To either side, the long, dark lines of
thrice-historic palaces; scarcely a poor light here and there at their
water-gates; and now and then the lamps of the Traghetti.... Otherwise,
darkness, soundless motion, and, overhead, dim stars.
"Margaret! Look!"
Kitty caught her companion's arm in a mad delight.
Some one for the amusement of the guests of Venice was experimenting on
the top of the campanile of St. Mark's with those electric lights which
were then the toys of science, and are now the eyes and tools of war. A
search-light was playing on the basin of St. Mark's and on the mouth of
the canal. Suddenly it caught the Church of the Salute--and the whole
vast building, from the Queen of Heaven on its topmost dome down to the
water's brim, the figures of saints and prophets and apostles which
crowd its steps and ledges, the white whorls, like huge sea-shells, that
make its buttresses, the curves and volutes of its cornices and
doorways, rushed upon the eye in a white and blinding splendor, making
the very darkness out of which the vision sprang alive and rich. Not a
Christian church, surely, but a palace of Poseidon! The bewildered gazer
saw naiads and bearded sea-gods in place of angels and saints, and must
needs imagine the champing of Poseidon's horses at the marble steps,
straining towards the sea.
Pages:
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494