Time, and the mutilations and additions of the Moor, have not
effaced all the beauty of this structure, planned by the genius and
reared by the hands of men who lived nineteen centuries ago. The
rubble work and plaster wall that fills the space between those
columns, so requisite in their proportions--the pinnacles which crown
the structure in place of the entablature which has been destroyed,
are the work of the Moors, who strove in vain to unite in harmony
their own style of building with that of their Roman predecessors.
Enough remains to show the chaste, beautiful and permanent character
of the edifices of that classic age."
After gazing long with deep interest on this monument of the palmy
days and wide-spread sway of the Roman, Lady Mabel said: "Let us see
if there be not still left within the building some remains of a piece
with so noble an exterior."
"Unhappily," answered L'Isle, "all is changed there. Moreover, though
the sacrifices are continued, they are no longer conducted with the
decorum of the heathen rites. The temple of the chaste goddess is now
the public shambles of the city, defiled throughout by brutal
butchers, with the blood and offals of the slaughtered herd.
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