the nobles were assembled in Council
near their sovereign, deeply intent upon the organization of the
cavalcade.

Heaven alone appeared unwilling to take part in the festival. Until
then the burning sky had diffused a stifling heat, but on the eve of
the ceremony heavy clouds began to collect upon the distant horizon,
and pile up in dark masses, whence flashed lurid sheets of fire, while
the thunder rolled menacingly. Still the air was calm, and scarcely a
puff of wind fluttered the gay pennons of the knights. All nature
seemed hushed in dread expectancy.

Goswin was seated at his door, watching the darkening sky, and as the
weather became more overcast and the lightning blazed more fiercely, he
shook his head uneasily.

"Tighten the tent-cords, Bruno," he said, turning to his squire; "we
shall have a storm soon."

Hardly was the order given before the tempest burst forth in all its
fury. The tents were prostrated or else whirled away by the wind; and
on all sides were heard the shouts and cries of the soldiers struggling
amidst a deluge of rain to repair the wild confusion.

Fortunately the hurricane was of short duration, and subsided as
rapidly as it had arisen; but it seemed as though a threat from Heaven
weighed down the army and the city. The lightning had ceased, and the
thunder rolled no longer, but the clouds, which had been chasing
rapidly through the air, suddenly stopped, as though they had reached
their destination, and hung over Rome, gloomy and mournful as a
funeral-pall.

Knights and pages looked with apprehension upon this ominous calm. To
most it seemed as though the storm was only massing its strength in
order the better to destroy all within its reach.

"What a singular tempest!" exclaimed Frederic, who had been driven from
his tent by the violence of the gale; "it is as though chaos had come
again."

As if in answer to the Emperor, a dazzling flash furrowed the sky, and
extended from above the camp to the Eternal City, as though to presage
its destruction, and then the lightning again blazed forth, and crash
succeeded crash, while the rain poured down in torrents. Then there was
a pause, followed by three deafening peals, at regular intervals, and
all was still.

The statue of the Archangel no longer guarded the summit of Saint
Angelo; the tempest had hurled it from its pedestal. All was wild
uproar; and the affrightened soldiers sought shelter where they could
from the violence of the