Litchfield enquirer., 1879-12-11
From the Saturday Magazine.l HOW WE GOT AWAY FROM
 NAPLES.
A STORY OF THE TIME OF KING BoMBA.

Among all our acquaintance, there was no one of whom we saw so much as Pulteney. 1 He was young captain in the navy, and had already distinguished himself in such work as there was to do in those piping times of peace | when there was nobody but the Chinese to quarrel with. Those who saw him in action said that there was no officer more careful of i his men, But, however that might be, can only say that when 1 knew him in Rome he was as wild fellow as you would wish to see. He was always screwing unfortunate 1 Roman hacks at impossible posts and rails, and, strange to say, he used somehow to get them over. believe he required a certain amount of danger to steady him, and felt 1t l necessary to hazard his neck two or tL4'ee l times a day. 1 remember we once went up to the top of St. Peters all together. When we were inside the ball, the conversation turned on the illumination, which was produced by sending up men to suck little iron saucers ot pitch all over the building. They used to say that two or three men were killed every year by falling off it, 'butchered to make Roman holiday" and that the pope benevolently or dered the sacrament to be administered to all of them before they went up. Upon this Pull teney took sudden fancy to climb to the very top of the cross, and, in spite of all we could say, up he went When at the top, he stood upright, folded his arms, and looked over Italy in general. He then took out an old en- velope, with his address and a queens head upon it, stuck it into chink of the cross, and formally took possession of the spot in the name of Her Britannia Majesty. He then slid down again in safety, to our great relief. elf the pope reads this, sincerely hope he
 will not think it necessary to send any one up to take down the humiliatiHg document.) 1 The pleasantest season comes to an end,
 even in Rome. Easter was over, Pulteney had gone to Malta, and Egerton and l were thipkqg f wc o5eed to return 10 England. Egerton remained to finish his tour. Since my return, had had one letter from him, announcing his immediate depart ure from Rome. 1 wrote to him at Naples, as he requested, but got no reply. This did not strike me as anything extraordinary. He had sometimes talked of going on to the East, if he met any pleasant companions at Naples But
 when | received letter from Egerton's father
 in England, asking if had heard anything about Harry, felt at once foreboding of evil. knew how careful he was >to avoid causing anxiety to his father, and his silence
 for a period of two months seemed inexplica- ble on any other supposition. Like myself,
 Mr. Egerton had heard nothing of him since he left Rome.
 We wrote at once to the Embassy at Naples and to the bankers, but without success. His l no money at Naples 1 immediately went
 down to Valleyfeld, and offered to go to Italy to make inquiries about him.
 Poor MT. Egerton! He had little expected
 to be again stretched on the rack of this tough
 world, and his habits had little prepared him l for the awful trial that had come up on him.
 He was in a state of mind such as do not
 wish to describe, and hope never to see again.
 However, he had determined himself to start instantlx ins for ItalY: and gratefully accepted my | offer to accompany him. | Our journey was a sad one, and all the sad | der to me from the contrast it offered to the one had taken along the same road in the previous year, when every part of the way had been lighted by the brilliant fancy and
 unfagging spirits of poor Harry It must have been still sadder for MT. Egerton who bad bad not travelled to Italy since his wedding tour. We took the steamer at Marseilles for Civita Veechia and at last reached the Eter- nal City.
 It was the middle of August. The streets were deserted, and the whole aspect ofthe place as changed as the feelings with which 1 revisit ed it. I rushed up to our old lodgings The house was shut up. The people were away for their 0illeggiatura. The old woman who was left in charge was stranger to me. She knew nothing about IagLest, nor Stgaaor1 ei- ther
 We went to the diligence office. I asked to see the books for the first week in May. I'm possible. Why? What good reason could we have for such search? knew what this meant, so produced my reason in the shape of a crown piece. The book was produced, and there we read that Egerton Enrico was a pas senger from Rome to Naples on the Sd of May. But did he get to Naples? Sicuro, without doubt he got to Naples. Where is the con- ductor of the diligence? Oh, the man who ;er sch ha Who knows? he bought carriage and horses, and went for gettarino Can you tell if any, thing happened to the diligence on that day Oh no, nothing ever happens to the Pontifcal diligence. We look at the list of passengers. No English among them. Do you know the address of any of these passengers? Who knows they were all torestieri, probably. .Cs
 It is clear that there is nothing more to be learnt here, and the official is anxious to shut up his shop. We go.to the Consups ascertain that poor Harry's passport was duly gise for the two Sicilies-return to our hotel- and ear ly next morning take post-carrlage to Ma pies. - .-....,..sf .-.,
 On the right track at last Poor MT! Eger- toms anxiety was almost too much to bear. The fatal sun of an Italian August beat down upon us, and made us sick and faint We asked all sorts of absurd questions of the pos tilions and innkeepers, which would have been considered symptoms of lunacy in an Italian, but passed as the normal habit of English trav- elers. We looked at every tree by the road side as if it could perhaps tell us tidings of our lost one. We tried to comfort ourselves with all sorts of surmises. On the whole, we in- clined to believe that he must have reached Naples. It seems too improbable that he could have been murdered or carried away by brig ands while travelling in public conveyance And SO we went on all day through the pos- Onous marshes, and were fain to rest our fever ed heads in the evening at fair Terracina.
 Next morning we started early, and passed rapidly the richest spot of Europe-the jun gle of maize, and vines, and olives, and figs, and oranges and cork-trees, and caroubas, that formed the entrance to the kingdom of Naples We had the usual attack on the f-oatrer rom fhe cns.o., L-..so ana passport officials, but soon appeased them by the usual distribution of pauls and scudi. However, this did not save us from similar onset at Fondi the me- tropolis of beggary and brigandage. Here we encountered most dignifed official, a worthy l successor of Aufdius Luscus, who presided over the passport department at Fondi in the time of Horace, except that he had no pan of charcoal, the weather being warm, and no lat iclave, except stripe down his trousers. He too was pleased to condescend SO far as to ac- cept some slight qualification, and we should soon have got of again, had it not been dis covered that one Of our wheels was heated, and required examination. Impatient as we were, the delay was unavoidable. To pass the time, we strolled about the town. We were soon surrounded and jostled by crowd of beggars of both sexes, of all ages, and of all degrees of filthiness. In our endeavors to shake them off we turned into one of the mar rowest streets, but had not gone far before a yet more piercing cry of ''Carita, signori, car ita per ramo di Diol" saluted our ears, and cap, fastened to the end of short fishing rod, was dangled close to our faces. Looking up, we saw a wall, built of rough blocks of vol canic stone, and pierced by two small heavily grated windows Between the bars of these windows, in the extremity of dirt and squalor, appeared some of the vilest and most satanic of human countenances, chattering like apes at the possibility of granO ''Carita," they screamed again as we looked up, ''carita, sig nori Inglesi ?" At the word another face ap- peared at the window, pale thin face, with long fair curls hanging over it in matted con fusion, and feeble voice faintly pasped forth