rtments enough within its
leathern walls for well-nigh the population of a village. There is the
glass _coupe_ in front, the drawing-room of the house. There is the
_interieur_, which you may compare, if you please, to the dining-room,
only there you do not dine; and there is the _rotundo_, a sort of cabin
attached, the limbo of the establishment, in which you may find
half-a-dozen unhappy wights for days and nights doing penance. Then, in
the very fore-front of this moving castle--hung in mid air, as it
were--there is the _banquette_. It is the roomiest of all, and has,
moreover, spacious untenanted spaces behind, where you may stow away
your luggage; and, being the loftiest compartment, it commands the
country you may happen to traverse. On this account the _banquette_ was
the place I almost always selected, unless when so unfortunate as to
find it already bespoke. Half-hours are of no value in the south of the
Alps, and a very liberal allowance of this commodity was made us before
starting. At last, however, the formidable process of loading was
completed, and away we went, rumbling heavily over the streets of Turin
to the crack of the postilion's whip and the music of the horses' bells.

On emerging from the buildings of the city, we crossed the fine bridge
over the Dora Susina, an Alpine stream, which attains almost the dignity
of a river, and which, swollen by recent rains, was hurrying on to join
the Po. Our course now lay almost due east, over the great plain of
Lombardy; and there are few rides in any part of the world which can
bring the traveller such a succession of varied, rich, and sublime
sights. The plain itself, level as the floor of one's library, and
wearing a rich carpeting, green at all seasons, of fruits and verdure,
ran out till it touched the horizon. On the north rose the Alps, a
magnificent wall, of stature so stupendous, that they seemed to prop
the heavens. On the south were the gentler Apennines. Between these two
magnificent barriers, this goodly plain--of which I know not if the
earth contains its equal--stretches away till it terminates in the blue
line of the Adriatic. On its ample bosom is many a celebrated spot, many
an interesting object. It has several princely cities, in which art is
cultivated, and trade flourishes to all the extent which Austrian
fetters permit. Its old historic towns are numerous. The hoar of eld is
upon them. It has rags of castles and fortresses which literally