There was a little church on our way back from Posilippo, into which
we lounged a moment, pausing at the altar of some very successful
saint near the door. Here there were great numbers of the usual
offerings from the sick whom the saint had eased of their various
ills,--waxen legs and arms from people who had been in peril of
losing their limbs, as well as eyes, noses, fingers, and feet, and the
crutches of those cured of lameness; but we were most amused with the
waxen effigies of several entire babies hung up about the altar, which
the poor souls who had been near losing the originals had brought
there in gratitude to the saint.
Generally, however, the churches of Naples are not very interesting,
and one who came away without seeing them would have little to regret.
The pictures are seldom good, and though there are magnificent
chapels in St. Januarius, and fine Gothic tombs at Santa Chiara,
the architecture is usually rococo. I fancy that Naples has felt the
damage of Spanish taste in such things as well as Spanish tyranny in
others. Indeed, I saw much there which reminded me of what I had read
about Spain rather than what I had seen in Italy; and all Italian
writers are agreed in attributing the depravation of Naples to the
long Spanish dominion. It is well known how the Spaniards rule their
provinces, and their gloomy despotism was probably never more cruelly
felt than in Italy, where the people were least able to bear it. I
had a heart-felt exultation in walking through the quarter of the city
where the tumults of Massaniello had raged, and, if only for a few
days, struck mortal terror to the brutal pride of the viceroy; but
I think I had a better sense of the immense retribution which has
overtaken all memory of Spanish rule in Naples as we passed through
the palace of Capo di Monte. This was the most splendid seat of the
Spanish Bourbon, whose family, inheriting its power from the violence
of other times, held it with violence in these; and in one of the
chief saloons of the palace, which is now Victor Emanuel's, were
pictures representing scenes of the revolution of 1860, while the
statuette of a Garibaldino, in his red shirt and all his heroic
rudeness, was defiantly conspicuous on one of the tables.