A broad handsome terrace, with a prospect over the sea, the town of Lavalette, and the whole island, forms the foreground of the picture.  This terrace and the ramparts behind the houses form very agreeable walks.  The courtyard of our prison is very spacious, and we are allowed to walk about in it as far as a statue which stands in the middle.  Until ten o’clock at night we enjoy our liberty; but when this hour arrives, we are sent to our respective rooms and locked up.  The apartments of the keepers are quite separate from ours.

The arrangements of the whole establishment are so good and comfortable, that we almost forget that we are prisoners.  What a contrast to the quarantine-house at Alexandria!

If a traveller receives a visitor, he is not separated from his guest by ditches and bars, but stands only two steps from him in the courtyard.  The windows here are not grated; and though our clothes were hung on horses to air, neither we nor our effects were smoked out.  If it had not been for the delay it caused, I should really have spent the eighteen days of my detention here very pleasantly.  But I wished to ascend Mount Etna, and was a fixture here until the 2d of October.

October 1st.

The quarantine doctor examined us in a very superficial manner, and pronounced that we should be free to-morrow.  Upon this a boisterous hilarity prevailed.  The prisoners rejoiced at the prospect of speedy release, and shouted, sang, and danced in the courtyard.  The keepers caught the infection, and all was mirth and good-humour until late in the night.

October 2d.

At seven o’clock this morning we were released from thraldom.  A scene similar to that at Alexandria then took place; every one rushed to seize upon the strangers.  It is here necessary that the traveller should be as much upon his guard as in Egypt among the Arabs, in the matters of boat-fares, porterage, etc.  If a bargain is not struck beforehand, the people are most exorbitant in their demands.

A few days before our release, I had made an arrangement with an innkeeper for board, lodging, and transport.  Today he came to fetch me and my luggage, and we crossed the arm of the sea which divides Fort Manuel from the town of Lavalette.

A flight of steps leads from the shore into the town, past the three rows of fortifications rising in tiers above each other.  In each of these divisions we find streets and houses.  The town, properly speaking, lies quite at the top; it is therefore necessary to mount and descend frequently, though not nearly so often as at Constantinople.  The streets are broad and well paved, the houses spacious and finely built; the place of roofs is supplied by terraces, frequently parcelled out into little flower-beds, which present a very agreeable appearance.

My host gave me a tiny room, and meals on the same principle—­coffee with milk morning and evening, and three dishes at dinner-time; but for all this I did not pay more than forty-five kreutzers, or about one shilling and sixpence.