This splendid ceremony of inspection by the Doge was a day of annual
triumph, for nowhere in all the world was there such an arsenal, and
nowhere such an army of workmen,--thirty-five thousand men trained to
the cunning from father to son in lifelong service,--with sailors,
sixteen thousand more, who should presently make a brave review within
those battlemented walls, to tickle the fancy of the Serenissimo and his
guests. For these pageants of Venice were not guiltless of timely hints
to the onlookers of the futility of opposition to a naval force so great
and so admirably controlled; and well might the Republic be proud of the
foundry, the docks, the galleys, which the Doge and the Signoria came
each year in state to visit, with all the nobles of the Maggior
Consiglio and many of the high officials.
This year it was to be a fete more magnificent than usual, for the
households of the ambassadors were bidden to the banquet which was
prepared in the Great Hall of the arsenal--the attractions of which were
invitingly rehearsed, as the speakers leaned across from gondola to
gondola, to exchange their pleasant bits of gossip with dramatic
exaggerations.
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