"Nature
herself," said he, "seems the accomplice of their merry-making, and in
no other surroundings could man's natural craving for diversion find so
graceful and poetic an expression."
The scene on which they looked out seemed to confirm his words. It was
the last evening of their stay at Bellocchio, and the Procuratessa had
planned a musical festival on the river. Festoons of coloured lanterns
wound from the portico to the water; and opposite the landing lay the
Procuratore's Bucentaur, a great barge hung with crimson velvet. In the
prow were stationed the comedians, in airy mythological dress, and as
the guests stepped on board they were received by Miranda, a rosy Venus
who, escorted by Mars and Adonis, recited an ode composed by Cantapresto
in the Procuratessa's honour. A banquet was spread in the deck-house,
which was hung with silk arras and Venetian mirrors, and, while the
guests feasted, dozens of little boats hung with lights and filled with
musicians flitted about the Bucentaur like a swarm of musical
fireflies...
The next day Odo accompanied the Procuratessa to Venice. Had he been a
traveller from beyond the Alps he could hardly have been more unprepared
for the spectacle that awaited him. In aspect and customs Venice
differed almost as much from other Italian cities as from those of the
rest of Europe. From the fanciful stone embroidery of her churches and
palaces to a hundred singularities in dress and manners--the
full-bottomed wigs and long gowns of the nobles, the black mantles and
head-draperies of the ladies, the white masks worn abroad by both sexes,
the publicity of social life under the arcades of the Piazza, the
extraordinary freedom of intercourse in the casini, gaming-rooms and
theatres--the city proclaimed, in every detail of life and architecture,
her independence of any tradition but her own.
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