at Brigg consisted of, Heaven only knows. I never and appeared to have known each other from childhood, so familiar and easy were we together-I mean the whole group-Monsieur Morn, from Anjou-the young, nameless artist from Paris-the commercial traveller, and all. This last-mentioned gentleman was a curious specimen of the Parisian cockney. He was taking a magnificent set of jewels from a house in Paris to Maria Louise, the widow of Napoleon, at Parma; and the fear of being robbed prompted him to conceal his treasure. The vanity of having been entrusted with it overcame his fear, and he exhibited the jewels at the supper table. They were worth several thousand pounds; and when he had been guilty of the indiscretion, he repented of it, and began to tremble for the result. His throat, he did not doubt, would be cut before he reached his journey's end. In his eyes, every man around him became a robber; and when he restored the case to his pocket, he did so with blanched cheeks, and hands almost smitten with paralysis. However, we presented a striking contrast with the little knot of Englishmen in another part of the room. They ate their supper, not exactly in silence, but in something nearly akin to it, muttering to each other every now and then between a growl and a yawn, and looked Monsieur Carli, until the wine began to soften his as if they would have preferred being snug in Cheap. heart, had affected all the airs of a small diplomatist, || side or May Fair, or whatever other locality they beand would, if possible, have made a mystery of the fact || longed to. We, on the other hand, half intoxicated that the sun shines at noon-day. At supper his tongue with animal spirits, made an immense deal of noise, grew supple, and scattered about confidence as a cow's and ultimately took refuge in cigars, to the introductail scatters dew-drops in the morning from the grass. tion of which no one objected. I soon enveloped my He professed great relish for our society, swore we fair companion in an aromatic cloud, which did not, were the best fellows he had ever met with, and said || however, in the slightest degree impede her utterance. it would give him the utmost possible delight to As the inn was crowded, it was necessary for us travel round the world with us. Unfortunately, how- all, except the married couple, to put up with doubleever, our intimacy was destined to be cut short at that bedded rooms; and, as fate would have it, the commerluckless town of Brigg, unless-which was very unlikely cial traveller, with his jewels, fell to my share. He there was a gentleman in the party who happened was a young man of about twenty-three, with fiery-red to have a passport for himself and for his wife, and yet hair and a blowsy face, short, slight, and eaten up with had left his wife behind him. "In that case," cried M. timidity and suspicion. In my long, drooping, black Carli, in great animation, "he could take Madame under mustaches and ragged beard, he saw so many undoubted his protection, get her over the frontier as his own indications of the brigand-he would have given anybetter-half, and then, of course, deliver her to me. thing to have been Monsieur Morn's companion. But For myself, I could easily climb the hills a little, and that was not to be thought of. Monsieur Morn's arso step into Piedmont without a passport." tistic friend was to be the sharer of his apartment; and so the young jeweller submitted to sleep on robbery with as good a grace as he could assume. beds stood each in a recess on either side of the door; and, long after I was comfortably between the sheets, I could hear my companion puffing, blowing, and fum Our Events appeared to have framed themselves just as Monsieur Carli wished, for I happened to have exactly such a passport, except that it would have enabled me to take over the frontier seven other persons, in addition to his wife. When I mentioned this fact, and offered to take charge of Madame Carli, the little man was transported|bling about, and taking precautions for securing his with joy, as a week at Brigg would, he owned, have been the death of him. Besides, he did not doubt that the cholera was close at his heels; and as it was to escape this fearful malady that he had hurried so rapidly out of France, there was nothing he would not have given at this moment to be lodged safely on the other side of the Alps. It was now agreed that Madame Carli should be Madame St.John till our arrival at Duomo d'Ossola. While this arrangement was in the course of completion, Madame Carli and I were engaged in passing a separate treaty of peace. I had already atoned for the negligence of the day, by all sorts of submissions, till we were once more as free and gay as ever. This, of course, was partly owing to the supper and the wine, which put us first in good humour with ourselves, and then with everybody else. We laughed and chatted, treasure. No doubt he thrust the jewel-case under his pillow, and made up his mind to bawl lustily should I attempt to lay violent hands on him in the night. Being heartily tired, we both fell asleep. We were to start at half-past two, to commence