the mighty power of his waters, and as you looked with the glass at
oxen and trees on the other shore, they appeared to be clothed in
all the colours of the rainbow, and as if belonging to another world.
Several peasants were waiting for the boat near me, talking about the
war and the Austrians, and swearing they would, if possible, annihilate
some of the latter. I gave them the glass to look with, and I imagined
that they had never seen one before, for they thought it highly
wonderful to make out what the time was at the Luzzara Tower, three
miles in a straight line on the other side. The revolver, too, was a
subject of great admiration, and they kept turning, feeling, and staring
at it, as if they could not make out which way the cartridges were put
in. One of these peasants, however, was doing the grand with the others,
and once on the subject of history related to all who would hear how he
had been to St. Helena, which was right in the middle of Moscow, where
it was so very cold that his nose had got to be as large as his head.
The poor man was evidently mixing one night's tale with that of the next
one, a tale probably heard from the old Sindaco, who is at the same time
the schoolmaster, the notary, and the highest municipal authority in the
place.

I started in the ferry boat with them at last. While crossing they got
to speak of the priests, and were all agreed, to put it in the mildest
way, in thinking extremely little of them, and only differed as to what
punishment they should like them to suffer.

On the side where we landed lay heaps of ammunition casks for the corps
besieging Borgoforte. Others were conveyed upon cars by my friends the
carrettieri, of whom it was decreed I should not be quit for some time
to come. Entering Guastalla I found only a few artillery officers,
evidently in charge of what we had seen carried along the route.
Guastalla is a neat little town very proud of its statue of Duke
Ferrante Gonzaga, and the Croce Rossa is a neat little inn, which may be
proud of a smart young waiter, who actually discovered that, as I wanted
to proceed to Luzzara, a few miles on, I had better stop till next
morning, I did not take his advice, and was soon under the gate of
Luzzara, a very neat little place, once one of the many possessions
where the Gonzagas had a court, a palace, and a castle. The arms over
the archway may still be seen, and would not be worth any notice but for
a remarkable work of terra