body else. We laughed and chatted, and appeared and, supposing it was time to get ready, I went to have known each other from childhood, so familiar and easy were we together-I mean the whole group-Monsieur Morn, from Anjou-the young, nameless artist from Paris-the commercial traveller, and all. This last-mentioned gentleman was a curious specimen of the Parisian cockney. He was taking a magnificent set of jewels from a house in Paris to Maria Louise, the widow of Napoleon, at Parma; and the fear of being robbed prompted him to conceal his treasure. The vanity of having been entrusted with it overcame his fear, and he exhibited the jewels at the supper table. They were worth several thousand pounds; and when he had been guilty of the indiscretion, he repented of it, and began to tremble for the result. His throat, he did not doubt, would be cut before he reached his journey's end. In his eyes, every man around him became a robber; and when he restored the case to his pocket, he did so with blanched cheeks, and hands almost smitten with paralysis. However, we presented a striking contrast with the little knot of Englishmen in another part of the room. They ate their supper, not exactly in silence, but in something nearly akin to it, muttering to each other every now and then between a growl and a yawn, and looked as if they would have preferred being snug in Cheapside or May Fair, or whatever other locality they belonged to. We, on the other hand, half intoxicated with animal spirits, made an immense deal of noise, and ultimately took refuge in cigars, to the introduction of which no one objected. I soon enveloped my fair companion in an aromatic cloud, which did not, however, in the slightest degree impede her utterance. 66 over to awake my companion, who, strange to say, slept like a top. I had to shake him, and bawl several times, before I could perceive the least sign of returning animation. When he did at length awake, he gave a striking proof of his commercial education; for, supposing me to be a robber burst suddenly into the room, he cried out, in extreme fear and agony, "The man with the money and jewels is in the other bed!" A loud shout of laughter from me convinced him he had made a mistake. So, my friend," said I, " you have no objection to get my throat cut while you can save your own. However, that is not the question just now. Get up; all the travellers are in motion-we must dress and be off." On ringing for a light, however, we found we had not yet been in bed full half an hour; so we enjoyed the luxury of a second rest, and sweet sleep, on which, if I were writing an epic poem, I would bestow as many fond and grateful epithets as Homer does. In fact, I am never weary of repeating, with Sancho Panza, "Blessed be the man who invented sleep! it wrappeth one about like a garment." So thought I and the commercial traveller, in the comfortable bedroom at Brigg. Still, between sleeping and waking there is always a short interval, which people, of course, employ according to their fancy. I generally, at such moments, build castles in the air; and most magnificent castles they often are, too, illuminated with beauty, and perfumed with "Sabean odors, from the spicy shores of Araby the blest." On the occasion in question there were two strange sides to my castle; the one consisting of a bright glimpse of home at Jolimont; the other of Alpine summits and sunny Italy. The room was full of thick As the inn was crowded, it was necessary for darkness, save when a gray glimmer entered at us all, except the married couple, to put up with the small casement, shaken occasionally by the double-bedded rooms; and, as fate would have it, wind. My Parisian Argus already slept over his the commercial traveller, with his jewels, fell to jewels, as his snoring proved indubitably; othermy share. He was a young man of about twenty-wise there prevailed entire stillness in the house. three, with fiery-red hair and a blowsy face, short, Without, the notes of a distant screech-owl soundslight, and eaten up with timidity and suspicion.ed through the air, intimating that she, at least, In my long, drooping, black mustaches and ragged beard, he saw so many undoubted indications of the brigand-he would have given anything to have been Monsieur Morn's companion. But that was not to be thought of. Monsieur Morn's artistic friend was to be the sharer of his apartment; and so the young jeweller submitted to sleep on robbery with as good a grace as he could assume. Our beds stood each in a recess on either side of Whether we are happy or miserable, time goes the door; and, long after I was comfortably be- on, at the old rate, and brings about the hour for tween the sheets, I could hear my companion puf- parting, whether it be from the summit of bliss, fing, blowing, and fumbling about, and taking pre- or from the depths of woe. At half-past two, cautions for securing his treasure. No doubt he there was a knocking at every door in the inn at thrust the jewel-case under his pillow, and made up Brigg; and drowsy travellers shuffled themselves his mind to bawl lustily should I attempt to lay hastily into their clothes, in order to have as much violent hands on him in the night. Being heartily spare time as possible for fortifying the inner man. tired, we both fell asleep. We were to start at An inn is generally a pleasant place; for, as soon half-past two, to commence the ascent of the Sim- as you open your bedroom door, the delicious plon. In the course of the night, the trampling