Where there is a will, however, there is a way.

But the way which the determined will of the Queen of the Baths discovered for itself upon this occasion was one which would probably have occurred to few people in the world save herself.

She hired a _vetturino_, and told him that he was to convey a servant of hers to the baths of Lucca, who would be in charge of goods which would occupy the entire interior of the carriage.

She then obtained, what was often accorded without much difficulty in those days, from both the Pontifical and the Tuscan Governments, a _lascia passare_ for the contents of the carriage as _bona fide roba usata_--"used up, or second-hand goods." And under this denomination the poor old colonel, packed in the carriage together with his beloved violoncello, passed the gates of Rome and the Tuscan frontier, and arrived safely at the place of his latest destination.

The servant who was employed to conduct this singular operation did not above half like the job entrusted to him, and used to tell afterwards how he was frightened out of his wits, and the driver exceedingly astonished, by a sudden _pom-m-m_ from the interior of the carriage, caused by the breaking, in consequence of some atmospheric change, of one of the strings of the violoncello.
Malicious people used to say that the Queen of the Baths was innocent of all deception as regarded the custom-house officials; for that if any article was ever honestly described as _roba usata_, the old colonel might be so designated.
The queen herself shortly followed (by another conveyance), and was present at the interment, on which occasion she much impressed the population by causing a superb crimson chair to be placed at the head of the grave, in order that she might be present without standing during the service.