
yet, each nestling against the guardian pro
montory which stretched forth for its shelter
and protection — each mirrored in the fairy
bay, which seemed exclusively its own.
Our young friend was much pleasanter
here than in the crypt. He repeated Ugo
Foscolo's description with an enthusiasm
which made one regret that the talents and
love of study he undoubtedly possessed

THE PRESENTS OF A SAVANT. 253
should have taken so useless a direction.
His case is an illustration of that of many
an ItaHan man of genius, who has lost him
self amid ruins, and given to crumbling re
mains the time and energies which might
have benefited his country and mankind.
On escorting us to the carriage, he pre
sented me with an Inqufry into the Dedi
catory Inscription to Juno, and an Essay
on the Antiquities of Ventimiglia, his first
Hterary productions; and, finaUy, composed
an ode fuU of classic, ihythologic, and his
torical aUusions in honour of the daughter
of Albion, whose studies he fancied were of
so edUying a description. It was enclosed the
next day in a letter to the general, with a
request that he would lay it at the feet of the
iUustrious stranger. The whole family were
charmed; the general scanned the lines
criticaUy, and said : " The boy should go to
Turin, and get on ; " the comtesse copied
them out ; Signor Bonaventura was pleased
that Ventimiglia was not without its repre
sentative in Parnassus; while I — delighted
to find that at thirty miles from Nice, where

254 END OF A PLEASANT VISIT.
I had despaired of seeing anything but
EngUsh shops and English traveUers, three
days should have been so fertile in ItaUan
scenes and Italian manners — looked upon
this last incident as quite the crowning
stroke of my pleasant visit to Latte.

A VISIT TO TURIN. 255

CHAPTEE XV.
A glance at Turin in 1858 — The progress of Sardinia
— Exhibition of national industry — Productions of
Piedmont — Appearance of the Piedmontese — Eail-
¦way enterprise — Progress in machinery.
Artistically considered, Turin is the least
interesting of aU the Italian capitals. It
boasts of no Eoman antiquities, of but few
mediaeval monuments, and its museums and
picture gaUeries, however creditable to the
Hberality of the sovereigns by whom they
were founded or enlarged, can bear no compa
rison with the Vatican or the Uffizj . Though
its position is singularly grand, with the Alps
for a background, and the Po, the father of
ItaHan rivers, circUng round its base,— an
absence of variety in the landscape, of the
picturesque in the population and accessories,
in whatever regards costume, colouring, and

' 256 ITS OUTWARD CHARACTERISTICS.
form, serves to cornplete its dissimilarity to
Italy in all that has hitherto constituted
Italy's sources of attraction.
But for those who love to mark a nation's
struggles, progress, and development, this
city has interest of another kind; and its
contrast of Hfe and energy with the decay so
long familiar to me during my residence in
the Papal States, never struck me more for
cibly than last summer, when, with a view
to your edification and entertainment, reader,
and to gather fresh impressions and re-vive
former ones, the Signorine forestiere — a staid
Signora now — ^paid a -visit to Turin. Its
outward characteristics are soon delineated.
Broad, level, weU-paved streets, intersecting
each other at right angles, terminating to
wards the north and west by a noble panorama
of the snow-capped Alps, on the east by the
verdant CoUina, a range of undulating hiUs
studded with country seats, while southwards
stretch the fertile plains of Piedmont ; large,
regularly-built squares, handsome, thriving
shops; private carriages, omnibuses, and
citadines clashing about in every direction ;

THE PROGRESS OF SARDINIA. 257
soldiers, gay and debonair ; and a busy, plain,
but honest-looking population.
According to the last census of 1858,
Turin contains one hundred and eighty
thousand inhabitants; an increase of forty
thousand since 1848. This one fact serves
to give some idea of the country's rapid de
velopment under a liberal Government. The
same policy which has attracted refugees
from all parts of Italy to swell the population
of the State, has wrought a corresponding
expansion in its material and intellectual re
sources. It is scarcely possible to overrate
aU that Sardinia has gained in the last ten
years. An Enghshman, unless thoroughly
acquainted with the condition of the rest of
the Peninsula, cannot appreciate the extent
of these improvements. Measuring every
thing by the gauge of home perfection, he
remarks that there is stiU much left to do ;
— whUe the Lombard, or Modenese, or any
other subject of the various Italian States,
compares all he sees with what he has left
perhaps only a few mUes behind him, and is
filled with rapture and astonishment.
VOL. II. s

258 LOSS OF ANCIENT CHARCTERISTICS.
Another class of my countrymen, looking
on Italy as the special province of the anti
quarian and the tourist, think these changes
are dearly purchased. Piedmont, they de
clare, thanks to her boasted reforms, is fast
losing aU that rendered her worth seeing !
Under the united influences of the constitu
tion, railroads, and a free press, this consum
mation may not in truth be very distant.
The country has undeniably degenerated
from the characteristics formerly possessed
in common with her Italian sisters. PoHtics,
judicial reforms, vast public works, schemes
more gigantic still of national emancipation,
now hold, in the thoughts and conversation
of the majority of the Piedmontese, the place
which elsewhere in the Peninsula is assigned
to the debvit of a promising singer, or the
apotheosis of a new saint. In lieu of grass-
grown streets and decaying palaces, new
quarters are springing up in every to-wn;
and the busy hammer of the workman is
almost too ready to efface the inroads of time,
to modernize and repair, to snatch from the
treasures of the past whatever may be pressed

THE WORK OF TEN TEARS. 259
into the service of the eager present. Those
wonderful studies of mendicity, infantUe
beauty and dirt, and barefooted friars, so
dear to the artist's eye, — ^hitherto considered
as inseparable from Italy as the blue sky or
the cicada's summer chirp — in the Sardinian
States are fast disappearing also. The beg
gars are placed in asylums, the chUdren are
sent to school, and the friars are being sup
pressed. And aU this is the work of ten years I It
is not necessary to be old to remember when,
in pohtical and reHgious intolerance, and
in opposition to any of the novelties of
the age, the Sardinian Government ranked
amongst the most despotic and conservative
of Europe.
Hence it is that the events which led to
these changes, the men by whom they have
been worked out, and the struggles of oppo
sing parties, are so bound up with Piedmon
tese life that any attempt at describing it
involves frequent reference to these topics.
Like Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain, " Qui
faisait de la prose sans le savoir" people in
s 2

260 PALACE OF THE VALENTINO.
this country, without being exactly conscious
of it, are living in history, and living very
fast too. Blame me not therefore, if, carried
away by the influences surrounding me, I
should occasionaUy write it !
The great object of public attention at
the time of my visit was the decennial
exhibition of National Industry, compre
hending every branch of native produce or
manufacture, held in the palace of the Va
lentino, on the outskirts of the city. As a
sumptuous relic of the seventeenth century,
when the Duchess Eegent Christina, daugh
ter of Henri Quatre, had introduced into
Piedmont a taste for the French style of
architecture and magnificence in decoration,
the Valentino for itseU alone is well worth
an inspection ; and a stranger could not
have seen it to greater advantage than in
the blaze, glory, and animation of those
summer days. Approached by a wide
avenue of noble trees, its peaked roofs stood
out in ghttering clearness against the deep
blue sky, and the unwonted stir around and
within its precincts, recalled the descrip-

EXHIBITION OF NATIONAL INDUSTRY. 261
tions of the revefries in which the regent
was wont to seek solace from the toils of
state, or the loneUness of 'widowhood.
Under the colonnades that form a semi
circle on either side of the piazza in front
of the palace, in shady walks laid out with
the dignified precision of the Louvre, in
long ranges of apartments on the ground
fioor, and in the grand suite of state-rooms
upon the first, were arranged the varied
specimens of industry, perseverance, and
improvement furnished by the different
provinces of the Sub- Alpine kingdom ;
Savoy, Piedmont, Genoa, Nice, and the
island of Sardinia.
Agricultural and farming implements of
aU kinds, ploughs, wine-presses, butter-
churns, honey, wax, beehives, and cheeses
of every description, from the twin-brother
of the piquant Parmesan to the rich Gor-
gonzola or the mottled Mont Cenis. Wheat,
Indian corn, beans, rice, barley, beet-roots
for the production of sugar, hops, wines,
beer, liqueurs, sausages, hams. The tine
paste in which Genoa especiaUy excels;

