most
beautiful view all around imaginable. Add, that I am with the dearest,
delightful old couple one can imagine,--quick, prompt, and kind,
sensible and contented. Having no children, they like to regard me and
the Prussian sculptor, my neighbor, as such; yet are too delicate and
too busy ever to intrude. In the attic dwells a priest, who insists on
making my fire when Antonia is away. To be sure, he pays himself for
his trouble by asking a great many questions....

You cannot conceive the enchantment of this place. So much I suffered
here last January and February, I thought myself a little weaned; but
returning, my heart swelled even to tears with the cry of the poet,

"O Rome, _my_ country, city of the soul!"

Those have not lived who have not seen Rome. Warned, however, by the
last winter, I dared not rent my lodgings for the year. I hope I am
acclimated. I have been through what is called the grape-cure, much
more charming, certainly, than the water-cure. At present I am very
well, but, alas! because I have gone to bed early, and done very
little. I do not know if I can maintain any labor. As to my life, I
think it is not the will of Heaven it should terminate very soon. I
have had another strange escape.

I had taken passage in the diligence to come to Rome; two rivers were
to be passed, the Turano and the Tiber, but passed by good bridges,
and a road excellent when not broken unexpectedly by torrents from
the mountains. The diligence sets out between three and four in
the morning, long before light. The director sent me word that
the Marchioness Crispoldi had taken for herself and family a coach
extraordinary, which would start two hours later, and that I could
have a place in that if I liked; so I accepted. The weather had been
beautiful, but on the eve of the day fixed for my departure, the wind
rose, and the rain fell in torrents. I observed that the river, which
passed my window, was much swollen, and rushed with great violence. In
the night I heard its voice still stronger, and felt glad I had not to
set out in the dark. I rose at twilight and was expecting my carriage,
and wondering at its delay, when I heard that the great diligence,
several miles below, had been seized by a torrent; the horses were
up to their necks in water, before any one dreamed of danger. The
postilion called on all the saints, and threw himself into the water.
Tire door of the diligence could not be opened, and tire passenger