Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

180

MEMOIRS OF JOHN ADAMS DIX.

ing more impressive since that day; nor shall I ever again
enjoy such sensations as those awakened by the sight of that
lordly wealth, unrivalled save in Venice, and breathing of
the very awe and majesty of religion; for surely, if there
be religion in art, it is to be seen at its height in the work
of the Spanish School.
From these glories we turned reluctantly away, and, descending the river, went back to Cadiz; and thence by steamer to Gibraltar, where we saw the Union Jack flying in the
breeze, and the red-coated sentries pacing the rocky platform,
and heard the beat of the British drums and the shrill music
of the fife; and walked through the galleries in the rock, and
drove across the Neutral Ground to get a distant view of the
great lion-like rampart of the Straits. A Spanish steamer
then took us up and carried us along the coast. Every day
we landed at some new town: at Malaga, Almeria, and Aguilas; at Cartagena, Alicante, and Valencia; at Barcelona, on
which the guns frowned from Monjuich; and so along the
Mediterranean to Leghorn, and then to Pisa and Florence.
It was a journey to be long remembered, standing clearly on
the horizon of the far-away.
The General spent the summer of 1843 in a villa outside
the walls of Florence. It belonged to the Marquis d'Elci,
and had all the requisites for one of Mrs. Henry Wood's
romances. It was quadrangular, enclosing a paved court:
three sides of the structure constituted the residence, while
the fourth was a thick wall, pierced by a great gate, and broad
enough for a passage-way along the top from wing to wing.
There were suites of rooms enough for half a dozen families;
and an immense hall, which we called the ball-room. The
floors above and below were of brick, and the sleeping apartments had great high-post bedsteads, with awful hangings;
and on the walls hung full-length pictures of nobles, soldiers,
priests, and nuns. Then there was a chapel, in which from
time to time Mass was sung; and once during the summer
the peasantry came thither to keep a fete, and the floor was