Pagina 703 di 788

All at once from many strings there burst forth a sound as though

a whole janissaries' band had become vocal with bells and cymbals

and drums.227 The Polonaise of the Third of May228 thundered

forth! The rippling notes breathed of joy, they poured joy into

one's ears; the girls wanted to dance and the boys could not

stand still-but the notes carried the thoughts of the old men

back into the past, to those happy years when the Senate and the

House of Deputies, after that great day of the Third of May,

celebrated in the assembly hall the reconciliation of King and

Nation; when they danced and sang, "Vivat our beloved King, vivat

the Diet, vivat the people, vivat all classes!"