world of
men must be more, as from the distance she saw the gondola touch the
landing and watched him until he passed out of sight, after pausing with
his father for a moment before the great columns of San Marco and San
Teodoro, looking up perhaps with a keener sense of the dread scenes they
had witnessed than had ever before possessed him, though the sunshine
streamed brilliantly over the water and life seemed full of promise for
this only son of the Ca' Giustiniani, on his way to take the oath of
"Silence and Allegiance to the Republic," as a "_Nobile di Gran'
Consiglio_."

Marcantonio had entered the gondola gaily, with a full, pleasurable
sense of the beauty of life, and well content with that portion which
had fallen to his lot; for he was easily affected, and the air of the
palace was full of the excitement of his fete. The only forebodings that
shadowed his sunshine were connected with Marina and the gift which he
should offer to his mother upon his return from the Ducal Palace. But
the day was one to banish every hint of failure, making him more
conscious of his power than he had ever been before, and he felt himself
floating toward attainment--whatever the difficulties might be. But with
his first step upon the Piazzetta he forgot the glory of the sunshine
flashing over the blue waters, and a sudden sense of fate possessed him,
as his father made an almost imperceptible pause in his grave progress
toward the Ducal Palace, and with the slightest possible movement of
his hand seemed to direct his son's attention to the great granite
columns which bore the emblems of the patron saints of Venice.

A hundred times, in crossing the Piazzetta, Marcantonio had been vaguely
aware of them as appropriate emblems of barbaric force and splendor and
allegoric Christian allegiance; but suddenly they stood to him for
historic records--the echoes of dread deeds avenged there rolled forth
from the space between the columns, and the jeweled eyes of the terrible
winged Lion flashed defiance upon any who questioned, in the remotest
way, the will or the act of the Republic. He glanced toward the elder
man, some deprecatory comment rising to his lips as he strove to
dissipate the symbolic mood which was surely possessing him, for he felt
himself uncomfortably conscious of the meaning wrought into the very
stones about him, and to-day this over-mastering assertion of
Venice--always Venice dominant--was oppressive.

But his father