dominions reached half-way up a neighboring hill; but at present they
are reduced to their old extent....

The chief officers of the commonwealth are the two capitaneos, who have
such a power as the old Roman consuls had, but are chosen every six
months. I talked with some that had been capitaneos six or seven times,
tho the office is never to be continued to the same persons twice
successively. The third officer is the commissary, who judges in all
civil and criminal matters. But because the many alliances, friendships,
and intermarriages, as well as the personal feuds and animosities, that
happen among so small a people might obstruct the course of justice, if
one of their own number had the distribution of it, they have always a
foreigner for this employ, whom they choose for three years, and
maintain out of the public stock. He must be a doctor of law, and a man
of known integrity. He is joined in commission with the capitaneos, and
acts something like the recorder of London under the lord mayor. The
commonwealth of Genoa was forced to make use of a foreign judge for many
years, while their republic was torn into the divisions of Guelphs and
Ghibelines. The fourth man in the state is the physician, who must
likewise be a stranger, and is maintained by a public salary. He is
obliged to keep a horse, to visit the sick, and to inspect all drugs
that are imported. He must be at least thirty-five years old, a doctor
of the faculty, and eminent for his religion and honesty, that his
rashness or ignorance may not unpeople the commonwealth. And, that they
may not suffer long under any bad choice, he is elected only for three
years.

The people are esteemed very honest and rigorous in the execution of
justice, and seem to live more happy and contented among their rocks and
snows, than others of the Italians do in the pleasantest valleys of the
world. Nothing, indeed, can be a greater instance of the natural love
that mankind has for liberty, and of their aversion to an arbitrary
government, than such a savage mountain covered with people, and the
Campania of Rome, which lies in the same country, almost destitute of
inhabitants.

PERUGIA[26]

BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

We pursued our way, and came, by and by, to the foot of the high hill on
which stands Perugia, and which is so long and steep that Gaetano took a
yoke of oxen to aid his horses in the ascent. We all, except my wife,
walked a part of the way up, and