fremitu assurgens marino."

I retired immediately to rest, not having slept for the preceding
twenty-four hours; while Colonna preferred a morning walk, and
wandered out to view the environs. In the course of the day we
completed our domestic arrangements. My friend occupied a saloon on
the north side of the villa, which commanded an extensive prospect, a
light favourable for painting, and private egress into the open
country; an accommodation which he requested, that his rambling and
irregular habits might occasion no inconvenience to the other inmates
of the mansion.

After a few days had been devoted to excursions upon and around the
lake, and over the picturesque hills as far as Brescia, we commenced a
more useful and methodical distribution of our time. Colonna began and
completed the sketch of a Madonna for my mother, that he might work
upon it at his leisure; and we read together the Greek poets and
historians: nor did I forget to avail myself of my friend's proffered
assistance to improve my knowledge of drawing and design. Under his
masterly guidance I persevered in drawing geometrical figures until I
could trace them with quickness, freedom, and accuracy. He then
annoyed me for a brief interval with skeletons and anatomical
subjects, directing my attention to the articulation of the joints and
the insertion of the muscles; after which I proceeded to copy his fine
studies of human limbs, both round and muscular, and in the various
attitudes of action and repose. Finally, I began to sketch from living
models, and was pursuing my object with ardour and success, when a
tragical event severed me for a considerable period from my beloved
tutor and friend.

It had been arranged between us that each should, in his habits, be
perfectly uncontrolled, and independent of the other. Our excursions
were alternately separate, and in company, and Colonna was often
absent from the villa for one or more days and nights, without
exciting observation or surprise.

He delighted in ranging over the green pastures of Lombardy, hedged in
by lofty trees, festooned with vines, and irrigated by transparent
streams innumerable. The young Tuscan had never before seen nature in
a garb so lovely and inviting; he wandered through the picturesque
villages which margin or overhang the lake of Garda, sojourned with
the peasantry, and sketched their figures and costume. From these
rambles he would often return at sunset over the lake in a