eighteenth. During the cold months of the year, which is their season, it is not safe to approach them. As the time for their accouchement approaches, (which is just one year after conception,) the females are narrowly watched by those whose office it is to attend the birth. They follow them about by day, and pen them up every night, and see that they have a comfortable litter. When they are once confined, they are apt to quit the maison de couché, and to leave the young camel deserted; to prevent which, the keeper is often obliged to carry the suckling after its mother, and even place the teat in its mouth; nor is the lady camel allowed to recommence her Arab life in the pineforest, for three or four months afterwards. To assert or think deformity of the camel kind, because other quadrupeds have straight spines, would be indeed absurd. Yet certain it is that all protuberance of the dorsal column begins by giving this impression; but really when protuberance of the belly comes in aggravation or in counterpoise of prominence of the spine, the impression as to lines of beauty is highly unfavourable; and we assure our readers that a camel, in that condition in which camels like to be who love their lords, is very unprepossessing indeed. Till four years old, the young camel is educated to be docile and humble; after this period they quit their mothers' side, leave the sandy shore of their childhood, and are saddled with the panniers, which they carry for twenty years. As a camel's natural pace his "ruminating" pace-is but about four miles an hour, he does not object to carry a thousand pounds, if it be equally balanced on his back, and Bajocchi used to send them down to Leghorn, laden with this weight of fodder, to the horses of the garrison.

We saw one huge brute lying down, his morning labours over, to taste that repose, without which not even the longsuffering camel can continue his laborious life. He looked round at us from his straw, and seemed displeased at our intrusion. As we drew near, the idea of having to get up and show himself for our amusement, seemed to cross his mind, and made him very angry. He began to work his bifid lip from side to side, and looked as cross as Lord B- when his nose is in motion, and the victim

of his sarcasm is before it. This making of faces not succeeding, his next plan was to raise his head, only increasing his labial contortions, till at last he set his mouth wide open, and began to utter a series of harsh guttural sounds, accompanied with a look of such angry impatience, that we had no difficulty in at once understanding his displeasure. The keeper now tries to get him up, and up he gets, still protesting, however, that it is malgrè lui. The man puts the panniers on his back, and this redoubles his wrath. He now scolds thick, his eyes are angry, and right ahead; till having lost all control over his temper, he brings up his inflamed pouch, which protrudes forth on both sides of his graminivorous jaws - it is scarcely swallowed again, when, like a globus hystericus, it works up again, and so on-(it is not every one who sees a camel in a passion.) He was now or dered to kneel, and as he appeared slow, a rod made its appearance, when the subdued brute turned an expostulating look to the keeper, as if he would say, strike, but fear."

It was very interesting to see a whole herd of male camels kneeling in a semicircle, to get their panniers on, or at work. Midway between the farm and the sea, in the middle of the sandy road, we saw several lady camels standing audaciously, in all the protuberance of advanced pregnancy and secured idleness. In this royal "chasse" rests might be seen set up here and there for unpractised guns to lean upon, amidst the pines and poplars; while we were here, (as if to complete the oriental picture,) the sand rose and was whirled about in columns across our path-beyond us the sea was foaming, and a sentinel or two in military costume might be described on the look-out. The preventive service in which these persons were engaged was a curious one; it was literally to prevent any person carrying away any part of the sea, unless he had proper documents of authority to do so; for sea water yields salt, and salt res fisci est-nobody sells salt or gunpowder but the Duke. This sandy plantation of the Maremma has been turned to excellent account, and furnishes much wealth to Pisa; it is stocked with deer-1000 head are annually slaughtered, but the venison is by no means good, as it would seem,

for antelopes bring not more than one penny per pound! Boars also abound in the thicket, and grow fat upon the fine acorns of its ilex and Farnia oaks. The pine cones are also valuable; gathered in by the camels, they are housed for the winter, and in summer are brought out and exposed to the sun, till they open and give out their little seed or nut-needed for the agro dolce sauce of the said boar. At the roots of the trees flourishes a little yellow fungus called a pinochiochi, which rivals the "Pioppini," or that variety of mushroom which affects the poplar. These, and the "Morrecchi," which abound at the foot of the farnia, are sold in great quantities towards autumn in the Pisan market. There was a smart breeze, as we have hinted,

