storms for centuries. The cicerone, without shoes or hat, took us to the Baths and Grottos of Catullus. I will not trouble my readers with speculations, whether or not they belonged to the poet. The first is a small square building, with an aperture to admit the water at the bottom. It appears from the masonry to be of Roman origin. The grottos are long subterranean arches, now in a state of dilapidation. They are pierced at top for windows. Here perchance Catullus kept his Falernian, and quaffed his goblets with Lesbia. Seating myself upon the ruins of the building, which is said to have been his mansion, I read his description of Sirmio, "the little eye of Italy."

Two hours were delightfully passed in rambling over the peninsula, in examining its ruins, and in tracing the outlines of the lake above, which may hence be seen for nearly its whole extent, till its head is lost to the eye amidst Alpine solitudes. In coasting along the shore on our return, the chant of the procession could still be heard, and glimpses of crucifixes and banners were caught above the intervening fringe of rushes. The devotees had been on a pilgrimage to a shrine, at the distance of a mile and a half from Sermione. Towards evening the skies became cloudy, and as a fresh wind was directly against us, we did not reach the bridge of St. Mark till about 6 o'clock. Amidst the heedless enjoyments of the excursion, it was forgotten what a formidable length of road was to be traversed in reaching Verona.

Night came on soon after our departure from Peschiera. In passing a thick forest, I saw the vetturino whisper to the valet de place, who was sitting with him upon the box. The latter leaned back into the coach, and told us in an under tone, that we were beset by banditti-that their voices and the trampling of their feet were heard in the woods on the right of the road, but a few paces ahead. As robberies had recently been committed on the same route, the information appeared not improbable. We sat still a moment, deliberating what should be done. In the meantime, the coachman leaped from his seat in a panic, seized his horses by the head, and was about to turn back. Against this measure we remonstrated, concluding there was as much danger in retreating, as in going forward. A peasant came along at the instant, and in some degree quieted the agitation of the vetturino, by expressing an opinion, that the persons heard conversing together were

not footpads. Remounting his box, he gave the lash to his horses, alternately using the whip and his handkerchief, to wipe the sweat from his brow. He did not pause long enough to look back, till he reached the gates of VeroIt would have required a fleet highwayman to have overtaken us, and there was real danger of having our necks broken in the race, if not in encountering banditti.

na.

The next day was appropriated to an examination of the objects of interest at Verona, commencing with the amphitheatre, which is situated in the oldest part of the city,. upon a spacious square, surrounded with palaces and other public buildings of no ordinary magnificence. This Roman structure is nearly of the same form and dimensions as the one at Nismes.

At the distance of a few yards, stands the Public Palace, built by one of the Doges of Venice, at the time Verona was tributary to the Islands of the Adriatic. It is a stately edifice, with open arches in the basement, and Doric columns above. Fronting the same square, is the Philharmonic Academy, containing a pretty theatre for music and the opera. The boxes next the stage are rounded, so that the occupants face the actors. They are elegantly finished. The young costode pointed out the one, in which Alexander of Russia used to sit, during the Congress of Sovereigns at this place, in 1822. He coolly added with an air of pride and exultation, that "the Emperor took such a fancy to one of his sisters, as to induce her to accompany him to St. Petersburgh, where she still resides!"

In the front of this edifice is a handsome Ionic portico, which is a depository of sepulchral monuments, and other specimens of ancient sculpture, presented by Maffei, founder of. the Academy. The most curious article in the collection is a quaint circle of Gothic figures, ycleped the Nine Muses. Our attention was also attracted to a representation of the fall of Phaeton into the Po. We asked the cicerone into what part of the Po the young charioteer was precipitated. He replied, "it was near Ferrara, about 60 miles from Verona, where the place may still be seen!"

An arch, built by the celebrated architect Vitruvius, who was a native of this city, spans the Corso. It is two stories, ornamented with Ionic pillars, fluted and spiral, with windows above. It has double passages; one for ingress, and the other for egress, in entering and leaving the city. The

face is full of indentations, made by the shot of the Veronese, in disputing the entrance of the French, during the late revolutions.

The Bridge of Vitruvius across the Adige is the most stately structure of the kind in the city. It is cased in marble, and capped with Gothic pinnacles. It was the scene of a skirmish between the French and Austrians, in which the latter retreated and scampered up the neighbouring heights, to the no small amusement of the spectators, who had assem bled to witness the conflict.

