her young charge into a lofty ante-chamber, hung with arras of wrought
velvets; while over the opposite door, through which the officer now
vanished, were blazoned the armorial bearings which the Tribune so
constantly introduced in all his pomp, not more from the love of show,
than from his politic desire to mingle with the keys of the Pontiff the
heraldic insignia of the Republic.

"Philip of Valois is not housed like this man!" muttered Ursula. "If
this last, I shall have done better for my charge than I recked of."

The officer soon returned, and led them across an apartment of vast
extent, which was indeed the great reception chamber of the palace.
Four-and-twenty columns of the Oriental alabaster which had attested the
spoils of the later emperors, and had been disinterred from forgotten
ruins, to grace the palace of the Reviver of the old Republic, supported
the light roof, which, half Gothic, half classic, in its architecture,
was inlaid with gilded and purple mosaics. The tesselated floor was
covered in the centre with cloth of gold, the walls were clothed, at
intervals, with the same gorgeous hangings, relieved by panels freshly
painted in the most glowing colours, with mystic and symbolical designs.
At the upper end of this royal chamber, two steps ascended to the place
of the Tribune's throne, above which was the canopy wrought with the
eternal armorial bearings of the Pontiff and the City.

Traversing this apartment, the officer opened the door at its extremity,
which admitted to a small chamber, crowded with pages in rich dresses of
silver and blue velvet. There were few amongst them elder than Angelo;
and, from their general beauty, they seemed the very flower and blossom
of the city.