e prince
amused the duchess still more pleasantly. He made all his pages, lads of
fifteen to seventeen, go into the water, and their various evolutions
afforded us great pleasure. They were all the sweethearts of the prince,
who preferred Ganymede to Hebe.

The Englishmen asked him if if he would give us the same spectacle, only
substituting nymphs for the 'amoyini', and he promised to do so the next
day at his splendid house near Portici, where there was a marble basin in
the midst of the garden.

CHAPTER XIV

My Amours with Gallimena--Journey to Soyento--Medini--
Goudar--Miss Chudleigh--The Marquis Petina--Gaetano--Madame
Cornelis's Son--An Anecdote of Sara Goudar--The Florentines
Mocked by the King--My Journey to Salerno, Return to Naples,
and Arrival at Rome

The Prince of Francavilla was a rich Epicurean, whose motto was 'Fovet et
favet'.

He was in favour in Spain, but the king allowed him to live at Naples, as
he was afraid of his initiating the Prince of Asturias, his brothers, and
perhaps the whole Court, into his peculiar vices.

The next day he kept his promise, and we had the pleasure of seeing the
marble basin filled with ten or twelve beautiful girls who swam about in
the water.

Miss Chudleigh and the two other ladies pronounced this spectacle
tedious; they no doubt preferred that of the previous day.

In spite of this gay company I went to see Callimena twice a day; she
still made me sigh in vain.

Agatha was my confidante; she would gladly have helped me to attain my
ends, but her dignity would not allow of her giving me any overt
assistance. She promised to ask Callimena to accompany us on an excursion
to Sorento, hoping that I should succeed in my object during the night we
should have to spend there.

Before Agatha had made these arrangements, Hamilton had made similar ones
with the Duchess of Kingston, and I succeeded in getting an invitation. I
associated chiefly with the two Saxons and a charming Abbe Guliani, with
whom I afterwards made a more intimate acquaintance at Rome.

We left Naples at four o'clock in the morning, in a felucca with twelve
oars, and at nine we reached Sorrento.

We were fifteen in number, and all were delighted with this earthly
paradise.

Hamilton took us to a garden belonging to the Duke of Serra Capriola, who
chanced to be there with his beautiful Piedmontese wife, who loved her
husband passionately.

The duke had been s