Coleridge did not return by the proposed route of Naples, Ancona, Trieste, to be continued, to avoid Napoleon's power, by Vienna, Berlin, Embden, and Denmark (_Letters_, 492). He went, on the contrary, straight to Naples in company with a gentleman unnamed (Dykes Campbell's _Life_, 149). Here he remained till the end of January 1806; and then proceeded to Rome, where he associated with the artists resident in the Papal capital. He made the acquaintance of Baron W. von Humboldt, then Prussian Minister at the Papal Court; Ludwig Tieck, the German translator of Shakespeare; Washington Allston, the best American painter of his day; Canova, and Washington Irving; (Flagg's _Life of Allston_, 61). Various accounts have been given about what Coleridge said regarding his sojourn in Italy and his flight from it. Gillman (179-181), Cottle (_Rem._, 310-313), and Caroline Fox (_Journals_), all differing as to particulars. Flagg, the writer of the _Life of Allston_, says: "He had intended to go by Switzerland and Germany, but being somewhat apprehensive of danger on account of the movements of the French troops, took the precautions to ask the advice of Ambassador von Humboldt; he advised Coleridge to avoid Bonaparte, who was meditating the seizure of his person, and had already sent to Rome an order for his arrest, which was withheld from execution by the connivance of the good old Pope, Pius VII, who sent him a passport, and counselled his immediate flight by way of Leghorn. Accordingly he hastened to that port, where he found an American vessel ready to sail for England, and embarked. On the voyage they were chased by a French sail; the captain, becoming alarmed, commanded Coleridge to throw his papers, including his notes on Rome, overboard" (_Life of Allston_, p. 61). This agrees substantially with what Coleridge says in the _Biographia Literaria_, Chapter X. Cottle works the matter up into a romance in his own facetious way; and the other re-narrators mistake the facts somewhat. Caroline Fox, for instance, locates the embarkation from Genoa, saying: "On reaching Genoa, he so delighted an American by his conversation, who had never heard anything like it since he left Niagara, that at all risks, and with many subtleties, he got him on board, and brought him safe to England" (_Journals_, I, 123).[4]] FOOTNOTES: [1] [Letters CLI-CXLIII follow 130.] [2] [Drowned 5th February 1805.] [3] [The new Secretary.] [4] [It is quite true that he did induce an American captain to smuggle him on board.] CHAPTER XII HOME AGAIN, _ROLLING_, _RUDDERLESS_! THEOLOGY