Page:Arthur Machen - The Hill of Dreams.djvu/163

THE HILL OF DREAMS cavernous, but the scent and heat of the summer gushed in through the open door. There was ever a full sound, with noise and vehemence, there, and the rolling music of the Latin tongue never ceased.

'The wine of the siege, the wine that we saved,' cried one.

'Look for the jar marked Faunus; you will be glad.'

'Bring me the wine of the Owl's Face.'

'Let us have the wine of Saturn's Bridge.'

The boys who served brought the wine in dull red jars that struck a charming note against their white robes. They poured out the violet and purple and golden wine with calm sweet faces as if they were assisting in the mysteries, without any sign that they heard the strange words that flashed from side to side. The cups were all of glass: some were of deep green, of the colour of the sea near the land, flawed and specked with the bubbles of the furnace. Others were of brilliant scarlet, streaked with irregular bands of white, and having the appearance of white globules in the moulded stem. There were cups of dark glowing blue, deeper and more shining than the blue of the sky, and running through the 153