Page:Fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen (Walker).djvu/210

172 kissed the bride and the bridegroom. Then I saw them alone, but the curtains were almost closely drawn; the comfortable room was lit up by a lamp. 'Thank goodness, they are all gone,' said he, kissing her hands and her lips. She smiled and wept and leant her head upon his breast, trembling like the lotus flower upon the flowing waters. They talked together in tender glowing words. 'Sleep sweetly!' he exclaimed, and she drew aside the window curtain. 'How beautifully the moon is shining!' she said; 'see how still and clear it is!' Then she put out the lamp, and the cozy room was dark, except for my beams, which shone as brightly as his eyes. Oh, womanhood, kiss thou the poet's lyre, when he sings of the mysteries of life!"

TWELFTH EVENING

"I will give you a picture of Pompeii," said the moon. "I was in the outskirts of the town, in the street of Tombs, as it is called, where the beautiful monuments stand; it is the place where once joyous youths, crowned with roses, danced with the fair sisters of Lais. Now the stillness of death reigns. German soldiers in the Neapolitan pay keep guard and play at cards and dice. A crowd of strangers from the other side of the mountains came into the town with guides. They wanted to see this city risen from the grave under my full beams. I showed them the chariot tracks in the streets paved with slabs of lava; I showed them the names on the doors and the sign-boards still hanging. In the small courtyards they saw the basins of the fountains decorated with shells, but no stream of water played, and no songs resounded from the richly painted chambers where the metal dogs guarded the doors. It was indeed a city of the dead, only Vesuvius thundered forth its everlasting hymn, the several verses of which are called by man, 'a new eruption.' We went to the Temple of Venus, built of dazzling white marble, with its high altar in front of the broad steps, and the weeping willow shooting up among