"The following morning, urged by our affairs,
We left bright Venice."
CHAPTER XXI.[ToC]
Leaving Venice—Hervey's Lament—Scenery en route—Padua—Associations of the past—A brief history of Padua, and the House of Carrara—General appearance of the town—Giotto's Chapel—His beautiful frescoes—Character of Giotto's work—The Cathedral—Palazzo della Ragione—The Wooden Horse—St. Antonio—The Hermitage—The Fallen Angels—The University and its students—Ladies of Padua—Situation of the city—An old bridge—Climate.
The silvery-voiced bells of Venice chimed sweetly over the waters as we left her, bidding us a tender farewell, almost reproachful that we could leave her so soon. Siren-like, she would fain entice us to remain with her, but the old charm-power has departed with her past glory; and we echoed Hervey's beautiful lament as we watched her domes and minarets disappear slowly one by one in the distance.
"And where art thou, with all thy songs and smiles,
Thou dream-like city of the hundred isles—
Thy marble columns, and thy princely halls,
Thy merry masques and moonlight carnivals,
Thy weeping myrtles and thy orange bowers,
Thy lulling fountains 'mid ambrosial flowers,
The cloudless beauty of thy deep blue skies,
Thy starlight serenades to ladies' eyes,
Thy lion, looking o'er the Adrian sea,
Defiance to the world and power to thee?
That pageant of the sunny waves is gone,
Her glory lives on memory's page alone;
[265] It flashes still in Shakespeare's living lay,
And Otway's song has snatched it from decay.
But ah! her Chian steeds of brass no more
Shall lord it proudly over sea and shore;
Nor ducal sovereigns launch upon the tide,
To win the Adriatic for their bride!
Hushed is the music of her gondoliers,
And fled the glory of a thousand years;
And Tasso's spirit round her seems to sigh
In every Adrian gale that wanders by!"
The journey to Padua is over a level, well-cultivated, and fertile plain, intersected by many small canals. To the north, and on the left, the snow-capped Tyrolese Alps form a grand relief to the monotony of the surrounding country.
Padua is now a very quiet unimportant little city, with only about forty-five thousand inhabitants; and very greatly changed from the time when it was so justly famed for its University.