g, lurched over while a stiff
breeze was rising. By and by we got properly under weigh, and swept
gallantly over the waves, along the coast, whose precipices and
headlands were getting indistinct in the fading twilight. I walked the
deck till past midnight, watching the moon as she rode high amid the
scud overhead, and the beacon-lights of the island of Elba, as they
gleamed full and bright astern. "What of the night?" I asked the
helmsman. "Buono notte, Signore," was the reply. I descended to my
berth.

I awoke at four of the morning, and found the steamer labouring in a
rolling sea. The sirocco was blowing, and a huge black wave rolled up
before it from the south. The distant coast stretched along on the left,
naked and iron-bound, with the high lands of Etruria rising behind it. I
wondered whether that coast had looked as unkindly to Aeneas, when first
he cast anchor on it after long ploughing the deep? We drew towards that
silent shore, where signs of man and his labours we could discover none;
and in an hour or so a small bay opened under the vessel's bows. The
swell was rising every moment, and the steamer made some magnificent
bounds in taking the entrance to the harbour. We entered the port of
Civita Vecchia at six, passing between the two round towers, with their
tiers of guns looking down upon us; and cast anchor in the ample basin,
protected by the lofty walls of the forts, over which the green-topped
waves occasionally looked as if enraged at missing their prey. Here we
were, but not a man of us could land till first our passports had been
submitted to the authorities on shore. The passengers, who were of all
classes, from the English nobleman with his equipage and horses, down to
the lazzaroni of Naples, crowded the deck promiscuously; and amongst
them I was happy to meet again my two Russian friends, with whom I had
shared the same bed-room among the Apennines. In about an hour and a
half we were boarded by a police-officer. Forming us into a row on deck,
and calling our names one by one, this functionary handed to each a
billet, permitting the holder to go ashore, on condition of an instant
compearance at the pontifical police-office. An examination of the
baggage followed. This done, I leaped into one of the small boats which
lay alongside the steamer, and was rowed to the quay at a few strokes,
but for which service I had to recompense the boatman with about as many
pauls. No sooner had I set foot on sh