"Amidst the Celtic hordes of old That gather'd round his wayworn band, The cumbrous booty to behold Brought from Ausonia's sunny land, Thus _Brennus_ spake--'This lance of mine Bears Rome's best gift--Behold--the Vine! Plant, plant the Vine, to whose fair reign belong The arts of Peace, and all the realms of Song! "'They told us of its wondrous juice; We fought to taste it, and have won! Now o'er your hills new wealth diffuse And cherish well the warrior's boon. Plant, plant the Vine, &c. "'Nor for ourselves alone we tore That stem away; your ships shall bear The freighted joy to many a shore, And spread the unknown gladness there. Plant, plant the Vine, &c.' "He ended, and in face of all, While deep in earth he strikes the lance And plants the shoot--_unconscious Gaul Prepares the world's vast vineyard--France!_"[9] THE PALACE OF CASERTA. About thirteen miles from Naples is one of the finest kingly residences in Europe--so say all the guide-books, and they are right. Vanvitelli is the very Michael Angelo of palace-rearing! Its shape is a parallelogram approaching to a square. Counting mezzanines, it has six stories besides the attics; and is pierced with no less than 1700 windows. Its stair, the very perfection of that sort of construction, is vast in all its dimensions, and so very easy, that you look down from its summit admiring, with untried lungs, the enormous height you have reached. It starts double from the ground, and twenty persons might ascent either branch abreast, and meet one another at the spot where it begins to return upon itself; so that the noble octagonal landing above finds itself just over the starting-place below. From this post four large windows command four spacious courts, and the simple construction of this gigantic edifice stands unveiled. You now begin your journey through vast, lofty, magnificently marbled, and very ill-furnished apartments, of which, before you have completed the half circuit of a single floor, you are heartily tired, for, beyond the architecture, there is nothing to see. The commonest broker's shop would furnish better pictures. Boar-hunts of course, to represent how Neapolitan kings kill boars at Portici, and shoot wild-ducks on the _Lago di Fusina_. There is also an ample historical fresco on the ceiling of the antechamber to the throne-room, on which Murat _had_ caused to be represented some notable _charge_ where he proved victorious; but after he was shot, Ferdinand, with great taste, judgment, and good feeling, _erased_, _interpolated_, and _altered_ the picture into a harmless battle of Trojans against Greeks, or some such thing! The palace has two theatres and a chapel; and you must change your conductor four times if you would be led through the whole. For this enormous edifice boasts of only twelve servants, at eleven dollars a-month from the privy purse.