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People will hasten thither from Baiæ, from Pompeii, Puteoli, Cumæ, and Stabia; neither applause nor crowns will be lacking, and that will be an encouragement for the proposed expedition to Achæa. "But the memory of the infant Augusta? Yes! we are bewailing her yet. We are singing hymns of our own composition, so wonderful that the sirens have been hiding from envy in Amphitrite's deepest caves.
I supposed at the time, I suppose still, that the trick is done by means of mirrors. But how I cannot conceive. Presently the hat went round for Amphitrite's special benefit: her amour ideal had something of the sordid mammon in it. As everyone put a copper into the hat, "Merci, monsieur; merci, madame!" was what she said.
She chose at last a chaplet of those soft, silvery Venetian shells such as her bridesmaids may have woven into the night of Amphitritè's hair when they crowned her Queen of the Mediterranean. It was a very artistic picture. So Madame de Verzenay said, in the midst of a rather too rapturous greeting; so the Frenchmen thought, as a low murmur of admiration ran through their circle when she entered.
"I don't believe it," said he. "It is impossible." She showed him the proof, the ruby ring. Then he became very uneasy, and begged her not to tell a soul. He did not tell her the reason, but he feared the insurance office would hear of it, and require proofs of Christopher's decease, whereas they had accepted it without a murmur, on the evidence of Captain Hamilton and the Amphitrite's log-book.
"Oh, sir, at once I dismiss you to Amphitrite's court!" cried the lady. "Master Darrell," to a dark-browed, saturnine personage, "tell me less of Amphitrite and more of the truth. The Star " He whom she addressed loved not the shuttlecock, thought one woman but falser than another, and made parade of blunt speech. Now a shrug of the shoulder accompanied his answer.
It was strange to see the city, with its large and solid buildings and churches, floating as it were on the water: "Underneath Day's azure eyes, Ocean's nursling, Venice lies A peopled labyrinth of walls, Amphitrite's destined halls, Which her hoary sire now paves With his blue and beaming waves."
Never was locality so subservient to the purposes of pleasure as in this city; where pleasure has set up her airy standard, and which on this occasion looked like what one reads in poetry of Amphitrite's court; and I ventured to tell a nobleman who was kindly attentive in shewing us every possible politeness, that had Venus risen from the Adriatic sea, she would scarcely have been tempted to quit it for Olympus.
Cæsar, sitting at the rudder in a purple toga, sang a hymn in honor of the sea; this hymn he had composed the night before, and with Diodorus had arranged music to it. In other boats he was accompanied by slaves from India who knew how to play on sea-shells while round about appeared numerous dolphins, as if really enticed from Amphitrite's depths by music. Dost thou know what I was doing?
It occurs first in Neptune's song, "While these pass o'er the deep" Next in Amphitrite's song, "Halcyon Days," a serenely lovely melody, we have which is a variant. In spite of incongruous masque or rather pantomime scenes the pervading atmosphere is sustained.
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