. "_Thus_!"

"Ma c'e altro!" cried a gondolier from Murano. "There is more yet! For
the magnificent galley which the little one of the Ca' Giustiniani--he
that is grandson to our Messer Girolamo Magagnati--hath given to the
Republic will be floated out from the basin of the arsenal and
christened this day!"

The spirits of the light-hearted crowd effervesced in a jubilant cheer.

"_I Giustiniani_!"

On every page of the history of Venice the name of the Giustiniani stood
brilliantly forth, and the stained and tattered banners in the great
hall of the arsenal were so many laurel leaves for this patrician house,
keeping the memory of the brilliant victory of Lepanto green in the
hearts of the Venetians. It was a Giustinian, "Gonfaloniere," _standard
bearer_, who had brought the glorious news on his triumphant galley, the
solemn Lion of San Marco waving his banner above the drooping crescent
of the Turk from every green wreathed mast. It was this Giustinian who
had been carried in triumph on the shoulders of the people, before the
Doge and the Signoria--who had been the hero when that solemn Mass, in
honor of the victory, had been offered up in the ducal chapel--when the
Rialto and the Merceria, for the extravagant joy of Venice, were draped
in blue and scarlet and gold, bound laurel wreaths and decorated with
the art treasures of Titian and Giorgone. It was a name which the people
were accustomed to honor. "I Giustiniani!" they shouted.

There was a sudden hush, for the bells of the Campanile of San Marco
had given the signal, and there was a great stir before the Piazza--a
train of gondolas was sweeping into line far down the Canal Grande; the
guards on the watch-towers of the arsenal were full of animation; the
gondolas of the orderlies were buzzing like bees about the barge of the
grand admiral, who awaited the coming of the Doge, in all his
magnificence of satin ceremonial robes. He was like a noble to-day, this
man of the people. _Viva San Marco_!

The moment was approaching; orderlies glided back and forth among the
excited people, prescribing their distance; the raft of small craft
shifted its position and presently a salute was fired from all the
cannon of the arsenal; the Doge, in his great State barge, was near.

The people shouted themselves hoarse when the smoke cleared away and
revealed the splendid train of private barges from Venice; there were
banners of the Republic and streaming pennons of the nob