Page:A Picture-book without Pictures and Other Stories (1848).djvu/149

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PEGASUS AND THE POST-HORSES.


A Dialogue.


People have written descriptions of journeys in many ways; yet, I think, never in dialogue.

On the 24th of February, 1841, a traveling carriage with a deal of luggage drove out of Rome, through the Porta San Giovanni, drawn by two common post-horses; to these was, however, harnessed a third, which ran before the others, a creature full of fire and mettle—it was Pegasus himself; and there was nothing extraordinary in his having allowed himself to be thus harnessed, because inside the carriage there sate two poets and also a singer of great intellect, full of satisfaction and youthful enjoyment, for he was just come out of a monastery, and was on his way

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