ec cette sauce
on mangerait son pere_.'"

CHAPTER IV. NAPLES: POEMS.

In the bleak weather of this spring, 1842, he was again abroad for a
little while; partly from necessity, or at least utility; and partly, as
I guess, because these circumstances favored, and he could with a good
countenance indulge a little wish he had long had. In the Italian Tour,
which ended suddenly by Mrs. Sterling's illness recalling him, he had
missed Naples; a loss which he always thought to be considerable;
and which, from time to time, he had formed little projects, failures
hitherto, for supplying. The rigors of spring were always dangerous to
him in England, and it was always of advantage to get out of them: and
then the sight of Naples, too; this, always a thing to be done some day,
was now possible. Enough, with the real or imaginary hope of bettering
himself in health, and the certain one of seeing Naples, and catching a
glance of Italy again, he now made a run thither. It was not long after
Calvert's death. The Tragedy of _Strafford_ lay finished in his desk.
Several things, sad and bright, were finished. A little intermezzo of
ramble was not unadvisable.

His tour by water and by land was brief and rapid enough; hardly above
two months in all. Of which the following Letters will, with some
abridgment, give us what details are needful:--

"_To Charles Barton, Esq., Leamington_.
"FALMOUTH, 25th March, 1842.

"MY DEAR CHARLES,--My attempts to shoot you flying with my paper pellets
turned out very ill. I hope young ladies succeed better when they happen
to make appointments with you. Even now, I hardly know whether you
have received a Letter I wrote on Sunday last, and addressed to The
Cavendish. I sent it thither by Susan's advice.

"In this missive,--happily for us both, it did not contain a
hundred-pound note or any trifle of that kind,--I informed you that I
was compelled to plan an expedition towards the South Pole; stopping,
however, in the Mediterranean; and that I designed leaving this on
Monday next for Cadiz or Gibraltar, and then going on to Malta, whence
Italy and Sicily would be accessible. Of course your company would be
a great pleasure, if it were possible for you to join me. The delay in
hearing from you, through no fault of yours, has naturally put me out a
little; but, on the whole, my plan still holds, and I shall leave this
on Monday for Gibraltar,