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KING BIZARRE AND PRINCE CHARMING angelic smile stole over her features, at the sight of which he wept like a child. XI A WIFE SHOULD OBEY HER HUSBAND The countess was right (women are always right—past sixty). A fortnight of happiness set Pazza on her feet again, and enabled her to make a triumphant entry into the city with the king, her husband. Her paleness, and her wounded arm, which she carried in a sling, added to her grace and beauty. Charming had eyes for no one but the queen, and the peoples looks followed the king’s. They were more than an hour in reaching the castle. The magistrates had erected not less than three triumphal arches, Írowning fortresses, defended each by thirty-six deputations and thirty-six speeches. The first arch, made of trellis-work, and adorned with leaves and flowers, bore the inscription, TO THE MOST TENDER AND FAITHFUL OF HUSBANDS This was intrusted to the keeping of five or six thousand young girls, dressed in white, with pink ribbons, representing the spring of the year, the hope of the future, welcoming Glory and Beauty. The second arch, more solidly built, was a frame covered 195
