XII.

The old Cardinal's Retreat.

WE live in it at the time of this present writing.

It is in the Montagnola, an hour distant from Siena, among the mountains bordering the Maremma. The whole country is a forest-such a forest! Giant oaks, wild, scathed, savage-looking, growing on rocky broken ground, with never a stick of underwood ; spiky cypresses, gathered up like nosegays; patches of olives-grey, mystic trees said to have paled into that sad tint out of grief for the Divine One who once wept under their shade; vineyards of yellow-leafed grapes, now laden with ruby fruit, clinging to light cane supports. Higher up, fold upon fold of rounded hills, dimpling into each other like the petals of a tulip, and clothed with a dark mantle of evergreen ilex. Beyond lies an expanse of open country broken into long horizontal lines of hills and valleys, waving up and down like the swell of a stormy sea, either utterly barren and desolate, or thickly dotted with villas, churches,

towers, and villages, clinging together as if for company. How easy to give the details; how impossible to paint the varied tints and magic changes of light and shade on this broad horizon; the morning mists; the fervid blue of the mid-day sky; the great white clouds like snow-drifts that come riding up over the dark hill-tops; the ruddy glory of the sunsets! When we came here, the woods were green; now they look as if lighted by living flames. The shadows are those of a furnace, glowing russet, deepest ruby, and richest purple.

In the heart of this fair forest-wilderness a villa stands, built in the Tuscan or rustic style, on a plateau facing the Apennines to the south, and backed by the evergreen forests on the hills. It was built by Cardinal Chigi, brother of Pope Alexander VII., and is still in possession of his descendants. As Louis XIV. created Versailles out of a sand-hill, so the cardinal (attracted to this spot by its exceeding natural beauty) caused this villa-palace to arise out of a virgin forest by the force of gold. He summoned the great architect Fontana to his aid; made roads; pruned the wild forest luxuriance into parks and gardens; formed stately terraces adorned with sculpture; and placed twelve chapels or stations round the house in the adjacent woods, which he peopled with statues of saints, gods,

and satyrs, a mixed but goodly company, looking over the tree-tops on pedestals some sixty feet high, and startling the sight in unexpected places. He also caused to be traced from the northern front of the villa a broad grassy alley (spanned midway by a triumphal arch, and further on by a theatre for al fresco performances), from whence, rising abruptly-always in a straight line and forming a vista from the villa-two hundred steps of stone, cut through the forest, form a Scala Santa, or sacred staircase, mounting to a high tower on the summit of the hill, where twelve monks, living in twelve cells, said prayers for his eminence and all his family, day and night.

When all was done, our cardinal called the place THE THEBAID, in memory of his lowly brethren, the starving monks of the Egyptian desert, who would mightily have enjoyed the change from arid sand, thirst, and hunger, to this refined and luxurious hermitage. Pope Alexander, out of the funds of St. Peter, left it also a noble revenue, along with many broad acres on Tuscan and on Roman soil, which have come down unlessened to the present day. The Thebaid is therefore maintained with fitting splendour by the Marquis Chigi, its present owner.

The saloons and galleries within are still decked with old frescoes, gilding, marbles, and statues, to which

are added the comforts of our own present time. A crowd of modern retainers, valets, keepers, stewards, gardeners, shepherds, come and go over the grassy court within the gates, where in the morning are often to be seen seated patiently on a certain stone bench, waiting to be served, whole families of beggars-poor yellow-faced wretches, who all receive a dole of bread and wine, according to ancient custom, in spite of the vigorous remonstrances and often violent interposition of Argo, the watch-dog, who is as large and as white as a polar bear.

The old Cardinal's Retreat has its ghost, of course. One evening we had been tempted by the wondrous beauty of the moonlight into the woods. The twisted ilex trunks looked down upon us like a fantastic multitude hovering in the deep shadows; above, the moon rose in an unclouded sky. We went on, and descended from the plateau into the Siena road, overarched with black branches. On one side, a wall borders this road; on the other, where the ground falls rapidly and the road is terraced, there is not even a parapet, but a fall of some ten or fourteen feet. The night was very still. Nothing but the distant baying of a dog broke the silence. Suddenly a sound of wheels came on us, beginning very faintly-then ceasing-then coming on again. At last it grew loud and distinct,

and proved to be a baroccino (gig) returning late from Siena with some of our people - Antonio, butler ; Adamo, keeper; and Filippo, gardener.

"Oh, signori, signori!" gasped Antonio, "we have just seen the donnina; there, just below, between the Satiro" [a great statue] "and this chapel here. We saw her as plainly as we see you, standing in the middle of the road, with her head bent."

"Yes," broke in Adamo, shaking himself as if waking out of a nightmare, "yes, indeed! Santa Maria! I was leading the horse for the road is so rough, and the shadows are so dark-when I saw in the moonlight a woman with something over her head, like the peasant-women wear. She came out of this wall and glided across the road, close before me. She disappeared over the parapet among the woods. Anima mia! she was there beside me, for the horse saw her too, and so started and shied that he nearly threw the gig over the parapet.”

"Indeed, signori," said Antonio, "the gig jerked, and I was almost thrown out. I saw the donnina too."

"Yes, but not so plainly as I did," cried Adamo. "I tell you she passed close-close to my hand, under the horse's nose, with a cloth on her head and a spindle in her hand! She passed across the road over