Peter’s, which may be seen long before any other object is distinguishable. No, he merely drew a pocketbook from his pocket, and took from it a paper folded in four, and after having examined it in a manner almost reverential, he said:
“Good! I have it still!”
The carriage entered by the Porta del Popolo, turned to the left, and stopped at the Hôtel d’Espagne.
Old Pastrini, our former acquaintance, received the traveller at the door, hat in hand. The traveller alighted, ordered a good dinner, and inquired the address of the house of Thomson & French, which was immediately given to him, as it was one of the most celebrated in Rome.
It was situated in the Via dei Banchi, near St. Peter’s.
In Rome, as everywhere else, the arrival of a post-chaise is an event.
Ten young descendants of Marius and the Gracchi, barefooted and out at elbows, with one hand resting on the hip and the other gracefully curved above the head, stared at the traveller, the post-chaise, and the horses; to these were added about fifty little vagabonds from the Papal States, who earned a pittance by diving into the Tiber at high water from the bridge of St. Angelo.
Now, as these street arabs of Rome, more fortunate than those of Paris, understand every language, more especially the French, they heard the traveller order an apartment, a dinner, and finally inquire the way to the house of Thomson & French.
The result was that when the newcomer left the hotel with the cicerone, a man detached himself from the rest of the idlers, and without having