Beneath, the roadway was now one sheet of greenery--box, myrtle, and bay.

The houses opposite, as well as within the little square, of which every window was packed with heads, were almost completely hidden under the tapestries, the carpets, the banners.

Behind the barriers on either side of the garlanded masts was one mass of heads resembling a cobbled pavement.

So much for sight.

For sound, the air was filled with one steady low roar of voices; for down to where the street opened far away to the left into the space above the river, the same vista presented itself.