compared with
any other city in this part of Italy. When I say _Venice_, I mean
the _Venetians_--the city itself is superb as its history--but the
people are what I never thought them till they taught me to think
so.

"The best way will be to leave Allegra with Antonio's spouse till I
can decide something about her and myself--but I thought that you
would have had an answer from Mrs. V----r.[40] You have had bore
enough with me and mine already.

"I greatly fear that the Guiccioli is going into a consumption, to
which her constitution tends. Thus it is with every thing and every
body for whom I feel any thing like a real attachment;--'War,
death, or discord, doth lay siege to them.' I never even could
keep alive a dog that I liked or that liked me. Her symptoms are
obstinate cough of the lungs, and occasional fever, &c. &c. and
there are latent causes of an eruption in the skin, which she
foolishly repelled into the system two years ago: but I have made
them send her case to Aglietti; and have begged him to come--if
only for a day or two--to consult upon her state.

"If it would not bore Mr. Dorville, I wish he would keep an eye on
E---- and on my other ragamuffins. I might have more to say, but I
am absorbed about La Gui. and her illness. I cannot tell you the
effect it has upon me.

"The horses came, &c. &c. and I have been galloping through the
pine forest daily.

"Believe me, &c.

"P.S. My benediction on Mrs. Hoppner, a pleasant journey among the
Bernese tyrants, and safe return. You ought to bring back a
Platonic Bernese for my reformation. If any thing happens to my
present Amica, I have done with the passion for ever--it is my
_last_ love. As to libertinism, I have sickened myself of that, as
was natural in the way I went on, and I have at least derived that
advantage from vice, to _love_ in the better sense of the word.
_This_ will be my last adventure--I can hope no more to inspire
attachment, and I trust never again to feel it."

[Footnote 39: The Vice-Consul of Mr. Hoppner.]

[Footnote 40: An English widow lady, of considerable property in the
north of England, who, having seen the little Allegra at Mr. Hoppner's,
took an interest in the poor child's fate, and having no family of her
own, offered to adopt and provide for this little