TO HER TRAVELLING COMPANIONS AFTER PARTING.

Milan, Aug. 9, 1847.—­I remained at Venice near a week after your departure, to get strong and tranquil again.  Saw all the pictures, if not enough, yet pretty well.  My journey here was very profitable.  Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, I saw really well, and much there is to see.  Certainly I had learned more than ever in any previous ten days of my existence, and have formed an idea of what is needed for the study of art in these regions.  But, at Brescia, I was taken ill with fever.  I cannot tell you how much I was alarmed when it seemed to me it was affecting my head.  I had no medicine; nothing could I do except abstain entirely from food, and drink cold water.  The second day, I had a bed made in a carriage, and came on here.  I am now pretty well, only very weak.

TO R.W.E.

Milan, Aug. 10, 1847.—­Since writing you from Florence, I have passed the mountains; two full, rich days at Bologna; one at Ravenna; more than a fortnight at Venice, intoxicated with the place, and with Venetian art, only to be really felt and known in its birth-place.  I have passed some hours at Vicenza, seeing mainly the Palladian structures; a day at Verona,—­a week had been better; seen Mantua, with great delight; several days in Lago di Garda,—­truly happy days there; then, to Brescia, where I saw the Titians, the exquisite Raphael, the Scavi, and the Brescian Hills.  I could charm you by pictures, had I time.

To-day, for the first time, I have seen Manzoni.  Manzoni has spiritual efficacy in his looks; his eyes glow still with delicate tenderness, as when he first saw Lucia, or felt them fill at the image of Father Cristoforo.  His manners are very engaging, frank, expansive; every word betokens the habitual elevation of his thoughts; and (what you care for so much) he says distinct, good things; but you must not expect me to note them down.  He lives in the house of his fathers, in the simplest manner.  He has taken the liberty to marry a new wife for his own pleasure and companionship, and the people around him do not like it, because she does not, to their fancy, make a good pendant to him.  But I liked her very well, and saw why he married her.  They asked me to return often, if I pleased, and I mean to go once or twice, for Manzoni seems to like to talk with me.

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Rome, Oct., 1847.—­Leaving Milan, I went on the Lago Maggiore, and afterward into Switzerland.  Of this tour I shall not speak here; it was a little romance by itself.