QL(EE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO a i4 Panorama from the Campanile of St. Mark. OR a^enfce, apefcfofcai ana BY CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT AUTHOR OF "HANDBOOK OF LEGENDARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL ART," "LIFE OF CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN," "ELEANOR MAITLAND, A NOVEL," ETC. Blustrateti BOSTON ESTES AND LAURIAT PUBLISHERS Copyright, 189S, BY ESTES AND LAURIAT. AU rightt reserved. Sntorrstto JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. TO-DAY AND LONG AGO 1 II. A SUMMER DAY 15 III. THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS 25 IV. THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE 48 V. MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS 72 VI. GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN . 90 VII. MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS 121 VIII. MARINO FALIERO; VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO 140 IX. BURANO AND TORCELLO 163 X. THE Two FOSCARI; CARMAGNOLA AND COLLEONI . 175 XL AN AUTUMN RAMBLE 202 XII. VENETIAN WOMEN: CATERINA CORNARO, ROSALBA CARRIERA 218 XIII. THE ARCHIVES OF VENICE 245 XIV. THE TREASURES OF THE PIAZZA 259 XV. GLORY, HUMILIATION, FREEDOM 275 XVI. SAINTS AND OTHERS 303 XVII. HISTORIANS AND SCHOLARS 319 XVIII. PALACES AND PICTURES 334 XIX. THE ACCADEMIA; CHURCHES AND SCUOLE . . . 356 INDEX 37] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE PANORAMA FROM THE CAMPANILE OF ST. MARK . . . Frontispiece CATHEDRAL OF SAN MARCO 6 OFF FOR A SUMMER DAY 15 DUCAL PALACE i 27 FESTIVAL SCENE, BRIDGE OF THE RIALTO 76 CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE 81 BRIDGE OF THE RIALTO 107 MOLD OF SAN MARCO; COLUMNS OF EXECUTION 149 THE PIAZZETTA ; DUCAL PALACE ; SAN MARCO 180 THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS 203 MUSEO ClVICO; FORMERLY PALAZZO FfiRRARA, LATER FoNDACO DEI TURCHI 247 PIAZZA OF ST. MARK 259 HORSES OF ST. MARK 262 CAMPANILE OF ST. MARK 266 INTERIOR OF SAN MARCO; ENTRANCE TO THE CHOIR .... 270 TORRE DELL' OROLOGIO; CLOCK TOWER 273 CA' D' ORO, ON THE GRAND CANAL 334 DARIO PALACE, ON THE GRAND CANAL 338 SALA DEL COLLEGIO; VOTIVE PICTURE OF THE BATTLE OF LE- PANTO, BY VERONESE 342 COURT OF THE DUCAL PALACE ; GIANTS' STAIRCASE 354 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC; OB, VENICE, MEDLEVAL AND MODERN. CHAPTER I. TO-DAY AND LONG AGO. THE Venice which one visits to-day is so curiously a part and not a part of the ancient Venice of which we dream, that one feels, when in that sea-enveloped and fairy-like city, a strange sense of duality, of being a veri- table antique and an equally veritable modern. He has a genuine sympathy with the past, and regrets that he has not the enchanter's wand to bring it all back again, long enough, at least, for him to revel in its magnificence. If he believes in reincarnation, he is speedily convinced that he was once a Venetian indeed ; else how could he feel so much at home, and how love Venice as he does ! And yet, alas ! he cannot quite lose his modem point of view. The first emotion is all delight, and a delight that never loses its thrill ; for until the time comes for reflection, we are under the charm of a perfect atmosphere, of skies of liquid blue, tinged at times with crimsons, gold, and violets, such as come only from Nature's loom ; of music and soft, fascinating speech; of mysterious labyrinths and sunlit spaces, in a word, under the spell of Venice. And if i 2 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Time brings to us the thought of the other side of the picture, the decay which is stealthily doing its sad work, the grayness when it is gray, and all the pathos which ever attends a queen uncrowned, -yet through all and above all is the joy and pleasure which having once been ours, we are resolved to keep. To sail from Trieste in an evening of the spring, and make one's first approach to Venice in the early morning, affords an experience that one should not forego. With the clear sun rising behind, surrounded by the marvellous waters blushing in every color of the rainbow beneath his rays, and the pearly tinted city lifting itself from this many- colored sea, as if in welcome, every poetic and artistic sense is filled to overflowing. Can this coloring be described in words ? Alas ! no. For when the sea is likened to liquid fire, broken into scintillations and spread over a quivering background of sea-blue and sea-green waves, the half has not been said. When the eye rests on some far-away sand, dun and sombre in the distance, what vividness of flaming red and glorious orange comes out in the middle ground, while nearer the blues and greens are mingled with a shimmer- ing silver ! The atmosphere itself seems tinted by reflec- tions from Aurora's garlands, and the strangely luminous blue sky smiles over all. "Then lances and spangles and spars and bars Are broken and shivered and strewn on the sea ; And around and about me tower and spire Start from the billows like tongues of fire." To the south stretches the long island reaching from the Porto di Lido to Malamocco, its sands now sparkling like gems. The fort of San Niccolo guards the entrance to the Lagoon ; the little island of St. Elena is passed, and Mti- rano is seen to the north. But glances only can be spared for these ; for Venice itself, with its towers and domes, its TO-DAY AND LONG AGO. 3 belfries, spires, and crosses, its palaces all lacework and arabesques, rises above, while all around, on the canal, numbers of light, curiously shaped boats and sombre gon- dolas are gathering, their boatmen clamoring for news and customers. Descending, as in a dream, we enter a gondola for the first time. The Giardini Pubblici is passed, and soon one stands on the Piazzetta and enters the Piazza of St. Mark, feeling as if he had passed through a living, moving transformation scene, and been dropped into the middle of the twelfth century. And why not ? For at this early hour the Piazza seems consecrated to the Past. The few boatmen, fruit-sellers, and lazzaroni who are there might belong to the Middle Ages as well as to the nineteenth century. Why might they not have seen that grave procession which in 1177 passed into the Chapel of San Marco to celebrate the reconciliation of a Pope and an Emperor, that day when proud Frederick Barbarossa so nobly proved his greatness ? He had struggled against the Church on the one hand, and the spirit of independent government on the other, with a determination and bravery such as few men in all history have shown. Threatened with excommunication by Pope Adrian IV., and actually laid under the ban by Alexander III., Fred- erick refused to recognize him as Pope, and set up four anti-popes, one after another, who died, as if their position brought its own fatal curse. During sixteen years he car- ried matters with so high a hand that he successfully defied Alexander and Italy ; and the much humiliated Pope wan- dered from court to court, seeking the aid of one kingdom after another, always in vain. Some States frankly acknowledged their fear of Barba- rossa; others dared not meet the sure vengeance of the 4 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Ghibellines which would follow the espousal of his cause ; Sicily could give him a home, but could not seat him firmly on his throne; and all eyes began to turn to the Republic of the Sea. The Barbarossa scarcely gave Italy time to rise from beneath his tread and recover herself from one of his dis- astrous marches through her territory, marking his route by flames and ruin, before he again appeared with his bar- baric army, pillaging and destroying all that had escaped his last visitation, and returning to his Northern throne in triumph. At last he turned his face towards the Eternal City for the fifth time, only to find that the Confederacy of the Lombards had raised a barrier against which he beat himself in vain. He was repulsed in repeated engage- ments ; and after the battle of Legnano, May, 1176, he saw the beginning of the end of the audacious policy by which he had so long dominated at home and abroad. Soon after this first humiliation of his arch enemy, Alex- ander decided to appeal to the Venetians for succor ; and early in 1177 he sailed from Goro, attended by five cardi- nals and ambassadors from the King of Sicily, who had fitted out a papal squadron of eleven galleys. After some disasters and perils, his Holiness reached Venice at evening on March 23, and was lodged in the Abbey of San Niccolo. The Doge, the nobles, and the clergy made haste next day to welcome the Holy Father to Venice ; and after a service in San Marco, where he gave his benediction to the people, the Doge Sebastiano Ziani escorted him to a palace at San Silvestro, which was his home so long as he remained at Venice. The Venetians now sent two ambassadors to Frederick at Naples to arrange, if possible, a peace between the Pope and the Emperor. The bare mention of Alexander as the true successor of Saint Peter so enraged Frederick that he could scarcely speak his words of defiance : TO-DAY AND LONG AGO. 5 "Go and tell your Prince and his people that Frederick, King of the Romans, demands at their hands a fugitive and a foe ; that if they refuse to deliver him to me, I shall deem and declare them the enemies of my empire ; and that I will pursue them by land and by sea until I have planted my vic- torious eagles on the gates of St. Mark." Whatever regret the Venetians may have had at being thus forced to protect their guest and punish so insulting a foe, they immediately prepared thirty-four galleys, com- manded by the flower of their nobility, among whom was the son of the Doge Ziani ; and Ziani himself assumed the chief command. Barbarossa's fleet was more than double in number, and under the command of his son Otho. On the 26th of May, on the stairs of the Piazzetta, Alexander girded upon Ziani a splendid sword, and gave him his blessing. Feeling the great responsibility they had assumed, for not only the holy cause, but the glory of Venice was in their keeping, the Venetians fiercely contested the day. Not less desper- ate the army of the German prince, and not less bravely did he fight. But after six hours of dreadful slaughter, he found himself a prisoner, with forty of his ships in the bands of the enemy, and his whole following completely routed. Otho was at once released, having solemnly sworn to persuade his father to a reconciliation with Alexander. A promise faithfully kept ; for although this dreadful defeat at Salboro must have largely contributed to the repentance of Barbarossa, he never again attempted to rebel against his Holiness. The Pontiff met Ziani at the spot on which they had parted, and all who had survived the battle followed them to San Marco in triumph and thankfulness; and there Alexander gave the Doge a ring, saying, " Take this, my son, as a token of the true and perpetual dominion of the 6 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. ocean, which thou and thy successors shall wed every year, on this Day of the Ascension, in order that posterity may know that the sea belongs