1832.] The Poriote Doctor. 673 



the trunk of an unsquared pine' tree, with some of the smaller branches 

 nailed transversely to it. The only eatables with which our host could 

 furnish us, were eggs, salted curds, made of goat's milk, and kept in bags 

 made of the skin of the same animal, with the hair inside, black olives, and 

 oil, but these incongruous materials were, by the art of Papa Clement, so 

 harmoniously blended together as to produce a savoury and delicious 

 omelette. We were supplied from an enormous wooden hooped bicker 

 with a diluent called crassee I am unwilling to translate it wine, although 

 it is made from the juice of the grape a beverage having a most iniquitous 

 twang of resin, highly lauded by our host, pronounced by the initiated 

 palates of my comrades to be excellent, but which I was only enabled to 

 swallow by the most powerful efforts. 



Our meal being ended we retired to rest ; I, Kleber, and the Italian, pre- 

 ferring the open terrace, and leaving the upper apartment to be occupied 

 by the rest of our party. I, a soldier of three days standing, indignantly 

 refused the share of his mattrass, which Kleber offered me, and lay down in 

 my capote on the mud roof of the Kaphe. I was surprised to see the phleg- 

 matic German, who was an old campaigner, making his night toilet. After 

 divesting himself of his heavier articles of wearing apparel, he produced a 

 large linen bag, having two smaller ones stitched to its upper corners, very 

 like an ordinary night-gown, " paris componere magn a," except in having 

 no outlet for hands or feet, and in being drawn tightly round the neck by 

 a string. The utility of this garment consisted in its affording an effectual 

 barrier to the inroads of musquitoes, and other annoying insects, but too 

 common in these countries. Having most dexterously sacked himself, he 

 lay down with his beloved boar-knife by his side, and in a short time gave 

 utterance to sounds that spoke very intelligibly both of the potency of the 

 crassee and the soundness of his repose. Kleber had foolishly suspended 

 his wearing apparel upon some pegs in the outer wall of the adjacent 

 apartment. The ludicrous appearance of my German friend had so forcibly 

 recalled to my imagination the apparition in Tom Thumb, and all its con- 

 comitant oddities, that sleep for a time was out of the question. I was 

 just thinking of 



" Here we go up, up, up, 

 And here we go down, down, down," 



when a slight noise at my side caused me to open my eyes, and there I 

 beheld, not certainly a disembodied spirit, but Vlacopolo, the son ofBarba 

 Nicola, our host, with his ear carefully turned towards my ace, endeavour- 

 ing to ascertain if I slept, and I began immediately began to imitate, but at 

 a long distance, the dulcet strains produced by Kleber. His scrutiny was 

 continued for some time, and then I heard him steal cautiously to the side 

 of the Italian, who was submitted to the same examination as myself. I 

 placed one hand on my pistols, which I had retained in my belt, and 

 endeavoured to watch his motions as well as the obscurity occasioned by 

 a clouded moon would permit. He left the Italian, and once more 

 approached me ; as I was satisfied that his object was robbing, and not 

 personal violence, I felt no fears either for myself or friends ; he again 

 stooped down to listen to my breathing; I suddenly made a clutch at him 

 and shouted aloud to my comrades : the miscreant slipped from my 

 grasp like a lump of wet soap, and jumped from the terrace into the street. 

 I started to my feet and followed him as fast as I could, but the darkness 

 of the night, my ignorance of the localities, and, perhaps, his superior 

 agility, favoured his escape. 



