Landing, have here performed their several parts, Then left the stage to others. Not a stone In the broad pavement, but to him who has In that temple-porch (The brass is gone, the porphyry remains 67) 68 Of the proud Pontiff - thus at last consoled In that temple-porch, Old as he was, so near his hundredth year, Stand forth, displaying on his crown the cross. Though wan his cheeks, and wet with many tears, Snatched from destruction—the four steeds divine, And from their nostrils snort ethereal flame Sate one yet greater," one whose verse shall live Here, among other pageants, and how oft Instruct the greatest, did the Doge go round; The monk, the nun, the holy legate masked! And he died there by torch-light, bound and gagged, Blesses the city from the topmost tower, His arms extended there, in monstrous league, Two phantom-shapes were sitting, side by side, Horror and Mirth. Both vanished in one hour! His ancient rule, shall wash away their footsteps. Enter the palace by the marble stairs 76 Down which the grizzly head of old FALIER Rolled from the block. Pass onward through the hall, 77 Led to another on the wall as brief; " And thou wilt track them wilt from rooms of state, CARRARA 78 and his valiant sons were slain; He first then they, whose only crime had been 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, As in a place of tombs. There burning suns, Day after day, beat unrelentingly; Few houses of the size were better filled; Though much was on his mind), "most nights arrived And bore away as to the Lower World, That drowning-place, where never net was thrown, Summer or Winter, death the penalty; And where a secret, once deposited, Lay till the waters should give up their dead." 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 "Who were the six we supped with yesternight?" 83 "Kings, one and all! Thou couldst not but remark The style and manner of the six that served them." 84 "Who answered me just now? Who, when I said, "T is 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?" 85 "The Cypriot. 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? |