the minds of the Savii and the six most venerated Councillors without
whose acquiescence the mandate of the Doge was powerless, and they had
listened to the bold declaration with a surprise not unmingled with
resentment, that so young a man should make, in their presence, an
assertion touching matters of State which they could neither affirm nor
deny! At a sign from one of the chancellors, one of the three
counsellors at law of the Avvogadori di Commun, who had the keeping of
the Golden Book, had been immediately summoned from adjoining chambers
in the Palace and had confirmed the statement. Such a marriage had
indeed taken place in the latter half of the fourteenth century; the
number of the decree authorizing the full nobility of the children had
been noted in the Golden Book, the original decree could therefore be
found, within the archives, upon demand of the Savii.

The case had changed from a matter of gracious policy to one of
unquestioned importance in the minds of the gravest counsellors of the
Republic--in spite of the glamor of romance which threatened to lessen
its dignity by winning the enthusiastic support of the younger members
of the assembly and the jealous opposition of the older senators, who
were tenacious of the privileges and restrictions of the ancient
nobility of Venice. The faces of many among them were dark and
threatening. One of their number high in authority, whose seat was near
the Savii on the dais, and who was known to be of the strictest
oligarchical proclivities, risked the words, "_Remember the Serrata
Consiglio_," in a clear undertone, but was immediately repressed by a
terrible glance from more than one of the commanding Savii.

Giustinian Giustiniani was alone kept silent by the force of conflicting
emotions which left him only strength enough to realize that he was too
angry to advise with dignity, though he was one of the Chiefs of the