crime to crime, till they deserve death, be- | about to give an account of the earthcause, if they had been sooner prosecuted, quake from personal knowledge or expethey would have suffered death before rience of its effects, that I was in Enthey deserved it." Whereas, "if those gland on the day it occurred, and that I whom the wisdom of our laws has con- left Casamicciola on my way home some demned to die had been detected in their eight or nine days sooner than I had rudiments of robbery, they might, by intended to start on my journey, in conse. proper discipline and useful labor, have quence of a circumstance which I shall been disentangled from their habits; they not call "providential," considering that might have escaped all the temptation to many good people were overwhelmed in subsequent crimes, and passed their days the ruin I escaped. But the news of that in reparation and penitence." More than catastrophe produced on me an effect, sixty years after Johnson thus lifted up which may indeed be weakened in time, if his voice against "this periodical havock I live, but which can never be effaced of our fellow-creatures," Romilly was try- from my mind as long as memory ening, and, it long seemed, trying in vain, to dures. It is an effect I cannot describe. convince the lord chancellor, the lord I know that awe and pity are of it, but chief justice, the king's sons, archbishops, that, in the thoughts of the fearful doom and bishops, that a poor wretch who had of those I saw so lately for the last time, stolen goods to the amount of five shil- I cannot, strange as it may appear, aclings privately from a shop had done noth-knowledge the existence of the smallest ing worthy of death. feeling of that which is called "thankful- We should have liked to give instances of what Macaulay so well describes as "the solemn yet pleasing humor of some of the lighter papers." We should have liked, moreover, to consider some of the peculiarities of language and of style. But our space is at an end. We can only give utterance to the hope that the attention of many a reader may be roused to what "The Rambler" has left behind him. those memorials, to use his own beautiful words, of lonely wisdom and silent dig-Man of woman born must fear at such a nity. From The Nineteenth Century. I AM not sure whether I ought to write an account of my impressions of Ischia, formed during a visit which was brought to a close only a few days before the awful convulsion that, in a very narrow area, and in the space of a few seconds, destroyed so many thousands of lives. A passenger in a ship which was wrecked soon after he had been landed from it safely in port is scarcely justified in obtruding upon the world a narrative of the voyage before the vessel foundered; but he may be pardoned if, moved by affec tionate remembrance of those in whose society he passed so many pleasant hours, he ventures to think that the public, who have been shocked by their terrible fate, would like to learn something about the passengers and crew. I must, however, warn those who might suppose, from the words at the top of the page, that I am moment. The bravest surely uttered a despairing cry in the short, sharp agony wherein creation seemed to come to chaos, and the great globe itself to crash out in thunder and fire the requiem of Nature herself the utterance of the awful sentence of an angry and inplacable God, ere he destroyed his handiwork. On my way from Egypt to England, last June, I landed at Naples for a few days' rest. The first news which I read in the papers at the Hôtel des Etrangers there, was that an outbreak of cholera had occurred at Damietta after I had left, and the next steamer that came into the bay from Alexandria displayed the yellow flag at the main, and was sent off incontinently to quarantine at Nisita. Very soon after my arrival at Naples, in the course of excursions to Castellamare, Pompeii, and Vesuvius, I was made aware of an increasing inability to use my legs with freedom, which I attributed to an accident in the Transvaal, to gout, and to rheumatism, rather than to what perhaps was in some degree responsible for it— annus domini; and so lamenting, as I walked with a friend along the quay one the band of the 18th Regiment of Infantry, which had been assisting at some fête on shore, was on board returning to the Admiral headquarters of the regiment at the Castle of Ischia. afternoon, I was asked abruptly, "Why Ischia, somehow or other, was not within a measurable distance of my little expeditions from Naples. But in the hall of the hotel there were spirited sketches of the little group of islands which lies off the northern point of the bay; and in going to Capri one can just catch the picturesque outlines of Ischia and Procida, broken off abruptly, as it were, from the Misenian Cape. However, I did not care much to visit the Castle of Alfonso of Aragon, or to verify the accuracy of Stanfield's admirable picture or of David Roberts's drawing. So I went on to Rome, and there I soon became convinced that, whatever the cause of the lameness and pain by which I was affected lect the waters near at hand, which, every might be, it would not be prudent to negone assured me, were all but omnipotent in the removal of such disabilities as those from which I was suffering. The placards and notices which invited the Neapolitan and general public to resort to Ischia in the heat of the summer - which was now felt in great intensitygenerally contained flattering allusions to the excellency of La Piccola Sentinella at Casamicciola, and the advertisements ad hoc generally ended with an intimation that Signora Dombré, the proprietress, was an English woman. Accordingly, to her I addressed a letter for a room, from Rome, and by return was informed that the Piccola Sentinella