me
de Lycurgue," and "Lycurgue consulte l'oracle," and then there was
"Calciope a la Cour." Under this was written in French and Spanish:
"Modele de grace et de beaute, la jeune Calciope non moins sage que belle
avait merite l'estime et l'attachement du vertueux Lycurgue. Vivement
epris de tant de charmes, l'illustre philosophe la conduisait dans le
temple de Junon, ou ils s'unirent par un serment sacre. Apres cette
auguste ceremonie, Lycurgue s'empressa de conduire sa jeune epouse au
palais de son frere Polydecte, Roi de Lacedemon. Seigneur, lui dit-il,
la vertueuse Calciope vient de recevoir mes voeux aux pieds des autels,
j'ose vous prier d'approuver cette union. Le Roi temoigna d'abord
quelque surprise, mais l'estime qu'il avait pour son frere lui inspira
une reponse pleine de beinveillance. Il s'approcha aussitot de Calciope
qu'il embrassa tendrement, combla ensuite Lycurgue de prevenances et
parut tres satisfait."

He called my attention to this and then said somewhat timidly that he
would rather have married Ellen than Calciope. I saw he was hardening
and made no hesitation about proposing that in another day or two we
should proceed upon our journey.

I will not weary the reader by taking him with us over beaten ground. We
stopped at Siena, Cortona, Orvieto, Perugia and many other cities, and
then after a fortnight passed between Rome and Naples went to the
Venetian provinces and visited all those wondrous towns that lie between
the southern slopes of the Alps and the northern ones of the Apennines,
coming back at last by the S. Gothard. I doubt whether he had enjoyed
the trip more than I did myself, but it was not till we were on the point
of returning that Ernest had recovered strength enough to be called
fairly well, and it was not for many months that he so completely lost
all sense of the wounds which the last four years had inflicted on him as
to feel as though there were a scar and a scar only remaining.

They say that when people have lost an arm or a foot they feel pains in
it now and again for a long while after they have lost it. One pain
which he had almost forgotten came upon him on his return to England, I
mean the sting of his having been imprisoned. As long as he was only a
small shop-keeper his imprisonment mattered nothing; nobody knew of it,
and if they had known they would not have cared; now, however, though he
was returning to his old position he was returning to it disgraced,