lly," said Edith saucily.

"It is all true," Rafael said earnestly. "Four hundred years ago there
was no place in the whole world where so much pomp and magnificence
could be seen as in St. Mark's Square and on the Grand Canal.

"Over in the museum at the arsenal"--Rafael's voice broke in his
excitement--"there is a model of a ship of state, in which, for
hundreds of years, the Doge used every year to go out to the entrance
of the lagoon and throw a jewelled ring into the waters of the
Adriatic, to make Venice the bride of the sea.

"People from far and wide, by thousands and tens of thousands, came to
see the ceremony. It was a marvellous sight to see," he added proudly,
as if he had seen it many times.

"Two or three hundred senators, in their scarlet robes, marched with
the Doge from this palace to the wharf, where the ship of state waited
for them; and thousands of magnificent gondolas followed it on its
journey to the Lido port, where the ceremony took place."

"I thought all gondolas must be black," Edith objected. "A procession
of black gondolas would not be very magnificent."

"It is the law now that all gondolas must be black," Rafael explained,
"because in olden times so many nobles wasted their fortunes in
decorating their gondolas extravagantly with rich carvings, gold
ornaments, and gorgeous draperies. You can see that such a procession,
reaching from here to the Lido port, would be a splendid sight.

"There must be many rings out there," he added.

Edith had listened, charmed with the sound of so much splendor. "Let
us go to the Lido for a sea bath," she said; "perhaps we can find a
ring."

Rafael shook his head. "The last ring was thrown into the water more
than a hundred years ago," he said. "The sands have covered them all
too deeply by this time."

Then he pointed to the four bronze horses which stand over the central
doorway of the cathedral. "They are the only horses in our whole
city," he said. "They are almost two thousand years old, and have
travelled hundreds of miles, by sea and land.

"It is said that they first stood on a triumphal arch in Rome, but
they were taken to Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine, where
they were kept many hundreds of years. Dandolo, a Doge of Venice,
conquered the city about seven hundred years ago, and brought the
horses to Venice as a sign of his victory.

"They were placed over the door where they now stand, and have been
there ever since, excep