After rambling across the country, and losing ourselves among groves of olive trees, we were obliged to take a guide at last. We were several times stopped by the deep ravines which the torrents have cut in the face of the country. There were an immense number of aloes in the hedges, many in flower.
The night was as fine and clear as could be desired; and the moon shone with an intensity of light. On arriving at the Temple of Hercules, nothing met our eyes but one solitary column rising from a mass of prostrate ruins, and over-topping the cluster of Indian fig-trees that grew around it. Pointing towards the heavens, it seemed to whisper,—"Mortals, there must you look for eternity: here all is crumbling to decay!"
REFLECTIONS. We passed on through groves of the above-mentioned trees, and alongside walls and turrets excavated from the solid rock, until the whole of the Temple of Concord, and, immediately afterwards, that of Juno, burst upon our sight. In this still hour, as we stood upon their ruins, and extended our view over the boundless prospect of sea and land,—the one calm and tranquil as a sleeping child; the other, like an old but vigorous man, marked and furrowed by the devastating hand of time,—how impressive was the scene! Can I ever lose the recollection of that moment? No. Girgenti,—
"My eye hath play'd the painter, and hath steeled Thy beauty's form in table of my heart!"
Often have I lingered within the Coliseum when its majestic ruins were silvered o'er by the light of the same lovely orb, which now threw its lustre on these prostrate relics of departed greatness: I have wandered alone among the temples of Pæstum; I have stood on the Parthenon while the sun threw his latest, brightest ray over that hallowed spot: but never did I feel as among the ruins of Girgenti. On all these former scenes, the combination of nature and art has fixed the impress of mere beauty; here their union is sublime.
The Eastern sky is brightening with the beams of the morning sun, and its reflection tints each mouldering column with a purple light. The moon slowly resigns her influence over the scene, and a splendid prospect of earth and sea bursts upon the eye, as the sun springs upwards from behind the ruins, like the presiding deity of the spot.
We next proceeded to the Temple of Giants; and, judging from the fragments which lie scattered, over a vast area, how colossal must have been the proportions of this once magnificent edifice! The caryatide, or giant, which lies prostrate there, the last of his race, is 27 feet long; and the remains of the columns, capitals, ovaca, tryglyphi, &c., are all on the same enormous scale, and tend to impress the gazer's mind with the idea that its erection was in reality the work of supernatural agency.
The space between the temple and the town affords a beautiful prospect, varied with undulating hills, green valleys, wooded slopes, and sharp-pointed rocks, and interspersed with gardens in the richest cultivation.
GALLEY SLAVES.There is a great number of galley-slaves at Girgenti; and they must be a happy race, if laughing and merriment be any criterion to judge by.
In the evening, Prince Butera having joined us from Alicata, we started for Palermo. Poor Marquis St. Isodore has lost all his curiosities which he landed here; his property being close to Girgenti. The servant who was in charge of his baggage easily passed it through the custom-house by means of a bribe; and, having loaded a cart, instead of going off at once to the country, he placed it under a shed, and went to drink with some of his companions. In the mean time, one of those on board, who had an enmity against either the Marquis, or his man, laid an information, that there were many contraband articles; and the officer went to the shed and seized every thing.