hand and left; crowds of castanet-players and
dancers, in every variety of laughable, grotesque, and most frequently
tatterdemalion costume, beating drums, and so on--making a horrible din.
Sometimes, in the midst of all this wild confusion, a kind of French
courtier would come mincing along, in old-fashioned costume, leading a
lady, also in antique attire, and, gazing on the right hand and the left
through an immense opera-glass, making, in the meantime, the most polite
bows. However much he might be pushed about, or powdered, it mattered
not; he only gazed through his opera-glass, and bowed all the more, and
never lost his self-possession. In the midst of all this whirl and
confusion comes a brilliant procession: it is the governor of the city
and the Roman senate, driving in a great number of grand carriages, with
splendid horses and servants; gold and silver shine out, and liveries
which appear to be covered with fire. The brilliant _cortege_ advances
with great dignity through the many-coloured mass of the Corso up to the
Capitol."

* * * * *

Not the least interesting pages in her book are those descriptive of an
interview which she enjoyed with the great founder of Italian unity,
Count Cavour--the statesman who successfully realized the dreams of the
theorist, and raised Italy to a place among the European Powers. When
Miss Bremer saw him, he was still the Minister of the King of Sardinia;
but in secret was unweariedly labouring to carry out the policy which
placed on the brow of the King of Sardinia the Italian crown.

Miss Bremer had been told that nothing in his exterior revealed the
astute statesman; that, on the contrary, he looked very much as one
might imagine Dickens's Mr. Pickwick to look; and she confesses that at
the first glance he reminded her more of an English red-complexioned
country squire, who rides and hunts, eats good dinners, and takes life
lightly, than of a profound and sagacious politician, who, with sure
glance and firm hand, steers the vessel of the State towards its
destined haven over the stormy waves of statecraft. But quickly that
countenance lighted up, and the more Miss Bremer studied, during their
long conversation, the more significant and agreeable she found it. They
who had painted the great Minister's portrait had not understood this
countenance nor the character of the head. There was in it a certain
squareness, but at the same time refinemen