nfair or unfriendly was intended by it. And yet it
is wonderful to notice that the servants thus talked to, and let into
all the prying weakness of their masters' dispositions, are never
impertinent, nor outstep the boundary of the most obsequious respect
and humility.

Strange, indescribable people! I lay down my pen, and laugh as
recollections without number of similar instances rise up before me;
and yet the moment afterwards, when I think of all the examples of
their kindness of heart and good feeling which I could almost as easily
recall, I despair of doing justice to them, or of conveying any idea of
the never-ceasing contrast between the pathetic and grotesque that the
Italian character presents. In all scenes of distress or affliction,
their sympathy and charity are very remarkable; and it is beautiful
to witness their untiring solicitude towards each other in sickness.
Even young men, of apparently the most frivolous disposition, evince,
under these circumstances, a tenderness and forbearance we are apt to
consider the exclusive attribute of woman. No Italian, when ill, is
ever left alone; his friends seem to think they are bound to devote
themselves to him, and divide the hours of watching according to their
numbers or the nature of their avocations.

The case of a young man at Bologna, related to me by one of his medical
attendants, who lingered for eight months in excruciating agonies from
an incurable injury to the spine, was an affecting illustration of this
devotedness. He had been gay and frivolous himself, and his companions
shared more or less in similar failings; but contrary to what is
usually seen, after having partaken of his hours of pleasure, they
did not fly from the scenes of pain his sick-room presented. They so
arranged their attendance upon him, that, out of eight to ten who were
his most intimate friends, two at a time were always, night and day, by
his side, ever watchful to mitigate, to the utmost of their power, the
tortures under which he laboured. It was said, no woman's gentlen