red from Naples, and went no one
knows where, leaving behind as mementoes of the celebrated cavalry
regiment various unpaid accounts.

After the fall of Gaeta, and the end of the war, the remains of this
unfortunate British legion melted away, leaving many of their comrades
behind, either having died in hospital or fallen beneath the enemy's
fire.

Among the ranks of the British Legion was a young artist, who has since
done good service for some of our illustrated papers in depicting battle
scenes all over Europe. Mr. Vizitelli was that artist who received a
wound in front of Gaeta, and who is one of the unfortunate band that
accompanied Hicks Pascha to the Soudan, and about whose fate much
anxiety now exists.

[G] See Appendix.

CHAPTER XVII.

Floods in France--London--Back to the South--Marseilles--Italian Emigrant
passengers--A death on board--French _impolitesse_--Italian coast scenery
at dawn--Unlimited palaver--Arrival in Leghorn--The _Lepanto_--Departure
--"Fair Florence"--The Arno--Streets--Palaces--San Miniato--The grand
Duomo--The Baptistery--Ghiberti's Bronze Gates.

We had a very rough passage to Marseilles, and arrived five hours after
time. I only stopped here one night, and hurried on through Paris to
London. The lowlands of France were still under water, and the weather
in England much the same as when I left it six weeks ago. After a
sojourn of some weeks--

"In London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow
At once is deaf and loud,"

during which time the weather continued anything but agreeable, with
bitterly cold winds and frequent rain, I started for the south once
more, having arranged to meet my wife at Leghorn. I had hoped that Malta
would have been mild and pleasant at this time of the year, but, as in
most other places, the disastrous floods and phenomenal weather
generally of 1882 had extended to March, 1883, even here, and she was
not particularly sorry to leave the island, hoping to find an
improvement in the climate on a second trip into Italy.

Crossing the Channel in fairly smooth water and with a clean sky, I
began to hope a favourable change had really set in at last. Paris was
very bright and pleasant. A political demonstration was expected here on
the Sunday following the day of my arrival; but this was the greater
reason for my hurrying away on the morning of that day, March 18th. It
opened bright and frosty. The usual tedious jo