Part 16

In consequence of its having been decided that the boat was to go to Alicata, Girgenti, and Palermo, I arranged with one of the passengers to take a felucca and sail direct for Naples. The Pelican came in, and immediately went off again to England, leaving her first lieutenant, who was promoted, to join the boat for Naples. Some portion of every day was spent at the parlatorio eating ices, and looking at the curious scene going forward there; for some fresh ship daily arrived to undergo the same ordeal as ourselves; or a knot of lucky fellows, having finished their purgatory, were seen sallying forth to enjoy a ramble through the clean and pleasant streets of Valetta.

We narrowly escaped having forty days allotted us, owing to the circumstance of there being a quantity of carpets on board; but, by entering them as ship's furniture, they were put into long quarantine, and we escaped with a comparatively short one. Every passenger seemed to possess two or three Persian carpets: Prince Butera had a great number; but I saw none that were at all valuable.

"The coal-black eye, that mocks the coal-black veil?"

that pleasant lightning which warms, but scathes not.

Thus our time passed until--

Sunday, 29th,--when the medical officer of the establishment came round to make the usual examination, which was over in a few minutes. Our party were in bed when he entered; and, approaching each of us with a bow, he said, "Pretty well?--ah! I see, quite well;"--and then, with another congé, he left us. We afterwards understood that he addressed every single person in the lazzaretto, the fort, and the vessel, from the Prince to the Steward's boy, precisely with the same words.

Tuesday, 30th.--I rose early, for the steam-packet from Corfu had arrived in the night, and, lo! all the passengers who quitted us at Zante were on board of her. It appears there had been a mistake in the number of days first allotted them for quarantine; and, instead of three, they were condemned to seven days' misery, all crowded together in a very small building, where they suffered dreadfully from the combined effect of heat, vermin, and bad living. The expected steam-boat had met with an accident at sea, and she passed in sight of Zante, without entering the harbour; so that these unlucky fellows were obliged to hire a speranaro, in which, after being twice driven back, and suffering various hardships and misfortunes, they arrived at Corfu.

There was no truth in the report respecting the short quarantine at Ancona, and, eventually, they all embarked in the steam-packet for Falmouth.

"Malta, 31st.--The passengers by the Neapolitan steamer, Francesco Primo, were yesterday admitted to pratique.

"His Excellency the Governor entertained His R. H. the Prince of Bavaria, the Prince of Butera, and the other noblemen and gentlemen, passengers in the steamer, at a grand dinner at the palace.

The writer of this "Court Journal" was right in saying that no finer body of troops could be seen; and the foreigners present were particularly struck with the Fusileers and the Highlanders; but the whole garrison was greatly offended at the conduct of the Prince, who never acknowledged the salute of the officers, nor the lowering of the colours to the ground in passing his royal person. Every one besides stood uncovered, and the populace cheered loudly; while he displayed a sort of contemptuous indifference, and remained motionless as a statue. The Admiral's ball was given as much in honour of Sir Thomas Briggs's elevation to the Grand Cross of St. Michel as of the illustrious persons of the steam-boat. It was crowded and splendid; but there was a sad lack of beauty.

The Captain of the Speranaro having refused to take the tobacco, our bargain became void, and the baggage was again shifted to the steam-boat, which sailed about eight o'clock on a beautiful moonlight night. We were kept waiting outside the harbour for nearly an hour for Captain Hayland, one of the passengers, who, it seems, went to sleep, and the people in his hotel forgot to wake him in due time. He was greatly alarmed, all his baggage being on board; and for some time he supposed we had really left him behind. The boat he hired was engaged to take him to Syracuse, in case it did not overtake the steamer. The commander of the Francesco, however, behaved very well on this occasion; for, when some of the passengers remonstrated at the delay, he replied, that the absent person was not only attentive and obliging to all on board, but had been punctual hitherto; and, therefore, he would stretch a point for him, though he would not do as much for many others who sailed with him.

