Page:A Picture-book without Pictures and Other Stories (1848).djvu/93

 dow panes? It is as if some genius had done the will of a child and thus decorated this extraordinary temple. Dost thou see the winged lion upon the pillar? Gold yet shines upon it, but the wings are bound, the lion is dead because the king of the sea is dead; the vast halls are empty, and where once hung costly pictures the naked walls are now seen. Lazzaroni sleep under the arches, where at one time only the high noble dared to tread. Either from the deep well or from the chamber of the leaden roof, near to the Bridge of Sighs, sounds forth a groan, whilst tamborines are heard from the painted gondola as the bridal-ring is cast from the glittering Bucentaur to Adria, the queen of the sea. Adria, wrap thyself in mist! let the widow’s veil cover the breast, and cast it over thy bridegroom’s mausoleum;—the marble-builder, the spectre-like, Venice.”