PREFACE. 



vii 



Having begun the " Autobiography " in the 

 first volume, there seems a kind of necessity to 

 continue it in the second ; although I have not 

 yet made up my mind whether I did right or 

 wrong to take the subject in hand at all. If I 

 have erred in one instance, I equally err in 

 another, and I must make up my mind to receive 

 additional reproof. Cervantes says, " A nuevo 

 pecado, penitencia nueva," For new sins* there 

 must be a new penance. 



Although I cannot expect that the description 

 of what I saw in the cathedral at Naples will 

 suit the taste of every English reader, I beg 

 to state, that my account of the miracle which 

 took place is most scrupulously true. I went 

 thither with my sisters-in-law expressly from 

 Rome to witness that, which has been the talk 

 of the world for many centuries ; and I took 

 the journey, not so much to gratify my own 

 curiosity as to have an opportunity of giving a 

 faithful description of all that I should see 



A 4 



