besieging Borgoforte. Others were conveyed upon cars by my friends the
carrettieri, of whom it was decreed I should not be quit for some time to
come. Entering Guastalla I found only a few artillery officers,
evidently in charge of what we had seen carried along the route.
Guastalla is a neat little town very proud of its statue of Duke Ferrante
Gonzaga, and the Croce Rossa is a neat little inn, which may be proud of
a smart young waiter, who actually discovered that, as I wanted to
proceed to Luzzara, a few miles on, I had better stop till next morning,
I did not take his advice, and was soon under the gate of Luzzara, a very
neat little place, once one of the many possessions where the Gonzagas
had a court, a palace, and a castle. The arms over the archway may still
be seen, and would not be worth any notice but for a remarkable work of
terracotta representing a crown of pines and pine leaves in a wonderful
state of preservation. The whole is so artistically arranged and so
natural, that one might believe it to be one of Luca della Robbia's
works. Luzzara has also a great tower, which I had seen in the distance
from Dosalo, and the only albergo in the place gives you an excellent
Italian dinner. The wine might please one of the greatest admirers of
sherry, and if you are not given feather beds, the beds are at least
clean like the rooms themselves. Here, as it was getting too dark, I
decided upon stopping, a decision which gave me occasion to see one of
the finest sunsets I ever saw. As I looked from the albergo I could see
a gradation of colours, from the purple red to the deepest of sea blue,
rising like an immense tent from the dark green of the trees and the
fields, here and there dotted with little white houses, with their red
roofs, while in front the Luzzara Tower rose majestically in the
twilight. As the hour got later the colours deepened, and the lower end
of the immense curtain gradually disappeared, while the stars and the
planets began shining high above. A peasant was singing in a field near
by, and the bells of a church were chiming in the distance. Both seemed