elf to a similar spectacle, it is the only one that
causes you any emotion."

"Without reflecting that this is the only moment in which you can study
character," said the count; "on the steps of the scaffold death tears
off the mask that has been worn through life, and the real visage is
disclosed. It must be allowed that Andrea was not very handsome, the
hideous scoundrel! Come, dress yourselves, gentlemen, dress yourselves."
Franz felt it would be ridiculous not to follow his two companions'
example. He assumed his costume, and fastened on the mask that scarcely
equalled the pallor of his own face. Their toilet finished, they
descended; the carriage awaited them at the door, filled with sweetmeats
and bouquets. They fell into the line of carriages. It is difficult to
form an idea of the perfect change that had taken place. Instead of the
spectacle of gloomy and silent death, the Piazza del Popolo presented a
spectacle of gay and noisy mirth and revelry. A crowd of masks flowed
in from all sides, emerging from the doors, descending from the windows.
From every street and every corner drove carriages filled with clowns,
harlequins, dominoes, mummers, pantomimists, Transteverins, knights, and
peasants, screaming, fighting, gesticulating, throwing eggs filled with
flour, confetti, nosegays, attacking, with their sarcasms and their
missiles, friends and foes, companions and strangers, indiscriminately,
and no one took offence, or did anything but laugh. Franz and Albert
were like men who, to drive away a violent sorrow, have recourse to
wine, and who, as they drink and become intoxicated, feel a thick veil
drawn between the past and the present. They saw, or rather continued
to see, the image of what they had witnessed; but little by little the
general vertigo seized them, and they felt themselves obliged to take
part in the noise and confusion. A handful of confetti that came from
a neighboring carriage, and which, while it covered Morcerf and his
two companions with dust, pricked his neck and that portion of his face
uncovered by his mask like a hundred pins, incited him to join in the
general combat, in which all the masks around him were engaged. He rose
in his turn, and seizing handfuls of confetti and sweetmeats, with which
the carriage was filled, cast them with all the force and skill he was
master of.

The strife had fairly begun, and the recollection of what they had seen
half an hour before was gradually efface