was full, but that there was nevertheless a room at my disposal if I wished to decide swiftly on retaining it. I shall not venture to describe the shores of the well-beaten sea which has been for so many centuries traversed by the fleets and navies of the world; or expatiate on the beauties of Baia, Pozzuoli, or Misenum. Bumping over the bright blue waves, threading the intricacies of the webs of great tunny-nets watched by the lumbering boats at anchor with their sleeping fishermen, who, roused up by the noise of the paddles, take a stare at the steamer, and then sink back again, to rest until the time comes for them to visit the camera de morte, in about an hour and a half we rounded the point and port of the island of Procida, whistling and blowing off steam all the while, and for the time effectually overwhelming the terrible brass band of the 18th, which certainly was more suitable for the field of battle and war's alarms than for the narrow deck of the "Leone." As soon as we had discharged some passengers we left Procida, and in less than half an hour the steamer entered the port of the neighbor. ing island. At Ischia the musical warriors were transferred to boats, and many of our fellow-passengers got out. Looking round on the deck, somewhat cleared by the departure of the Italian families for Ischia, I could only detect two of the passengers whose nationality seemed very well defined. They were undoubtedly English. A lady, with a soft, melancholy face, neatly dressed, was seated in an easychair, with that air of languor which indicates the invalid who is seeking health, or recovering from a severe illness. By her side there was a fair young girl, whose bright blue eye and cheeks suffused with health presented a strong contrast to the appearance of the lady who was evidently her mother. How little do we know what the hour that is to come may bring forth! Some trifling attention which I paid to the elder lady, in adjusting her chair so as to keep it a little better amidships, to save her from the effect of a slight sea-way off Misenum, commenced the acquaintance which will cause me to retain forever the sorrowful memory of the terrible fate of my temporary companions. There are two rival lines of steamers from the port of Naples to the islands, and the unwary traveller is the object of much contention of which probably he is unconscious to hotel touts and boatmen engaged in promoting the interests of these contending navigations. I believe I succeeded, more by chance than by good guidance, in selecting the better of the two steamers, which start every morning from the inner harbor near the Customhouse. There was a heterogeneous assemblage of tradespeople and ordinary travellers - visitors to the islands for I find that I described the town of health or pleasure and a gathering of Ischia in my diary as a "compound look. fishermen and their wives and daughters, ing place, like Folkestone-cum-Dover, and peasants engaged in the fruit, olive, dominated by a magnificent pile-a cas and grape trade, on deck; and, moreover, I tellated barrack, covered ways, and draw. bridges, and all the appurtenances of a natural enemies of Mr. Bright and manvast mediæval fortress, perched on a rock kind the uniformed Custom-house solat the end of the island, and approached dier, with sword and bayonet-await by a causeway through the sea.' their prey. The steamer remained but a few minutes in the harbor of Ischia, and shooting out by the lighthouse at the end of the little pier after a short way, turned the corner, so to speak, and ran close to the coast, which is frowning with almost perpendicular cliffs, perforated with caves, and seamed with fissures up to the margin of the vegetation, which, in waves of fruit-trees, olives, and grapes, sweeps up | to the base of Mount Epomeo, presenting terraces dotted with white villas, a prospect delightfully fresh to the eye. The land, mounting in sharp waves higher and higher, up to the sheer precipice of the mountain, seems to toss up here and there crests of rock, round which a sea of vines and olives rolls placidly. "There," said a fellow-passenger, "is Casamicciola! He pointed to a little bay, the beach of which was lined with white houses, among which I detected, without satisfaction, two or three smoking chimneys, which were, I was told, the appurtenances of certain manufactories of tiles, for which the island, from all time, has been celebrated. At the back of these houses the land mounted steeply, narrowing between two folds or arms that descended from the yellow rock forming the double crest of Epomeo; and in this natural amphitheatre were built the rows of houses, detached or forming short streets, and villas standing in their own grounds, which constituted the favorite resort of Roman and Neapolitan families. The names of many of these villasor penstons were inscribed upon them in large letters visible through the glass, and looking upwards I saw La Piccola Sentinella keeping watch and ward over the little town from a high plateau. -a terraced front with windows fenced in by green jalousies, two lines of bright white buildings, girt tightly in a belt of fruittrees, grapes, and olives. A fleet of small boats came alongside the steamer, and I was transferred, under the care of Melchior, the commissionnaire of the hotel,* to one of them. Although piers could be made very readily at almost every Italian port, passengers are always conveyed from the steamers by boats. "What would be come of the boatmen," I was asked, "if piers were made?" At every landing the He has escaped. Escaping scathless through the inquisitions of the Custom-house officers, and asserting my right of way notwithstanding the fierce opposition of many of the local vetturini, I toiled up the steep ascent for the hotel which