It is true that a few of the sterner natures among them mingled menaces
against the Bravo with their prayers for the dead, but these had no
other effect on the matter in hand, than is commonly produced by the
by-players on the principal action of the piece.
The great portal of the venerable church was thrown open, and the solemn
chant was heard issuing, in responses, from among the quaint columns and
vaulted roofs within. The body of the lowly and sacrificed Antonio was
borne beneath that arch which sustains the precious relics of Grecian
art, and deposited in the nave. Candles glimmered before the altar and
around the ghastly person of the dead, throughout the night; and the
cathedral of St. Mark was pregnant with all the imposing ceremonials of
the Catholic ritual, until the day once more appeared.
Priest succeeded priest, in repeating the masses, while the attentive
throng listened, as if each of its members felt that his own honor and
importance were elevated by this concession to one of their number. In
the square the maskers gradually reappeared, though the alarm had been
too sudden and violent, to admit a speedy return to the levity which
ordinarily was witnessed in that spot, between the setting and the
rising of the sun.
CHAPTER XXIII.
"'Tis of a lady in her earliest youth,
The very last of that illustrious race."
ROGERS.
When the fishermen landed on the quay, they deserted the gondola of the
state to a man.
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