THE GARDENS OF VENICE 



were gone, the Queen had retired to her rooms, and 

 of all the company three youths and three maidens 

 remained sitting in the marble loggia. And "since 

 sleeping after meals is not healthy, and the summer 

 days were too good to be wasted in slumber," one of 

 the cavaliers, Gismondo, proposed that they should go 

 out into the gardens and tell each other stories, resting 

 on the grassy lawns. His companions agreed gladly, 

 and the speaker led the way. 



" The garden," continues Bembo, " was of rare and 

 marvellous beauty. A wide and shady pergola of 

 vines ran down the centre, and the walls on either 

 side were concealed by thick hedges of box and 

 juniper, while laurels arching overhead afforded the 

 most refreshing shade, and were all so carefully cut 

 and trimmed that not a single leaf was out of place. 

 None of the walls could be seen, only at the end of 

 the pergola, above the garden gate, two windows of 

 dazzling white marble let in a view of the distant 

 plains. Down this fair pathway the little troop 

 walked, sheltered by the dense foliage from the fiery 

 rays of the sun, until they reached a little meadow 

 at the end of the garden. Here the grass was as 

 fine in colour as an emerald, and all manner of bright 

 flowers sprang up on the fresh green sward, and just be- 

 yond was a shady grove of laurels, not clipped or trained 

 like the others, but allowed to wander at will. In 

 their midst was a beautiful fountain, from which a jet 

 of clear water from the mountain-side fell with joyous 

 sound into a marble basin, and thence flowed in gently 

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