Year: 1860




waves, and deposited safe and sound on
the shore. Here is the substance of one
of the stories related by our fellow.travel-
Ter the old priest:


The heroine was rich, pious, childless
lady, who for fifteen years running had
never omitted making the annual pill
grimage to the shrine Del Laghetto, for
the purpose of asking the Madonna to
vouchsafe her son and heir; and the
son was vouchsafed at last, when the
applicant had reached the age of forty
eight. A beautiful boy he was, who died
of the measles, it is true but what oi
that? Neither the Madonna del Laghetto
nor any other Madonna, could reasonably
be expected to work two miracles for the
same person within so short time
This is why / would impress on you, my
brethren, concluded the old padre, by
way of moral to his tale, to have faith;
never to grudge a sou or two for souls in
purgatory; never to weary of asking, my
brethren, and leave the rest to the Ma
donna. For what does the holy text say:
Petite ct accipietis, pulsate ct aperietur
vobis.''


Spoken like bookp exclaimed the
stout jolly fellow on my right, clapping
his hands in applase: that's just my
mind. Here's my little love, born deaf
and dumb and the father kissed his little
love passionately. Did l or do l send
for doctors and all sorts of quacks to
cure her? Not /. know better. The
Madonna is to be her physician. AS
soon as we found out her misfortune,
| brought her to the shrine. Did | des-
pair? Not a bit. / took Marina to the
shrine the very next year, and the next,
and the next still; and l shall take her
there till the Madonna grants me the
blessing. I'H knock AID knock, ay, and
wrench the door open, if necessary.
have made up my mind; and we shall
see whose heads the hardest, the Madon-
ma or mine.


This sort Of challenge to the object of
his warmest alteration was offered in the
simplest and most natural way possible,
and WAS not without a touch of pathos.
| looked up at the speaker in surprise:
there were no traces of stupidity or bru-
tality about him; on the contrary, there
was something refined in the expression
of his intelligent countenance, lighted
up as it was by fatherly tenderness, as,
gently parting the curls on the forehead
of his darling, he made every effort to
amuse her by his pantomime. And l
thought with dismay on the amount of
erroneous ideas which must have been
forced on this creature of God, so far to
pervert his moral sense as to make him
put all his hopes for his child's cure in a
kind of hand-to-hand struggle with the
powers above.


a little past the height of Turbia, on
the right, there opens road which, by
gently sloping zigzags, leads down the
valley to the sanctuary. 1t is wide
enough for carriages, and kept in good
order at the expense of the Father Fran
ciscans, believe-of whose convent the
shrine is a dependence, being, in fact,
neither more nor less than the little
church of the convent The fathers de-
serve some credit for the sound economi-
cal notions they display in the great care
they take to smooth the road for the pill
grims.


We left our springless cart and the
three poor exhausted animals, which, to
my great wonder, had dragged us so far
on the main road, and joined the double
living stream that was pouring down to-
wards the sanctuary.


The convent looks more like fortress
than the dwelling of peaceful monks
1t stands on an isolated plateau, surround
ed on all sides by moat, formed by the
bed of in-torrent-dry, or near
ly so, in summer, but rushing river in
winter Across this is thrown a short
massive stone-bridge, the only access to
the convent. Temporary wooden huts
and gaily decorated booths, for the ac-
commodation of visitors, filled every inch
of ground on this side of the moat, and
swarmed with hundreds of motley people.


Had it not been for the peaceful nature
of the occupations of the crowd-so loud
was the din, so martial the look of the
men with the red caps and red belts-it
might have been taken for bcleaguer-
ing force which has pitched its tents, and
is watching an opportunity to assault the
fort above. Vendors of wines and eata-
blcs, sellers of holy images, reliques, and
rosaries, tellers Of religious legends,
mountebanks and empires, were all shout
ing at the top of their voices, playing on
the credulity, exciting the passions, or
satisfying the substantial wants Of a host
of screaming customers.


| sat down in one Of the booths, and
after partaking Of some refreshment,
which l really needed, turned from the
hustle around me to gaze on the glories
of the departing sun: each fold of the
mountain on mountain closing in the
prospect to the north was glowing red,
while the valleys at the foot were lost
already in a soft blue mist. The calm
and solemn grandeur Of the landscape at
that hour, which always brings with it
a mingled feeling of regret and hope,
made the furry and excitement going on
at my elbow seem still more puerile and
aimless. While watching the twinkling
into view Of one star after another,
heard bell toll, and saw, to my great
surprise, every one, pilgrims and purvey-
ors, all rise to one accord, a. II they had


y a !. =.