no to the waiter who
had waited upon his side of the table. By this time the diligence was
ready, and they all went and took their seats in it again.

The sun was now going down, and in the course of an hour the last of its
rays were seen gilding the summits of the mountains. Soon afterwards
the evening began to come on.

"Before a great while," said Mr. George, "we shall begin to draw near to
the frontier."

"Yes," said Rollo, "the frontier between the kingdom of Naples and the
dominions of the pope. They will examine the baggage there, I suppose."

"No," said Mr. George; "they will not examine the baggage till we get to
Rome."

"I thought they always examined the baggage at the frontier, when we
came into any new country," said Rollo.

"They do," said Mr. George, "unless the baggage is under the charge of
public functionaries; and then, to save time, they often take it into
the capital, and examine it there. I asked one of the passengers at the
dinner table, and he said that the trunks were not to be opened till we
get to Rome."

"They will examine the passports, I suppose," said Rollo.

"Yes," replied Mr. George, "they will, undoubtedly, examine the
passports at the frontier."

You cannot pass from one country in Europe to another, any where,
without stopping at the last military station of the country that you
leave, to have your passport examined and stamped, in token of
permission given you to go out, and also at the first military station
of the country which you are about to enter, to have them examined and
stamped again, in token of permission to come in. All this, as you may
suppose, is very troublesome. Besides that, there are fees to pay,
which, in the course of a long journey, amount to a considerable sum.

Besides the passport business which was to be attended to, there was a
grand change of the diligence establishment at the frontier. The coach
itself, which came from Naples, and also the conductor and postilions,
were all left at the border, and the passengers were transferred to a
new turnout which came from Rome. Indeed, there was a double change; for
the Roman diligence brought a load of passengers from Rome to meet the
Neapolitan one at the border, and thus each company of travellers had to
be transferred to the establishment belonging to the country which they
were entering.

This change was made in a post house, in a solitary place near the
frontier. It caused a detention of nearly an