when we entered the royal preserves and a considerable fluster took place amongst the timber in consequence— the frailer inhabitants of the wood were shaken sorely, and all were put upon their metal. We felt quite sorry for a row of young acacias, as we watched their agitated movements, and their Angouleme screw curls all loose about their shoulders. The aspens were hysterical; the catalpe rattled his long pods, like castanets, to promote the dance; the dark olive sighed at being obliged to part with his unripe berry; the ilex and the oak dropped their acorns in silent displeasure; and every now and then an im mature pine cone, full of turpentine, and heavy as a cricket ball, fell thundering at our feet.

was the mother quail, fat and freckled, sitting in moss, with all her little freckled offspring before, around, upon her back, under her belly, and between her wings, a beautiful little group of innocence on eider down. There was a poor blackbird perched on a tree, and thence beholding a vil lanous marten on another, where her own nest lay unprotected, with his malignant snout within one inch of the little brood. The poor bird is in agony, and cannot fail to excite the sympathy of all who behold her. Many a sigh has she doubtless extorted from young mothers. A crowd of speckled starlings draw off our attention to see what they may be about. We should say, at this distance, by observing their position, that they are particularly happy; but they are at nasty work as we get near, picking from the nares of a goat's head the unclean progeny of the blowfly, over which, true to their instincts, their buzzing mothers hover in swarms. An old bluebottle seems fascinated to the spot. An audacious bird has carried

off one of her brood; it is writhing on her bill; and she who has been the parent of a thousand such, will ere long sit like Niobe over her slaughtered brood! From the starling we turn to a pond of frogs. They are the common frog, destined for fricassee, as a printed notice informs the uninitiated, and look as if they were suspicious of our observing them, with that very recollection in our heads; those of them fairly in the water take care to keep all but their heads below, while others lurk under the leaf of the water lily. A marvellous representation is before us of a frog's soiree about hay-time. Some seem leg-weary with the length of way they have come; and, conscious of having contracted some soils, are about to wash themselves before the music begins. One idle fellow, who has been bathing all day, stretches out his lazy length on a bit of wood, and floats in luxury on the pond, in which attitude his hind quarters look particularly fat and inviting; he sees you think so, and in another moment will be down headforemost, and out of danger. After a few minutes, as we stand gazing on them, our friends the frogs have taken confidence, and opine that we do not intend, pro hac vice, to molest them; a whole population, that had at first escaped our observation, now come in view. One sprawls with another on his back; two or three are blowing out their buccinators; a third is trying

a sort of mesmerism on the body of a young slug, making passes with his tongue, and staring her out of countenance with goggle eyes. If he fail to fascinate like other magnetisers, he will take substantial revenge, and eat up his victim. Now, is that diaphanous medium, on which, or in which, all this is transacted, really not water? To resolve this doubt, and at the danger of unperching a thrush, who is watching the froggery from a thorn, we lift the apparatus upside down, and lo! the seemingly liquid medium is as solid as rock-crystal! Let those who would see how amiable a hedgehog can look, when she is a mother, peep under a neighbouring cover; the little dears, for whom she has made the sacrifice of coming here to exhibit, are all round her, and as prickly as herself-one is still coiled up asleep, another on his back is just opening his eyes to unroll himself for the day. Such a prickly progeny must make suckling one's own any thing but pleasant. A little camel, white and woolly, stands, in three months' helplessness, on a shelf. She came from the Pisan farm. young camel is always thus white. The miniature wonders of else invisible botany are here displayed on a scale such as Mirbel and his microscope make them out; but wax will change colour, and a wax mushroom, however correct the likeness may be at first, soon changes to a toadstool hue. This, indeed, happens not only to mushrooms, to fruits, and to flowers in wax, but, alas! to ladies' busts. Our own artist in Paris told us, and as all may see, he never would have his Psyche done again. He would leave her, he said, to turn round in his window as at first, and never forget to wind her up; she should always be coiffée in the last mode; but as to her complexion, he had made up his mind to be indifferent about that, for he had always had her three times painted and restored by the modeller, and, notwithstanding all this expense, he did not believe she had ever brought

