orms the top of the pyramid."

This wonderful and unique piece of statuary took Fasolata twelve years
to accomplish; it was the first work he had ever done. He was afterwards
induced to visit England in order to execute a similar piece, but he
died, it is said, of home-sickness, poor fellow! I was greatly pleased
to have seen this great work, which, I think, is one of the most
beautiful and wonderful I have ever beheld. It is of priceless value.

In this palace are also Damini's frescoes.

We regretted we had not time to visit the university, which as late as
1864 had over a thousand students. Howells, writing some years ago,
says, "They were to be met everywhere; one could not be mistaken with
the blended air of pirate and dandy these studious young men assumed.
They were to be seen a good deal on the promenade outside the walls,
where the Paduan ladies are driven in their carriages in the afternoon,
and where one sees the blood horses and fine equipages for which Padua
is famous."

Talking of ladies, I noticed with pleasure that all the women in this
town wore the graceful and picturesque lace head-dress of the country,
which I thought significant of their conservative good sense.

Padua is situated near the junction of the rivers Brenta and
Bacchiglione, amidst gardens and vineyards; behind rise the Euganean
Hills, among which Shelley wrote his beautiful "Lines":

"Beneath is spread like a green sea
The waveless plain of Lombardy,
Bounded by the vaporous air,
Islanded by cities fair;

* * * * *

Many-domed Padua proud
Stands, a peopled solitude,
'Mid the harvest shining plain,
Where the peasant heaps his grain
In the garner of his foe,
And the milk-white oxen slow
With the purple vintage strain
Heap'd upon the creaking wain."

We crossed an old bridge, on which was the following inscription:--

"Here Novello da Carrara with forty-two hero friends went down the
stream, attacked the bridge, routed the Visconti; and in glad
triumph was received again by the people as their lord. June 19,
1390."

Padua is considered a healthy place for invalids, and many, are ordered
thither from other Italian towns. The cost of living is, I believe, more
moderate than in any other city of Northern Italy.

The people complained bitterly of the cold and unseasonable weather they
had experienced; and more especia