Chapter LXXVII: Letter 470: To Mr. Murray

"Pisa, December 4. 1821.

"By extracts in the English papers,--in your holy ally, Galignani's
'Messenger,'--I perceive that 'the two greatest examples of human
vanity in the present age' are, firstly, 'the ex-Emperor Napoleon,'
and, secondly, 'his Lordship, &c. the noble poet,'meaning your
humble servant, 'poor guiltless I.'

"Poor Napoleon! he little dreamed to what vile comparisons the turn
of the wheel would reduce him!

"I have got here into a famous old feudal palazzo, on the Arno,
large enough for a garrison, with dungeons below and cells in the
walls, and so full of ghosts, that the learned Fletcher (my valet)
has begged leave to change his room, and then refused to occupy his
_new_ room, because there were more ghosts there than in the other.
It is quite true that there are most extraordinary noises (as in
all old buildings), which have terrified the servants so as to
incommode me extremely. There is one place where people were
evidently _walled up_; for there is but one possible passage,
broken through the wall, and then meant to be closed again upon
the inmate. The house belonged to the Lanfranchi family, (the same
mentioned by Ugolino in his dream, as his persecutor with
Sismondi,) and has had a fierce owner or two in its time. The
staircase, &c. is said to have been built by Michel Agnolo. It is
not yet cold enough for a fire. What a climate!

"I am, however, bothered about these spectres, (as they say the
last occupants were, too,) of whom I have as yet seen nothing, nor,
indeed, heard (_myself_); but all the other ears have been regaled
by all kinds of supernatural sounds. The first night I thought I
heard an odd noise, but it has not been repeated. I have now been
here more than a month.

"Yours," &c.

* * * * *