There were more vital matters under hand than the beauty of a strolling goose-girl.
So the troop proceeded with dust and small thunder, and shortly passed the city gates, which in modern times were never closed.

It traversed the lumpy cobbles of the narrow streets, under hanging gables, past dim little shops and markets, often unintentionally crowding pedestrians into doorways or against the walls.

One among those so inconvenienced was a youth dressed as a vintner.

He was tall, pliantly built, blond as a Viking, possessing a singular beauty of the masculine order.

He was forced to flatten himself against the wall of a house, his arms extended on either side, in a kind of temporary crucifixion.