issued from the
group that clustered around the windows of the prison. All who have ever
listened to low humor, that is rather deadened than quickened by liquor,
will understand their character, and they who have not will scarcely be
losers by the omission.

At length the different allegories drawn from the heathen mythology ended,
and the procession of the nuptials came into the square. The meek and
gentle Christine had appeared nowhere that day without awakening strong
sympathy in her youth, beauty, and apparent innocence. Murmurs of
approbation accompanied her steps, and the maiden, more accustomed to her
situation, began to feel, probably for the first time since she had known
the secret of her origin, something like that security which is an
indispensable accompaniment of happiness. Long used to think of herself as
one proscribed of opinion, and educated in the retirement suited to the
views of her parents, the praises that reached her ear could not but be
grateful, and they went warm and cheeringly to her heart, in spite of the
sense of apprehension and uneasiness that had so long harbored there.
Throughout the whole of the day, until now, she had scarce dared to turn
her eyes to her future husband,--him who, in her simple and single-minded
judgment, had braved prejudice to do justice to her worth; but, as the
applause, which had been hitherto suppressed, broke out in loud
acclamations in the square of the town-house, the color mantled brightly
on her cheek, and she looked with modest pride at her companion, as if she
would say in the silent appeal, that his generous choice would not go
entirely without its reward. The crowd responded to the sentiment, and
never did votaries of Hymen approach the altar seemingly under happier
auspices.

The influence of innocence and beauty is universal. Even the unprincipled
and half-intoxicated prisoners were loud in praise of the gentle
Christine. One praised her modesty, another extolled her personal
appearance, and all united with the multitude in shouting to her honor.
The blood of the bridegroom began to quicken, and, by the time the train
had halted in the open space near the building, immediately beneath the
windows occupied by Maso and his fellows, he was looking about him in the
exultation of a vulgar mind, which finds its delight in, as it is apt to
form its judgments from, the suffrages of others.

"Here is a grand and beautiful festa!" said the hiccoughing Pippo,