Venice--_thrice_ that
is. For this you may thank yourself, for I heard that you
complained of my silence--so, here goes for garrulity.

"I trust that you received my other twain of letters. My 'way of
life' (or 'May of life,' which is it, according to the
commentators?)--my 'way of life' is fallen into great regularity.
In the mornings I go over in my gondola to babble Armenian with the
friars of the convent of St. Lazarus, and to help one of them in
correcting the English of an English and Armenian grammar which he
is publishing. In the evenings I do one of many nothings--either at
the theatres, or some of the conversaziones, which are like our
routs, or rather worse, for the women sit in a semicircle by the
lady of the mansion, and the men stand about the room. To be sure,
there is one improvement upon ours--instead of lemonade with their
ices, they hand about stiff _rum-punch--punch_, by my palate; and
this they think _English_. I would not disabuse them of so
agreeable an error,--'no, not for Venice.'

"Last night I was at the Count Governor's, which, of course,
comprises the best society, and is very much like other gregarious
meetings in every country,--as in ours,--except that, instead of
the Bishop of Winchester, you have the Patriarch of Venice, and a
motley crew of Austrians, Germans, noble Venetians, foreigners,
and, if you see a quiz, you may be sure he is a Consul. Oh, by the
way, I forgot, when I wrote from Verona, to tell you that at Milan
I met with a countryman of yours--a Colonel * * * *, a very
excellent, good-natured fellow, who knows and shows all about
Milan, and is, as it were, a native there. He is particularly civil
to strangers, and this is his history,--at least, an episode of it.

"Six-and-twenty years ago, Col. * * * *, then an ensign, being in
Italy, fell in love with the Marchesa * * * *, and she with him.
The lady must be, at least, twenty years his senior. The war broke
out; he returned to England, to serve--not his country, for that's
Ireland--but England, which is a different thing; and _she_--heaven
knows what she did. In the year 1814, the first annunciation of the
Definitive Treaty of Peace (and tyranny) was developed to the
astonished Milanese by the arrival of Col. * * * *, who, flinging
himself full