124 OUR DOGS. 



open it the poor little wanderer had been chased away 

 again and gone down the street. After a while some very 

 polite French soldiers picked her up in the Piazza di Spagna, 

 a great public square near our dwelling, to get into which 

 we were obliged to go down some one or two hundred 

 steps. We could fancy our poor Flo, frightened and pant- 

 ing, flying like a meteor down these steps, till she was 

 brought up by the arms of a soldier below. 



Glad enough were we when the polite soldier brought 

 her back to our doors ; and one must say one good thing 

 for French s^diers all the world over, that they are the 

 pleasantest-tempered and politest people possible, so very 

 tender-hearted towards all sorts of little defenceless pets, so 

 that our poor runaway could not have fallen into better 

 hands. 



After this, we were careful to hold her more firmly when 

 she had her little nervous starts and struggles in riding 

 about Rome. 



One day we had been riding outside of the walls of the 

 city, and just as we were returning home we saw coming 

 towards us quite a number of splendid carriages with 

 prancing black horses. It was the Pope and several of 

 his cardinals coming out for an afternoon airing. The car- 

 riages stopped, and the Pope and cardinals all got out to 

 take a little exercise on foot, and immediately all carriages 

 that were in the way drew to one side, and those of the 



