Leaving the music room, we entered another apartment, of the same
nave-like form, but vaster, or, at all events, considerably longer.
There I started and stood still, amazed at the scene before me. The
light, which found entrance through tall, narrow windows, was dim, but
sufficient to show the whole room with everything in it, ending at the
further extremity at a flight of broad stone steps. The middle part of
the floor, running the entire length of the apartment, was about twenty
feet wide, but on either side of this passage, which was covered with
mosaic, the floor was raised; and on this higher level I saw, as I
imagined, a great company of men and women, singly and in groups,
standing or seated on great stone chairs in various positions and
attitudes. Presently I perceived that these were not living beings, but
life-like effigies of stone, the drapery they were represented as
wearing being of many different richly-colored stones, having the
appearance of real garments. So natural did the hair look, that only
when I ascended the steps and touched the head of one of the statues was
I convinced that it was also of stone. Even more wonderful in their
resemblance to life were the eyes, which seemed to return my
half-fearful glances with a calm, questioning scrutiny I found it hard
to endure. I hurried on after my guide without speaking, but when I got
to the middle of the room I paused involuntarily once more, so
profoundly did one of the statues impress me. It was of a woman of a
majestic figure and proud, beautiful face, with an abundance of
silvery-white hair. She sat bending forward with her eyes fixed on mine
as I advanced, one hand pressed to her bosom, while with the other she
seemed in the act of throwing back her white unbound tresses from her
forehead. There was, I thought, a look of calm, unbending pride on the
face, but on coming closer this expression disappeared, giving place to
one so wistful and pleading, so charged with subtle pain, that I stood