Pfingsttag, or Pentecost-day, was the occasion of Christina's first
full toilet, and never was bride more solicitously or exultingly
arrayed than she, while one boy held the mirror and the other
criticized and admired as the aunt adjusted the pearl-bordered coif,
and long white veil floating over the long-desired black velvet
dress. How the two lads admired and gazed, caring far less for their
own new and noble attire! Friedel was indeed somewhat concerned that
the sword by his side was so much handsomer than that which Ebbo
wore, and which, for all its dinted scabbard and battered hilt, he
was resolved never to discard.
It was a festival of brilliant joy. Wreaths of flowers hung from the
windows; rich tapestries decked the Dome Kirk, and the relics were
displayed in shrines of wonderful costliness of material and beauty
of workmanship; little birds, with thin cakes fastened to their feet,
were let loose to fly about the church, in strange allusion to the
event of the day; the clergy wore their most gorgeous robes; and the
exulting music of the mass echoed from the vaults of the long-drawn
aisles, and brought a rapt look of deep calm ecstasy over Friedel's
sensitive features.
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