But when he passed before the Cancelleria,* Bramante's masterpiece, the typical monument of the Roman Renascence, his astonishment came back to him and his mind returned to the mansions which he had previously espied, those bare, huge, heavy edifices, those vast cubes of stone-work resembling hospitals or prisons.

Never would he have imagined that the famous Roman "palaces" were like that, destitute of all grace and fancy and external magnificence.

However, they were considered very fine and must be so; he would doubtless end by understanding things, but for that he would require reflection.** * Formerly the residence of the Papal Vice-Chancellors.
** It is as well to point out at once that a palazzo is not a palace as we understand the term, but rather a mansion .-- Trans.
All at once the cab turned out of the populous Corso Vittorio Emanuele into a succession of winding alleys, through which it had difficulty in making its way.

Quietude and solitude now came back again; the olden city, cold and somniferous, followed the new city with its bright sunshine and its crowds.

Pierre remembered the maps which he had consulted, and realised that he was drawing near to the Via Giulia, and thereupon his curiosity, which had been steadily increasing, augmented to such a point that he suffered from it, full of despair at not seeing more and learning more at once.