"He will show us," said Gennaro, "that he can fly where we can only get along at a foot's pace; yet I would venture to take the same flight with him ;" and, so saying, he placed himself at my side, to race with me.

"Do you think that I, with my signora on my arm, can go step for step with you?" exclaimed Fabiani. Gennaro remained standing.

When we came to the little hostel, my eye in vain sought for the blind girl: her cry continually resounded in my ear: I heard it within my very heart. It was to me as if I had committed a sin. I, it was really, who had, although innocently, sung care and sorrow into her heart, by making her deprivations more intelligible to her. I had excited terror and anxiety in her soul, and had impressed a kiss upon her brow, the first which I had ever given to a woman. If she could have seen me, I had not dared to do it: her misfortune - her defenselessness had given me courage. And I had passed such severe judgment on Bernardo! - I who was a child of sin like him, like every one! I could have kneeled at her feet, and prayed for forgiveness; but she was nowhere to be

seen.

We mounted the carriage to drive back to Salerno; yet once more I looked out to see if I could discover her; but I did not venture to inquire where she could be.

At that moment, Gennaro exclaimed, "Where is that blind girl?"

"Lara?" said our guide. "She still sits in the temple of Neptune she is generally there.”

"Bella Divina !" cried Gennaro, and wafted a kiss with his hand towards the temple. We rolled away.

She was then called Lara. I sat with my back to the driver, and saw when the columns of the temple became yet more and more distant; but within my heart intoned the anguishcry of the girl, my own suffering.

A troop of gypsies had encamped themselves by the roadside, and had made a great fire in the ditch, over which they were boiling and roasting. The old gypsey mother struck upon the tambourine, and wanted to tell us our fortunes, but we drove past. Two black-eyed girls followed us for a con

siderable time. They were handsome: and Gennaro made himself merry about their easy motions and their flashing eyes; but beautiful and noble as Lara were they not.

Towards evening we reached Salerno. The next morning we were to go to Amalfi, and thence to Capri.

"We shall remain," said Fabiani, "only one day in Naples, if we return there at all. Towards the end of the week we must be again in Rome. You can very soon get your things in order, Antonio?"

I could not I wished not, to return to Rome; but a bashfulness, a fear, which my poverty and my gratitude had instilled into me through all the years of my life, permitted me to do no more than stammer forth, that Excellenza certainly would be angry at my audacity in coming back again.

"We will take care of all that!" exclaimed Fabiani to me. "Forgive me, but I cannot!" I stammered, and seized Francesca's hand. "I feel deeply that which I owe you."

"Say nothing of that, Antonio," she replied, and laid her hand upon my mouth.

Strangers at that moment were announced, and I withdrew silently into a corner, feeling how weak I was.

Free and independent as a bird had I been only two days before! and He, who permits not a sparrow to fall unheeded to the ground would have cared for me; and yet I let the first thin thread which twined itself around my feet grow to the strength of a cable.

In Rome, thought I, thou hast true friends, true and honest, if not so courteous as those in Naples. I thought on Santa, whom I never more would see. I thought on Bernardo, whom I actually should meet in Naples every day — on Annunciata, who would come here - -on his and her happiness in love. "To Rome! to Rome! it is much better there!" said my heart to me, whilst my soul struggled after freedom and independence.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE ADVENTURE IN AMALFI. THE BLUE GROTTO OF CAPRI.

OW beautifully Salerno looked out from the sea, as, in the delicious morning hour, we sailed away from it. Six stout fellows pulled the oars. A little boy, handsome enough to be painted, sat at the helm: he was called Alphonso. The water was green as glass. The whole coast to the right seemed like magnificent hanging gardens, laid out by the bold Semiramis of fancy. The vast open caves lay like colonnades down in the sea, within which played the heavy billows. Upon the projecting point of rock stood a castle, below whose turreted walls floated a small cloud. We saw Minori and Majori; and, immediately afterwards, Amalfi, the birthplace of Masaniello and Flavio Giojas, the discoverer of the mariner's compass, which looked forth from amidst green vineyards.

