Mohawk flourished his hatchet and
gave such a dreadful shriek as to set the whole company in alarm.[112] On
the whole this character was so little understood that it was looked upon
as a mauvaise plaisanterie.
The usual characters are Pulcinelli, Arlecchini, Spanish Grandees, Turks,
fortune tellers, flower girls and Devils; sometimes too they go in the
costume of the Gods and Goddesses of the ancient mythology. I observe that
the English ladies here prefer to appear without masks in the costume of
the Swiss and Italian peasantry.
There is a very large English society at Rome, and at some of the parties
here, you could suppose yourself in Grosvenor Square.
The late political changes have brought together in Rome many persons of
the most opposite parties and sentiments, who have fallen from the height
of political power and influence into a private station, but who enjoy
themselves here unmolested, and even protected by the Government, and are
much courted by foreigners. I have seen at the same masquerade, in the
Teatro Aliberti, in boxes close to each other, the Queen of Spam (mother
of Ferdinand VII), and the Princess Borghese, Napoleon's sister. In a box
at a short distance from them were Lucian Buonaparte, his wife and
daughters.
