Far, far below, the torrent's rifing furge, Emily, often as he travelled among the clouds, watched in filent awe their billowy furges rolling below; fometimes, wholly clofing upon the fcene, they appeared like ■ world of chaos, and, at others, spreading thinly, they opened and admitted partial catches of the landscape-the torrent, whose aftounding roar had never failed, tumbling down the rocky chafm, huge cliffs white with fnow, or the dark fummits of the pine forefts, that stretched mid-way down the mountains. But who may defcribe her rapture, when, having paffed through a fea of vapour, she caught a first view of Italy; when, from the ridge of one of thofe tremendous precipices that hang upon Mount Cenis and guard the entrance of that enchanting country, fhe looked down through the lower clouds, and, as they floated away, faw the graffy vales of Piedmont at her feet, and, beyond, the plains of Lombardy extending to the fartheft diftance, at which appeared, on the faint horizon, the doubtful towers of Turin ? The folitary grandeur of the objects that immediately furrounded her, the mountain region towering above, the deep precipices that fell beneath, the waving blackness of the forefis of pine and oak, which skirted their feet, or hung within their receffes, the headlong torrents that, dashing among their cliffs, fometimes appeared like a cloud of mist, at others like a sheet ofice— these were features which received a higher character of fublimity from the repofing beauty of the Italian landscape below, ftretching to the wide horizon, where the fame melting blue tint feemed to unite earth and fky. Madame Montoni only fhuddered as she looked down precipices near whofe edge the chairmen trotted lightly and fwiftly, almott, 1 almost, as the chamois bounded, and from which Emily too recoiled; but with her fears were mingled fuch various emotions. of delight, fuch admiration, aftonishment, and awe, as she had never experienced before. Meanwhile the carriers, having come to a landing-place, stopped to rest, and the travellers being feated on the point of a cliff, Montoni and Cavigni renewed a dispute concerning Hannibal's paffage over the Alps, Montoni contending that he entered Italy by way of Mount Cenis, and Cavigni, that he paffed over Mount St. Bernard. The fubject brought to Emily's imagination the difafters he had fuffered in this bold and perilous adventure. She faw his vaft armies winding among the defiles, and over the tremendous cliffs of the mountains, which at night were lighted up by his fires, or by the torches which he caused to be carried when he pursued his indefatigable march. In the eye of fancy, fhe perceived the gleam of arms through the dufkinefs of night, the 1 ( 15 ) the glitter of fpears and helmets, and the banners floating dimly on the twilight; while now and then the blast of a distant trumpet echoed along the defile, and the fignal was answered by a momentary clash of arms. She looked with horror upon the mountaineers, perched on the higher cliffs, affailing the troops below with broken fragments of the mountain; on foldiers and elephants tumbling headlong down the lower precipices; and, as she listened to the rebounding rocks, that followed their fall, the terrors of fancy yielded to those of reality, and the fhuddered to behold herself on the dizzy height, whence fhe had pictured the descent of others. Madame Montoni, meantime, as fhe looked upon Italy, was contemplating in imagination the fplendour of palaces and the grandeur of caftles, fuch as fhe believed fhe was going to be mistress of at Venice and in the Apennine, and she became, in idea, little lefs than a princefs. Being no longer under the alarms which had deterred her from from giving entertainments to the beauties of Thoulouse, whom Montoni had mentioned with more eclat to his own vanity than credit to their discretion, or regard to truth, fhe determined to give concerts, though the had neither car nor tafte for mufic; converfazioni, though fhe had no talents for conversation; and to outvie, it poffible, in the gaieties of her parties and the magnificence of her liveries, all the nobleffe of Venice. This blifsful reverie was fomewhat obfcured, when the recollected the Signor, her hufband, who, though he was not averse to the profit which sometimes refults from such parties, had always fhewn a contempt of the frivolous parade that fometimes attends them; till fhe confidered that his pride might be gratified by displaying among his own friends, in his native city, the wealth which he had neglected in France; and the courted again the fplendid illufions that had charmed her before. The travellers, as they defcended, gradually, exchanged the region of winter for the genial 1 |