idas, and Cato, I
read four or five times over, with such transports of shouting, crying,
and fury, that any person in the next room must have thought me mad. On
reading any particular anecdotes of those great men, I used often to
spring to my feet in the greatest agitation, and quite beside myself,
shedding tears of grief and rage at seeing myself born in Piedmont, and
in an age and under a government where nothing noble could be said or
done, and where it was almost useless to think or to feel."

His brother-in-law now strongly urged him to marry, and he consented,
although unwillingly, that negotiations should be entered into on his
behalf with the family of a young, noble, and rich heiress, whose
beautiful black eyes would, doubtless, soon have driven Plutarch out of
his head. The end, however, was that she married somebody else, to
Alfieri's internal satisfaction. "Had I been tied down by a wife and
children, the Muses would certainly have bid me good bye."

The moment he felt himself free he determined to start again on his
travels. On reaching Vienna, the Sardinian minister offered to introduce
him to Metastasio; but he cared nothing at that time for any Italian
author, and, moreover, had taken a great dislike to the poet, from
having seen him make a servile genuflexion to the Empress Maria Theresa
in the Imperial Gardens at Schoenbrunn. On entering the dominions of
Frederick the Great, he was made extremely indignant by the military
despotism that reigned there. When presented to the king he did not
appear in uniform.

"The minister asked me the reason of this, seeing that I was in the
service of my own sovereign. I replied, 'Because there are already
enough uniforms here.' The king said to me his usual four words; I
watched him attentively, fixing my eyes respectfully on his, and thanked
Heaven that I was not born his slave."

Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, were then successively visited by him. He
had heard so much of the latter country, that when he reached St.
Petersburgh his expectations were wrought up to a great pitch.

"But, alas! no sooner did I set foot in this Asiatic encampment of
tents, than I called to mind Rome, Genoa, Venice, and Florence, and
began to laugh. The longer I remained in the country, the more were my
first impressions confirmed, and I left it with the precious conviction
that it was not worth seeing."

He refused to be presented to the celebrated female autocrat, Catherine
II.,