Our remaining companions were an old gentleman with a young wife, returning home to Piacenza; he was a captain in the army of the Dutchess of Parma. ... At an early hour, we arrived at Placentia, where our companion and his lady left us, having arrived at their own residence; their characters appeared it be of a negative kind: he a quiet, good sort of an old man; she, a pleasant and amaible young woman, sufficiently silent and reserved, probably from the laudable motive of not wishing to give rise to any unpleasant feeling in his mind; and actuated by such motives, they might be, and probably were, as happy as if no disparity of years had existed: for it is in the qualities of the mind, and not of the person, that conjugal felicity is dependant.
"It is the secret sympathy,
The silver link, the silken tie;
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind,
In body and in soul doth bind"(1)
We arrived at the inn amidst a heavy fall of rain, and every thing felt cold and dismal; our horses and driver were apparently wearied out, although we had only travelled thirty-two miles, and this over a good level road. Placentia, or Piacenza, is a fine city on the banks of the Po, but the state of the weather prevented us from exploring it.
1. Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (canto V, st. 13)
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