cene of our wreck,
and found the diligence stranded high and dry upon the roadside, that
we could believe the whole landscape about us had been flooded three
days before. The offending stream had shrunk back to its channel, and
now seemed to feign an unconsciousness of its late excess, and had
a virtuous air of not knowing how in the world to account for that
upturned diligence. The waters, we learned, had begun to subside the
night after our disaster; and the vehicle might have been righted
and drawn off--for it was not in the least injured--forty-eight hours
previously; but I suppose it was not _en regle_ to touch it without
orders from Rome. I picture it to myself still lying there, in the
heart of the marshes, and thrilling sympathetic travel with the
spectacle of its ultimate ruin:

"Disfecemi Maremma."

We reached Follonica at last, and then the cars hurried us to Leghorn.
We were thoroughly humbled in spirit, and had no longer any doubt
that we did ill to take the diligence at Civita Vecchia instead of
the steamer; for we had been, not nineteen hours, but four days on the
road, and we had suffered as aforementioned.

But we were destined to be partially restored to our self-esteem, if
not entirely comforted for our losses, when we sat down to dinner in
the Hotel Washington, and the urbane head-waiter, catching the drift
of our English discourse, asked us,--

"Have the signori heard that the French steamer, which left Civita
Vecchia the same day with their diligence, had to put back and lie in
port more than two days on account of the storm? She is but now come
into Leghorn, after a very dangerous passage."

AT PADUA

I.

Those of my readers who have frequented the garden of Doctor
Rappaccini no doubt recall with perfect distinctness the quaint
old city of Padua. They remember its miles and miles of dim arcade
over-roofing the sidewalks everywhere, affording excellent opportunity
for the flirtation of lovers by day and the vengeance of rivals by
night. They have seen the now-vacant streets thronged with maskers,
and the Venetian Podesta going in gorgeous state to and from the vast
Palazzo della Ragione. They have witnessed ringing tournaments in
those sad empty squares, and races in the Prato della Valle, and
many other wonders of different epochs, and their pleasure makes me
half-sorry that I should have lived for several years within an hour
by rail from Padua, and should know little or nothing