Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume X).djvu/135

Rh stars shone bright in the spaces between the big beautiful clouds; the murmur of thousands, subdued but never-ceasing, rose on all sides, and very strange was this shrill but drowsy chorus, this voice of the darkness and the desert. . . 'The Pontine marshes,' said Alice. 'Do you hear the frogs? do you smell the sulphur?' 'The Pontine marshes. . . ' I repeated, and a sense of grandeur and of desolation came upon me. 'But why have you brought me here, to this gloomy forsaken place? Let us fly to Rome instead.' 'Rome is near,' answered Alice. . . . 'Prepare yourself!' We sank lower, and flew along an ancient Roman road. A bullock slowly lifted from the slimy mud its shaggy monstrous head, with short tufts of bristles between its crooked backward-bent horns. It turned the whites of its dull malignant eyes askance, and sniffed a heavy snorting breath into its wet nostrils, as though scenting us. 'Rome, Rome is near. . . ' whispered Alice. 'Look, look in front. . . . ' I raised my eyes. What was the blur of black on the edge of the night sky? Were these the lofty arches of an immense bridge? What river did it span?