found reason to regret having left even our light Mackintosh cloaks behind us. But there was something else to be done at the customhouse than complain of cold.

When we drove up to the barrier, we found that a diligence had just arrived from an opposite direction, and that we must needs wait till with it and its occupants, the officers of revenue should have completed their operations. We therefore alighted, and were not a little amused with the sort of lading which the cumbrous machine discharged. First came two or three monks with shaven crowns, sandalled feet, garments of coarse brown cloth, and rosaries about their necks; all of them-as chance would have it-large, unctuous-looking persons, not much past the time of middle life, and evidently accustomed to better fare than broiled peas and water. They were succeeded by precisely the same number of smart buxom damsels, between whom and the monks the best understanding seemed to prevail. And last of all, came forth three men in the ordinary garb of the country, who appeared to be strangers to the holy company, and to have no very intimate companionship one with another. Yet they, observing a smile on our countenances as we regarded the scene, soon joined us in the laugh, and insinuated pretty broadly that the ladies were not under their protection. In a word it was easy to gather, that whether justly or the reverse, the monastic character was not held by them in any very great reverence, and we soon found that in this respect they were by no means singular.

We loitered about the passage and door of the toll-house till the Diligence had been sufficiently searched, when it immediately drove off, and the revenue-officers addressed themselves to us. I have nothing whatever to complain of in reference either to their proceedings or their manner. Our passport informed them of the nature of our business, and they soon saw that there could be no deceit in it; so having looked into the carriage as a mere matter of form, they told us that we were at liberty to proceed. Again, therefore, we ensconced ourselves each in his own corner; and making the best arrangements that circumstances would allow, we closed our eyes by mutual consent, and fell fast asleep.

From that light slumber we were awakened about six o'clock on the following morning, by the stopping of our vehicle at the door of the inn, where the vetturino proposed to bait his horses. It was an indifferent house, to be sure, though perhaps the best in the village; and of the people, I am bound to say, that to the utmost of their ability, they ministered to our wants; but that which, during the halt, attracted the principal share of our notice, was a circumstance quite unconnected both with the hotel and its keepers. There arrived, while we were at breakfast, at what seemed to be a police-station directly opposite, a waggon, guarded by a party of soldiers, in which were, loaded with chains round their ankles and wrists, two countrymen. Now, though there was in the demeanour of the prisoners-who, by the by, seemed to be very much at their ease, for they smoked their pipes, and even assisted the new escort to prepare the fresh waggon-fair ground to assume that they were not in reality objects of compassion, my boy and I remembering how little time had elapsed since we had ourselves been in a similar plight, could not help taking an interest in their fate.

We accordingly stepped out, and questioned the corporal as to the nature of the offence with which they stood charged.

"The common offence of all this district," replied he: "they are two notorious contrabandists, and are more than suspected of having taken part in a recent robbery."

"Then you abound in smugglers and brigands hereabouts, as well as lower down ?" said I.

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"You may depend upon that," was the answer. Every second peasant whom you meet, is either one or other, or both; and what is more, their pranks are not concealed from us, though we find it difficult to bring the charge home to them, for they will not betray one another."

The corporal's remarks scarcely surprised me, because, in some measure, I was prepared for it: that is to say, I knew that the people of this wild and arid region are not famous for the habits of obedience to the laws; but the sentence seemed to be more sweeping than the occasion required; for it is very difficult to conceive a state of society where to be honest is not the rule, but the exception. At the same time I am inclined to think that the act of loading all captives indiscriminately with chains, and parading them ostentatiously through crowded thoroughfares, cannot, wherever it is practised, have any tendency, except to lower the tone of moral feeling in a country. Chains are not becoming ornaments to the human person, and except where violence is to be apprehended, or there is something unusually horrible in the case, they are best kept apart from it; because where they fail to excite indignation against the authorities and sympathy for the prisoner, they harden both the actor and the spectators in the drama. I am sure, at least, that both these effects have been produced every where in the Austrian dominions, where, sooth to say, the use of fetters is painfully frequent. Over and over again it has been my fortune to see my fellow-creatures conducted like wild beasts, through the streets of towns, and along the high-roads; and I do not recollect a single instance in which the prisoners failed to put on an air of bold defiance; while such as watched them, either expressed their pity for their fate, or spoke bitterly of the power which could thus deal with human beings as yet uncondemned. I am therefore surprised that the Austrian government, however desirous it may be of keeping the people in subjection, should commit so gross an error against the dictates of common sense. The French, I was assured, while masters in this quarter, made no such harsh display of rigour; yet, under the dominion of the French, there ceased to be such a thing as brigandage, and even smuggling sank into a very poor and unproductive occupation. Having sufficiently gratified our curiosity in reference to the prisoners, and given both to men and horses the refreshment of which they stood in need, we resumed our progress. We had been a good deal struck even at the commencement of our journey, with the extent of traffic that seemed to prevail along the road. Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, a good many waggons met us, all of them, as it seemed, winding their way to Trieste; but the numbers were as nothing when compared with the perfect throng, which the return of daylight appeared to have set in motion. Long strings of cars, drawn, some by two horses, others by four, encountered us continually; and as

