Suddenly a noise of arms and shouts are
heard. It is her lover who having collected a few followers come rushing
forward with arms in their hands to arrest the execution. He forces his way
into the presence of the Consuls, but the sight of his father inspires him
with awe; he staggers back; at this moment a Lictor at the command of the
other Consul plunges a spear into his breast. The Vestal is hurried to the
brink of the vault, into which she is forced to descend to the
accompaniment of mournful music, while her dying lover vainly endeavours to
crawl towards her. The curtain falls.
The exquisite acting of La Pallerini drew tears from my eyes: it was indeed
too horrible a subject for a Ballo, which in my opinion ought to end
happily. The scenery was the finest of the kind I think I ever witnessed.
The first scene represents the Circus maximus; the interior of the temple
of Vesta and the place of execution outside the walls of Rome were most
classically correct and appropriate: the music was beyond all praise and
singularly affecting. This Ballet has excited such an enthusiastic
approbation that Vigano the Ballet master, Pallerini who acts the Vestal
and the young man who performs the hero of the piece were summoned every
evening after the termination of the Ballet, to appear on the stage, and
receive applauses, which seemed to increase at every representation. I have
been to see this ballet six or seven times, and always with increased
delight. I was there on the last night of its representation, when some
amateurs and people connected with the theatre put in practice what
appeared to mean ill-judged concetto, however well merited the compliment
it meant to convey. When the Vestal was about to descend into the vault, a
genius with wings rose from it and repeated a few lines beginning Tu non
morrai and telling her that the suffrages of the Insubrian people had
decreed to her immortality, and printed sonnets were showered down on the
stage from all parts of the house. I think it would have been much better
to let the piece finish in the usual way, and then at its termination call
for La Pallerini to advance and receive the garlands and hommage so justly
her due.
I was in the loge belonging to my friend Mme L - - -; there were three or
four litterati with her, and they were all unanimous that it was an
absurd and pedantic concetto.
In a day or two I shall start from Milan for Munich thro' Brescia and
Verona and the Tyrol.
CHAPTER XVI
JULY-SEPTEMBER 1818
Innspruck - Tyrol and the Tyrolese - From Innspruck to Munich - Monuments and
churches - Theatricals - Journey from Munich to Vienna on a floss - Trouble
with a passport - Complicated system of Austrian money - Description of
Vienna - The Prater - The theatres - Schiller's Joan of Arc - A
Kinderballet - The young Napoleon at Schoenbrunn - Journey from Vienna to
Prague.
INNSPRUCK, 15th July.
I had engaged with a vetturino to convey me from Verona to Innspruck for
four louis d'or and to be spesato. A Roman gentleman and his lady were
my fellow travellers; they were going to pass the summer months at a small
campagne they possess in the Tyrol. We stopped the first night at
Roveredo. The road from Verona to Roveredo is on the banks of the Adige
(called in German the Etsch) in a narrow and deep valley, shut up on both
sides by mountains, almost immediately on leaving Verona. We found the
weather extremely hot in this valley. Roveredo seems to be a very neat
clean little city, and the Adige flows with astonishing rapidity along this
narrow valley. The women of Roveredo have the reputation of being very
beautiful; and I recollect having seen two Roveredo girls at Venice, who
were models of female beauty. They have a happy mixture of German and
Italian blood and manners, but Italian is the language of the country. The
second morning of our journey we arrived and stopped to dinner at the
venerable and celebrated city of Trent. The country we passed thro' is much
the same as that between Verona and Roveredo, the Adige being on our left.
Trent lies also in the valley of the Adige, shut up between the Alps. The
whole valley appears in high cultivation. The streets of Trent are broad;
the Cathedral is a remarkably fine Gothic building. In the church of Sta
Maria Maggiore was held the famous council of Trent. There are a great many
silk mills in Trent. German as well as Italian is spoken; indeed the two
languages are equally familiar to most of the inhabitants. In the evening
we arrived at Sabern after passing thro' Lavis. One description will serve
for these towns and indeed for most of the towns in the Tyrol, viz., that
of being neat, clean and solidly built. The inns are excellent and the
inhabitants very civil. The Adige runs close to the road and parallel to
it, nearly the whole way to Bolsano or Botzen, where Italian ceases to be
spoken and German is the national tongue. Botzen is a large and flourishing
place.
One general description will serve for the Tyrol, regarding the towns,
adjacent country, customs, inns, inhabitants, dress and manners.
First the towns are fully as neat, clean and well built as those in
Switzerland; the country too is very similar, tho' not quite on so grand a
scale of sublimity; but you have fully as much variety in mountain and
valley, glacier and cascade. The climate is exactly the same as that of
Switzerland, being very hot in the valleys in summer. The inns are clean
and good, the provisions excellent and well cooked, the wines much better
than those of Switzerland; there is good attendance by females and all at a
far cheaper rate than in Switzerland.
