202 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



they are killed by the torreadors with short 

 lances, after a sort of hunt, which affords great 

 diversion to the country people. These Tartar 

 habits, he says, are very opposite to those of the 

 vale of Arno, where every thing has been brought 

 to the extreme of art and civilization. 



I have been so much interested in all these 

 circumstances, that I have sat up very late to 

 write them for you ; and though I have not got 

 through half of them, I will now go to bed like 

 a good girl. One word more : I must add that 

 the shepherds in the neighbourhood of Rome, 

 who resemble Tartars, with their long pikes and 

 wrapped in mantles,, come every evening with 

 their flocks to seek an asylum within the walls 

 of the city ; as they dare not sleep exposed to 

 the noxious air of the adjoining country, where 

 there are no cottages, and where the water even 

 is infected. They take possession of houses and 

 palaces which have been abandoned by the in- 

 habitants, who have been driven into the interior 

 of the city by the malaria. 



To-morrow is the last day of the visit 

 of these charming Lumleys. I shall be very 

 sorry to lose them, for I have liked them better 

 every day. The second has the sweetest voice 

 that can be, and joined in some of our glees, 

 which she easily learned. Once or twice they 

 sang all together for us, in the way they do at 



