d at Venice near a week after your
departure, to get strong and tranquil again. Saw all the pictures,
if not enough, yet pretty well. My journey here was very profitable.
Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, I saw really well, and much there is to see.
Certainly I had learned more than ever in any previous ten days of my
existence, and have formed an idea of what is needed for the study of
art in these regions. But, at Brescia, I was taken ill with fever.
I cannot tell you how much I was alarmed when it seemed to me it
was affecting my head. I had no medicine; nothing could I do except
abstain entirely from food, and drink cold water. The second day, I
had a bed made in a carriage, and came on here. I am now pretty well,
only very weak.

TO R.W.E.

_Milan, Aug. 10, 1847._--Since writing you from Florence, I have
passed the mountains; two full, rich days at Bologna; one at Ravenna;
more than a fortnight at Venice, intoxicated with the place, and with
Venetian art, only to be really felt and known in its birth-place.
I have passed some hours at Vicenza, seeing mainly the Palladian
structures; a day at Verona,--a week had been better; seen Mantua,
with great delight; several days in Lago di Garda,--truly happy
days there; then, to Brescia, where I saw the Titians, the exquisite
Raphael, the Scavi, and the Brescian Hills. I could charm you by
pictures, had I time.

To-day, for the first time, I have seen Manzoni. Manzoni has spiritual
efficacy in his looks; his eyes glow still with delicate tenderness,
as when he first saw Lucia, or felt them fill at the image of Father
Cristoforo. His manners are very engaging, frank, expansive; every
word betokens the habitual elevation of his thoughts; and (what you
care for so much) he says distinct, good things; but you must not
expect me to note them down. He lives in the house of his fathers, in
the simplest manner. He has taken the liberty to marry a new wife for
his own pleasure and companionship, and the people around him do not
like it, because she does not, to their fancy, make a good pendant to
him. But I liked her very well, and saw why he married her. They asked
me to return often, if I pleased, and I mean to go once or twice, for
Manzoni seems to like to talk with me.

* * * * *

_Rome, Oct., 1847._--Leaving Milan, I went on the Lago Maggiore, and
afterward into Switzerland. Of this tour I shall not speak here; it
was a little romance by its