iron, had distinguished themselves in the recapture of Grado, and to their
guild was allotted the honor of putting to death the bull and swine. Great
art was shown in striking off the bull's head at one blow, without
suffering the sword to touch the ground after passing through the animal's
neck; the swine were slain with lances. Athletic games among the people
succeeded, and the Doge and his Senators attacked and destroyed, with
staves, several lightly built wooden castles, to symbolize the abasement
of the feudal power before the Republic. As the centuries advanced this
part of the ceremony, together with the slaughter of the swine, was
disused; in which fact Mr. Ruskin sees evidence of a corrupt disdain of
simple and healthy allegory on the part of the proud doges, but in which I
think most people will discern only a natural wish to discontinue in more
civilized times a puerile barbarity. Mr. Ruskin himself finds no evidence
of "state pride" in the abolition of the slaughter of the swine. The
festival was very popular, and continued a long time, though I believe not
till the fall of the Republic.

Another tribute, equally humiliating to those who paid it, was imposed
upon the Paduans for an insult offered to St. Mark, and gave occasion for
a national holiday, some fifty years after the Patriarch of Aquileja began
atonement for his outrage. In the year 1214, the citizens of Treviso made
an entertainment to which they invited the noble youth of the surrounding
cities. In the chief piazza of the town a castle of wood exquisitely
decorated was held against all comers by a garrison of the fairest
Trevisan damsels. The weapons of defense were flowers, fruits, bonbons,
and the bright eyes of the besieged; while the missiles of attack were
much the same, with whatever added virtue might lie in tender prayers and
sugared supplications. Padua, Vicenza, Bassano, and Venice sent their
gallantest youths, under their municipal banners, to take part in this
famous enterprise; and the attack was carried on by the leagued forces