262 PRODUCTIONS OF PIEDMONT.
maiccaroni, vermiceUi, rings, stars, baUs ;
every imaginable variety of shape, some
white, some saffron-coloured. Chocolate,
dried and preserved fruits, others crystal
lized in sugar ; bonbons and confectionery,
which rival any that Paris can produce.
Steam-engines, models of shipping, hy
draulic and sewing machines, iron stoves,
balconies, -winding staircases, beds, sur
gical ' instruments, clocks, watches, plate,
jewelry, gold and silver filigree, and coral
variously wrought ; church ornaments, cru
cifixes, chalices, candelabras; cannons, mor
tars, fire-arms ; lead and silver from the
mountains of Savoy, rich samples of copper
ore fr-om Aosta and Pignerol, and fron from
the island of Sardinia, disclosing a source
of wealth long dormant in the country, but
now rendered available through the activity
of the Government in resuming the work
ing of mines almost wholly abandoned, and
directing the exploration of new ones,
coupled -with the generosity of King Victor
Emmanuel in throwing open to national
enterprise what had hitherto been a cro-wn

HARMONY OF ARRANGEMENT. 263
monopoly. Numerous chemical products,
composition candles, soap;, starch, colom'S,
and varnishes. Glass and earthenware.
SUk in every stage, from the cocoon to the
flowered damask of Turin, the gauze of
Chambery, or the three-piled velvet of
Genoa. WooUen stuffs, broad-cloth, carpets,
and cotton fabrics, in the manufecture of aU
which, through the removal of the duties
on the raw material, a wonderful advance is
of late discernible. Paper, hemp and cord
age, flax and linen, saddlery, vahses, travel
ling bags ; carriages and harness ; wigs,
gloves, hafr-brushes, paint-brushes, &c.
Eeady-made clothing; magnificent church
vestments, worked in gold and sUver or
coloured sUks ; embroidery and lace from
Genoa; artificial fiowers. And lastly, aU
those articles of luxury in which Piedmont
used to be almost whoUy dependent upon
France : ornamental furniture, worked up to
the highest finish, inlaid, carved, or gilded ;
mfrrors and musical instruments.
With an evident eye to harmony in ar
rangement, the nature of the articles dis-

264 THE WOMEN OF PIEDMONT.
played was adapted to the rooms in which
they were placed, so that the state apart
ments were the recipients of aU the cost
liest specimens, and from their loftiness,
gUded and painted ceUings, and richly-
sculptured doorways, gave additional effect
to the glittering objects crowded within
them. It was long since the haUs of the
Valentino had worn so gay an aspect, or
been trodden by so many feet. In every
quarter you encountered a pleased, quiet
throng, chiefly of the middle and lower
classes, for the whole thing was rather too
utilitarian to be quite to the taste of the
high world of Turin, which gave one ample
facilities for the study of national physio
gnomy. The women of Piedmont are not in
general well-favoured; they are undersized
and angular in figure, with a weather-beaten
complexion, and flat noses. This struck me
doubly, coming from Genoa, where female
grace and attractiveness are proverbial ; the
transparent white veil or pezzotto worn by
the Genoese is here also poorly replaced by

THE PIEDMONTESE COUNTENANCE. 265
caps tawdrily trimmed -with coloured rib
bons or artificial flowers. A good many
peasants were amongst the crowd, but ex
cept the women of the environs of VerceUi,
who had a curious head-gear of silver pins,
the rest wore straw hats, not white, large,
and flowing Hke the Tuscans, but dark in
hue and heavy in texture, tied under the
chin with some iU-assorted ribbon. It was
easy to see you were in a country which
had never produced any great painters.
To the men nature has been more boun-
tUul. Though fine features are compara
tively speaking rare, tall, weU-set figures, a
frank and manly bearing, might be encoun
tered at every turning. A Piedmontese
can be told at once by his open, brave, but
not over-intellectual face, in which you look
in vain for the chiseUed contour, the thought
ful brow, and quick, restless eyes of central
and southern Italy. It was interesting at
the Valentino to compare the different
Italian races, for every country in the
Peninsula was there represented. The poh
tical freedom enjoyed in Piedmont, the ex-

266 POLITICAL REFUGEES.
ceeding liberality shown towards those who
have sought in it a refuge from the perse
cution of their own Governments, have
made it the resort of scores of thousands,
many of whom are now naturalized as Sar
dinian subjects. Eomans, Lombards, Nea
politans, SicUians, have here all found a
home ; and in their affection towards the
land of their adoption seem completely to
have laid aside those miserable international
jealousies which have hitherto been the
bane of Italy. The e-vidences of the coun
try's prosperity arrayed before them, ap
peared as much a subject of congratulation
to the emigrati as to the natives, aU former
rivafries being merged into the dominant
feeling of satisfaction that, in Sardinia at
least, a centre of Italian civUization had
been preserved.
Eegarded as the fruits of ten years'
enlightened and fostering administration,
this exhibition was well entitled to be
classed as a national success. It is to
Count Cavour, the celebrated statesman at
the head of the cabinet of Turin, that this

RAILWAY ENTERPRISE. 267
development is owing; ever since his en
trance into the ministry, in the autumn
of 1850, he has laboured indefatigably in
promoting every department of industry,
commerce, and public works. Not many
months before he came into power, only
seventeen kilometres* of railway were open
to pubUc traffic in the Sardinian States. At
the end of 1858, one thousand hihmetres
were completed, besides other lines in pro
gress, the chief of which, that destined to
connect Savoy with Piedmont by piercing
through Mont Cenis, wiU be a wonder of
the world. To appreciate the activity of
the Government, no less than the public
spirit of the population in submitting to
the hea-vy taxation these works entaUed, it
must be borne in mind that they have been
carried out by a State with only five millions
of inhabitants, afready burthened -with the
expenses of the two disastrous campaigns
against the Austrians in 1848-49,, and the

* The kilometre is about two-thirds of an English
mile.

268 PROGRESS IN MACHINERY.
part it had been called upon to take in the
Crimean war in 1855. The progress of
the Piedmontese in machinery has kept pace
-with the spread of their railroads. For
merly entirely dependent upon England for
steam-engines, the Hues which intersect the
country are now traversed by locomotives
of native construction.
In aU these pursuits. Count Cavour has
met with little support from the aristocracy,
which has not yet reconcUed itself to the
change from an absolute monarchy, under
which it monopolized every channel to
power and distinction, to a representative
form of government, where absence of title is
no barrier to advancement. Except where
fighting is concerned, the Piedmontese noble
systematicaUy opposes whatever Cavour
proposes, and thinks it due to his caste to
throw as many impediments in the way of
reform as he can devise. The innovations
of the day are mourned over by fully three-
fourths of the old families of Turin, as if
the precursors of the downfall of order
and religion ; the subjects upon which the

OPPOSITION TO PROGRESS. 269
country at large feels most enthusiasm,
being precisely those regarded by these
ultra-conservatives with the greatest in
difference or aversion.

270 TURIN IN 18S8.

CHAPTEE XVI.
Turin in 1858— Partisans of the old regime — The
native Protestants — The conservative party — Their
hostility to Cavour — Clerical intolerance — The
fashionable promenade — Turinese characteristics
— The Piedmontese dialect — A marriage in high
life.
The lover of strong contrasts would have
enjoyed the transition from a morning spent
at the Valentino to an evening at the
Palazzo  , the circles of which include
the most determined codini in the kingdom.
The palace itself would have been counted
handsome even in a city more rich in hand
some palaces, and aU the accessories were
in keeping ; no slovenliness, no undemolish-
ed cobwebs, no traditional crevices. In all
this its o^wners were unconsciously doing
homage to the spirit of the age. A wdde,
weU-kept marble staircase, spacious vestibule
and ante-rooms, servants in liveries on which

PARTISANS OF THE OLD REGIME. 271
time had laid no haUowing touch, and a
suite of drawing-rooms, sparingly lighted on
account of the intense heat, but profusely
furnished with all the modern variety of
couches, causeuses, arm - chairs, rocking-
chairs and divans, looking-glasses, nick-
nacks, cushions, fiowers, everything you
could ¦wish for, except books ; of these I
could not discover a trace.
In the last saloon were the guests, not
formaUy invited, but the usual frequenters
of the marquise's weekly reunions ; a dozen
or so of ladies, dressed in the height of
Parisian fashion, either talking French or
Piedmontese (the old regime set their faces
perversely against Italian, which the Govern
ment desfres should be generaUy in use),
and calHng each other incessantly by thefr
titles, and a score of men, all seemingly
octogenarians. High in name and station,
this assemblage comprised the most con
spicuous partisans of the old system, and
by their ceremoniousness of manner, their
profound courtesies and bows, carried me
back, notwithstanding the vast difference

