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The gleam of a lantern woke Odo. The horses had stopped at the gates of Pianura, and the abategiving the pass-word, the carriage rolled under the gatehouse and continued its way over the loudcobble-stones of the ducal streets. These streets were so dark, being lit but by some lanternprojecting here and there from the angle of a wall, or by the flare of an oil-lamp under a shrine, thatOdo, leaning eagerly out, could only now and then catch a sculptured palace-window, the grinningmask on the keystone of an archway, or the gleaming yellowish facade of a church inlaid withmarbles. Once or twice an uncurtained window showed a group of men drinking about a wineshoptable, or an artisan bending over his work by the light of a tallow dip; but for the most part doorsand windows were barred and the streets disturbed only by the watchman's cry or by a flash of lightand noise as a sedan chair passed with its escort of linkmen and servants. All this was amazingenough to the sleepy eyes of the little boy so unexpectedly translated from the solitude ofPontesordo; but when the carriage turned under another arch and drew up before the doorway of agreat building ablaze with lights, the pressure of accumulated emotions made him fling his armsabout his preceptor's neck. Courage, cavaliere, courage! You have duties, you have responsibilities, the abate admonishedhim; and Odo, choking back his fright, suffered himself to be lifted out by one of the lacqueysgrouped about the door. The abate, who carried a much lower crest than at Pontesordo, and seemedfar more anxious to please the servants than they to oblige him, led the way up a shining marblestaircase where beggars whined on the landings and powdered footmen in the ducal livery wererunning to and fro with trays of refreshments. Odo, who knew that his mother lived in the Duke'spalace, had vaguely imagined that his father's death must have plunged its huge precincts into silenceand mourning; but as he followed the abate up successive flights of stairs and down long corridorsfull of shadow he heard a sound of dance music below and caught the flash of girandoles throughthe antechamber doors. The thought that his father's death had made no difference to any one in thepalace was to the child so much more astonishing than any of the other impressions crowding hisbrain, that these were scarcely felt, and he passed as in a dream through rooms where servants werequarrelling over cards and waiting-women rummaged in wardrobes full of perfumed finery, to abedchamber in which a lady dressed in weeds sat disconsolately at supper.

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