Colonnades,
medallions, and massive cornices overhung the canal, as if the art of
man had taken pride in loading the superstructure in a manner to mock
the unstable element which concealed its base. A flight of steps, on
which each gentle undulation produced by the passage of the barge washed
a wave, conducted to a vast vestibule, that answered many of the
purposes of a court. Two or three gondolas were moored near, but the
absence of their people showed they were for the use of those who dwelt
within. The boats were protected from rough collision with the passing
craft by piles driven obliquely into the bottom. Similar spars, with
painted and ornamented heads, that sometimes bore the colors and arms
of the proprietor, formed a sort of little haven for the gondolas of the
household, before the door of every dwelling of mark.
"Where is it the pleasure of your eccellenza to be rowed?" asked Gino,
when he found his sympathetic delay had produced no order.
"To the Palazzo."
Giorgio threw a glance of surprise back at his comrade, but the obedient
gondola shot by the gloomy, though rich abode, as if the little bark had
suddenly obeyed an inward impulse. In a moment more it whirled aside,
and the hollow sound, caused by the plash of water between high walls,
announced its entrance into a narrower canal. With shortened oars the
men still urged the boat ahead, now turning short into some new channel,
now glancing beneath a low bridge, and now uttering, in the sweet shrill
tones of the country and their craft, the well known warning to those
who were darting in an opposite direction.
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