woods and fields he had often defiled with every abominable wickedness and crime, at last thou openedst thine eyes to punish him: to you, late though you might deem it, his punishment was a just and due atonement.'

Words fail to paint the glories of Italian sunset as seen from the Villa Barberini.

'Various as the Campagna is in outline, it is quite as various in colour, reflecting every aspect of the sky, and answering every touch of the seasons. Day after day it shifts the slide of its wondrous panorama of changeful pictures-now tender in the fresh green and flower-flush of spring-now golden in the matured richness of summer-and now subdued and softened into purple-browns in the autumn and winter. Silent and grand, with shifting opal hues of blue, violet, and rose, the mountains look upon the plain. Light clouds hide and cling to their airy crags, or drag along them their trailing shadows. Looking down from the Alban Hill one sees in the summer noons wild thunder-storms, with sloping spears of rain and flashing blades of lightning, charge over the plain and burst here and there among the ruins, while all around the full sunshine basks upon the Campagna, and trembles over the mountains. Towards twilight the landscape is transfigured in a blaze of colour-the earth seems fused in a fire of sunset-the ruins are of beaten gold-the meadows and hollows are as crucibles where delicate rainbows melt into every tone and gradation of colour-a hazy and misty splendour floats 'over the shadows, and earth drinks in the glory of the heavens. Then softly a grey veil is drawn over the plain, the shadow creeps up the mountain-side, the purples deepen, the fires of sunset fade away into cold ashes-and sunset is gone almost while we speak. The air grows chill, and in the hollows and along the river steal long white snakes of mist-fires from the stubble begin to show here and there-the sky's deep orange softens slowly into a glowing citron, with tinges of green, then refines into paler yellows, and the great stars begin to look out from the soft deep-blue above. Then the Campagna is swallowed up in dark, and chilled with damp and creeping winds.'-Story, 'Roba di Roma,' i. 324.

Close to the entrance of the villa is the town-gate of Castel Gandolfo (Albergo Durante, with good view of the lake), the favourite summer residence of the Popes for more than two hundred and fifty years, and the only portion of their property outside the Vatican walls, left untouched since the unification of Italy. The place was the fortress of the Gandolfi family in the twelfth century, when Otho Gandolfi was Senator of Rome. In 1218 it passed to the Savelli, who held it for four hundred years, triumphantly defying all attempts to wrest it from them. In 1596 it was raised into a duchy for Bernardino Savelli by Sixtus V., but poverty obliged him to sell the property to the government for 150,000 scudi, a great sum in those days. Clement VIII., by a decree of 1604, incorporated it with the temporal domain of the Holy See, and included it expressly in the bull of Pius V. de non infeudandis bonis Ecclesiae. It was reserved for Urban VIII. (Barberini) in 1624 to adopt it as a residence, and to build the palace from designs of Carlo Maderno, Urban came every Bartolommeo Breccioli, and Domenico Castelli. year to Castel Gandolfo, and a large number of his Bulls are dated from hence. The pontifical palace was enlarged by Alexander VII. (Chigi), and completed by Clement XIII. The interior is furnished in the simplest manner and is little worth visiting. Pius IX. spent part of each summer here, before the invasion; and every afternoon saw him riding on his white mule in the old avenues or on the

terraced paths above the lake, followed by his cardinals-a most picturesque and mediaeval scene. But the great interest of the site is that it occupies that of Alba Longa, long thought to have been situated across the lake at Palazzuolo. Outside its gate toward Rome has been discovered an extensive ancient cemetery buried under six feet of volcanic deposit, from which have been extracted numbers of hut-urns, and early votive pottery; mostly imported.

The Church of S. Thomas of Villanuova, close to the palace, was built 1661, by Bernini, for Alexander VII. The altar-piece is by Pietro da Cortona.

Alba was destroyed (traditionally) by Tullus Hostilius, who removed its inhabitants to Rome, and established them on the Coelian. It formed the religious metropolis of the towns of Latium before the building of Rome. Its foundation is ascribed by the Latin poets to Ascanius, and its name to the white sow of Aeneas. It is probable, however, that the name Alba is some early tribal word signifying 'water.' A name for the Tiber was Albula (cf. Elbe).

'Ex quo ter denis urbem redeuntibus annis
Ascanius clari condet cognominis Albam.'

Lycophron (Cassandra, v. 1255) says that the sow was black.

'Livy (lib. i. c. 3) has a passage which is too descriptive of Alba Longa to be omitted: 66 Ascanius, abundante Lavinii multitudine ... novam ipse aliam sub Albano monte condidit; quae ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis, Longa Alba appellata." Dionysius also (lib. i. 66) informs us that the name Longa was added "on account of the shape (тou σxýμαтos) of its ground plan;" Varro, that it was called Longa, "propter loci naturam; and Aurelius Victor, 66 eamque ex formâ, quòd ita in longum porrecta est, Longam cognominavit."-Sir W. Gell. (Cf. however, Journal of Philology, vol. xxvii.: Alba Longa,' by Thomas Ashby, jun.)