the drivers of them never think of making way for any body or any thing, the meeting was to us a source always of inconvenience, sometimes wellnigh of danger: for the road, though wide, is not interminable; and ditches, for the most part, skirt it on either hand. Whether the waggons were thus collected into masses, as caravans assemble in Arabia, for the sake of mutual protection, I cannot tell; but that the road was not accounted safe, we had other grounds for concluding. In the first place, more than one carriage passed or overtook ours-on the dickey of which a couple of soldiers, with their muskets in their hands, were sitting. In the next place, we observed that small military posts were established, at intervals of perhaps five or six miles apart;-from the immediate vicinity of Trieste, as far as we penetrated along the defile. At the same time when it is remembered that by this road all, or almost all, the export trade of Austria is carried on, we cannot wonder that more than ordinary precautions should be taken to hinder so much as an attempt to interrupt it. If, therefore, the admirers of the Illyrians contend that they, though poor, are not dishonest, for though addicted to free trade, they leave their neighbours' persons and property untouched, I shall certainly not dispute the point with them; because my own personal experience is entirely on that side of the argument, and when experience and mere rumour contradict one another, the wise man is apt to give his confidence to the former rather than to the latter.

It was not, however, by such objects as these that we pleasantly occupied ourselves during the journey. In the external aspect of things, though I cannot say that it partook, in any degree, of the beautiful, there was much to excite both admiration and interest. The hills, though, for a portion of the Alps, somewhat low, were exceedingly bold in their shapes. The whole valley, whether subjected to an imperfect cultivation, or left in a state of nature, seemed generally sterile and barren. Yet here and there the eye rested upon a spot where vines flourished, or corn grew, and far off the boundary to the panorama was magnificent. This was particularly the case near a small town, the name of which I have forgotten, where a circular moundlike hill gave support to the remains of an old castle. Its sides were clothed with vineyards; while, sloping away from it, lies a sort of strath or glen, the bed of which was a greensward of the richest and most luxuriant aspect. But such spots were to all intents and purposes oases in the desert; for the usual character of the country is as cheerless and uninviting as any lover of the bleak in mountain scenery need desire to witness.

At last, after passing along the base of a magnificent range of rocks, which could not measure, in respect of altitude, less than twelve hundred feet from the elevated plain of the high-road, our driver turned round, and pointing to a little town which lay at the further extremity of the amphitheatre, informed us that here our curiosity would be gratified. We guessed from his peculiar style of oratory that the town in question was Adelsberg, and we were right. There it lay, backed up by a range of low green hills, a poor place, and apparently little frequented; of which the population could not exceed a thousand souls at the utmost, and the houses were all mean-some of them in a state wellnigh of dilapidation. In justice to the host, however, I am bound to say that the only hotel is kept in a very creditable style. There is no display

of splendour certainly, indeed splendour is a thing unknown except in the capitals and great commercial cities of the continent; but there was a very fair proportion of comfort, and the viands which we ordered for dinner came up with manifest proofs about them that the cook had some skill in his vocation.

The caves, the great object of attraction to the place, lie at a distance of perhaps two English miles from the town, and are approached by a narrow road that carries you along the base of a hill on the summit of which stand the remains of a baronial castle. According to the tradition which your guide repeats to you, the lord of that castle, in ages long gone by, had a deadly quarrel with his sovereign, the Archduke of Austria. I forget in what circumstance the feud originated. I think that some question of punctilio or etiquette gave rise to it; that the Lord of Adelsberg was treated at Vienna otherwise than his vanity demanded; and that, resenting the wrong, he was obliged to flee for his life. He fled, however, only that within the limits of his own domain he might maintain himself, for he had the hardihood to send from thence a bold defiance to his sovereign. But the Archdukes of Austria were not, in those days, men to be bearded by a vassal, however powerful. Troops were forthwith marched from the capital to bring the rebel to justice, and after one or two skirmishes the Baron was shut up in his castle.