272 A TURIN CONVERSAZIONE.
in the material accompaniments of the
scene, to the antiquated conversazioni of the
patricians of Ancona, in which I had yawned
away so many hours.
The very way in which they greeted a
bishop in violet stockings was significant.
Such reverence belongs not to the present
order of things. In point of animation,
however, if my reminiscences did not de
ceive me, I should give the palm to the
coteries of central Italy. The talk fio-wed
more genially, barren of subjects as they
were, than among these Turinese, -with
whom peevish regrets for the past, bitter
allusions to the present, and Cassandra-like
forebodings, furnished the staple of con
versation. Seated on the outskirts of a dreary semi
circle of elegantes, some fragments of the
discourse of a group surrounding the bishop
occasionally reached my ears. It related to
the opening of the Italian Waldensian or
Valdese church in Genoa, the erection of
which they evidently considered an act of
sacrilege in the Government to have per-

[the native PROTESTANTS. 273
mitted. Of the four native Protestant
churches built within the last six years in
the Sardinian States (the others are at
Turin, Nice, and Pignerol), this has been
the most fiercely opposed by the clerical
party. I had a specimen of the bitterness
of their feelings in the stories which were
mingled with their invectives. It was in
expressibly diverting to one who knew the
straitened circumstances of the Valdese pas
tors, and the difficulties they had encountered
in raising subscriptions for the building of
this chm-ch, to hear of the immense bribes
they employed to gain converts to their
communion. Three, four, nay five thousand
francs was no uncommon largesse to a hope
ful catechumen !* The cfrculation of Bibles
was next lamented as a national calamity;
the burden of the whole being, that, through

-*¦ Apropos of this, I cannot help citing the •witticism
of a Genoese, not a convert, more just than flattering
to his townspeople. " I do not believe these charges of
bribery," be said, " not from partiality to the Valdese,
but because, if they paid people for going to their church,
half Genoa would be with them.''
VOL. II. T

274 HOSTILITY TO CAVOUR.
the impiety and atheistica-l toleration of
Cavour, the most sacred interests of rehgion
were in jeopardy.
It was the same amongst the women.
After they had discussed their chUdren's
health and perfections, for the Piedmontese
fine lad:y is a tender, anxious mother ; the
tittle-'tattle of which Turin, Hke aU smaU
capitals, has a superabundant share ; and the
court news from Vienna and Naples, as if,
in the degeneracy of thefr own monarchy,
the houses of Hapsburg and Bourbon were
alone worthy of their attention,, — ^no sub
ject could be started which faUed to bring in
the President of the Council as a mark for
their abuse. At one moment denounced as
a socialist, the next as a renegade ; whatever
went amiss, according to codino ideas, was
laid upon him. Tou heard the name of
Count de Cavour as often quoted in reference
to his capacity for evU, as that of the
Marquis of Carabas, in "Puss in Boots,"
cited by the feline phenomenon as the
holder of each fair domain on which the
king's eyes rested.

THE NOTABUJTIES. 275
AvaiUng myself of my privUege as a
stranger, I sat more as a looker-on than a
participator in the scene, and tormented my
next neighbour, an acquaintance of some
years' standing, with inqufries as to the
different notabUities who were present. The
good comtesse, knowing my inquisitive ten
dencies of old, though not indeed the fatal
propensity of transferring my ' experiences
into print, was obUgingly communicative;
her information being, of course, tinged
¦with the sombre hue pecuHar to her school
of politics.
"That fine white head belongs to the
Marquis Brignole. He is the last repre
sentative of one of the oldest famihes ia
Genoa, and for many years was ambassador
from our court — ah, we had a court then!
— to that of France ; but when the consti
tution was estabhshed in 1848, he resigned
his post. He was then named one of the
senate by the king, but his principles did
not suffer him to take the oath to a form of
government he disapproved. In 1855, how
ever, when that terrible Cavour brought in
T 2

276 A POLITICAL LEADER.
his bdl for the suppression of aU religious
orders,—" " Except those devoted to preaching, edu
cation, and the care of the sick," I observed,
parentheticaUy. " Ah ! bah ! that was but an insignificant
exception. ~V\here was I ? Well, in such
an emergency the marquis surmounted his
scruples, took his seat in the upper chamber,
and voted against the ministry. If his
resistance was unavailing, at least he had
the satisfaction of raising a noble protest
in the church's behalf."
" And that other old man, with the quick
keen eye, who is sitting on the bishop's
right?" " That is the piUar of our cause. Count
Solaro della Margherita. Tou have surely
heard of him?"
Assuredly I had. Who that lives in
Piedmont, or has read anything of Italian
contemporary history, is not familiar with
his name? For many years the absolute
minister of Charles Albert, and now
head of the extreme right, as it is termed.

DON MARGOTTI. 277
in the chamber of deputies, that smaU, very
small section of the national representatives,
which only avaUs itself of the privilege of
sitting in parhament to endeavour to over
throw the Hberties secured to the kingdom
by the charter of 1848. Forty or fifty
years hence the memoirs of this statesman
wUl reveal some curious secrets. Through
out Italy he is, whether justly or not I
do not pretend to say, accused of ha-ving
thwarted the late King Charles Albert in
every Hberal design ; and, strong in the
support of Austria and the Jesuits, to have
retarded by some years the reforms which
that monarch had long been desfrous of
introducing. " The young abbe, comtesse, who has
just come in, so studied in his dress, his
hair so glossy, surely he must be Don
Margotti?" " Quite right. Tou doubtless know aU
about him ? Our Hterary champion. Tender
is his patron, the Marquis Birago."
Both were well known to me by repu
tation. The young priest is editor of the

278 THE ORGAN OF THE CLERICALS.
" Armonia," the chief organ of the clericals,
— for by this as well as the terms codini,
obscurantists, absolutists, and retrogrades, is
that party eq\iaUy designated, — and authoi*
of a book against England, which made a
great deal of noise in Piedmont last winter.
Its title was " Eoma e Londra " its purport
being to demonstrate that, materially, in-
teUectuaUyj as weU as spiritually, the Papal
States were far in advance of Great Britain.
The Marquis Birago, celebrated in his young
days as a diplomatist and gay man of the
world, has devoted his latter years to com
bating the spread of reform. The nominal
director of the " Armonia," he has given up
the ground-fioor of his palace at Turin to
its printing-press and offices, and out of his
own income makes up the yearly deficit in
its finances ; the very fact of there being
a deficit at aU, arguing iU for the state of
the public mind, not in Piedmont merely,
but in the rest of the peninsula, where, of all
the Sardinian newspapers, the " Armonia,"
and one or two others of the same family,
alone enjoy free cirexdation.

RELIGIOUS INTIMIDATION. 279
Besides all these claims to consideration,
peculiar interest just then attached itself to
the marquis and his protege. Eeturned as
deputies at the beginning of the -winter,
thefr elections had recently been declared
invaUd on the ground of rehgions intimida
tion exercised upon the voters by the parish
priest; and the result of a new canvass
pro-ving unfavorable, nothing remained for
them but to assume the palm of political
martyrdom. " Talk of Hberty, comtesse ! " cried a very
infirm old general, whom I remembered
having heard of as one of the incapables in
the first campaign of Lombardy, as, quite
excited from a conversation with the -victims,
he broke the formal circle, and drew a chair
in front of her : "talk of Hberty, why, M. de
Cavour in this late affair has shown himself
a perfect despot — -a despot without reason,
or conscience ! Who are to advise the com
mon people to use thefr rights, since they
are forsooth to have them, except thefr
natural counsellors, their priests ;and spiri
tual directors?"

