-"Erasmi Colloquia.
Diversoria."--ED.]

I also received civilities from Father Guelfucci of the order of
Servites,[115] a man whose talents and virtues, united with a singular
decency and sweetness of manners, have raised him to the honourable
station of secretary to the General. Indeed all the gentlemen here
behaved to me in the most obliging manner. We walked, rode, and went
a-shooting together.

[Footnote 115: Servites, or Servants of the Blessed Virgin, a religious
order, first instituted in Tuscany in 1233.--ED.]

The peasants and soldiers were all frank, open, lively and bold, with a
certain roughness of manner which agrees well with their character, and
is far from being displeasing. The General gave me an admirable instance
of their plain and natural solid good sense. A young French Marquis,
very rich and very vain, came over to Corsica. He had a sovereign
contempt for the barbarous inhabitants, and strutted[116] about (andava
a passo misurato) with prodigious airs of consequence. The Corsicans
beheld him with a smile of ridicule, and said, "Let him alone, he is
young."

[Footnote 116:

"You see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, and stares, and a' that."

--Burns.--ED.]

The Corsican peasants and soldiers are very fond of baiting cattle with
the large mountain dogs. This keeps up a ferocity among them which
totally extinguishes fear. I have seen a Corsican in the very heat of a
baiting, run in, drive off the dogs, seize the half-frantick animal by
the horns, and lead it away. The common people did not seem much given
to diversions. I observed some of them in the great hall of the house of
Colonna where I was lodged, amusing themselves with playing at a sort of
draughts in a very curious manner. They drew upon the floor with chalk,
a sufficient number of squares, chalking one all over, and leaving one
open, alternately; and instead of black men and white, they had bits of
stone and bits of wood. It was an admirable burlesque on gaming.

The chief satisfaction of these islanders when not engaged in war or in
hunting, seemed to be that of lying at their ease in the open air,
recounting tales of the bravery of their countrymen, and singing songs
in honour of the Corsicans, and against the Genoese. Even in the night
they will continue this pastime in the open air, unless rain forces them
to retire into their houses.

The ambasciadore Inglese, The English ambassadour, as the good peasan