e Prior of San Marco had reduced the fraternities under
his rule to the strictest poverty and discipline. But in the long line
of black and white there was at last singled out a mantle only a little
more worn than the rest, with a tonsured head above it which might not
have appeared supremely remarkable to a stranger who had not seen it on
bronze medals, with the sword of God as its obverse; or surrounded by an
armed guard on the way to the Duomo; or transfigured by the inward flame
of the orator as it looked round on a rapt multitude.

As the approach of Savonarola was discerned, none dared conspicuously to
break the stillness by a sound which would rise above the solemn tramp
of footsteps and the faint sweep of garments; nevertheless his ear, as
well as other ears, caught a mingled sound of slow hissing that longed
to be curses, and murmurs that longed to be blessings. Perhaps it was
the sense that the hissing predominated which made two or three of his
disciples in the foreground of the crowd, at the meeting of the roads,
fall on their knees as if something divine were passing. The movement
of silent homage spread: it went along the sides of the streets like a
subtle shock, leaving some unmoved, while it made the most bend the knee
and bow the head. But the hatred, too, gathered a more intense
expression; and as Savonarola passed up the Por' Santa Maria, Romola
could see that some one at an upper window spat upon him.

Monks again--Frati Umiliati, or Humbled Brethren, from Ognissanti, with
a glorious tradition of being the earliest workers in the wool-trade;
and again more monks--Vallombrosan and other varieties of Benedictines,
reminding the instructed eye by niceties of form and colour that in ages
of abuse, long ago, reformers had arisen who had marked a change of
spirit by a change of garb; till at last the shaven crowns were at an
end, and there came the train of untonsured secular priests.

Then followed the twenty-one incorporated Arts of Florence in long
array, with their banners floating above them in proud declaration that
the bearers had their distinct functions, from the bakers of bread to
the judges and notaries. And then all the secondary officers of State,
beginning with the less and going on to the greater, till the line of
secularities was broken by the Canons of the Duomo, carrying a sacred
relic--the very head, enclosed in silver, of San Zenobio, immortal
bishop of Florence, whose virtues wer