On each side of a bright river he saw rise a line of brighter palaces, arched and pillared, and inlaid with deep red porphyry, and with serpentine; along the quays before their gates were riding troops of knights, noble in face and form, dazzling in crest and shield; horse and man one labyrinth of quaint color and gleaming light -- the purple, and silver, and scarlet fringes flowing over the strong limbs and clashing mail, like sea-waves over rock at sunset. Opening on each side from the river were gardens, courts, and cloisters; long successions of white pillars among wreaths of vine, leaping of fountains through buds of pomegranate and orange; and still a- long the garden-paths, and under and through the crimson of the pomegranate shadows, moving slowly, groups of the fairest women that Italy ever saw--fairest, because purest and most thoughtful; trained in all high knowledge, as in all courteous art--in dance, in song, in sweet wit, in lofty learning, in loftier courage, in loftiest love--able alike to cheer, to enchant, or save the souls of mere