and the welfare of their mistresses;
when the simplicity of Catholic countries regilt annually the
pontifical idol; when Europe contained some half-million of
individuals who deemed themselves created for mutual understanding and
amusement, without any thought of the classes beneath them, Rome was
the Paradise of foreigners, and foreigners were the Providence of
Rome.

A gentleman of birth took it into his head to visit Italy, for the
sake of kissing the Pope's toe, and perhaps other local curiosities.
He managed to have a couple of years of leisure,--put three letters of
introduction into one pocket, and 50,000 crowns into the other, and
stepped into his travelling carriage.

In those days people did not go to Rome to spend a week there and away
again; for it was a month or two's journey from France. The crack of
the postilions' whips used to announce to the Eternal City in general
the arrival of a distinguished guest. _Domestiques de place_ flocked
to the call. The luckiest of them took possession of the new comer by
entering his service. In a few days he provided his master with a
palace, furniture, footmen, carriages, and horses. The foreigner
settled himself comfortably, and then presented his letters of
introduction. His credentials being examined, the best society at once
opened its arms to him, and cried, "You are one of us!" From that
moment he was at home wherever he went. He was a guest at every house.
He danced, supped, played, and made love to the ladies. And of course,
in his turn, he opened his own palace to his liberal entertainers,
adding a new feature to the brilliancy of a Roman winter.

No foreigner failed to carry away with him some recollection of a city
so fertile in marvels. One bought pictures, another ancient marbles,
this one medals, that one books. The trade of Rome prospered by this
circulation of foreign money.

The heats of summer drove away foreigners as well as natives; but they
never went far. Naples, Florence, or Venice offered them agreeable
quarters till the return of the winter season. And they had excellent
reasons for returning to Rome, which is the only city in the world in
which one has never seen everything. Some of them so entirely forgot
their own countries, that death overtook them between the Piazza del
Popolo and the Piazza de Venizia. If any exiled themselves to their
native land, they did it in sheer self-defence, when their pockets
were empty. Rome bade them a tend