Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 387 pages of information about Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5.

Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 387 pages of information about Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5.

[Footnote 60:  “Egli era partito con molto riverescimento da Ravenna, e col pressentimento che la sua partenza da Ravenna ci sarebbe cagione di molti mali.  In ogni lettera che egli mi scriveva allora egli mi esprimeva il suo dispiacere di lasciare Ravenna.  ’Se papa e richiamato (mi scriveva egli) io torno in quel istante a Ravenna, e se e richiamato prima della mia partenza, io non parto.’  In questa speranza egli differi varii mesi a partire.  Ma, finalmente, non potendo piu sperare il nostro ritorno prossimo, egli mi scriveva—­’Io parto molto mal volontieri prevedendo dei mali assai grandi per voi altri e massime per voi; altro non dico,—­lo vedrete.’  E in un altra lettera, ’Io lascio Ravenna cosi mal volontieri, e cosi persuaso che la mia partenza non puo che condurre da un male ad un altro piu grande che non ho cuore di scrivere altro in questo punto.’  Egli mi scriveva allora sempre in Italiano e trascrivo le sue precise parole—­ma come quei suoi pressentimenti si verificarono poi in appresso!]

[Footnote 61:  The leaf that contains the original of this extract I have unluckily mislaid.]

* * * * *

“BOLOGNA.

    “’Twas night; the noise and bustle of the day
    Were o’er.  The mountebank no longer wrought
    Miraculous cures—­he and his stage were gone;
    And he who, when the crisis of his tale
    Came, and all stood breathless with hope and fear,
    Sent round his cap; and he who thrumm’d his wire
    And sang, with pleading look and plaintive strain
    Melting the passenger.  Thy thousand cries [62],
    So well portray’d and by a son of thine,
    Whose voice had swell’d the hubbub in his youth,
    Were hush’d, BOLOGNA, silence in the streets,
    The squares, when hark, the clattering of fleet hoofs;
    And soon a courier, posting as from far,
    Housing and holster, boot and belted coat
    And doublet stain’d with many a various soil,
    Stopt and alighted.  ’Twas where hangs aloft
    That ancient sign, the Pilgrim, welcoming
    All who arrive there, all perhaps save those
    Clad like himself, with staff and scallop-shell,
    Those on a pilgrimage:  and now approach’d
    Wheels, through the lofty porticoes resounding,
    Arch beyond arch, a shelter or a shade
    As the sky changes.  To the gate they came;
    And, ere the man had half his story done,
    Mine host received the Master—­one long used
    To sojourn among strangers, every where
    (Go where he would, along the wildest track)
    Flinging a charm that shall not soon be lost,
    And leaving footsteps to be traced by those
    Who love the haunts of Genius; one who saw,
    Observed, nor shunn’d the busy scenes of life,
    But mingled not; and mid the din, the stir,
    Lived as a separate Spirit. 
                                “Much

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.