through the marvelous fretwork of this screen of leafage and scroll and
statue and arch, intricately wrought and enhanced with gilding, the
choir presented an almost bewildering pageant. The dark wood background
of 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
yellow flame from great wax candles in immense golden candlesticks,
rising from the floor and steps of the altar, as from the altar itself.
From great brass censers, swinging low by exquisite Venetian chainwork,
fragrant smoke curled upward, crossing with slender rays of blue the
gold webwork of the sunlight; and on either side golden lanterns rose
high on scarlet poles, above the heads of the friars who crowded the
church.

On the bishop's throne, surrounded by the bishops of the dioceses of
Venice, sat the Patriarch, who had been graciously permitted to honor
this occasion, as it had no political significance; and opposite him Fra
Marco Germano, the head of the order of the Frari, presided in a state
scarcely less regal.

His splendid gift, the masterpiece of Titian, had been fitted into the
polished marble framework over the great altar, and never had the master
so excelled himself as in this glorious "Assumption." 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 attesting the mysterious event,--were
singularly and inimitably impressive, full of aspiration and faith,