It was fixed for the next day. The heat signified but little, for
these _calesses_ have large hoods, and the streets of Pompeji are so
narrow as to give some shade. I do not know how many _calesses_ there
were--more than we could easily count, as they met outside the palace
over against the church of S. Ferdinando. As the Admiral was
fulfilling his promise of driving her Ladyship, Will and I had a
_caless_ to ourselves, and you may be sure that we enjoyed it. Coming
last, as being the least present, we had all the fun of the fair; and
every one was making much splutter, because, though some were well
used to driving, they were mostly new to the handling of these
see-sawing _calesses_. I never in my whole life had the driving of
anything but an old pony and a shay: no more up to this time had Will,
though he afterwards prided himself on his horseflesh. But the mere
whipping up of a horse was fun enough for boys like us; and if we had
not had to keep our place in the rear of the line, I think that we
should have needed a deal of picking up on that road.
I shall not describe how we made our royal progress--we had the Queen
with us, mind--out of the Capuan Gate and past Portici, where their
Majesties have a palace and keep all the best of the things that are
found in Pompeji, even shaving the frescoes off the walls with a fine
kind of saw. Indeed, I was not able to observe much, for Will,
contrary to his usual wont, cried, "You drive, Tubby!"--which I was at
a loss to understand, until I espied that in the _caless_ in front of
us, of which the hood would not stay up, were seated the Prince of
Favara and his sister.
Once or twice, when we halted perforce, for this or the other reason
of My Lady, ever a creature of impulses, I was able to take my eye off
my horse, which in the general order, being the whip, I could not
afford to do. When I did so look up, I was not surprised that Will
bade me drive, for in all my life I never saw a woman with her head so
beautifully poised on her shoulders as Donna Rusidda, and the heat
brought the red into the clear cheeks of that delicate face. Her hair,
too, which was brushed up after the fashion of the day into something
very like the mode used on the Greek coins, had the most enchanting
little curls at the top of her slender neck.
When we arrived at our destination, we all drove into a spacious
courtyard, on a level with and a few yards distant from the high road,
from which it is separated by a large lattice gate, adjoining to the
abode of the only real inhabitant of the once magnificent and populous
town of Pompeji--the invalid soldier who acted as guardian and guide
to its remains, and who looked scared at the wholesale invasion of his
peaceful realm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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