the ascent of the Simplon. In the course of the night, the trampling of many feet on the stairs roused me from sleep; and, supposing it was time to get ready, I went over to awake my companion, who, strange to say, slept like a top. I had to shake him, and bawl several times, before I could perceive the least sign of returning animation. When he did at length awake, he gave a striking proof of his commercial education; for, supposing me to be a robber burst suddenly into the room, he cried out, in extreme fear and agony, "The man with the money and jewels is in the other bed!" A loud shout of honey, and eggs, with rolls hot from the oven, and cof- While, with snowy arm, for me And pours out her best Bohea." Had he known Madame Carli, he would have left out Kate, and tried to get her name into his verses, for most assuredly she presided over the coffee-pot like a sylph; and when she raised her arm, which was as white and round as any Kate's in the world, the sight of it added additional flavour to the Mocha. Let it not be forgotten that I was now privileged to admire her, since she was to be my wife as far as Duomo d'Ossola. laughter from me convinced him he had made a mis-|| breakfasts. They sometimes comprehended broiled kidtake. "So, my friend," said I, "you have no objec-neys, mutton-chops, a slice of venison, delicious butter, tion to get my throat cut while you can save your own. However, that is not the question just now. Get up; all the travellers are in motion-we must dress and be off. On ringing for a light, however, we found we had not yet been in bed full half-an-hour; so we enjoyed the luxury of a second rest, and sweet sleep, on which, if I were writing an epic poem, I would bestow as many fond and grateful epithets as Homer does. In fact, I am never weary of repeating, with Sancho Panza, "Blessed be the man who invented sleep! it wrappeth one about like a garment." So thought I and the commercial traveller, in the comfortable bedroom at Brigg. Still, between sleeping and waking there is always a short interval, which people, of course, employ according to their fancy. I generally, at such moments, build castles in the air; and most magnificent castles they often are, too, illuminated with beauty, and fumed with "Sabean odours from the spicy shores of Araby the blest." On the occasion in question, there were two strange sides to my castle; the one consisting of a bright glimpse of home at Jolimont; the other of Alpine summits and sunny Italy. The room was full of thick darkness, save when a grey glimmer entered at the small casement, shaken occasionally by the wind. My Parisian Argus already slept over his jewels, as his snoring proved indubitably; otherwise there prevailed entire stillness in the house. Without, the notes of a distant screech-owl sounded through the air, intimating that she, at least, considers herself a fit companion for night, and ever meditates and listens to her own voice, albeit none of the sweetest. Visions of glaciers, and virgin snow, and piny chasms, and thundering cataracts, formed the avenue by which I approached the land of dreams, where I at length forgot all terrestrial things among the palm bowers of the distant Nile. per However, even at that fatal breakfast-table, the jokes began which were to end by keeping my fair friend and her husband prisoners in the Alps. She was now addressed invariably as Madame St. John; and Monsieur Carli was complimented upon being a single man. The breakfast, nevertheless, went off pleasantly; the coffee was sipped, the rolls, butter, eggs, &c., eaten, and, even at that early hour, cigars were lighted, to enable us the better to encounter the keen air of the Upper Alps. CHAPTER VIII. THE INN AT BRIG G. purse, but have a large open pocket, which lets out the money as a sieve does water-easily, and without pain. My theory, however, is, that you should treat gold as a stranger, according to the maxim of antiquity There is a pleasant and an unpleasant side to most things. Even making love to a pretty woman has its drawbacks. First, the foreknowledge that it must come to an end; and, second, the fact of having a multitude of rivals. With respect to inns, their delights go on rising like a flood tide, till you come to the disagreeWhether we are happy or miserable, time goes on able moment of calling for your bill. Then there is a at the old rate, and brings about the hour for parting, sort of shiver in your purse, a kind of golden hysteric, whether it be from the summit of bliss, or from the occasioned by the approaching separation of the coin depth of woe. At half-past two, there was knocking from its comfortable quarters. This, at least, is the at every door in the inn at Brigg; and drowsy travel-way with most persons. For myself, I never wear a lers shuffled themselves hastily into their clothes, in order to have as much spare time as possible for fortifying the inner man. An inn is generally a pleasant place; for, as soon as you open your bedroom door, the delicious steams of coffee and fried bacon greet your nostrils. Money is a glorious thing, for it sets all the world in motion, and keeps cooks and