Page 561 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

even more excitable foreign delegates cheered vociferously
in a medley of cries, hoch, banzai, eljen, zivio, chinchin, polla
kronia, hiphip, vive, Allah, amid which the ringing evviva of

the delegate of the land of song (a high double F recalling
those piercingly lovely notes with which the eunuch
Catalani beglamoured our greatgreatgrandmothers) was
easily distinguishable. It was exactly seventeen o’clock.
The signal for prayer was then promptly given by
megaphone and in an instant all heads were bared, the
commendatore’s patriarchal sombrero, which has been in
the possession of his family since the revolution of Rienzi,
being removed by his medical adviser in attendance, Dr
Pippi. The learned prelate who administered the last
comforts of holy religion to the hero martyr when about
to pay the death penalty knelt in a most christian spirit in a
pool of rainwater, his cassock above his hoary head, and
offered up to the throne of grace fervent prayers of
supplication. Hand by the block stood the grim figure of
the executioner, his visage being concealed in a tengallon
pot with two circular perforated apertures through which
his eyes glowered furiously. As he awaited the fatal signal
he tested the edge of his horrible weapon by honing it
upon his brawny forearm or decapitated in rapid
succession a flock of sheep which had been provided by

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