the days that intervened between Doge and Doge, except to
receive that message of condolence which it had not entered the heart of
his Holiness to frame, and the nuncio appealed in vain to other
authorities in Venice to win him audience for the delivery of his
sovereign's mandate.

With whatever burnings of heart and secret hopes and ambitions those
forty-one elected nobles, after days of weary, patient tossings of gold
and silver balls--a mere intricate child's play had it not been for the
greatness of the prize--saw themselves closed within the chamber from
which they might not issue forth until there was again a prince in
Venice; with what vividness a Giustinian foresaw his own stern visage
stamped on the coin of Venice in that moment when his name appeared on
the first folded paper drawn from the fateful urn; with what dignity he
concealed his baffled hope and watched, from under frowning eyebrows, a
Morosini and a Ziani pass, in turn, through the fierce ordeal of
relegation to obscurity--the annals of that secret council do not
reveal.

But in this stress of Venice the electors quitted themselves like true
men, and when the noble Cavaliere Leonardo Donato--full of dignity, of
wisdom, and of honors, skilled in diplomacy and experience, and bold as
wise--came forth to scatter his coronation gift of coin in the Piazza,
and after solemn religious ceremonial was shown from the pulpit of San
Marco as Prince of Venice, well might the people shout in acclamation,
"_Provato! Provato_!" ("Approved!") and the watching courts of Europe
hasten to express, through their resident ambassadors, eager
congratulations that one so fitted to fill the position with distinction
had taken his place among the rulers.

But Orazio Mattei brought no message of congratulation from Rome.

XVII

Giustinian Giustiniani had been among the electors and had listened to
that strict canvassing of acts, both private and official, which
preceded the final vote for the Prince of Venetia.

"Venice hath taken stand before the courts of Europe with a leader who
feareth naught--save not to do the right," he magnanimously assured the
Lady Laura one evening when, according to their wont, they were
discussing the theme which never failed in interest. "Nay, not even
that; for Donato hath courage in himself, and in his own rulings faith,
and more a man needs not."

"Then wherefore hath the Signoria created this office of _Teologo
Consultore_, and ap