of steams of coffee and fried bacon greet your nosmany feet on the stairs roused me from sleep; trils. Money is a glorious thing, for it sets all considers herself a fit companion for night, and ever meditates and listens to her own voice, albeit none of the sweetest. Visions of glaciers, and virgin snow, and piny chasms, and thundering cataracts, formed the avenue by which I approached the land of dreams, where I at length forgot all terrestrial things among the palm bowers of the distant Nile. and without pain. My theory, however, is, that you should treat gold as a stranger, according to the maxim of antiquity-welcome the coming, speed the parting, guest. If you have time to make its acquaintance, you are apt to get fond of it; and then shaking hands and bidding adieu are far from pleasant. Your intercourse should be a sort of omnibus intimacy, and never go beyond the world in motion, and keeps cooks and kitchen | wear a purse, but have a large open pocket, which wenches up half the night to provide for your en- lets out the money as a sieve does water-easily, joyment in the morning. Not that they think it a hardship; like the race-horse, they enjoy the sport, as well as the rider, and always find time, in some snug corner of the twenty-four hours, to get as much sleep as they stand in need of. Besides, there is an excitement in the operations of the kitchen, especially as they can always taste of the best, and that, too, before it is served up to you. There is, after all, nothing like a breakfast-a nod, or a sort of civil greeting, which provokes table before a journey; and one would never grow weary of describing it, if it were not that it is exceedingly monotonous. On the thing itself, appetite confers novelty daily. You are not at all the less disposed to breakfast to-day because you breakfasted yesterday; whereas, in a narrative, one breakfast will generally do, by way of a specimen. At the same time, I must observe that there was considerable variety in our Alpine breakfasts. They sometimes comprehended broiled kidneys, mutton-chops, a slice of venison, delicious butter, honey, and eggs, with rolls hot from the oven, and coffee fit for the denizens of Olympus. A poet of the present day, not over-scrupulous about the sources of his inspiration, exclaims in one of his pieces I'll not envy heaven's princes, While, with snowy arm, for me And pours out her best Bohea. no inclination to sigh in either party; you laugh as you meet, and laugh as you part, and there is an end of it. You should treat money as a landlord does his customer-that is, get as much as you can out of it, and then turn it about its business. Byron says, somewhere, that a great deal may be bought for fifty louis; and he was a good judge in matters of that sort. But foreigners generally treat money more affectionately than we do, hug it more tenderly, and kiss it on both cheeks before they can make up their minds to let it go, unattended, into the wide world. You would think they were animated by a sort of parental solicitude, and that they had felt the throes of maternity for every guinea in their purse. At any rate, paying tavern reckonings-unpleasant to everybody who has the slightest attachment for mammon-is doubly disagreeable to the natives of the Continent, who all, on this point, foster a sort of socialist theory, formed from the Had he known Madame Carli, he would have practice in "Cabet's Icaria," that innkeepers left out Kate, and tried to get her name into his should furnish you with whatever you want, verses, for most assuredly she presided over the gratis. In descending the stairs, I heard a fearcoffee-pot like a sylph; and when she raised her ful row in the kitchen; and, with the true proarm, which was as white and round as any Kate's pensity of a traveller, looked in, just to see what in the world, the sight of it added additional flavor it was all about. The scene was excessively to the Mocha. Let it not be forgotten that I was comic. At the further end was a man in a short now privileged to admire her, since she was to be shirt and red woollen nightcap, sputtering and my wife as far as Duomo d'Ossola. However, foaming like a maniac, and struggling violently to even at that fatal breakfast-table, the jokes began disengage himself from the grasp of two women, which were to end by keeping my fair friend and who held him like vices, which, for aught I know, her husband prisoners in the Alps. She was now they were. Near the door stood the objects of addressed invariably as Madame St. John; and Monsieur Carli was complimented upon being a single man. The breakfast, nevertheless, went off pleasantly; the coffee was sipped, the rolls, butter, eggs, &c., eaten, and, even at that early hour, cigars were lighted, to enable us the better to encounter the keen air of the Upper Alps. CHAPTER VIII.-THE INN AT BRIGG. his fury, Professor Morn, and his companion the artist. These gentlemen, not having had their equanimity restored by their good breakfast, or having suffered it to be again ruffled by the bill, were describing, in the most provoking terms, the wretched accommodation of their bedchamber. "If I had you in France," said the elder and more provoking of the two, "I would hand you over, as a mauvais sujet,' to the police. You are, in There is a pleasant and an unpleasant side to fact, a common cheat." Then addressing memost things. Even making love to a pretty wo- "You shall be judge," he added. "What sort man has its drawbacks. First, the foreknowledge of bed you had, I don't know; but when we went that it must come to an end; and, second, the fact up stairs, and had got fairly into ours, we found of having a multitude of rivals. With respect to that a damp towel had been tucked along the top, inns, their delights go on rising like a flood tide, in imitation of a sheet, and that the pillows and till you come to the disagreeable moment of call-bolsters were stuffed with peach stones, which, as ing for your bill. Then there is a sort of shiver it was impossible to sleep, we amused ourselves in your purse, a kind of golden hysteric, occasioned all night in throwing at the bugs."