, you
are said to be _spesato_, and then you have nothing extra to pay for but
your breakfast. There were two other travellers in the _vettura_, both
Frenchmen; the one about forty years of age was a Captain of cavalry _en
retraite_, married to a Hungarian lady and settled at Florence, to which
place he was returning; the other, a young man of very agreeable manners,
settled likewise at Florence, as chief of a manufactory there, returning
from Lyons, his native city, whither he had been to see his relations. I
never in my life met with two characters so diametrically opposite. The
Captain was quite a _bourru_ in his manners, yet he had a sort of dry,
sarcastic, satirical humour that was very diverting to those who escaped
his lash. Whether he really felt the sentiments he professed, or whether he
assumed them for the purpose of chiming in with the times, I cannot say,
but he said he rejoiced at the fall of Napoleon. My other companion,
however, expressed great regret as his downfall, not so much from a regard
for the person of Napoleon, as for the concomitant degradation and conquest
of his country, and he spoke of the affairs of France with a great deal of
feeling and patriotism.

The Captain seemed to have little or no feeling for anybody but himself;
indeed, he laughed at all sentiment and said he did not believe in virtue
or disinterestedness. When, among other topics of conversation, the loss
the French Army sustained at Waterloo was brought on the _tapis_, he said,
"_Eh bien! qu 'importe? dans une seule nuit a Paris on en fabriquera assez
pour les remplacer!_" A similar sentiment has been attributed to the great
Conde.[78] We had a variety of amusing arguments and disputes on the road;
the Captain railed at merchants, and said that he did not believe that
honor or virtue existed among mercantile people (no compliment, by the bye,
to the young fabricant, who bore it, however, with great good humour,
contenting himself with now and then giving a few slaps at the military for
their rapacity, which mercantile people on the Continent have now and then
felt, before the French Revolution, as well as after). The whole road from
Turin to Alexandria della Paglia is a fine broad _chausee_. The first day's
journey brought us to Asti. A rich plain on each side of the road, the
horizon on our right bounded by the Appennines, on our left by the Alps,
both diverging, formed the landscape. Asti is an ancient, well and solidly
built