benefactors of the State and provided with canopied chairs on a daïs behind a long table. Here we were instructed in the machinery of government, and learnt that had we deferred our visit for four days we might have witnessed the election of the new Presidents.

The method of election is an interesting survival of the intricate procedure of the old Italian Republics. The presidents or captains, one of whom is always a noble, the other a citizen or rustic, are changed every six months; and a fortnight before their term of office expires, namely in the middle of March and September, their successors are elected by ballot.

"Twelve elec

tors are chosen by lot from the Council of Sixty, and each proposes a candidate for the presidency from among his fellow-councillors. Upon this the names of six of these, chosen by the majority of the whole council, are written upon three lots, it having been duly arranged that one noble and one of the other two estates be coupled together. These preliminaries having been completed, the whole council go in great pomp, accompanied by music and soldiery, to the

parish church, towards the evening of the day on which the election takes place, their attendants carrying torches to add to the solemnity of the scene. Here the parish priest is in attendance, and having read aloud the names on the three lots, encloses them in three ballot balls, puts them into a silver urn, shakes it well, and then, in the presence of the assembled multitude, a little boy of about eight years extracts one of the lots which contains the names of the captains elect." *

Then, every 1st of April and Ist of September the new rulers solemnly assume office and the outgoing captains vacate the seats of honour, and hand over the insignia, etc., to their successors. This, the custodian assured us, was a most touching ceremony; he had beheld foreigners, especially Frenchmen, actually moved to tears by it. The late captains have then to pass through a trying ordeal. In accordance with the old usage, they are literally

* Vide "A Freak of Freedom," by Theodore Bent. Longmans & Co., 1879.

called to account for their stewardship.

While in

office they were of course inviolate, but are now liable to punishment for any injustice or abuse of power that they may have committed. Such cases. were not altogether unknown, added our custodian with a solemn nod of his bewigged head.

We gazed long from the windows of the council chamber on the wonderful rocks of Montefeltro, Exactly opposite to us, and backed by tossed and broken summits, rose the fortress of San Leo perched on its apparently inaccessible cliff, and we remembered that the arch impostor Cagliostro died a prisoner within its walls.

But now the late afternoon effect, illumining the wild landscape and bringing into relief range beyond range of ridges and peaks, warned us that it was time to bid farewell to this aged republic and hasten back to the young kingdom of Italy.

CHAPTER VI.

CAPRI.

As all the world knows, this enchanting isle, the Capreæ of the ancients, famed for grand scenery and beautiful women, lies exactly opposite Naples, across twenty miles of sea. And you cannot be at Naples and forget it. That precipitous double rock fills your thoughts as it charms your eyes, and draws you to it by a thousand threads. It is fascinating from every point of view. Whether flushed with jewelled sunset tints, veiled by opalescent haze, subdued to the faintest shadow on the waters, or looming stern and dark against a stormy sky, it has always a special beauty and significance. It is a storied rock; and memories of the tyrant of imperial Rome are

strangely mixed with sunny modern associations of poetry and art. For Capri has long been a paradise of painters; artists have introduced its scenery and inhabitants to every gallery in Europe, while writers of all countries have descanted on its charms. Its mere outline has inspired a host of epithets. Strabo likened it to a wild boar, and derived its name from the Greek word for that animal; Jean Paul has compared it with a sphinx; Gregorovius with an ancient sarcophagus; others with a lion couchant. And although tradition has dedicated to the sirens a group of rocks nearer the Sorrento shore, there is reason to suppose that Capri was the real Siren-isle of the Odyssey. The pebbly cove of the Piccola Marina, near the wild Faraglioni rocks, is still locally known as "La Sirena."

The island's Latin name, Capreæ, is probably a corruption of its Greek appellation, while the term Anacapri, bestowed on its upper half, has an undoubted claim to Hellenic descent. In the physical aspect of Capri there is the same sharp contrast