Oh, sir," he cried, his eyes darkening with emotion,
"if you could see, as I do, the blind brute misery on which all the
magnificence of rank and all the refinements of luxury are built, you
would feel, as you drive along this road, that with every turn of the
wheels you are passing over the bodies of those who have toiled without
ceasing that you might ride in a gilt coach, and have gone hungry that
you might feast in Kings' palaces!"
The touch of rhetoric in this adjuration did not discredit it with Odo,
to whom the words were as caustic on an open wound. He turned to make
some impulsive answer; but as he did so he caught sight of the towers of
Pianura rising above the orchards and market-gardens of the suburbs. The
sight started a new train of feeling, and Gamba, perceiving it, said
quietly: "But this is no time to speak of such things."
A moment later the carriage had passed under the great battlemented
gates, with their Etruscan bas-reliefs, and the motto of the house of
Valsecca--Humilitas--surmounted by the ducal escutcheon.
Though the hour was close on noon the streets were as animated as at the
angelus, and the carriage could hardly proceed for the crowd obstructing
its passage. So unusual at that period was such a sight in one of the
lesser Italian cities that Odo turned to Gamba for an explanation. At
the same moment a roar rose from the crowd; and the coach turning into
the Corso which led to the ducal palace and the centre of the town, Odo
caught sight of a strange procession advancing from that direction.
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