kitchen-wenches up half the night to provide for your enjoyment in the morning. Not that they think it a hardship; like the racehorse, they enjoy the sport, as well as the rider, and always find time, in some snug corner of the twenty-four hours, to get as much sleep as they stand in need of. Besides, there is an excitement in the operations of the kitchen, especially as they can always taste of the best, and that, too, before it is served up to you. There is, after all, nothing like a breakfast-table before a journey; and one would never grow weary of describing it, if it were not that it is exceedingly monotonous. On the thing itself, appetite confers novelty daily. You are not at all the less disposed to breakfast to-day because you breakfasted yesterday; whereas, in a narrative, one breakfast will generally do, by way of a specimen. At the same time, I must observe that there was considerable variety in our Alpine welcome the coming, speed the parting, guest. If you have time to make its acquaintance, you are apt to get fond of it; and then shaking hands and bidding adieu are far from pleasant. Your intercourse should be a sort of omnibus intimacy, and never go beyond a nod, or a sort of civil greeting, which provokes no inclination to sigh in either party; you laugh as you meet, and laugh as you part, and there is an end of it. You should treat money as a landlord does his customer-that is, get as much as you can out of it, and then turn it about its business. Byron says, somewhere, that a great deal may be bought for fifty louis; and he was a good judge in matters of that sort. But foreigners generally treat money more affectionately than we do, hug it more tenderly, and kiss it on both cheeks before they can make up their minds to let it go, unattended, into the wide world. You would think they were animated by a sort of parental solicitude, and that they had felt the throes of maternity for every guinea in their purse. rather the return, as he called it, of the golden age. Monsieur Carli was his first antagonist; but his education had been too Oriental to give fair play to his logical powers. He, therefore, broke down speedily, and left the field open to my friend Morn, who defended vigorously, and, as it appeared to me, with success, the mission of the sword. I have, practically, all my life been a man of peace, and therefore my sympathies are, of course, ranged on the side of the spindle and the spinning-jenny; but I, nevertheless, entertain a profound reverence for the sword, which, like the ark of the covenant, is often not at all comprehended by those who bear it. It is in itself a sacred symbol At any rate, paying tavern reckonings-unpleasant || sublime. I was glad to have escaped, from bugs and to everybody who has the slightest attachment for bills, and vulgar objurgations, into the grandeur of this Mammon-is doubly disagreeable to the natives of the mighty theatre, which for a while absorbed my thoughts Continent, who all, on this point, foster a sort of So-entirely. It was about half-past two when we started, cialist theory, formed from the practice in "Cabet's shortly after which the atmosphere became overcast Icaria," that innkeepers should furnish you with what- with clouds, which so completely obscured the stars ever you want, gratis. In descending the stairs, I and moon that we could see nothing. We had, heard a fearful row in the kitchen; and, with the true therefore, to depend entirely on the resources of conpropensity of a traveller, looked in, just to see what it versation, which commenced with a dissertation on was all about. The scene was excessively comic. At peace, by a German traveller who joined us at Brigg. the further end was a man in a short shirt and red The work of the Abbé St. Pierre, edited by Jean woollen nightcap, sputtering and foaming like a maniac, Jacques Rousseau, had, it seems, fallen into his hands and struggling violently to disengage himself from the early in life, and made so great an impression on him, grasp of two women, who held him like vices, which, that he was now travelling about the world in the for aught I know, they were. Near the door stood the hope of making proselytes to his theory. Every man objects of his fury, Professor Morn, and his companion is respectable who is sincere; and, therefore, it would the artist. These gentlemen, not having had their have been wrong to laugh at our pacific Don Quixote, equanimity restored by their good breakfast, or hav-who expected the speedy advent of the millennium-or ing suffered it to be again ruffled by the bill, were describing, in the most provoking terms, the wretched accommodation of their bed-chamber. "If I had you in France," said the elder, and more provoking of the two," I would hand you over, as a 'mauvais sujet,' to the police. You are, in fact, a common cheat." Then addressing me-" You shall be judge," he added. "What sort of bed you had, I don't know; but when we went up stairs, and had got fairly into ours, we found that a damp towel had been tucked along the top, in imitation of a sheet, and that the pillows and bolsters were stuffed with peach stones, which, as it was impossible to sleep, we amused ourselves all night in throwing at the bugs." "But, Monsieur," in--the symbol of justice, supported by might; and not, terrupted his companion, 'my pillow was still worse, as is too often supposed, a vile instrument designed by it palpitated with life; it was simply what in Paris we Providence to work only the ends of despotism. That call a bag of fleas." Let not the reader suppose that it has constantly been perverted, is too true; but let no these communications were uninterrupted. At every free man be so far false to himself as to forswear his particular the landlord roared out, "Cochon!