The "sable goddess" had been seated for some time upon her "ebon
throne," when we passed through the ponderous gate and rattled along
the principal street of Genoa the Proud. It was a beautiful night. The
firmament was studded with sparkling gems, and the silver queen rode
steadily in the heavens, diffusing that pure and hallowed illumination
which prompted the ancients to worship her as the goddess of chastity,
and uninterrupted by any of those envious clouds whose intervention
between her face and the earth furnishes poets with so favorite a
figure to express the idea of virtue obscured and oppressed with
misfortune. It was not, however, a night in which "creation
sleeps,"--or, to use the pompous phrase of Racine, in which "tout dort,
et les vents et Neptune,"--for the wind was tempestuously high, and the
waves evinced all their usual restlessness at being roughly visited by
the subjects of old Æolus. As we whirled along, nothing like an
animated being was to be seen; not even a mouse was stirring; and the
rush and whistling of the wind through the street, seemed to bring out
the solemn stillness which otherwise prevailed, into the strongest
relief. How we strained our eyes to catch glimpses of the glorious
palaces which have so filled the trump of fame, and to which the city
is indebted for her magnificent title! And how impressive, how imposing
was their appearance in the partial development and mellowed effect of
their splendor, afforded by the beams of the moon! The whole street was
one consecutive, uninterrupted row of princely buildings,--and
exquisite indeed was the effect of light and shade there
exhibited--"leaving that lovely which was so, and making that which was
not."
We had given directions to be taken to the Hotel of the Cross of
Malta--_L'Albergo della Croce di Malta_, and when the carriage stopped,
we got out with the expectation of being at our destined domicil. No
sign, however, of a hotel was visible, and one of our party began to
make an accompaniment to the noise of the wind by storming a little at
the postillions for not obeying his orders,--when the courier informed
us that we were as near as the vehicle could get to the house, as it
was located in a street hard by, too narrow for any but pedestrians.
This position of one of the principal hotels of a city denominated _la
superba_, appeared singular enough, and with our ideas of its
superbness somewhat diminished, we followed the man a short distance up
a lane in which two persons could scarcely walk abreast, until we
reached the door of the establishment, whose aspect was not
particularly inviting, in despite of its towering altitude. Our fears,
however, as to the manner in which we might be accommodated, or rather
unaccommodated, were soon put to rest, when we mounted the spacious
stairway, and were ushered into a suite of apartments which to the
simplicity of an American, republican eye, wore an air of absolute
magnificence.
What a difference there was between the first aspect of things in this
our Hotel of the Cross of Malta, and that which is presented in the
places of entertainment for man and horse in the United States. Instead
of being ushered into a bar-room filled with the fumes of whiskey and
tobacco, crowded with boots to be blackened, decorated with
"tintanabulent appendages" innumerable, and affording palpable evidence
in every way that the establishment is as much entitled to the motto,
"e pluribus unum," as the government of the country itself, we were
received at the portal by a single domestic and conducted to our rooms
without seeing or hearing the slightest indication that any other
"mortal mixture of earth's mould" besides ourselves, was in the house.
And then the difference in the appearance of the apartments! The
recollection of the closets or pigeon holes, styled chambers by the
courtesy of our mother tongue, so limited in their dimensions, that
like the cell of the poor Hibernian, in which he "did nothing but walk
up and down," you cannot "stand in them at all," furnished with a bed,
a wash-stand, two chairs, and a looking glass, in which you may see one
moiety of your face at a time, if you exert yourself with sufficient
industry, did not certainly excite any very lively regrets, as we gazed
on the spacious apartments glittering with mirrors, the walls and
ceiling frescoed and gilded _ad unguem_, mantles supported by
sculptured goddesses, chairs and lounges covered with damask, and beds
so richly curtained and attired, that it seemed as if one could
scarcely sleep in them, for thinking of the luxury in which he was
reposing. The hotel was formerly a palace, whose glories, in part, it
still retains. Yet, to tell the truth and shame a certain nameless
gentleman, before my head had been long laid upon the pillow, I would
willingly have exchanged the grandeur and the spaciousness of the room
in which I was courting the sweet restorer of tired nature, for the
plainness and contractedness of any of the closets to which I have
alluded. Verily I paid for my magnificence. Never did I suffer from
cold as on that night--the very exercise which I took in shaking and
shivering ought to have induced perspiration, but in spite of a
respectable quantity of bed-clothes, with the addition of all my
habiliments piled on top of them, I could not make myself warm enough
to allow the god of sleep to exercise his balmy influence upon my eyes
for an instant. Italian dwellings, unfortunately, as I thought then,
are constructed much more in reference to the weather of the torrid
than of the frigid zone. Every method is devised of letting in as much
of the coolness of the external atmosphere as possible, and of adapting
the materials of the apartments to the nullification of all caloric;
and the one in which I was quaking, was in no way an exception to the
prevalent custom. The marble floors and unpapered walls,
notwithstanding the warmth of the colors with which the latter were
filled, created a resistless disposition to chilliness in themselves;
the wind came pouring through several windows, reaching almost from the
ceilings to the floor, whose looseness provided it with abundant
facility for ingress; no fire-place offered its aid for combating the
power of the blusterer; and the bed in which I lay, curled up into a
heap, to prevent the "genial current" from entirely freezing, was of
amplitude commensurate with the dimensions of the chamber. Napoleon,
with his whole staff, might have been accommodated in it, when he
visited Genoa. Whenever I attempted to make a change of position, I
might as well have fallen into an ice-house. What joy when the
morning's light dawned upon my eyes! Never did I observe the maxim with
regard to early rising with so much good-will, as when I left the
inhospitable couch, determined not to entrust myself to it again. By
the time I had dressed I was as near congelation as I well could be;
the only thing that kept my blood in circulation was the prospect of an
exhilirating fire in the sitting-room, and there I steered with all
possible speed; but alas, for human expectations! On opening the door
my optics were immediately filled with smoke, and as they are not of
that "nice" character which are requisite "to see what is not to be
seen," I could discern nothing like a blaze. The badly constructed
hearth manifested the most invincible repugnance to permit the wood to
ignite, but kindly enabled us to obtain all the warmth we could from
fumigation. I confess I became somewhat dispirited. One of my motives
in coming to Italy was to escape the cold of the winter at home, and
here on my very entrance into its mild and genial atmosphere, as it is
always called, had I suffered more chattering of the teeth than I ever
did before for the same length of time. This may be an escape thought
I, but if it is, it is one amazingly like that of Lieutenant
O'Shangnessy, who _escaped_ from the field of battle into the ranks of
the enemy.