Y ORDER OF THE CZAR. 261
chaos begins to assume something like a pleasant irregu- larity of order ; the day's pageant has begun.
Picture the scene. It is almost impossible to describe it. You might be told the names of every great barge ; the period of the costumes of the rowers ; it would be easy to give you a running fire of historic titles and architectu- ral characteristics of the palaces that are ranged on either side of the procession, each one with a wonderful history ; but by and bye you would begin to skip the record and search for the red gondola. It is therefore best to supply you with material for fancy. You can fill in the details from Ruskin, George Sand, Ouida, Triarte, Howells, Ro- gers, and the established guide books. Get into your mind something of the atmosphere of the most romantic period of the world's history. Think of the haughty Doges in their magnificent robes. Try and realize what Venice was. Then remember what she is, a poetic and pathetic wreck of her imperial greatness the stage remaining with its gorgeous properties, its superb sets, its noble architec- ture, its glorious sky, the actors dead and gone ; but to- day moved and radiated with the new life of a better age, with nobler aspirations, without, it is true, the inspiration of barbaric and cultured art to make the day shine and glitter with gold and precious stones, yet exhibiting artistic links between then and now.
Think of these things, and then look around you and note this modern pageant with its relics of the past, its superb costumes, and animated with an ambition quite at laudable as that which built St. Mark's and decorated it with beaten gold. Imagine yourself with the Milbankes and Philip and Dolly Norcott in the midst of this proces- sion, the most impressive since the government of the Council of Ten. It is a moving mass of energetic life and brilliant color. There has been nothing so gorgeous on these classic waters since the Carnival pageants of the four-
