The half-ruined palace which had
once housed Gamba and Momola showed a few shreds of colour on its sullen
front, and the abate Crescenti's modest house, wedged in a corner of the
city walls, was dressed like the altar of a Lady Chapel; while even the
tanners' quarter by the river displayed its festoons of coloured paper
and tinsel, ingeniously twisted into the semblance of a crown.
For the new Duke, who was about to enter his capital in state, was
extraordinarily popular with all classes. His popularity, as yet, was
mainly due to a general detestation of the rule he had replaced; but
such a sentiment gives to a new sovereign an impetus which, if he knows
how to use it, will carry him a long way toward success; and among those
in the Duke's confidence it was rumoured that he was qualified not only
to profit by the expectations he had raised but to fulfil them. The last
months of the late Duke's life had plunged the duchy into such political
and financial disorder that all parties were agreed in welcoming a
change. Even those that had most to lose by the accession of the new
sovereign, or most to fear from the policy he was known to favour,
preferred the possibility of new evils to a continuance of present
conditions. The expertest angler in troubled waters may find waters too
troubled for his sport; and under a government where power is passed
from hand to hand like the handkerchief in a children's game, the most
adroit time-server may find himself grasping the empty air.
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