280 AN INVASION OF LAWYERS.
Not caring to argue whether the means
employed on the occasion referred to, such
as refusal of the absolution and the sacra
ments, did not exceed the limits usuaUy
supposed to constitute advice, I asked
whether M. de Cavour had, on his sole
authority, instituted this inquiry.
"Oh, of course there was the farce of a
commission appointed by the chamber, or
rather by that majority which is his tool, a
majority of lawyers ! — that despicable class
w^hifch of late years has invaded every
department of the State, ,and by their
plausibility and intrigues are bidding fair
to sweep away all that our forefathers held
honorable or sacred. And then, as if law
yers of our own were not curse enough, we
have shoals of them among the political
refugees, admitted to the parliament, yes,
even to the ministry !"
"Ah, true," sighed the comtesse, " we are
in a sad position ; still we must not lose
hope. Whenever I am unusuaUy depressed
I go and see the Duchess de  ; she
is one in a thousand for constancy and

CLERICAL INTOLERANCE. 281
courage. Do you remember, general, her
spirited conduct eight years ago, at the
time the Government had confined Mon
seigneur Franzoni, the archbishop, in the
citadel ? "
For the information of those who may
have forgotten an occurrence which at the
moment attracted aU Europe's attention, it
is necessary briefiy to mention that the
archbishop's offence consisted in peremptorUy
refusing the last consolations of religion to
the CavaUere di Santa Eosa on his death
bed, unless he solemnly retracted the share
he had borne, as one of the ministry, in the
promulgation of some ecclesiastical reforms.
Not choosing to do violence to his con
science, the dying man, though devoutly
attached to the observances of his church,
expired, amidst the tears of his -wife and
friends, without receiving the viaticum or
extreme unction. It was as a satisfaction
to the popular indignation at this act of
clerical intolerance, as weU as to -vindicate
the authority of the Government, that
the archbishop, after undergoing a few

282 A SPIRITED DUCHESS.
weeks' imprisonment, was banished from
the conntry.
"What particular instance of the duch-
esse's spirit do you allude to, comtesse?"
asked the general. "I was in Savoy at the
time, and only heard the barren facts of
the outrage committed on the venerable
prelate." "Her husband was then in the cabinet,
and of course implicated in this offence ;
but to show that she at least had no parti
cipation in it, she ordered out the old famUy
eoach -with four horses, her footmen in their
state Hveries, and drove to the citadel, taking
the most frequented streets on her way, to
offer her sympathy and condolence to mon
seigneur. There she is, madame, nearly
opposite to us."
I had scarcely taken a survey of this
modern Griselda,* when a stir was percepti
ble, a title was announced, and everybody
rose. The owner of a name which wiU be
-written in history as having held a post
* An Englishwoman by birth.

AN EQUIVOCAL GUEST. 283
in the reign of Victor Emmanuel's pre
decessor, simUar to tbat occupied in France
by a BeUe Gabrielle, or a La ValHere,
entered the saloon ; a taU and commanding
figure, with more than the remains of great
beauty in her face. UntU she took a seat,
none resumed theirs.
Queenlike she sat, and with queenlike
affabUity greeted those who advanced to
speak to her, or addressed those on either
hand, and talked about charitable societies
of which she was the patroness with the
bishop, and the last political intelligence
-with the ex-ambassador ; compUmented the
lady of the house on the beauty of her
chUdren, and congratulated the comtesse
on an approaching marriage in her famUy,
graciously announcing her intention to call
and see the bride's corbeille.
It was not the fact of her being there
which surprised me, but the deference, the
obsequiousness shown towards her. Truly,
as a specimen of the moral code of the
strictest circles, the most severely religious
of the high society of Turin, it was suffi-

284 A PIOUS SACRIFICE.
ciently diverting. But no one present had
a glimmering of this inconsistency.
"Believe me," said the comtesse, as we
parted soon after, having made an appoint
ment for the morrow to introduce me to her
niece, the bride elect, " believe me, Madame
de  is fuU of rare quaUties. Tou could
not wish for a better friend or adviser. Her
own daughter is one of the three model
wives of Turin, and reflects the highest
credit on her training, which was simple, nay
almost austere ; at the same time nothing
could surpass her maternal tenderness. I
remember a sacrifice she made upon herself
for three years, in hopes of obtaining the
blessing of a grandchild. Passionately fond
of ices, she resolutely abstained from tasting
a single one tUl her prayers were heard !"
The next morning the comtesse and I
devoted some time to the mysteries of shop
ping before proceeding to her sister's, whose
daughter's wedding presents were to be
displayed to us. The arcades or portici
which Hne the Strada di Po, and the Piazza
di CasteUo, a really magnificent square, are

AN ATTRACTIVE PROMENADE. 285
the resort of all the fashionable idlers of
both sexes in Turin, and, lined on one side
by handsome shops, open on the other to the
light and air, sheltered alike from rain and
sun, reaUy form a very attractive promenade.
As the beUes fiit from magasin to magasin,
undulating in a maze of crinoline and
flounces, they have the satisfaction of know
ing that they are passed in review by the
loungers at the cafes, as numerous under the
arcades as in every other part of the town ;
the most redoubted of these tribunals of
criticism and gossip being the Cafe Fiorio,
frequented by the cream of the aristocracy.
Even the comtesse, who, though not old,
was singularly void of pretension^ and quiet
in her deportment, thought it necessary to
evince some timidity at encountering this
ordeal. "When I am alone, madame, I always
make a great detour to avoid passing before
Fiorio's. It is astonishing what remarks
are made by those messieurs, and what stories
they contrive to get hold of. When there
is nothing else to be said, they pull one's

286 EXTRAVAGANCJE IN DRESS,
toUette to pieces, and are mercUess if every
thing is not perfectly fresh and in good taste.
I assure you the expense of dress now
amongst us is positively frightful ; and those,
like me, who have not a large income, are
almost compeUed to renounce going much
into society, unless indeed they do as some
I could point out to you, — run up bUls for
twenty or thirty thousand francs, which
their husbands wdU eventually be compeUed
to pay, at great sacrifice and inconvenience
probably ; for we have not fortunes in Pied
mont like your EngHsh nobUity."
" It is a pity that men foy their fastidious
ness contribute to this extravagance."
"Undoubtedly it is, but there is no
reasoning on the subject. A mad desire for
spending seems to pervade aU ranks. Evep
in the bourgeoisie a taste for luxury and
elegance has of late exhibited itself which
is appalling. The wives of shopkeepers
who, ten or fifteen years ago, would have
esteemed themselves happy -with a simple
cotton print, a freshly-froned cap, and a black
silk apron, for their Sunday costume, now

A TURIN. CAFE. 287
sweep along the Eue du Po in brocades of
the value of three or four hundred francs,
and with feathers in thefr bonnets !"
"StUl, comtesse, as the example comes
from above, it is not surprising it should
find imitators."
" Ah, chere, that is just one of the ideas of
the day ! For my part I cannot understand
why difference of rank should not be marked
as it used to be, by regulations as to dress.
We should see some curious transformations
then ! "
By this time we had left the dreaded
Fiorio's some way behind, and coming upon
another cafe of less dazzHng celebrity, the
open doors and windows of which gave
pleasant glimpses of spacious saloons with
gilded ceUings and mirrors, crimson velvet
sofas, and a profusion of little circular marble
tables, the comtesse proposed that we should
enter and refresh ourselves with an ice,
Turin etiquette not imposing the necessity
of male escort on such occasions.
Though the Anglo-Piedmontese GaUenga,
rendered fastidious by a quarter of a century's

288 TDRINESE CHARACTERISTICS.
sojourn in England, complains, in his recent
work on his native country, of the tawdri-
ness and dirt of the Turin cafes, they were
so superior, in my humble scale of compa
rison, to those of the other parts of Italy
where I had resided, that I found them most
welcome and inviting. There was a luxurious
sense of repose in looking forth upon the
fierce sunshine on the Piazza di Castello
through the softened twilight in which we
sat, discussing, for the moderate consideration
of twenty centimes each, two pyramidical
masses of creme a la vanille, while plants and
flowers in the window sills, without impeding
the view of the busy life without, screened
those within from the gaze of the passers-by.
In such an atmosphere the dolce far niente
would have seemed likely to predominate,
but J noticed in the people as they came
and went, in the earnestness with which
they read the newspapers, the quick, short
sentences in which they commented to each
other on their contents, even while sipping
the mixture of coffee and chocolate which
is the favourite beverage of the Turinese, a

THE PIEDMONTESE DIALECT. 289
Certain afr of decision and promptitude not
elsewhere to be found in Italy. Men of
every grade were amongst them, from those
pointed out to me by the comtesse in a
whisper as senators and deputies, to some
whose dress would have required no sump
tuary laws to deflne their position. I also
observed that ItaHan was almost universaUy
spoken, the Piedmontese patois compara
tively rarely, French not at all. This was
an indication of the cafe's politics. By the
persevering use or rejection of the Italian
language, pohtical sentiments in this country
can be pretty weU ascertained. The ministry,
bent on its general adoption, have caused it
to be substituted in the infant schools for
the native dialect, of all the dialects of the
peninsula the most guttural and the most
mutUated, an innovation the wisdom of
which it requires thorough stiff-necked
codiko-i^m. not to recognize. Instead of
learning to read, as was formerly the case, in a
tongue only partially understood, for no books
are, or used to be, printed in Piedmontese,
children are familiarized with Italian as the
VOL. II. u

290 THE ADOPTION OF ITALIAN.
preliminary step. In every department
over which its influence extends the Govern
ment shows the same desire ; the circulation
of newspapers, the presence of the emigrati,
and the discussions in the chambers power
fully assisting its endeavours, which have
only failed with the aristocracy. Hence
Italian is much more spoken by the middle
than the higher classes in Turin.
But I have digressed, whUe, to finish my
picture, it must be added that there was
less talking among the visitors at the cafe
than would have been possible in central
or southern Italy, and but Httle lounging.
Though a few appeared Ustless and unem
ployed, to the majority time was e-vidently
not a worthless commodity ; even in the ten
minutes we passed there, some of the tables
near us had more than once changed occu
pants. " Allons done" said the comtesse ; " -wha
shaU we do now ? Stay, there is the jewel
ler's where I must execute a commission for
my sister, and then, if you please, we will
pay her our visit."

