the Alps and the Apennines, from the Graian and
Cottian chains on the west, to the shores of the Adriatic on the east.
As the waters drained off, this central channel alone was left, to
receive and convey to the sea the innumerable torrents which are formed
by the springs and snows of the mountains. The noble river thus formed
is called the Po,--the pride of Italy, and the king of its streams. The
Greeks, who clothed it with fable, and drowned Phaeton in its stream,
called it Eridanus. Its Roman appellation was Padus, which in course of
time resolved itself into its present name, the Po. Unlike the Nile,
which rolls in solemn and solitary majesty through Egypt without
permitting one solitary rill to mingle with its flood, the Po welcomes
every tributary, and accepts its help in discharging its great function
of giving drink to every flower, and tree, and field, and city, in broad
Lombardy. It receives, in its course through Piedmont alone, not fewer
than fifty-three torrents and rivers; and in depth and grandeur of
stream it is not unworthy of the praises which the Greek and Roman poets
lavished upon it. The cradle of this noble stream is placed in the
centre of the ancient territory of the Vaudois, whose most beautiful
mountain, Monte Viso, is its nursing parent. A fountain of crystal
clearness, placed half-way up this hill, is its source. Thence it goes
forth to water Piedmont and Venetian-Lombardy, and to mingle at last
with the clear wave of the Adriatic,--emblem of those living waters
which were to go forth from this same land into all quarters of Europe.

The sun had now set; and I marked that this evening no golden beams
among the mountains, no burning peaks, attended his departure. He went
in silent sadness, like a friend quitting a circle which he fears may
before his return be visited with calamity. With him departed the glory
of the scene. The vine-clad Colina, erst sparkling with villas, put out
its lights, and resolved itself into a dark bank, which leaned,
cloud-like, against the sky. The stupendous white piles on the left drew
a thin night vapour around them, and retired from the scene, like some
mighty spirit gathering his robe about him, and leaving the earth,
which his presence had enlightened, dark and solitary. The plain lay
before us a sombre expanse, in which all objects--towns, spires, and
forests--were fast blending into one darkly-shaded and undefined
picture. Dwellers in _diligences_, as well a