noon
While this affecting scene was going on , Corti surveyed the interior . The freest pen can not do more than give the view with a clearness to barely stimulate the reader 's imagination . It was about eleven o'clock . The smoke of battle which had overlain the hills of the city was dissipated ; so the sun , nearing high noon , poured its full of splendor across the vast nave in rays slanted from south to north , and a fine , almost impalpable dust hanging from the dome in the still air , each ray shone through it in vivid , half-prismatic relief against the shadowy parts of the structure . Such pillars in the galleries as stood in the paths of the sunbeams seemed effulgent , like emeralds and rubies . His eyes , however , refused everything except the congregation of people . `` O Heaven ! ''