Although the rain poured in torrents for the greater part of this day, we made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Juliet, half a mile beyond the gates of Verona. Her sarcophagus is deposited in a small, dirty, miserable court, filled with hay and rubbish of all kinds, and forming the entrance to a spacious garden, which was once the cemetery of a Franciscan Convent. It is now appropriated to happier uses. Grapes hung in purple clusters from the roof of arbours, spanning the alleys, and peach trees were laden with the largest and most delicious fruit of the kind, which we found in Italy. The old woman, who met us at the gate, permitted us to participate in the fruits of the garden, as well as in its poetical associations. No traces of the cemetery are to be found, except the solitary sarcophagus of Juliet, which is of Veronese' marble, large in its dimensions, with a stone pillow for the head, a socket in the bottom to hold the taper, and an aperture in the side to admit fresh air. The lid is gone, and other parts of the coffin have been much mutilated by visitants, who have carried away the fragments as relics. present guardian watches with the eyes of an Argus, and will suffer no fingers to pilfer. An extraordinary degree of faith is required, to believe that Shakspeare's heroine was enclosed in this relic by the Father Confessor, while her Romeo was away at Mantua. It is, however, a good story, the romance of which ought not to be dashed with doubts, but swallowed as the two lovers drank their potions.

Its

We went to the church of Notre Dame to see the tombs of the Scaligers, who were the lords of Verona in the age of Romeo and Juliet. Their monuments are curious structures of oriental Gothic, resembling little temples crowned with pinnacles, and embellished with statues. The sarcophagi are cradled in air, among the fretwork, at an elevation of six or eight feet from the pavement of the shrines, and surround

VOE. IN

37

ed with iron railings, in which the scala or ladder, (the arms of the family,) is interwoven.

Crossing the Ponte di Navi, so called from its being the rendezvous of boats, and the point of embarkation on the Adige, we visited the Giuste Garden, celebrated by Addison and other travellers. It has acquired new fame by the sittings of the late Congress of Verona. The grounds are situated on a steep acclivity, embellished with pyramids of cypress and other ornamental trees. Splendid walks lead to the Palace, seated upon the summit of an eminence, which is said to command a fine view of the town. We commenced an ascent; but the rain came down with such violence, and the alleys were so flooded, as to compel us to retreat. A call was made at the Cathedral, to examine the tomb of Car'dinal Colonna. The church itself is a lofty edifice, construc

ted of Veronese marble, rich in its decorations.

In the early part of the evening, I strolled to the chapel of St. Anastasia, a stupendous fabric. On entering the door, I heard the voice of one crying in the wilderness of columns and chapels; but it was too dark to distinguish whence the words of the preacher came. In a few minutes the brilliant shrines were all lighted up, flashing a flood of splendour through the long Gothic aisles. A numerous audience, chiefly of females, sitting in chairs and wearing white veils, as also the speaker himself mounted in a pulpit, came into view. The remnant of a popular harangue cost me a sous for a seat, and another sous for the hat, which was kept rattling about my ears, till the collector was appeased. After the sermon, an organ struck up, and a full chorus of voices produced a fine effect. A ceremony followed, which was new to me. A priest touched the heads of throngs of people who pressed to the altar, with a small silver crucifix, and then held it to their lips to be kissed. The rite occupied an hour or more.

We returned the next morning to the same church, to look at its splendid chapels, and the sepulchral monuments of distinguished citizens, erected at the public expense. Verona appears to be justly proud of her great men, among whom are many illustrious names, such as Catullus, Pliny the elder, Cornelius Nepos, Vitruvius, Paul Veronese, and others of later times, who have shed lustre upon their native city. Although it is now subjected to a foreign government, and degraded into a provincial town, it seems to be more flourish

ing than most other places. The 50,000 inhabitants are engaged in manufactures, and the streets exhibit evidences of a busy, active, and industrious population.

RIDE TO MANTUA-DANGERS OF THE ROAD-AUSTRIAN CODE -VILLAFRANCA-BANKS OF THE MINCIO-FIRST VIEW OF MANTUA-EXCURSION TO ANDES-REMINISCENCES OF VIRGIL-CORSO OF THE CITY—AMUSEMENTS-PIAZZA VEIGILIANA TOMB AND LAST RESIDENCE OF JULIO ROMANO-DUCAL PALACE-TORRE DELLA GABBIA-KOUTE TO CREMONA

SKETCH OF THE CITY.

September, 1826.-On the 26th, we set out with a vetturino for Mantua, not without serious apprehensions of encountering banditti in the way. Some of the inmates of the hotel informed us, that they had been attacked but a day or two before, on the road between the two cities, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The band of brigands was sufficiently numerous, to assail three carriages and a pedestrian at the same moment. From the latter a considerable sum of money was taken. The coachmen were fired at, but made their escape without injury. All the peasantry turned out and scoured the woods. Three of the robbers were taken. This intelligence, added to the reports of outrages recently committed on other roads, and to the positive information received from our banker at Florence, that no less than eight robberies had taken place in the vicinity of Milan, in a single week, created not a little anxiety and alarm. But it was impracticable to avoid the risk without giving up Mantua ; and other routes had but little preference in point of security. We therefore secreted our money among the clothing in our trunks, and took every precaution which prudence required.

I read the Penal Code of Austria on the journey, as a sort of neckverse, and as furnishing the only scarecrow, which the government has interposed for the protection of travellers; while swarms of officers and soldiers from the Danube are parading the streets of Verona, thronging the coffeehouses and theatres, dangling their swords, smoking their pipes, combing their mustaches, and making love in the most