-vilain! allegiance to this mysterious representative of liberty. menteur !—chien !'' with other phrases equally compli- The sword should glitter over every man's hearth; not mentary, all the while making strenuous efforts to that it may be ready to shed innocent blood, but that escape from the gripe of his wife and the sturdy Dul- it may be wielded to protect that hearth, and the cinea who acted as cook to the establishment. Pray, altars which ennoble and sanctify it. Dulce et decorem let him go,'' cried the Professor coolly; "I will soon est pro patria mori. Death is our portion, whether we beat him into good manners, as our armies did his be bond or free, noble or ignoble. Of all commoncountry." "Nay," I interposed, "that is ungenerous ; places, none is so commonplace as this; yet are we slow it is no credit to France to have overcome Switzer-to draw from it the inference that death in the service land in war. Pray, settle the matter without diverging into politics." "You are quite right," answered Morn, with the utmost good humour. "And now, you cut-throat," addressing himself to the landlord, "there is your money, which you deserve just as much as the man who stops one on the highway." So saying, he and his companion threw down the proper amount of francs and sous, and stalked haughtily out of the kitchen, in search of the diligence. Having settled with the waiter up stairs, I was enabled to attend to my fair companion, who had held my arm, without uttering a word, during the whole of the little dialogue above communicated. of liberty, on the red battle-field, when by an upright CHAPTER X. At the village of the Simplon we stopped awhile to change horses, drink brandy and water, and smoke a cigar. The conducteur, a fellow of infinite appetite, likewise ate another meal, upon which it would be difficult to bestow a name. He had eaten two break. fasts already, and meant to lunch a little further on; so that it was a sort of third breakfast, or first luncheon. The name, however, mattered very little to him. Being a philosopher, he ate when he was hungry, and drank when he was thirsty, without troubling himself at all to know whether the world approved of his goingson or not. I should most likely have followed his example, but that our second breakfast at Persal had blunted my appetite. While he was regaling himself on the good things to be obtained at so great an elevation above the level of the sea, I amused myself with exchanging tender adieux with Madame Carli. sion may be unjust. If so, however, there may be liking to me, brought me delicious Alpine raspberries and justice on the other side; and when force is employed strawberries, with a curious little fruit called embrock, for the perpetration of evil, force may surely be employed peculiar to those elevated regions. The leaves of the for the prevention of it. Consequently, if you demon- || last-mentioned plant, reddened by the autumn, literally strate the wickedness of a war, considered from one illuminated the whole face of the mountains in seve point of view, you only prove how humane and de-ral places. At length we reached the top of the pass, fensible it is when regarded from the other side. and saw the streams turn their back upon SwitzerThis, I own, however, was a strange topic to be land, and roll their sparkling waters, against the morn discussed on such an occasion; and I voluntarily puting sun, towards Italy. an end to it by proposing, that, as the diligence crept along at something worse than a snail's-pace, we should all get out, and walk up the mountains. My proposition being approved of, we alighted; and, separating into couples, I got accidentally divided from Madame Carli. I selected in her stead one of our bug-bitten companions, who turned out to be a very agreeable fellow; and with him I walked on ahead. Never shall I forget that morning. Far in the distance behind us, the summits of the Bernese Alps, blanched with snow, pierced the sky, while the bright moonlight seemed to repose with pleasure on their cold, glittering peaks. Towards the south-west the sight plunged down a series of deep valleys, partly lighted up by the moon, partly enveloped in shadow, while one solitary lamp from some window, perhaps in Brigg, sparkled like a star among the rocks below. Scattered masses of white, silvery vapour hovered over the distant valleys and lowlands far beneath, and looked like a broken floor, through which the moon's rays penetrated to the earth. Close by the road, chasms, Our flirtation