master to propitiate the good Saint Anthony, on his birth-day, to bless,
nor priest to asperse you with holy water, (in consequence of which
omissions, no doubt, your plagues multiply upon you)--poor friendless
wanderers, who come up to every lonely pedestrian, at once to remind him
that it is not good for man to be alone, and to alleviate his solitude
with your company; good-natured, rough, ill-favoured dogs, with whom our
acquaintance has been extensive, dull indeed would the Pincian appear,
were it deprived of your grotesque forms and awkward but well-meant
gambols! The life of a Campagna sheep-dog, kept half starved in the
sight of mutton which he dare not touch, is hard enough, but that of the
members of this large, unowned republic more so. Hungry and gaunt as
she-wolves, but with none of their fierceness, these poor animals seek
the city gates, and, molesting nobody, find a foul and precarious
subsistence from the _Immondezze_ of the streets; but when their
condition and appearance are improved, and they are beginning to think
of an establishment, the fatal edict goes forth; nux vomica is
triturated with liver, and the treacherous _bocconi_ are strewn upon the
dirt-heaps where they resort; the unsuspecting animals greedily devour
the only meal provided for them by the State, and in a few hours
experience the anguish of the slowly killing poison; an intense thirst
urges them to the fountains, but the water only serves to dilute and
render it more potent: their bodies swell, they totter, fall, try to
recover their feet, but cannot; then piteously howling are carried off
in the height of a titanic convulsion. Often on returning at this season
from an evening party, we discern dark receding forms and hear voices
too, "visae _canes_ ululare per umbras," as _they_ glide moaning away and
are lost in the obscurity of the off streets. Occasionally they
anticipate their doom, by premature madness, when the authorities issue
orders to use steel, and sometimes fifty will perish in a single night.
It is remarkable that notwithstanding these summary proceedings, the
canine ranks, as Easter comes round again, are renewed for fresh
destruction. Some few dogs of superior cunning contrive from year to
year to elude these "_Editti fulminanti_," which make such havoc among
their companions; these, by securing the favour and protection of the
soldiers and galley-slaves of the district, obtain besides an occasional
meal from the cante