These Pass On, And Demas Leads The Saintly
Trio By A Secret Pass Over The Torrent, - The Mother And Child Mounted
Upon An Ass And St. Joseph Trudging On Behind With His Lily-Decked
Staff, Looking All As If They Were On A Short Leave Of Absence From
Correggio's Picture-Frame.
Demas comes back, calls up his merrymen, and has a battle-royal with the
enraged legionaries, which puts the critics of the gallery into a frenzy
of delight and assures the success of the spectacle.
The curtain falls
in a gust of applause, is stormed up again, Demas comes forward and
makes a neat speech, announcing the author. Que salga! roar the
gods, - "Trot him out!" A shabby young cripple hobbles to the front,
leaning upon a crutch, his sallow face flushed with a hectic glow of
pride and pleasure. He also makes a glib speech, - I have never seen a
Spaniard who could not, - disclaiming all credit for himself, but lauding
the sublimity of the acting and the perfection of the scene-painting,
and saying that the memory of this unmerited applause will be forever
engraved upon his humble heart.
Act third, the Lost Child, or Christ in the Temple. The scene is before
the Temple on a festival day, plenty of chorus-girls, music, and
flowers. Demas and the impenitent Gestas and Barabbas, who, I was
pleased to see, was after all a very good sort of fellow, with no more
malice than you or I, were down in the city on a sort of lark, their
leopard skins left in the mountains and their daggers hid under the
natty costume of the Judaean dandy of the period.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 216 of 254
Words from 57520 to 57800
of 67759
