atience, as a triumph for its makers,--and
thought a thing rare enough to be offered, like a jewel, to the learned
and illustrious lady, Isabella of Mantua. Marcantonio was no pedant, but
these treasures simply had their place in the richly painted cabinet,
beside many other bits of exquisite workmanship, because rare things in
every art were beautiful to our dilettante, and possessions of all kinds
came to him easily.

There lay the golden necklace presented by Henry III. of France to a
Giustinian who had been one of the young nobles set apart for the
household of the king, when on his visit to Venice; and beside it a
curious volume of songs, all in honor of France and of the king,
entitled "Il Magno Enrico III., difensore di Santa Chiesa, di Francia e
di Polonia Re christianissimo." Here was also preserved that still more
curious allegorical drama which had been given at the grand fete at the
Ducal Palace in honor of this over-adulated monarch. It was natural that
some of these literary curiosities, of which the visit of Henry III. had
been prolific, should have remained in possession of the masters of the
palace which had been tendered for his residence. The volume, bound in
azure velvet, embroidered with golden fleurs-de-lis and seeded with
pearls, lay open at the page "Chapter in which the Most Holy Catholic
Religion is introduced conversing with the most Christian, most powerful
and most holy Henry III., the most glorious King of France and Poland."

The noble lady Laura Giustiniani, who looked with pride upon these
costly trifles of the cabinet of Marcantonio, was a Venetian in every
throb of her patrician veins--first a patriot and then a mother--she
earnestly coveted for her son that he should render vast services to the
state, receive in his early years the Patriarch's blessing upon his
alliance with some ancient Venetian house, and close his noble career
with the Doge's coronet. She admitted reluctantly to herself, although
she would never have confessed it openly, that in these latter days of
the Republic the ermine was not likely to be offered to one so stern and
masterful as her husband; while she also knew, and the knowledge held
its compensation, that Giustinian Giustiniani could not be spared from
the Councils of his government. She knew her history well, and she
realized that the days of the Michieli and Orseoli were over, and that
the supreme honor was no longer for the strong but for the pliant; this