d being then twelve years old, I was placed for my education
in the Propaganda at Rome.

For an exile who is ardently attached to his country there is no repose.
Forbidden to return to his beloved France, there was no retreat which
could make my father forget his griefs, and he continued as restless and
as unhappy as ever.

Shortly after that I had been placed in the Propaganda, my father fell
in with an old friend, a friend of his youth, whom he had not met with
for years, once as gay and as happy as he had been, now equally
suffering and equally restless. This friend was the Italian Prince
Seravalle, who also had drank deep of the cup of bitterness. In his
youth, feeling deeply the decadence, both moral and physical, of his
country, he had attempted to strike a blow to restore it to its former
splendour; he headed a conspiracy, expended a large portion of his
wealth in pursuit of his object, was betrayed by his associates, and for
many years was imprisoned by the authorities in the Castle of
San Angelo.

How long his confinement lasted I know not, but it must have been a long
while, as in after-times, when he would occasionally revert to his
former life, all incidents he related were for years "when he was in his
dungeon, or in the courtyard prison of the Capitol," where many of his
ancestors had dictated laws to nations.

At last the Prince was restored to freedom, but captivity had made no
alteration in his feelings or sentiments. His love for his country, and
his desire for its regeneration, were as strong as ever, and he very
soon placed himself at the head of the Carbonari, a sect which, years
afterwards, was rendered illustrious by the constancy and sufferings of
a Maroncelli, a Silvio Pellico, and many others.

The Prince was again detected and arrested, but he was not thrown into
prison. The government had been much weakened and the well-known
opinions and liberality of the Prince had rendered him so popular with
the Trasteverini, or northern inhabitants of the Tiber, that policy
forbade either his captivity or destruction. He was sentenced to be
banished for (I think) ten years.

During his long banishment, the Prince Seravalle wandered over various
portions of the globe, and at last found himself in Mexico. After a
residence at Vera Cruz, he travelled into the interior, to examine the
remains of the ancient cities of the Western World; and impelled by his
thirst for knowledge and love of adventure, he