midnight
Beneath lay the broad expanse of the Adriatic , endless to the eye , tranquil as the vault it reflected , and luminous with its borrowed light . Here and there a low island , reclaimed from the sea by the patient toil of a thousand years , dotted the Lagunes , burdened with the group of some conventual dwellings , or picturesque with the modest roofs of a hamlet of the fisherman . Neither oar , nor song , nor laugh , nor flap of sail , nor jest of mariner , disturbed the stillness . All in the near view was clothed in midnight loveliness , and all in the distance bespoke the solemnity of nature at peace . The city and the Lagunes , the gulf and the dreamy Alps , the interminable plain of Lombardy , and the blue void of heaven , lay alike in a common and grand repose . There suddenly appeared a gondola . It issued from among the watery channels of the town , and glided upon the vast bosom of the bay , noiseless as the fancied progress of a spirit .