Gothic letter he seemed as much astonished as if he had got hold
of a book of _Cabbala_ or _Magic_. He detained the whole work, but it was
sent to me the next day, on my declaring that there was nothing damnable or
heretical in it; for there was no person belonging to the department who
could read German. When the _douaniers_ proceeded to the examination of the
books belonging to one of my fellow travellers, the Neapolitan lady, she
expressed great repugnance to the procedure; the _douaniers_ however
insisted and, behold! there were several _livres galants_ with plates
somewhat _lubriques_, the discovery of which excited blushes on her part
and considerable laughter on the part of the byestanders. These books,
however, not being contraband, were immediately returned to her, as was an
edition of Baffo, belonging to my other fellow traveller, returned to him.
Now this Baffo was a Venetian poet and his works are the most profligate
that ever were penned or imagined by mortal man. Martial and Petronius
Arbiter must hide their diminished heads before Baffo. The owner of this
book chose to read out loud, quite unsolicited, several _choice_ sonnets of
this poet for our edification during the journey; and this branch of
litterature seemed to be the only one with which he was acquainted.

When the examination was over I took leave of my fellow travellers, and
repaired to the _German Hotel_ in the _Via de' Condotti_, where I engaged
an apartment, and sat down to dinner at an excellent _table d'hote_ at five
o'clock. There was a profusion of everything, particularly of fish and
game. Mullets and wild boar are constant dishes at a Roman table. The
mullets at Rome are small but delicious, and this was a fish highly prized
by the ancient Romans. Game of all kinds is very cheap here, from the
abundance of it that is to be met with in wild uninhabited wastes of Latium
and in the Pontine marshes. Every peasant is a sportsman and goes
constantly armed with fire-arms, not only to kill game, but to defend
himself against robbers, who infest the environs of Rome, and who sometimes
carry their audacity so far as to push their _reconnaissances_ close to the
very walls of the city. At the _German Hotel_ the price of the dinner at
_table d'hote_, including wine at discretion, is six _paoli_, about three
franks. I pay for an excellent room about three _paoli_ per diem and my
breakfast at a neighbouring _Caffe_ costs me one _paolo_. A _paolo_ is
wo