nd
the national temper not being hasty, and never inflamed by wine,
drunkenness being a vice abandoned to the vulgar, and spoke of with
greater detestation than murder, which is mentioned with as little
concern as a drinking-bout in England, and is almost as frequent. It was
extreme shocking to me at my first coming, and still gives me a sort of
horror, though custom has in some degree familiarised it to my
imagination. Robbery would be pursued with great vivacity, and punished
with the utmost rigour, therefore is very rare, though stealing is in
daily practice; but as all the peasants are suffered the use of
fire-arms, the slightest provocation is sufficient to shoot, and they
see one of their own species lie dead before them with as little remorse
as a hare or a partridge, and, when revenge spurs them on, with much
more pleasure. A dissertation on this subject would engage me in a
discourse not proper for the post."

Lady Mary, being a prolific letter-writer, came under the suspicions of
the Italian authorities, who carefully examined the correspondence--a
fact that was only by a chance conversation revealed to her. "I think I
now know why our correspondence is so miserably interrupted, and so many
of my letters lost to and from England," she wrote to her husband in
October, 1753; "but I am no happier in the discovery than a man who has
found out his complaints proceed from a stone in the kidneys; I know the
cause, but am entirely ignorant of the remedy, and must suffer my
uneasiness with what patience I can."

"An old priest made me a visit as I was folding my last packet to my
daughter. Observing it to be large, he told me I had done a great deal of
business that morning. I made answer, I had done no business at all; I
had only wrote to my daughter on family affairs, or such trifles as make
up women's conversation. He said gravely, people like your Excellenza
do not use to write long letters upon trifles. I assured him, that if he
understood English, I would let him read my letter. He replied, with a
mysterious smile, if I did understand English, I should not understand
what you have written, except you would give me the key, which I durst
not presume to ask. What key? (said I, staring) there is not one cypher
besides the date. He answered, cyphers were only used by novices in
politics, and it was very easy to write intelligibly, under feigned
names of persons and places, to a correspondent, in such a manner as