Asvnodeus and the Incognito. 517 



Moifena. 1 contemplated for a few instants that wretched abode, and 

 was horror-stricken in seeing several human beings buried alive in 

 small cells, separated from each other, and showing in their emaciated 

 countenances striking marks of their mental and bodily sufferings. 

 Those dungeons received a faint light by a little aperture guarded 

 with strong iron grates, through which one of the nearest relations is 

 allowed every three months to communicate with the prisoner in the 

 presence of two policemen. " But that is worse than the famous 

 Spanish Inquisition/' observed I. " And so it ought to be," said As- 

 modeus, "since political inquisitors are a great deal worse than religious 

 ones. Nay, I must also tell you, that those victims of absolutism are 

 every month forced to make revelations of their supposed political ac- 

 complices, and, as they cannot make any, they are brutally tortured 

 with the strappado.* However, I am sure that I have shown to you 

 enough of Modena to prevent you from ever coming to live in it 

 during the present state of things. Now we will sail for Naples, where, 

 if you like, we will take our dinner." On hearing this intimation, I 

 was at first highly pleased, because I ardently wished to revisit a city 

 where, in the spring of life, I had spent my happiest days ; but, a few 

 minutes after, the sweet recollection of the past and the bitter certainty 

 of the present contrasted so much in my mind, that I became melan- 

 choly and thoughtful, and sunk into a profound desponding silence ; 

 I was however awakened from this short lethargy by Asmodeus, who, 

 having rudely shaken me, said, " What is the matter with you now ?" 

 " Alas ! Asmodeus," replied I, " pity my despondency, for I have 

 experienced the truth of that beautiful sentence of the amorous Fran- 

 cesca di Rimini : 



" Nessun maggior dolore, 



Che rieordarsi del tempo felice 



Nella miseria." 



"Pish!" quoth my infernal friend, with a merry and encouraging 

 Took ; "away with all dull cares! Follow my advice'; think not of the 

 past, because, as Terence justly says, ' factum infectum fieri nequit ;'" 

 make the best use you can of the present, and don't be much per- 

 plexed about futurity, for ' what must happen will happen,' do 

 what you may. Therefore, cheer up." " I admire the soundness 

 of your counsel, but you know that I have not much of a philoso- 

 pher in me," said I to Asmodeus. " Aye, aye, but you must be a 

 philosopher," responded the devil, *' if you wish to live at all 

 comfortably amongst your fellow-creatures. Nay, you ought to 

 imitate Democritus, and laugh at every thing. But now I engage 

 you to contemplate the unrivalled view of the bay of Naples. Look 

 down," continued Asmodeus ; u that small island beneath us is Capri. 

 There Tiberius spent the last seven years of his life in degrading 

 voluptuousness and infamous cruelty. Now that city on your right 

 hand, which forms the point of the bay, is Sorrento, justly renowned 

 for having been the birth-place of the immortal Torquato Tasso, 



* The Strappado is an instrument of punishment employed to extort from supposed 

 offenders the confession of their crimes and associates. The hands of the offender are 

 tied behind his back ; he is raised into the air by means of a rope, and then is allowed to 

 fall suddenly to the ground, which causes the dislocation of his shoulder bones, and a 

 dreadful torment. 



