ult of bodily infirmities. His ideas, I am told,
have much weight with the fair doctoress; and in the lampoons of the day
the new constitution is said to be the offspring of their amours, and to
have inherited its father's deformity.

The company presently withdrawing, my hostess pressed me to remain. She
was eager for news from France, spoke admiringly of the new
constitution, and recited in a moving manner an Ode of her own
composition on the Fall of the Bastille. Though living so retired she
makes no secret of her connection with the Duke; said he had told her of
his conversation with me, and asked what I thought of his plan for
draining the marsh of Pontesordo. On my attempting to reply to this in
detail, I saw that, like some of the most accomplished of her sex, she
was impatient of minutiae, and preferred general ideas to particular
instances; but when the talk turned on the rights of the people I was
struck by the energy and justice of her remarks, and by a tone of
resolution and courage that made me to say to myself: "Here is the hand
that rules the state."

She questioned me earnestly about the state of affairs in France, begged
me to lend her what pamphlets I could procure, and while making no
secret of her republican sympathies, expressed herself with a moderation
not always found in her sex. Of the clergy alone she appeared
intolerant: a fact hardly to be wondered at, considering the persecution
to which she and her father have been subjected. She detained me near
two hours in such discourse, and on my taking leave asked with some show
of feeling what I, as a practical economist, would advise the Duke to do
for the benefit of his people; to which I replied, "Plant turnips,
madam!" and she laughed heartily, and said no doubt I was right. But I
fear all the heads here are too full of fine theories to condescend to
such simple improvements...

4.6.

Fulvia, in the twilight, sat awaiting the Duke.

The room in which she sat looked out on a stone-flagged cloister
enclosing a plot of ground planted with yews; and at the farther end of
this cloister a door communicated by a covered way with the ducal
gardens. The house had formed a part of the convent of the Perpetual
Adoration, which had been sold by the nuns when they moved to the new
buildings the late Duke had given them. A portion had been torn down to
make way for the Marquess of Cerveno's palace, and in the remaining
fragment, a low building wedged b