82 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Dogberry, come by nature. The result has been suf- 

 ficiently successful in one case at least, where the 

 hero has been rewarded by finding a notable and 

 buxom housewife in the nymph of his choice. But 

 since this holocaust of Englishmen occurred, it has 

 been considered right to say that the Capri women 

 are beautiful, an opinion enthusiastically indorsed by 

 a recent traveller, 1 who describes the Capriote girls 

 as resembling a procession of virgin queens. Such 

 elevated expressions can scarcely be applied to our 

 Marias, though among them ranks a family of three 

 generations, as good an example of race and blood 

 and handsome healthfulness as could be found in any 

 class. Old Maria Frederica is seventy, she says. I 

 fear I very much fear that Eaffaelo, who is ugly 

 as Satan, is the youngest of her sons ; but the ques- 

 tion has not been subjected to rigorous proof. She 

 herself is as handsome an old witch as any painter 

 could wish for ; a witch benevolent if such a thing 

 could be a benign sibyl, who has taken divination 

 and prophecy in hand in order to wish with authority 

 all manner of good things to her clientele. Xo tints 

 that can be described by ink, and few that the richer 

 palette boasts, could express the rich ruddy russet 

 brown, all lighted up and sweetened with the crimson 

 of pure blood and perfect health, of this old woman's 

 face ; and to see her rushing up the long steep stony 

 stairs Avhich are the popular substitute for roads in 

 1 ' A "Winter in the Two Sicilies,' by Julia Kavanagh. 



