Grasso she shall receive from
the hands of the daring gondolier who lowers himself down to her
through the air the flowers which it is the custom she should so
accept."

"'The old custom which the Doge was alluding to was that, on Giovedi
Grasso, some daring man of the people ascended, by ropes extending from
the water to the top of the tower of San Marco, in a machine in the
form of a little ship, and then shot down, with the speed of an arrow,
to where the Doge and Dogaressa were seated, and handed her a bouquet
of flowers. If the Doge were alone, it was handed to him.

"'Next day the Doge did as he had said he would. Annunziata had to put
on her most gorgeous robes of state and pass, with Falieri, escorted by
the Signoria, and attended by guards and pages of honour, across the
crowded Piazza di San Marco. People shoved and crowded their lives out
almost to get a glance at the beautiful Dogaressa, and, when they saw
her, they thought they had been in Paradise, and beheld the loveliest
of all the angels therein. According to the nature of the Venetians,
amid all the wildest outbreaks of the maddest delight, plenty of
facetious and jocular sayings and rhymes were to be heard, touching
outspokenly enough on the theme of the old Falieri and his young wife.
He seemed to pay no heed to them, however, pacing along as pathetically
as you please at Annunziata's side, divested, for the time, of all
jealousy (although he saw glances of burning admiration bent upon her
on every side), every feature of his face smirking and smiling with
complacency. Before the principal gate of the palace the guards had
some difficulty in dividing the crowd, so that when the Doge passed in
with his consort there were only small groups standing about of the
better dressed citizens, whom it was not so easy to keep out of the
inner court. And, at the moment when the Dogaressa entered this inner
court, a young man, who was standing there in the pillared passage,
with a few other persons, suddenly cried, "Oh, Thou God of Heaven!" and
fell down senseless on the marble pavement. Everybody rushed up and
surrounded him, so that the Dogaressa could not see him. But when he
fell, a glowing dagger-thrust went through her heart; she turned pale,
and tottered; and nothing but the scent bottles of the women who
hurried up to her prevented her from fainting. Old Falieri, shocked and
terrified, wished the young man in question, and this attack of his, at
the dev