As the Bucentaur touched at the landing-stage and Odo stepped out on the
red carpet strewn with flowers, while cannon thundered from the walls
and the bells burst into renewed jubilation, he felt himself for the
first time face to face with his people. The very ceremonial which in
other cases kept them apart was now a means of closer communication; for
it was to show himself to them that he was making a public entry into
his capital, and it was to see him that the city had poured forth her
shouting throngs. The shouts rose and widened as he advanced, enveloping
him in a mounting tide of welcome, in which cannon, bells and
voices--the decreed and the spontaneous acclamations--were
indistinguishably merged. In like manner, approbation of his person was
mingled with a simple enjoyment of the show of which he formed a part;
and it must have taken a more experienced head than Odo's to distinguish
between the two currents of enthusiasm on which he felt himself swept
forward.
The pageant was indeed brilliant enough to justify the popular
transport; and the fact that the new Duke formed a worthy centre to so
much magnificence was not lost on his splendour-loving subjects. The
late sovereign had so long held himself aloof that the city was
unaccustomed to such shows, and as the procession wound into the square
before the Cathedral, where the thickest of the crowd was massed, the
very pealing of the church-bells was lost in the roar of human voices.
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