to the coachman.

"_Si, signore_," said the coachman, and immediately he began to drive
away.

The Hotel d'Amerique was the one where Mr. George had concluded to go.
He had found the name and a description of this hotel in his guide book.

"Why did you want me to take the carriage by the hour?" asked Rollo.

"Because it is very probable," said Mr. George, "that we shall not get
in at the Hotel d'Amerique, and in that case we shall have to go to
other hotels, and unless we take him by the hour, he would charge a
course for every hotel that we go to, and the charge even for _two_
courses, is more than for an hour."

The event showed that Mr. George was right in his calculations. The
Hotel d'Amerique was full. The waiter, who came out, as soon as he saw
the carriage stop at the door, told Mr. George this in French.

"Then please tell our coachman," said Mr. George, "to drive us to any
other principal hotel that is near here, and if that is full, to
another; and so on, until he finds a good place where they can take us
in."

Mr. George said this, of course, in French. The waiter delivered the
message to the coachman in Italian.

"Yes," said the coachman, to himself, "that I'll do. But I shall take
good care that you don't find any place where you can get in this two
hours, if I can help it."

The reason why the coachman did not wish that his travellers should find
a hotel soon was, of course, because he wished to earn as much money as
possible by driving them about.

He immediately began to think what hotels would be most likely to be
full, and drove first to those. The first of all was a hotel, situated
quite near one of the gates of the city, the one where the principal
entrance is for all travellers coming from the north. It is called the
"Gate of the People,"--or in Italian, _Porto del Popolo_. The gate opens
into a large triangular space, which is called the _Piazza del Popolo_.
_Piazza_,[3] in Italian, means a public square.

[Footnote 3: Pronounced _Piatza_.]

This Piazza del Popolo is one of the most celebrated places in Rome.
There are three streets that radiate from it directly through the heart
of the town. Between the centre and the two side streets, at the corners
where they come out upon the square, are two churches exactly alike.
They are called sometimes the _twin churches_, on this account.

The Piazza del Popolo is a great place for public parades. On one side
is a high ascent, with a broa