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A cry rang down the Canal Grande from the gondoliers of the Ca'
Giustiniani, who were waiting this sign to start their own train from
the palazzo; for the bridal gondolas were coming in sight, with _felzi_
of damask, rose, and blue, embroidered with emblems of the Giustiniani,
bearing the noble maidens who had been chosen for the household of the
Lady Marina, each flower-like and charming under her gauzy veil of
tenderest coloring. It was indeed a rare vision to the populace, these
young patrician beauties whose faces never, save in most exceptional
fetes, had been seen unveiled beyond their mother's drawing-rooms,
floating toward them in a diaphanous mist which turned their living
loveliness into a dream.
The shout of the Giustiniani was echoed from gondola to gondola of the
waiting throng, from the gondoliers of all the nobles who followed in
their wake, from the housetops, the balconies, the fondamenta, mingled
with the words of the favorite folk-song:
"Belo ze el mare, e bela la marina!"[6]
[6] Beautiful is the sea, and beautiful the marsh.


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