Rose at eight: the morning was already sultry as the hottest noon in England. After breakfast, I wandered about the house in search of shade; went into an empty room, opened the shutters, and got out upon a large piazza, or rather colonnade, which surrounded it. The side I had chosen was defended by the house from the fierce sunlight; and I walked up and down in quiet and loneliness for some time. Not far from the house stood the prison, one of the state prisons of the country; a large grey building, which appeared like a huge block of granite, unsheltered by a single tree or bush, and dim with the hazy heat of the atmosphere. Being Sunday, we were not able to visit it; but the person who kept the house where we were, a very intelligent and civil man, gave us some account of it, and fully corroborated the fact which Stuart mentions,--that when the prison took fire, and all the criminals confined in it were liberated to assist in saving the building, in spite of the general confusion and total absence of restraint or observation, which for some time left them the most easy opportunity of escape, not one of them took advantage of this accident to recover their liberty, but every prisoner returned voluntarily, after the fire was got under, to his cell. This seems miraculous, and speaks more for the excellence of the system pursued in these establishments than all the disquisitions in the world. At about ten, our exclusive extra having driven to the door, we packed ourselves into it, and proceeded towards Geneva, where we were to dine. The sky, however, presently became overcast; and, towards noon, the world was absolutely shrouded in a lead-coloured pall. The air was stifling: it was impossible to draw one's breath; and a quarter of a degree more of heat would certainly have occasioned suffocation. We were all gasping. Suddenly the red lightning tore open the heavy clouds, the thunder rolled round the heavens, the rain came down in torrents: we were away from all shelter, and obliged to proceed through the storm. The leather curtains of our coach were speedily unrolled and buttoned down; but this formed but a miserable shelter against the furious rain. Our carpet bags, which were on the outside of the carriage, were soaked through; and we ourselves were soon in nearly as bad a plight. The rain came in rivulets through the crevices of our insufficient shelter, and the seats and bottom of the coach were presently standing pools. We arrived between twelve and one o'clock at Cayuga; and here we drew up before the inn door, to await the end of the storm. The rain was still so violent, that we preferred remaining in the coach to getting out and being still more thoroughly drenched. The thunder growled sulkily at a distance, and the lightning glared rapidly from side to side. By degrees, the over-swollen clouds, having emptied themselves, rolled away; the rain became less violent; the mist and heavy vapour parted