There is a fine view from the lofty station over Rome and the whole
adjacent country, and the abbe pointed out the site of Ardea, of
Corioli, of Veii, and other places renowned in story. We were ushered,
too, into the French commandant's quarters in the castle. There is
a large hall, ornamented with frescos, and accessible from this a
drawing-room, comfortably fitted up, and where we saw modern furniture,
and a chess-board, and a fire burning clear, and other symptoms that the
place had perhaps just been vacated by civilized and kindly people. But
in one corner of the ceiling the abbe pointed out a ring, by which, in
the times of mediaeval anarchy, when popes, cardinals, and barons were
all by the ears together, a cardinal was hanged. It was not an
assassination, but a legal punishment, and he was executed in the best
apartment of the castle as an act of grace.
The fortress is a straight-lined structure on the summit of the immense
round tower of Hadrian's tomb; and to make out the idea of it we must
throw in drawbridges, esplanades, piles of ancient marble balls for
cannon; battlements and embrasures, lying high in the breeze and
sunshine, and opening views round the whole horizon; accommodation for
the soldiers; and many small beds in a large room.
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