"
He was calling from across the open court, where the sunshine seemed
suddenly less, and Marcantonio hastened to respond.
The seneschal called for lights, for the workmanship of these heirlooms
was too fine to be appreciated in the gloom which pervaded the far inner
court; two or three iron lanterns were brought and hung up, and
link-boys flashed flaring torches upon the pieces on the wall near which
their master stood.
"Surely thou dost recall this breastplate of the General Taddeo
Giustiniani, who forced the Austrians to surrender Trieste, when Venice
laid siege to the city in 1369? It was wrought in the East, no doubt,
and the inlaying is of gold and precious; but not for this do we keep it
chained. It is a priceless jewel in the history of our house, for
Trieste meant much for Venice."
He raised the heavy chain that fastened it, and the links fell,
clanging, against the stones of the wall; for this hall, which served as
an armory, was like a prison in its construction,--as strong and as
forbidding,--and here, among the ancestral relics, were kept the arms
which every nobleman, by Venetian law, was required to hold in readiness
to equip his household against uprisings of the populace, who were, by
this same law, debarred these means of self-defense.
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