"The city of Cambrai," said the doge, Andrew Gritti, "is the purgatory of the Venetians; it is the place where emperors and kings of France make the Republic expiate the sin of having ever entered into alliance with them."

It was this Giustinian who had been carried in triumph on the shoulders of the people, before the Doge and the Signoriawho had been the hero when that solemn Mass, in honor of the victory, had been offered up in the ducal chapelwhen the Rialto and the Merceria, for the extravagant joy of Venice, were draped in blue and scarlet and gold, bound laurel wreaths and decorated with the art treasures of Titian and Giorgone.

And in this connection it is of special interest to find the Doge was himself a Barberigo.

It has already been shown that the reigning Doge, if such a title can be used of a prince who was merely a tool of the aristocracy, was a man advanced in years.