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 and sculptured figures, and above its portals the four great bronze horses, prancing in immortal splendor.

But on every side loveliness sprang from the water. The clustered domes of San Giorgio Maggiore, and its tower, rose on another island, and farther on lay Santa Maria della Salute, crowned with ruddy light. The boat was now in the full sweep of the Grand Canal, weaving among the myriad other gondolas and barca. On every hand stood rosy and white palaces, their doorways enriched with precious porphyry and serpentine, with mosaic and gold, all grayed and mottled by time. Their multitude of delicate columns and trefoiled windows rose against a sky unutterably soft and tender, and the water which washed their feet reflected in wavering lines and masses the sunlit marble and the glorious blue.