tness of the sacristans and custodians of
Verona. They were all men of the most sympathetic natures. He at San
Zenone seemed never to have met with real friends till we expressed
pleasure in the magnificent Mantegna, which is the pride of his
church. "What coloring!" he cried, and then triumphantly took us into
the crypt: "What a magnificent crypt! What works they executed
in those days, there!" At San Giorgio Maggiore, where there are a
Tintoretto and a Veronese, and four horrible swindling big pictures by
Romanino, I discovered to my great dismay that I had in my pocket but
five soldi, which I offered with much abasement and many apologies
to the sacristan; but he received them as if they had been so many
napoleons, prayed me not to speak of embarrassment, and declared that
his labors in our behalf had been nothing but pleasure. At Santa
Maria in Organo, where are the wonderful _intagli_ of Fra Giovanni da
Verona, the sacristan fully shared our sorrow that the best pictures
could not be unveiled as it was Holy Week. He was also moved with us
at the gradual decay of the _intagli_, and led us to believe that, to
a man of so much sensibility, the general ruinous state of the church
was an inexpressible affliction; and we rejoiced for his sake that it
should possess at least one piece of art in perfect repair. This was
a modern work, that day exposed for the first time, and it represented
in a group of wooden figures The Death of St. Joseph. The Virgin and
Christ supported the dying saint on either hand; and as the whole was
vividly colored, and rays of glory in pink and yellow gauze descended
upon Joseph's head, nothing could have been more impressive.

III.

Parma is laid out with a regularity which may be called characteristic
of the great ducal cities of Italy, and which it fully shares with
Mantua, Ferrara, and Bologna. The signorial cities, Verona, Vicenza,
Padua, and Treviso, are far more picturesque, and Parma excels only in
the number and beauty of her fountains. It is a city of gloomy aspect,
says Valery, who possibly entered it in a pensive frame of mind, for
its sadness did not impress us. We had just come from Modena, where
the badness of our hotel enveloped the city in an atmosphere of
profound melancholy. In fact, it will not do to trust to travellers in
any thing. I, for example, have just now spoken of the many beautiful
fountains in Parma because I think it right to uphold the statement
of M. Richard