A Golden Book of Venice

ns of unusual activity in the Campo San Rocco before the great church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frar

the sculptured marble doorway was of surpassing richness, and the airy grace of the campanile detached its

-her Doges, her generals, her artists, her heads of noble families,-and the monuments were in keeping with all its sumptuous decorations, for the Frati Minori of the convent to which it belonged-just across the narrow lane at the side of the church-were both rich and generous, and many of its gifts and furnishings

estored, with much magnificence, less than a century before,-which was modern for Venice,

las, liveried and otherwise, from more distant and aristocratic neighborhoods. This pleasant possibility of entrance sufficed for the crowd at large, who were not learned, and who preferred the attractions of the outside show to the philosophical debate which was the cause of all this agreeable excitement, and which was presently to take place in the great churc

humorous running commentaries with excited movements of the bare, upturned feet; while the gondoliers landed their passengers to a lively refrain of "Stali!" their curses and appeals to the Madonna blending not discordantly with the general babel of sound which gives such a sense of companionship in Venice-hu

taries from one or other of the seven principal parishes of Venice, gorgeous in robes of high festival and displaying the choicest of treasures fro

ari to see where the more pleasure could be gotten, as also to claim their right to be there; for this pageant was for the people also, which they did not forget, and their good-humored ripple of comment was tolerant, even when most critical. But outsi

g of the Council of Trent, which was still sitting, philosophy had become the mode in Venice, and had grown to be a topic of absorbing inte

g these sun-browned sons of the lagoon of every vestige of their native grace. On such days of Church festival-and these alone-they might have been mistaken for peasants of some prosaic land, instead of the graceful, free-born Venetians that

bed and white-cowled, was just coming in sight over the little marble bridge, preceded by youthful choristers, chanting as they came and bearing with th

ous greeting from his colleagues, with such forceful emphasis of his own curling, expressive toes, that he lost his balance and rolled over into the water; from which he was promptly rescued

brary of the convent of the Frari it could be seen that a procession of this body was forming

d the Servi; there was a new brother who had just entered their order,-and very learned, it wa

said, had never been seen. There were the theses in on

xcept in missals, for wo

iscoverable among the crowd, and the rema

stion, true or otherwise, waking its little ripple of interest,-as some n

went in with a lady-our old Abbé from the school at San Marcuolo-Beppo goes there now! And don't some of us remember Pierino-alwa

o use knowing too much, even for a priest. For once, at San Marcuolo-true as true, faith of the

w a quick breath, which increas

Maria!-and it was the ghosts of all the people buried in San Marcuolo who dragged him and kicked him to teach hi

the Abbé Morelli, some day; the

estly; "and that was he going in b

stivals were perquisites, and who, maimed or deformed, knelt on the stone floor close to the entrance, while with keenly observant, ubiqui

f the stalls and canopies, elaborately carved and polished and enriched with mosaics, each surmounted with its benediction of a gilded winged cherub's head, framed a splendid figure in sacerdotal robes. Through the small, octagonal panes of the little windows encircling the choir-row upon row, like an antique necklace of opals set in frosted stonework-the sunlight slanted in a rainbow mist, broken by splashes of yello

ad been graciously permitted to honor this occasion, as it had no political significance; and opposit

n." The beauty, the power, the persuasive sense of motion in the figure of the Madonna, which seemed divinely upborne,-the loveliness of the infant cherubs, the group of the Apostles solemnly at

hase of truth, than of that glowing, spiritualized, human sympathy which, as the soul of man grows upward into comprehension, is the apostle of an ever widening truth. And over the richly sculptured central arch which forms the entrance to the choir,

marched in solemn procession to the chant of the acolytes, returning to mass themselves in the transepts, in fuller view of the pulpits, before the contest began. The Frari had taken their position on the right, under the elaborate hanging tomb of Fra Pacifico-a mass of sculptu

rs scattered leaflets cont

nt; but there was a flutter of increased interest among those who remained,

look of intense anxiety crossed his face. "It is Fra Teodoro, the ab

ace, so that she might watch more closely. But it was on Don Ambrogio Morelli that she fixed her gaz

with every sign of triumph that the sacredness of the place made decorous,

e, surely; but have no fear, Fra Teodoro is not in

nt who is to respond?" a stranger qu

hath but entered thei

h some hesitation, "by

rned; yet if the methods

ant indulgence. For h

tly echoed about, as the ranks of the Servi parted and an old man, with a face full of benignity, came forward, holding the hand of a boy with blue e

t as the young face appeared in t

! It is onl

youthfulness heightened by cassock and cowl-a unique, simple figure, against the bizarre magnificence of the background, the central point of intere

k of perplexity over the sea of faces before him; but the expression of trouble slowly cleared away as his eyes met those of a friar, grave and bent, who had stepped out from t

it were, the claims of her motherhood quite away; it was so soon to surrender all the beautiful romance of mother and child, so soon to have d

t so, and she was we

ficed to restore his composure; he did not even see his mother's face so ne

o counseled, his face glowing wi

hild; he went directly to them and sat down beside Donna Isabella, for he had a tender heart and he guessed her trouble. "I also,"

ew name-would need such loving care; already the mother's pulse beat more tran

e lad had passed beyond the limits of Don Ambrogio's modest attainments. Although she had resented the power of Fra Gianmaria over Pierino, she was proud of the confidence of the learned friar in her child; a

, where he could watch every movement of his quondam school-fellow, whose words carried no meaning to his unlearned ears. But his heart throbbed with sudden loyalty in seeing his

timid as he was, the first voicing of his own thought, in his childish treble voice, put him in presence of a problem and banished all other consciousness. It was merely a question to be met and answered, and his wonderful

choir and came down into the area before

de; and the childish face, the boyish manner and voice lent a wonderful charm to the words he uttered, which w

to a storm of approbation; then his timidity returned, he became self-conscious, fumbling with the white

the Frari cared little and understood nothing-that "in the Philosophical Contest which had taken place between the Friars of the Frari and the Friars of the Servi

ri and posted upon the entrance to the church of the Servi, while in the re

tors, miraculously concealed-but low, for fear of scandal. The Servi said it

ght he came upon some new surprise, for he perceived that the boy's m

that it hath happened to me to ask him a question of which I, verily, knew not the answer; and he, keeping in quiet thought for some m

which Don Ambrogi

ing he is never weary, yet hath he an understanding greater than mine own, and in docility

this year he hath spent with us he asks not for his mother, nor the litt

ternly; "it is no lack, but a gr

; but softly to himself, as he crossed the cloister, he

o give him his nightly benediction; but the good friar's heart was troubled with ten