“I have been here this week, and was obliged to put on my armour and go the night after my arrival to the Marquis Cavalli’s, where there were between two and three hundred of the best company I have seen in Italy,—­more beauty, more youth, and more diamonds among the women than have been seen these fifty years in the Sea-Sodom.[66] I never saw such a difference between two places of the same latitude, (or platitude, it is all one,)—­music, dancing, and play, all in the same salle.  The G.’s object appeared to be to parade her foreign friend as much as possible, and, faith, if she seemed to glory in so doing, it was not for me to be ashamed of it.  Nobody seemed surprised;—­all the women, on the contrary, were, as it were, delighted with the excellent example.  The vice-legate, and all the other vices, were as polite as could be;—­and I, who had acted on the reserve, was fairly obliged to take the lady under my arm, and look as much like a cicisbeo as I could on so short a notice,—­to say nothing of the embarrassment of a cocked hat and sword, much more formidable to me than ever it will be to the enemy.

“I write in great haste—­do you answer as hastily.  I can understand nothing of all this; but it seems as if the G. had been presumed to be planted, and was determined to show that she was not,—­plantation, in this hemisphere, being the greatest moral misfortune.  But this is mere conjecture, for I know nothing about it—­except that every body are very kind to her, and not discourteous to me.  Fathers, and all relations, quite agreeable.

     “Yours ever,

     “B.

     “P.S.  Best respects to Mrs. H.

     “I would send the compliments of the season; but the season
     itself is so complimentary with snow and rain that I wait for
     sunshine.”

[Footnote 66: 

    “Gehenna of the waters! thou Sea-Sodom!”
    MARINO FALIERO.
]

* * * * *

LETTER 352.  TO MR. MOORE.

     “January 2. 1320.

     “My dear Moore,

        “’To-day it is my wedding day;
          And all the folks would stare,
        If wife should dine at Edmonton,
          And I should dine at Ware.’

     Or thus: 

        “Here’s a happy new year! but with reason,
          I beg you’ll permit me to say—­
        Wish me many returns of the season,
          But as few as you please of the day.

“My this present writing is to direct you that, if she chooses, she may see the MS. Memoir in your possession.  I wish her to have fair play, in all cases, even though it will not be published till after my decease.  For this purpose, it were but just that Lady B. should know what is there said of her and hers, that she may have full power to remark on or respond to any part or parts, as may seem fitting to herself.  This is fair dealing, I presume, in all events.

     “To change the subject, are you in England?  I send you an epitaph
     for Castlereagh. * * * * * Another for Pitt:—­