We coasted along this beautiful island, now almost a wilderness, and nearly depopulated by a long series of oppressive edicts and taxes, imposed by the government of a nation which has no sympathy with its distresses. It may be truly called the Ireland of the great kingdom of the two Sicilies; a wretched country, which can only be preserved from destruction by a war to which Naples is a party. When that occurs, Sicily may again raise its desponding head, and, by seeking the protection of England, whose remembrance is indelibly stamped on the hearts of its inhabitants, it would soon be regenerated, and, with a liberal government and free trade, might once more become the rich and happy Sicily, the garden of Europe.

Half an hour after midnight, a party I had formed, started to view the temples by that light,

"Which mingles dark shadows into gentleness."

After rambling across the country, and losing ourselves among groves of olive trees, we were obliged to take a guide at last. We were several times stopped by the deep ravines which the torrents have cut in the face of the country. There were an immense number of aloes in the hedges, many in flower.

The night was as fine and clear as could be desired; and the moon shone with an intensity of light. On arriving at the Temple of Hercules, nothing met our eyes but one solitary column rising from a mass of prostrate ruins, and over-topping the cluster of Indian fig-trees that grew around it. Pointing towards the heavens, it seemed to whisper,--"Mortals, there must you look for eternity: here all is crumbling to decay!"

"My eye hath play'd the painter, and hath steeled Thy beauty's form in table of my heart!"

Often have I lingered within the Coliseum when its majestic ruins were silvered o'er by the light of the same lovely orb, which now threw its lustre on these prostrate relics of departed greatness: I have wandered alone among the temples of Pæstum; I have stood on the Parthenon while the sun threw his latest, brightest ray over that hallowed spot: but never did I feel as among the ruins of Girgenti. On all these former scenes, the combination of nature and art has fixed the impress of mere beauty; here their union is sublime.

The Eastern sky is brightening with the beams of the morning sun, and its reflection tints each mouldering column with a purple light. The moon slowly resigns her influence over the scene, and a splendid prospect of earth and sea bursts upon the eye, as the sun springs upwards from behind the ruins, like the presiding deity of the spot.

The space between the temple and the town affords a beautiful prospect, varied with undulating hills, green valleys, wooded slopes, and sharp-pointed rocks, and interspersed with gardens in the richest cultivation.

There is a great number of galley-slaves at Girgenti; and they must be a happy race, if laughing and merriment be any criterion to judge by.

In the evening, Prince Butera having joined us from Alicata, we started for Palermo. Poor Marquis St. Isodore has lost all his curiosities which he landed here; his property being close to Girgenti. The servant who was in charge of his baggage easily passed it through the custom-house by means of a bribe; and, having loaded a cart, instead of going off at once to the country, he placed it under a shed, and went to drink with some of his companions. In the mean time, one of those on board, who had an enmity against either the Marquis, or his man, laid an information, that there were many contraband articles; and the officer went to the shed and seized every thing.

At two o'clock the steamer was off Trapani, and many of our passengers landed to visit Selinuntum; more, I believe, with the desire of escaping the horrors of sea-sickness, than for the purpose of searching after ruined temples.

Our course now lay along the shore, which presented a succession of bold mountainous scenery, interspersed with rich and smiling valleys. It was evening when we approached Palermo, and the setting sun shed a flood of golden light over each mountain summit, dark grey rock, and wooded glen: it was a beautiful scene, and reminded me of one of those landscapes which so often employed the immortal pencil of Claude Lorraine.

An unfortunate delay of half an hour in rounding Point Pellegrino, prevented us from getting pratique that night; and we had to endure the mortification of hearing the hum of enjoyment arising from every part of this gay city, without the possibility of being partakers in the amusement going forward. The marina was well illuminated, and the distant sound of music, which ever and anon came softened over the waves, communicated an air of enchantment to the scene.

"This is the land where the lemon trees bloom; Where the dark orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom, Where a wind ever soft from the kind Heaven blows, And the groves are of myrtle, and laurel, and rose."

As this illustrious lady had expressed a desire to go to Naples, we were requested to agree to a delay of a few days. Who could resist the temptations of a longer sojourn in the city of the syren pleasure? and it was readily agreed to. It was not, therefore, until the morning of--