with wonder at its magnificence and admiration of my lady's beauty. Two
spring months in 1823 were passed at Genoa, where Lord Byron loved to
sit at the Countess's feet and pay homage to her with eye and tongue.
From Genoa the procession fared majestically to Rome, of which her
ladyship, in spite of the sensation she produced and the adulation she
received, soon wearied; she sighed for Naples, where she was regally
lodged in the Palazzo Belvidere, a Palace, as she declared, "fit for any
queen." And how the squire's daughter revelled in her new
pleasure-house, with its courtyard and plashing fountain, its arcade
and its colonnade, "supporting a terrace covered with flowers"; its
marvellous gardens, filled with the rarest trees, shrubs and plants; and
long gallery, "filled with pictures, statues, and bassi-relievi."

"On the top of the gallery," she says, "is a terrace, at
the extreme end of which is a pavilion, with open arcades
and paved with marble. This pavilion commands a most
charming prospect of the bay, the foreground filled up by
gardens and vineyards. The odour of the flowers in the
grounds around the pavilion, and the Spanish jasmine and
tuberoses that cover the walls, render it one of the most
delicious retreats in the world. The walls of all the
rooms are literally covered with pictures; the
architraves of the doors of the principal rooms are
oriental alabaster and the rarest marbles; the tables and
consoles are composed of the same costly materials; and
the furniture bears the traces of its pristine
splendour."

Such was the Arabian palace of all delights of which her gorgeous
ladyship now found herself mistress; and yet nothing would please her