-" But, Monby the approaching separation of the coin from sier," interrupted his companion, "my pillow was its comfortable quarters. This, at least, is the still worse, it palpitated with life; it was simply way with most persons. For myself, I never what in Paris we call a bag of fleas." Let not the reader suppose that these communications were | for the sword, which, like the ark of the covenant, uninterrupted. At every particular the landlord is often not at all comprehended by those who bear roared out, "Cochon !-vilain !-menteur ! it. It is, in itself, a sacred symbol-the symbol chien!" with other phrases equally complimentary, all the while making strenuous efforts to escape from the gripe of his wife and the sturdy Dulcinea who acted as cook to the establishment. Pray, let him go," cried the professor, coolly; "I will soon beat him into good manners, as our armies did his country."-" Nay," I interposed, "that is ungenerous; it is no credit to France to have overcome Switzerland in war. Pray, settle the matter without diverging into politics."-" You are quite right," answered Morn, with the utmost good humor. "And now, you cut-throat," addressing himself to the landlord, "there is your money, which you deserve just as much as the man who stops one on the highway." So saying, he and his companion threw down the proper amount of francs and sous, and stalked haughtily out of the kitchen, in search of the diligence. Having settled with the waiter up stairs, I was enabled to attend to my fair companion, who had held my arm, without uttering a word, during the whole of the little dialogue above communicated. CHAPTER IX.-THE PASSAGE OF THE SIMPLON. I was never so much struck by the pitiful smallness of human dealings, as on stepping out of the inn at Brigg into the glories of an Alpine night. The mountains rose around in indescribable majesty, and the stars looked down upon us like the eyes of God from the sky. Everything in nature was vast and sublime. I was glad to have escaped, from bugs and bills, and vulgar objurgations, into the grandeur of this mighty theatre, which for a while absorbed my thoughts entirely. It was about half-past two when we started, shortly after which the atmosphere became overcast with clouds, which so completely obscured the stars and moon that we could see nothing. We had, therefore, to depend entirely on the resources of conversation, which commenced with a dissertation on peace, by a German traveller who joined us at Brigg. The work of the Abbé St. Pierre, edited by Jean Jacques Rousseau, had, it seems, fallen into his hands early in life, and made so great an impression on him, that he was now travelling about the world in the hope of making proselytes to his theory. Every man is respectable who is sincere ; and, therefore, it would have been wrong to laugh at our pacific Don Quixote, who expected the speedy advent of the millennium-or rather the return, as he called it, of the golden age. Monsieur Carli was his first antagonist; but his education had been too oriental to give fair play to his logical powers. He, therefore, broke down speedily, and left the field open to my friend Morn, who defended vigorously, and, as it appeared to me, with success, the mission of the sword. I have, practically, all my life been a man of peace, and therefore my sympathies are, of course, ranged on the side of the spindle and the spinning-jenny; but I, nevertheless, entertain a profound reverence of justice, supported by might; and not, as is too monarchies, Kings and This is an This, I own, however, was a strange topic to be discussed on such an occasion; and I voluntarily put an end to it by proposing that, as the diligence crept along at something worse than a snail's pace, we should all get out, and walk up the mountains. My proposition being approved of, we alighted; and, separating into couples, I got accidentally divided from Madame Carli. I selected in her stead one of our bug-bitten companions, who turned out to be a very agreeable fellow; and with him I walked on ahead. Never shall I forget that morning. Far in the distance behind us, the summits of the Bernese Alps, blanched with snow, pierced the sky, while the bright moonlight seemed to repose with pleasure on their cold, glit tering peaks. Towards the south-west the sight | infinite appetite, likewise ate another meal, upon plunged down a series of dark valleys, partly which it would be difficult to bestow a name. He lighted up by the moon, partly enveloped in had eaten two breakfasts already, and meant to shadow, while one solitary lamp from some win- lunch a little further on; so that it was a sort of dow, perhaps in Brigg, sparkled like a star among third breakfast, or first luncheon. The name, the rocks below. Scattered masses of white, sil- however, mattered very little to him. Being a very vapor hovered over the distant valleys and philosopher, he ate when he was