on as Honorius ended the
dignified barbarities of a Brutus, the polished splendours of an
Augustus, the unearthly atrocities of a Nero, and the immortal virtues
of a Trajan! Vainly, through the toiling ages, over the ruin of her
noblest hearts, and the prostitution of her grandest intellects, had
Rome striven pitilessly onward, grasping at the shadow--Glory; the fiat
had now gone forth that doomed her to possess herself finally of the
substance--Shame!

When the imperial trifler had exhausted his store of grain, and
satisfied the cravings of his voracious favourites, he was relieved of
his silver vase by two attendants. The flock of poultry was then
ushered out at one door, while the flock of geniuses was ushered in at
the other.

Leaving the emperor to cast his languid eyes over objects of art for
which he had no admiration, and to open his unwilling ears to
panegyrical orations for which he had no comprehension, we proceed to
introduce the reader to an apartment on the opposite side of the
palace, in which are congregated all the beauty and elegance of his
Court.

Imagine a room two hundred feet long and proportionably broad. Its
floor is mosaic, wrought into the loveliest patterns. Its sides are
decorated with immense pillars of variegated marble, the recesses
formed by which are occupied by statues, all arranged in exquisite
variety of attitude, so as to appear to be offering to whoever
approaches them the rare flowers which it is the duty of the attendants
to place in their hands. The ceiling is painted in fresco, in patterns
and colours harmonising with those on the mosaic floor. The cornices
are of silver, and decorated with mottoes from the amatory poets of the
day, the letters of which are formed by precious stones. In the middle
of the room is a fountain throwing up streams of perfumed water, and
surrounded by golden aviaries containing birds of all sizes and
nations. Three large windows, placed at the eastern extremity of the
apartment, look out upon the Adriatic, but are covered at this hour,
from the outside, with silk curtains of a delicate green shade, which
cast a soft, luxurious light over every object, but are so thinly woven
and so skilfully arranged that the slightest breath of air which moves
without finds its way immediately to the languid occupants of the Court
waiting-room. The number of these individuals amounts to about fifty
or sixty persons. By far the larger half of the assem