of shoeing a troop of horse with felt than for protecting a human skull.  A triple row of scalloped black velvet not unfrequently bore testimony to the indomitable love of the nation for ornament; and the same decoration might be found on their garments, whose complicated patchwork reminded us of the humble original from which has sprung our brilliant Harlequin.  Shortly our attention was solicited by a pantomimic Roscius, some ten or twelve years old, who, having climbed over the taffrail and cleared a stage of some four feet square, dramatized all practicable scenes, and many apparently impracticable, for he made nothing of presenting two or three personages in rapid interchange.  Words were needless, and would have been useless, as the unloading of railway bars by a brawny Northumbrian and his crew drowned all articulate sounds.

Notwithstanding these varied amusements, we were not sorry to see arrive, first, a gray general, obviously the Triton of our minnows, and close behind him the health and police officers of the government, to whose paternal solicitude for our mental and bodily health was to be ascribed our long delay in port.  These beneficent influences, incarnated in the form of two portly gentlemen in velvet waistcoats,—­an Italian wears a velvet waistcoat, if he can get one, far into the hot months,—­began their work of summoning by name each individual from the private to the general, then the passengers, then the crew, and finally, much to our relief, reembarked in the boat, and left us free to pursue our voyage.

We soon left behind the ominous cone of Vesuvius, reported by the best judges to be at present in so unsound a state that nothing can prevent its early fall; sunset left us near the grand precipices of Anacapri, and morning found us with Ustica on our beam, and the semicircle of mountains which enchase the gem of Palermo gradually unfolding their beauties.  By ten, A.M., we were in harbor and pulling shorewards to subject ourselves to the scrutiny of custom-house and police.  Our passports duly conned over, the functionary, with a sour glance at our valanced faces, inquired if we had letters for any one in the island.  Never before had such a question been asked me, nor ever before could I have given other than an humble negative.  But the kindness of a friend had luckily provided me with a formidable shield, and a reply, given with well-assumed ease, that I had letters from the English Ambassador for the Viceroy, smoothed the grim feature, and released us from the dread tribunal.  The custom-house gave no trouble, and we reembarked to cross about half a mile of water which separated us from the city gate.  Here, however, we were destined to experience the influence of the sunny clime:  our two stout boatmen persisted in setting their sail, under the utterly false pretence that there was some wind blowing, and fully half an hour elapsed ere we set foot ashore.