With a soundless step,
and not venturing even to breathe, Venetia approached them, and, she
knew not how, found herself embraced by both her parents.
END OF BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
CHAPTER I.
In a green valley of the Apennines, close to the sea-coast between
Genoa and Spezzia, is a marine villa, that once belonged to the
Malaspina family, in olden time the friends and patrons of Dante. It
is rather a fantastic pile, painted in fresco, but spacious, in good
repair, and convenient. Although little more than a mile from Spezzia,
a glimpse of the blue sea can only be caught from one particular spot,
so completely is the land locked with hills, covered with groves of
chestnut and olive orchards. From the heights, however, you enjoy
magnificent prospects of the most picturesque portion of the Italian
coast; a lofty, undulating, and wooded shore, with an infinite variety
of bays and jutting promontories; while the eye, wandering from
Leghorn on one side towards Genoa on the other, traces an almost
uninterrupted line of hamlets and casinos, gardens and orchards,
terraces of vines, and groves of olive. Beyond them, the broad and
blue expanse of the midland ocean, glittering in the meridian blaze,
or about to receive perhaps in its glowing waters the red orb of
sunset.
Pages:
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558