subjects, Ledas and sleeping Venuses, are a little too pagan, one
should think, for an apostle's finger.

From this precious repository we were conducted through the public
garden to a large hall, where part of the Sleitzom collection is
piled up, till a gallery can be finished for its reception. 'Twas a
matter of great favour to view, in this state, the pieces that
compose it,--a very imperfect one too, since some of the best were
under operation. But I would not upon any account have missed the
sight of Rubens's "Massacre of the Innocents." Such expressive
horrors were never yet transferred to canvas, and Moloch himself
might have gazed at them with pleasure.

After dinner we were led round the churches; and if you are as much
tired with reading my voluminous descriptions, as I was with the
continual repetition of altars and reliquaries, the Lord have mercy
upon you! However, your delivery draws near. The post is going out,
and to-morrow we shall begin to mount the cliffs of the Tyrol; but
don't be afraid of any long-winded epistles from their summits: I
shall be too well employed in ascending them. Just now, as I have
lain by a long while, I grow sleek, and scribble on in mere
wantonness of spirit. What excesses such a correspondence is capable
of, you will soon be able to judge.

July 25th.--The noise of the people thronging to the fair did not
allow me to slumber very long in the morning. When I got up, every
street was crowded with Jews and mountebanks, holding forth and
driving their bargains in all the energetic vehemence of the German
tongue. Vast quantities of rich merchandise glittered in the shops
as we passed along to the gates. Heaps of fruit and sweetmeats set