The

him a new customer. A branch of the oleander in flower bears a specimen of that beautiful sphinx, the nerea, whose escutcheon is a death's head. She sits there as if proposing to all who pass, (her empty crysalis lying below,) the riddle of her birth! She had entered that fragile receptacle a lengthy many-footed voracious caterpillar; who could expect her to appear to the world in her present character of a feathered hexapod, of exquisite symmetry, with an apparatus no longer suited for chewing cabbage (which her reformed taste now repudiates,) but a spiral tube expressly destined for the enjoyment of the nestarium? Behind her, you have a specimen of the imperfect insect that knows not of any beyond the caterpillar state, or dreams of higher destiny than that in which he died. Ye lovers of boar-hunting on old sarcophagi, ye amateurs who would give much to possess a genuine Schneider, look to the drama enacted here! Does not the tusked old sow look as if she would instantly break cover and be at you, and bring her enemies the dogs through the shattered glass? There she stands magnificently at bay, and looks in her erect attitude like those heroes in the Farnese, who see Medusa's head, and as they look, are hardening into stone. A huge point from a snapt spear is buried in her back; one dog is hanging to her ear, and another, disemboweled, is dying under her belly. There she stands! These and similar groups make us careless to look at an immense aviary, that, without uttering a note, is singing around us; or at the monkeys, who grin, or swing suspended by their coiled tails, for their own pleasure; orat those great birds, who fill whole presses with their grotesque forms, curly to the rump, and with legs as thick as a donkey's. It is altogether a fine collection. We would stay longer, but there is the botanic garden to be visited, and we are to-morrow to reach Florence, by an inexorable engagement with a vetturino.

The pride of this garden is English -its three principal trees came from London, and were planted here half a century ago—viz., a cedar of Lebanon,

surpassed, however, by the one at Paris, an oriental willow of unexampled luxuriance, and two Magnolias (grandifolia,) that spread out to their

asked, and less given; for, at the period referred to, the animosity between the two parties was at its height. Many a poor wretch, sinking under fatigue, and hearing the footsteps of his blood-thirsty foes drawing nearer and nearer, till he could fancy he felt their breath upon his shoulder, shortened his horrible suspense, aud solved the question uppermost in the mind of a man flying for his life," Shall I or shall I not escape?" by throwing himself on the ground, and waiting patiently the bayonet-thrust that was to terminate his sufferings.

At length the ardour of pursuit diminished, and few others than the cavalry persevered in the chase. Even these dropped off one by one as their horses became blown, and soon barely a score of troopers, either better mounted or more eager for blood than their comrades, hung upon the skirts of the fugitives, flying now more from panic than real danger. A young Carlist officer, who bestrode a splendid Andalusian charger, was far ahead of his men, and made himself remarked by his ferocity. He had broken two lances, and now made use of his sabre with deadly effect, turning a deaf ear to supplications for mercy, and accompanying every blow with a heavy curse. He was within a score of yards of five or six Christino soldiers, when they suddenly turned, and levelling their muskets, made a simultaneous discharge on their pursuer. Owing to a sudden bound of the horse the bullets took effect upon him instead of his rider, and the noble animal fell. Before the Carlist could regain his feet he was in the power of the soldiers. In the ineffectual struggle he made to escape from their grasp, the boina fell from his head, and a quantity of long hair, lank with sweat, hung over his forehead. The soldiers stared at him, and then at each other, and then again at the prisoner, with a puzzled look.

"Lo es!"* at length exclaimed one; and as though a charm had been broken, "El Mudo!" they shouted simul. taneously.