This great affluence of beauty overpowered me. Would that all the generations of the earth could see these glorious scenes! No storm from the north or west brings cold or winter to the blooming garden upon whose terrace Amalfi is placed. The breezes come only here from the east and the south, the warm breezes from the region of oranges and palms, across the beautiful sea.

Along the shore, high up on the side of the mountain, hangs the city, with its white houses, with their flat, oriental roofs; higher still ascend the vineyards. One solitary pinetree lifts up its green crown into the blue air, where, on the ridge of the mountain, the old castle, with its encircling wall, serves as a couch for the clouds.

The fishermen had to carry us through the surf from the boats to the land. Deep caves in the cliffs extended even under the city; into some of these the water flowed, others

were empty. Boats lay beside them, in which played crowds of merry children, most of them only in a skirt or little jacket, which constituted their whole clothing. Half-naked lazzaroni stretched themselves in the warm sand, their brown cowls pulled up about their ears, this being their most important covering during their noonday's sleep. All the church-bells were ringing; a procession of young priests in violet-colored dresses went past us, singing psalms. A fresh garland of flowers hung around the picture which was fastened to the

cross.

To the left, high above the city, stands a magnificently great convent, just before a deep mountain cave; this is the herberg for all strangers. Francesca was carried up in a litter; we others followed after, along the road cut in the rock, with the clear, blue sea lying deeply below us. We had now reached the gate of the convent, exactly opposite to which a deep cave gapes in the rock. Within this there were three crosses, on which were the Redeemer and the two thieves; and above them, upon the stone of the rock, were kneeling angels in bright-colored garments, and great white wings. No artistical work this, but all carved out of wood, and painted; but, nevertheless, a pious, trusting heart breathed its own peculiar beauty over the rudely formed images.

We ascended directly up through the convent court to the rooms which were appropriated to our use. From my window Sicily, the ships

I saw the eternal sea, stretching away to
standing like silver-white points upon the far horizon.

"Sir Improvisatore," said Gennaro, "shall not we descend into the lower regions, and see whether the beauty there is as great as it is here! The female beauty is so, of a certainty! For the English ladies that we have here for neighbors are cold and pale! And you have a taste for the ladies! I beg your pardon. It is this exactly which has driven you out into the world, and will give me a charming evening, and an interesting acquaintance!"

We descended the rocky path.

"The blind girl in Pæstum was, however, very handsome!" said Gennaro. "I think that I shall send for her to Naples when I send for my Calabrian wine! Both one and the other would set my heart in a glow!"

We arrived at the city, which lay, if I may so say, singularly piled upon itself. Beside of it, the narrow Ghetto in Rome would have been a Corso. The streets were narrow passages between the tall houses, and right through them. Now one comes through a door into a long landing-place, with small openings on the sides leading into dark chambers; then into a narrow lane between brick-work and walls of rock, steps up and steps down, a half-dark labyrinth of dirty passages; I often did not know whether it was a room or a lane in which we were. In most places lamps were burning; and if it had not been so, although it was mid-day, it would have been dark as night.

At length we breathed more freely. We stood upon a great brick-work bridge, which connected together two ridges of rock; the little square below us was certainly the largest in the whole city. Two girls were dancing there the saltarello, and a little boy, entirely naked, beautifully formed, and with brown limbs, stood looking on, like a little Cupid. Here, they told me, it never freezes. The severest cold Amalfi has known for many years has been eight degrees above zero.

Close beside the little tower, upon the projecting platform of rock, from which is to be seen the lovely bay of Minori and Majori, a little serpentine path winds between aloes and myrtles; and, following it, we were soon overshadowed by the lofty arch of entwining vines. We felt a burning thirst, and hastened onwards towards a little white dwelling-house, which, at the end of the vineyard, invited us, as it were, so kindly from among the fresh green. The mild, warm air, was filled with fragrance, and beautifully bright insects hummed around

us.

We stood before the house, which was highly picturesque. There had been built into the wall, by way of ornament, some marble capitals, and a beautifully chiseled arm and foot, which had been found among the rubbish. Upon the roof even was a charming garden of oranges and luxurious twining plants, which, like a curtain of green velvet, hung down over the wall; in the front blossomed a wilderness of monthly roses. Two lovely little girls, of from six to seven years old, played and wore garlands; but the most beautiful, however,