The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-25 00:00:00

hammer stroke on the swinging metal high up in the
air above the Great Piazza, the whole city gave one
exulting roar, and strong men embrac3d with tears
like children. One by one the Italian vessels swept
in—the Garibaldi first, then the Fulininante, Con-
fienza, Vinzaglio, Sirena, and last, the ironclad Va-
rese. Then the people of Venice heard the ships salute
—their own ships—with those bronzed Venetian
sailors on board who had long been exiles from their
homes. Even yet they seemed half to doubt, and the
gusts of joyful noise were fitful, for they could not
touch the sailors, and the Austrian flag still floated
from gunboats in their port. Gondoliers silently
pushed their gliding boats about the lagoon, the one
magical word " si" displayed conspicuously in their
caps, and the crowd began to gravitate towards the
railway station, where the troops were to enter at
noon. The municipality looked nervous lest their
fete should go wrong. They need have had no fear,
for the heart of Venice was moved, and only wanted
expression. Along the Grand Canal the people were
assembling in knots on the bridges, and gathering
crowds on the quays, still without noise, except
where, here and there, one bolder or more used to
agitation than the rest, lifted a cry of " Viva Gari-
baldi !" or " Viva l'ltalia !" which always found
ready response. The grand old palaces seemed
unaccustomed to the bright flags and rich dra-
peries that drooped from their balconies,• or
floated, sunlit, against the bright blue sky. Rich
silks, Gobelin tapestries, everything that was beau-
tiful or costly, was displayed on the massive fronts,
and men and women adorned themselves with colour
and ornaments, for all, rich and poor, wished to give
of their best to honour the arriving soldiers. The
Rialto was well decorated by the crowd which covered
it. Twelve o'clock passed, and all along the line
there was expectation ; still they did not come. Is
anything wrong ? Backwards and forwards uneasily
shot the municipal gondolas ; a Garibaldian or offi-
cer of the commission was carried by, and elicited a
few dropping cheers ; but yet they delayed too long,
and the tapestries and banners were displayed for
them in vain. At last, after long waiting along the
canal, the sound of music began to be heard in the
distance, and advanced boats came up to see that
the way was clear. Then slowly, but steadily, a
long dark column appeared winding through the
turns of the waters that hung immovable about the
marble steps, for the tide was at full. Two barges
came first, towed by gondolas and carrying the civil
authorities of Venice, with the National Guard and
their band. After them came the soldiers, and were
greeted with subdued warmth not with full enthu-
siasm as yet ; the people seemed awe-stricken ; there
was so much daylight and the Austrians were not
yet very far off. On one of the small bridges that
cross the rii, just as they open on the Grand Canal,
there was a woman with a lovely, sad sweet face
like the Madonna di San Sisto, but she never once
spoke nor clapped her hands, only gazing intensely
at the troops as they passed.
____ _