to Venice by right of conquest, and that it is subject to her, as a bride is to her husband." And now began the somewhat difficult arrangement of a meeting between Frederick and the Pope, which was at last appointed at Venice, where the Emperor arrived on Saturday evening, July 23. Six cardinals met him at San Niccolo Del Lido, and formally absolved him from the papal curse, that he might not enter the city while under the ban. On Sunday morning the Pope, in his pontifical robes, sat enthroned at San Marco. (In the vestibule, by the centre portal, a lozenge of red marble in the pavement marks the historic spot.) On his right hand was the Doge, and on his left the Patriarch of Grado ; while the ambas- sadors of England, France, and Sicily, the delegates from the free cities, and a throng of nobles and cardinals and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, all in splendid attire, gave dignity and brilliancy to the scene. And now trumpets are heard, and the tread of the pro- cession conducting Barbarossa across the Piazza. The doors of San Marco are wide open, and guards are at each portal to hold baclf the pressing crowds of citizens eager to see the grand ceremony. The procession is passing in ; and from out the multitude of armed warriors, with glis- tening helmets and shining lances, nobles in richly flowing togas, and wealthy commoners in brilliant, graceful dra- peries, one figure stands out alone. The Emperor advances with a martial step, and his whole bearing bespeaks a man great even in submission. His serious face is calm, his crowned helmet is on his head, and his red beard falls far down on his breast. His armor is not concealed by his flowing mantle, and his slashed surcoat of dark, rich velvet, bordered with gold Cathedral of San Me, TO-DAY AND LONG AGO. 7 embroidery, discloses a tunic of more delicate tint and stuff. On his breast and partly hidden by his beard is embroidered a large Crusader's cross. In his splendid jewelled baldric, on the right, is a large sheathed knife, while, on the left, his heavy long sword reaches almost to the ground. Well may the historian Hazlitt say : " It was certainly a grand and imposing spectacle, and one which was apt to raise in the breasts of the spectators many strange and conflicting emotions ; and while the greater part of those present looked on such a consummation perhaps as the triumph of a great man, the latter solemnly declared that to God alone was the glory. "Assuming a lowly attitude, Barbarossa approached the steps of the throne on which Ranuci (Alexander) was seated, and, casting aside his purple mantle, he prostrated himself before the Pope. " The sufferings and persecutions of eighteen years recurred at that moment to the memory of his Holiness ; and a sincere and profound conviction that he was the instrument chosen of Heaven to proclaim the predestined triumph of Right might have actuated the Pontiff, as he planted his foot on the neck of the Emperor, and borrowing the words of Da.vid, cried : " ' Thou shalt go on the lion and the adder ; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet.' " ' It is not to thee, but to Saint Peter, that I kneel,' mut- tered the fallen tyrant. " ' Both to me and to Saint Peter,' insisted Eanuci, pressing his heel still more firmly on the neck of Frederick ; and it was not until the latter appeared to acquiesce that the Pope relaxed his hold, and suffered his Majesty to rise. "A Te Deum closed this remarkable ceremony; and on quitting the cathedral, the Emperor held the sacred stirrup and assisted his tormentor to mount." How the recollection of this narrative incites the fancy, and how the Piazza, but just now so empty, is crowded to 8 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. overflowing with representatives from East and West and the Isles of the Sea ! From the different stories of the Ducal Palace, and extending quite around the square, from every possible projection, float the standards and banners that have been taken from the enemies of the Venetians ; while the great scarlet banner, with its embroidered Lion of St. Mark, waves gently above the principal entrance to San Marco, where the bronze horses now stand. Rich stuffs in the brilliant coloring of Eastern looms, and cloths of gold and silver fall from the balconies thronged with ladies press- ing eagerly forward to watch all that happens in the square below. On the roofs are hundreds of human beings, and every corner that affords a view of San Marco and the Piazza is fully occupied. Men perch like birds on such slight and insecure footholds that they seem like colored statues made fast to the edifices themselves. Here and there a few proud chargers champ their bits and strive to free them- selves from their grooms, who wait impatiently, as we do, for the sound of the trumpets to proclaim the rising of this august conclave. Just here a soft, musical voice deprecatingly suggests : " The Signior has not chosen his lodgings, and one knows not where to take his luggage." THE FEAST OP LA SENSA. Pope Alexander, as indeed he ought, wished to confer all the benefits in his power upon the Venetians, and gave the papal sanction, rather unnecessarily as it would seem, to certain customs which this independent people had for some time followed without authority. They were now duly authorized to seal their letters and despatches with lead rather than with wax; to use tapers and trumpets, TO-DAY AND LONG AGO. 9 and even to display the silken canopy and sword of state when ceremony made them fitting. This silken canopy is disagreeably contracted into an umbrella by some over- careful writers, but there is good reason to believe that long before this time the Doges had indulged in this luxury. Before the departure of the Pontiff he celebrated a High Mass and preached a sermon in San Marco, and at the end conferred upon the Doge the highest and most flattering favor that could be bestowed upon a temporal ruler, by descending from the pulpit and presenting him with a consecrated Golden Rose, in token of friendship for Ziani and for Venice. These seals and umbrellas and trumpets and tapers made little difference to the people ; the Golden Rose gratified their pride and love of their idolized Republic ; but it was with the Marriage of the Adriatic the An- data alii Due Castelli, as it was called by the Venetians that they were principally concerned ; that characteristic Venetian fete, which soon became famous in all the world. Alexander had comprehended their love of pageants, their luxuriousness, and pride of wealth. And now, as if by magic, the Bucentaur appears ; and the dignity and splendor of this galley vastly increased the magnificence and effectiveness of state occasions. It was about twenty-one feet wide in the broadest part, and nearly five times as long. The lower deck was manned by one hundred and sixty-eight rowers, who rowed with gilded oars, while forty other mariners managed the evolutions of the ship. The outside was covered with carvings, and decorated in gold and purple. The prow bore figures em- blematic of the Republic, and the beak was shaped into a Lion of St. Mark. The upper deck, devoted to the illustrious strangers and guests of the Republic, and to the Dogaressa and other 10 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. patrician ladies, was finished in a grand cabin, with a splen- did carved ceiling, and divided by rows of graceful pillars. On the outside this saloon was covered with the richest velvet, and furnished within with luxurious cushions. The Doge had an equally splendid cabin in the stern, encircled by a balcony from which the whole fete could be seen ; and from a second balcony outside the prow he dropped the ring into the sea, proudly repeating the form of words given him by the Pontiff. Sails there were none, but from the top of a huge mast floated the scarlet banner of Saint Mark, with an image of the lion on one side, and of the Virgin Mary on the other, as it may still be seen in the Municipal Museum, and beside this sacred standard hung the white flag, the gift of the Pope. The old pictures of the Bucentaur represent her as crowded with ladies in splendid attire, all intent upon the varied and curious spectacle around them. Here was a throng of boats, galleys, feluccas, gondolas, and the small, swift boats which always covered the canals and lagoons wherever there was anything of interest to be seen, as quickly as a crowd on foot now gathers in the streets of a modern city. There were the patrician gondolas, each vying with the other in the costliness and brilliancy of its carving and decorations. The houses in the centre, with curtains drawn, revealed the lovely women in their gorgeous and picturesque costumes, and the music of fifes and lutes added to the joyousness of all ; while the sound of the church bells, as they grew more and more indistinct^ served to emphasize the deeper meaning of the day and ceremony, which was almost forgotten in this dazzling scene. Then, too, the "Anti-Doge" was always there, the representative of the poor people, chosen by them, and usually the best gondolier among them. On some half- TO-DAY AND LONG AGO. 11 ruined boat he held a court of his fellows, all wearing masks. He had his own fifers, who fifed anything but well, and surrounded by hundreds of little boats he per- formed all sorts of buffoonish trioks, now offering to tow the Bucentaur, again begging for a seat on the Ship of State, and all with most ridiculous gestures and in appar- ent good faith. Whatever he did was received with laughter and merriment, not only by his friends but by the patricians as well. At length the castles of San Andrea and San Niccolo were reached ; arid just outside them the ring was dropped into the majestic Gulf of Venice. At this moment every sound was hushed. Each one of the vast throng desired to hear the words of the Sposalizio (marriage) ; and im mediately following it the Patriarch of Venice returned thanks to the sea for all its blessings, and prayed for their continuance. With the first buzz that indicated the close of these solemnities, the "Anti-Doge" cast an iron hoop into the water, and in a moment gayety reasserted itself. The return to Venice was in some sense a race for the smaller craft ; the Bucentaur and the patrician boats were en- livened by songs and witty persiflage ; and the whole evening was given up to merry-makings of various sorts. Doubtless, in the earliest celebrations of this marriage there were those who shook their heads, looked solemn, and tried to be serious and even sad in the midst of the festivity, recalling and regretting the more simple cele- bration of Ascension Day, which had been good enough for their fathers, and was consequently fine enough for them. Such people exist everywhere and at all periods ; but what was the difference ? At the end of the tenth century, and almost two hun- dred years before the visit of Pope Alexander, when, as the record says, " there was no custom of triumphs," 12 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Pietro Orseolo returned from his victorious expedition against the pirates aud corsairs of Africa, who had been the