inform me that I had not dined exactly according to the
_carte_; that certain additions had been made to certain dishes; and
that it did not become an Englishman to inquire farther into the matter.
If not so satisfactory as might be wished, this defence was better than
I had expected; so, paying my debts to Boniface, I departed, consoling
myself with the reflection, that if I had three times more to pay than
my neighbours, having fared neither better nor worse than they, I had,
unlike these poor men, eaten my dinner without fetters on my hands.

This time the _banquette_ of the _diligence_, with all its rich views,
was bespoke, so I had to content myself with the _interieur_. It was
roomy, however; there were but four of us, and its window admitted, I
found, ample views of meadow and mountain. We drove to the station of
the Venice railway, pleasantly situated amid orchards and extra-mural
albergos. The horses were taken out, and the immense vehicle was lifted
up,--wheels, baggage, passengers and all,--and put upon a truck. Away
went the long line of carriages,--away went the _diligence_, standing up
like a huge leathern castle upon its truck; while the engine whistled,
snorted, screeched, groaned, and uttered all sorts of irreverent and
every-day sounds, just as if the Alps had not been looking down upon it,
and classic towns ever and anon starting up beside its path: a glorious
vision of fresh meadows, bordered with little canals, brimful of water,
and barred with the long shadows of campanile and sycamore,--for the sun
was westering,--shot past us. The Alps came on with more slow and
majestic pace. As peak after peak passed by, it seemed as if the whole
community of hills had commenced a general march on Monte Viso, with all
their crags, glaciers, and pine-forests. One might have thought that
Sovran Blanc had summoned the nobles and high princes of his kingdom to
meet him in his hall of audience, to debate some weighty point of Alpine
government. An august assembly as ever graced monarch's court, in their
robes of white and their cornets of eternal ice, would these tall and
proud forms present.

Treviglio, beyond which the railway has not yet been opened, was reached
in less than two hours. When near the town, the vast mirror of the blue
Como, spread out amid the dark overhanging mountains, burst upon us.
From it flowed forth the Adda, which we crossed. As its mighty stream,
burning in the sunset, rolled along, it spa