are not used to such fierce political inscriptions, and the police
is all on the alert, and the Cardinal glares pale through all his
purple.

"April 24. 1820. 8 o'clock, P.M.

"The police have been, all noon and after, searching for the
inscribers, but have caught none as yet. They must have been all
night about it, for the 'Live republics--Death to Popes and
Priests,' are innumerable, and plastered over all the palaces: ours
has plenty. There is 'Down with the Nobility,' too; they are down
enough already, for that matter. A very heavy rain and wind having
come on, I did not go out and 'skirr the country;' but I shall
mount to-morrow, and take a canter among the peasantry, who are a
savage, resolute race, always riding with guns in their hands. I
wonder they don't suspect the serenaders, for they play on the
guitar here all night, as in Spain, to their mistresses.

"Talking of politics, as Caleb Quotem says, pray look at the
_conclusion_ of my Ode on _Waterloo_, written in the year 1815,
and, comparing it with the Duke de Berri's catastrophe in 1820,
tell me if I have not as good a right to the character of '_Vates_'
in both senses of the word, as Fitzgerald and Coleridge?

"'Crimson tears will follow yet--'

and have not they?

"I can't pretend to foresee what will happen among you Englishers
at this distance, but I vaticinate a row in Italy; in whilk case, I
don't know that I won't have a finger in it. I dislike the
Austrians, and think the Italians infamously oppressed; and if they
begin, why, I will recommend 'the erection of a sconce upon
Drumsnab,' like Dugald Dalgetty."

[Footnote 72: Of Don Juan.]

* * * * *

LETTER 371. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, May 8. 1820.

"From your not having written again, an intention which your letter
of the 7th ultimo indicated, I have to presume that the 'Prophecy
of Dante' has not been found more worthy than its predecessors in
the eyes of your illustrious synod. In that case, you will be in
some perplexity; to end which, I repeat to you, that you are not to
consider yourself as bound or pledged to publish any thing because
it is _mine_, but always to act according to your own views, or
opinions, or those of your friends; and to be sure that you will in