cheeks, over which every now and then a modest
blush flitted when he looked around him and saw on all sides white
heads bend reverently before his triumphal youth, or mothers hold up
their children the better to see the deliverer of their native city.
But what crowned the whole was the shower of flowers falling so thickly
from window and roof upon the hero, that his form was at times actually
lost to view beneath a many-coloured veil; and his good horse,
accustomed in battle to quite different missiles, pricked his ears,
shook his mane, and mingled his shrill neighing with the shouts of
triumph and the clamour of bells.

"As soon as the whole procession had gathered in front of the town
hall, Attilio leapt from the saddle and hastened up the steps to kneel
before his noble uncle, to receive from him the banner, and to kiss the
hand that bestowed so high an honour. But as he rose from his knees and
prepared to descend the steps and tread the way to the cathedral, he
started as though from some sudden pain of body or mind, and required
three minutes at least to regain consciousness of where he was, and of
the many thousand eyes riveted upon him. The fact was he had seen on
the tribune to his right, a face that, like a vision of paradise,
seemed to ravish him away from earth; and when the large black eyes
looked fixedly at him from under their blonde lashes with an
indescribable expression, half sweet, half melancholy, the blood
suddenly rushed to his heart, he grew pale as though an arrow had
smitten him in the breast, and had he not been holding the banner,
against the pole of which he was able to lean, he must a second
time--but this time involuntarily--have fallen upon his knees. Those
who stood nearest to him and noticed his faintness, attributed it to
his wound, and to the fatigue of so long a ride upon a hot day, no one
divining the real cause; and at last Attilio collected himself, and
forcing his eyes away from the enchanting face before him, trod the
path to the cathedral without once turning round his head to where the
women sat.

"All the people now streamed after him, and the tribunes emptied
themselves rapidly. The last who rose--and then only at the suggestion
of her neighbour--was Gianna the Blonde, who as if lapped in dreams, or
like one who gazes after the track of a falling star in the sky,
followed the young man with her eyes, till the deep shadow of the
cathedral portal swallowed up his lofty form. H