however, does
not say anything about the hats or the malvoisie. These, however, we find
again in the Matricola de' Casseleri, which, of course, sets the
services of the trunkmakers and the privileges obtained by them in the
most brilliant light. The quaintness of the old Venetian is hardly to be
rendered into English. "And you must know that the said trunkmakers were
the men who were the cause of such victory, and of taking the galley,
and of cutting all the Triestines to pieces, because, at that time, they
were valiant men and well in order. The which victory was on the 2nd
February, on the day of the Madonna of candles. And at the request and
entreaties of the said trunkmakers, it was decreed that the Doge, every
year, as long as Venice shall endure, should go on the eve of the said
feast to vespers in the said church, with the Signory. And be it noted,
that the vicar is obliged to give to the Doge two flasks of malvoisie,
with two oranges besides. And so it is observed, and will be observed
always." The reader must observe the continual confusion between St.
Mark's day the 31st of January, and Candlemas the 2nd of February. The
fact appears to be, that the marriage day in the old republic was St.
Mark's day, and the recovery of the brides was the same day at evening;
so that, as we are told by Sansovino, the commemorative festival began
on that day, but it was continued to the day of the Purification, that
especial thanks might be rendered to the Virgin; and, the visit to Sta.
Maria Formosa being the most important ceremony of the whole festival,
the old chroniclers, and even Sansovino, got confused, and asserted the
victory itself to have taken place on the day appointed for that
pilgrimage.

Sec. XII. I doubt not that the reader who is acquainted with the beautiful
lines of Rogers is as much grieved as I am at the interference of the
"casket-makers" with the achievement which the poet ascribes to the
bridegrooms alone; an interference quite as inopportune as that of old
Le Balafre with the victory of his nephew, in the unsatisfactory
conclusion of "Quentin Durward." I am afraid I cannot get the
casket-makers quite out of the way; but it may gratify some of my
readers to know that a chronicle of the year 1378, quoted by
Galliciolli, denies the agency of the people of Sta. Maria Formosa
altogether, in these terms: "Some say that the people of Sta. M. Formosa
were those who recovered the _spoil_ ("predra;" I may notic