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قراءة كتاب Romance of Roman Villas (The Renaissance)
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Romance of Roman Villas (The Renaissance)
tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">*Upper Cascade, Villa Aldobrandini
From an etching by Piranesi.
*By permission of Messrs. Alinari.
Portrait statue by Canova at Villa Borghese.
Painted at her order by Rubens.
With permission of Charles A. Platt.
Villa Conti Torlonia, Frascati.
Villa Conti Torlonia, Frascati.
From a portrait in the Colonna Gallery.
From a portrait in later life by Netscher.
By Mignard. Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin.
*By permission of Messrs. Alinari.
Bas-relief found at Hadrian's Villa, now in the Villa Albani.
From an etching by Piranesi.
Pirro Ligorio, architect.
The rotondo—Pirro Ligorio, architect.
Capitoline Museum.
Capitoline Museum.
Museum of the Vatican.
Museum of the Vatican.
*By permission of Messrs. Alinari.
ROMANCE OF ROMAN VILLAS
CHAPTER I
THE EYES OF A BASILISK
(AN EPISODE OF THE FRENCH WARS IN ITALY, FROM THE MEMOIRS OF THE GOOD KNIGHT YVES D'ALLEGRE)
I
There is not one that looketh upon her eyes but he dieth presently. The like property has the basilisk. A white spot or star she carrieth on her head and setteth it out like a diadem. If she but hiss no other serpent dare come near.—Pliny.
A STRANGE story is mine, not of love but of hatred, the slow coiling of a human serpent about its prey, with something more than human in the sudden deliverance which came from so unexpected a quarter when all hope had gone and struggle ceased.
Certes, I am not one of your practised romancers thus to reveal my plot at the beginning, and yet, with all I have told, you will never guess in what mysterious guise, yet so subtly that it seemed a breath of wind had but fluttered a leaf of paper, the enemy we feared was struck with such opportune paralysis.
Let those who doubt the truth of this tale or the existence of the basilisk question Cesare Borgia, for we saw the creature at the same time as we rode together near Imola in northern Italy. It was the beginning of that campaign in which I, much against my will, was in command of the French troops, which his Majesty Louis XII. had sent to aid his ally in the conquest of Romagna.