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PENCIL SKETCHES IN ROME. 325
ful from their lips, stamped them, nevertheless, as finer
gentlemen than Messieurs the Americans and English-
men with whom I had the day before had the somewhat
long-drawn-out pleasure of eating dinner in the show-
room of the Albergo Nazionale. And this impression
was in no wise lost upon nearer acquaintance, for the in-
born tact and delicacy of the Italians, which do not belie
themselves even in the most repulsive class of the Ro-
mans—the pomatumed dandies on the Corso, dressed out
in their French Sunday clothes—were present in rich
measure, and gave an air of nobility to the chill of the
place. And when a spotless white cloth was spread over
one corner of the table, and eggs and southern fruits set
forth, and a golden vino bianco was handed me, in a de-
canter rinsed clean under the stream of the nearest foun-
tain, I thought I had no reason to grumble at the fate
which led me to the Trattoria dell’ Agricultura. The
wall opposite me, w’as adorned in fresco by a very modest
painter with a scene out of Rome’s latest history : the
storming of the Porta Pia by the Italians, in September,
1870. On which side the artist had in feeling stood, in
the struggle, one could see by the predilection with which
he had represented papal zouaves impaled upon the bayo-
nets of the charging bersaglieri. Perhaps it was this pic-
ture which had led the talk of the campagnoli upon Gari-
baldi. Whatever else they may know of the legends of
saints—probably the only thing in which they have any
instruction—one saint they have, above all other saints,
and that is Garibaldi. Never have I heard a Roman
praise him for his heroic courage and his achievements,
but always for his justice and unselfishness. He has won
kingdoms by arms, he has been master of the treasures of
Naples and Sicily ; but although he has squandered noth-
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