Part 1 (1/2)
Rollo in Rome.
by Jacob Abbott.
CHAPTER I.
THE DILIGENCE OFFICE.
Rollo went to Rome in company with his uncle George, from Naples. They went by the diligence, which is a species of stage coach. There are different kinds of public coaches that ply on the great thoroughfares in Italy, to take pa.s.sengers for hire; but the most common kind is the diligence.
The diligences in France are very large, and are divided into different compartments, with a different price for each. There are usually three compartments below and one above. In the Italian diligences, however, or at least in the one in which Mr. George and Rollo travelled to Rome, there were only three. First there was the _interior_, or the body of the coach proper. Directly before this was a compartment, with a gla.s.s front, containing one seat only, which looked forward; there were, of course, places for three persons on this seat. This front compartment is called the _coupe_.[1] It is considered the best in the diligence.
[Footnote 1: p.r.o.nounced _coupay_.]
There is also a seat up above the _coupe_, in a sort of second story, as it were; and this was the seat which Mr. George and Rollo usually preferred, because it was up high, where they could see better. But for the present journey Mr. George thought the high seat, which is called the _banquette_, would not be quite safe; for though it was covered above with a sort of chaise top, still it was open in front, and thus more exposed to the night air. In ordinary cases he would not have been at all afraid of the night air, but the country between Naples and Rome, and indeed the country all about Rome, in every direction, is very unhealthy. So unhealthy is it, in fact, that in certain seasons of the year it is almost uninhabitable; and it is in all seasons considered unsafe for strangers to pa.s.s through in the night, unless they are well protected.
There is, in particular, one tract, called the _Pontine Marshes_, where the road, with a sluggish ca.n.a.l by the side of it, runs in a straight line and on a dead level for about twenty miles. It so happened that in going to Rome by the diligence, it would be necessary to cross these marshes in the night, and this was an additional reason why Mr. George thought it better that he and Rollo should take seats inside.
The whole business of travelling by diligence in Europe is managed in a very different way from stage coach travelling in America. You must engage your place several days beforehand; and when you engage it you have a printed receipt given you, specifying the particular seats which you have taken, and also containing, on the back of it, all the rules and regulations of the service. The different seats in the several compartments of the coach are numbered, and the prices of them are different. Rollo went so early to engage the pa.s.sage for himself and Mr.
George that he had his choice of all the seats. He took Nos. 1 and 2 of the _coupe_. He paid the money and took the receipt. When he got home, he sat down by the window, while Mr. George was finis.h.i.+ng his breakfast, and amused himself by studying out the rules and regulations printed on the back of his ticket. Of course they were in Italian; but Rollo found that he could understand them very well.
”If we are not there at the time when the diligence starts, we lose our money, uncle George,” said he. ”It says here that they won't pay it back again.”
”That is reasonable,” said Mr. George. ”It will be our fault if we are not there.”
”Or our misfortune,” said Rollo; ”something might happen to us.”
”True,” said Mr. George; ”but the happening, whatever it might be, would be _our_ misfortune, and not theirs, and so we ought to bear the loss of it.”
”If the baggage weighs more than thirty _rotolos_, we must pay extra for it,” continued Rollo. ”How much is a _rotolo_, uncle George?”
”I don't know,” said Mr. George, ”but we have so little baggage that I am sure we cannot exceed the allowance.”
”The baggage must be at the office two hours before the time for the diligence to set out,” continued Rollo, pa.s.sing to the next regulation on his paper.
”What is that for?” asked Mr. George.
”So that they may have time to load it on the carriage, they say,” said Rollo.
”Very well,” said Mr. George, ”you can take it to the office the night before.”
”They don't take the risk of the baggage,” said Rollo, ”or at least they don't guarantee it, they say, against unavoidable accidents or superior force. What does that mean?”
”Why, in case the diligence is struck by lightning, and our trunk is burned up,” replied Mr. George, ”or in case it is attacked by robbers, and carried away, they don't undertake to pay the damage.”
”And in case of _smarrimento_,” continued Rollo, ”they say they won't pay damages to the amount of more than nine dollars, and so forth; what is a _smarrimento_, uncle George?”
”I don't know,” said Mr. George.
”It may mean a smash-up,” said Rollo.