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sufferings of a gang of slaves. "They were yoked to a heavy waggon, and dragging some marble slates along that burning shore, whose heated sands, impressed with the sun of that ardent clime and season, seemed to emit particles of fire. These wretched men had no dress but canvas trousers and vest; their feet, legs, arms, and (in spite of the darting sun-rays) heads, were bare; their bronzed skins were crimsoned up to their dripping brows: every sinew was starting; every nerve was strained; every vein swelled their arms were folded on their stooped and panting breasts: they were chained in couples; and on the iron ring which clasped their worn ankles, was engraved the word 'Libertas.' This was a terrible sight." Every feeling heart will sympathize with her ladyship in her high-coloured description of the galley-slaves. But it must not be forgotten that they are criminals, who have in many instances, forfeited their lives to violated laws; a sentence which mercy has commuted into the loss of liberty, and an obligation to labour. The public exposure of the condemned criminal is a more beneficial, although painful admonition to beware of guilt, than the secret infliction of treadmill punishment in England. It is even more advantageous to the prisoner, as a security against the cruelty of a tyrannical jailor.

The streets of Genoa are narrow and dark, the projecting cornices of the lofty palaces nearly meeting across the way. In the centre is a narrow causeway, paved with brick, for the convenience of porters and mules; and on either side, flagged ways for foot-passengers; carriages are inadmissible, except in the two principal streets. The lower apartments of the fine houses in the Strada Balbi and Strada Nuova are occupied as cellars, shops, and lumber stores, while the upper are appropriated to the residents. The state-apartments are generally on the third floor, looking into the central court which every palace possesses; and the roofs, which are flat, are adorned with shrubs, trees, myrtles, pomegranates, orange-trees, oleanders, and others, upwards of twenty feet in height, growing in beds of earth several feet in depth, which rest upon substantial arches constructed for their support. Here, also, the air is refreshed by the constant play of fountains: and it is in these delightful terraces, the more elegant of the Genoese pass the greater portion of their time.

The aspect of the city was formerly much varied from the usual character of such scenes, by the amazing number of fortified dwellings and lofty towers, raised for defensive purposes, during the mad contests of the Guelfs and Ghibelines; but to these have succeeded structures distinguished less for strength than symmetry. Neither Rome nor Venice offer anything comparable with the marble columns, statues, stairs, palaces, and pictures of Genoa.

The Strada Nuova, which is but twelve paces broad, was designed by Rubens, who has left a description of the palaces and churches which adorned it. The Palazzo Doria stood here. In the Strada Balbi is the famous Durazzo palace, which the king of Sardinia has purchased for a royal residence. It extends 250 feet in front, and is adorned with a splendid Doric portico, of white marble: its central court is embellished with fountains, hanging terraces, and broad flights of marble stairs; while the interior includes an interminable suite of apartments, with porphyry floors, gilded ceilings,

28

FORTRESS OF PALAMEDI.

and walls hung with the works of the most eminent masters. Amongst the latter is a portrait of Anne Boleyn, by Holbein, interesting from the curious costume, extraordinary beauty, and her melancholy history. The Sala Paola in this splendid palace, derives its name from the chef-d'œuvre of Paul Veronese which it contains-Mary Magdalen at our Saviour's feet in the house of the Pharisee.

THE FORTRESS OF PALAMEDI, NAPOLI DE ROMANIA.

GREECE.

"How worthy of that ancient land,

To every thoughtful spirit dear,
Are all the features soft and grand,
That we behold depicted here."

MARY HOWITT.

PALAMEDES, the son of Nauplius-he who detected the feigned insanity of Ulysses, and who was afterwards so unjustly sacrificed to the artifice and resentment of the wily Ithacan, by the Greeks, during the Trojan war-was the founder of Nauplia, the Napoli of modern times; and the strong fortress that crowns the hill, and frowns upon the town, is still called the Palamedi. Its commercial position, and the impregnable character of its defences, must have recommended it, from the earliest period, as a port for delivery, and place for storage; and these advantages rendered the name of Nauplia familiar to the sailors of the Archipelago during the middle ages.

The citadel, or fortress, of Palamedi, is elevated seven hundred feet above the sea, and is inaccessible on all sides save the east, where it is chained to the main-land by a detached ridge of rocks. Travellers describe it as impregnable, if held by disciplined soldiers, but add, that a palikar once reached the summit by climbing up the front of the precipitous rock. This tale, even if true, detracts but little from its defensive character; for, an expert individual—like the Gaul who reached the Capitol only to be hurled head-foremost by the gallant Manlius, or a peculiar people like the Ligurians so celebrated for their activity-might accomplish a feat which, to all others, would be impracticable. The princely merchants of Venice were the authors of the military works that still survive at Nauplia; and fifty-seven brass guns, now mounted in the fortress, bear the date of 1687, together with the once dreaded lion of St. Mark. All the rain that falls within the fortified area is conducted, by due adjustments, into spacious cisterns excavated in the rock, and these reservoirs are capable of containing a three-years' supply for as numerous a garrison as the fortress can accommodate. Below the Palamedi is a second fort, called Itch-kali, occupying the summit of a peninsular rock, which the Venetians endeavoured to make completely an island; and

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