1829.J a MeditcrraneaH Sketch. 19 



generation to generation, to the elder of the Ruspis. I have not yet had 

 occasion to make the same honourable use of it as my ancestors ; foi' 

 they let us alone now, thank Heaven ! and the Ruspis are not of a race 

 to begin ; though, if provoked, for the honour of the family, this fusil 



here- Clorinde, my niece, can tell you that. When Petrino chose to 



deny that he had been twice seen at midnight going under her window, 

 I said to him, ' Petrino, take care ! Your kinsmen are rich ; they often 

 come to the mountains to visit their flocks : I may meet them.' — Well, 

 eight days afterwards, Petrino's cousin came back with a bullet in his 

 shoulder." 



" His cousin !" exclaimed Alexis ; " but he had not offended you ; it 

 was Petrino who deserved the bullet." 



" He might think himself well off; had it not been adroitly done, the 

 aim I took at the shoulder might have struck the heart." 



" But you could have killed Petrino without wounding his cousin, 

 who had done notliing to you." 



" Yes ! — and, had Petrino died, who would have espoused the girl ? 

 No, no ! that settled every thing at once. All Petrino's kinsmen assem- 

 bled, and the marriage was concluded on the spot." 



" And your niece — is she happy ?" 



" Very : and Petrino never lets a day pass without thanking me ; — for, 

 after all, if it was not that I had patience, I should never have waited 

 for his cousin in this way : I might have got rid of half-a-dozen in tlie 

 mean time." 



" Your vengeances are fearful !" 



" There is no occasion to provoke them !" 



Thus conversing, the travellers arrived at Bastilica, and were con- 

 ducted by their guide to the person for whom they had received a letter 

 of recommendation, at San Fiorenzo. 



It was a mere chance that had brought Lord Charles and the Count 

 Alexis into Corsica. Embarked at Barcelona in an English sloop for 

 IMalta, a contrary gale drove them into the Gulf of San Fiorenzo. Lord 

 Charles, curious to know something of the country which had given 

 birth to a man with whose name all Europe resounded, proposed to 

 TalzikofF to cross through Corsica, and re-embark at Ajaccio. The Russ 

 agreed. Both young, eager for excitement, -well read, and connected 

 by the warmest friendship, they promised themselves much pleasvu-e from 

 this pedestrian tour over ground so rarely described. 



Douglass, a Scotchman, imagined himself respiring his native air 

 amid the mountains of Corsica, and its islanders, so grave, so proud, 

 and so manly. 



" Yes, here is a people," said he to his friend — " here are physiognomies 

 truly national, and not of that ordinary stamp which gives the same faces 

 the likeness to each other, among the continental peasantry, that we find 

 among a flock of sheep. If we except the colour of the hair, and perhaps 

 some slight alteration of complexion, you will find that the countenance is 

 every where alike, and that, from time immevnorial, those good folks have 

 never taken the trouble to conceive an original thought. The continental 

 plebeian has so long been the mere machine of his seigneur, that it will 

 take centuries to give him courage to act on his own impulses. But here, 

 as in Scotland, the frequency of civil war has compelled the high to 

 consult the feelings of the low. They may seduce opinion, but not com- 

 mand it : each man has the right of comparison and choice. And from 



D 2 



