It was over: the procession had at length passed: she had scanned
every face and form whose gallant bearing proclaimed him noble; but
Arthur Stanley was not amongst them, and inexpressibly relieved, Marie
Morales sunk down on a low seat, and covering her face with her hands,
lifted up her whole soul in one wild--yet how fervent!--burst of
thanksgiving.
CHAPTER X.
"Yet was I calm. I knew the time
My breast would thrill before thy look;
But now, to tremble were a crime:
We met, and not a nerve was shook."
BYRON.
The excitement of the city did not subside with the close of the
procession. The quiet gravity and impressive appearance of age, which
had always marked Segovia, as a city more of the past than present,
gave place to all the bustling animation peculiar to a provincial
residence of royalty. Its central position gave it advantages over
Valladolid, the usual seat of the monarchs of Castile and Leon, to
sovereigns who were seeking the internal peace and prosperity of their
subjects, and were resolved on reforming abuses in every quarter of
their domains. The deputation from the city was graciously received;
their offering--a golden vase filled with precious stones--accepted,
and the seal put to their loyal excitement by receiving from
Isabella's own lips, the glad information that she had decided on
making Segovia her residence for the ensuing year, and that she
trusted the loyalty which the good citizens of Segovia had so warmly
proffered would be proved, by their endeavors in their own households
to reform the abuses which long years of misrule and misery had
engendered.
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