"
To return to my first day's journey from Turin. It was a very long day's
work, and we did not arrive at Asti till very late, after having performed
the last hour, half in the dark, on a road which is by no means in good
repute. The character of the lower class of Piedmontese is not good. They
are ferocious, vindictive and great marauders. They make excellent soldiers
during war and they not unfrequently, on being disbanded after peace, by
way of keeping their hand in practise and of having the image of war before
their eyes, ease the traveller of his coin and sometimes of his life. Our
conversation partook of these reminiscences, and during the latter part of
our journey turned entirely on bandits "force and guile," so that we were
quite rejoiced at seeing the smoke and light of the town of Asti and
hearing the dogs bark, which reminded me of Ariosto's lines:
Non molto va che dalle vie supreme
De' tetti uscir vede il vapor del fuoco
Sente cani abbajar, muggire armento,
Viene alla villa, e piglia alloggiamenti.[80]
Nor far the warrior had pursued his best,
Ere, eddying from a roof, he saw the smoke,
Heard noise of dog and kine, a farm espied,
And thitherward in quest of lodging hied.
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