Rich vases, flasks, and
drinking-cups, all filled with wine, alone occupied the festal board.
Above, hanging low from the ceiling, burnt ten large lamps,
corresponding to the number of guests assembled, as the only procurable
representatives of the hundreds of revellers who had feasted at
Vetranio's expense during the brilliant nights that were now passed for
ever. At the lower end of the room, beyond the grand door of entrance,
hung a thick black curtain, apparently intended to conceal mysteriously
some object behind it. Before the curtain burnt a small lamp of yellow
glass, raised upon a high gilt pole, and around and beneath it, heaped
against the side walls, and over part of the table, lay a various and
confused mass of rich objects, all of a nature more or less inflammable,
and all besprinkled with scented oils. Hundreds of yards of gorgeously
variegated hangings, rolls upon rolls of manuscripts, gaudy dresses of
all colours, toys, utensils, innumerable articles of furniture formed in
rare and beautifully inlaid woods, were carelessly flung together
against the walls of the apartment, and rose high towards its ceiling.
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