THE day was drawing to a close when I embarked for a final excursion, and, having reached the lido, passed a pleasant hour in promenading the Adriatic shore, with that beautiful expanse of water stretching beyond the limits of vision, and soothingly laving the sands at my feet. Upon returning, the sun was below the horizon, and the deep, pompous outline of the Tyrol rose commandingly in the distance; a rich glow suffused the face of the western sky, and the evening star gleamed peacefully. The still waters of the gulf reflected with beautiful distinctness the spires and adjoining buildings, and the few vessels in the port lay perfectly tranquil upon its bosom. At that hour, when the associations of Venice are so earnestly excited by its own quiet beauty, my old gondolier grew communicative. To-morrow, he said, was the anniversary of one of the most splendid festas of the republic. On that day, fifty years ago, the doge, senators, nobility and distinguished strangers embarked in the golden barge, and when arrived at the lido, the former dropped a ring into the sea, and then the whole company repaired to a neighbouring church to celebrate a solemn function, after which a grand fete was partaken of at the palace, and innumerable comfits distributed upon the piazza; thus, yearly, were observed the nuptials of the Adriatic. He had been in the service of Byron three years and a half, and during that time, had daily, after dinner, transported the poet to the shore, where he rode along the sands for some hours; and often had he followed him with the gondola as he swam or floated for miles upon the calm surface of the bay. The little white house to which the curious repaired to see him mount his horse, and the convent which he daily frequented, were pointed out; and as an instance of his lordship's generosity, the bargeman bid us remember that when the printer whom he employed in Venice lost his establishment by fire, he privately sent him a hundred louis d'ors. As an evidence of the fallen fortunes even of the gondoliers, he declared that immediately prior to the downfall of the republic, he received forty francs per day from two Signori Inglesi, for fifteen days, beside a buonamano of a suit of clothes; while an eighth of that sum is the present stipend. I induced the old man to sing a stanza of Tasso, as I thus approached the city. The evening gun resounded, a band of music struck up, and silently contemplating the realization of my dreams of Venice, I touched the steps of the quay, and emerged from that silent solemnity upon the illuminated and gaily occupied Piazza of St. Marco-to feel with him of whom I was just conversing, that Beauty still is here, States fall, arts fade, but nature doth not die, L 2 |