a good
fellow. But you shall go to England in the spring with me, and
plant Mrs. Hoppner at Berne with her relations for a few months. I
wish you had been here (at Venice, I mean, not the Mira) when Moore
was here--we were very merry and tipsy. He _hated_ Venice, by the
way, and swore it was a sad place.[59]

"So Madame Albrizzi's death is in danger--poor woman! Moore told me
that at Geneva they had made a devil of a story of the
Fornaretta:--'Young lady seduced!--subsequent abandonment!--leap
into the Grand Canal!'--and her being in the 'hospital of _fous_ in
consequence!' I should like to know who was nearest being made
'_fou_,' and be d----d to them I Don't you think me in the
interesting character of a very ill used gentleman? I hope your
little boy is well. Allegrina is flourishing like a pomegranate
blossom. Yours," &c.

[Footnote 59: I beg to say that this report of my opinion of Venice is
coloured somewhat too deeply by the feelings of the reporter.]

* * * * *

LETTER 346. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Venice, November 8. 1819.

"Mr. Hoppner has lent me a copy of 'Don Juan,' Paris edition, which
he tells me is read in Switzerland by clergymen and ladies with
considerable approbation. In the second Canto, you must alter the
49th stanza to

"'Twas twilight, and the sunless day went down
Over the waste of waters, like a veil
Which if withdrawn would but disclose the frown
Of one whose hate is mask'd but to assail;
Thus to their hopeless eyes the night was shown,
And grimly darkled o'er their faces pale
And the dim desolate deep; twelve days had Fear
Been their familiar, and now Death was here.

"I have been ill these eight days with a tertian fever, caught in
the country on horseback in a thunderstorm. Yesterday I had the
fourth attack: the two last were very smart, the first day as well
as the last being preceded by vomiting. It is the fever of the
place and the season. I feel weakened, but not unwell, in the
intervals, except headach and lassitude.

"Count Guiccioli has arrived in Venice, and has presented his
spouse (who had preceded him two months for her health and the
prescriptions of Dr. Aglietti) with a paper of conditions,
regulations of hours and conduct, and mor