No doubt it was mere flattery.
But, in spite of these signs of approval and interest, the mass of the people received me in silence and with sullen looks, and my dear brother's portrait ornamented most of the windows--which was an ironical sort of greeting to the King.

I was quite glad that he had been spared the unpleasant sight.

He was a man of quick temper, and perhaps he would not have taken it so placidly as I did.
At last we were at the Cathedral.

Its great grey front, embellished with hundreds of statues and boasting a pair of the finest oak doors in Europe, rose for the first time before me, and the sudden sense of my audacity almost overcame me.

Everything was in a mist as I dismounted.