belonging to the Signoria at Venice, from whom, in the same way, the
great council was chosen.]

As touching our house, it was four stories high, and with seven windows
in every story; with well devised oriels at the corners, and pointed
turrets on the roof. The gables were on the street, in three steps; over
the great house door there was our coat of arms, the three links of the
Schopppes and the fool's head with cap and bells as a crest on the top of
the casque. The middle windows of the first and second stories were of
noble size, and there glittered therein bright and beautiful panes of
Venice glass, whereas the other windows were of small roundels set in
lead.

And while from outside it was a fine, fair house to look upon, I never
hope to behold a warmer or more snug and comfortable dwelling than the
living-rooms within which was our home the winter through; albeit I found
the saloons and chambers in the palaces of the Signori at Venice loftier
and more airy, and greater and grander. Whenever I have been homesick
under the sunny blue sky of Italy, it was for the most part that I longed
after the rich, fresh green foliage and flowing streams of my own land;
but, next to them, after our pleasant chamber in the Schopper-house, with
its warm, green-tiled stove, with the figures of the Apostles, and the
corner window where I had spun so many a hank of fine yarn, and which was
so especially mine own--although I was ever ready and glad to yield my
right to it, when Herdegen required it to sit in and make love to his
sweetheart.

The walls of this fine chamber were hung with Flanders tapestry, and I
can to this day see the pictures which were so skilfully woven into it.
That I loved best, from the time when I was but a small thing, was the