domestic hearth"
seemed an impossible attainment in this dreary old _palazzo_. The social
amenities must wither in its desolate atmosphere, and dwindle to chill
shadows, like the ghosts that haunt the attic story.

To complete the air of saddening vacancy that clung like a damp to the
really arid white walls, when the brothers led us down a wide staircase
to the vaulted space beneath the basement, we came upon some hundreds of
small bird-cages, containing each a miserable linnet, titmouse, or
finch, condemned to chirp out its wretched existence in this airless
underground region. In reply to our pitying exclamation, we were told
that the bachelors' friend who occupied the corner apartment on the
ground-floor was a great sportsman, and devotedly fond of _la caccia_;
that these unhappy little prisoners were employed by him in the season
as decoy-birds; that they were kept in these dungeons during the other
months of the year; and that they were BLINDED to make them sing better
and be more serviceable at the period when he needed them. As we looked
shudderingly at these forlorn little creatures, and expressed our
commiseration at their fate, the younger brother stepped forward, and,
examining one of the cages, in which sat hunched up in one corner a
stiff lump of feathers, coolly announced that "this goldfinch" was dead.

It was with a feeling of relief that we left the death-released bird,
and the vaults beneath the old _palazzo_, to return once more to the
fresh air and the breathing-space of the broad earth and sky. Our next
visit was to the bachelor brothers' factory, which was for the
fabrication of wax candles. Adjoining this was a terrace-plot of ground,
dotted over with what looked like Liliputian tombstones. We were
beginning to wonder whether this were a cemetery for the dead
birds,--speculating on the probability that these might be the
monumental tributes placed over their graves by the sportsman friend of
the two brothers,--when the elder informed us that this was the place
they used for bleaching the wax, and that the square stones we saw were
the supports on which rested the large flat stands whereon it was laid
to whiten in the sun. From this terrace-plot of ground,--which projected
in a narrowish green ledge, skirted by a low ivy-grown wall, over the
sea,--we beheld a prospect of almost matchless beauty. Before us
stretched a wide expanse of Mediterranean waters; to the extreme left
was just visible the