Year: 1876

but severely shine out of so deep and intense blue
A light breeze coming fresh from the Mediterranean
at Ostia is making the temperature OF the night 80
delicious! IL will be all too soon that the band
reaches the end of it's performance and the crowd
begins to stream away toward their homes; too
soon, we may be very sure, for the young folk we
have been watching as they little imagined they
were watched-perhaps not too soon for others VINO
may be inclined to put the Summer night to proht
by a stroll among some Of the silent parts Oh the
city.


These are hardly reached till we have wandered
TO the further side Of the Capitol, for populations
who indulge in siestas during the day do not go
early to bed at night; and Rome is never quiet eX-
cept when it is sleeping Lucky if we have got so
far without hearing sounds of quarrel and violence
coming from some side street or alley by the way
But standing on the slope which leads down from
the Capitol to the Forum, how good aud fitting one
feels the night hour TO be for gazing and musng on
what lies before and beneath one It seems as il one
had never realized the true meaning and sentiment
of the scene when it has been looked on by daylight
and amid the noises of the day. and the vugarities
of the daily life. which is now at home thcre On
the steps of the little Church Of ST. Francesca
Romano which we pass as we stroll along the VIA
Sacra there is man. one of the Shepherds who
come from the Sabine and the Abruzzi Mountains,
taking his nights rest sub bio. And under the huge
arches of the Basilca of Constantine there are at
least half a dozen more, men and women sleeplhg
that "sOmnm agrestiam tenS ruoram," whlch
Horace celebrates. But however sweet snch sleep
may be in "Zephyr-fanned Tempe" 1t Is not Sood
in Rome aud the police have directions to do all I'D
their power TO prevent it, They fail to do so how
ever. TO any great extent 1t may be readily i'm
agned that it must be thousand times better 10
sleep with the watching stars overhead, and the
fragment of a marble column for pillow, than III
the suiiocatng heat and fonlness OF the miserable
habitations of tho Roman poor. But the practice
every Summer fills the hospitals with fever cases.
And the municipality has provided dormtories, into
which those found sleeping in the streets or on the
marble steps of the churches, a specially fayorlte
place, may he compelled to enter.


We sannter lesurely down the Via sacra, thinking
of the DAYS when Horace Glanced, he says, to be
going that way and arc fortunate than he; for
VIC meet not n living sou either rotgs R0nne tan
hrR.D or known lot at all. We pass beneath the
Jcw-shunncd arch of Titus. skirt the solitary
Coliseum, where on such lovely night as this a
couple of months ago dozen carriages would have
been standing but where al is now as silent as are
the dcath-cries Of those who earned the martyrs
crown on that blood-staned soil are startled as we
traverse the black shade thrown by the arch of
Constantine by the sudden rising TO sitting pos
ture of sleeper whom passage has disturbed,
and who starcs as one whose eternal sleep had been
uuduly broken bv some strange intruder might
stare and wander toward the colossal ruins OF
the Baths of Carracalla. Here i'll truth we are well
away from life civilized or savage, wellto-do or out
cast The solitude il IA absolute as that which
broo1s over the remnant walls of Palmyra. Wen
for us that is so Night rambes in these districts
are said to be not unattended by danger. Areyolyer
is better companion on such excursions than
walking-stick. We passed on unharmed however,
"A Una among the lions. And | can assure my
readers that he has not exhausted the pleasures to
be cot from the sights and sounds and sensations OF
Rome who has not enjoyed Summer nights stroll
among its soltudes what time the tide OF strangers
has left the Eternal City to live its own especial life
4. A. TRoLLOPE.