rocks and dripping fern, I soon came upon the high road whose entry had
been barred to me by the soldiers. I ate my bread, finished my jug of
wine, and pushed on so vigorously that by noon I was in the heart of the
mountains. To cut the narrative short, after one cold night in the open
and one more day's march, having surmounted the watershed of Lombardy
and Tuscany, I found myself within view of the frontier, saw the guard-
house with the red and white posts of the Grand Duchy, and two sentries
with muskets walking up and down--a sharp reminder of difficulties
ahead. Beyond the frontier the road curved about a great bluff of rock
and skirted the edge of an abyss. I could see dimly a far-stretching
blue plain with rivers and white villages showing faintly upon it; my
heart leaped at the thought that there below me, within a day's travel,
was the land that held Aurelia and Redemption; but even in that same
moment there surged up that bitter something which chilled the generous
feelings and staled the fluttering hopes. Cruel and vexatious thought!
There was not a rill of water on these mossy stones which did not race
unimpeded, or, if impeded, gathering force and direction from the very
obstacle, towards Aurelia; yet here was I, sentient, adoring, longing,
who had travelled so far and endured so much, unable to move one step
beyond a painted post. Such thoughts make rebels of us. Is man, then,
the slave of all creation? Is his the one existence framed by the
Almighty that cannot follow his nature? Better then to be a beast of
chase, darting mouse or blundering mole, than a man, if the more erect
posture is to be the badge of a greater degradation. If the sole merit
of two legs be that they take less hobbling, better far to go upon four.
Needless to say that these were the mutinous reflections of the young
Francis who suffered--not of him who now writes them down, who pays
taxes, wears a good coat and bows to the police with the best citizens
in the country. But that Francis of nascent rebellion--miserably
irresolute, truly indignant, not daring to go forward, not able to