conveying his
acquisitions safely back to Italy. The account he gives of the passage
of the Alps by Mount Cenis, from Lanslebourg to the Novalese, is really
quite romantic; and he compares himself to Hannibal on the occasion, but
says that if the passage of the latter cost him a great deal of vinegar,
it cost him (Alfieri) no small quantity of wine, as the whole party
concerned in conveying the horses over the mountain, guides, farriers,
grooms, and adjutants, drank like fishes.

On reaching Turin, he was present at a performance of his _Virginia_ at
the same theatre where, nine years before, his early play of _Cleopatra_
had been acted. He shortly received intelligence that the Countess had
been permitted to leave Rome and to go to Switzerland. He could not
refrain from following her, and accordingly rejoined her at Colmar, a
city of Alsace, after a separation of sixteen months. The sight of her
whom he loved so dearly again awakened his poetic genius, and gave
birth, at almost one and the same moment, to his three tragedies of
_Agide_, _Sofonisba_, and _Mirra_, despite his previous resolve to write
no more. When obliged to leave the Countess, he returned to Italy, but
the following year again visited her, remaining in Alsace when she
proceeded to Paris. She happened to mention in a letter that she had
been much pleased with seeing Voltaire's _Brutus_ performed on the
stage. This excited his emulation. "What!" he exclaimed, "_Brutuses_
written by a Voltaire? I'll write _Brutuses_, and two at once, moreover,
time will show whether such subjects for tragedy are better adapted for
me or for a plebeian-born Frenchman, who for more than sixty years
subscribed himself _Voltaire, Gentleman in Ordinary to the King_."
Accordingly he set to work, and planned on the spot his _Bruto Primo_
and _Bruto Secondo_; after which he once more renewed his vow to Apollo
to write no more tragedies. About this period he also sketched his
_Abel_, which he called by the whimsical title of a _Tramelogedy_. He
next went to Paris, and made arrangements with the celebrated Didot for
printing the whole of his tragedies in six volumes. On returning to
Alsace, in company with the Countess, he was joined by his old friend
the Abate di Caluso, who brought with him a letter from his mother,
containing proposals for his marriage with a rich young lady of Asti,
whose name was not mentioned. Alfieri told the Abate, smilingly, that he
must decline the proff