a prospect before him, is in high spirits, as you will
suppose, but I had a most uneasy time from the interruption of our
correspondence. However, thank God, it is all as well as I could
wish, and a great deal better than I ventured to hope. After the
Siege of Malta I intend to close the [series] of _Waverley_ with a
poem in the style of the _Lay_, or rather of the _Lady of the
Lake_, to be a L'Envoy, or final postscript to these tales. The
subject is a curious tale of chivalry belonging to Rhodes. Sir
Frederick Adam will give me a cast of a steam-boat to visit Greece,
and you will come and go with me. We live in a Palazzo, which with
a coach and the supporters thereof does not, table included, cost
L120 or L130 a month. So you will add nothing to our expenses, but
give us the great pleasure of assisting you when I fear literary
things have a bad time. We will return to Europe through Germany,
and see what peradventure we shall behold. I have written
repeatedly to you on this subject, for you would really like this
country extremely. You cannot tread on it but you set your foot
upon some ancient history, and you cannot make scruple, as it is
the same thing whether you or I are paymaster. My health continues
good, and bettering, as the Yankees say. I have gotten a choice
manuscript of old English Romances, left here by Richard, and for
which I know I have got a lad can copy them at a shilling a day.
The King has granted me liberty to carry it home with me, which is
very good-natured. I expect to secure something for the Roxburghe
Club. Our posts begin to get more regular. I hope dear baby is
getting better of its accident, poor soul.--Love to Sophia and
Walter.

Your affectionate Father,

WALTER SCOTT.]

FOOTNOTES:

[520] Of this visit to Pompeii Sir W. Gell says--"Sir Walter viewed the
whole with a poet's eye, not that of an antiquarian, exclaiming
frequently, 'The city of the Dead!'"

He examined, however, with more interest the "splendid mosaic
representing a combat of the Greeks and the Persians."--_Life_, vol. x.
p. 159.

[521] The places are now known as Nocera Superiore and Nocera Inferiore.

APRIL.

_April 15, Naples_.--I am on the eve of leaving Naples after a residence
of three or four months, my strength strongly returning, though the
weather has been ve