A band of black seminarians passed.
“Poor creatures!” murmured Cæsar.
“Are you very sympathetic?” said Susanna, mockingly.
“Yes, those chaps rouse my pity.”
Now, on the right, the furious ruins of the Palatine were piled up: brick walls, ruined arches, decrepit partitions, and above, the terrace of a garden with a balustrade. Over the terrace, against the sky, were the silhouettes of high cypresses almost black, of ilexes with their dense foliage, and a large palm with arching leaves.
From these so tragic ruins there seemed to exhale a great desolation, beneath the deep, green sky.
Susanna and Cæsar drew near the Forum.
In the opaque light of dusk the Forum had the air of a cemetery. Two lighted windows were shining in the high dark wall of the Tabularium, and sharp-toned bells were beginning to ring.
They went up the stairway that leads to the Capitol, and on a little terrace they stopped to look at the Forum.
“What terrible desolation!” exclaimed Susanna.