"_Ave Maria, Gratia plena_!"
the women cried together, falling on their knees, while the men toiled
and struggled to hold the invincible galley of the Ten outside the
whirling path of the storm--advancing and retreating at the will of the
elements, against which their own splendid, human strength was like the
feeble, untaught effort of a helpless infant.
"_Mater Dei, Ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis
nostrae_."
The words rose in a wail between the gusts.
For measureless moments, mighty as hours, they battled between San Marco
and San Giorgio, tossed to and fro--now nearer the haven of the great
white dome, now--as a lightning flash unveiled San Marco--near enough to
see a cloud of frightened doves go whirling over the flood which swept
the Piazza from end to end and poured out under the great gates of the
Ducal Palace into the lagoon.
"_Summa Parens clementia--nocte surgentes_----"
XXXII
A Day momentous for Venice--or was it Rome?--had come and passed; it
chronicled the right of the Crown to make its own laws within its own
realm, without reference to ecclesiastical claims which had hitherto
been found hampering; it defined the limits of Church and State, as no
protest had hitherto done.
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