cious hiding-place, had probably
been a still more efficacious remedy. The prince had learnt to govern
himself and had become dearer to the professor than ever....

This devotion, born of a discovery of what others did not know to
exist--high qualities of temperament--was enhanced by Barzia's fostering
of those same qualities; and, when the prince's marriage could be fixed,
the professor looked with as much pride as affection upon his patient,
whom he declared to be physically cured and considered, in his own mind,
to be morally cured as well....

2

Two days later was the day of the imperial wedding. The town swarmed
from early morning with the people who had streamed in from the environs
and who noisily thronged the narrower streets. For already at an early
hour the main thoroughfares had been closed by the infantry, from the
fortress to the Old Palace and the cathedral. And Altara, usually grey,
old, weather-beaten, was unrecognizable, gaudy with flags, fresh with
festoons of greenery, decked with draperies and tapestries hanging from
its balconies. A warm, southern May sun shed patches of light over the
town; and the red and blue and white and green of the waiting uniforms,
with the even flash of the bayonets above them, drew broad lines of
colour through the city, with a gaiety almost floral, right up to the
Castle of St. Ladislas.

Through the streets, closed to public traffic, court-carriages drove to
and fro, filled with glittering uniforms: royal guests who were being
carried to St. Ladislas or the Old Palace. There were Russian, German,
British, Austrian, Gothlandic uniforms; briskly, as though preparing for
the ceremonial moment, they flashed through Altara, through its long,
empty streets lined with soldiers.

Beneath the chestnuts on the Castle Road the villas also teemed with
spectators, sitting or moving in the gardens and terraces; and, in the
sunbeams that filtered through the foliage of the trees, the ladies'
light summer costumes and coloured sun-shades cast variegated patches:
it was as though garden-parties were taking place from villa to villa,
while people waited for the procession of the bridegroom, who, in
accordance with Liparian etiquette, was to drive from St. Ladislas to
fetch his bride from the Old Palace.

* * * * *

Eleven o'clock. From the Fort of St. Ladislas booms the first gun; other
guns boom after it minute by minute. A buzz of excitement p