In the afternoon a splendid repast was furnished at the Ducal Palace, and then the Bucentaur was rowed up to the Piazzetta, where a hundred ladies in costly dresses embarked and proceeded to the Palazzo Contarini. Here they were joined by the Lady Lucrezia and her husband, attended by another hundred ladies. Then the Bucentaur, followed by numerous gayly decorated gondolas, rowed to the Palace of Sforza, to the sound of music, and paid a visit of state to the Captain-General, who then went on board the Bucentaur, and the whole company proceeded to the Ducal Palace. The Doge and Dogaressa, with a train of fifty ladies, met the barge at the landing; and they, with their guests in procession, entered the palace, where the evening was spent in dancing. The next day festivities were resumed. Now a tournament was given, in which the nobles of Venice and their honored guests tilted together. Again a regatta was held, with large prizes, and the gondolas were brought out which were only seen at festivals. They were richly carved and gilded, and fitted with curtains and cushions of silk and velvet. The best rowers competed for the prizes, and won them amid great applause. Each day some novel feature was introduced. Acrobats and others performed their feats of agility in the squares, the bells rang softly all day long, bands played in the squares at night, and the people danced, while the patricians were entertained at a series of balls at the palaces of the nobility. Thus ten days passed, and then, as a finale, there was a procession of illuminated boats, every seventh one carrying musicians, which passed through the canals, and around the islands near Venice. [Illustration: _The Piazzetta; Ducal Palace; San Marco_] {181} But three years elapsed before Jacopo Foscari was suspected of having taken bribes for his services in obtaining offices _per broglio_, which would be called lobbying in our day. The Broglio was the lower gallery or arcade under the Ducal Palace, which was a general meeting-place for the higher classes, and where all sorts of schemes and conspiracies were broached, and consultations held; in short, an exchange which might be frequented for both good and evil purposes. The penalties for such offences as those of which the young Foscari was accused, were very severe, and Jacopo was doomed to banishment in Naples, where each day he must present himself before the representative of the Republic in that city. Before this sentence was pronounced, Jacopo had fled to Trieste, and there fell ill. After some months he was permitted to go to Treviso; and at length, in answer to a pathetic appeal from his father, he was pardoned, and returned to Venice.