It is a beautiful walk or drive back to Albano, through the Galleria di Sotto, shaded by huge ilexes which were planted by Urban VIII. (1623-44). These gigantic trees, acquainted with one another for centuries, often lean together against the walls as if in earnest conversation; often, faint from old age, they are propped on stone pillars, supported by which they project in dark noble masses of foliage toward the Campagna. At the end of the avenue we come to the lofty brick remains of the so-called Pompey's Tomb, beneath which used to be seen capanne or shepherds' huts of reeds, as described by Virgil. On the opposite side of the Via Appia stands the Villa

C

Altieri, consecrated now to the Italian heart as having been the residence of the self-devoted cardinal of that name, who died a victim during the cholera of 1867.

The disease appeared quite suddenly during the first week in August. At that time Albano was especially crowded with visitors of high and low degree, from the Royal Family of Naples and the principal members of the Roman aristocracy, to the thrifty Jewish salesman from the Ghetto, intent on combining a stroke of business with change of air. On a beautiful Monday afternoon various parties were given in the gardens of the principal villas, and as Albano had always hitherto been exempt from attacks of pestilence, no alarm was felt, though there were already cases of cholera at Rome. Suddenly a cloud, bringing a strange chill, seemed to rise out of the Campagna; cloaks and wraps were brought out for those who were feasting in the gardens, but the chill passed away as quickly as it had come, and was succeeded by great heat. Almost immediately the pestilence began. People were attacked on the garden-seats as they sat. Before morning there were 115 cases and 15 deaths. All who could, fled to Rome and the neighbouring towns. "The prevailing features of the scene were the processions of priests with the consecrated host, litters conveying the sick to the hospital, and carts conveying the dead to the cemetery. The usual agents in the latter operation, being by no means adequate in number to the amount of doleful work thus devolved upon them, were aided by the soldiers of a company of Zouaves, who had been sent to Albano for change of air after recovery from fever, and who arrived opportunely on the very morning when their aid was so much needed. Telegraphic messages were sent to Rome repeatedly in the course of the day, requesting medical aid, instructions, and vehicles. Cardinal Altieri, being bishop of Albano, came out from the capital to encourage the townspeople by his presence, and take the direction of affairs. In the course of the afternoon many people arrived from Rome in a state of great anxiety about their families or relatives, whom they had left at Albano, and whom they were desirous of conveying elsewhere as soon as possible. Means of transport to the capital by the high road became suddenly scarce, and the drivers of omnibuses down to the station availed themselves of the opportunity of exacting double fare from the panic-stricken fugitives who surrounded the vehicles.' At the entrance of the Olmata of Genzano, a cordon was established, and no one was allowed to pass without undergoing fumigation. On the same day the Royal Family of Naples was attacked, some of the servants died, and one of the princes was taken ill.

On the second morning the dead-carts rolled drearily about the town, stopping here and there to take up rude wooden boxes, rather than coffins, for conveyance to the cemetery of the Madonna della Stella. Many of the shops were shut up, their owners having either died or emigrated. Fruitstalls were abolished.' All who could, endeavoured to reach a purer air if possible, but it was already difficult, as the authorities of Ariccia had placed guardiani with guns to prevent any one crossing the great viaduct from Albano, and all the neighbouring towns, except Rome, had drawn the same inextricable cordon.' The attacks of the disease were so sudden that if a carriage containing five fugitives took the way towards Rome, three were frequently dead before it reached the walls of the city.

By the third morning 120 deaths from cholera had occurred in the village of Albano. People fled in every direction. Along the road were families migrating in all sorts of wagons and vehicles: the country farmhouses were resorted to all round, though it was the fever season, and it seemed as if there would soon be none left to kill in Albano. But unfortunately most of the fugitives took away the germ of the malady with them, and died wherever they might chance to have taken refuge.' On the evening of the 8th, the Queen-Dowager of Naples died, after an illness of only four hours' duration, and on the same day the Princess Colonna, having fled to Genzano to the palace of Duke Cesarini, to whom her eldest daughter was engaged, was seized with cholera at luncheon, and died in a few hours.

Meanwhile Cardinal Altieri was unremitting in his attentions to the sick and dying, giving himself too little rest either by night or day, but on the

Friday he was himself seized with the malady, and died on Sunday the 11th. On the same day Mr. John Macdonald, brother of the well-known sculptor, died soon after effecting his escape to Rome. Frightful mortality began amongst the regiment of Zouaves who had so courageously devoted themselves to the dead, and almost all of them perished-chiefly, it is said, because, owing to the rapid succession of deaths, and the impossibility of finding grave-diggers, the corpses buried on the first day in one large grave had to be packed to give more space!

On the 13th the cholera catastrophe at Albano had reached such a degree that the most necessary relations of social existence might be said to be annihilated. With the exception of the Gonfaloniere, who took flight early, all the local authorities were either ill or dead, and the Pope had sent out Monsignor Apolloni, as special commissary, to assume the government of the town. The last of the bakers who had the courage to remain in Albano and carry on his trade died on the 12th, so that to prevent the surviving inhabitants from starving, bread and other provisions had to be sent out from Rome.

