and whimsical as I please; but it happened that I had scarcely begun
my apostrophe, before out flaunted a whole rank of officers, with
ladies and abbes and puppy dogs, singing, and flirting, and making
such a hubbub, that I had not one peaceful moment to observe the
bright tints of the western horizon, or enjoy the series of antique
ideas with which a calm sunset never fails to inspire me.

Finding, therefore, no quiet abroad, I returned to my inn, and should
have gone immediately to bed, in hopes of relapsing into the bosom of
dreams and delusions; but the limbo I mentioned before grew so very
outrageous, that I was obliged to postpone my rest till sugar-plums
and nursery eloquence had hushed it to repose. At length peace was
restored, and about eleven o'clock I fell into a slumber, during
which the most lovely Sicilian prospects filled the eye of my fancy.
I anticipated the classic scenes of that famous island, and forgot
every sorrow in the meadows of Enna.

Next morning, awakened by the sunbeams, I arose quite refreshed by
the agreeable impressions of my dream, and filled with presages of
future happiness in the climes which had inspired them. No other
idea but such as Trinacria and Naples suggested, haunted me whilst
travelling to Ghent. I neither heard the vile Flemish dialect which
was talking around me, nor noticed formal avenues and marshy country
which we passed. When we stopped to change horses, I closed my eyes
upon the whole scene, and was transported immediately to some Grecian
solitude, where Theocritus and his shepherds were filling the air
with melody. To one so far gone in poetic antiquity, Ghent is not
the most likely place to recall his attention; and I know nothing
more about it, than that it is a large, ill-paved, dismal-looking
city, with a decent proportion of convents and chapels, stuffed with