Many
of the young men of the villages take to this kind of life occasionally
from a mere love of adventure, the wild wandering spirit of youth and
the contagion of bad example; but it is remarked that they can never
after brook a long continuance in settled life. They get fond of the
unbounded freedom and rude license they enjoy; and there is something
in this wild mountain life checquered by adventure and peril, that is
wonderfully fascinating, independent of the gratification of cupidity
by the plunder of the wealthy traveller."
Here the improvvisatore was interrupted by a lively Neapolitan lawyer.
"Your mention of the younger robbers," said he, "puts me in mind of an
adventure of a learned doctor, a friend of mine, which happened in this
very neighborhood."
A wish was of course expressed to hear the adventure of the doctor by
all except the improvvisatore, who, being fond of talking and of
hearing himself talk, and accustomed moreover to harangue without
interruption, looked rather annoyed at being checked when in full
career.
The Neapolitan, however, took no notice of his chagrin, but related The
following anecdote.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE LITTLE ANTIQUARY.
My friend the doctor was a thorough antiquary: a little, rusty, musty
Old fellow, always groping among ruins. He relished a building as you
Englishmen relish a cheese, the more mouldy and crumbling it was, the
more it was to his taste. A shell of an old nameless temple, or the
cracked walls of a broken-down amphitheatre, would throw him into
raptures; and he took more delight in these crusts and cheese parings
of antiquity than in the best-conditioned, modern edifice.
He had taken a maggot into his brain at one time to hunt after the
Ancient cities of the Pelasgi which are said to exist to this day among
the mountains of the Abruzzi; but the condition of which is strangely
unknown to the antiquaries. It is said that he had made a great many
valuable notes and memorandums on the subject, which he always carried
about with him, either for the purpose of frequent reference, or
because he feared the precious documents might fall into the hands of
brother antiquaries. He had therefore a large pocket behind, in which
he carried them, banging against his rear as he walked.
Be this as it may; happening to pass a few days at Terracina, in the
course of his researches, he one day mounted the rocky cliffs which
overhang the town, to visit the castle of Theodoric. He was groping
about these ruins, towards the hour of sunset, buried in his
reflections, - his wits no doubt wool-gathering among the Goths and
Romans, when he heard footsteps behind him.