After the 14th the cholera began to abate, having carried off more than one-tenth of the population.-From Letters of the Times Correspondent.'

The monument of Cardinal Altieri is the only object of interest in the Duomo, which stands in a small square behind the principal street. It is inscribed:

Ludovicus de Alteriis, Card. S. E.R. Episc. Albanus,

Pastor bonus cum in medium gregem dira saeviente lue advolasset,
praeclarum vitae cursum morte magnanima
consummavit sanctissime,

III Id. Aug. MDCCCLXVII. Vixit annos LXII.

Celebrated among the bishops of Albano was Pietro Aldobrandini (S. Pietro Igneo), who walked through fire at Settimo in 1067, to prove a charge of simony against Pietro di Pavia, bishop of Florence.

The festa of S. Pancrazio-the patron of Albano-is kept here with great solemnity.

From the cathedral issued, at an early hour, a procession whose length almost corresponded to that of the town itself. There were little girls in tinsel finery, with butterfly-wings, intended to represent angels, and chubby little boys who toddled along in the disguise of Carmelite friars, curiously contrasting with the gravity of friars full grown, bearded capuchins, venerable canons, and full-armed soldiers. There was the Gonfaloniere with his two councillors; the local magistracy, in long robes of black silk and velvet lined with silver tissue, with flat black caps, looking not unlike some of Titian's portraits; and another conspicuous group, very different, formed by young girls in long white satin dresses, with veils covering not only the head but the lower part of the face, each attended by a buxom matron in the gayest local costume-a bright-coloured bodice, white linen veil folded square over the brow, and ample folds of muslin round the largely-developed bust, their full-blown charms further set off by a profusion of gold ornaments chiselled in a style resembling those in Etruscan museums-precisely such figures as Pinelli and many other artists have delighted to introduce in genre pictures illustrative of Italian life and scenery. The younger females were those selected to receive small dowries out of a fund appropriated to charity, such donations being annually conferred at the religious seasons in Albano. Next to the female group came about a hundred members of a lay fraternity in their peculiar costume with hoods, carrying large crucifixes and banners painted on both sides with sacred figures life-size, and finally, the principal

group of clergy, the first in dignity supporting under a crimson canopy a bust of silver-gilt containing the skull of S. Pancrazio.'-Hemans, ' Catholic Italy.'

On the right of the main street, on entering the Roman gate, is the Villa Doria, whose grounds, abounding in ancient ilex groves, and in fragments of ruin of imperial date, are of extreme beauty.

L. B. Alberti, the great Architect, writing in 1472, gives a charming impression of life in one of these great villas.

'While every other possession causes work and danger, fear and disappointment, the villa brings a great and honourable advantage; the villa is always true and tried; if you dwell in it at the right time and with love it will not only satisfy you, but add reward to reward. In spring the green trees and the song of birds will make you joyful and hopeful; in autumn a moderate exertion will bring forth fruit a hundredfold; all through the year melancholy will be banished from you. The villa is the spot where good and honest men love to congregate. Nothing secret, nothing treacherous is done here; all see all; here is no need of judges and witnesses, for all are kindly and peaceably disposed to one another. Hasten hither, and flee from the pride of the rich and dishonour of the bad, to the blessed life in the villa!

About two kilometres below the town westward the ruins of the fascinating Castello Savelli mantled in ivy and arbutus crown a conical hill overlooking the plain and the sea, and form a pleasant object for a short excursion. It was taken after a siege in 1436 by the Legate Juliano Ricci for Eugenius IV., and destroyed in 1660, but partly rebuilt by Giulio Savelli. The Savelli continued to be lords of Albano till the middle of the seventeenth century, when tragical circumstances led to their extinction. The young and handsome heir of the house was betrothed to the daughter of the Marchese del Vasto of Naples, who had a dowry of 800,000 crowns. But while waiting for his bride to attain her thirteenth year when the marriage was to be solemnised, he became passionately in love with a beautiful young girl of Albano, of humble but respectable parentage. Her father, fearing the addresses of his young lord, hastened her marriage with one Cristoforo, a vassal of the family. But the young count continuing to persecute her with his attentions, took a house immediately opposite to the married pair, and wrote constantly in the hope of softening the object of his affection. She remained faithful to her husband, to whom she showed all his letters but Cristoforo none the less mistrusted her, and became full of jealousies. One day he borrowed her flounced petticoat (guardinfante) and other attire, and forced her to write a letter to Savelli appointing an assignation, persuading her that he only intended to humiliate him by a disappointment.

Savelli arrived at the nocturnal rendezvous and was received by the disguised Cristoforo, who shot him, cut his throat, and dragged the corpse to the garden in front of the Savelli palace, where he left it. On the discovery of the murder all the inhabitants of Albano were shut up in their houses to prevent flight. Cristoforo, however, had made good his escape, but his innocent wife and all her family were arrested, and put to torture in the hope of extorting the whereabouts of the fugitive, of which they were really ignorant.