more dismal that salutes the eye of the traveller at
intervals of two or three miles and which does not tend to inspire pleasing
ideas; and this is the sight of arms and legs of malefactors and murderers
suspended on large poles on the road side; for it is the custom here to cut
off the arms and legs of murderers after decapitation, and to suspend them
_in terrorem_ on poles, erected on the very spot where they committed the
murder. The sight of these limbs dangling in the wind is not a very
comfortable one towards the close of the evening.

We left the _Sepolero di Nerone_, an ancient tomb so called, on the right
of our road and half a mile beyond it crossed the Tiber at the _Ponte Molle
(Pons Milvius)_, where there is a gate, bridge and military post. From this
post to the _Porta del Popolo_, the entrance into the city for those coming
from the North, the distance is one mile; there is a white wall on each
side of the road the whole way, and some farm houses and villas. Near the
_Ponte Molle_ is the field of battle where Maxentius was defeated by
Constantine.

We entered the _Porta del Popolo_, crossed the _Piazza_ of the same name,
where three streets present themselves to view. In the centre is the street
called the _Corso_, running in a direct line from the _Porta_ across the
_Piazza_. We drove along the _Corso_ till we arrived at a _Piazza_ on our
right hand, which _Piazza_ is called _della Colonna_ from the Column of
Antoninus, which stands on it. We then crossed the _Piazza_ which is very
large and soon reached the _Dogana_ or Custom house, formerly the temple of
Antoninus Pius, where vile modern walls are built to fill up the intervals
between eleven columns of Grecian marble. Here our baggage underwent a
rigorous research; this rigour is not so much directed against the
fraudulent introduction of contraband or duty-bearing merchandise, as
against _books_, which undergo a severe scrutiny. Against Voltaire and
Rousseau implacable war is waged, and their works are immediately
confiscated. Other authors too are sometimes examined, to see whether they
contain anything against Mother Church. As the people employed in
inspecting books are not much versed in any litterature or language but
their own, except perhaps a little French, it is not easy for them to find
out the contents of books in other languages. I had Schiller's works with
me, a volume of which one of the _douaniers_ took up and looked at; on
seeing the