attention to the fact. Some faces I saw that were thoughtful, and in
these I noticed great nobility of expression, but none that had a
glimmer of unhappiness, and the greater part (we came upon a good
many people) were frankly and openly joyous.

I thought I knew the Broadway by the lie of the roads that still met
there. On the north side of the road was a range of buildings and
courts, low, but very handsomely built and ornamented, and in that
way forming a great contrast to the unpretentiousness of the houses
round about; while above this lower building rose the steep lead-
covered roof and the buttresses and higher part of the wall of a
great hall, of a splendid and exuberant style of architecture, of
which one can say little more than that it seemed to me to embrace
the best qualities of the Gothic of northern Europe with those of the
Saracenic and Byzantine, though there was no copying of any one of
these styles. On the other, the south side, of the road was an
octagonal building with a high roof, not unlike the Baptistry at
Florence in outline, except that it was surrounded by a lean-to that
clearly made an arcade or cloisters to it: it also was most
delicately ornamented.

This whole mass of architecture which we had come upon so suddenly
from amidst the pleasant fields was not only exquisitely beautiful in
itself, but it bore upon it the expression of such generosity and
abundance of life that I was exhilarated to a pitch that I had never
yet reached. I fairly chuckled for pleasure. My friend seemed to
understand it, and sat looking on me with a pleased and affectionate
interest. We had pulled up amongst a crowd of carts, wherein sat
handsome healthy-looking people, men, women, and children very gaily
dressed, and which were clearly market carts, as they were full of