There the
blooming Adonis was seen, not breaking away to pursue the boisterous
chase, but crowned with flowers, and languishing in the embraces of
celestial beauty. There Acis wooed his Galatea in the shade, with the
Sicilian sea spreading in halcyon serenity before them. There were
depicted groups of fauns and dryads, fondly reclining in summer
bowers, and listening to the liquid piping of the reed; or the wanton
satyrs, surprising some wood-nymph during her noontide slumber. There,
too, on the storied tapestry, might be seen the chaste Diana,
stealing, in the mystery of moonlight, to kiss the sleeping Endymion;
while Cupid and Psyche, entwined in immortal marble, breathed on each
other's lips the early kiss of love.
The ardent rays of the sun were excluded from these balmy halls; soft
and tender music from unseen musicians floated around, seeming to
mingle with the perfumes that were exhaled from a thousand flowers. At
night, when the moon shed a fairy light over the scene, the tender
serenade would rise from among the bowers of the garden, in which the
fine voice of Don Ambrosio might often be distinguished; or the
amorous flute would be heard along the mountain, breathing in its
pensive cadences the very soul of a lover's melancholy.
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