Chapter 8 - Page 2

renowned for grace and beauty, began to cluster in hundreds
around the port. A general movement had already taken place among the
shipping, and a wide and clear channel was opened from the quay at the
foot of the Piazzetta, to the distant bank, which shut out the waves of
the Adriatic. Near this watery path, boats of all sizes and
descriptions, filled with the curious and observant, were fast
collecting.

The crowd thickened as the day drew in, all the vast plains of the
Padovano appearing to have given up their people to swell the numbers of
those that rejoiced. A few timid and irresolute masquers now began to
appear in the throng, stealing a momentary pleasure under the favor of
that privileged disguise, from out of the seclusion and monotony of
their cloisters. Next came the rich marine equipages of the accredited
agents of foreign states, and then, amid the sound of clarions and the
cries of the populace, the Bucentaur rowed out of the channel of the
arsenal, and came sweeping to her station at the quay of St. Mark.

These preliminaries, which occupied some hours, being observed, the
javelin-men, and others employed about the person of the head of the
Republic, were seen opening an avenue through the throng. After which,
the rich strains of a hundred instruments proclaimed the approach of the
Doge.

We shall not detain the narrative, to describe the pomp in which a
luxurious and affluent aristocracy, that in general held itself aloof
from familiar intercourse with those it ruled, displayed its
magnificence to the eyes of the multitude, on an occasion of popular
rejoicing. Long lines of senators, dressed in their robes of office, and
attended by crowds of liveried followers, came from under the galleries
of the palace, and descended by the Giant's Stairway into the sombre
court. Thence, the whole issued into the Piazzetta in order, and
proceeded to their several stations on the canopied deck of the well
known bark. Each patrician had his allotted place, and before the rear
of the cortège had yet quitted the quay, there was a long and imposing
row of grave legislators seated in the established order of their
precedency. The ambassadors, the high dignitaries of the state, and the
aged man who had been chosen to bear the empty honors of sovereignty,
still remained on the land, waiting, with the quiet of trained docility,
the moment to embark. At this moment, a man of an embrowned visage, legs
bare to the knee, and breast open to the breeze, rushed through the
guards, and knelt on the stones of the quay at his feet.

"Justice!--great prince!" cried the bold stranger; "justice and mercy!
Listen to one who has bled for St. Mark, and who hath his scars for his