The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851Various
History
The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
There was a slight stoppage caused by the carriages which were driving
up to the Teatro d'Apolion, the present Opera. People looked curiously
into ours, which was well-known as that of the chief of the police. How
wonderful are the circles into which the interests of society are
divided; how many currents are eddying and bubbling in their course
before the mighty river of human existence is formed; each stream so
perfect in itself, so separate from every other, yet ever flowing
towards the same wide fathomless sea. Of the gay and the happy whom I
passed, how few cared for this poor girl, or how few would have cared
had they even heard the tale! I felt myself almost criminal from the
circumstance of having been the cause of this misery to another. My
whole thoughts were fixed on this one object. Before the fulness of my
imagination the prison-walls disappeared, and I saw nothing but the
cells, and listened to the voices of the many to whom the voice of the
comforter is never heard. We were passing over the yellow Tiber, but I
heeded not its associations, either with history or with my early
schoolboy days, their studies and their struggles. When the mind is full
of one object, all others become invisible, even to the senses. The
light of the mind is greater than the light of the body.
We arrived at last at the gates of St. Angelo, the tomb of the dead
Pagan and of the living Christian. After certain stern, painful
formalities were gone through, in the most matter-of-fact way, between
my companion and the commander of the strong post which was on guard, we
entered the mighty precincts, and the gates closed behind us. I had then
time to marvel at the massiveness of the structure--the immense blocks
of stone, so typical of the colossal empire under which it was
constructed. Passing through a long series of narrow passages, gloomy
and sad, impervious to all sound, save that of low sighs and groans from
dungeons below and around us, we arrived at an open space in the centre,
above which the winged angel is poised in the act of sheathing his
sword. The moon shone around it, and the expanded wings, edged with a
silvery light, seemed almost to move in the light breeze: there were
guards on the battlements, who marched with solemn, measured tread; and
high above all floated the Pontifical banner, with the keys of St. Peter
in its huge folds flapping in the breeze,--the emblem of sovereignty,
spiritual and temporal. No one can judge of the immense extent of St.
Angelo from the interior. The ashes of the great Emperor, how small a
space could they have occupied in that vast circumference--the tomb of
the one day, the citadel of the morrow--the grave of the Pagan, the
fortress of Christianity! During the recent revolution at Rome the
people broke down the viaduct which connects it with the Vatican, and
the ruined wall still remains;--we may hope, as a good omen, to show
that the palace and the prison are no longer closely connected together,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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