18 



THE CIVETTA, 



we left the Eternal City on the 20th of July, 

 1842, for the land that gave me birth. 



At Genoa, the custom-house officers appeared 

 inclined to make me pay duty for my owls. 

 " Gentlemen," said I, " these birds are not 

 for traffic ; neither are they foreigners : they 

 are from your own dear country, la bellis- 

 sima Italia, and I have already strong reason 

 to believe that they are common in Genoa, so 

 that they can well be spared." The custom- 

 house officers smiled as I said this, and then 

 they graciously allowed me and my owls to 

 proceed to the hotel, without abstracting a 

 single farthing from my pocket. 



We passed through the sunny regions of 

 Piedmont with delight, and over the snowy 

 summit of Mount St. Gothard without any 

 loss, and thence we proceeded northward, 

 through Lucerne to Basle. Here, Monsieur 

 Passavant, the banker, a wormwood-looking 

 money-monger, seemed determined that myself 

 and my owls, and the rest of my family, should 

 advance no farther. Having lost my letter of 

 credit in the late shipwreck, and there not 

 having been time, after my return to Rome 

 and my short stay there, to receive another 