scourge of all the coasts of the Adriatic. He had cleared the sea of robbers, and greatly extended the dominion of Venice. For the first time a triumphal entrance was involunta- rily made. The grateful populace surrounded the victor and attended him to the Great Council, where the most flattering praises were addressed to him, couched in mag- nificent words. Orseolo had set out on his expedition on Ascension Day, and on its first anniversary the Feast of La Sensa was inaugurated. In a large barge, quite concealed by its covering of cloth of gold, the clergy in their richest vest- ments, wearing all the sacred jewels and ornaments, left the olive-groves of San Pietro in Castello, and at the Lido met the still more magnificent barge of the Doge. Then, as in later days, every sort of boat that could be used in all Venice was there, filled with all conditions of people. The ceremony began with litanies and psalms, after which the Bishop rose and prayed aloud : " Grant, Lord, that this sea may be to us and to all who sail upon it tranquil and quiet. To this end we pray. Hear us, good Lord." Then the singers intoned, Aspergi me, Signor (Cleanse thou me, Lord), while the two barges approached each other, and the Bishop sprinkled the Doge and the Court with holy water, and what remained was poured into the sea. This simple religious rite, celebrated in the enchanting atmosphere of the lovely, blooming season of the year, must have deeply moved the hearts of those who went down to the sea in ships, as who did not in Venice ? It was perfectly adapted to the initial years of a Republic when aristocratic rule was in its infancy ; but two centu- ries later all was changed, and the Spoaalizio was in accord TO-DAY AND LONG AGO. 13 with Ziani and his aims as truly as La Sensa represented Orseolo. There are those who question all the story of the ro- mantic incidents of Pope Alexander's visit to Venice. To them we would give the customary and most satisfactory answer of the Venetians : " Is it not depicted in the Hall of the Great Council ? If it had not been true, our good Venetians would never have painted it." THE BOATS OP MODERN VENICE. Most of the craft one sees in Venice now are vastly dif- ferent from those we have been thinking of. The gondolas, alas ! all look as if ready for a funeral, black, only som- bre black. This seems an unnecessary extension of the time when the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children; for many more than three or four generations have perambulated these fascinating waters in these dis- mal boats. Why should the undue extravagance of the past, which was curbed by this monotonous gloom, forbid a bit of cheerfulness now, hundreds of years later? It may be fortunate that the Bucentaur went up in fer- vent heat, for it is more than possible that it might not have realized our ideal of what it should be; and now each one can gaze in imagination at just what he would have made it if he could. But we would like to have some galleys remaining, and rowed by slaves or prisoners. It would afford an outlet for sympathy and pity, the exer- cise of which virtues is good for us, and which are so often, even in Venice, bestowed on those who neither merit nor need them. But we have the felucca, the sandolo, the bissone, and innumerable little boats to add life to the canals and lagoons. If we can see numbers of these, with their va- riously colored sails, running the gamut from white to 14 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. brilliant orange and tawny red, with here and there those that are striped, and many that are deliciously patched and resemble Joseph's coat in their variety of tones, if we can but get all these between the Riva degli Schiavoni and the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore at the sunset hour, we need not regret not having lived under the Doges. Never were colors more picturesquely mingled ; and as they pass to and fro, out from and into the Giudecca, we almost forgive the gloom of the gondolas, especially if now and then one adds its effect in contrast with the brilliancy of the other boats. That marvellous Venetian sunset ! It is an unending subject. One talks of it, writes about it, tries to exaggerate it and fails to do so, and can never think of Venice without recalling it. It is like a vast con- flagration, and its flames seem likely to lap up the water it blazes over, together with all the boats and men who dare to row or sail into its fiery circle. But we must not omit the steamboats that now traverse Venetian waters. What can we say of them ? There are two views, each having strong supporters. Perhaps the larger number cry out, "Desecration and deterioration;" but others find them more in the spirit of Venice at its best than anything that is equally prominent in the mod- ern city. How eagerly did the old " makers of Venice " seize on everything that could advance her commerce and her trade ! Would they have hesitated to use any power that could save their ducats and their time ? Ah, no ; and the glo- rious new impulse which this age has brought to United Italy finds expression in the revival of her industries, and her adoption of ideas evolved by others while she slept the dreamless sleep from which she now awakens. Off for a Summer Day, CHAPTER II. A SUMMER DAY. VENICE in summer with a marine artist for a com- panion, could anything be better? An artist from early dawn to dark, from the top of his curly head to the soles of his feet ; an artist who indeed appreciates no, perhaps approves would be more nearly true the pictures of Titian and Tintoretto on a rainy day, but will have none of them in any kind of weather when the sea can be studied and painted. The summer is the only season when one can really know modern Venice ; the only time when one can in any good degree separate himself from the long ago and live in the present ; the time when he will, in spite of himself, turn his back on the works of man and live out in the world that God created before palaces and churches, ar- senals and towers, had been invented. The most delicious of days is that when in the cool morning we take to our gondola, with our artist and his traps, the books that we think we shall read but rarely do, the fancy work which soon loses its interest, the rugs on which to lie for the afternoon siesta, the basket with the solid luncheon, a second with fruit and sweets, and a third with wine. And when our little maid Anita, so busy in the house that she can scarcely leave it, comes with her gay handkerchief but half arranged about her shoulders, begging pardon for her tardiness and smiling at our gon- dolier, Giacomo, whom she calls her cousin (?), all is ready. 16 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. We pass into a side canal to do a necessary housekeeping errand ; for we live not in hotels, not we, and some- times, we will admit, our furniture requires repairs, and frequently we must buy some needful article which we fail to find in our " completely furnished lodgings." But the effect of the historic name of our palace is to make us feel so wealthy that we do not regret the lire that we spend with the proper amount of haggling, and our spacious quarters and carved balconies are so inexpensive to our American minds that our padrone hears no complaints. Few gondolas are yet moving. Cooing pigeons, pert sparrows, and swiftly circling swallows are searching here and there for any stray crumbs that will afford a morning meal. We stop at a traghetto (gondola stand), and Anita darts away and disappears on her errand. We mean- while watch a great water-barge which has just arrived with its cargo of " sweet water " from the mainland. How weary the men look, and no wonder; for to Giacomo's questions they reply that two days have passed since they set sail. The winds have held them back, but they hope that the same weather may send them home before night ; and as they are safely here, why complain ? The small boats are there ready to receive the water ; and the wheezy little engine soon fills them, and they go off to replenish the public wells by means of their long hose. All this time, as we watch these proceedings with inter- est, the artist has been sketching like mad. Theoretically he disdains anything inside the Grand Canal ; but we think that "all is fish that comes to his net" in the way of novelties in Venetian life ; and it is wonderful how many such despised "pot-boilers" he sells. And now Anita comes tripping down with the coveted coffee-pot she had begged us to buy now, knowing from experience that we may be too late home to have it ready for the morning. As we move off, we ask the bargemen A SUMMER DAY. 17 how much they get for their cargo, and are much excited by their answer, "Cinque lire, signor." One dollar for all that! One loves Venice with a well-filled purse in his pocket, but he would not like to earn his living at Vene- tian prices for labor. Now, our business ended, we are really ready to start, and we settle ourselves comfortably to enjoy the sights on either hand. As we come into the Grand Canal, some rosy sunrise colors still linger in the east and remind us of Poussin, who declared when flying from Venice, " If I stay here, I shall become a colorist ! " With this reminder of the glorious canvases on which we turn our backs day after day, and, to be frank, now rarely think of, we wonder at the spell that is over us. It is an enchanting spirit of do-nothing that possesses us ; our thoughts wander lazily from one subject to another, but never rouse us to energy of action. We think com- placently of the artistic treasures of every kind which are within our reach, for which when in Boston we long with an energy of desire that would keep us going from San Marco to the Ducal Palace, on to the Frari and other churches, and so through the whole list of " sights " with zealous industry ; and yet, now we are here, we will have none of them, at least not to-day. October will come, and bring another spirit to us. But now Venice is enough. Its changing aspect, its clouds, its islands, its people, in a word, its boat life is enough. Leaving thus behind us that great Past which at other times holds us with its wondrous power, we find full com- pensation in the Venice that still lives ; and of this Venice the best part is the water class (if one may use this term), the robust, frank, joyous survival of the old Republic, bubbling and growing into the new Italy of our day. A good gondolier, like our Giacomo, is a treasure, the sort of man that helps one to respect the human race and 2 18 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. forget how many of another sort one has seen. If you allow him to feel himself to be a part of your life, he will identify himself with your interests, sympathize in your joys and sorrows, and tell you all his own. We must admit, however, that there is another kind, and that a bad gondolier is like a certain little girl whom we all know, from bad he rapidly goes to horrid. As Giacomo makes us his confidant, I had almost said confessor, we find the gondolier's life to be a happy one, in spite of its surface seeming of hardship and