her as a supernatural portent, and the deliverer himself as
an angel with a flaming sword. Never had she more gladly undertaken a
task, or executed it with more skill and industry, than she did this
banner which the city meant to offer its triumphant son on his entry;
and when the festal day came, and everybody in Treviso who was not on a
sick-bed, sought themselves out a spot on market-place or street, at
gate or window, nay even on the very house-tops, from whence to shower
down flowers and congratulations on Attilio Buonfigli, even the fair
Gianna could no longer endure her narrow dwelling, though indeed she
might from the turret window have seen the procession from Vicenza well
enough. She procured herself a seat on a gaily decorated tribune near
the town hall, that she might see the hero quite closely, and she
dressed herself in her best attire, a bodice of silver tissue trimmed
with blue velvet, and a skirt of fine light blue woollen material, her
hair being according to the fashion of the time, richly intertwined
with ribands, so that even an hour before the entry, there was a rush
in the streets, and many exclamations of amazement when she, thus
arrayed, was seen to take her place by the side of a female friend. But
before long the eyes of the crowd were diverted from her, and fixed
impatiently on the street up which the hero was to ride. Part of the
town council had ridden at least a mile beyond the gates to meet and
honourably welcome him and his parents. His uncle, the Gonfaloniere,
remained standing with the rest on the steps of the town hall, which
was covered with costly red cloth, from whence a broad stripe of the
same led across the market-place to the door of the cathedral, a manner
of preparing the way hitherto reserved for consecrated and anointed
personages only.

"But who is able to describe the truly marvellous and unutterably
solemn impression made on all, when at length Attilio, in advance of
his escort, came riding up the street on his crimson-caparisoned bay
charger, he himself in plain attire, a steel coat of mail thrown over a
tabard; for the rest unarmed, with the exception of the sword that hung
from his girdle, his head adorned merely by its dark brown curls. His
chin and cheeks were shaded by a light beard, through which on the left
side the broad red scar of his wound was visible. And although his
management of his fiery charger proved his strength, a slight pallor
still lingered on his