d, one of the fullest and most delightful
companions I have ever known. He talked English with no further accent
than served to add a raciness to the flavour of his conversation;
and every morning of one fixed day in the week he used to come to
Ricorboli for what he called a tobacco parliament.

I used frequently to spend the evening at his villa, where one met a
somewhat extraordinary cosmopolitan gathering. Generally we had some
good music; for Madame Pulszky was--unhappily in her case the past
tense is needed--a very perfect musician. Among other people more
or less off the world's beaten track, I used to meet there a very
extraordinary Russian, who had accomplished the rare feat of escaping
from Siberia. He was a Nihilist of the most uncompromising type; a
huge, shaggy man, with an unkempt head and chest like those of a bear;
and by his side--more or less--there was a pretty, _petite_, dainty
little young wife--beauty and the beast, if ever that storied couple
were seen in the flesh!

Many years afterwards when I and my wife saw Pulszky at Pesth, and
were talking of old times, he reminded me of this person; and on
my doubting that any man in his senses could believe in the
practicability of the extreme Nihilist theories, he instanced our old
acquaintance, saying, "Yes, there is a man, who in his very inmost
conscience believes that no good of any sort can be achieved for
humanity till the sponge shall have been passed over _all_ that
men have instituted and done, and a perfect _tabula rasa_ has been
substituted for it!"

I have many letters from Pulszky, written most of them after his
return to Pesth, and for the most part too much occupied with the
persons and politics of that recent day to be fit for publication.

Here is one, written before he left Florence, which may be given:

* * * * *

"VILLA PETROVICH.

"MY DEAR TROLLOPE,--I am just returned from a long excursion with
Boxall to Arezzo, Cortona, Borgo San Sepolcro, Citta di Castello,
Perugia, and Assisi. We were there for a week, and enjoyed it
amazingly. I am sorry to say that I am not now able to join your party
to Camaldoli, since I must see Garibaldi, and do not know as yet
what I shall do when the war begins, which might happen during your
excursion. I hope you will drink a glass of water to my remembrance at
La Vernia from the miraculous well, called from the rocks by my patron
saint, St. Francis of Assisi. I shal