The innocents abroad; . s,and disembarked at the town of Lecco. They said it was twohours, by carriage to the ancient city of Bergamo, and that wewould arrive there in good season for the railway train. Wegot an open barouche and a wild, boisterous driver, and setout. It was delightful. We had a fast team and a perfectlysmooth road. There were towering cliffs on our left, and thepretty Lago di Lecco on our right, and every now and then itrained on us. Just before starting, the driver picked up, inthe street, a stump of a cigar an inch long, and put it in hismouth. When he had carried it thus a
The innocents abroad; . s,and disembarked at the town of Lecco. They said it was twohours, by carriage to the ancient city of Bergamo, and that wewould arrive there in good season for the railway train. Wegot an open barouche and a wild, boisterous driver, and setout. It was delightful. We had a fast team and a perfectlysmooth road. There were towering cliffs on our left, and thepretty Lago di Lecco on our right, and every now and then itrained on us. Just before starting, the driver picked up, inthe street, a stump of a cigar an inch long, and put it in hismouth. When he had carried it thus about an hour, I thoughtit would be only Christian charity to give him a light. Ihanded him my cigar,which I had justlit, and he put it inhis mouth and re-turned his stump tohis pocket! I neversaw a more sociableman. At least Inever saw a manwho was more socia-ble on a short ac-quaintance. We saw interiorItaly, now. The houses were of solid stone, and not often ingood repair. The peasants and their children were idle, as. DRlViR 208 BLOODY SHEINES, a general tiling, and the donkeys and cliickens made them-selves at home in drawing-room and bed-chambCT and werenot molested. The drivers of each and everj one of theslow-moving market-carts we met were stretched in the sunupon their merchandise, sound asleep. Every three or fourhundred yards, it seemed to me, we came upon the shrine ofsome saint or other—a rude picture of him built into a hugecross or a stone pillar by the road-side.—Some of the pic-tures of the Saviour were curiosities in their way. They represented him stretch-ed upon the cross, hiscountenance distortedwith agony. Fram thewounds of the crownof thorns; from the pier-ced side ; from the mu-tilated hands and feet;from the scourged body—from every hand-breadth of his personstreams of blood wereflowing! Such a gory,ghastly spectacle wouldfrighten the children outof their senses, I shouldthink. There were someunique auxiliaries to thepainting which addedto
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
