armaments for war vessels.

The arsenal is bordered with raised towers, from which the view extends
in all directions. On the tallest of these towers, which is placed in
the center of the building, as well as all the others, sentinels were
stationed, both day and night, to signal the arrival of vessels, which
they could see at a very great distance. Nothing can be finer than the
dockyards for building vessels, in which ten thousand men can work with
ease. The sails are made by women, over whom other elderly women
exercise an active surveillance.

The Emperor delayed only a short time to look at the 'Bucentaure'; which
is the title of the magnificent vessel in which the Doge of Venice was
accustomed to celebrate his marriage with the sea; and a Venetian never
sees without deep chagrin this old monument of the former glory of his
country. I, in company with some persons of the Emperor's suite, had as
our guide an old mariner, whose eyes filled with tears as he related to
us in bad French that the last time he witnessed the marriage of the Doge
with the Adriatic Sea was in 1796, a year before the capture of Venice.
He also told us that he was at that time in the service of the last Doge
of the republic, Lord Louis Manini, and that the following year (1797),
the French entered Venice at the exact time when the marriage of the Doge
to the sea, which took place on Ascension Day, was usually celebrated,
and ever since the sea had remained a widow. Our good sailor paid a most
touching tribute of praise to his old master, who he said had never
succeeded in forcing himself, to take the oath of allegiance to the
Austrians, and had swooned away while resigning to them the keys of the
city.

The gondoliers are at the same time servants, errand boys, confidants,
and companions in adventures to the person who takes them into his
service; and nothing can equal the courage, fidelity, and gayety of these
brave seamen. They expose themselves fearlessly in their slender
gondolas to tempests; and their skill is so great that they turn with
incredible rapidity in the narrowest canals, cross each other, follow,
and pass each other incessantly, without ever having an accident.

I found myself in a position to judge of the skill of these hardy
mariners the day after our visit to the arsenal. His Majesty was
conducted through the lagoons as far as the fortified gate of Mala-Mocca,
and the gondoliers gave as he returned a boat-race and tourna