convent at Rome, who had borne
with all Alfieri's misanthropic furies after the Revolution, any more
than with the delicate intellectual girl whom Charles Edward had nearly
done to death in his drunken jealousy. So, on the whole, Fabre, and
whosoever assisted Fabre, was right in concocting a new epitaph.

But to us, who have followed the career--whose lesson is that of the
meanness which lurks in noble things, the nobility which lurks in mean
ones--of this woman from her inauspicious wedding-day to the placid day
of her death, to us Louise of Stolberg, Countess of Albany, Queen of
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, will remain, for all blame we
may give her and her times, a figure to remember and reflect upon,
principally because of those suppressed words of her epitaph: "_A
Victorio Alferio ultra res omnes dilecta, et quasi mortale numen ab
ipso constanter habita et observata._"

FOOTNOTES

1: I have purposely quoted, almost textually, the account given by
Ewald, lest I should be accused of following Alfieri's vague version.

2: The chief sources for this account are Mann's despatches and the
_Memoires_ of Louis Dutens. Alfieri gives no details.

_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_

THE ENCHANTED WOODS
and other Essays on the Genius of Place

HORTUS VITAE, or the Hanging Gardens.
Moralising Essays

THE SPIRIT OF ROME.
Leaves from a Diary

HAUNTINGS: Fantastic Tales
Second Edition

THE SENTIMENTAL TRAVELLER.
Notes on Places

GENIUS LOCI. Second Edition

POPE JACYNTH. Second Edition

LIMBO; and Other Essays;
to which is now added
ARIADNE IN MANTUA.
Second Edition

RENAISSANCE FANCIES AND STUDIES.
Second Edition

ALTHEA.
Second Edition

VANITAS: Polite stories.
Second Edition

LAURUS NOBILIS:
Chapters on Art and Life

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

Contemporary spellings have generally been retained even where
inconsistent. Missing Punctuation has been silently added, and a few
obvious spelling errors have been corrected. The information about
further volumes by the author has been moved to the end.

The following additional changes have been made to the text:

Tales of a Century (1 instance) Tales of the Century

No sadder way (...) can No sadder way (...) can
well be imagined that landing well be imagined than landing

has not mad him younger has not made him younger

probably sown in the swaddling