George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[38] us very much. It is one of those picturesque scenes which can be found only on the Continent, and even there only in a few cities where, as here, the sovereign has a great passion for whatever is military.

In the evening I went to see my old acquaintance, Count Brunetti, whom I had known as Austrian Charge d'affaires at Madrid, and who is now Austrian Minister here, married, and with three or four children. He is much changed in his personal appearance by sickness, but is still the same manly, intellectual person I formerly knew. He is just in the horrors of moving his establishment to a larger house, so that I shall hardly see much of him.

September 30.—This forenoon I had a long and very agreeable visit from Count Cesare Balbo, whom I knew very well in 1818 at Madrid, where his father was Sardinian Minister. He has had very various fortunes since I saw him last,—was exiled in 1821, for some part he took in the affairs for which Pellico suffered; passed two years in Paris, where he married a granddaughter of Count Segur; came back, and was still not permitted to enter Turin, but passed two years more in the country; became an author, to amuse and fill his time, wrote a ‘History of the Lombards in Italy,’ a translation of the ‘Annals of Tacitus,’ four Novelle, which are very beautiful, some literary discussions, an edition of his friend Count Vidua's ‘Letters,’ etc. He lived there most happily, and continued happy in Turin after his return, till the death of his wife, about three years ago, who left him with eight young children and his aged father.

He felt himself quite overcome by his position for a long time, and especially after the death of his mother-in-law, about a year since, which finally determined him to marry again; so about two months ago he married a daughter of the late Count Napione. His family being rich, and he an only son, his position is very agreeable; but I think he finds his chief resources in his family and his books, and is, as I believe he always has been, a truly estimable and excellent, as well as learned and able man. In the affairs of the kingdom he, of course, takes no share, from his liberal politics; but his aged father, who has filled nearly all the first offices of the state at different times, is still held in great consideration, though there is no difference in their politics.

October 1.—. . . . When Count Balbo was with me yesterday, I happened to ask him how I could get a parcel and some letters to Pellico, whom I had ascertained to be out of town. He replied that the Marquis de Barolo, with whom Pellico has for some time lived,