hungry, and lowlands far beneath, and looked like a broken drank when he was thirsty, without troubling himfloor, through which the moon's rays penetrated to self at all to know whether the world approved of the earth. Close by the road, chasms, which in his goings-on or not. I should most likely have the moonlight appeared of prodigious depth, wound followed his example, but that our second breakalong, while rapid torrents, whose white foam was fast at Persal had blunted my appetite. While once or twice visible between the dark pines, he was regaling himself on the good things to be brawled and roared at the bottom. Here and obtained at so great an elevation above the level there, vast conical mountains sprang up from these of the sea, I amused myself with exchanging tenabysses, and their white heads, clothed with pre- der adieux with Madame Carli. ternatural beauty by the moonlight, at once astonished and delighted the imagination. The stars shone with amazing brightness, and the constellation of the Great Bear, in particular, seemed to have a brilliance and beauty I had never observed before. But the exquisite beauty of the dawn surpassed everything. The snow-sprinkled peaks of the Alps now seemed to become transparent; while starlight, moonlight, and the pale yellow metallic brilliance of the sky, flushed with the first approaches of the dawn, diffused over every rock, and glen, and stream, and forest, and glacier, a wild, sparkling, mysterious, unearthly beauty, which electrified the very soul. I see I am repeating the same terms again and again; but language, with all its plastic power, is insufficient to render with fidelity the numerous exquisite emotions which at such times crowd upon the mind. I was certainly for a time literally "wrapt, inspired." Heaven appeared to touch earth, and Poetry sat enthroned upon the mountains. But such raptures cannot last. With the increase of light, much of the gigantic sublimity of the scene dwinded away, though enough remained to render the passage of the Simplon one of the most remarkable scenes in the world. Our flirtation had been unfortunate, for my French companions, preferring their own amusement to the solid interests of poor Monsieur Carli, had so worried and tormented him about the supposed danger he would run by getting me to take his wife as mine over the frontier, that his imagination became alarmed; so that he chose rather to be detained at Simplon, as a person suspected of cholera, than carry out the plan of entering Piedmont, which we had so sagaciously formed at Brigg. Our stratagem, had it been discovered, might have caused me considerable embarrassment; but the risk of this I was willing to incur, to oblige him. When too late, he found that he might very well have taken Dogberry's phrase for his motto, "Write me down an ass.' He now came to me with his wife to express his regret-called Monsieur Morn and the rest des impertinents,' and said that he felt quite ashamed at being made their dupe. 66 66 Here, during a whole week," said he, shall I do penance for having been silly enough to misconstrue your motives; but, Monsieur, we shall meet at Milan, where I will endeavor to prove to you that, though I have been for the moment a jealous fool, it was but for a moment. What else I would and ought to say, I leave Madame to express for me." We walked on to Persal, where we took a second breakfast, among the delicacies of which was some of the most delicious honey I had ever tasted. We still continued to ascend for several hours. So saying, he shook me heartily by the hand, But I was now tired of walking, and got into the and walked off. Madame Carli, though one of cabriolet of the diligence, where I could see the the best women in the world, was still a bit of a scene at my ease. My companions, who all coquette, and, in ball-rooms or on a journey, liked seemed to have taken a great liking to me, to make love pour passer le temps. It was agree brought me delicious Alpine raspberries and straw-able, she said; and then it was so long since she berries, with a curious little fruit called embrock, had met any one like me-by exact computation peculiar to those elevated regions. The leaves of time, probably six weeks-I was so earnest, so of the last-mentioned plant, reddened by the autumn, literally illuminated the whole face of the mountains in several places. At length we reached the top of the pass, and saw the streams turn their back upon Switzerland, and roll their sparkling waters, against the morning sun, towards Italy. sincere. I could do no other than bow, and press her hand-compliments and flattery are so delightful from a woman! I professed to have been immensely happy, and said I did not doubt that we should pass our time most pleasantly together at Milan. How many more fine things we might have uttered, I know not; but just then I saw the remorseless professor running among the trees, in search of us. There was not a moment to be lost. We might never see each other again; and could we part like two statues? No! We bent our heads towards each other, and I fear I kissed | who can gaze with undiminished pleasure on mounMadame Carli. But if I did, the time, and place, tain after mountain-who never grow weary of the and circumstances will, I trust, constitute my apol-hills, and long earnestly for the sight of a plain、ogy. We were, I know not how many thousand I may envy, but cannot understand them. Long feet in the air, surrounded by snows and glaciers. before we reached Duomo d'Ossola I was sick