Chapter 22 - Page 2

fishermen, as they swept by the different palaces, on
their way to the great square, can be readily imagined. Some feared that
the final consummation of their artificial condition, which had so long
been anticipated by a secret political instinct, was at length arrived,
and began to bethink them of the savest means of providing for their own
security. Some listened in admiration, for habit had so far mastered
dulness, as to have created a species of identity between the state and
far more durable things, and they believed that St. Mark had gained a
victory, in that decline, which was never exactly intelligible to their
apathetic capacities. But a few, and these were the spirits that
accumulated all the national good which was vulgarly and falsely
ascribed to the system itself, intuitively comprehended the danger,
with a just appreciation of its magnitude, as well as of the means to
avoid it.

But the rioters were unequal to any estimate of their own force, and had
little aptitude in measuring their accidental advantages. They acted
merely on impulse. The manner in which their aged companion had
triumphed on the preceding day, his cold repulse by the Doge, and the
scene of the Lido, which in truth led to the death of Antonio, had
prepared their minds for the tumult. When the body was found, therefore,
after the time necessary to collect their forces on the Lagunes, they
yielded to passion, and moved away towards the palace of St. Mark, as
described, without any other definite object than a simple indulgence of
feeling.

On entering the canal, the narrowness of the passage compressed the
boats into a mass so dense, as, in a measure, to impede the use of oars,
and the progress of the crowd was necessarily slow. All were anxious to
get as near as possible to the body of Antonio, and, like all mobs, they
in some degree frustrated their own objects by ill-regulated zeal. Once
or twice the names of offensive senators were shouted, as if the
fishermen intended to visit the crimes of the state on its agents; but
these cries passed away in the violent breath that was expended. On
reaching the bridge of the Rialto, more than half of the multitude
landed, and took the shorter course of the streets to the point of
destination, while those in front got on the faster, for being
disembarrassed of the pressure in the rear. As they drew nearer to the
port, the boats began to loosen, and to take something of the form of a
funeral procession.

It was during this moment of change that a powerfully manned gondola
swept, with strong strokes, out of a lateral passage into the Great
Canal. Accident brought it directly in front of the moving phalanx of
boats that was coming down the same channel. Its crew seemed