ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
But although her great days ended with the fall 
of the Exarchs and the Lombard conquest, Ravenna 
once more enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity 
under the rule of the House of Polenta in the thir¬ 
teenth and fourteeth centuries, and the once imperial 
city still retains many memorials of mediaeval times. 
The palace where Guido da Polenta received Dante 
during his exile has vanished, but the church of S. 
Francesco, which was the favourite sanctuary and 
burial-place of his family, is still standing. Here 
Dante himself was laid to rest, by his last prayer, 
clad in the habit of the Franciscan Order ; and here, 
close under the walls of this ancient Christian basilica, 
stands the monument raised to his memory by the 
Venetian governor Bembo, and the “little cupola, 
more neat than solemn,” which now protects his 
tomb. Beyond the gates of the city is the Pineta 
where the poet loved to wander, that vast forest, so 
full of memories, which still stretches its vivid green 
between the blue of sky and sea. We can see the 
spectre-huntsman of Boccaccio’s time, that “ Nastagio 
degli Onesti,” whose tragic tale was painted by 
Botticelli, and sung by Dryden and Byron in turn, 
driving his hell-hounds through the long avenues. 
We think of the hapless Francesca riding along these 
grassy glades in the May morning, by her “ bel 
Paolo’s ” side, on the way to Rimini. And we repeat 
the familiar lines in which Dante likens the murmurs 
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