Chapter 15 - Page 2

antics, danced in his train, while twenty laughing and light-footed
Bacchantes flourished their instruments, moving in measure in the rear.

A general shout in the multitude preceded the appearance of Silenus, who
was sustained in his place on an ass by two blackamoors. The half-empty
skin at his side, the vacant laugh, the foolish eye, the lolling tongue,
the bloated lip, and the idiotic countenance, gave reason to suspect that
there was a better motive for their support than any which belonged to the
truth of the representation. Two youths then advanced, bearing on a pole a
cluster of grapes that nearly descended to the ground, and which was
intended to represent the fruit brought from Canaan by the messengers of
Joshua--a symbol much affected by the artists and mummers of the other
hemisphere, on occasions suited to its display. A huge vehicle, ycleped
the ark of Noah, closed the procession. It held a wine-press, having its
workmen embowered among the vines, and it contained the family of the
second father of the human race. As it rolled past, traces of the rich
liquor were left in the tracks of its wheels.

Then came the sacrifice, the chant, and the dance, as in most of the
preceding exhibitions, each of which, like this of Bacchus, had contained
allusions to the peculiar habits and attributes of the different deities.
The bacchanal that closed the scene was performed in character; the
trumpets flourished, and the procession departed in the order in which it
had arrived.

Peter relented a little from his usual political reserve, as he witnessed
these games in honor of a deity to whom he so habitually did practical
homage, for it was seldom that this elaborate functionary, who might be
termed quite a doctrinaire in his way, composed his senses in sleep,
without having pretty effectually steeped them in the liquor of the
neighboring hills; a habit that was of far more general use among men of
his class in that age than in this of ours, which seems so eminently to be
the season of sobriety.

"This is not amiss, of a verity;" observed the contented bailiff, as the
Fauns and Bacchantes moved off the sward, capering and cutting their
classical antics with far more agility and zeal than grace. "This looks
like the inspiration of good wine, Signior Genoese, and were the truth
known, it would be found that the rogue who plays the part of the fat
person on the ass--how dost call the knave, noble Melchior?"

"Body o' me! if I am wiser than thyself, worthy bailiff; it is clearly a
rogue who can never have done his mummery so expertly, without some aid
from the flask."

"Twill be well to know the fellow's character, for there may be the
occasion to