Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/395

Rh was a little, pale, sickly herd-boy, with a starving dog, watching a few goats. The whole district is very unhealthy, but the soil is said to be rich, and they have just begun to cultivate it. The laborers remove during the summer to a village which we saw shining white up amongst the hills. We took our dinner in the shade of the columns and friezes of the temple of Neptune, and by evening we were again in Salerno. Five or six carriages were driving backwards and forwards on its Corso along the shore, with the beau monde of the city.

They are now planting and beautifying this promenade. There is an increasing vitality in Salerno, and during the latter years, it has distinguished itself by such movements in the cause of liberty, as have drawn down upon the city the paternal regards of the government and peopled its prisons. Many priests are said to be confined in them.

The betrothed promenade and enjoy the moonlight and themselves, whilst they talk about marriage, which is not to be in their case a two-fold egotism, un egoisme à deux, but something quite different. Very good! Hercules, thou art the good pine-tree in the legend of the Princess Elsa!

The 17 th. Visit to Pompeii. That which appeared more striking to me in this monument—alone of its kind; this city lay buried for centuries under the ashes of Vesuvius, and which but lately, as it were, was produced thence to bear witness of the everyday life of former times—was the smallness of all its proportions. Every thing—from the forum of the city, temples and private dwellings—is ornamental, decorative, but