leasure-loving people.

This splendid ceremony of inspection by the Doge was a day of annual
triumph, for nowhere in all the world was there such an arsenal, and
nowhere such an army of workmen,--thirty-five thousand men trained to
the cunning from father to son in lifelong service,--with sailors,
sixteen thousand more, who should presently make a brave review within
those battlemented walls, to tickle the fancy of the Serenissimo and his
guests. For these pageants of Venice were not guiltless of timely hints
to the onlookers of the futility of opposition to a naval force so great
and so admirably controlled; and well might the Republic be proud of the
foundry, the docks, the galleys, which the Doge and the Signoria came
each year in state to visit, with all the nobles of the Maggior
Consiglio and many of the high officials.

This year it was to be a fete more magnificent than usual, for the
households of the ambassadors were bidden to the banquet which was
prepared in the Great Hall of the arsenal--the attractions of which were
invitingly rehearsed, as the speakers leaned across from gondola to
gondola, to exchange their pleasant bits of gossip with dramatic
exaggerations. "And the gondolas of the ambassadors! Santa Maria! the
Signori, 'i provveditori alle pompe' have nothing to say, for there is a
dispensation! the velvets and satins and golden fringes--it will be a
true glimpse of the _paradiso_!"

"And the great Signor medico, Acquapendente, will be made this day
Cavaliere of the Republic, since he hath had the wonderful fortune to
save the life of our Padre Maestro Paolo; for it is well known there was
little hope of matins or vespers more for him, the night the _maledetti
bravi_ left the stiletto in his face!"

"And thou, Giuseppe!" cried a smiling mother from Mazzorbo, proudly
indicating her boy as an object of interest, and pushing him into a more
prominent position--"the bambino hath seen it with his own eyes, since
he is prentice at the metal graver's shop of Messer Maffeo Olivieri on
the Rialto; thou, tell us, Giuseppe, of this great goblet of graven
silver which the Master Olivieri hath ready for the presentation, by
order of the Signoria. E bello, ah? _Bellissimo_! And the Lion of San
Marco on the crown of it--_e vero_ Giuseppe?--with wings--_magnifico_!
And jewels of rubino in the eyes of it; and a tongue----"

"Cosi!" interposed Giuseppe, with dramatic effectiveness, thrusting out
his own with relish