MARRIAGE GIFTS. 291
At the shop we encountered a lady with
whom I had a slight acquaintance ; one of
the elegantes of Turin, of the same poUtical
opinions, but of a more mundane turn of
mind than my companion. She was ela
borately dressed in -visiting costume, and
coming towards us with both hands ex
tended, told the comtesse she was selecting
a souvenir for her niece. Not to embarrass
her choice, after a few compUmentary
phrases, we removed to some distance, the
aunt not Tory graciously commenting on
the announcement.
" A souvenir indeed ! How I detest the
indiscriminate fashion of giving presents !
It confounds friends of yesterday with one's
closest and dearest connections, and at last
is regarded as an odious tax. Just because
Madame de  was my sister's compagne
de loge last -winter, when they shared a box
at the opera, she fancies this attention is
expected of her, or rather calculates it wiU
give her eclat, when aU the gifts are shown,
to be cited as one of the donors. Look at
her now, what open sleeves, and how short !
u 3

292 AN APPROACHING MARRIAGE.
All to display her arms, she is so vain of
them ! Tou may be sure she has been ex
hibiting them before Fiorio's. I shall hear
from my brother, who is generaUy there.
Do you not think them too stout?"
The approach of their owner here cut
short any more disparaging observations,
and the house to which we were bound
being close at hand, we all proceeded thither
very lo-vingly together.
Just before we arrived I bethought my
self that amidst all the rejoicing over the
approaching marriage, I had not heard a
single word -with respect to the bridegroom's
mental or personal attractions, and guard
edly ventured on some inquiries concerning
him. "He is a very fine young man," said the
comtesse, seemingly indifferent to what
might have been thought no inconsiderable
adjunct to the favourable features of this
match; "just twenty-five. Therese is
nineteen." Upon hearing this I hazarded the sup
position that, both being young and good-

A NOVEL KIND OF MISFORTUNE. 293
looking, they were in all probability at
tached. " He is certainly very much taken with
Therese, and she, as far of course as she
can understand such feeUngs, is greatly
pleased -with him. I hope it may turn out
weU," added the good lady dubiously, " but
one always fears for these marriages of
affection." A sentiment to which the Mar
quise de  , the fair one of the arms,
adjusting her bracelets, uttered so fervent a
response, that I at once concluded her to
be a victim to this novel kind of misfor
tune. The subject of these forebodings was
waiting -with her mother to receive us, all
smUes and ecstasy, and without delay we
were admitted to gaze on the glories of
the trousseau and corbeille, before they were
exposed to the general run of visitors. The
trousseau, it is scarcely necessary to state,
comprises the bride's outfit in wearing ap
parel, carried now-a-days in Piedmont to
the most lavish profusion, twelve dozen of
each description of underclothing not being

294 THE TROUSSEAU.
considered anything out of the common
way : the corbeille is a general term for all
the bridegroom's presents, formerly enclosed
in a basket of elegant workmanship and
decoration. In these days of change, how
ever, the genuine corbeille is replaced by
an inlaid coffer, or any other sort of expen
sive receptacle. An elaborately -ornamented
work-table had in this instance been chosen
by the bridegroom to contain his offerings.
Mademoiselle Therese stands by, radiant
with joy and pride, whUe her mother turns
the key; and there, amid satin and lace,
repose two Cashmere shawls. One from
India; four thousand francs could scarcely
have procured it, the gay marquise hastUy
calculates. The other French, but so beau
tUul a production that the most practised
eye could scarcely detect the difierence.
Ah, how lovely, how enchanting 1 But
see here, that garniture of Brussels lace ;
flounces, the bridal veU„ trimming for
berthe 1 What, a similar set ia black
ChantiUy ! Never, never has she seen
their equal. There are, besides, dozens and

CONTENTS OF THE CORBEILLE. 295
dozens of gloves from Jou-vin's, fans, and
embroidered handkerchiefs, some with the
coronet of a marquise surmounting the
name of Therese, each letter a perfect
study of delicate fiowery needle-craft ; others
with her famUy arms united with those of
the bridegroom on the same escutcheon.
What precision in the work, what exquisite
cambric ! Who would not be married to
gain such treasures?
"And the diamonds?" Even the com
tesse grows excited now, as the mamma
calmly touches a spring, and the casket
flies open. It is the crowning stroke ; few
brides in Turin can boast its equal. The
diadem, the sprays for the hair, the pen
dants, the necklace. Oh, how entrancingly
beautiful they are ! The marquise devours
them with greedy eyes ; the aunt, stifling a
sigh at the thought that she has no daugh
ter to marry, mingled perhaps with a mo
mentary pang at the contrast to her own
modest corbdlle fifteen years before, looks
proud and gratified, — ^not the less so because
she has detected the emotion of the com-

296 PRESENTS FROM THE BRIDEGROOM.
pagne de loge, on whom, since the intimacy
with her sister, she bestows her intense
aversion. "But that is not aU," said the bride's
mother, who, though older than my com
tesse, yet, as being handsomer and much
richer, still kept her place as a belle, "we
have a few trifles here besides." And a set
of pearls, a watch, rich chain, and all sorts
of those ornamental trifles caUed breloques,
were successively exhibited.
" And all this from your futur ?" The
rese smilingly assents. " My chUd, you are
indeed happy ! " and the marquise kisses
her with warmth, mentaUy weighing the
chances of finding for her own daughter,
when she comes home from the convent
where she is being educated, a match equal
in wealth or munificence.
" Then there are all the other pretty
presents and souvenirs" and the mamma
opens a cabinet of ivory and ebony, from
the drawers of which she produces an infi
nite variety of morocco cases, some round,
some long, some oval-shaped. Bracelets,

THE GIFTS OF ACQUAINTANCES. 297
ah, what bracelets! Enamelled, gem-en
crusted, plain, arabesqued, inlaid, circles of
emeralds and pearls, gold and coral, diamonds
and rubies. Earrings too, and brooches to
correspond. Crosses and lockets : a perfect
shopful of trinkets. It is the realization
of many a maiden's dream ; surely of thine
Therese !
Every relation of the two families, al
most every acquaintance, was here repre
sented ; the ambition of not being outdone
in generosity on these occasions of almost
public display, leading many of the donors,
as the comtesse had truly said, and as I
found confirmed by general opinion, to
regard as a hea-vy tribute to custom that
which should be the spontaneous offering
of friendship. But a truce to such reflec
tions. The marquise has produced her
present, aud a glittering bauble of some
three hundred francs' value is added to the
young bride's collection.
Fortunate Therese ! Her wedding dress
is now brought forward. Being summer
time, white muslin has been selected as the

298 LA TOILETTE DE MARIEE.
most appropriate material, but this is so
richly embroidered as to render it most
costly. Her mother relates with complacency
that the dressmaker has just sent her word
that so magnificent a toilette de mariee has
never issued from her work-rooms. Therese
drinks aU this in with silent rapture. What
would it matter if she had to marry the
Beast in the fairy-tale, with the certainty
he could never turn into the Prince to boot,
so long as aU these joys are hers ? Of her
future husband, except as the appendage to
thefr possession, she clearly never thinks,
never has been taught to think. For the
results of a marriage of affection such as
this, the comtesse need have no fears.