The Carlist officer smiled bitterly. Outside that handsome square at Vittoria, composed of houses of uni

Al

form structure, and surrounded by a colonnade of stone pillars, which is known by the name of the Plaza Nueva, and of late years Plaza de la Constitucion, is an open space entitled the Plaza Vieja, or old square. though totally unable to compete with its more elegant neighbour as an evening lounge for the fashionable of the town, because its appearance is uncouth, and its pavement uneven, and usually dirty, it is yet not entirely without interest, especially to a stranger. The fountain at the lower end of the Place, within a few yards of the Principal, or chief guard-house, is each morning the rendezvous of innumerable criadas or servant girls, and other damsels of low degree, who, having filled their wooden or earthen vessels, allow them to remain for a few minutes on the stone ledge round the spring, while they indulge in a little gossip. Here may be studied the manners and dress of the lower classes of the province. The peasants from the neighbouring mountains, who bring in mule-loads of wood and charcoal for sale, station themselves near the fountain, and address their rude attempts at gallantry to the buxom water carriers, whose brilliant yellow or crimson petticoats, neatly turned ancles, tight boddice, and abundant black hair, rendered glossy by some preparation, which is certainly not the real Macassar, constitute in the eyes of the charcoal burners the ne-plus-ultra of attraction. The lounging soldier, the pass< ing muleteer, the artisan hurrying to his work, all have a smart word for the mozas,† who, after receiving a due meed of compliments and admiration, trip lightly away with their burden of aqua fresca on their heads, and make room for new comers.

Less cheerful associations than these are, however, connected with the Plaza Vieja. It is here that are usually executed the criminals sentenced to the garrote-a punishment about equivalent to the English one of hanging.

Early on the second morning after that which had witnessed the disastrous expedition to the powder mill, workmen were busy erecting scaffolding for an

*It is he.

Young girls.

execution, and it soon became known that the criminal about to suffer was the Carlist spy who had caused the recent discomfiture of the Queen's troops. Towards noon the whole of the garrison not on duty was formed up round the plaza, and large crowds had assembled to witness the execution. On the scaffold (a small square platform) was firmly fixed a strong wooden pillar, against which a bench had been nailed. Two or three feet above the bench was an iron bar, bent into nearly a circle, and which, by means of a powerful screw, could be brought with great force against the front of the oaken post, so as to crush any thing that might intervene. Two men, preserving somewhat of the ancient Spanish costume, in their suits of rusty black, short cloaks, and broad leafed slouched hats, were standing by the instrument of death, waiting till the moment should arrive to exercise their loathsome functions.

At length the criminal made his appearance, strongly guarded, and attended by a grey-haired priest. His head was bent upon his breast, and he appeared to be lending an attentive ear to the exhortations of the reverend father; but his step was firm, nor did it lose any of its steadiness as he ascended the half-dozen steps leading to the scaffold. After embracing his penitent, the priest stepped on one side, averting his eyes from the sad spectacle that was to follow, and the prisoner, dropping the cloak which had hitherto protected him from the inclement weather, and also partly shrouded his face, appeared in the short green jacket and red overalls of the Carlist cavalry. Then, drawing himself up to his full height, he snatched his boina from his head, and

*

in a voice as clear and sonorous as though he had been commanding a squadron on a field day,

he,

Viva Carlos Quinto!" shouted "Mueren los negros !"*

When, by this action of the prisoner, his face became visible to the surrounding crowd, a suppressed hum ran through the lines of the soldiery, and the words "El Mudo" passed from mouth to mouth. Before this murmuring noise, instantly repressed by the officers, had entirely subsided, the prisoner had tranquilly seated himself on the fatal bench, the iron collar was adjusted round his bare neck, and one of the executioners gave a few rapid and vigorous turns to the screw. A slight crushing noise reached the ears of the nearest bystanders, as the vertebræ of the neck were broken against the wooden pillar. El Mudo di Santa Domingo had paid the penality of his offences.

After the corpse, according to custom, had remained a short time exposed to the gaze of the multitude, it was removed from the scaffold, and buried outside the town. The following morning, however, the grave in which it had been laid was open, and the body had disappeared.

In the cemetery of a church, a few leagues north of Vittoria, is a plain slab of grey stone, which for a great part of the year is nearly undiscoverable, so concealed does it lie under the tangled profusion of red and white roses which the village maidens have planted around. When, however, the fragrant but thorny barrier is put aside, an inscription is visible. short, and runs thus

Valentin-17 Diciembre,
Doleres-23 Diciembre.
Poco le sobrevivia.

It is