of Everything there was cold but the heart, and the the Alps, and eagerly desired to behold the verdant kiss was decorous and fraternal, just as it ought flats of Lombardy, that I might be delivered from to have been. We then shook hands, and prom-the eternal pine forests, cascades, and cataracts, ised faithfully to meet at Milan. But did we? No! From that time to this, Madame Carli has been, among the millions of Eve's daughters who tread the mazy surface of this planet in smiles, invisible to me. Her husband, though something of an Oriental in feeling, was at bottom a right good fellow; and I trust her life has been a happy one. “Ah! I had lost you," exclaimed the professor. "But what was that little cloud of drapery which has just disappeared behind the foliage?” "It was nothing," said I. him. "Then, nothing let it be," answered he. "But come; there is a countryman of yours down here in front of the inn, who appears so grand, and at the same time so triste, you had better speak to After having taken his place in the diligence, he turned away proudly from every one, as if we were not worth looking at, and is now gazing at the Alps, as though they alone were worthy to be his companions. Pray come, and try whether pride has congealed him into an icicle or not." "He does not speak French or Italian," I replied. "How do you know?" inquired the professor. I felt quite sure of it; and, coming out just at that moment upon the terrace in front of the inn, went forward, and politely addressed my countryman in French. He made me a profound bow, but said nothing. I then spoke in Italian, with the same result. Upon this, quite sure that my conjecture was well founded, I addressed him in English. "Ah! I am so delighted !" cried he; "but from your beard and mustache, I took you to be a foreigner, and thought I should be persecuted all the way to Milan. Where do you sit in the diligence? Can't I get a seat by you?” "I have managed," I said, “to secure a place in the cabriolet, for the purpose of enjoying the scenery;" at which he looked blank, being booked for the interior. By a little manoeuvring, however, we got one of the Frenchmen to cede to him his place, which was really a great sacrifice, as, from the hot and close inside of the diligence, nothing could be seen. and endless succession of peaked mountains, each exactly like the other. I have a powerful sympathy with the grand in nature, but have still greater love of variety. It was with inexpressible satisfaction, therefore, that I caught the first view of the Lago Maggiore, where beauty of the softest kind succeeds to savage grandeur. Ah! who that is happy would not live on the shores of that lake, which looks like a fragment of Fairyland thrown in by accident among the rough realities of this earth? I would not describe the scene if I could, it has so often been delineated. But, with my mind's eye, I see it now-a broad expanse of water, spreading among winding shores, which conceal its extent; terraced banks covered with verdure, and dotted thickly with white, glittering villas; isles of poetic beauty, floating, as it were, on the surface of the lake; and, far away towards the west, serene and quiet towns, sending up their peaceful domestic smoke against the evening sky. The golden light of sunset bathed everything in splendor; and my heart beat with a strange delight, to feel that I was at length in Italy. CHAPTER XI.-ENTRANCE INTO ITALY. What would not those who have felt much, give to be able to chronicle all their sensations? It may be truly said that what we learn from experience belongs to our outer life, while what we feel is treasured up in our heart of hearts. The obscurity of evening was over Italy as I approached it. She was like a beauty meeting her lover beneath her veil. Though not unconscious of the loveliness extending around on all sides, I longed for sunrise to reveal it to me. My pleasure was too great to be enjoyed in darkness; I therefore wished for day, that, by rendering the object of my admiration half visible to sight, as it were, I might deprive it of those mysterious additions bestowed by fancy, which rendered its enjoyment almost oppressive. Mohammed pronounced the approach to Damascus too delicious; and I found it impossible to sleep on the night before my arrival at Thebes. The soul at such moments feels a tumultuous joy, which Nothing so speedily palls upon the appetite as stern reason, perhaps, will scarcely justify; but magnificent scenery. At least I can speak for my- the sources of it are within you-you have been self; I have at times derived extreme pleasure replenishing them from your childhood by the from the sight of the Alps, especially of those wild study of history, poetry, and romance. It is you and savage portions of them which suggest ideas who make the earth a paradise or a hell for yourof death and utter desolation-where the water self. I would not sleep on the night of my arrival comes rolling and foaming down precipitous rocks, in Italy-that is, I determined to resist it; but havamong dark pine forests, and tumbles into almost ing been kept awake by superior excitement the bottomless gulfs below, where you shudder as you whole of the night before, my resolution was only lean over to catch the last sight of them. Enough half kept. I found myself dozing and dreaming of this sort of scenery had presented itself to us on perpetually, as the heavy diligence, laden with our descent towards Italy; but if there be those sleeping men and women. went jolting drowsily |