THE HOUSE OF SAVOY. 299

CHAPTEE XVII.
The'' House of Savoy — Its -warlike princes — The
Green Count — Prostration of Piedmont — Persecu
tion of the Vaudois — ^The Island of Sardinia —
Genoa added to Piedmont — The constitution of
1848 — ^War ¦with Austria — ^Victor Emmanuel.
I SHALL not even take up one of the very
few pages left at my disposal by any de
scriptions of the royal palace, the armoury,
the churches, the houses of parliament, and
the various other sights of Turin ; neither
do I purpose indulging in any further femi
nine gossip respecting its domestic manners.
I wiU rather close these sketches of ItaUan
Hfe and contemporary history wdth a brief
account of the rise and development of the
Sardinian monarchy, whieh has proved the
nucleus of Italian independence.
The founder of the House of Savoy, the

300 ITS ORIGIN.
oldest reigning house in Europe, was
Beroldo, a powerful vassal of the Duke of
Burgundy, who in the year 1000 was in
vested with the fief of Maurienne, in Savoy,
in the possession of which he was succeeded
by his eldest son, Umberto the White-
handed ; so named, it is recorded, from- the
unspotted honour and integrity of all his
dealings. It is good for a family, whether royal or
otherwise, to have the example of such an
ancestor to emulate"; and accordingly, we
find his successors, in an age when the code
of Chivalry embodied all the -virtues deemed
essential to the well-being of society, prov
ing themselves good knights and true, and
spreading the fame of their prowess far
beyond the narrow Hmits of thefr territo
ries. By his marriage with Adelaide of
Susa, a powerful and gUted princess, who
brought as her dowry a considerable portion
of the most fertile parts of Piedmont, the
Count Oddone, fourth of his line, estabhshed
a footing on the ItaHan side of the Alps,
which secured Turin, Susa, Pignerol, and

ITS WARLIKE PRINCES. 301
the vaUeys since so famous as the abode of
the Waldenses, together with the title of
Marquis of Italy to his descendants.
Among the most warlike of these princes,
we find Amadeus IIL, who died in the
Second Crusade, and Amadeus V., celebrated
as the deUverer of Ehodes ; while tbe names
of two others are too singularly interwoven
with EngHsh history to pass unnoticed. Of
these, the first was the Comte Pierre, uncle
by marriage to our Henry III., who fre
quently visited England, was loaded with
favours, and created Earl of Eichmond by
that monarch ; — the Palace of the Savoy
being, moreover, expressly built for his
residence. His son, Thomas I., enjoyed the same
favour, which no doubt contributed to in
crease the discontent expressed by the Eng
lish at thefr king's partiaUty for foreigners,
and the expenses he incurred in entertaining
them. One of the fiattering distinctions
paid to the Count of Savoy we should, how
ever, in this age consider no wasteful super
fluity — the streets of London, we are ex-

302 THE HERO OF SAVOY.
pressly told, ha-ving been swept in honour
of his arrival. Both these princes possessed
a great reputation for sagacity and modera
tion, especiaUy the Comte Pierre, who was
chosen as arbitrator in a quarrel between
Henry and his prelates; and on another
occasion negotiated peace between France
and England.
But the hero of the house of Savoy, on
whose fame the chronicles of the period love
to dweU — ^whose daring and achievements,
too, would require the genius of a Scott to
have depicted — is Amadeus VT., commonly
kno-wn as the Comte Vert, one of the most
renowned princes of the fourteenth cen
tury. He first displayed his address in arms at
a solemn tournament held at Chambery,
the capital of Savoy, when he was but four
teen years of age, and presented himseU in
the lists arrayed in green armour, surrounded
by esquires and pages simUarly equipped.
It was to commemorate his success on this
occasion, when he obtained the suffrages of
the assembled flower of European Chivafry,

EXPEDITION TO THE EAST. 303
that Amadeus adopted green as his especia
colour, from which his surname of the
Comte Vert was derived.
The great event of this reign was the
expedition in aid of John Palseologus, Em
peror of the East, who, being sorely pressed
by Amurath at the head of his fierce Otto
mans, implored the assistance of Christen
dom to prop his tottering throne. His
kinsman, the Count of Savoy, promptly
responded to this appeal; and causing a
large fleet of galleys to be fitted out at
Venice, repafred thither, across Italy, wit
a large force of knights, men-at-arms,
archers, and sUngers. A contemporary
-writer relates how, the day of departure
ha-ving arrived, " the noble count, foUowed
by his princes and barons, walking two and
two, attired in surcoats of green velvet,
richly embroidered, proceeded to the place
of embarkation. Bands of music, going
before, fiUed the air with harmony ; while
the people of Venice, thronging to behold
this goodly spectacle, broke forth into shouts
of 'Savoia! Savoia!' amidst which, and

304 AMADEUS IN BULGARIA.
prolonged fiourishes of trumpets, the Comte
Vert put to sea, 1366 a.d."
GaUipoli, a stronghold of the Turks, who
thus closely menaced the safety of the
imperial capital, was the first object of
attack; and being carried by assault, the
white cross of Savoy was displayed upon its
waUs. From thence proceeding to Con
stantinople, the count learned the disastrous
intelligence, that the emperor was a prisoner
in the hands of the Bulgarians. Deter
mined to effect his deliverance, he at once
passed the Bosphorus, entered the Black
Sea, and landed on the shores of Bulgaria.
Mesembria was taken by storm ; and Varna,
an opulent and strongly-fortified city, was
obliged to capitulate. These rapid victories
compelled the enemy to sue for peace, of
which the liberation of the emperor was
the first condition.
Eetuming in triumph to Constantinople
with the monarch whom his prowess had
set free, Amadeus seems to have experienced
the proverbial thanklessness of the PalseO-
logi ; for, as the chronicler pithUy remarks.

THE " GREEN COUNT." 305
"it was reserved for Italy, by her magnifi
cent reception of the Comte Vert, to atone
to him for the ingratitude of the Greeks."
A stiU more remarkable e-vidence of the
estimation in which Amadeus was held, is
given by the fact of his being elected, a few
years later, to decide on the conflicting
claims of the rival republics of Genoa and
Venice, between whom many sovereign
princes, even the supreme pontiff himself,
had ineffectuaUy attempted to mediate. On
an appointed day, the envoys of the con
tending States appeared before the Count of
Savoy at Turin, and set forth their respec
tive grievances, which he duly weighed and
pondered over ; then himself drawing up
solemn articles of peace, they were sworn
to and signed in his presence.
In the reign foUowing that of the re
nowned Green Count, Nice, and a portion
of the western shores of the Mediterranean,
became incorporated -with Piedmont and
Savoy, by a nobler triumph than that of
conquest, having petitioned to be united to
the dominions of the House of Savoy, as
VOL. II. X '

306 LIFE OF AMADEUS VIII.
a guarantee of just and paternal govern
ment. The hfe of Amadeus VIIL, who flourished
contemporarily -with our Henry VI. and the
disastrous Wars of the Eoses, is another
romance, which in the days when that style
of composition was popular, would have
furnished materials for half-a-dozen histori
cal novels. After considerably extending his
possessions in Piedmont, he received from
the Emperor Sigismund of Germany—
which country exercised a sort of suzerain-
ship over Italy that, with the single excep
tion of the kingdom of Sardinia, Austria
retained up till 1859 — the title of Duke, in
Ueu of Count of Savoy. Eeno-wned for
his -wisdom, courage, and political foresight,
Amadeus, when stUl in the meridian of his
glory, abdicated, and with six of his former
companions-in-arms and trusty counseUors,
retfred to the hermitage of EipaUle, near
the lake of Geneva. The asceticism here
practised does not appear to have been
very severe, since faire BipaiUe has passed
into a proverb in Switzerland, to indicate

PROSTRATION OF PIEDMONT. 307
good cheer and easy living; but be this
as it may, the duke was some years after
wards summoned from his retirement,
ha-ving been elected pope under the title
of Felix V.
For nearly a century foUowing, the pro
sperity of the duchy was overcast; feeble
princes, alternating with feebler regencies
and their attendant evUs, held the reins of
govemment, and Piedmont became the
arena on which the French and Imperialists
contended. The Duke's of Savoy, alternately
forced into aUiance with Francis I. of France
and the Emperor Charles V., the position of
thefr territories rendering it impossible for
them to preserve neutrality, lost equaUy
from friend and foe. Far from being able
to foUow up the cherished policy of their
famUy, and as the reward of their aUegiance
obtain " a few leaves of that artichoke
Lombardy," to the possession of which they
had ever aspfred, they saw themselves
gradually stripped of their ancestraP domi
nions, tiU a single town in Piedmont was
aU that remained in their hands.

