diameter one way, not much less the other, and
entirely encircled with mountains of the noblest form. Casinos and
hermitages gleam here and there on their lower slopes. This plain is
almost the richest in Italy, and full of vineyards. Rieti is near the
foot of the hills on one side, and the rapid Velino makes almost the
circuit of its walls, on its way to Terni. I had my apartment shut out
from the family, on the bank of this river, and saw the mountains, as
I lay on my restless couch. There was a piazza, too, or, as they call
it here, a loggia, which hung over the river, where I walked most of
the night, for I could not sleep at all in those months. In the wild
autumn storms, the stream became a roaring torrent, constantly lit up
by lightning flashes, and the sound of its rush was very sublime. I
see it yet, as it swept away on its dark green current the heaps of
burning straw which the children let down from the bridge. Opposite
my window was a vineyard, whose white and purple clusters were my food
for three months. It was pretty to watch the vintage,--the asses and
wagons loaded with this wealth of amber and rubies,--the naked boys,
singing in the trees on which the vines are trained, as they cut the
grapes,--the nut-brown maids and matrons, in their red corsets and
white head-clothes, receiving them below, while the babies and little
children were frolicking in the grass.

In Rieti, the ancient Umbrians were married thus. In presence of
friends, the man and maid received together the gifts of fire and
water; the bridegroom then conducted to his house the bride. At the
door, he gave her the keys, and, entering, threw behind him nuts, as a
sign that he renounced all the frivolities of boyhood.

I intend to write all that relates to the birth of Angelino, in a
little book, which I shall, I hope, show you sometime. I have begun
it, and then stopped;--it seemed to me he would die. If he lives, I
shall finish it, before the details are at all faded in my mind. Rieti
is a place where I should have liked to have him born, and where I
should like to have him now,--but that the people are so wicked. They
are the most ferocious and mercenary population of Italy. I did not
know this, when I went there, and merely expected to be solitary and
quiet among poor people. But they looked on the "Marchioness" as an
ignorant _Inglese_, and they fancy all _Inglesi_ have wealth untold.
Me they were bent on plundering in every way. They