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Updated: June 8, 2025
When the three gondolas reached the side of the Bucentaur, the fisherman hung back, as if he distrusted his right to intrude himself into the presence of the senate. He was, however, commanded to ascend, and signs were made for his two companions to follow.
Vendramin saw himself in an ancient Venetian costume, looking on at the ceremony of the Bucentaur. The Frenchman, who plainly discerned that some strange and painful mystery stood between the Prince and the Duchess, was racking his brain with shrewd conjecture to discover what it could be. The scene had changed.
On we floated slowly, for the wind was very light, till at last our mainyard-arm was touching the gaff of the `Bucentaur, which ship bore the flag of Admiral Villeneuve; and though our guns were raking her and tearing her stern to pieces, we had ahead of us in the second line the `Neptune, which poured a heavy fire into our bows.
Gradually the distances between the boats increased, while that between them and the goal grew rapidly less, until three of those in advance came in, like glancing arrows, beneath the stern of the Bucentaur, with scarce a length between them. The prize was won, the conquerors were rewarded, and the artillery gave forth the usual signals of rejoicing.
"I would most willingly come to see you at Mantua, as I had hoped to do, and as you know I still desire, and should very much enjoy a few days with you in the country, but my husband is exceedingly anxious for my return. So I must beg your Highness to let me enjoy a sight of you in the bucentaur, and not to insist upon my landing this time."
On we floated slowly, for the wind was very light, till at last our mainyard-arm was touching the gaff of the `Bucentaur, which ship bore the flag of Admiral Villeneuve; and though our guns were raking her and tearing her stern to pieces, we had ahead of us in the second line the `Neptune, which poured a heavy fire into our bows.
Our helm was then put up, and we fell aboard the `Redoubtable, while the `Temeraire, Captain Blackwood, ranged up on the other side of her, and another French ship got alongside the `Temeraire. There we were all four locked together, pounding away at each other, while with our larboard guns we were engaging the `Bucentaur, and now and then getting a shot at the big Spaniard, the `Santissima Trinidade'. Meantime our other ships had each picked out one or more of the enemy, and were hotly engaged with them.
At Venice, in 1491, the princesses of the house of Este were met and welcomed by the Bucentaur, and entertained by boat-races and a splendid pantomime, called 'Meleager, in the court of the ducal palace. At Milan Leonardo da Vinci directed the festivals of the Duke and of some leading citizens.
'From this time, says Hallam, 'Genoa never commanded the ocean with such navies as before; her commerce gradually went into decay; and the fifteenth century, the most splendid in the annals of Venice, is till recent times the most ignominious in those of Genoa. Venice seemed now to have no naval rival, and had no fear that anyone could forbid the ceremony in which the Doge, standing in the bows of the Bucentaur, cast a ring into the Adriatic with the words, Desponsamuste,Mare,insignumveriperpetuiquedominii.
I could see the Doge descend the Giant's Stairs, and issue from the gate of the Ducal Palace. I could picture the great Bucentaur as it reached the open beyond the line of the tide. I could see the white-mitred Patriarch walking from his convent on the now deserted isle of Sant' Elena to the shore where his barge lay waiting to join the glittering procession.
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