88 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
the Hotel de Vienne. If there he any worse in Athens, it 
must be very bad indeed. The price for a small room was 
three francs a day, and no reduction made for vermin. I had 
limited myself to four, all expenses of living included; and 
the consequence was that while I remained in Athens, being 
obliged to pay five cents out of the franc for domestic service, 
my means of support were reduced to fifteen cents a day. I 
breakfasted generally on bread and grapes, dined on grapes 
and bread, and supped on bread and grapes again. It agreed 
with me wonderfully. Never in my life did I feel stronger, 
or more capable of enduring fatigue. I had some letters of 
introduction to present on the day\after our arrival; and it 
was not until the following morning that I had the pleasure 
of meeting my friend Doctor Mendoza. He shook hands with 
me very cordially, and said he liked Athens; he thought he 
would stay some time ; the Orient was a very good hotel; he 
was very comfortable at the Orient; he had seen the Acropolis, 
the temple of Theseus, and some few other ruins, but the 
Orient was the best thing he had found in Athens ; the din¬ 
ners were excellent; he liked the way the dinners were cook¬ 
ed and served up; the Madam was “indispose;” and alto¬ 
gether he thought he would repose for a week or two at the 
Orient, as it was “ imposs” to find such comfortable quarters 
on board a steamer. 
Having studiously avoided, up to the present writing, all 
flights of fancy on the subject of the classics, I shall endeavor 
to suppress the inspiration derived from a ramble on the 
Acropolis. It is not for an unpretending General in the Bob- 
tail Militia to attempt a description of the glorious old Par¬ 
thenon, the ruined temples, the columns and cornices that 
lie broken and scattered upon that classic spot, the view of 
naked and desolate hills, with all their glowing associations, 
wherever the eye is cast; or to indulge in poetic reflections 
upon the fall of Greece from its Attic eminence to its present 
state of barbarism. A few practical facts, however, from 
recollection, may be of interest to the reader. The Acropolis 
is a rock or pile of rocks, some three or four hundred feet in 
height, crowned with the ruins of the principal temples of 
