contraband the one drove me from his country; the other attracted me to Naples.

Having thus told how we were housed, I must now go back one month to our first arrival at Naples. Thank goodness, there had been no English minister or legation regularly established there at the time, and whose help I was bound to claim :none of that class of gentry who are sent abroad and paid by English people to show impertinence to their countrymen who pay them. Mr. Temple,whose civility to some of my own family could not blind me to the unbecomingness of his way of speaking of others who brought him letters of introduction, which he called " soup tickets",-Mr. Temple was dead, and Sir Arthur Magenis had been appointed from Stockholm to succeed him, but had not yet arrived. The King of Naples had also died; and to compliment his son Francis II, a special envoy had just been sent in the person of Mr. Henry Elliot, who, strange to relate, was then unemployed-a spasso, as we say in Italy. He was sent by the Tories, but only on this special mission, and when I afterwards inquired how it came to pass that he had remained at Naples superseding Sir Arthur Magenis, I was told by a Neapolitan, "The fact is

that when he arrived here, he uttered such good Tory sentiments that our government said, You are the nicest man we have had from England this long while. It is a pleasure to listen to your opinions after the liberalism of Mr. Temple. We wish you could remain here instead of that new man who is, of course, as radical as the last."

"I wish I could," said Mr. Elliot; "I should like nothing better."

"Apply to your government to appoint you."

Impossible but if you make the request it

will be conceded at once.

You can say

that you are épris de mes beaux yeux, or anything else you please."

The request was made, and Mr. Elliot remained

as English minister at Naples.

Soon afterwards, in discussing some question with the Neapolitan officials, these latter turned upon him and exclaimed,

"How is this, M. le ministre; we wished you to be appointed to this court because you appeared to think like us; whereas now you are talking as red liberalism as ever did quel povero Temple ?"

Weel, now," says Mr. Elliott, "I'll not deny that when I first came here the Tories were in

power at home, and I talked as they instructed

me; but now Lord Palmerston is in, I must needs, ye ken, think and talk as he does."

An excellent diplomatist! No better reason could be given. "Better, however, not to have given any," thought my Neapolitan informant.

CHAPTER VI.

SICKENING.

Recapitulation.-Arrival at Naples.-Dances on board ship.Entrance of Francis II and Te Deum.-Superstitions.My Journal.-Symptoms.-Roskelly, the Impostor.Dreams. An anomaly.-Hanging a doctor.

I WOULD now ask myself whether our lengthened residence at Rome had not told fatally upon the constitution of our children. Let me recapitulate.

Lucy had fallen into a rather delicate or bilious state during the first six months of the present year, so as to have been excused from fasting and abstinence, but she was never ill; and although Dr. Pantaleoni* was so often in the house in attendance on Louie, he was never spoken to about Lucy. Nothing ever ailed Agnes. She had once said that she was ill, and had slept for thirty-six hours at a stretch, and had arisen quite well. This was the only illness she ever pretended even to have had—beyond the chronic cough that had

* The deputy who had received the dying Minister Rossi in his arms. See Modern Society in Rome.

affected her, more or less, since she was two months old; for this she was always laughed at, and called "as strong as one of our Welsh ponies."

We had left Rome, as I have said, on the 27th June. Latterly, before that time, Agnes had frequently driven out to the different churches in the evening with Dona Joanna d'Oyenhausen, of Lisbon; Lucy and her brothers had not taken their usual walks so regularly, because, after them, they often complained of head-ache, and seemed too much fatigued. We always shut all our windows in the house before sunset, and almost always lighted a coke-fire in the gallery, into which most of the rooms opened.

I have recorded that on our journey to Civita Vecchia, we had suffered much from heat: and of this Agnes had complained most, and had eaten little of the luncheon we had carried with We had not been able to embark before five o'clock, and did not sail till six. All had sat hungry round the dinner-table, waiting for dinner till seven. But we all eat heartily, and went to

us.

bed at about ten o'clock.

All our girls slept in the ladies saloon, and passed a wretched night, owing to the heat. Agnes clambered up to the port-hole, and, putting her