lconies of the palaces--a dazzling picture in the
sunshine, under the blue of the Venetian sky.

Every window in the Piazza and the Piazzetta was thronged with
spectators in gala robes, while under the arcades that stretched from
San Marco to the ancient church of San Giminiano across the square, the
people surged crowding and jubilant; climbing to the roofs and ledges of
every building, the campanile, the churches, the columned palaces,
leaving not a space where a man might stand save the avenue through the
crowd which the soldiers kept free for the procession.

The bells were beginning to ring--Santa Maria! all the bells--a true
jubilee!

Messer San Marco and San Tadoro were good to them to-day; how their
golden images flashed in the sunshine on the columns! and the four great
golden horses, in the dancing sunlight, seemed to quiver and prance
among the frost-work of the arches of San Marco, while the gold and blue
and scarlet of frieze and archivolt made a picture of delight.

The little ones shouted and babbled, were lifted high on their fathers'
shoulders, or clamored with disappointed half-sobs down in the crowd
which shut out all vision, beside the weary, expostulating mothers
whose arms were filled with wee things who could not stand, and who had
come early in the day--so early--in hope of a treat for the _bambini_.

They had carried them around the Piazza when they came in the early
morning before the crowd--"Santa Vergine--wasn't that enough for them!
to get a sight of all the grand balconies where the nobili were to be,
with the garlands and the tapestries and the curtains of velvet and
brocade, and the beautiful paintings, and the banners of San Marco, and
the great golden horses in the Piazza--the wonderful golden horses--up
so high, thou knowest, eh, Battista? What dost thou want more?
Pazienza!"

There was a commotion on the Piazzetta; the first barge, heading the
long procession from the Palazzo Cornaro in San Cassiano far up the
Canal Grande, was coming in sight, bearing the brilliant _Compagnia
della Calza_, the noble youths of the Company of the Hose, whose gilded
duty it was to appear at State Ceremonials in all the extravagance of
fantastic elegance with which Venice had decreed their costumes. A
laughing, dainty company, they sprang ashore at the landing of the
Piazzetta, doffing their jewelled caps to the admiring crowd with
capricious grace and whimsical motions, like a flock of birds of
p