plaudits, and this involved a
further interchange of compliments and explanations, and the production
of my sketch-book, which soon procured me the acquaintance of some ladies
and an invitation as an English artist, to the house of some respectable
citizen.

So it happened that, getting out of the diligence before it reached
Foggia, I struck south, and wandered for some days from one little town
to another, being always hospitably entertained, whether there happened
to be an _albergo_ or not, at private houses, seeing in this way more of
the manners and customs of the inhabitants than would have been otherwise
possible, gaining much information as to the haunts of the brigands, the
whereabouts of the troops, and hearing much local gossip generally. The
ignorance of the most respectable classes at this period was astounding;
it has doubtless all changed since. I have been at a town of 2000
inhabitants, not one of whom took in a newspaper: the whole population,
therefore, was in as profound ignorance of what was transpiring in the
rest of the world as if they had been in Novaia Zemlia. I have stayed
with a mayor who did not know that England was an island; I have been the
guest of a citizen who had never heard of Scotland, and to whom,
therefore, my nationality was an enigma: but I never met any one--I mean
of this same class--who had not heard of Palmerston. He was a mysterious
personage, execrated by the "blacks" and adored by the "reds." And I
shone with a reflected lustre as the citizen of a country of which he was
the Prime Minister. As a consequence, we had political discussions,
which were protracted far into the night, for the principal meal of the
twenty-four hours was a 10 o'clock P.M. supper, at which, after the
inevitable macaroni, were many unwholesome dishes, such as salads made of
thistles, cows' udders, and other delicacies, which deprived one of all
desire for sleep. Notwithstanding which, we rose early, my hostess and
the ladies of the establishment appearing in the early part of the day in
the most extreme deshabille. Indeed, on one occasion when I was first
introduced into the family of a respectable citizen, and shown into my
bedroom, I mistook one of two females who were making the bed for the
servant, and was surprised to see her hand a little douceur I gave her as
an earnest of attention on her part, to the other with a smile. She soon
afterwards went to bed: we all did, from 11 A.M. till