poverty. They see the sun whenever it shines, and breathe the fresh air; their exercise develops a fine physique; polenta, bread, and wine are delicious with the sauce of a good appetite ; and being a most conservative race, they desire only to be what their ancestors were in past centuries. They go rarely to church. Custom is their religion, and at each traghetto there is an image of the Virgin ready to grant their prayers ; and all their good or ill is promptly referred to " Our Blessed Madonna." A country-flitting for a few days in the summer, with half a dozen or more companions, and their little suppers in the winter content them for amusements, while an extra treat of theatre or opera makes them supremely happy. And on festal days who sees more than the gondolier ? If a rowing-match occurs, with what excitement does he defend his favorite champion ! Curiously enough, each contrada, or district, has its own customs and festivals, even its own dialect to some extent ; and while each one knows intimately the affairs of his own contrada, outside, that quarter he knows little, and little is known of him. All this has Giacomo taught us ; and we admire his honest face as he touches his cap and asks the artist where we are to go. "Are any large vessels lying off the Riva, Giacomo?" "Si, signor" (another touch of the cap), "an Austrian Lloyd came in last evening." A SUMMER DAY. 19 " Then let us lie in her shade awhile." Coming to our vantage-ground, where even the extra canopy on our gondola could not have sufficiently les- sened the heat of the sun, we prepare for a long stay. The water is magnificent. The sands on the Lido have been stirred by the wind, and the opaque green sea is mottled with yellow stains. The fishing-boats are always fascinating, and claim our first attention ; some are already at their anchorage near the public gardens, unloading the " catch " of the night ; others, still some distance out, are tacking and crossing each other's bows in a confusing fashion, led by a procession coming nearer in ; the inany- hued sails with their curious designs full-blown roses, stars or crescent moons, hearts blood-red and pierced by arrows absorb our attention as imperatively as when we first saw them long years ago ; and our artist still puts them on his canvas as eagerly as if he had not done it a hundred times before, and others of his sort a hundred thousand. " Xew every morning and fresh every evening " can be repeated in Venice with rare truthfulness. The gondola is moored, and the artist hastily sets up his easel and begins his work. The rowers watch him until they see him quite absorbed, and then by signs ask permission of Giacomo to leave us awhile. A little signal- flag soon brings a row-boat alongside, and takes them off. Anita's fingers are already flying over a piece of pretty lace which is always in her hands when she has a moment of leisure. It is at such times as this that we learn from Giacomo many things that we have not read in books, and question him about the customs we observe. To-day a steamboat passing at the moment reminded us that we had heard a reference to a strike of the gondoliers when the vaporetti first appeared at Venice. At a sign Giacomo comes near enough to talk to us in a quiet tone ; and as he advances, cap in hand, Anita cannot refrain from 20 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. darting a glance at his handsome face, and as quickly look- ing down at the never-ending lace. "Do the gondoliers like the steamers, Giacomo?" " As the devil loves holy water, signora." "Have you ever made any opposition to their being here?" " Undoubtedly, signora. When first they began to run between the station and the public gardens, we made a strike." "A strike of gondoliers in Venice? How dreadful! How did it end ? Tell me all about it, Giacomo." " Con piacere, signora. It was on the Monday before All Soul's Day that we determined on the strike ; and some loose-tongued fellows told our plans, so that the Syndic heard the tale and sent for some leading gondoliers and tried to have them give it up. But we held fast, and on Tuesday morning not a man nor a gondola was found at the traghetti. But at each one the image of Our Lady was decked as for a festival, and the Italian flag was flying to show that we were true to Italy. " The Grand Canal was deserted and quiet as the grave, except when a steamer passed loaded with passengers. There were no gondolas at the ferries ; and when the Syn- dic had done his best, there was but one boat to each one of them. Crowds of women waited angrily to go to mar- ket, and all who wished to pass for any reason were scold- ing and cursing the vaporetti on every side. " The gondoliers were walking about in slouched hats, and gathering in knots on the bridges and at the street- corners. The wine-shops were full, for the air was keen, and a warm corner was needed when one had no exercise to stir the blood. But there were no riots." '* But the gondolas, Giacomo, where were they ?" " In the little canals, madama, and so closely packed that one could walk a long way on them in some places A SUMMER DAY. 21 and never see the water. It was a sad, sad sight, so many good Venetian boats idle, and those foreign ' puffers ' full of people ! And so Tuesday passed ; and that evening no songs were heard, no stories told, and every gondolier in Venice was as sad as if his mother lay dead." " Were there no quarrels, Giaconao ? Did not the women tell the gondoliers that they were wrong ? " " The women, signora, were firmer than the men. They hated the vaporetti and cursed them. But on Wednesday, as had been thought, the trouble increased. At every tra- yhetto the Syndic posted a mild appeal to the boatmen, and bade them remember what pride Venice had in her gon- doliers. It persuaded them and flattered them as if they were naughty children, and invited them to meet the town council. They went ; but only talk came of it. The gondo- liers demanded the dismissal of the steamers ; the council refused, and the meeting dissolved quietly. *' But what a confusion there was ! You know, madarna, that everybody goes on All Soul's Day to San Michele to lay a wreath on the family graves. Not to do this would make them unhappy all the year. And how to do it on this day was the question ; for not one gondolier in all Venice was tempted, not even by the offer of twenty times his usual fare. " Every boat of every sort that was not a gondola passed and repassed many times to the cemetery and back ; and all were full. No doubt the boatmen made a good day's wage ; but the gondoliers had never seen, not even in the carnival, anything so ridiculous ; and that evening when they described to each other the boats and the rowers they had seen, and acted out all these absurdities, you would have thought them the merriest souls alive." " But were they so, Giacomo ? " "No, indeed, signora: they were miserable. They could not sleep, or if they did they dreamed that they were row- 2 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. ing over the lagoons, and only woke in wretchedness to find it was not true." "And on Thursday what happened?" " The gondoliers then took an advocate, and sent him to the Syndic to plead their cause. But the Syndic would not listen ; he would only deal with the gondoliers them- selves, and he began to be severe and to talk of many steamboats running everywhere ; and the gondoliers were told of ' launches ' that could thread the smallest canals better than gondolas ! Alas ! signora, what could be done if this were true? "Just then the military and customs officers who had loaned their boats to the ferries sent word that they must have them again ; and an old gondolier whom all the others respected, took his boat out and began to serve a ferry. Instantly the strike was ended. The gondolas were untied, cleaned, and dressed as for a gala-day. The canals and lagoons were soon alive with them, and we had our Venice back again." It was the old story. The gondoliers could not be al- lowed to stand in the way of progress, nor could they lay down the law to Venice. But their simple way of going on a strike, and absolute simplicity in ending it, was al- most pathetic ; such children did they seem in comparison with strikers and strikes that we know. By this time midday has come, and our very early break- fast calls for an early luncheon. The artist is so absorbed in his work that it seems almost a sin to disturb him ; but in his ardor to-day he has painted so rapidly as quite to satisfy us, and half to content himself, a true artist rarely does more than this. After luncheon we try to read ; but the many changing sights and sounds are too distracting for anything that requires thought, and when we read a story on the lagoon we are never able to remember whether the lovers married A SUMMER DAY. 23 or were separated by a cruel fate. A sentence is well begun, when a deeper shadow puts a new color on every- thing, and we drop our book to look ; the same sentence is half read a second time, when a fruit-boat laden with piles of green and golden melons and luscious peaches comes so near us that Anita calls out to Giacomo to buy what will be needed on the morrow, and we listen to the chattering and bargaining until that is over; the third time that particular sentence is finished, but just then drowsiness overcomes our brain, and we are asleep. We wake to find our rowers in their places, and the day so far spent that we must decide where we will dine, at home, at the Lido, or at our favorite trattoria. To-day we favor the Lido, although we are hungry and the din- ner is not so good as on the Zattere ; but the exquisite outlook at sea and sky, and the mystery of the bit of dis- tant coast, minister to that Venetian appetite of eyes which is never satisfied, and the home coming at night sends us to sleep with such a heavenly vision in our thought. Landing rather late at Sant' Elisabetta, we have only time for a quick stroll around our favorite promenade, while Giacomo orders our dinner. The fresh sea-breeze is delicious, and the dim blue line of hills above Trieste seems very near in the clear atmosphere ; we gather a large bunch of poppies and a dainty nosegay of primroses, and then seek the little osteria. When we turn our gondola homeward, the afterglow is fading, and the gloaming with its quiet leads the thoughts far, far away. The stars come out, and the rising moon gives just that light that changes all objects into ghostly apparitions. The schooners are phantom-ships ; every- thing that is moving is indistinct and spirit-like, seeming as if suspended and floating in mid-air, until we come nearer to the city and the lights give a new aspect to the evening. 