28 BIOGRAPHY. 



pated that the vampire would know better than to try to 

 suck blood from a man who was constantly bleeding 

 himself. 



Besides these accidents by water, he twice suffered 

 severe injuries when travelling by land. 



In 1818, while returning over Mount Cenis, he fancied 

 that the baggage on the top of the carriage was loose, and 

 mounted on the wheel to examine it. Unfortunately his left 

 knee broke the window, and two large pieces of glass ran 

 into it just above the knee-joint. Tn spite of the darkness, 

 he contrived to get out the two pieces of glass, bound up 

 the wound with his cravat, cut off his coat pocket, and had 

 it filled with poultice at the nearest house, and, although 

 repeatedly attacked with fever, he reached Paris and there 

 gained strength to return to England. The knee remained 

 stiff for two years, but by continual exercise without the 

 aid of a walking-stick, the limb recovered its normal flexi- 

 bility. 



The next accident might have been nearly as serious, 

 and is here given in his own words : 



" I had a little adventure on the road from Baccano to 

 Rome not worth relating, but which I deem necessary to 

 be introduced here in order that some of my friends in 

 the latter city, and others in England, may not give me 

 credit for an affair which deserves no credit at all. These 

 good friends had got it into their heads that I had reached 

 Rome after walking barefoot for nearly twenty miles, in 

 order to show my respect and reverence for the sacred 

 capital of the Christian world. Would that my motive 

 had been as pure as represented. The sanctity of the 

 churches, the remains of holy martyrs which enrich them, 

 the relics of canonised saints placed in such profusion 

 throughout them, might well induce a Catholic traveller 

 to adopt this easy and simple mode of showing his religious 



