DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53553#0065
47
meant as an epithet rather, than as the name it previously
went by.
After this desultory notice of the Misenian promontory,
I resume the thread of my narrative. It was not so much
the actual waste of our strength, as the prospect of the
long journey back to Pozzuoli, and our presumptive ina-
bility to accomplish so arduous an undertaking in the heat
of the day, that had damped Don Michele’s spirits as well
as my own. But here the good generalship, or rather the
provident good nature, of our worthy host, at once extri-
cated us from every difficulty. Like the knight in the ro-
mance, who, after wandering through wild deserts and
gloomy forests, reaches the sea-shore, where he espies a
gilded bark provided by the spell of a friendly fairy to waft
him to some blessed abode ; so we found, on our arrival at
the beach, a commodious boat ordered hither by the kind
Don Giacomo. At this welcome sight the countenance of
our friend Michele underwent an instantaneous change from
mesto to allegro vivace. “Bisogna dir,” he exclaimed with
complacency, che il nostro onoratissimo amico Don Gia-
como sa ordinare le cose a mar avi glia*.” Dapple was rode
home by the cicerone, and in less than half an hour we cut
the chord of the bay, and arrived at the house of our host in
Pozzuoli, where an ecclesiastic, invited to partake of Don
Giacomo’s hospitality, had been waiting for us some time.
I was now introduced to the sister of the latter, a maiden
brunette of about twenty-two. I had hitherto laid it down
for certain, that the straight forehead and nose, and parti-
cularly the broad surface between the eyes on the Grecian
busts of women, were ideal beauties, invented by the
refined taste of the artists of antiquity. The features of
Donna
* It must be confessed our worthy friend D. Giacomo knows how to do things
in style.
meant as an epithet rather, than as the name it previously
went by.
After this desultory notice of the Misenian promontory,
I resume the thread of my narrative. It was not so much
the actual waste of our strength, as the prospect of the
long journey back to Pozzuoli, and our presumptive ina-
bility to accomplish so arduous an undertaking in the heat
of the day, that had damped Don Michele’s spirits as well
as my own. But here the good generalship, or rather the
provident good nature, of our worthy host, at once extri-
cated us from every difficulty. Like the knight in the ro-
mance, who, after wandering through wild deserts and
gloomy forests, reaches the sea-shore, where he espies a
gilded bark provided by the spell of a friendly fairy to waft
him to some blessed abode ; so we found, on our arrival at
the beach, a commodious boat ordered hither by the kind
Don Giacomo. At this welcome sight the countenance of
our friend Michele underwent an instantaneous change from
mesto to allegro vivace. “Bisogna dir,” he exclaimed with
complacency, che il nostro onoratissimo amico Don Gia-
como sa ordinare le cose a mar avi glia*.” Dapple was rode
home by the cicerone, and in less than half an hour we cut
the chord of the bay, and arrived at the house of our host in
Pozzuoli, where an ecclesiastic, invited to partake of Don
Giacomo’s hospitality, had been waiting for us some time.
I was now introduced to the sister of the latter, a maiden
brunette of about twenty-two. I had hitherto laid it down
for certain, that the straight forehead and nose, and parti-
cularly the broad surface between the eyes on the Grecian
busts of women, were ideal beauties, invented by the
refined taste of the artists of antiquity. The features of
Donna
* It must be confessed our worthy friend D. Giacomo knows how to do things
in style.