24 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. The pyramids of lamps on San Marco are all ablaze. Gondolas are hastening to the Piazzetta. The band is playing, and we know how gay it all is. But to-night we turn into the Grand Canal, where we catch glimpses into lighted rooms with richly ornamented ceilings, while from the overhanging balconies come gay voices and musical laughs, sucli as are in harmony with the pearly city the moon is' now revealing; and the artist recites from Longfellow, " White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest So wonderfully built among the reeds Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds, As sayest the old historian and thy guest ! White water-lily, cradled and caressed By ocean streams, and from the silt and weeds Lifting thy golden pistils with their seeds, Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest ! White phantom city, whose untrodden streets Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting Shadows of palaces and strips of sky ; I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets Seen in mirage, or towers of cloud uplifting In air their unsubstantial masuury." CHAPTER III. THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS. THERE is a wonderful fulness and magnificence of sound in the title of the Doge of Venice! It has only been paralleled by that of the Stadtholder of the United Provinces, and excelled by that of the President of the United States. Why is this ? Partly because it is a less generic title than emperor, king, sultan, and so on ; and then it was the gift of the people, not a mere accident of birth. A man was already known for strength of character or for great deeds before he received the Beretta. He had attained an influence over other men in such a degree that they were willing to elevate him above themselves. In the accounts of the achievements and acts of the Doges, it would seem that their power was absolute ; but the truth shows this appearance to be most deceitful. For while the earliest of these dukes were autocratic, the de- mocracy soon feared the effect of such rulers, and gradu- ally the Doge was hedged in until, in one way and another, he who appeared to govern was more governed himself than were many who surrounded him. But when, in 697, Luca Anafesto was elected the first Doge of Venice, and in the church of his own parish was seated in an impromptu chair of state, and invested with a crown of gold and a sceptre of ivory, he thereby acquired vast power. He was not only the head of civil and mili- tary affairs, but of the Church as well, since the purely 26 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. spiritual matters only were controlled by the clergy. His Serenity alone could convoke the church assemblies ; and no deacon, bishop, or patriarch could be chosen or con- firmed in office without his sanction. In fact, he was a Sovereign, for the Tribunes were subor- dinate to the Doge ; and for twenty years Anafesto reigned supreme. But in that time the public vacillated curiously as to how they would be governed. Theoretically they were a democracy, and monarchy was an experiment ; and for centuries a semi-civil war existed in Venice, degener- ating at times into actual anarchy. The name of Doge was given up, and that of Magister (Master) was adopted ; again Doge was in favor, and not infrequently those who bore the dignity of that office were blinded, insulted, exiled, and even murdered. To change the Doge seemed to be the only panacea which occurred to the Venetians in times of difficulty ; and erelong what at the first glance seems an honor came to be, in fact, a serious danger, a position subject to suspicions, jealousies, and conspiracies. Like the stories of the early days of other nations, that of Venice is largely mythical, confusing, and confused ; and not until Giovanni Sagornino (John of Venice, and Deacon John, as he is called) wrote a connected and trustworthy story of his own time, can we clearly trace the course of events. From 976 on through the dogates of the Orseoli and the Michieli, the external history of Venice is told by recount- ing the fightings with Dalmatians and other neighbors, and even with the Normans at Naples, and the story of the earlier crusades ; while its internal history is a strange mixture of plots and counterplots on the one hand, and the endeavors of those who had learned the value of law and order, on the other, to bring about some conditions on which all could rest with confidence. I Ducal Palace. THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 27 The manner of electing the Doge during three centuries was very curious, but after all not unlike the methods of politics almost everywhere. There are always bold, enter- prising men who seem born to be leaders, and others who, through family tradition or great wealth, appropriate to themselves prominent positions. These classes existed in Venice, and they held what we should call caucuses, and decided who suited them best for Doge. Of course there were compromises to be made before these leaders could agree ; but at last a sort of mass-meeting was called in San Marco, and the people were advised as to who they should elect. Naturally, he who was thus easily exalted could be as easily destroyed ; and the inspiriting cries of Provato, Provato (Approved), which arose like thunder-tones to an- nounce the will of the people, must have had an undertone on a purely minor key, in spite of the honor and dignity they conferred. Vitale Michieli II., who came into power in 1117, was the last Doge elected by this dubious form of universal suffrage. The people had grown in experience and intel- ligence, and demanded more real power for themselves. A century had now passed since Venice had begun to replace the mud huts and primitive houses of her found- ers and their descendants with marble palaces ; and the churches and monasteries of the tenth and eleventh cen- turies show full well the riches of the Republic at that period, and foreshadow the abounding magnificence which followed so rapidly. But this wealth was not distributed among the people, as the privileges of salt-gathering and fishing had been among the primeval dwellers on these islands. The fact that San Marco, the Ducal Palace, and the first Public Hospital were all founded by one Doge, Orseolo I., from his private fortune at the close of the tenth century, and even the wills of the Patriarch Fortunato in 825, and 28 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. of other wealthy patricians, prove how riches were massed in certain families ; and these families also absorbed the honors of the Republic. The names of the Orseoli, Michieli, Dandolos, Conta- rinis, Morosinis, Tiepolos, and others occur ad tnjSn&ttm, alternating in the story of the glories and riches of Mediae- val Venice. They were all patricians (Maffgiori), and a, wide chasm now separated them from the lower classes (Mediocri and Minori). The former had sufficient means to stay at home, while the two latter were forced to follow various maritime occupations ; and it soon came about that all the larger ships were owned by Patricians, were fitted out by them, and brought back to them the gold which gave them their power. In short, Venice, calling herself a Republic, was governed by an Oligarchy, by a few families who now owned almost all the soil outside of that in possession of ecclesiastical establishments. One custom which had greatly furthered the establish- ment of the aristocracy was discontinued in 1033 ; this was the association of the son of the Doge with his father in the power and responsibility of the office, which directly tended to making it hereditary. But in spite of reforms, only patricians held the civil, military, naval, or ecclesi- astical offices ; only patricians governed the provinces ; the judicial and episcopal benches were filled by the same class, and to them alone had the Beretta and the Pallium been given. In five centuries, as frequently as the Doges had succeeded each other, but nineteen families had been honored with this office, which had now assumed a power as independent and a magnificence as imposing as those of the rulers of Germany or France. After reading of the power, wealth, and influence of the Venetian Republic in 1172, we are surprised to learn that its population was but sixty-five thousand ; and yet, even with this small number, the Arrengo (General Assem- THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 29 bly), consisting of all male inhabitants, had become a troublesome body, and hitherto no measure was valid that had not been passed by it. The Patricians found themselves between two fires, the Arrengo on the one hand, where the poorest and most ignorant of the Minor! had equal rights with themselves, and on the other hand the Doge, who was elected for life, and whose power was only modified by two Councillors, who might easily be entirely in his control. The assassination of Michieli III. in 1172 afforded an opportunity for changes, and the increasing dissatisfaction of the aristocracy now culminated in a reform of the Con- stitution, which ended in a division of Venice into six wards, from each of which two deputies appointed forty members of a Great Council (Consiglio Grande), which was to be the general legislature, elected annually on Sep- tember 29. The Arrengo was not abolished, but would be convened only on occasions of vast importance, such as a Declaration of War, the Election of a Doge, or the making of a Treaty of Peace. This measure seemed very harmless, as there were no limitations to the rank of a Councillor ; but the Patricians well knew that the Deputies would be of their order, and each of these could appoint four members of his own fam- ily ; and as almost from the first the meetings of the Council were held with closed doors, it soon became anj- thing but a democratic body. Having thus largely extinguished the power of the people, the Patricians proceeded to limit that of the Doge. The Council of Two was replaced by one with six mem- bers, who were to advise his Serenity on all matters, and without their approval no act of his could be legal. These Privy Councillors retained their office through the entire Dogate to which they were elected. From the four hun- dred and eighty members of the Grand Council, sixty 30 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Senators were annually elected to attend to many matters which did not require to be brought before the whole coun- cil, and to overlook the machinery of the government. All this being done, a new Doge was elected in an en- tirely novel manner. Thirty-four of the Grand Council were appointed to choose eleven from their number as an Electoral Conclave ; these eleven were bound by a solemn oath to impartiality, and any candidate who received nine of their votes was declared to be the Doge. On Jan. 11, 1173, the eleven met in San Marco with open doors, and in the presence of a vast conclave elected Orio Malipiero, one of their own number. But he diffi- dently declined the office, and begged permission to nomi- nate Sebastiano Ziani, as better qualified for this exalted station. This nomination was accepted, and from the high altar of San Marco the Procurator announced to the people, using the new formula, " This is your Doge, if it pleases you" (Questo e vostro doge, se vi piacera), and the people responded with shouts and acclamations. That all this was not as spontaneous as it appeared, was soon demonstrated ; for when Ziani was carried around the Piazza in a wooden chair by some workmen from the Arsenal, he