e globe; and his observations, affluent in instruction,
proved that his wanderings had been of a different order from the
capricious migrations of sight-seeking wealth.

The warmth with which I seconded some of his sentiments appeared to please
him. He complimented my father on my education; adding, that the judgment
with which I developed its resources designated me for a wider sphere of
action than belonged to a tiller of the soil of Lombardy. I had been vain
enough to entertain the same opinion; and its confirmation by a competent
authority was balm to my spirit. Gladly I acceded to his request, of
guiding him to the Baron's Font, a romantic cascade, where, to use his own
language, he sighed to offer allegiance to Nature.

My companion noted the peculiarities of the route, and committed to
writing the information I furnished respecting the district. We rested on
the summit of a steep, skirted by the foaming stream of the cascade,
beyond which rose wooded grounds in bold acclivity, mellowing, with their
dusky greenness, the gloomy grandeur of a mouldering tower.

The stranger abruptly adverted to the hateful humiliation of the preceding
day. He descanted on the contumely I had suffered, with a vehement
bitterness that chafed my young blood to flame. I denounced endless
hostility against the count and his minions. He calmly commented on the
futility of the threat. In the frenzy of exasperation, I insinuated the
possibility of resorting to the darkest means of accomplishing revenge. He
replied, that in cooler moments I would spurn the idea of Italian
vengeance. Requiring a pledge of secrecy, he proceeded to point out an
honorable mode of lowering the crest of the oppressor.

"My name," he said, "is Philippon--my profession, a military engineer, in
the service of the French Republic. The armies of Liberty only await the
capture of Toulon to sever the chains of Italy. I am terminating a secret
journey of observation through Piedmont and the Milanese. Come with me to
Paris, and join the standard of Freedom. In France, no parchment barrier
excludes untitled youth from fame and fortune; draw a blade in her cause,
and relieve the place of your nativity from the thralldom of its petty
tyrant. These brutal and stolid Austrians must be driven to their land of
hereditary bondage--justice demands it. The time has gone by for insulted
and injured Humanity to shed tears in secret. Five dreary years I pined in
the dismal solitudes