Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/272

248 blow from the north or the south, I could not guess.

Trieste, which is situated at the end of the gulf which bears its name, is built in the form of an amphitheatre on the side of a hill, the foot of which is washed by the sea. A citadel has been constructed on the summit of this hill, and, from its position, commands all the city, which is divided into an upper and a lower town. My brother's house was in the lower part of Trieste, near the port. The Empress Maria Theresa transformed Trieste, which before that was merely a harbour, into a commercial city, the chief, in fact the only, maritime establishment of the Austrian Empire.

From 1750, Trieste had been increasing in size and wealth. In 1767, an Insurance Company, with a capital of 300,000 florins was founded there; and in 1770 it contained thirty large houses of business. At the period of which I am writing, Trieste had arrived at its highest degree of prosperity.

The business which my brother had