ed all about. So fair a group, and so graceful a scene, Adrian
never beheld but once, and that was in the midst of the ghastly
pestilence of Italy!--such group and such scene our closet indolence may
yet revive in the pages of the bright Boccaccio!

On seeing Adrian and his companions approach, the party rose instantly;
and one of the ladies, who wore upon her head a wreath of laurel-leaves,
stepping before the rest, exclaimed, "well done, my Mariana! welcome
back, my fair subjects. And you, sir, welcome hither."

The two guides of the Colonna had by this time removed their masks; and
the one who had accosted him, shaking her long and raven ringlets over a
bright, laughing eye and a cheek to whose native olive now rose a slight
blush, turned to him ere he could reply to the welcome he had received.

"Signor Cavalier," said she, "you now see to what I have decoyed you.
Own that this is pleasanter than the sights and sounds of the city we
have left. You gaze on me in surprise. See, my Queen, how speechless
the marvel of your court has made our new gallant; I assure you he
could talk quickly enough when he had only us to confer with: nay, I was
forced to impose silence on him."

"Oh! then you have not yet informed him of the custom and origin of the
court he enters!" quoth she of the laurel wreath.

"No, my Queen; I thought all description given in such a spot as our
poor Florence now is would fail of its object. My task is done, I resign
him to your Grace!"

So saying the lady tripped lightly away, and began coquettishly sleeking
her locks in the smooth mirror of a marble basin, whose waters trickled
over the margin upon the grass below, ever and anon glancing archly
towards the stranger, and sufficiently at hand to overhear all that was
said.

"In the first place, Signor, permit us to inquire," said the lady who
bore the appellation of Queen, "thy name, rank, and birth-place."

"Madam," returned Adrian, "I came hither little dreaming to answer
questions respecting myself; but what it pleases you to ask, it must
please me to reply to. My name is Adrian di Castello, one of the Roman
house of the Colonna."

"A noble column of a noble house!" answered the Queen. "For us,
respecting whom your curiosity may perhaps be aroused, know that we six
ladies of Florence, deserted by or deprived of our kin and protectors,
formed the resolution to retire to this palace, where, if death comes,
it comes stripped of half its horr