s, but I am not so poetical. The eating is
good, and the filth of the people strikes one horribly after being in
Switzerland, the enchanting Switzerland! Yes, there is nature! We have
made a crusade through it, you may think. But now you shall hear about
the journey, and the entrance into 'la bella Italia,' which is yet below
all my expectations. I cannot at all bear these feeble people; I cannot
endure this monk-odor and untruthfulness. We are come direct from the
scenery of Switzerland, from clouds and glaciers, from greatness and
power. We travelled somewhat hastily through the valley of the Rhone;
the weather was gray, but the whole obtained therefrom a peculiar
character. The woods in the lofty ridges looked like heather; the valley
itself seemed like a garden filled with vegetables, vineyards, and green
meadows. The clouds over and under one another, but the snow-covered
mountains peeped forth gloriously from among them, It was a riven
cloud-world which drove past,--the wild chase with which the daylight
had disguised itself. It kissed in its flight Pissevache, a waterfall
by no means to be despised. In Brieg we rested some time, but at two
o'clock in the morning began again our journey over the Simplon. This is
the journey which I will describe to you. Otto and I sat in the coupee.
Fancy us in white blouses, shawl-caps, and with green morocco slippers,
for the devil may travel in slippers--they are painful to the feet.

"We both of us have mustaches! I have seduced Otto. They become us
uncommonly well, and give us a very imposing air; and that is very good
now that we are come into the land of banditti, where we must endeavor
to awe the robbers. Thus travelled we. It was a dark night, and still
as death, as in the moment when the overture begins to an opera. Soon,
indeed, was the great Simplon curtain to be rolled up, and we to behold
the land of music. Immediately on leaving the city, the road began to
ascend; we could not see a hand before us; around us tumbled and roared
the water-courses,--it was as if we heard the pulse of Nature beat.
Close above the carriage passed the white clouds; they seemed like
transparent marble slabs which were slid over us. We had the gray dawn
with us, whilst deep in the valley lay yet the darkness of night; in
an hour's time it began to show itself there among the little wooden
houses.

"It is a road hewn out of the rocks. The giant Napoleon carried it
through the backbone of th