I knew I could not miss, most of my fellow-passengers preferring the doubtful honor of seats in the crazy vehicles which, by long détours, reached the same point. I did not gain the hotel without some encounters with beggars, touts, guides, and proprietors of carriages and asses who sought to engage me immediately to mount to the summit of Epomeo, or drive round the island, or go to Ischia, Forio, or Lacco Ameno. Madame Dombré * - British by birth, Italianized by twenty-five years' residence - received me at the entrance of the hotel, and with some excuses for the fulness of the house which otherwise I presume was not disagreeable to her - conducted me to my room, which was on the top platform, so to speak, or the uppermost and third of the terraces in which the building was disposed. And, if I had to mount a little higher, I was so amply rewarded by the beautiful view from the windows that I refused to change when a better apartment became vacant later on during my stay. It seems to me as I write now, recounting little incidents of the most trifling import, as though I were recording things relating to a world that is past and gone; although nearly a month has elapsed since I became an inmate of the hotel, I still hear the voices and see the faces of the pleasant company amidst which I passed such bright hours, and I wonder if it can be true indeed that they were so soon destroyed in such a pitiless catastrophe! The hotel was conducted on the usual principle of the Continent — café au lait in the morning in one's bedroom, déjeuner à la fourchette at noon down-stairs, and table d'hôte dinner at seven in a long room, at one end of which were a salon and a small drawing-room, from which windows opened out on the terrace, where there were bowers with chairs and tables from which you looked down over a great spread of foliage, falling almost sheer down for a quarter of a mile to the houses at the little port upon the placid bay. Mrs. Dombré and her husband are among the survivors. The tinkling bell in the courtyard summoned the inmates of the hotel to dinner in the long room, and the old stagers and the new-comers scanned each other as they took their places at table. Nearly opposite to me were a young couple in whom almost from the very first day I was interested. The man I ascertained after a while to be blind, though he wore dark-blue glasses, which prevented one's seeing his eyes. A sad, somewhat stern face, marked with the hard lines of suffering; still young, but his jet-black hair prematurely touched with white and grey. The lady by his side, some years younger, had in her face a placid beauty which attracted every one, and very soon, as day after day the devotion of her life revealed itself, she excited among the new-comers a solicitude .of which she was but little aware; for to her blind husband, querulous at times, she was a living sacrifice. She led him about in the walks they took for hours up and down the garden; carved every morsel on his plate; prepared his dishes, watching every sign to anticipate his wants; submitting to reproaches about the toughness of his beefsteak, and to complaints that the place did him no good; dressing and undressing him like a child she the slim oak, and he the clinging ivy. Perhaps," said a lady one day, when I remarked how happy Madame seemed as she tucked her husband under her arm and led him away from lunch, "she is pleased because he can see no one, and therefore cannot be attracted from her." But I believe it was in her intense affection she found all the happiness of her life.* and at the end of the table a little family group consisting of an elderly lady with a beautiful placid face, her son and bis companion, and a younger lady, all of whom resolved themselves into a little whist party in the evening. There were some Germans, evidently artists: Herr Kiepert of Berlin, who left very soon after my arrival; the wife of a Dutch judge in the service of the khedive; † the rest of the company, some twenty-five in all, being for the most part Italians. My place at the table was next to the fair young English girl of whom I have spoken, and her mother. In the little investigation of our neighbors which is usual the first night under such circumstances, we came to the conclusion that we English were in a very small minority indeed; but that, far away at the end of the long table, there was a small company who possibly might belong to the British Isles if they were not claimed by the great Republic. It was a very cosmopolitan assemblage. There were Germans, Greeks, Spaniards, French, Maltese; but by far the greater number of the visitors were Italians, and of these many were obviously "taking the waters" and were absorbed in their cure. The principal topic of conversation was the launch of the "Savoia," which was to take place on the following day at Castellamare. After dinner the company strolled out into the garden, which overhung the fields of olives descending to the sea, and sat out watching the stars and Vesuvius. "Later on in the season," said one of my acquaintances, "we shall have some amusement. There is a little theatre down the town which is generally well Among others at table was a young filled, and the people come up and dance Roman prince, who had come to try the the tarantella; and then there are conjuefficacy of the waters in curing an injury rors and, of course, the inevitable Neapol to his foot, a young Italian officer of cav-itan street musicians with guitars and alry, who was there to see whether he mandolins, who are always floating about could be mended by the same agency, so the towns along the coast." as to mount his horse again -a fall from which on the hard pavement of the Neapolitan highway had injured his leg se verely by contact with the pommel of his sword. Besides