e matters for a meeting between them. As the meeting must take
place out of the Baden territory, and they ought to move before the
police prevented them, the Count proposed that they should at once make
for France; where, as it was an affair of honneur, they would assuredly
be let to enter without passports.

Lady Anne and Lady Kew heard that the gentlemen after the ball had all
gone out on a hunting-party, and were not alarmed for four-and-twenty
hours at least. On the next day none of them returned; and on the day
after, the family heard that Lord Kew had met with rather a dangerous
accident; but all the town knew he had been shot by M. de Castillonnes
on one of the islands on the Rhine, opposite Kehl, where he was now
lying.

CHAPTER XXXV. Across the Alps

Our discursive muse must now take her place in the little britzska in
which Clive Newcome and his companions are travelling, and cross the
Alps in that vehicle, beholding the snows on St. Gothard, and the
beautiful region through which the Ticino rushes on its way to the
Lombard lakes, and the corn-covered great plains of the Milanese; and
that royal city, with the cathedral for its glittering crown, only less
magnificent than the imperial dome of Rome. I have some long letters
from Mr. Clive, written during this youthful tour, every step of which,
from the departure at Baden, to the gate of Milan, he describes as
beautiful; and doubtless, the delightful scenes through which the young
man went, had their effect in soothing any private annoyances with which
his journey commenced. The aspect of nature, in that fortunate route
which he took, is so noble and cheering, that our private affairs and
troubles shrink away abashed before that serene splendour. O sweet
peaceful scene of azure lake, and snow-crowned mountain, so wonderfully
lovely is your aspect, that it seems like heaven almost, and as if grief
and care could not enter it! What young Clive's private cares were I
knew not as yet in those days; and he kept them out of his letters; it
was only in the intimacy of future life that some of these pains were
revealed to me.

Some three months after taking leave of Miss Ethel, our young gentleman
found himself at Rome, with his friend Ridley still for a companion.
Many of us, young or middle-aged, have felt that delightful shock which
the first sight of the great city inspires. There is one other place of
which the view strikes one with an emotion even gre