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served on a silver-gilt salver.
Through the panes of a high window, reaching from the ceiling to the
floor, a semicircle of pillars was to be seen, in the clear April night,
encircling a courtyard with three gates, one very wide, and the other
two low. The carriage gate, of great size, was in the middle; on the
right, that for equestrians, smaller; on the left, that for foot
passengers, still less. These gates were formed of iron railings, with
glittering points. A tall piece of sculpture surmounted the central one.
The columns were probably in white marble, as well as the pavement of
the court, thus producing an effect like snow; and framed in its sheet
of flat flags was a mosaic, the pattern of which was vaguely marked in
the shadow. This mosaic, when seen by daylight, would no doubt have
disclosed to the sight, with much emblazonry and many colours, a
gigantic coat-of-arms, in the Florentine fashion. Zigzags of balustrades
rose and fell, indicating stairs of terraces. Over the court frowned an
immense pile of architecture, now shadowy and vague in the starlight.
Intervals of sky, full of stars, marked out clearly the outline of the
palace. An enormous roof could be seen, with the gable ends vaulted;
garret windows, roofed over like visors; chimneys like towers; and
entablatures covered with motionless gods and goddesses.
Beyond the colonnade there played in the shadow one of those fairy
fountains in which, as the water falls from basin to basin, it combines
the beauty of rain with that of the cascade, and as if scattering the
contents of a jewel box, flings to the wind its diamonds and its pearls
as though to divert the statues around. Long rows of windows ranged
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