the colors, through which it displays itself, are more various, more
tasteful, more gorgeous. Nothing can exceed, nothing equals, it is said,
any where in the world, the state of the Queen and her court; and this
infects, if I may use so harsh a word, the whole city. So that, though
with far less of real substantial riches than we have, their extravagance
and luxury are equal, and their taste far before us. Then every thing
wears a newer, fresher look than in Rome. The buildings of the republic,
which many are so desirous to preserve, and whole streets even of
ante-Augustan architecture, tend to spread around here and there in Rome a
gloom--to me full of beauty and poetry--but still gloom. Here all is
bright and gay. The buildings of marble--the streets paved and
clean--frequent fountains of water throwing up their foaming jets, and
shedding around a delicious coolness--temples, and palaces of the nobles,
or of wealthy Palmyrene merchants--altogether present a more brilliant
assemblage of objects than I suppose any other city can boast. Then
conceive, poured through these long lines of beautiful edifices, among
these temples and fountains, a population drawn from every country of the
far East, arrayed in every variety of the most showy and fanciful costume;
with the singular animals, rarely seen in our streets, but here met at
every turn--elephants, camels, and dromedaries, to say nothing of the
Arabian horses, with their jewelled housings, with every now and then a
troop of the Queen's cavalry, moving along, to the sound of their clanging
trumpets--conceive, I say, this ceaseless tide of various animal life
poured along among the proud piles, and choking the ways, and you will
have some faint glimpse of the strange and imposing reality.

Fausta was in raptures at my transports, and in her pleasant but
deep-meaning way, boasted much over the great capital of the world. So we
rode along, slowly, because of the crowded state of the streets, and on
account of my desire to observe the manners and ways of the people--their