stians, a glorifying and uplifted drive, a drive worthy
of remembrance for ever. The moon has shone on but few like it though
she is old; the lake of Bolsena has glittered beneath none like it
since the Etruscans here unbended after the solemnities of a triumph.
It broke my vow to pieces; there was not a shadow of excuse for this
use of wheels: it was done openly and wantonly in the face of the wide
sky for pleasure. And what is there else but pleasure, and to what
else does beauty move on? Not I hope to contemplation! A hideous
oriental trick! No, but to loud notes and comradeship and the riot of
galloping, and laughter ringing through old trees. Who would change
(says Aristippus of Pslinthon) the moon and all the stars for so much
wine as can be held in the cup of a bottle upturned? The honest man!
And in his time (note you) they did not make the devilish deep and
fraudulent bottoms they do now that cheat you of half your liquor.

Moreover if I broke my vows (which is a serious matter), and if I
neglected to contemplate the heavens (for which neglect I will confess
to no one, not even to a postulate sub-deacon; it is no sin; it is a
healthy omission), if (I say) I did this, I did what peasants do. And
what is more, by drinking wine and eating pig we proved ourselves no
Mohammedans; and on such as he is sure of, St Peter looks with a
kindly eye.

Now, just at the very entry to Bolsena, when we had followed the
lovely lake some time, my driver halted and began to turn up a lane to
a farm or villa; so I, bidding him good-night, crossed a field and
stood silent by the lake and watched for a long time the water
breaking on a tiny shore, and the pretty miniatures of waves. I stood
there till the stars came out and the moon shone fully; then I went
towards Bolsena under its high gate which showed in the darkness, and
under its castle on the rock. There, in a large room which was not
quite an inn, a woman of great age and dignity served me with fried
fish from the lake, and the men gathered round me and attempted to
tell me of the road to Rome, while I in exchange made out to them as
much by gestures as by broken words the crossing of the Alps and the
Apennines.

Then, after my meal, one of the men told me I needed sleep; that there
were no rooms in that house (as I said, it was not an inn), but that
across the way he would show me one he had for hire. I tried to say
that my plan was to walk by night. They all assured me h