308 RESTORATION OF TERRITORY.
The singular firmness and energy of cha
racter which distinguishes these Highlanders
of Italy, as they are termed, seems but to
have gained strength from these vicissitudes.
In the reign of Duke Emmanuel Philibert,
" the Iron-headed," we find the House of
Savoy restored to more than its pristine
lustre, and reinstated in its former posses
sions, with the single exception of Geneva,
which in the general turmoil had succeeded
in establishing its independence. At a later
period this prince, to strengthen his position
in Italy, exchanged with Henri Quatre,
Bourg en Bresse, Val Eomey, and Bugey in
Savoy, against the Marquisate of Saluzzo,
adjoining Pignerol, at the foot of the Alps.
This province had long been in possession
of the French, and its transfer to Piedmont,
though purchased by a sacrifice as respected
extent of territory, was looked upon as a
great step towards national independence,
and the adoption of a clearly-defined Italian
policy. An evil phase in the history of Piedmont,
is the persecution of the Waldenses or Van-

PERSECUTION OF VAUDOIS. 309
dois. Established in their sub-alpine val
leys and fastnesses from a very remote period,
these sturdy champions of primitive Chris
tianity were a constant source of umbrage
to the papal see, who incited the princes of
Savoy, as loyal servants of the church, to
extfrpate such foul heresy from their States.
One of the most terrible of the ruthless cru
sades to which they were subjected was that
in 1655, made famUiar to most of us by
MUton's noble hymn, " Avenge, 0 Lord, thy
slaughtered saints,"and CromweU's energetic
remonstrance with the court of Turin in their
behaU. It was not tiU the end of the seven
teenth century that the sword of persecution
was finaUy sheathed, although considerable
restrictions still continued to be imposed
upon the Vaudois, who were, nevertheless,
remarkable for their faithful allegiance to
their sovereign, and for their courage and
hardihood as soldiers. The constitution of
1 848 finaUy secured them the right to exer
cise their worship in any part of the Sar
dinian dominions ; and placed them on per
fect equahty with the Catholic popidation.

310 EXPEDITION AGAINST GENOA.
A Waldensian, Signor Malan, sits in the
Chamber of Deputies.
Little anticipating the tolerance their
successors would one day exhibit, the heresy,
no less than the independence of Geneva,
was a grievous thorn in the flesh to the
Dukes of Savoy, who could not easily forego
their former right to its dominion; and in
1602, a formidable expedition was secretly
organized against it by Charles Emmanuel
I., with the concurrence of the courts of
Eome, Paris, and Madrid. Three hundred
volunteers from the main body of the army
had actuaUy, in the dead of the night, suc
ceeded in scahng the waUs, when the prema
ture explosion of a petard, designed to force
open the city-gates, gave the alarm. The inha
bitants, some hastily armed, others half-clad
as they sprang from their slumbers, rushed
into the streets, and drove back the invaders
-with great loss. Finding their retreat cut
off by the destruction of the ladders by
which they had ascended, the few survivors
flung themselves from the ramparts into the
ditch, and carried the inteUigence of their

PIEDMONT AND THE IMPERIALISTS. 311
defeat to the Dulce of Savoy, who was ad
vancing to reap the enjoyment of the triumph
he afready deemed secure. The Escalade,
as it is termed, is justly celebrated in the
annals of Geneva, which, six months after,
concluded a treaty with Savoy, on terms as
flattering to herseU as they were mortifying
to the duke, who said in his last illness,
"that those rebels of Geneva weighed like
lead upon his stomach."
The opening of the eighteenth century
again beheld Piedmont the theatre of bloody
wars, in consequence of the disputed suc
cession to the cro-wn of Spain. The duke
sided with the imperial party, which England
also supported, and saw his States overrun
by the Erench, who for some time held
possession of Turin. The siege and re
capture of his capital — in which Victor
Amadeus II. was aided by his cousin, the
celebrated Prince Eugene, Marlborough's
coUeague — ^was the turning point in his
fortunes. The latter part of his reign was
marked with signal prosperity. Invested
with the title of King of Sardinia, the island

312 THE ISLAND OF SARDINIA.
of that name having been transferred from
the possession of Spain, and bestowed on
him as some compensation for his losses and
sacrifices in the war, he devoted himself to
the embellishment of Turin, the formation
of a standing army, and the restoration of
the finances of the State, leaving behind him
a reputation for indomitable energy and
perseverance, on which the historians of
Piedmont dweU with pardonable pride.
His successor steadily pursued his poUcy,
and obtained some part of the MUanese
territory — a few more leaves of the arti
choke, towards which, Hke every enterprising
prince of his line, his pohtical views were
constantly directed.
The outbreak of the first French Eevolu
tion again threatened the House of Savoy
with destruction. Almost simultaneously,
in 1792, the territory of Nice, and the whole
of Savoy, were invaded, and occupied by
the troops of the Directory; a few years
later. Piedmont was incorporated into the
French dominions, and Sardinia was aU
that remained to Charles Emmanuel TV.,

GENOA ADDED TO PIEDMONT. 313
who, in 1796, succeeded to what he bit
terly designated as "a veritable crown of
thorns." From this utter prostration, this dynasty,
with that singular rebound observable in its
annals, was recaUed in 1814 to its continental
. possessions, with the addition of Genoa, who
reluctantly saw herself degraded from her
independent position as a republic, to form
part of a kingdom which had long excited
her jealousy and apprehension.
Between this period and 1848 the history
of Piedmont offers little of interest. The
quiet development of its internal resources,
the accumulating wealth of its exchequer
the minute care bestowed on its army, being
less conspicuous to a general observer, than
the severity of its pohce, the rigour -with
which aU political freedom of speech or
writing was proscribed, and the especial
protection which the Jesuits enjoyed. As
before remarked, the Sardinian Government
was looked upon as one of the most despotic
of Europe, and its king as the most priest-
ridden of princes.

314 THE CONSTITUTION OF 1848.
Even the example of Pius IX. did not at
first produce any perceptible results ; and
for more than a year after the famous
amnesty to the Eomans not a change in the
existing system at Turin foreshadowed the
coming reforms.
The year 1848 is memorable for Piedmont.
At its opening came the royal gift, the long
yearned- for Constitution, embodying ahke
the freedom of the press, religious toleration,
parliamentary institutions, a political am
nesty, the formation of the National Guard,
and the removal of numerous legal and ad
ministrative abuses.
Austria's suspicions were aroused, and she
remonstrated. But in vain. The time had
come ; the mask of years was thrown aside,
and Charles Albert stood forth the avowed
champion of Italian unity and independence.
Three men to whom Italy is under lasting
obligations, Gioberti, Count Balbo, and the
Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio, by their -writings
had introduced an unwonted unity of action
and moderation of aims amongst their
countrymen. They taught them to sub-

WAR WITH AUSTRIA. 315
stitute for the republican theories, which
had been the bane of ItaHan patriots, those
aspirations for constitutional monarchy, and
for deliverance from the yoke of Austria,
which in Charles Albert found their imperso
nation and their instrument. Everywhere
haUed with enthusiasm as the appointed
regenerator of Italy, the fulfilment of the
destinies of his house now seemed within
his grasp; and the poetical veneration he
had always borne to the memory of his an
cestor the Green Count, whose device,
" J'attends mon astre," he had long before
adopted, acquired greater force and signifi
cance. At the invitation of the insurgent Mi
lanese, he threw down the gauntlet against
Austria, and with his two gaUant sons, the
Dukes of Savoy and Genoa, marched at
the head of his army into Lombardy. But
he was not suffered to reap where he had
sown. To Charles Albert it was only given
to lay the foundation of the edifice his son
is raising to such loftiness. When, after
two disastrous campaigns, and witness-

316 BATTLE OF NOVARA.
ing the total overthrow of his forces on the
bloody field of Novara in March, 1849, he
died in self-imposed exile at Oporto, there
was little in the aspect of affairs in Piedmont,
to give grounds for sanguine pre-visions for
the future.
Dangers of no ordinary description hung
over the kingdom he had resigned; or, to
speak more correctly, the insti-tutions he had
inaugurated. The situation of the young
king might weU be termed desperate. A
victorious enemy on his borders, a shattered
army, an exhausted treasury, his clergy and
nobility disaffected to the new order of
things; to crown aU, absolutism triumph
ant all over Italy, and the certainty that
Austria was only watching for a pretext for
a fresh invasion. It needed but for him to
have annuUed his father's concessions, to
propitiate a large number of his subjects,
disarm the hostility of his powerful neigh-
bonr and her sateUites, and possess himself
of those privileges of which his predecessor
had stripped the crown. It wiU be regis
tered in the grateful hearts of miUions yet

