great deal, and was very dirty and dark, she happen’d to step into a Slough; one of her Shoes stuck so fast in the Mud, that she was oblig’d to leave it behind her, and to walk only with one Shoe on to the Inn. From thence, without giving herself Time to change her Stockings, she went, wet and draggled as she was, into a Coach, where Mrs. Misset and Mr. Gaydon had the Honour to sit with her. Wogan rode by the Side of the Coach, and Misset stay’d two Hours longer at Inspruck, to see whether any Discovery was made of the Princess’s Flight. The Silence of the Guard was such, that he believ’d they knew nothing of the Matter, so that he rode after the Princess, but kept two Post-Stages behind, in order to watch if they were not pursued, which was a very good Precaution; for early next Day it was found out that the Princess had made her Escape; and the Commandant at Inspruck immediately sent off Messengers to all the great Roads, with Orders to all the Officers of the Country to apprehend the Fugitive. Misset being overtaken by one of those Messengers, he travell’d a little way with him, and resolv’d either to make him drunk, or to knock him on the Head. Having provided himself beforehand with a certain intoxicating Drug which immediately bereaves People of their Senses, and throws them into a profound Sleep, he gave some of it to the Messenger; and when he found him doz’d, he took away his Dispatches, and went and overtook the Princess, who, after travelling three Days and three Nights successively, without Rest, was got into the Dominions of the Holy See.
Arriving at Bologna, she there found my Lord Dunbar, vested with a Proxy from the Pretender, then in Spain, to marry her; which Ceremony was accordingly perform’d there without much Pomp, and the Princess set out in a few Days for Rome.
My Lady Marr, accompany’d by all the English of both Sexes that were at Rome of the Pretender’s Party, went in that Prince’s Coaches to meet the Princess; and the Cardinals, the Roman Princes, and all the Nobility likewise sent their Coaches. Thus did the Princess make her public Entry into Rome, where she was receiv’d with great Marks of Respect; and there she was, not long after, join’d by her Husband[5].
While I am speaking of the Pretender, I ought not to omit acquainting you of a certain Prophecy in every body’s Mouth here, which was said to be found among the Papers of the late Pope, importing, that in the Year 1734, the Pretender should be in the peaceable Possession of the Throne of Great Britain; but I would not give much Money for his Hopes[6]. Be this as it will, the Prophecy is as follows:
Dum Marcus cantabit Hallelujah,
Et Antonius Veni Creator,
Et Joannes Baptista cænabit,
Tune regnabit et triumphabit Rex in Anglia Jacobus III.
i. e.
When Easter falls on St. Mark’s Day,
And Whitsunday on St. Antony’s of Padua,
And when St. John the Baptist’s is a Sacrament Day,
Then King James III. shall reign and triumph in England.
Thanks to God, the Carnival is ended; I say, Thanks to God, because it was to me very tiresom,
tho’ it lasted here, according to an establish’d Custom, but a Week. During all that Time, from Two o’Clock in the Afternoon till Sun-set, all the Streets were full of Masquers, some on Foot, and some in open Chaises: The former say a thousand silly Things, and the latter throw Meslin in one another’s Eyes by Handfuls; but the best on’t is, that either by their Cloaths, or their Equipage, every body is known. Besides, the Pageantry of the Romans is always the same, even in Masquerades; they dress up their Domestics like Harlequins, and make them follow them with their Faces bare. They thus rake the Air gravely in open Chariots made like Gondolas. Their Horses are adorn’d with Plumes of Feathers, and loaded with little Bells like ours in the Sled Races. In the Evening the Coaches range themselves in two Rows in the Street del Corso, which is besides pretty narrow, and there they see the Race of Barbs, which are five or six Horses, that are suffer’d to run loose without a Rider, from the Gate del Popoli to a Place beyond the Venetian Palace. The poor Beasts gallop thro’ the Shouts and Cries of the Populace, and are often crippled by striking themselves against the Coaches. The first of these Horses that reaches the Goal wins a Prize for his Master, which generally consists of a Piece of Cloth of Gold, and at Sun-set every body retires. Mean time a Roman will tell you, that the Carnival of Rome is the finest in the World.
But the thing of which they brag most, and which they believe is no-where to be parallell’d for Magnificence, is their Balls, of which you shall now be Judge: Several Gentlemen having clubb’d this Winter for the Hire of the Palace Barberini, near the Mount of Piety, and caus’d it to be furnish’d by the Jew Brokers; when the Day was fix’d for the Ball, they invited all the Ladies; and