think to ascend the mountain without our help. I am sure they deserve
to tumble into the crater."

"They must be bold fellows to go alone: you don't often find such?"

"Sometimes among the French, signor. But the other night--I never was
so frightened. I had been with an English party, and a lady had left a
pocket-book on the mountain where she had been sketching. She offered
me a handsome sum to return for it, and bring it to her at Naples; so I
went in the evening. I found it sure enough, and was about to return,
when I saw a figure that seemed to emerge from the crater itself. The
air was so pestiferous that I could not have conceived a human creature
could breathe it and live. I was so astounded that I stood as still as
a stone, till the figure came over the hot ashes and stood before me
face to face. Sancta Maria, what a head!"

"What, hideous?"

"No, so beautiful, but so terrible. It had nothing human in its
aspect."

"And what said the salamander?"

"Nothing! It did not even seem to perceive me, though I was as near as
I am to you; but its eyes seemed prying into the air. It passed by me
quickly, and, walking across a stream of burning lava, soon vanished on
the other side of the mountain. I was curious and foolhardy, and
resolved to see if I could bear the atmosphere which this visitor had
left; but though I did not advance within thirty yards of the spot at
which he had first appeared, I was driven back by a vapor that well-nigh