had been unfortunate, for my French which in the moonlight appeared of prodigious depth, || companions, preferring theirown amusement to the solid wound along, while rapid torrents, whose white foam interests of poor Monsieur Carli, had so worried and was once or twice visible between the dark pines, tormented him about the supposed danger he would brawled and roared at the bottom. Here and there, run by getting me to take his wife as mine over the vast conical mountains sprang up from these abysses, frontier, that his imagination became alarmed; so that and their white heads, clothed with preternatural he chose rather to be detained at Simplon, as a person beauty by the moonlight, at once astonished and de-suspected of cholera, than carry out the plan of enter lighted the imagination. The stars shone with amazing ing Piedmont, which we had so sagaciously formed at brightness, and the constellation of the Great Bear, in Brigg. particular, seemed to have a brilliance and beauty I had Our stratagem, had it been discovered, might have never observed before. But the exquisite beauty of caused me considerable embarrassment; but the risk the dawn surpassed everything. The snow-sprinkled of this I was willing to incur, to oblige him. When peaks of the Alps now seemed to become transparent; too late, he found that he might very well have while starlight, moonlight, and the pale yellow metallic taken Dogberry's phrase for his motto, "Write me brilliance of the sky, flushed with the first approaches down an ass." He now came to me with his wife, of the dawn, diffused over every rock, and glen, and to express his regret-called Monsieur Morn and the stream, and forest, and glacier, a wild, sparkling, mys-rest "des impertinents," and said that he felt quite terious, unearthly beauty, which electrified the very ashamed at being made their dupe. soul. I see I am repeating the same terms again and again; but language, with all its plastic power, is insufficient to render with fidelity the numerous exquisite emotions which at such times crowd upon the mind. I was certainly for a time literally "wrapt, inspired."|| Heaven appeared to touch earth, and Poetry sat enthroned upon the mountains. But such raptures can. not last. With the increase of light, much of the gigantic sublimity of the scene dwindled away, though enough remained to render the passage of the Simplon one of the most remarkable scenes in the world. We walked on to Persal, where we took a second breakfast, among the delicacies of which was some of the most delicious honey I had ever tasted. We still continued to ascend for several hours. But I was now tired of walking, and got into the cabriolet of the diligence, where I could see the scene at my ease. My companions, who all seemed to have taken a great Here, during a whole week," said he, “shall I do penance for having been silly enough to misconstrue your motives; but, Monsieur, we shall meet at Milan, where I will endeavour to prove to you that, though I have been for the moment a jealous fool, it was but for a moment. What else I would and ought to say, I leave Madame to express for me." So saying, he shook me heartily by the hand, and walked off. Madame Carli, though one of the best women in the world, was still a bit of a coquette, and, in ball-rooms or on a journey, liked to make love pour passer le temps. It was agreeable, she said; and then it was so long since she had met any one like me-by exact computation of time, probably six weeks-I was so earnest, so sincere. I could do no other than bow, and press her hand-compliments and flattery are so delightful from a woman! I professed to have been immensely happy, and said I There was not a moment to be lost. We might never see each other again; and could we part like two statues? No! We bent our heads towards each other; and I fear I kissed Madame Carli. But if I did, the time, and place, and circumstances will, I trust, constitute my apology. We were, I know not how many thousand feet in the air, surrounded by snows and glaciers. Everything there was cold but the heart, and the kiss was decorous and fraternal, just as it ought to have been. We then shook hands, and promised faithfully to meet at Milan. But did we? No! From that time to this, Madame Carli has been, among the millions of Eve's daughters who tread the mazy surface of this planet in smiles, invisible to me. Her husband, though something of an|| Oriental in feeling, was at bottom a right good fellow; and I trust her life has been a happy one. be those who can gaze with undiminished pleasure upon mountain after mountain-who never grow weary of the hills, and long earnestly for the sight of a plain did not doubt that we should pass our time most pleasantly together at Milan. How many more fine things we might have uttered, I know not; but just then I saw the remorseless Professor running|I may envy, but cannot understand them. Long be among the trees, in search of us. fore we reached Duomo d'Ossola I was sick of the Alps, and eagerly desired to behold the verdant flats of Lombardy, that I might be delivered from the eternal || pine forests, cascades, and cataracts, and