some of these literary curiosities, of which the visit of Henry III. had
been prolific, should have remained in possession of the masters of the
palace which had been tendered for his residence. The volume, bound in
azure velvet, embroidered with golden fleurs-de-lis and seeded with
pearls, lay open at the page "Chapter in which the Most Holy Catholic
Religion is introduced conversing with the most Christian, most powerful
and most holy Henry III., the most glorious King of France and Poland."

The noble lady Laura Giustiniani, who looked with pride upon these
costly trifles of the cabinet of Marcantonio, was a Venetian in every
throb of her patrician veins--first a patriot and then a mother--she
earnestly coveted for her son that he should render vast services to the
state, receive in his early years the Patriarch's blessing upon his
alliance with some ancient Venetian house, and close his noble career
with the Doge's coronet. She admitted reluctantly to herself, although
she would never have confessed it openly, that in these latter days of
the Republic the ermine was not likely to be offered to one so stern and
masterful as her husband; while she also knew, and the knowledge held
its compensation, that Giustinian Giustiniani could not be spared from
the Councils of his government. She knew her history well, and she
realized that the days of the Michieli and Orseoli were over, and that
the supreme honor was no longer for the strong but for the pliant; this
had made her the more willing that her son should partake of the facile
and gracious mood of this time of Renaissance, and had led her to shape
his education more in consonance with his natural tastes than with her
own views of fitness for a Venetian noble. She knew that this was
weakness for a Giustinian; but it was hard to see the noble line pass
down through the centuries without that coveted sign of honor--the
minikin Lion of San Marco, the mighty symbol--carved upon their palaces.