But they none of them resorted to tramping up and down, or
stamping with their feet, or threshing themselves with their arms,
or had recourse to movement of any kind to get a little warmth into
their bodies, as Englishmen may be seen to do under similar
circumstances. However cold it may be an Italian never does anything
of this sort. It must be supposed, that to him cold is a less
detestable evil than muscular exertion of any kind.
There were some half-dozen men standing about the door; and though
they were doing nothing, it was not to be supposed that they stood
there in the bitter cold for their own amusement. The fact was, they
were waiting for one of the great events of the day at Ravenna,--the
arrival of the diligenza from Bologna. It was past six o'clock in
the evening; and it could not now be long before the expected
vehicle would arrive.
It is a distance of some sixty miles from Bologna to Ravenna; the
diligence started at five in the morning, and was due at the latter
city at five in the evening. But nobody expected that it would reach
its destination at that hour. It had never done so within the memory
of man, even in the fine days of summer, and now, when the roads
were rough with ridges of frozen mud! It was now, however, nearly
half-past six--yes, there went the half-hour clanging from the
cracked-voiced old bell in the top of the round brick tower, which
stands on one side of the cathedral, and by its likeness to a
minaret reminds one of the Byzantine parentage of its builders.
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