The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-18 00:00:00

[STAMPED, Id. ADDMOIAL.]

Aa I neared a suspicious spot called Giuglianello,
situated on the brink of a picturesque ravine, and
near a small lake called by the same name, and
about half-way between Velletri and Cori, on
rounding a corner I suddenly heard the sharp
crack of what sounded like a rifle, and saw a little
puff of blue smoke curling into the air and con-
trasting against the fresh green of a bed of willows
and oziers. Feeling a little uneasy, although I did
not hear the whizz of even a distant bullet, it was
some relief to me to catch sight of four ducks, de-
scribing gyrations in the air, and evidently about
to settle again in the ozier bed. The figure of a
harmless sportsman soon became visible.
Leaving my horse at the farm buildings of
Giuglianello, I proceeded, in the post carriage
which plies between Cori and Velletri, up the steep
ascent which leads to the former place. At Cori
the arrival of a stranger at such a period seemed
to create no small excitement, but I could not make
out that I had incurred any real danger in visiting
the place, for the last real fact I could get at con-
necting Cori with the brigands was that just a
year ago the able-bodied population had turned
out in considerable numbers to give the brigands
chase, and killed one of them as they would have
done a wolf. While 1 was thinking of brigands,
and at the same time admiring the huge blocks of
the Cyclopian wall, piled together without any
hewing, and of every angular shape, pentagons,
hexagons, heptagons, octagons—in short every sort
of agora, and a complete cubic illustration of the
whole of Euclid, definitions, axioms, and postulates
included—l was not a little astonished, when half
expecting to get my throat cut, to hear the welcome
sound of a squeaky piano, making such music as
is only too familiar to the ears of sojourners at
English watering-places as they saunter on the
esplanade after breakfast. In a house actually
built into the Temple of Castor and Pollux, I found
a tailor's shop, with the well-known fashionable and
coloured cuts of faultlessly made and appareled
youths and dandies hanging on the wall.
Leaving Cori, after a surprisingly excellent
lunch, consisting of asparagus-omelette (a most
delicate dish) and a piece of fish, freshly taken out
of the sea at Porto d'Anzio (25 miles off across the
plain, of which and the Mediterranean and islands
dotting it you get a splendid view from the Doric
temple of Hercules, crowning the brink of the
ridge, on which the upper town of Cori is built), I set
off on my return to Giuglianello in the post carriage,
which to make up for the delay of half an hour in
waiting for me, and perhaps with a thought of pos-
sible brigands in the imagination of the driver, went
down part of the descent absolutely at full gallop,
thereby subjecting me, I suspect, to much the
greatest risk I have run, so far, of coming to an
untimely and violent end. Before reaching
Giuglianello we took an escort on board, as the
Yankees say, consisting of two rustic guards in
uniform, who looked warranted to run away on the
first intimation of danger.
Remounting myhorse at Giuglianello I took leave,
of my solitary companion of the post-carriage, and
having taken the precaution to give out previously
in a loud tone of voice that I was going to ride back
to Velletri, struck into a cross-country track,
bound for Monte Fortino and &qui. Against both
places, as being unmistakeably dangerous, I had
been freely warned on all sides, but having found
out already how absolutely unfounded were the
rumours of incurring certaindanger in other places,
only slightly doubting, I made my way through
open fields and shady Devonshire-like lanes, along
the foot of the northern extremity of the Volscians
hills. At the point of the shoulder, and where you
turn the corner to get into the Valley of the Sacoo—
the valley, which is that gap between the Alban and
Aequo-Hernican hills, the entrance of which is
commanded on the east by Frigidum Pneneste,
and on the west by Monte Porzio, and is so conspi-
cuous and familiar to all wanderers in the Roman
Campagna—stands in a grand and commanding
position on the summit of a ridge that infamous
" pease," Monte Fortino, where, as an Irishman
would say, three menof everytwo are notoriousbri-
sands. Throwing suspicious glances up at its dizzy
height, I rode past at a brisk trot, and soon left it seve-
ral miles behind me. Gainingthe so-called " Strada
Trajana" at a point about a mile distant from the
Segni Railway station, I mounted by its winding
length for upwards of an hour, before I even caught
sight of the eagle's nest, where I was to pass the
night. Never in this world was Saturday even-
t into which,whichmet my mg
gaze Pas I approspectmurehed thefutol than that
Segni,
from all sides, long lines of men, women, and chil-
dren, mules and asses, were streaming up the moun-
tain, down the mountain, and along its side, looking
in the distance so tiny that they seemed like
strings of ants.

THE WENT INDIA MAIL STEAMERR.—PLYMOUTH,
APRIL 17.—The Plymouth Chamber of Commerce has re-
ceived • letter to-day from the Lords of the Treasury
announcing that their lordships have selected Plymouth
as the western port of call for the West India Mail
steamers on their homeward pampa For the present
the steamers are not, however, to call at the western port
on their outward passages. —Reuter's Tdegreint.
Lord Milton and Mr. H. J. Beaumont last week
received a requisition from • number of their constituents
to support the government measure of reform. Mr. lkwu-
mont wrote as follows :—" lam in receipt of your letter,
dated April t and am lorry I can give you no hopes of
acceding to what I may term your most unreasonable
request. At the same time, I may add, nothing would
give me more pleasure than furthering, to the utmost ex
tent in my power, any honest, and at the same time liberal
measure of reform, from whatever party it may come." I

[TWOPENCE

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