وا A smile, a glance at parting, given and answered, Baying as still he does (oft is he heard, An hour and more, by the old turret-clock) 66 No blood was spilt; no instrument of death Hurt in that hour. Fresh as a flower just blown, Then closed again, and done to line and rule. Under the Chapel: and there nightly, now, The hunter meets her in his hunting-track; 2 1 Murato was a technical word for this punishment. ? An old huntsman of the family met her in the haze of the morning, and never went out again. She is still known by the name of Madonna Bianca. VENICE. HERE is a glorious City in the Sea. The Sea is in the broad, the narrow streets, Ebbing and flowing; and the salt seaweed Clings to the marble of her palaces. No track of men, no footsteps to and fro, And gliding up her streets as in a dream, The fronts of some, though Time had shattered them, Still glowing with the richest hues of art, As though the wealth within them had run o'er. Thither I came, and in a wondrous Ark, (That, long before we slipt our cable, rang As with the voices of all living things) From Padua, where the stars are, night by night, Watched from the top of an old dungeon-tower, Whence blood ran once, the tower of Ezzelin-1 Not as he watched them, when he read his fate Now an Observatory. On the wall there is a long inscription : "Piis carcerem adspergite lacrymis," &c. Ezzelino is seen by Dante in the river of blood. And shuddered. But of him I thought not then, Him or his horoscope; far, far from me The forms of Guilt and Fear; tho' some were there, Some who, like him, had cried, "Spill blood enough!" And could shake long at shadows. played They had Perched on her shoulder.-But who leaps ashore, Her tongue plays truant, and he raps his box, 1 Bonatti was the great astrologer of that day; and all the little Princes of Italy contended for him. It was from the top of the tower of Forli that he gave his signals to Guido Novello. At the first touch of a bell the Count put on his armour; at the second he mounted his horse, and at the third marched out to battle. His victories were ascribed to Bonatti; and not perhaps without reason. How many triumphs were due to the soothsayers of old Rome! 2 Douze personnes, tant acteurs qu'actrices, un souffleur, un machiniste, un garde du magasin, des enfans de tout âge, des chiens, des chats, des singes, des perroquets; c'étoit l'arche de Noé. -Ma prédilection pour les soubrettes m'arrêta sur Madame Baccherini."GOLDONI. 3 The passage-boats are drawn up and down the Brents. His satire; and as often whispering Things, though unheard, not unimaginable. Had I thy pencil, Crabbe (when thou hast done, I would portray the Italian-Now I cannot. But quick in quarrel-through a thousand shades Gliding on, At length we leave the river for the sea. A few in fear, They built their nests among the ocean-waves; And where the sands were shifting, as the wind Blew from the north or south-where they that came, Had to make sure the ground they stood upon, A scene of light and glory, a dominion, 1 Attila. "I love," says a traveller, "to contemplate, as I float along, that multitude of palaces and churches, which are congregated and pressed as on a vast raft."-And who can forget his walk through the Mercerta, where the nightingales give you their melody from shop to shop, so that, shutting your eyes, you would think yourself in some forest glade, when indeed you are all the while in the middle of the sea? Who can forget his prospect from the great tower, which once, And whence the talisman, whereby she rose, Ere yet the Cafila2 came, listening to hear Treasures from climes unknown, he asked and learnt, And, travelling slowly upward, drew ere long Herself, his tributary.-If we turn To those black forests, where, through many an age, Night without day, no axe the silence broke, when gilt, and when the sun struck upon it, was to be descried by ships afar off; or his visit to St. Mark's church, where you see no thing, tread on nothing, but what is precious; the floor all agate, jasper; the roof mosaic; the aisle hung with the banners of the subject cities; the front and its five domes affecting you as the work of some unknown people? Yet all this may presently pass away; the waters may close over it; and they, that come, row about in vain to determine exactly where it stood. 1 "Il fallut subsister; ils tirèrent leur subsistance de tout Pamvers."- MONTESQUIEU. 2 A Caravan. |