"
"But the goats you see are generally white," answered L'Isle. "It is,
too, the more picturesque animal, and well supplies what is wanting in
the sheep."
Evora was at hand. L'Isle launched out into an erudite discourse on
the aqueduct of Sertorius, which, stretching its long line of arches
from the neighboring hills, was converging with their road to the
city. As they entered it he was giving Lady Mabel all the pros and
cons, as to whether it was really the work of that redoubtable Roman.
The commissary was luxuriously anticipating the shade and rest before
him, when to his surprise and regret, L'Isle led the party another
way, and halted them before a small but striking building, which here
crowned the aqueduct at its termination in the city.
"Look, Lady Mabel. Observe it well, Mrs. Shortridge. This castellum is
a miniature embodiment of Roman taste and skill in architecture. This
is no ruin calling upon the imagination to play the hazardous part of
filling up the gaps made by the hand of time. We see it as the Moor,
the Goth, the Roman saw it, save the loss of a few vases which adorned
the depressed parapet, and the scaling plaster which here and there
betrays that the builder used that cheap but immortal material, the
Roman brick.
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