distributed liberally to the people money stamped with his own name, which had been expressly prepared for the purpose. This unusual liberality alarmed the jealous Patricians, and at once a law was made that only a newly elected doge should be permitted to distribute largesse, and he not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty ducats. This money was called Oselle, and was specially coined for the purpose. Returning to the cathedral, Ziani was solemnly invested with the crown and sceptre. Thus began his important reign, which lasted but five years and a quarter, and ended in his voluntary abdication. The enormous wealth of THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS- 31 his family was said to have been founded by the good fortune of an ancestor who found in the ruins of Altino a golden cow which had been dedicated to the service of Juno. However it may have been, this tradition gave rise to the saying, " He has the cow of Ziani," when speaking of a wealthy man. By the advice of Ziani, the Bank of Yenice was estab- lished, and was the first institution of its kind in Europe. During his reign Venice bore her part in the siege of Ancona, which so alarmed the Greek Emperor that he, so to speak, bought back his former ally by a treaty which bound him to pay Yenice one thousand and five hundred solid pounds of gold; but his most important political acts were those already recounted in the reconciliation of Alexander III. and Frederick Barbarossa. Ziaui did much for the improvement of the Piazza, and extended it by removing buildings which were falling into ruin. He embellished the whole city by the construction of elegant bridges ; but tradition teaches that his greatest architectural achievement was the taking down of the Church of San Geminiano, in order to enlarge San Marco, which he did at his own cost. Before demolishing the sanctuary, Ziani applied to the Pope for his sanction of the act. The Pope answered that he could not authorize a sacrilege, but he could be very indulgent after it had been committed. The church soon disappeared, and its destruction gave rise to a curious cus- tom. For many succeeding years, on an appointed day, the Doge, attended by a brilliant retinue, repaired to the Piazza, where he was met by the cure* of the parish with his clergy. The cure* asked, " When will your Serenity be pleased to restore my church on its former site ? " " Next year," the Doge annually replied, and broke the promise as often. 32 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. ENRICO DANDOLO. From the abdication of Ziani to the election of Dandolo, in 1193, there were no incidents in the story of Venice that do not fade before the tremendous achievements of the fiery old man, eighty-six years old when elected, who for twelve years labored to exalt Venice and humble the Greeks, and, finally dying at Constantinople, which he had twice conquered, was buried in St. Sophia, far from his beloved San Marco, and the city for which he gave his life. The oath taken by Dandolo at his institution in the Dogate is the first promissione which has been preserved. By it he was bound, by all possible pledges, faithfully to execute the laws of the Republic, to submit his private affairs to the common courts, to write no personal letters to the Pope nor any ruler, and to maintain at his own cost two ships of war. To such lengths had the jealousy of the Patricians already reached that the Done was little more than the figure-head of the Republic. The reign of Dandolo opened with the usual conflicts with the Pisans, Dalmatians, and any other neighbors who were troublesome to the Venetians at that time, none being of unusual importance. But when, in 1195, Inno- cent III. ascended the papal throne, he initiated the preaching of a Crusade destined to result in the glory of Dandolo and Venice, but not in the conquest of the Sara- cens nor the possession of Palestine. Innocent, but thirty-six years old, ambitious and ener- getic, soon brought to his allegiance all the powers of Europe except the Republics of Pisa and Venice. Dandolo, with his bravery and inflexibility of purpose, was a formi- dable opponent, and when at last his concurrence was sought, he was asked to aid the Crusade for gain and not as a subject of the Pope. THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 33 In France the preaching of Foulkes of Neuilly attracted thousands to his standard. Hazlitt says : "The streets of Paris, the banks of the Maine, and the plains of Champagne were deserted. Doctors left their pa- tients ; lovers forsook their mistresses. The usurer crept from his hoard; the thief emerged from his hiding-place. All joined the holy phalanx. The joust and the tourney, the love of ladies, the guerdon of valor, were alike forgotten in the excitement, the tilters taking the vow and assuming the emblem of sanctity ; in a short time the flower of French chiv- alry, from Boulogne to the Pyrenees, was assembled under the banners of Theobald, Count of Champagne, and his cousin Louis, Count of Blois and Chartres." Remembering the terrible disasters that had attended the former Crusades in reaching the Holy Land, these leaders resolved to invite the Venetians to furnish ship- ping to transport soldiers and horses to Palestine. An embassy of six French noblemen was sent to Venice, which city they reached on Feb. 15, 1201. Among them was one gratefully remembered by us for his record of events which tells us much that the Venetian writers quite ignored ; in fact, some of them make no pretence of regarding the whole affair as anything but an opportunity to increase the glory of the Venetians. The French ambassadors did not attempt to ignore the vast power of the Venetians to aid or hinder them in the prosecution of the Crusade. Men and money they had in plenty, but with prayers and tears they entreated Venice to furnish them with ships. Indeed, according to Ville- hardouin, the Crusaders were accomplished in weeping, and shed tears copiously on all occasions of joy, sorrow, or devotion. There were repeated assemblies of the various councils, and after each of these Dandolo required some days for 3 34 THE QUEEN OF TllE ADRIATIC. reflection; but at length it was agreed that the Crusaders should assemble at Venice on the 22d of June in the following year, when they should be provided with trans- ports for thirty-five thousand men and forty-five hundred horses ; it was also promised thas these men and horses should be supplied with provisions for a year, and be taken wheresoever the service of God required. Then, with true Venetian magnificence, the armament was to be in- creased by fifty galleys at the expense of the Republic. For all this the French promised to pay eighty-five thou- sand marks (170,000) in four instalments. These conditions being settled, a grand convocation was called in San Marco, where ten thousand of the peo- ple, after the Mass, were humbly entreated to assent to the wishes of the ambassadors, a harmless deceit of these so-called Republicans. Villehardouin made a moving appeal, watered with tears, and declared that the ambas- sadors would not rise from their knees until they had obtained consent to their wishes. " With this the six ambassadors knelt down, weeping. The Doge and the people then cried out with one voice, ' We grant it, we grant it ! ' And so great was the sound that nothing ever equalled it. The good Doge of Venice, who was most wise and brave, then ascended the pulpit and spoke to the people. ' Signori,' he said, 'you see the honor which God has done you, that the greatest nation on earth has left all other peoples in order to ask your company, that you should share with them this great undertaking, which is the conquest of Jerusalem.' " Let us for a moment picture this scene, one of the most unusual in history. It was a winter afternoon, when the choir and altars alone could have light enough to relieve the gloom of the cathedral, filled by an excited crowd, each man of which felt the responsibility (we know with how little reason) of the "Yes " or "No " he was to speak. THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 35 There was no humility here, such as the foreign nobles were accustomed to ; these sea-faring, weather-beaten men looked on them as equals. Before the high altar, where the silvery hair and ducal robes of Dandolo were glistening in the light, knelt these splendidly attired nobles, weeping and begging for what these poor vassals believed that they could grant or with- hold. We cannot imagine the varied and overpowering emotions that ascended with that shout of "Concediamo," nor the echoes of the great dome that hung so gloomily over all. The treaty, written on parchment, and strengthened with oaths and seals, was despatched to Innocent for his approval, and all Venice began to hum with the unusual preparations for the expedition. The small coins were found insufficient to pay the necessary workmen at the arsenal ; and a new silver coin, stamped with the effigy of Dandolo, was issued for their payment. Besides the many ships to be built, there was armor to be furnished for a host; catapults and battering-rams must be made ready; the Venetian galleys were to be provided with lofty towers to be used in attacking for- tresses on the seashore; while an enormous amount of grain, food, wine, swords, daggers, and battle-axes, thou- sands of bows and tens of thousands of arrows with metal tips, as well as supplies of cordage, oars, sails, anchors, and chains, and many other things, must be made ready to load one hundred and ten large store-ships. And for all this but sixteen months of hand labor ! The vast amount of stores always kept in Venice were insufficient, and men and ships must be spared to go in search of materials. The laborers were divided and sub- divided, and employed both day and night. The whole work went on as if by magic. As soon as a transport or galley was completed, it was launched, and another rose in 36 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. its place ; Venice bustled with labor and bristled with its results, and seemed a vast Babel for noise. At San Niccolo and elsewhere on the Lido, barracks for troops, stables, and storehouses were built, provisions were abundantly supplied ; and the skilful and generous man- ner in which Venice fulfilled her great contract would have made her famous, had this not been eclipsed by greater deeds. As it became known in all Europe that Venice had undertaken the transport of the Crusaders, adventurers began to pour into the city. They came singly and in bands, until early in 1202 fifteen thousand had gathered ; and this number was nearly doubled by June. These strangers added greatly to the gayety of life in Venice; for, bent upon dangerous adventures, they were deter- mined to amuse themselves while they could. They explored the lagoons in the fascinating barchette by day, and by night told stories of love and war, and woke the echoes to the unusual sound of the national airs of many nations and tribes, all more or less martial and inspiriting as heard from one island to another. But alas ! as month followed month and the expedition did