The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-10 00:00:00

A ROMAN LADY.

Too fastidious a critic might have objected Valeria's
form that it expressed more of physical strength than is
compatible with perfect womanly beauty, that the nittcies
were developed overmuch, and the whole frame, despitea :18a.
fliwing outlines, partook somewhat of a man'sog ni
Lion, and a man's redundant strength.
The same
her counten-
taunt
might have been found in a less degree
aarincueil.ineTnhoesree, wsoams
eathliitntlge
otfoommanuciyh °iu
jitttYie° that eer e
ray
theal
the well-formed mouth, with its broad e
h with
fullest and reddest of lips could
„ brow, smooth mai
not conceal--a shade of
masculine sternness on
the lowiit wide
and scarcely softened by
the arch of tha marked eye
arudswa e an
teethnidn etu hgiln
white, but somewhat prominent,
or the dark sweep of the
lashes that fringed thee
long
laughing ey ea.
And yet it a
that a man, and still more a boy,
emoiugihdthtaorodsloyoNbivlalvsceaarl fanooclttoedlonogn
foNry iitthsougtlanniciessg,i misgivings that
smiles,
its
approv t
al and its love. There was such a glow of health on
the soft transparent skin, such a freshness and vitality inthe colour of those blooming cheeks, such a sparkle in the
grey eyes, that flashed so meantngly when she smiled, that
gleamed so clear and bright and cold when the features
resumed their natural expression, grave, scornful, almost
stern in their repose; and then such womanly softness in
the masses of rich nut-brown hair that showered down
neck and shoulders, to form a framework for this lovely,
dangerous, and too alluring picture. Even the little negro,
wearied as he was, peepA at intervals from the back of the
mirror he upheld, fawning like a dog for some sign of
approval from his haughty, careless mistress. At length
she bade him keep still, with a halt-scornful smile at his

antics ; and the sharp white teeth gleamed from ear to ear
of the dusky little face, as it grinned with pleasure, while
the boy settled himself once more in an attitude of patience
and steady submission.
Nor was Valeria's apartment unworthy of the noble
beauty who devoted it to the mysterious rites of dress and
decoration. Dverything that luxury could imagine for
bodily ease, everything that science had as yet discovered
for the preservation or the production of feminine attrac-
tions, was there to be found in its handsomest and costliest
form. In one recess, shrouded by transparent curtains of
the softest pink, was the bath that could be heated at will
to any temperature, and the marble steps of which that
shapely form was accustomed to descend twice and thrice
a day. In another stood the ivory couch with its quilted
crimson silks and ornamentel pillars of solid gold, in which
Valeria slept, and dreamed such dreams as hovei round the
rest of those whose life is luxury, and whose business is a
ceaseless career of pleasure. On the table of cedar wood,
fashioned like a palm-leaf opening out from a pedestal that
terminated in a single claw of grotesque shape, stood her
silver night. lamp, exhaling odours or perfuraed oil/ end
near it lay he waxen tablt ts, on which she made her memo-
randums, or composed her love-letters, and from which, es
from an unfinished task, the sharp-pointed steel pencil had
rolled away upon the shining floor. Through the
whole court for court it might
.be called,
with its many entrances and recesses, its cool
and shady nooks, its lofty ceiling and its
tesselated pavement,--choice vases, jewelled cups, bur-
nished chalices, and exquisite little statues were scattered
in systematic irregularity, and graceful profusion. Even
the very water in the bath flowed through the mouth of 3
marble Cupid; and two more winged urchins ,wrought .
bronze, supported a stand on which was set a formidable
array of perfumes, essences, cosmetics, and such material
for offensive and defensive warfare.
The walls, too, of this seductive arsenal, were delicately
tinted of a light rose-colour, that should throw the moot
becoming shade over its inmates, relieved at intervals by
oval wreaths wrought out in bas•relief, enclosing diverse
mythological subjects, in which the figure of Venus, god-
dess of love and laughter, predominated, Round the cor-
nices stretched a frieze representing, also in relief, the
tabu', us contests of the Amazons with every description
of monster, amongst which the most conspicuous foe was
the well-known gryphon, or griffin, an abnormal quadru-
ped, with the head and neck of a bird of prey.

Here, again, is a beautiful thought, commemorating
a kindred truth to that immortal exclamation °f

" A TILING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOR EVER I"
It is pehaps one of the most consoling and merciful dis-
pensations of Providence, that the human naiad is so con'
stituted as to dwell on past pleasures, rather than past Pahl'
The sorrow that ie done with, returns indeed at intervals
vividly and bitterly enough ; but every fresh occurrence is
less cruel than the last, and we can look back to our suffer-
ings at length, with a calm and chastened humility which IS
the first step towards resignation and eventual peace. Bill
the memory oft, great happiness seems so interwoven with
the imperishable part of our being, that it loses none of its
reality by the relapse of time, none of its brightness
frool
the effect of distance. Anger, sorrow, hatred, contentions,
fleet away like a dream ; but the smile that glaadened its
long ago, has passed into the very sunlight of noon-del
the whisper that softened our sternest moods, steals with
the breezyof evening to our heart, gently and tenderly a°
of yore, and we know, we feel, that while crime, and miserYt
and remorse, are the temporary afflictions of humanity,
pardon, and hope, and love are its inheritance for ever-
more.

the conflicts in the amphitheatre are very vividly
described. Here, as our final quotation, is a passwg
glimpse of—