BIOGEAPHY. 29 



feeling. But, unfortunately, the idea never entered my 

 mind at the time. I had no other motives than those of 

 easy -walking and self-enjoyment. The affair which caused 

 the talk took place as follows : — 



" We had arrived at Baccano in the evening, and whilst 

 we were at tea, I proposed to our excellent friend Mr. 

 Fletcher, who had joined us at Cologne, that we should 

 leave the inn at four the next morning on foot to Eome, 

 and secure lodgings for the ladies, who would follow us 

 in the carriage after a nine-o'clock breakfast. Having 

 been accustomed to go without shoes month after month 

 in the rugged forests of Guiana, I took it for granted that 

 I could do the same on the pavement of his Holiness Pope 

 Gregory the Sixteenth, never once reflecting that some 

 fifteen years had elapsed from the time that I could go 

 barefooted with comfort and impunity ; during the interval, 

 however, the sequel will show that the soles of my feet had 

 undergone a considerable alteration. 



"We rose at three the morning after, and having put a 

 shoe and a sock or half-stocking into each pocket of my 

 coat, we left the inn at Baccano for Eome just as the hands 

 of our watches pointed to the hour of four. Mr. Fletcher, 

 having been born in North Britain, ran no risk of injuring 

 his feet by an act of imprudence. The sky was cloudless 

 and the morning frosty, and the planet Veniis shone upon 

 us as though she had been a little moon. 



" Whether the severity of the frost, which was more than 

 commonly keen, or the hardness of the pavement, or perhaps 

 both conjoined, had deprived my feet of sensibility, I had 

 no means of ascertaining ; but this is certain, I went on 

 merrily for several mUes without a suspicion of anything 

 being wrong, until we halted to admire more particularly 

 the transcendent splendour of the morning planet, and then 

 I saw blood on the pavement ; my right foot was bleeding 



