A Frolic of the Carnival

The crowd and confusion, just at that moment, hindered the sculptor from
pursuing these figures,--the peasant and contadina,--who, indeed, were
but two of a numerous tribe that thronged the Corso, in similar costume.
As soon as he could squeeze a passage, Kenyon tried to follow in their
footsteps, but quickly lost sight of them, and was thrown off the track
by stopping to examine various groups of masqueraders, in which he
fancied the objects of his search to be included. He found many a sallow
peasant or herdsman of the Campagna, in such a dress as Donatello
wore; many a contadina, too, brown, broad, and sturdy, in her finery
of scarlet, and decked out with gold or coral beads, a pair of heavy
earrings, a curiously wrought cameo or mosaic brooch, and a silver comb
or long stiletto among her glossy hair. But those shapes of grace and
beauty which he sought had vanished.

As soon as the procession of the Senator had passed, the merry-makers
resumed their antics with fresh spirit, and the artillery of bouquets
and sugar plums, suspended for a moment, began anew. The sculptor
himself, being probably the most anxious and unquiet spectator there,
was especially a mark for missiles from all quarters, and for the
practical jokes which the license of the Carnival permits. In fact,
his sad and contracted brow so ill accorded with the scene, that the
revellers might be pardoned for thus using him as the butt of their idle
mirth, since he evidently could not otherwise contribute to it.