A castle perched upon the summit of a rock was a hard bone for the warriors of the fourteenth century to pick. The Ducal forces endeavoured in vain to carry Adelsberg by assault; and then sat down to reduce it by process of famine. But month after month passed by, without wringing from the besieged the faintest symptom of distress; while the besiegers, indifferently supplied by a population which was not friendly, suffered greatly. At last the Baron, as if to convince them of the hopelessness of their undertaking, sent, with a flag of truce, a present of meat and bread and wine to the Ducal leader, and offered, in case his people should be in danger of perishing, to supply them also. There was exceeding astonishment in the Ducal camp: no living soul had been seen to pass to or from the castle since the siege was first formed, yet there was abundance within the walls at the very time when in the lines of the besiegers, with all the surrounding country at their control, the pangs of famine were felt. Intelligence was immediately conveyed to Vienna, and the messenger returned with instructions, on which the leader of the expedition made haste to act. He opened a negotiation with the Baron; he gave, in the Archduke's name, a solemn assurance of pardon, and offered to concede to him the point of honour in dispute, provided he in his turn would inform the Archduke of the means by which he continued to elude the vigilance of the guards, and convey provisions into the castle. This was the very end which the Baron desired to accomplish, for he was weary of a state of warfare which gave him no prospect of advantages: so, accepting the general's guarantee, he threw open the castle-gates, and disclosed to the astonished chief a subterranean passage, along which he led him. "This passage," continued our guide, "communicated with the caves into which you are going to enter. It has long been choked up, but you may still trace the mouth of it among the remains on the top of the hill; and the caves, of which we have not yet penetrated to the extremity, have without all doubt some other opening at a distance, through which the Baron

was accustomed to have stores of every kind regularly conveyed to him.

"And the Archduke's promise," demanded I, "was it faithfully fulfilled?"

"Not a bit," was the answer; "Archdukes and emperors were scarce more careful then than they are now, to keep faith with their inferiors; such a castle as this of Adelsberg was a great deal too strong to be left in the hands of a subject. What became of the Baron I don't know. Probably he ended his days in a prison; but his house was seized, plundered and burned, after the subterranean passage had been carefully filled up. However, here we are at the cave's mouth. I pray you to look round."

We did so, and beheld a succession of wavy hills, of no great height, and covered with a scanty herbage. They seemed to be composed entirely of limestone, which the thin, short, and evidently sour grass very imperfectly concealed, while large masses of the lime itself, having been by some means or another displaced, created here and there the semblance of a corrie in miniature. Along a valley or ravine which ran, with numerous twists and turns through them, a river made its way, till having reached the base of one of these hills, which with a projecting elbow stood forward, as it were, to oppose us, it there abruptly terminated. There were no waving woods; no low but graceful shrubberies; no hedges, nor corn-fields, nor any other sign afforded of nature's bounty, or of the industry of man; but sterile hills, rising or falling like waves of the sea, without making room for a single valley of which you could say that it was such as even the goat-herd might inhabit. I never beheld a tract of country so little inviting in every point of view. It had neither the grandeur of a district wholly precipitous, nor the deep solitude of a moor, however barren; it chilled and repulsed you by an air of barrenness, for which there were no features sufficiently distinct in the landscape to make amends.

We approached the projecting elbow of the hill by a sort of road, which the rains of the previous night had so saturated, that it reminded me of some of the deepest and dirtiest chalk lanes in Kent. About fifty or sixty yards of this road, just before it terminates near the mouth of the cave, had been scooped out of the side of the hill, and there was a parapet on one side to guard against the chances of an accident; for immediately beneath, the sullen waters of the river were flowing, and the ravine, such as it was, fell sheer and abrupt. Finally, a door inserted into the white rock indicated the means of ingress to the cavern, and round it were gathered four countrymen, each with a rude iron lamp in his hand. These, immediately on our arrival, they proceeded to light; and then the captain of the gang applying his key to the lock, the door was pushed back, and we were ushered into a scene of the most extraordinary kind.

When first you pass that wondrous threshold, you find yourself in a sort of gallery, long and lofty, but incapable of permitting the advance of more than two persons abreast. You traverse this, one guide preceding each visiter, and one at least bringing up the rear; who lifting their lamps from time to time, disclose to you both walls and roof that shine with the most brilliant spar. Meanwhile a murmuring noise falls upon your ear, which as you advance grows more distant and broken, till by and by you emerge from the gallery into an enormous hall, of