himself a free agent, the Earl, inviting Aram to join him, sauntered
among the loiterers on the terrace for a few moments, and then descended
a broad flight of steps, which brought them into a more shaded and
retired walk; on either side of which rows of orange-trees gave forth
their fragrance, while, to the right, sudden and numerous vistas were cut
among the more irregular and dense foliage, affording glimpses--now of
some rustic statue--now of some lone temple--now of some quaint fountain,
on the play of whose waters the first stars had begun to tremble.

It was one of those magnificent gardens, modelled from the stately
glories of Versailles, which it is now the mode to decry, but which
breathe so unequivocally of the Palace. I grant that they deck Nature
with somewhat too prolix a grace; but is beauty always best seen in
deshabille? And with what associations of the brightest traditions
connected with Nature they link her more luxuriant loveliness! Must we
breathe only the malaria of Rome to be capable of feeling the interest
attached to the fountain or the statue?

"I am glad," said the Earl, "that you admired my bust of Cicero--it is
from an original very lately discovered. What grandeur in the brow!--
what energy in the mouth, and downward bend of the head! It is pleasant
even to imagine we gaze upon the likeness of so bright a spirit;--and
confess, at least of Cicero, that in reading the aspirations and
outpourings of his mind, you have felt your apathy to Fame melting away;
you have shared the desire to live to the future age,--'the longing after
immortality?"

"Was it not that longing," replied Aram, "which gave to the character of
Cicero its poorest and most frivolous infirmity? Has it not made him,
glorious as he is despite of it, a byword in the mouths of every