VICTOR EMMANUEL. 317
unborn, that VictorEmmanuel was proof aUlie
to warnings, entreaties, and blandishments.
Through e-vil and good report, kinglike and
manfuUy did he uphold the constitution to
which he had sworn, tiU he met his reward
in the wondrous confidence and enthusiasm
of which he is now the object.
It is not a sudden impulse, this love of
the Italians for Victor Emmanuel. On the
contrary, when he mounted the throne, so
great was the universal hatred for kings,
generated by the perfidy of thefr o-wn
princes, that few reposed behef in his assu
rances. It was only when he was seen
firmly contending with Eome against her
encroachments and intolerance; throwing
open his States to the political refugee with
out regard to his opinions, equaUy sheltering
constitutionalist or republican; unfiinching
in maintaining the liberty of the press,
and the dignity of the country, despite the
menaces of Austria, and ever eager in pro
moting national prosperity and enterprise;
that the prejudice against monarchy was
overcome, and the Italians, from Venice to

318 THE HOPES OF ITALY.
Etna bestowed, upon him the surname of the
" Be galantuomo."
To the influence of Azeglio and Cavour,
one or other of whom has rarely been
absent from his councils since his accession,
much is no doubt due ; but while fuUy ac
knowledging their obligations to the patri
otism, courage, and intrepidity of these
ministers, as weU as to the host of eminent
men they have gathered round them from
all parts of the peninsula, the ItaUans never
forget to give the chief glory to Victor
Emmanuel. Without his steadfast adherence
to the Constitution, as to a trust bequeathed
him by his father, Italy would not now be
looking forward to assuming her place
among the nations.

THE END.

¦Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.

NO^W IN COCBSB OP PUBLIOATION,
HURST MD BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY
OF CHEAP EDITIONS OF
POPULAK MODERN WORKS.
Eaoli in a single volume, elegantly printed, bound, and illustrated, price 5s.
A Tolume to appear every two months. The following are now ready.
VOL. I.— SAM SLICK'S NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE.
ILLUSTRATED BT LEECH,
" The first volume"of Messrs Hurst and Bla«kett's Standard Library of Cheap Editions
of Popular Modern "Works forms a verygood beginning to what will doubtless be a very
successfol undertaking. 'Nature and Human Nature'^ is one of the best of Sam Slick's
witty and humorous productions, and well entitled to the large circulation which it
cannot fail to obtain in its present convenient and cheap shape. The volume combines
with the great recommendations of a clear, bold type, and good paper, the lesser, but
StUl attractive merits, of being well illustrated and elegantly bound."— ^oDiinj)' Post.
" This new and cheap edition of Sam Slick's popular work will be an acquisition to
all lovers of ¦wit and humour. Mr Justice Haliburton's writings are so well known to
the English public that no commendation is needed. The volume is very handsomely
hound and illustrated, and the paper and type are excellent. It is in every way suited
for a library edition, and as the names of Messrs Hurst and Blackett warrant the
character of the works to be produced in their Standard Library, we have no doubt the
project will be eminently successful."— 5«».
VOL. IL— JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN.
"This is a very good and a very interesting work. It is designed to trace the career
from boyhood to age of a perfect man—a Christian gentleman, and it abounds in incident
both well and highly wrought. ¦.* Throughout it is conceived.in a high spirit, and written
with great ability. This cheap and handsome new edition is worthy to pass freely from
hand to hand as a gift book in many households." — Examiner.
" The new and cheaper edition of this interesting work will doubtless meet with great
success. John Halifax, the hero of this most beautiful story, is no ordinary hero, ajid this,
his history, is no ordinarjr book. It is a full-length portrait of a true gentleman, one of
nature's own nobility, it is also the history of a home, and a thoroughly English one.
The work abounds in incident, and many of the scenes are full of graphic power and true
pathos. It is a book that few will read without becoming wiser and better." — Scotsman,
VOL. ni.— THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
BY ELIOT WARBURTON.
"Independent of its value as an original narrative, and its useful and interesting
information, this work is remarkable for the colouring power and play of fancy with
which its descriptions are enlivened. Among its greatest aud most lasting charms is its
reverent and serious spirit."— puarterij; Review.
" A book calculated to prove more practically useful was never penned than ' The
Crescent and the Cross'— a work which surpasses all others in its homage for the sub
lime and its love for the beautiful in those famous regions consecrated to everlasting
immortality in the annals of the prophets, and which no other writer has ever depicted
with a pencil at once so reverent and so picturesque." — Sun.
VOL. IV.— NATHALIE. BY JULIA KAVANAGH.
" ' Nathalie ' is Miss Kavanagh's best imaginative effort. Its manner is gracious and
attractive. Its matter is good. A sentiment, atendemess, are commanded by her which
are as individual as they are elegant. "We should uot soon come to an end were we to
specify all the delicate touches and attractive pictures whichplace ' Nathalie ' high among
books ofits class." — Athentcum.
" A more judicious selection than 'Nathalie' could not have been made for Messrs
Hurst and Blackett's Standard Library. The series aa it advances realises our first im
pression, that it will be one of lasting celebrity."— Xiicrarj; Gazette.
[job OTHEB VOIUMES SEE NEXT PA&E.]

HURST AND BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY
(CONTINrBD).

VOL. v.— A WOMAN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN.
BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN."
" A book of sound gounsel. It is oue of the most sensible works of its kind, well-writ
ten, true-hearted, and altogether practical. "Whoever, wishes to give advice to a young
lady may thank the author for means of doing so."— Examiner.
" These thoughts are good and humane. They are thoughts we would wish women to
think." — AtJientsum.
" This really valuable volume ought to be in every young woman's hand. It will teach
her how to think and how to acV~ Literary Gazette.
VOL. VL— ADAM GRAEME OF MOSSGRAY.
BY THE AUTHOR OF " MRS; MARGARET MAITLAND."
" ¦ Adam Graeme ' ia a story awakening genuine emotions of interest and delight by its
admirable pictures of Scottish life and scenery. The plot is cleverly complicated, aud
there is great vitality in the dialogue, and remarkable brilliancy in the descriptive pas
sages. The elociuent author sets before us the essential attributes of Christian virtue,
their deep and silent workings in the heart, aud their beautiful manifestations in the
life, with a delicacy, a power, and atruth which can hardly be surpassed."— Pos*.
VOL. VIL— SAM SLICK'S WISE SAWS
AND MODERN INSTANCES.
"The best of all Judge Haliburton's admirable works. It is one of the pleasantest
books we ever read, aud we earnestly recommend it." — Standard.
" The present production is remarkable alike for its racy humour, its sound philo
sophy, the felicity of its illustrations, and the delicacy of its satire.— JPos*.
VOL. VIIL— CARDINAL WISEMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS
OF THE LAST FOUR POPES.
"•A picturesque book on Rome and its ecclesiastical sovereigns, by an eloquent Bioman
Catholic. Cardinal "Wiseman has here treated a special subject with so much generaUty
and geniality, that his BecoUections will excite no ill-feeling in those who are most
conscientiously opposed to every idea of human iiif aUibUity represented in Papal domiu-
ation."— ..4 ¦"

VOL. IX.— A LIFE FOR A LIFE.
BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN."
" "We are always glad to mention Miss Muloch. She avrites from her own convictions,
and she has the power not only to conceive clearly what it is that she wishes to say, but
to express it in language effective and vigorous. In 'A Life for a Life ' she is fortunate
in a good subject, and .she has produced a work of strong effect. The reader having
read the book through for the story, will be apt (if he be of our persuasion) to return
and rekd again many pages and passages with greater pleasure than on a fu'St perusal.
The whole"book is replete with a gi-aeeful, tender delicacy; and, in addition to its other
merits, it is written iii good, careful English."— Atlienaum.
VOL. X.— THE OLD COURT SUBURB.
BY LEIGH HUNT. {May 1.)
" A delightful book. A work that will be welcome to all readers, and most welcome
to those who have a love for tjie best kinds of reaMng."— Examiner.
"Amore agreeable and entertaining book has not been published since Boswell pro
duced his reminiscences of Jokasoia."— Observer.
HtlBBT AHD ElACIUSIT, PUBLISHEUS, 13, GUEAT MiVBlBOECUGH STllEET.