er to the prisoners to behave themselves
decently to the Court. Their counsel are assigned by the Court,
and it is not one of the least extraordinary parts of this case
that the advocate of Matteis is his personal enemy, and a man
whom he displaced from an office he once held in the province.
They say, however, that he defends him very fairly and zealously.
The day I was there the proceedings were uninteresting, but
yesterday they were very important. An officer was examined who
had been imprisoned and ill-treated in prison, and who deposed to
various acts of cruelty. They on their part hardly deny the
facts, but attempt to justify them by proving that the sufferers
really were Carbonari, that other governors had done the same
thing, and that they were doing a service to the Government by
these pretended plots and consequent executions. Though their
guilt is clear, it is by no means so clear that they will be
condemned, or at least all of them. The public indignation is so
great that they must sacrifice some of them, and the spies, it is
said, will certainly be hanged. Matteis has interest in the
Court, but, as a majority of votes will decide his fate, it is
most likely he will be condemned.

April 22nd, 1830 {p.338}

Yesterday to Pompeii, far better worth seeing than anything else
in Italy. Who can look at other ruins after this? At Rome there
are certain places consecrated by recollections, but the
imagination must be stirred up to enjoy them; here you are
actually in a Roman town. Shave off the upper storey of any town,
take out windows, doors, and furniture, and it will be as Pompeii
now is: it is marvellous. About one-fifth part of the town has
been excavated, and the last house found is the largest. It is
said 1,000 men would clear it in a year, and there are thirty at
work. The road is a bed of dust, and infested with blind beggars,
each led by a boy. There are habitations almost uninterruptedly
along the road between Naples and Pompeii, built apparently for
no other reason than because they are exposed to eruptions of the
mountain, for any other part of the Bay would be just as
agreeable, and safe from that danger.

[Page Head: TAKING THE VEIL]

This morning we went to an Ursuline convent to see two girls
take the veil. The ceremony was neither imposing, nor interesting,
nor affecting, nor such as I expected. I believe all this would
have been the case had it been the black veil, but it was the
white u