How It Ever IS Cleared For The Race That Takes Place At Five, Or
How The Horses Ever Go Through The Race, Without Going Over The
People, Is More Than I Can Say.
But the carriages get out into the
by-streets, or up into the Piazza del Popolo, and some people
Sit
in temporary galleries in the latter place, and tens of thousands
line the Corso on both sides, when the horses are brought out into
the Piazza--to the foot of that same column which, for centuries,
looked down upon the games and chariot-races in the Circus Maximus.
At a given signal they are started off. Down the live lane, the
whole length of the Corso, they fly like the wind: riderless, as
all the world knows: with shining ornaments upon their backs, and
twisted in their plaited manes: and with heavy little balls stuck
full of spikes, dangling at their sides, to goad them on. The
jingling of these trappings, and the rattling of their hoofs upon
the hard stones; the dash and fury of their speed along the echoing
street; nay, the very cannon that are fired--these noises are
nothing to the roaring of the multitude: their shouts: the
clapping of their hands. But it is soon over--almost
instantaneously. More cannon shake the town. The horses have
plunged into the carpets put across the street to stop them; the
goal is reached; the prizes are won (they are given, in part, by
the poor Jews, as a compromise for not running foot-races
themselves); and there is an end to that day's sport.
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