' That was a true saying. Now we
are creating the new people, and what a future there is before us! Now
it is we who are taking the leadership of the Latin race, and who are
giving back to our history its brilliance of the sixteenth century. At
present our Art is poor because we have no popular type; but wait! In a
few years Italy will show a profile no less full of character than in
the days of Michael Angelo, and Benvenuto Cellini."
III
Then the moment arrived when all abstract reflections were thrust aside
once more by convalescence. I was well again, after having been shut up
for over four months. I still felt the traces of the mercury poisoning,
but I was no longer tied to my bed, and weak though I was, I could walk.
And on the very first day,--it was March 25th--armed with a borrowed
stick (I possessed none, having never used a stick before), and equipped
with a little camp-stool, I took the train to Frascati, where there was
a Madonna Fete.
It was life opening out before me again. All that I saw, witnessed to
its splendour. First, the scenery on the way, the Campagna with its
proud ruins, and the snow-covered Sabine Mountains, the whole
illuminated by a powerful Summer sun; the villas of old Romans, with
fortress-like thick walls, and small windows; then the fertile lava
soil, every inch of which was under vineyard cultivation.
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