The young Barone Manutoli and Ludovico were in the
carriage with him. But it was understood, as has been said, that
they were to leave it when they met the heroine of the day, who was
to enter Ravenna with the perfectly safe and unattackable Marchese
alone in the carriage with her.
"I wonder whether she is as lovely as she is said to be?" said
Manutoli, as they drove out beyond the crumbling and ivy-grown brick
wall, which had helped to repel the attack of Odoacer the Goth; but
which had, some thirteen hundred years ago, failed to keep out the
mischief brought into the city by the comedian Empress Theodora,
whose beauty had promoted her from the stage to the throne.
Absit omen! And what, indeed, can there be common between Goths and
Greeks of the Lower Empire, who lived thirteen hundred years ago,
with the good Catholic subjects, and the quiet Catholic city of our
Holy Father the Pope, in the nineteenth century!
At all events, it may be taken as very certain that no omen of the
sort and no such thoughts were present to the minds or fancies of
any of those who were about to form the escort of the modern
actress.
"All who have ever seen her, speak in the most rapturous terms of
her great beauty," said Ludovico, in reply to his friend's remark.
"Don't be too sure about it, figliuoli mio, or it is likely enough
you may be disappointed," said the Marchese Lamberto.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222