not move, when it began to be whispered that the barons could not fulfil their engagements, these harmless amusements changed to drinking and gambling and such other license of behavior as often led to fatal quarrels. The leaders who had come at the appointed time were shocked by the absence of numbers of those who should have brought their share of men and money. There had been great discouragements; young Thibault of Cham- pagne, their chosen leader, had died; and in the long time that had elapsed since the treaty was made, many impatient spirits had embarked from other ports and taken various routes to Palestine. Boniface, Marquis of Monteferrato, was now the leader THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 37 of the Crusade ; and he and the other nobles, after strip- ping themselves of money, jewels, and other valuables, were still unable to pay the last thirty-two thousand marks of their debt. The situation was deplorable ; the crowded bar- racks were full of disease, and many were dying daily, and no one could see any prospect of relief. Even Dandolo was touched by the troubles and the devotion of the barons; and now came his temptation, for it is not probable, as some authors seem to believe, that he could have seen the end from the beginning; but his patriotism, which we must allow to have been a refined sort of selfishness, suggested to him a compromise which was finally made. Dandolo proposed that in consideration of the debt still due, the Crusaders should join with the Venetians in subduing Zara, that ever-turbulent and ever-rebelling city. The larger part of the Crusaders made no objection to this plan ; a smaller number thought it wrong for sol- diers of the cross to turn their arms against Christians, and feared the disapproval of the Pope. No telegraphs nor submarine cables existed; to consult his Holiness would require months, and meantime the debt could be paid by taking Zara, and they might be landed in Pales- tine. The condition of the idle soldiers became more and more alarming; and when the Venetians answered the objections of the Cardinal-legate, Peter of Capua, in abrupt fashion, and he left the Crusaders to their fate, the bargain was soon closed and all arrangements completed. But one thing remained to be settled, the choice of a commander of the fleet ; and this was accomplished on a Sunday, in San Marco. The importance of the occasion drew all the inhabitants, and indeed, all strangers who could find a place, to the Cathedral and the Piazza. Patricians, barons, statesmen, soldiers, and the people, all were there, as well as ladies in rich brocades, with necklaces of pearls and precious stones and priceless jewels in their hair. 38 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. The crimson, scarlet, and purple robes of the statesmen with their diamond or gold buttons, the full armor of the barons and knights, almost as brilliant as jewels, the helmets and shields held by the pages, all served to render it a scene of dazzling brilliancy; while the splendid hang- ings and decorations of San Marco, the costly vessels of gold upon its altars, and the gorgeous vestments of the priests served to impress the strangers with the dignity and wealth of the Republic. The silks ceased to rustle, and the swords and battle- axes to clink, as the acolytes took their places ; and the ser- vice seemed about to begin, when suddenly the Doge arose and majestically ascended the pulpit. He was ninety-five years old, and erect as in youth ; his ruddy face and large blue eyes, which did not show their dimness of sight, spoke not half his age ; the furrows across his brow alone indicated the experiences and the years that he had passed through, and the ducal crown was never worn with more majestic dignity. Every sound was hushed, and in the farthest corner of San Marco could his words be heard : " 'Signori, you are associated with the greatest nation in the world in the most important matter which can be undertaken by men. I am old and weak, and need rest, having many troubles in the body ; but I perceive that none can so well guide and govern you as I who am your lord. If you will consent that I should take the sign of the cross to care for you and direct you, and that my son should, in my stead, regulate the affairs of the city, I will go to live and die with you and the pilgrims.' "When they heard this, they cried with one voice, 'Yes, we pray you, in the name of God, take it and come with us.' "Then the people of the country and the pilgrims were greatly moved and shed many tears, because this heroic man had so many reasons for remaining at home, being old. But he was strong and of a great heart. He then descended from the pulpit, and knelt before the altar weeping; and the cross was sewn upon the front of his great cap, so that all might see it. And the Venetians that day in great numbers took the cross." THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 39 THE CRUSADERS AND DANDOLO AT ZARA. All preliminaries being settled, and Raniero Dandolo made Vice-Doge during his father's absence, the embarka- tion of the army was begun. This furnished one of those spectacles so frequent in mediaeval Venice, and was watched for days by all the city. As yet no restraint had been put upon the luxury of dress and display of wealth which the Venetians loved ; and the guilds of the city, each in its appropriate costume, presented a brilliant and picturesque assembly whenever the pageants of which they were so fond brought them together in large numbers. And where do the conditions afford so beautiful a setting to artistic display as in this wonderful city of the sea ? Where else would silks and velvets, precious stones, and gold and silver work seem so suitable as in this "Queen of the Adriatic," rising from its many-tinted waters sparkling beneath a southern sun? The noble war-horses of the Frenchmen, led unwillingly upon the vessels, were an astonishing spectacle to the Venetians, and would be so still, since recently a single horse at San Lazaro was mentioned as one of the sights of Venice by our landlord! To the French, German, and Flemish Crusaders the Venetian war-ships, huge in size, with deck upon deck and above all great towers, were equally marvellous. So heavy were they that in addition to sails each one required fifty oars with four men to each oar. The finest of these, called " The World, " was venerated by the Venetians ; for not only was it the largest ship afloat, but it had proved invincible in former battles. As the four hundred and eighty vessels were filled, one by one they proceeded down the Grand Canal and anchored off the Castle, until the galleys, transports, and long boats extended for miles on the Venetian waters. The excite- 40 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. ment can scarcely be described. " Bound for Palestine ! To deliver Jerusalem! To exterminate the Infidels!" These cries aroused the people to the greatest enthusiasm, and helped the Venetian women, though not without tears and anguish, to bid God-speed to those they held most dear. A part of the vessels were sent off in advance ; and a week later, on a brilliant October day, the remaining fleet departed. From the masts fluttered the standards of Venice and of all the chief countries of Europe, as well as the rich gonfalons and banners of the nobles; while above every mast arose the sacred cross. The ships were filled to their summits with soldiers, their armor glisten- ing in the sun; while the sides of the principal vessels were hung with the emblazoned shields of the nobles they carried. Early in the morning the Doge and the barons heard Mass in San Marco, and from there, in grand procession, marched to the quay to the music of silver trumpets and cymbals. Barges were waiting to convey them to the ships ; and as they embarked, hundreds of barchette and other small boats filled with ladies and children surrounded them, and followed to witness the departure of the fleet, and wave their final farewells to husbands and fathers, sons and lovers. Each noble had his own ship, and an attendant transport for horses. Dandolo's galley was vermilion-colored, as if he were an imperial potentate, and his pavilion when on shore was of the same royal hue. The signal for sail- ing was given by a hundred trumpets, and in the castles at the crosstrees of the ships the priests and monks chanted the "Veni Creator Spiritus. " As ship after ship left its moorings, as sail after sail swelled before the wind, and the rowers bent to their oars, it seemed as if the whole sea were covered ; and the hearts THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 41 of those who were left behind were comforted by the feel- ing that no power could withstand so goodly and brave a host. The fleet was watched with straining eyes until but a few white specks could be discerned in the dim dis- tance, and the people returned to their beloved Venezia, seeming now like a vast house of mourning upon which the silence of the tomb had fallen. In the Ducal Palace the Marquis of Monteferrato, the commander-in-chief of the army, lay ill, or made a pre- tence of being so. He was attended by the Baron de Montmorency and other nobles, all strict churchmen, of whom it was more than suspected that their delay was caused by fear of the disapproval of the Pope. Two months passed before they joined the Crusade ; and as they moved about the city and sailed on the lagoons, they seemed like the last link between Venice and all that had gone from her. The lovely weather which attended the fleet brought it, in spite of some delays, before the fortress of Zara on Saint Martin's eve (November 10). No stronghold in the domin- ions of Venice could compare with this for strength, and a girdle of lofty watch-towers secured it against surprise. It was garrisoned by Hungarian soldiers under fine disci- pline, and the Zaratines were a brave people. Seventeen years had elapsed since they had expelled the last Vene- tian Podesta from their territory, and they had full faith in their ability to repulse an enemy. But the Zaratines had not counted on such a force as now besieged them, and on the second day offers of sur- render were made to Dandolo, on condition that the lives of the people were spared. The Doge left the emissaries in order to consult with the barons, and returning to his pavilion found the Zaratines gone, and in their stead the Pope's envoy, Abbot Guy of Vaux-Cernay, who advanced with an open letter in his hand, exclaiming, "Sir, I pro- 42 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. hibit you, in the name of the Apostle, from attacking this city ; for it belongs to Christians, and you are a pilgrim ! " Dandolo was furious, and none the less so when he learned that Abbot Guy had persuaded the Zaratines not to surrender to the Venetians. But a council was called, and the barons agreed with the Doge to resume the siege at once. The abbot had led the Zaratines to believe that under no circumstances would their lives be spared, and the second siege was fiercely contested. On the sixth day the city fell, and was given up to pillage. Fierce quarrels ensued between the