them the example! And how cold and grey all soberer tints must seem to
these children of Apollo! Well--so it is with their religion and their
daily life. I wager half those naked wretches yonder would rather attend
a fine religious service, with abundance of gilt candles, music from
gilt organ-pipes, and incense from gilt censers, than eat a good meal or
sleep in a decent bed; as they would rather starve under a handsome
merry King that has the name of being the best billiard-player in Europe
than go full under one of your solemn reforming Austrian Archdukes!"

The words recalled to Odo Crescenti's theory of the influence of
character and climate on the course of history; and this subject soon
engrossing both speakers, they wandered on, inattentive to their
surroundings, till they found themselves in the thickest concourse of
the Toledo. Here for a moment the dense crowd hemmed them in; and as
they stood observing the humours of the scene, Odo's eye fell on the
thick-set figure of a man in doctor's dress, who was being led through
the press by two agents of the Inquisition. The sight was too common to
have fixed his attention, had he not recognised with a start the
irascible red-faced professor who, on his first visit to Vivaldi, had
defended the Diluvial theory of creation. The sight raised a host of
memories from which Odo would gladly have beaten a retreat; but the
crowd held him in check and a moment later he saw that the doctor's eyes
were fixed on him with an air of recognition. A movement of pity
succeeded his first impulse, and turning to de Crucis he exclaimed:--"I
see yonder an old acquaintance who seems in an unlucky plight and with
whom I should be glad to speak."

The other, following his glance, beckoned to one of the sbirri, who made
his way through the throng with the alacrity of one summoned by a
superior. De Crucis exchanged a few words with him, and then signed to