Though the cheering was not great nor the excite- I
meat such as to justify the Italian writers in calling
it, as they surely will to-morrow, a " veritable de-
lirium," there was a heartfelt and deep contentment
well understood by the army ; and, while the people
cried " Viva l'ltalia !" " Viva larmata Italiana !"
the troops responded " Viva la Venezia t" One of
their bands played a well-known Venetian air,
" Venezia; mia bells, non ti voglia pin. lasciar."
Slowly, and therefore the more impressively, the
black barges moved on with their light-hearted
occupants, who, uncrowded, stood in easy attitudes
or reclined in all the luxury of conquerors on a
triumphal march. It is not in mortals to command
success, and Austrian officers who met them on the
field have told me that their valour deserved it. At
any rate, Venice was right pleased with them, and
they with their reception in Venice. Other troops
marched over bridges, along the rive and through
the calli and campi that stand forstreets and squares,
not without welcome, but the procession up the
Grand Canal was the chief and most impressive,
and the line of dark boats, heavy with their military
burden, could not be matched by any other display
of the pomp of war. At the Palazzo Corner, the
future residence of the Re Galantuomo, a force of
the National Guard were drawn up and presented
arms; the soldiers acknowledged the compliment as
they were drawn forwards towards their destination.
It was nearly 3 o'clock before they reached the
I'iazzetta, and the flag of Italy and Victor Em-
manuel was planted at last on the marble pavement
of Venice, at the foot of the Lion of St. Mark's.
By this time the spell that seemed tc hang over the
people was dissolved, and when the little army was
drawn up in the Piazza and began to march past,
everyone's tongue was loosed, and they spoke plainly.
A guard of honour had welcomed them clad in civil
clothes, with nothing to mark their military charac-
ter but a cap faced with red. These were some of
the municipal guard who had been in possession of
the-town all morning, having relieved the Grentzers
from guard at 4 a.m., and immediately caused the
iron railings to be taken away, which had always
fenced in the guard-room.
As usual in all the late military pageants, the most
striking part of the ceremony was the appropriation
of the soldiers by the civilians, and the thorough
acquiescence of • the former. To-day there was
officers to march past and a point to salute, but all
ceremony was swept away, the crowd gave them
greetings from all sides, and the troops bowed and
nodded right and left, officers saluting again and
again the people of Venice. The Bersaglieri were
as usual the great attraction, men and women broke
the self-made rants and ran beside the merry little
soldiers, who could not be said to be marching in
any ordinary sense of the word, for their half run
was made with waving ranks, and their wheel was
often simply running round a corner. They looked,
however, what they are, first-rate light troops, and
their intelligent heads turned right and left with the
rapidity and something of the attitude of birds. The
cheering was now hearty and reckless.
When the troops marched home to barracks there
was leisure to see that the gondolier world was worth
looking
at. For love of rich colour you must go to
the African or Asiatic races or to Venice, whose
people adopted it with their oldest form of archi-
tecture from Byzantium, and revel in it still as an
intense enjoyment. There white jackets and trou-
sers all embroidered with red cord, brown velvet
I with red embroidery and green breeches, blue and
silver, rich orange jackets over white, all with broad
sashes of bright hues, commonly red, with many
another contrast or harmony. In spite of all the
world being abroad there were not wanting unem-
ployed gondoliers, and it appears as if the charm of
the profession led to its being overstocked.
The day was perfect in its weather ; a sunny sky
and cool breeze made a combination of brightness
and freshness that was delightful, and when the
sun was on the horizon, looking to the left from
Danielis the city was bathed in a flood of rich orange
glow ; to the right the palaces of the Grand Canal
and the Church of Santa Maria della Salute rose
uncertain in outline amid a golden glory. But no one
knows Venice till they have seen her illuminated at
night. Whethersmall jets of flame are led round
the lines of her Gothic architecture transforming
solid strength into fairy fragility, or the lights be so
arranged as to bring out the sheen of the marble
shafts and the grace of the pointed arches against
the depth of the sky and the blackness of the pene-
trations, the effect is to bring back the youth of the
building before decay and fire had marred its beauty.
The Piazza of St. Mark was brilliantly lighted, and
as the great Mass of the Imperial Palace shut out
the square from the side towards the Lido, on ap-
proaching the Piazetta in a gondola, or wherever
the view occurs, the Church of St. Mark glitters
like a casket of jewels, and the tower that watches
over it losing the strength of the light as this has to
climb higher, seems to lose its top in the dark blue
,vault above.

The square, which was large enough for a review
in the afternoon, was now filled with all ranks and
classes of people enjoying—yes, really enjoying the
music of the national bands. There were men almost
in rags, women
.who carried two children in their
arms and had others ciinginz to their skirts, Gari-
baldians with arms thrown over the neck of Bersag-
Heti, countesses with their grace, and girls
with their soft brown eyes, and for head o pessantrnament
a crown of their black hair ; high and low, rich and
poor, met in that crowd with almost equal courtesy
and kind feeling; they have been one in their long