now began to burn down ..

other side of the stream well-woouca hills aros

there a white homestead seening ca

a lofty

the table was presently spread in an abundant, if not sumptuous manner; our repast numbering amongst its dainties the luxury of caviare in addition to the several other appetizers which usually form a part of an Italian meal.

Unlike most of the towns in this part of Italy, Fratta, instead of being placed on a height, stands upon the level bank of the river, which is here crossed by a wide stone bridge. It contains an old moated castle, now shorn of its terrors and gradually falling to decay. There is something exceedingly charming about the neighbourhood of this old-fashioned town. Shady lanes and pleasant field paths accompany the course of the river, bordered with black-branched willows and scented poplar shrubs. Without being absolutely romantic, the banks of the stream offer exquisite passages of soft characteristic beauty-just the thing to satisfy and delight the artist's quieter and tenderer moods.

Fratta was founded by the miserable remnants of the Roman army defeated at Thrasimene. It had the usual mediæval vicissitudes of pillage and burning. Fortebraccio once made a raid upon its territory, as Campano relates in his biography. He says, "That after having sacked many places of the country, he moved his camp alongside of the Tiber, not far from Fratta, to the district held by Perugia, and commenced to make it his prey. As the country people had no suspicion whatever of his intention—having driven their cattle to pasture and set themselves to work in the fields-he took a great number of the peasantry, together with their flocks and herds. The Perugian soldiers who were in the district, under the command of Ceccholino forced him to the combat; but being repulsed at the first encounter, he lost some of his cavalry, and flying at full speed, sheltered himself on a neighbouring hill. Braccio, having ravaged the banks of the river, went with his army to the bridge of Pattolo. In the meanwhile, Ceccholino, having drawn some soldiers from a village near, galloped

off to Perugia." This was in order to prevent the further progress of the enemy: but Braccio, after having devastated the country about Fratta, retired to Todi, rewarding his soldiers with the spoil they had taken.

In all these raids and warfares the country people appear to have been the first and worst sufferers. At any moment liable to have their crops destroyed, their cattle stolen, their homes ruined and burned, their families outraged or slain, nothing could have been more insecure than the peasant life of that time. Their feudal lords might defend their castles or escape from them; there was no defence or escape for their retainers. Compelled at any hour to take arms on behalf of their territorial governor, or to prosecute his quarrels, their domestic peace was destroyed, their honest gains lost, their occupations suspended in these brawls and feuds, out of which they were sure to come sufferers. So that in looking back, we must confess that the poorest rustic toiler of to-day is in a position of ease and comfort compared with the insecurity of the peasants' condition in these turbulent ages.

From Fratta the river traverses a plain between lowlying hills—a pleasant and cheerful country. As we passed along the road, peaceful rustic labours were being followed everywhere. The housewife sang at the door of her cottage, the ploughman called to his oxen, the thresher swung his slow flail, women stood up to their knees in the river washing clothes and chatting merrily. The bathers came down to the deeper pools and plunged into its waters, little children dabbled on its banks, and hissing geese stalked about in straggling rows. The river here becomes narrowed to a small stream, the additions made by its tributaries being in a great measure lost in the course of a few miles along its hot pebbly bed. A little before reaching Città di Castello, the sloping banks were covered with groves of oak, amongst which the blue morning mist still lingered; the hills being broken into conical summits, surmounted here and there with a white church or glittering homestead.