ake a long cavalcade.
There was a fat old gentleman just coming puffing out of the
cave, and calling with delight to his ladies, 'Ah, mesdames,
etes-vous noires?' as they certainly were, for all one gets in
the cave is a blackened face from the torches. There was another
gaunt figure of the party in a fur cap, who was playing the
flute--

His reedy pipe with music fills,
To charm the God who loves the hills
And rich Arcadian scenery.

We landed from our boat in various places, but declined going
down the Cento Camerelle to have a second face-blackening.
All the ruins, said to be of Caesar's and Marius's Villas,
Agrippina's Tomb, Caligula's Bridge, &c., may be anything; they
are nothing but shapeless fragments, only on a rock I saw a bit
of marble or stucco in what they call Caesar's Villa. The Stygian
Lake presented no horrors, nor the Elysian Fields any delights;
the former is a great round piece of water, and the latter are
very common-looking vineyards. When well wooded, which in the
time of the Romans it was, this coast must have been a most
delicious and luxurious retreat, so sequestered and sheltered,
such a calm sea, and soft breezes.

Mira quies pelagi; ponunt hic lassa furorem
Aequora, et insani spirant clementius Austri.

We went up to look at the old harbour of Misenum, where, instead
of a Roman fleet, were a few fishing-boats, and walked back
through fields in which spring was bursting forth through endless
varieties of cultivation--figs, mulberries, and cherry trees,
with festoons of vines hanging from tree to tree, and corn, peas,
and beans springing up underneath.

Our boatmen, as we rowed back, were very proud of their English,
and kept on saying 'Pull away,' 'Now boys,' and other phrases
they have picked up from our sailors. This morning we set off
to come here [to Salerno] with Vetturino horses; the dust
intolerable; stopped at Pompeii, and walked half round the walls
and to the Amphitheatre. All the ground (now covered with
vineyards) belongs to the King (for Murat bought it); the
profusion and brilliancy of the wild flowers make it quite a
garden--

Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art
In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
Pours forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.

[Page Head: EXCAVATIONS AT POMPEII]

If Murat had continued on the throne two or three years longer,
the whole t