Even the children took part in the game; I could see into several
houses, where it was going on briskly. Then, from every side-street
decorated carriages began to drive on to the Corso again, but this time
every person held a candle in his hand. Yes, and that was not all! at
least every other of the large waggons--they were like immense boxes of
flowers--had, on poles, or made fast, Bengal fire of various colours,
which lighted up every house they went past, now with a red, now with a
green flare. And then the thousands of small candles, from every one in
the throng, from carriages, balconies, verandas, sparkled in the great
flame, fighting victoriously with the last glimmer of daylight. People
ran like mad down the Corso and fanned out the lights in the carriages.
But many a Roman beauty found a better way of lighting up her features
without exposing herself to the risk of having her light put out.
Opposite me, for instance, on the second floor, a lovely girl was
standing in a window. In the shutter by her side she had fixed one of
those violent red flares so that she stood in a bright light, like
sunlight seen through red glass, and it was impossible not to notice
her. Meanwhile, the people on the balconies held long poles in their
hands, with which they unexpectedly put out the small candles in the
carriages.
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