against the obelisk. He was, in one way, their superior, and majorities
are always made up of pigmies.

"Hi! Come down from your stand!"

"Hi! get off your pedestal!"

"Off with your hat!"

"Down with your head!"

"Sit down!"

"Lie down!"

This revival of curiosity expressing itself in invectives evidently
betokened the crisis of the show. And indeed the chapters of canons, the
clergy and bishops, the pages and chamberlains, the representatives of
the city, and the gentlemen of the king's chamber now appeared, and
finally the king himself, who, bare-headed and carrying a taper, followed
the magnificent statue of the Virgin. The contrast was striking: after
the grey-headed monks and pale novices came brilliant young captains,
affronting heaven with the points of their moustaches, riddling the
latticed windows with killing glances, following the procession in an
absent-minded way, and interrupting the holy hymns with scraps of most
unorthodox conversation.

"Did you notice, my dear Doria, how like a monkey the old Marchesa
d'Acquasparta takes her raspberry ice?"