Oh--glorious!' For she found herself looking towards the woods of the south-eastern ridge of the lake, over which the moon had now fully risen.

The lake was half shade, half light; the fleecy forests on the breast of Monte Cavo rose soft as a cloud into the infinite blue of the night-heaven.

Below, a silver shaft struck the fisherman's hut beside the shore, where, deep in the water's breast, lie the wrecked ships of Caligula,--the treasure ships--whereof for seventy generations the peasants of Nemi have gone dreaming.
As they passed the hut,--half an hour before--Manisty had drawn her attention, in the dim light, to the great beams from the side of the nearer ship, which had been recently recovered by the divers, and were lying at the water's edge.

And he had told her,--with a kindling eye--how he himself, within the last few months, had seen fresh trophies recovered from the water,--a bronze Medusa above all, fiercely lovely, the work of a most noble and most passionate art, not Greek though taught by Greece, fresh, full-blooded, and strong, the art of the Empire in its eagle-youth.
'Who destroyed the ships, and why ?' he said, as they paused, looking down upon the lake.

'There is not a shred of evidence.