midnight
Thus have I paid for that liberty , which has enabled me to explore my solitary way through the most interesting countries of Europe . During my pilgrimage , as I have traversed the monotonous plains of La Vendeé , the awful grandeur of the Alps , and the lovely yet sublime scenery of Italy , under every aspect -- in summer and in winter , in sunshine and in storm -- so have I , at times , been elated by the buoyant hopes of the present , as well as bowed down to the dust when I looked forward to the future . I have risen with the sun , my spirits vying with the freshness of the dawn ; but how often `` has my sun of hope set without a ray , while the dark night of dim despair shadowed only phantoms ! '' Alone , and on foot , I have accomplished thousands of miles over France , Piedmont , Savoy , Switzerland , Tyrol , Lombardy , and Italy -- I have toiled along the dusty road , beneath the noontide heat of an Italian sun , or wandered over trackless Alpine heights through the midnight storm -- have rested on princely couches , or on the wheaten straw of the peasant -- I have joined the mazourka in palaces , or the tarantala in the wilds of Calabria -- I have revelled in the scenery of Claude , or brooded over the lofty solitudes of Salvator Rosa and the brigand -- I have experienced the frivolity of France , the dissipation of Florence , the profligacy of the Venetian , the degeneracy of the Roman , and vindictiveness of the Neapolitan , the insincerity of the impoverished noble , and the truth of honest poverty -- I have wondered in the gaudy sanctuary of the Papist , teeming with devotees , or pondered amid the nobler simplicity of the Heathen 's Temple in the deserts of malaria . Like the Bohemian , I had , indeed , dearly purchased this liberty ! at the cost of every tie , even of religion itself , though perhaps unconscious of it at the time . I then enjoyed robust health , the main-spring of scepticism .