up to the recess of a window and
contemplated the scene. There was the innumerable crowd; swaying,
embracing, laughing, weeping, shouting, cheering. High in the air
waved hundreds of banners; and the tri-color flaunted in ribbons,
from thousands of breasts, or shone in rosettes, or gleamed in
flowers. Ever and anon loud trumpet blasts arose triumphantly on
high; in the distance victorious strains came swelling up front
bands hurried there to express in thrilling music what words could
never utter; while all around the whole air rang with the thunder
of cannon that saluted the triumph of Solferino.

"Look there! _Look_! LOOK!" cried Dick.

He pointed to the large portico which is on the right of the
Palazzo Vecchio. Buttons looked as he was directed.

He saw a great assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, the chief people
of the Tuscan state. From this place those announcements had been
made which had set the people wild with joy. There were beautiful
ladies whose flashed faces and suffused eyes bore witness to their
deep emotion. There were noble gentlemen whose arms still waved in
the air as they cheered for Italy. And there, high above all others,
rose a familiar figure--the massive shoulders, the calm, shrewd,
square face, the benignant glance and smile, which could belong
only to one person.

"_The Senator_!" cried Buttons.

Every body was looking in that direction. The impulsive crowd
having celebrated abstract ideas, were now absolutely hungering
for some tangible object upon which to expend something of the
warmth of their feelings. A few who stood near the Senator and
were impressed by his aspect, as soon as all the news had been made
known, gave expression and direction to the feeling by shouting his
name. As they shouted others took up the cry, louder, louder, and
louder still, till his name burst forth in one sublime sound from
thirty thousand lips.

No wonder that he started at such an appeal. He turned and looked upon
the crowd. An ordinary man would have exhibited either confusion or
wonder. The Senator, being an extraordinary man, exhibited neither.
As he turned a vast roar burst from the multitude.

"Good Heavens!" cried Buttons; "what's in the wind now? Will this be
a repetition of the scene in the Place Vendome?"

"Hush!"

The crowd saw before them the man whose name and fame had been the
subject of conjecture, wonder, applause, and hope for many days.
They beheld in him the Representative of