ade
a deep impression upon the old councillors, who one and all marvelled at
her wisdom and eloquence, and grudged no pains or expense to give her
pleasure. "No honours," writes Cardinal Bembo, "were held too great for
these royal ladies, who in those joyous times had come to see the city,
nor was any kind of pleasure or generous liberality lacking in the
splendid _fetes_ with which they were entertained on this memorable
occasion." As for Beatrice herself, she was enchanted with the beauties
of Venice and the courtesy of her hosts, and longed to see and hear all
the wonders of the famous city. The greater part of these days was spent
in visiting the chief sights of the place--the great Dominican and
Franciscan churches, S. Zanipolo with the tombs of the doges and the
Gothic shrine of S. Maria Gloriosa with Giovanni Bellini's newly painted
Madonnas in all their radiant loveliness, the graceful Renaissance
buildings of S. Maria dei Miracoli and the Scuola di S. Marco, which the
Lombardi had lately finished. Like all royal visitors, the duchesses
were conducted over the arsenal, which Commines justly calls the finest
thing of the kind in the whole world, and were shown not only the fleet
of a hundred ships in port, but the galleys in course of construction,
the men making the oars, the women and children at work on the sails and
ropes, the sulphur and saltpetre mills, and the splendid armoury, all
enclosed within lofty walls, and guarded by twin towers crowned with the
winged lion. And they saw what was indeed one of the wonders of the
world--the glorious front of St. Mark's just as we see it in Gentile
Bellini's great picture, with the many domes and myriads of pillars, the
glittering mosaics and famous bronze horses, and the crimson standards
floating from the three tall Venetian masts on the Piazza. We are not
told whether Beatrice, like her sister Isabella d'Este, ascended the
Campanile to enjoy the wonderful prospect over the lagoons, but we know
that she went to hear the singing of the Augustinian nuns, a community
of noble Venetian maidens as famous for the many scandals attached to
their society as for the perfection of their musical services. Above all
things in Venice, the duchesses admired the magnificent pile of the
ducal palace and the noble mural paintings on which the Bellini and
their fellow-artists were at work in the Great Hall, a sight of which
the great fire of the sixteenth century has deprived future g