JOHN INGLESANT.

CHAPTER I.

Inglesant travelled to Marseilles, and by packet boatto Genoa. The beauty of the approach by sea to thiscity, and the lovely gardens and the country around gave himthe greatest delight. The magnificent streets of palaces,mostly of marble, and the thronged public places, the galleriesof paintings, and the museums, filled his mind with astonishment;and the entrance into Italy, wonderful as he had expectedit to be, surpassed his anticipation. He stayed sometime in Genoa, to one or more of the Jesuit fathers in whichcity he had letters. Under the guidance of these cultivatedmen he commenced an education in art, such as in these dayscan be scarcely understood. From his coming into Italy anew life had dawned upon him in the music of that country.Fascinated as he had always been with the Church music atLondon and Oxford, for several years he had been cut off fromall such enjoyment, and, at its best, it was but the prelude towhat he heard now. For whole hours he would remain onhis knees at mass, lost and wandering in that strange world ofinfinite variety, the mass music—so various in its phases, yetwith a monotone of pathos through it all. The musical partieswere also a great pleasure. He played the violin a littlein England, and rapidly improved by the excellent tuition hemet with here. He became, however, a proficient in what theItalians called the viola d'amore, a treble viol, strung withwire, which attracted him by its soft and sweet tone. Amid aconcord of sweet sounds, within hearing of the splash offountains, and surrounded by the rich colours of an Italian interior,the young Englishman found himself in a new world of delight.As the very soul of music, at one moment merry and the nextmad with passion and delightful pain, uttered itself in thelong-continued tremor of the violins, it took possession in all itspower of Inglesant's spirit. The whole of life is recited uponthe plaintive strings, and by their mysterious effect upon thebrain fibres, men are brought into sympathy with life in all itsforms, from the gay promise of its morning sunrise to thesilence of its gloomy night.

From Genoa he went to Sienna, where he stayed sometime—the dialect here being held to be very pure, and fit forforeigners to accustom themselves to. He spoke Italianbefore with sufficient ease, and associating with several of thereligious in this cit

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