At first I could see no reason for it, the Baptistery intervening, but then the balls swam into our ken and steadily floated over the cathedral out of sight amid tremendous satisfaction.

And the portent?
Well, as they moved against the blue sky they formed themselves into precisely the pattern of the palle on the Medici escutcheon.

That is all.

But think what that would have meant in the fifteenth century; the nods and frowns it would have occasioned; the dispersal of the Medici, the loss of power, and all the rest of it, that it would have presaged! At about twenty to twelve the ecclesiastics returned and were swallowed up by the Duomo, and then excitement began to be acute.

The pyrotechnist was not free from it; he fussed about nervously; he tested everything again and again; he crawled under the car and out of it; he talked to officials; he inspected and re-inspected.