now near mid-day.
Half the monks were already at their post, and that half of the Loggia
that lies towards the Palace was already filled with grey mantles; but
the other half, divided off by boards, was still empty of everything
except a small altar. The Franciscans had entered and taken their
places in silence. But now, at the other side of the Piazza was heard
loud chanting from two hundred voices, and there was general
satisfaction, if not in the chanting, at least in the evidence that the
Dominicans were come. That loud chanting repetition of the prayer, "Let
God arise, and let His enemies be scattered," was unpleasantly
suggestive to some impartial ears of a desire to vaunt confidence and
excite dismay; and so was the flame-coloured velvet cope in which Fra
Domenico was arrayed as he headed the procession, cross in hand, his
simple mind really exalted with faith, and with the genuine intention to
enter the flames for the glory of God and Fra Girolamo. Behind him came
Savonarola in the white vestment of a priest, carrying in his hands a
vessel containing the consecrated Host. He, too, was chanting loudly;
he, too, looked firm and confident, and as all eyes were turned eagerly
on him, either in anxiety, curiosity, or malignity, from the moment when
he entered the Piazza till he mounted the steps of the Loggia and
deposited the Sacrament on the altar, there was an intensifying flash
and energy in his countenance responding to that scrutiny.

We are so made, almost all of us, that the false seeming which we have
thought of with painful shrinking when beforehand in our solitude it has
urged itself on us as a necessity, will possess our muscles and move our
lips as if nothing but that were easy when once we have come under the
stimulus of expectant eyes and ears. And the strength of that stimulus
to Savonarola can hardly be measured by the experience of ordinary
lives. Perhaps no man has ever had a mighty influence over his fellows
without having the innate need to dominate, and this need usually
becomes the more imperious in proportion as the complications of life
make Self inseparable from a purpose which is not selfish. In this way
it came to pass that on the day of the Trial by Fire, the doubleness
which is the pressing temptation in every public career, whether of
priest, orator, or statesman, was more strongly defined in Savonarola's
consciousness as the acting of a part, than at any other period in his
li