The Convent of
St. Nicola.

"The morn is full of holiday, loud bells
With rival clamors ring from every spire;
Cunningly-stationed music dies and swells
In echoing places; when the winds respire,
Light flags stream out like gauzy tongues of fire."--Keats.

Catania, Sicily, _Friday_, _August_ 20, 1852.

I went on board the _speronara_ in the harbor of La Valetta at the
appointed hour (5 P.M.), and found the remaining sixteen passengers
already embarked. The captain made his appearance an hour later, with our
bill of health and passports, and as the sun went down behind the brown
hills of the island, we passed the wave-worn rocks of the promontory,
dividing the two harbors, and slowly moved off towards Sicily.

The Maltese _speronara_ resembles the ancient Roman galley more than any
modern craft. It has the same high, curved poop and stern, the same short
masts and broad, square sails. The hull is too broad for speed, but this
adds to the security of the vessel in a gale. With a fair wind, it rarely
makes more than eight knots an hour, and in a calm, the sailors (if not
too lazy) propel it forward with six long oars. The hull is painted in a
fanciful style, generally blue, red, green and white, with bright red
masts. The bulwarks are low, and the deck of such a convexity that it is
quite impossible to walk it in a heavy sea. Such was the vessel to which I
found myself consigned. It was not more than fifty feet long, and of less
capacity than a Nile _dahabiyeh_. There was a sort of deck cabin, or crib,
with two berths, but most of the passengers slept in the hold. For a
passage to Catania I was obliged to pay forty francs, the owner swearing
that this was the regular price; but, as I afterwards discovered, the
Maltese only paid thirty-six francs for the whole trip. However, the
Captain tried to make up the money's worth in civilities, and was
incessant in his attentions to "your Lordships," as he styled myself and
my companion, Caesar di Cagnola, a young Milanese.

The Maltese were tailors and clerks, who were taking a holiday trip to
witness the great festival of St. Agatha. With two exceptions, they were a
wild and senseless, though good-natured set, and in spite of sea-sickness,
which exercised them terribly for the first two days, kept up a constant
jabber in their bastard Arabic from morning till night. As is usual in
such a company, one of them was obliged to serve as a butt for the rest,
and "M