146 SPOKTS AND ANECDOTES. 



which were really fairly large and airy for such a 

 situation, from having a quantity of long straw laid 

 down under the carpets to keep them from wearing 

 out were amazingly infested by fleas. There were 

 large fleas, and little fleas, and lesser fleas to bite 

 them, and lesser fleas, and lesser fleas, and fleas ad 

 infinitum. In fact, the flea of the " Eternal City " was 

 fairly rampant in the Contrada di Maria di Fiori. 

 But the town was full of visitors ; there were but few 

 suites of apartments that were not engaged ; other 

 people put up with all kinds of stinks, and fleas ; I 

 had come to Rome with my family, and when at Rome 

 I must do as Rome does, so there was nothing for it 

 but to make the best of matters. 



I had not been long there before I had a great 

 hankering after snipe, wild fowl, and so forth, and 

 I soon made arrangements with a certain man, a wood 

 merchant, by name Ciceroica, to hire a pony and small 

 kind of gig to drive to places to shoot. Also, through 

 the advice of my courier I made the acquaintance 

 of two brothers, who were locksmiths, or some kind 

 of engineers, who were devoted to la caccia y and who 

 possessed an old Joe Manton gun that had been trans- 

 mogrified by one of them from flint and steel to copper 

 cap, and of which he was most immensely proud. 



