The Adventures Of Don Pasquale.

pation that Paesiello " threw himself , " as some old writers so elegantly jibrase it , » into the corner of his travelling carriage , " and started on his long travels , with youth and health , and contentment in his trainall great and precious gifts , and never to be

despised or wasted , depreciated , or thrown away , by mortal man . It is something to know that one is master of one ' s self , one ' s p lans and jiroceedings , one ' s purposes and pursuits . But we who have grown grey and old have outlived the effervescence of life ,

and have discounted , alas ! those many accejitances which too soon reach " maturity . " For us , illusions are over . We know , too well , how great , are the disajinointrnents and deceits of earth , aud for us fancy has fled away . We see things as they really are—no longer invested with the roseate hues of earl y dawn , no more accompanied by the bright gleams of hapjry

inexperience . Certainty has dispelled equally our anticipations and expectations , our fears and forebodings , one by one , and has left for us nothing hi their stead but tho formal

routine of life , the duller level of customary and dejected society . Where are ah our fair imaginings fled to ? And so when Paesiello , all enthusiastic , praised the beauties of the scenery , or talked of the wonders he hoped and longed

to see , Don Balthazar politely assented , hut calmly smoked his cigarette ; while Antonio , in his native patois , jironounced audible blessings on the horses and the post-boys , the world hi general , and each post-master in particular , in a frame of

mind alternately cynical and cheerful , hiiimph ant and depressed ! How queer Me the conditions of life to us all , and how contrasted are the various measures ! "icl aspects with which we regard the same position or treat the same thingMuch

, . depends , no doubt , on our digestion , or 'he "balance at our banker ' s , " on ' numerous contingencies , open and secret , on countle ss persons , male and female , who compose our " entourage , " or are mixed up with our lot

. At last , the cracking of the postillions ' 1 vl » ps announced that our travellers had ^ preached the Douane of Venice , and as jjy hero had received a friendl y letter from 110 head of the Douaniers of his native

land , to the chief of the Venetian Dogana , with that " camaraderie " which . exists everywhere , if we only knew how to profit by it , Paesiello with his belongings , and after a quiet little " bezzi-mano , " was allowed to enter the fan- town of Venice ,

and drive straight to the famous hotel of St . Geromino , which abuts on the Grand Canal . " Beautiful Venice " is the burden of an

old song often sung m the days of a famous " Choral Union , ' long since numbered with the departed good tilings of this world , I sadly fear , but bound up with many very jileasant memories to me of " auld lang syne , " and kind friends , and pleasant faces and tuneful voices . " Beautiful Venice" was still , in Paesiello ' s young days a most agreeable place to see , and to loiter in !

And , as my hero s first adventure happened within the walls of Venice , and it is one , as Don Balthazar said , which did equal credit to "Ms head and to Ms heart , " I think it right to be particidar and prolix in the greatest degree . The pilgrims arrived at the time of the

Carnival , and , of course , as one in the full bloom of youth , Paesiello was not averse to make one , if for a short moment , of that gay and glittering throng . Of course he did all the lions , and saw all the si ghts of Venice . He was impressed with St .

Mark ' s , and pathetic in the Doge ' s Palace ; he saw the subterranean prison from wliich Bro . Casanova escaped ; he stood on the Bridge of Sighs , he lounged in gondolas amid wreaths of Turkish tobacco ; he

thought of Shylock on the Rialto , and Portia and Jessica , and drank iced lemonade on the Piazza di San Marco . I don't fancy that he thought much of the " Bucentaur , ' ' and I am even certain of this—that he was very glad to remember that bright and beautiful Venice

was no longer under that horrible and cruel oligarchy , whose highest idea of good government was the Council of Ten , the Masked Three , whose normal mode of punishment was the secret denunciation and the lion ' s mouththe living prison and the

, midnight murder . Perhaps the very best thing Napoleon I . ever did , was the civil absorption of the Venetian into the Cisalpine Republic . But Venice was very gay , and Paesiello