9.^6
I cannot write, fo mull neftle in this nidus, of fleas and bugs, which they call a bed.-*—«20 miles.
The 16th. So much rain has fallen in the night, that the Adda has rifen too much topermit a carriage to reach the ferry; we waited, therefore, four hours till the waterfunk. This is a circumftance to which a traveller is liable every day in Italy ; for therivers are fo little under command, that a night’s heavy rain will flop him. An impa-tient traveller, waiting on the banks of a river for the water’s flowing, might, by equalgenius, be fet off as v'ell in poetry, as a patient one is reprefented expecting till all waspafled. The environs of the Adda here are fine ; on the fide of the Vaprio, high land,that commands the wooded vale. Arrive, at laft, at Bergamo . I had a letter to Dr.Maironi da Ponte, fecretary of the academy of Bergamo , to whom l went diredtly. Imounted a fteep hill into the city, which is on the top of it, and feart'tied hard for thedoctor ; after,examining feveral ftreets, a lady from a window, who feemed to pity myperplexity (for I had been condufted to three or four ftreets in vain,) informed me, thathe was in the country, —but that if I returned in the morning, I ftiould have a chanceof feeing him. What a black, dirty, {linking, difmal place! I ftared at fome well dreffedpeople I met, wondering what they had to do there; thanking my ftars that I was notan inhabitant of Bergamo ; fooliflfiy^enough, as if it were the brick and mortar of a placethat give felicity, and not the connedtions formed from infancy, and matured by habit.-12 miles.
The 17th. Mount the hill again, in fearch for Signore Maironi; and hearing he hasa brother, to find him, fhould I fail. I repaired to the ftreet where the lady gave meinformation the night before; fhe was luckily at her window, but the intelligence crofsto my wifhes, for both the brothers were in the country ; I need not go to the door, (helaid, for there were no fervants in the houfe. The dufk of the evening in this darktown had laft night veiled the fair incognita, but looking a fecond time now, I found herextremely pretty, with a pair of eyes that (hone in unifon-with fomething better than aftreet of Bergamo . She afked me kindly after my bufmefs, Spero che non e un granmancemento ? words of no import, but uttered with a fweetnefs of voice that renderedthe pooreft monofyllable interefting. I told her, that the bofom rauft be cold, fromwhich her prefence did not banifli all feeling of difappointment. It was impoflible notto fay fomething a little beyond common thanks. She bowed in return; and I thoughtI read in her expreflive eyes, that I had not offended ; I was encouraged to afk the fa-vour of Signore Maironi’s addrefs in the country— Cgh granpiacere ve lo daro. —I tooka card from my pocket; but her v'indow was rather too high to hand it. I looked atthe door : Forzi e aperta.—Credo cloe si, fhe replied. If the reader be an electrician,
■ and have flown a kite in a thunder-ftorm, he will know, that when the atmofphere aroundhim becomes highly eleftric, and his danger increafes, if he do not quickly remove,there is a cobweb l’enfation in the air, as if he was inclofed in an invifible net of the fil-mieft' gofiimer. My atmofphere, at this moment, had fome refemblance to it: I hadtaken two fteps to the door, when a gentleman palling, opened it before me, and floodupon the threfhold. It was the lady’s hufband ; fhe was in the paffage behind, and Iwas in the ftreet before him, fhe faid, Ecco un Signore Ingleje che ha bifogno d’unadirezione a Sig. Maironi. The hufband anfwered politely, that he would give it, and,taking paper and pencil from his pocket, wrote and gave it me. Nothing was ever donefo concifely: I looked at him afkance, and thought him one of the uglieft fellows Ihad ever feen. An-ill-natured by-ftander would have faid, that his prefence preventeda farming from becoming a fentimental traveller. Certain it is, one now and then meets
with