Dream Tales and Prose Poems by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
page 91 of 244 (37%)
page 91 of 244 (37%)
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its wet nostrils, as though scenting us.
'Rome, Rome is near...' whispered Alice. 'Look, look in front....' I raised my eyes. What was the blur of black on the edge of the night sky? Were these the lofty arches of an immense bridge? What river did it span? Why was it broken down in parts? No, it was not a bridge, it was an ancient aqueduct. All around was the holy ground of the Campagna, and there, in the distance, the Albanian hills, and their peaks and the grey ridge of the old aqueduct gleamed dimly in the beams of the rising moon.... We suddenly darted upwards, and floated in the air before a deserted ruin. No one could have said what it had been: sepulchre, palace, or castle.... Dark ivy encircled it all over in its deadly clasp, and below gaped yawning a half-ruined vault. A heavy underground smell rose in my face from this heap of tiny closely-fitted stones, whence the granite facing of the wall had long crumbled away. 'Here,' Alice pronounced, and she raised her hand: 'Here! call aloud three times running the name of the mighty Roman!' 'What will happen?' 'You will see.' I wondered. '_Divus Caius Julius Caesar!_' I cried suddenly; '_Divus Caius Julius Caesar!_' I repeated deliberately; '_Caesar!_' |
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