Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/528

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A state galley, celebrated as the Bucentaur, preserved from time immemorial in the Venetian arsenal, carried the Doge and Senate upon these occasions; and everything which could add pomp and splendour to this annual ceremonial was employed, the public functionaries and foreign ambassadors being present as well as the senators and chief nobility. The Bucentaur, of which the drawing on the preceding page is an imperfect representation, measured 110 feet in length, and 21 feet in width. A covered deck was specially appropriated for the Doge's reception; and the splendour of her equipment equalled the most gorgeous floating palaces of ancient Egypt.
 * formed with extraordinary magnificence by the Doge.

In this magnificent state barge the Doge, accompanied in the manner described, was rowed, amid the sound of music and the loud acclamations of the people, from the city to an appointed spot on the waters of the Adriatic. As a sign of the perpetuity of the dominion of the republic over that sea, the Doge cast into it a ring, in token of his love, exclaiming, "We wed thee with this ring in sign of a real and perpetual dominion!" This peculiar and splendid matrimonial ceremony was observed annually, throughout many centuries, until 1795, when Napoleon, having conquered the once proud and powerful city, handed Venice and all its wealth and territory over to Austria: nor did the Bucentaur escape the notice of the rapacious conqueror, who stripped her of her gold, which, with her other