Landing, have here performed their several parts, In that temple-porch (The brass is gone, the porphyry remains 7) Of the proud Pontiff 6 thus at last consoled For flight, disguise, and many an aguish shake On his stone pillow. In that temple-porch, Old as he was, so near his hundredth year, And blind his eyes put out did DANDOLO Stand forth, displaying on his crown the cross. Though wan his cheeks, and wet with many tears, 69 For in his prayers he had been weeping much And from their nostrils snort ethereal flame Sate one yet greater," one whose verse shall live 73 72 From ENGLAND, from victorious EDWARD's court, Here, among other pageants, and how oft Instruct the greatest, did the Doge go round; The sea, that emblem of uncertainty, The monk, the nun, the holy legate masked! 74 Underneath And he died there by torch-light, bound and gagged, Horror and Mirth. Both vanished in one hour! His ancient rule, shall wash away their footsteps. Down which the grizzly head of old FALIER Rolled from the block. Pass onward through the hall, Led to another on the wall as brief; 77 And thou wilt track them wilt from rooms of state, The great and noble captain, CARMAGNOLA.79 Under the flood, where light and warmth were never! And to that fatal closet at the foot, Lurking for prey. But let us to the roof, And, when thou hast surveyed the sea, the land, Day after day, beat unrelentingly; Turning all things to dust, and scorching up Few houses of the size were better filled; Though many came and left it in an hour. "Most nights," so said the good old Nicolo (For three-and-thirty years his uncle kept The water-gate below, but seldom spoke, Though much was on his mind), "most nights arrived The prison-boat, that boat with many oars, And bore away as to the Lower World, That drowning-place, where never net was thrown, And where a secret, once deposited, Lay till the waters should give up their dead." 82 Yet what so gay as VENICE? Every gale Breathed music! and who flocked not, while she reigned, To celebrate her Nuptials with the Sea; To wear the mask, and mingle in the crowd With Greek, Armenian, Persian-night and day 1983 "Who were the six we supped with yesternight? "Kings, one and all! Thou couldst not but remark The style and manner of the six that served them." 11 85 "Who answered me just now? Who, when I said, 'Tis nine,' turned round and said so solemnly, Signor, he died at nine'?” "'T was the Armenian; The mask that follows thee, go where thou wilt." "But who moves there, alone among them all? The Cyprict. Ministers from distant courts Beset his doors, long ere his rising-hour; His the great secret! Not the golden house Of Nero, nor those fabled in the East, Rich though they were, so wondrous rich as his! Two dogs, coal-black, in collars of pure gold, Walk in his footsteps. Who but his familiars? They walk, and cast no shadow in the sun! "And mark him speaking. They, that listen, stand As if his tongue dropped honey; yet his glance None can endure! He looks nor young nor old; And at a tourney, where I sat and saw, A very child (full threescore years are gone) Borne on my father's shoulder through the crowd, He looked not otherwise. Where'er he stops, Though short the sojourn, on his chamber-wall, Mid many a treasure gleaned from many a clime, His portrait hangs-but none must notice it! For TITIAN glows in every lineament, (Where is it not inscribed, The work is his?) And TITIAN died two hundred years ago." Such their discourse. Assembling in St. Mark's, All nations met as on enchanted ground! What though a strange mysterious power was there, Moving throughout, subtle, invisible, And universal as the air they breathed; A power that never slumbered, nor forgave? |