his vengeance for such barbarity by de-stroying literally every house it contained, and left it, as we found it, a heap of ruins. After threading through the remains of several dark narrow lanes, we suddenly. came upon our baggage, horses, and servants-the latter holding a council of war in what had been the main street. The group was picturesque; some of the few inhabitants giving advice as to our night's: habitation; while another party were seated, smoking by a large wood fire on the side of the street; the blaze from the burning wood lighting up the whole scene, and giving the figures a wild and unearthly appearance, more like denizens of Tartarus than of a place upon earth. There was little choice of lodgings, and we were soon settled. for the night in a miserable den, in which our sole means of warmth was a small' brazier of charcoal.. There was, however, no great danger that the exclusion of air from our apartment would be so complete:

as to endanger our lives from the fumes. Having satisfied our hunger, we passed the

night well wrapped in our quilts, and bid

defiance to a violent storm which we heard howling without.

280

CHAPTER XII.

TRIPOLITZA-CLIMATE-SNOW-STORM.—VOURLIA.

EUROTAS.-MISTRA AND SPARTA.

[13TH, 14TH, ANd 15th of febrUARY.]

WHEN we rose next morning (Saturday, 13th of February), the scene that presented itself was dreary in the extreme, and we unanimously pronounced Tripolitza to be the most wretched prospect that any of us-even Mr. Johnstone, who had had an extensive experience of ruins and deserts-had ever yet seen. When we entered the town the preceding night, we had barely light enough to discover that it had been greatly damaged; but we had fancied nothing so miserable as the scene which the morning revealed. There had

been a sharp frost; the ground was covered by a heavy fall of snow, and, in horrible contrast, stood the mouldering walls of houses and churches blackened with fire, and exhibiting the traces of blood and devastation. Over the whole expanse of the surrounding plain there was scarce a tree or shrub to break the monotony of the snowy waste, and a few miserable peasants were seen toiling among the ruins, half frozen with the cold, which they seldom experience in such extremes as they did this winter, none of equal severity having occurred, as we were informed, for upwards of thirty

years.

If our friends, whose anxiety for our health had sent us in search of a milder climate, could have seen the miserable place where we had passed the night, and the dreary prospect of the morning, they would, no doubt, have been surprised and alarmed; and even to ourselves, though we had no valetudinarian apprehensions, the prospect

was dismal enough:-to take the road seemed hopeless--but to remain at Tripolitza impossible;-to go back and visit Mautineia was out of the question-the very tombs of the heroes, if ever discernible, were now buried under the snow :-we had, therefore, nothing to do but to endeavour to push on by the direct road to some more tolerable asylum than the modern ruin of Tripolitza.

We were now, for the first time, suffering any serious inconvenience from the season in which we were obliged to travel, and even this was only in the loftier regions; while we were consoled by hearing that summer travellers had even greater annoyances to complain of, from the extreme heat, and, above all, from flies, musquitoes, and certain familiar insects, which are intolerably troublesome, particularly the latter, which it is impossible to escape, but by carrying tents and sleeping on the green sward. From these attacks the cold