Then, we slept at Padua on St. Anthony’s night (more’s the pity for us:  they made us pay sixteen zwanzigers for it!), and Robert and I, leaving Wiedeman at the inn, took a caleche and drove over to Arqua, which I had set my heart on seeing for Petrarch’s sake.  Did you ever see it, you?  And didn’t it move you, the sight of that little room where the great soul exhaled itself?  Even Robert’s man’s eyes had tears in them as we stood there, and looked through the window at the green-peaked hills.  And, do you know, I believe in ‘the cat.’

Through Brescia we passed by moonlight (such a flood of white moonlight) and got into Milan in the morning.  There we stayed two days, and I climbed to the topmost pinnacle of the cathedral; wonder at me!  Indeed I was rather overtired, it must be confessed—­three hundred and fifty steps—­but the sight was worth everything, enough to light up one’s memory for ever.  How glorious that cathedral is! worthy almost of standing face to face with the snow Alps; and itself a sort of snow dream by an artist architect, taken asleep in a glacier!  Then the Da Vinci Christ did not disappoint us, which is saying much.  It is divine.  And the Lombard school generally was delightful after Bologna and those soulless Caracci!  I have even given up Guido, and Guercino too, since knowing more of them.  Correggio, on the other hand, is sublime at Parma; he is wonderful! besides having the sense to make his little Christs and angels after the very likeness of my baby.

From Milan we moved to Como, steamed down to Menaggio (opposite to Bellaggio), took a caleche to Porlezza, and a boat to Lugano, another caleche to Bellinzona, left Wiedeman there, and, returning on our steps, steamed down and up again the Lago Maggiore, went from Bellinzona to Faido and slept, and crossed the Mount St. Gothard the next day, catching the Lucerne steamer at Fluellen.  The scenery everywhere was most exquisite, but of the great pass I shall say nothing—­it was like standing in the presence of God when He is terrible.  The tears overflowed my eyes.  I think I never saw the sublime before.  Do you know I sate out in the coupe a part of the way with Robert so as to apprehend the whole sight better, with a thick shawl over my head, only letting out the eyes to see.  They told us there was more snow than is customary at this time of year, and it well might be so, for the passage through it, cut for the carriage, left the snow-walls nodding over us at a great height on each side, and the cold was intense.

Do you know we might yield the palm, and that Lucerne is far finer than any of our Italian lakes?  Even Robert had to confess it at once.  I wanted to stay in Switzerland, but we found it wiser to hasten our steps and come to Paris; so we came.  Yes, and we travelled from Strasburg to Paris in four-and-twenty hours, night and day, never stopping except for a quarter of an hour’s breakfast and half an hour’s