endless succession of peaked mountains, each exactly like the other. I have a powerful sympathy with the grand in nature, but have still greater love of variety. It was with inexpressible satisfaction, therefore, that I caught the first view of the Lago Maggiore, where beauty of the softest kind succeeds tosavage grandeur. Ah! who that is happy would not live on the shores of that lake, which looks like a fragment of Fairyland thrown in by accident among the rough realities of this earth? I would not describe the scene if I could, it has so often been delineated. But, with my mind's eye, I see it now-a broad expanse of water, spreading among winding shores, which conceal its extent; terraced banks covered with verdure, and dotted thickly with white, glittering villas; isles of poetic beauty, floating, as it were, on the surface of the lake; and, far away towards the west, serene and quiet towns, sending up their peaceful domestic smoke against the evening sky. The golden light of sunset bathed everything in splendour; and my heart beat with a strange delight, to feel that I was at length in Italy. "Ah! I had lost you," exclaimed the Professor. "But what was that little cloud of drapery which has just disappeared behind the foliage?" "It was nothing," said I. Then, nothing let it be," answered he. "But come; there is a countryman of yours down here in front of the inn, who appears so grand, and at the same time so triste, you had better speak to him. After having taken his place in the diligence, he turned away proudly from every one, as if we were not worth looking at, and is now gazing at the Alps, as though they alone were worthy to be his companions. Pray come, and try whether pride has congealed him into an icicle or not." "He does not speak French or Italian," I replied. "How do you know ?" inquired the Professor. I felt quite sure of it; and, coming out just at that moment upon the terrace in front of the inn, went forward, and politely addressed my countryman in French. He made me a profound bow, but said nothing. I then spoke in Italian, with the same result. Upon this, quite sure that my conjecture was well founded, I addressed him in English. "Ah! I am so delighted!" cried he; "but, from your beard and mustache, I took you to be a foreigner, and thought I should be persecuted all the way to Milan. Where do you sit in the diligence? Can't I get a seat by you?" CHAPTER XI. ENTRANCE INTO ITALY. What would not those who have felt much, give to be able to chronicle all their sensations? It may be truly said that what we learn from experience belongs to our outer life, while what we feel is treasured up in our heart of hearts. The obscurity of evening was over Italy as I approached it. She was like a beauty meeting her lover beneath her veil. Though not unconscious of the loveliness extending around on all sides, I longed for sunrise to reveal it to me. My pleasure was too great to be enjoyed in darkness; I therefore wished for day, that, by rendering the object of my admiration half visible to sight, as it were, I might deprive it of those mysterious additions bestowed by fancy, which rendered its enjoyment almost oppressive. Mohammed pronounced the approach to Damascus too delicious; and I found it impossible to sleep on the night before my arrival at Thebes. The soul at such moments feels a tumultuous joy, which stern reason, perhaps, will scarcely justify; but the sources of it are within you-you have been replenishing them from your childhood by the study of history, poetry, and romance. It is you who make the earth a paradise or a hell for yourself. I would not sleep on Nothing so speedily palls upon the appetite as mag- the night of my arrival in Italy-that is, I determined nificent scenery. At least I can speak for myself: I to resist it; but having been kept awake by superior have at times derived extreme pleasure from the sight excitement the whole of the night before, my resoluof the Alps, especially of those wild and savage portion was only half kept. I found myself dosing and tions of them which suggest ideas of death and utter desolation-where the water comes rolling and foaming down precipitous rocks, among dark pine forests, and tumbles into almost bottomless gulfs below, where you shudder as you lean over to catch the last sight of them. Enough of this sort of scenery had presented itself to us on our descent towards Italy; but if there "I have managed," I said, "to secure a place in the cabriolet, for the purpose of enjoying the scenery;" at which he looked blank, being booked for the interior. By a little manoeuvring, however, we got one of the Frenchmen to cede to him his place, which was really a great sacrifice, as, from the hot and close inside of the diligence, nothing could be seen. dreaming perpetually, as the heavy diligence, laden with sleeping men and women, went jolting drowsily along the plains of Lombardy. Will the reader pardon me if I relate one of my dreams? I have said that I had left at home a host of children, among whom was a charming little girl, six months old. There is no explaining the mechanism of fancy; but, after travelling |