my two fellow-passengers, there were nearly opposite to us at table three English ladies; ‡ an old and distinguished officer of the Indian army; § I believe that they left Casamicciola before the earthquake. ↑ Prince de D, I am told, left a short time before the 28th of July. The officer referred to went away soon after my departure. Miss H. and the two Misses C- went away before I did. $ Colonel M- was in the hotel at the time, and was rescued from the ruins. He is recovering. As darkness came on, and I sat out on the terrace in front of my room, I observed the dull glare lighting up the sky over Vesuvius, despite the effulgence of a three-quarters moon; and, seen from such a distance, it appeared to me as if the volcano was more active than it had been while I was at Naples. It was the 23rd of June, a delicious night, so fresh that most of the people who went out to take their cigars after dinner on the ter hotel unaided, I determined to discover the Stabilimento Belliazzi by myself. I struck down from the hotel by a narrow and very dusty road, at every corner of which was posted a beggar, more or less crippled, exceedingly importunate when capable of motion, and making the morning hideous with his cries. At the end of this lane there were streetlets, small patches of houses, with narrow paved roads between them, which, in the then state of my knowledge, were very puz. zling. Several efforts to ascertain from passers-by where the place I wanted was, having only produced vigorous efforts to lead me astray to other baths I knew not of, I was reluctantly compelled to ascend the steep, and arrived at La Piccola race put on their overcoats. Somehow or other, Vesuvius especially attracted my attention, and I could not help remarking the resemblance between the dull outline of the mountain in the distance and the form of the crest of Epomeo over my head. Besides, I had observed rents in the walls of some of the houses, and had noted certain wooden sheds which had been pointed out to me as the dwellings of those who had been rendered houseless by the earthquake of two years before. So, meeting Madame Dombré in the corridor, for lack of something else to say, I asked: "Is there any fear of an earthquake? I hope we shall not have one whilst I am here." Lord, sir, don't talk of such a thing!" she said. "The last earthquake only shook down some of Sentinella so completely exhausted by the ill-built old houses in the village above the heat that I did not feel inclined to reus; it did not touch any of the stout, well-new my search that day. At the hotel, built houses, like this. And besides there won't be any earthquake, wise people say, for the next eighty years, and when that comes it won't trouble either of us very much!" which was, if the wise people were right, a very true remark. which is perched on the shoulder of a ridge of tufa, there was always a pleasant breeze; and as the sun sank down towards the mountain, the cool depths amongst the orchards gave a shade which invited the inmates to sit out and watch the steamers and the moving panorama of ships all the way from the distant mountains over Circe's Cave, round by Gaeta to the foot of Vesuvius. Now the first thing a visitor to Ischia for health's sake has to do is to settle upon the water to which he will resort; for the sources are many, and the contentions of rival physicians most acrimonious Next morning I was up betimes and and distracting. I suspect that the hotels made another attempt to reach the Stawere affected in the interest of these fac-bilimento Belliazzi, the locality of which tions. That to which I was affiliated I had well studied in the plan. Down by was altogether devoted to Dr. Salvi, of the Via Garibaldi and the Via Vittore the Stabilimento Belliazzi. There are no Emmanuele, past the beggars, each watchless than fourteen different groups of ing his own strip of road for plunder as sources, all thermal, varying from 18° to the robber chief of old looked down from 80° C. Some contain chloride and bicar- his castle to mark the unwary traveller; bonate of soda; others bromides and descending always towards the sea, at iodides; and others are impregnated with last I emerged upon a small piazza (dei iron. But, truth to say, I did not make a Bagni), with a church at one end and an very close investigation into the merits inn at the other, and a little wooden theaof these waters, being content immediately tre facing it on one side of an open marto apply myself to the establishment rec-ket-place. Here were the various bathing ommended on the walls of the hotel. Dr. Salvi, the physician of this establishment, had certainly every guarantee, in his degrees, in his experiences, and in his actual employment in a great medical establishment on the mainland, that he was entitled to the confidence of his patients. But, as I am rather about to tell of my own experiences at Casamicciola than to enter into any disquisition on the baths, I will follow, with the permission of my readers, the incidents, such as they were, which I find noted from time to time in my diary. My first morning was a complete fiasco; for, proud of my success in finding the Stabilimenti, as they are called, resembling Turkish mosques without minarets, unless the chimneys of certain steam-engines attached to these establishments were taken to do duty for them. I was especially recommended to Dr. Salvi, whose very name sounded pleasantly to a patient; but the people to whom I applied for information possibly were antiSalvites, and knew nothing about him, though I had just read a long list of titles after his name in the treatise in which he warns all the world against the pretentious rivals of the Belliazzi baths, which he declared had no antiquity and no traditions, and possibly no virtues. At last |