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For when as each thing bad thou hadst entomb'd,

;

And last of all thy greedy self consumed,
Then long eternity shall greet our bliss
And joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When everything that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,

With truth, and peace, and love, shall ever shine
About the supreme throne,

Of Him, to whose happy-making sight alone,

When once our heavenly guided soul shall climb,

Then all this earthly grossness quit,

Attired with stars we shall for ever sit,

Triumphing over death, and chance, and thee, O Time."

Finding ourselves now amongst the Sabine hills, we began to look out for the beauty of the Sabine women; but we found the earth far more peculiar. Passing through Borghetto, on the left crowning a very considerable height over the Tiber, is the gloomy town of Magliano.

We kept edging the hills down to the plain; every inch was interesting, and we now entered upon a soil new to us all.

The ground was of a deep red colour: the stones on the side of the road resembled cinders, and, in the damp of the ⚫ morning and strong heat of the sun, sent forth an almost suffocating smell of sulphur and nitre. It was no fancywe really suffered considerably. Mile after mile presented undulations of volcanic matter. Sometimes prodigious ravines, with long extinguished craters, now beautiful with foliage. At Friglia, we observed a fine arch over a most singular abyss. The land has been rent by some awful convulsion, the sides fitting exactly, and the depth of the massive rocks so great as nearly to exclude the solar ray. On the right were prodigious caverns formed with so fine

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an arch that they appeared the result of skill. Many poor houseless creatures actually find shelter in them.

As we ascended towards Civita Castellana, we perceived the lonely Soracte,

"Which, from out the plain,

Heaves like a long swept wave about to break,

And on the curl hangs pausing."

Civita Castellana stands on a high rock on the Flaminian way; it is said to be on the site of Veii. It is singular that the site of such a town should be still uncertain: one that even, after the capture of Rome by the Gauls, stood its rival as a metropolis-one that engaged Camillus in a siege of ten years, and was at length taken in 357; and the spoils of which were thought worthy to be lodged in the temple of the Pythian Apollo. We now quitted the Flaminian way, and proceeded to Nepi: on every side were volcanic rents, ruined aqueducts, and the appearance of ancient craters, now beautiful with foliage, the moon tinting every object, and presenting to our imagination a brigand in every stump. The inn stood alone; we were led into a room very remote from the family, exceedingly large, and its furniture three arm-chairs, certainly made for those who had ages since slept with their forefathers; three iron bedsteads, without curtain or pillow. A brilliant moon shone in through casements without glass, and a piercing tramontane wind searched us through. We looked forth upon the scene, and the whole region seemed fitted for banditti, and we retired with the certainty that, if they entered our open window frames, no human help was nigh. But we commended ourselves to God, and slept securely: we left Nepi nearly starving, having had each for supper a half roast sparrow, and for breakfast nothing.

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66.

FIRST GLIMPSE OF ROME.

We debouched upon this bandit region as the clock struck four, and as the moon was gently setting on the western plain.

At Mons Erosus, now Monte Rossi, is an old castle, and many antiquities. The volcanic earth still engaged our curiosity, and the country we now found dreary and uncultivated to a degree we could scarcely have believed. Whilst we were contemplating this fact, we all exclaimed at once, "There it is!" St. Peter's-for we had actually caught for a moment a glimpse of its dome: this occurred near the few wretched houses at Baccano. The inn at Storta is not fit for any decent person, nor can refreshment be obtained, although one should have come starving, as we did, from Nepi; but we did better-we mounted on the red rocks behind the inn, and beheld, in the dim distance, the imperial city, and the bright line of the ocean. The country is now a succession of small hills, gradually decreasing, but no where, excepting on the borders of the Tiber, a flat. These hills hide the object for which your eye and your heart ache, till at length

ROME

is really before you. Her youth, her glory, her decay, have so long mixed with all one's sympathies, that to see her is to meet a long known but unseen object; one whose tale is not yet finished, in which all nations, the past, the present. and the future, share.

CHAPTER VII.

Rome-The Coliseum by Moonlight-by Day-The Via Crucis.

ROME

THE first object that we passed was a solitary tomb; it stands close to the way side. It is a simple stone sarcophagus, tenantless.

Pursuing the old Flaminian way, we entered the Porto del Popolo. At once the gloom is dissipated; and for a moment you might fancy yourself entering the city of the Cæsars, in its primeval glory. Before you is a noble obelisk, of Egyptian granite; on the right and left of this fine needle, are elegant churches, and two abundant fountains. Three streets carry your eye forwards into the city: on your left is the Pincian mount; on your right flows unseen the Tiber, above which is Mons Marius.

And now truce for awhile to recollections, to which, perhaps, "distance lends the beauty," and fancy us seated at Frautz's Hotel, in via Candotti. We were in momentary expectation of the announcement of dinner, when “I dogani" were announced; and, notwithstanding our lascia passare, our boxes were rigidly examined-mais que cela passe dinner came, and capriuola and beccafichi restored us.

It was no small trial of patience, in such a city as Rome, to be two days before we could find suitable lodgings. We found them at last in the Piazza di Spagna-certainly one

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of the most cheerful and wholesome spots in Rome; and we slept well, notwithstanding the alleged nocturnal visits of Nero's ghost, whose body was buried in the "collis hortorum," close behind our house, and whose spirit is said sadly to have annoyed the region. I promise only to tell what I hear; to vouch that all is true would be an alarming responsibility in Rome.

But you must share my true impressions-my new associations.

We took advantage of a brilliant moon to visit the Coliseum: it is difficult to do justice to that evening's ride. As we drove up the Via Sacra, every pillar and ruin was tinted with a pallid light. I felt that it was a part of that which had long been numbered with doubtful things; and yet they stood, marking past and future judgment. As we entered the mouldering walls of the Coliseum, a bell from a distant convent threw a deep and melodious sound over the Esquiline; and a solitary bird sent forth a long and piercing note. The moon revealed hundreds of arches and buttresses; and the broad blue canopy of heaven spread its magnificent vault above, bearing on its bosom an universe of worlds; exulting in pristine brightness over the gigantic mouldering mass; and proclaiming immortality, where the works of man spoke only of decay. A bright beam fell on the cross in its centre, and threw a peaceful shadow on that arena, where, amidst the shouts of the multitude, the dying martyrs sealed the truth with their blood. Yes! they sealed the truth with their blood!—they had been taught of the Father! As I sat on a broken pillar, I could not help reflecting on the light that flows from the sacred page,-that of history only leaves us surrounded by chaos: here, in Rome, they did err, and do err,

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