French and the Venetians over the division of the spoil ; and this uproar was scarcely calmed before an emissary from his Holiness arrived, calling the Crusaders to account for their present occupation and commanding them to retain no booty. The French nobles were greatly disturbed, while the old Doge and his councillors were indifferent to the curses or blessings of the Pontiff, who had directed the barons to hold no intercourse with the Venetians, " except by neces- sity, and then with bitterness of heart. " Innocent expected the Crusaders to proceed at once to Constantinople, and suggested that if the Emperor, to whom he had already writ- ten, did not supply them generously with provisions, they might, "in the name and for the sake of the Redeemer," seize such things as they needed, wherever they could be had. He concluded by commanding them to proceed at once to Palestine, "turning neither to the right nor to the left." This in no wise affected the Venetians. They were excommunicated ; but what of that ? They had demanded their pound of flesh from the Crusaders, which was the taking of Zara, to which the barons had agreed ; and Dandolo, by his addition to the fleet and the army, at his own cost or that of Venice, had left them little cause of complaint of their bargain, since without him they could not even start for Palestine. Whatever future THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 43 causes of dissatisfaction might arise against him, thus far it had been purely a business transaction between the Doge and the barons. Of the present condition Gibbon says : "The conquest of Zara had scattered the seeds of discord and scandal ; the arms of the allies had been stained in their outset with the blood, not of infidels, but of Christians ; the King of Hungary and his new subjects were themselves enlisted under the banner of the cross ; and the scruples of the devout were magnified by the fear or lassitude of the reluctant pilgrims. The Pope had excommunicated the false Crusaders who had pillaged and massacred their brethren, and only the Marquis Boniface and Simon of Montfort escaped these spiritual thunders, the one by his absence from the siege, the other by his final depart- ure from the camp." The soldiers became so turbulent as to give constant anxiety to the barons ; and the Zaratines were happy at the enmities among the invaders, and encouraged by the Pope's care for their interests. The Crusaders sent humble apologies to the Pontiff, so depicting to him the uncontrollable circumstances which had surrounded them, as in a net, that the heart of Inno- cent was touched, and he sent to Monteferrato his blessing and pardon for himself and the Crusaders. But Dandolo told the Nuncio that in the affairs of Venice the Pope could scarcely be interested, since his Holiness had no concern in them, and he neither asked nor desired any communication with the Holy See. Dandolo now displayed his remarkable power as a leader. He proposed to the Crusaders that with the Venetians they should winter at Zara. But they, just when they hoped at once to proceed to Palestine, would hear nothing of such a plan, and insisted on their duty to obey literally the commands of the Pope. But Dandolo reminded them that in Zara they had 44 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. spacious barracks and stables ; that they were going to a hostile land where no provision had been made for them ; that the winter voyage was dangerous, and, in a word, that it would be madness to leave Zara before the spring. There was much angry altercation, but the calm determi- nation of the Doge prevailed. Indeed, without his consent, how could they go ? and the army was ordered into winter quarters. Dandolo, Monteferrato, and the barons were all sumptuously lodged ; and the Doge set about measures to insure the permanency of his conquest of Zara. The barons were dreading the tedium of an inactive winter, when a new excitement was afforded by the appear- ance at Zara of ambassadors from Philip, Emperor of Suabia. There is reason to believe that Dandolo and the Marquis Boniface (of Monteferrato) had already agreed with Philip that these ambassadors should be sent, and that all which follows and depends upon the proposals of the Emperor had been arranged to gratify the selfish ends of the Emperor, the Marquis, and the Doge before they left Venice at all ; and was to be done at the expense of the Crusaders, and in direct opposition to the desire of Innocent and to the interests of the Church. But since the wisest and most erudite of the historians have not discovered the whole truth about this and various other matters of this great crusade, which certainly might with great aptness be called a war of the Venetians against their enemies and for their own aggrandizement, we cannot be expected to do it. The ambassadors brought letters setting forth the mis- fortunes of the young Alexius, brother-in-law of Philip, and legitimate heir to the Greek Empire. His father, Isaac, had been blinded and thrown into prison by his own brother, who now usurped the throne. The young prince had wandered over Europe, seeking aid ; and hear- ing of the great number of Crusaders who had congregated THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 45 at Venice, he had come to entreat them for the restoration of his father. Alexius hastily followed the ambassadors; and Monteferrato, who was his near kinsman, proposed to receive him in accordance with his rank. The troops turned out, the silver trumpets of the Doge sounded a welcome; and leaders, monks, and soldiers alike waited to hear Alexius plead his own cause. He had much to tell of his griefs and sufferings, and after rehearsing these he made such royal promises con- cerning the return he would make for their aid as appealed to the Venetians, the barons, the priests, and to the soldiers and sailors as well. He would pay the four hun- dred thousand pounds which the Greeks had long owed the Republic ; he would go himself, or send ten thousand men to join the Crusade for one year, and during his life maintain five hundred knights for the defence of Jerusa- lem ; he would pay large bounties to the rank and file of the expedition ; and finally, he would renounce the Greek heresy and secure the submission of the Eastern Church to the authority of Rome. This last eased the consciences of those who heard him, and even seemed sufficient to satisfy the demands of Innocent III. Philip had sent to the Crusaders his own stipulations, which accorded with the offers of Alexius, and it remained for the assembled forces to decide for their acceptance or rejection. The barons felt that the conquest of Constan- tinople was a legitimate object for the Crusaders, as she had been an insurmountable hindrance to the subjection of Palestine. Dandolo straightway perceived the enormous advantages that would accrue to Venice if her chief market- place and source of wealth could be ruled by a "Western power, and we must believe that the pleas for humanity and justice found an echo in all hearts. We cannot exaggerate the pitch of excitement to which the debates were now carried. The opposers were those 46 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. who feared the Pope, and were comparatively few. Weary of all these long delays, they wished only to stand at once on the holy soil they sought to conquer in the name of God and of "his Son. Most of these withdrew from the camp, which was far less harmful to the expedition than to have discontents in their midst. At length the Republic of Venice, eight barons of France, and the Counts of Flanders, Blois, and St. Pol confirmed by oaths and seals a treaty of alliance, offen- sive and defensive, which was despatched to Philip for his signature. The advantage to the Venetians seemed all the greater since the Republic had long tried in vain to induce the Greeks to pay their debt ; and it is more than probable that had not the Crusaders sought his aid, Dan- dolo would ha\e endeavored to obtain by the sword what he had failed to get by repeated embassies and urgent solicitations. The winter ended at last; and late in April, 1203, the expedition again set sail. The Zaratines at once revolted in celebration of the event ; but the younger Dandolo had little difficulty in re-subjugating them, after which he made such a treaty as ended the rebellions of this turbu- lent people. The Crusaders made their first landing at Corfu, and awaited the young Alexius, who had gone to Durazzo to receive the allegiance of the governor. The people of Corfu received him as their lawful sovereign, while the Doge and Boniface treated him with the consideration due an emperor. Serious difficulties now arose among the allies. Those who disapproved of going to Constanti- nople organized a parliament by themselves. Twelve powerful chiefs were openly of this party, and others had promised to join them; they were likely to control more than half of the army. The Doge and Boniface, as well as their adherents, were greatly alarmed by this sedition ; THE DOGES: THEIR POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 47 and they, with all the leaders who adhered to the Vene- tians, proceeded to the parliament, taking the young Alexius with them. According to Villehardouin, the opposition leaders were on horseback when the Doge and his friends arrived. They dismounted and went to meet their visitors. The Barons then fell at their feet, weeping copiously, and declared that they would not rise from their knees until the others had promised not to leave the army. Dandolo, Boniface, and all of them wept ; never was there a greater flood of tears, and in the end the malcontents agreed to remain with the army until Michaelmas Day, the leaders of the other party swearing on relics, that after that day, at a fortnight's notice, they would provide a fleet for all who wished to go to Syria. All Europe was watching the expedition with breathless interest; and as we trace its history, after nearly seven centuries have rolled beyond it, it is full of romantic fascination. Twice have I followed its course over the same waters at the same exquisite season, and no words can exaggerate the loveliness of those summer seas. How much more impressive must it have been when bearing an army with banners, who in their delight sang songs of joy and made the air resound with trumpet tones ! "The lovely islands, the tranquil waters, the golden shores, filled those Northmen with enthusiasm, nothing so beautiful, so luxuriant, so wealthy and fair had ever been seen. Where was the coward who would not dare to strike a blow for such a land? " It was a sort of trium- phant procession in advance, for all the islands received Alexius as Corfu had done. At Abydos the harvest was ripe, and the soldiers gladly laid aside their arms to wield the scythe and sickle, replenishing their ships with the new grain. After eight days they were again under way ; and when, on June 24, the fleet passed close to Constan- tinople, all hearts were brave and confident of victory. CHAPTER IY. THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. NINE months had elapsed since the Crusaders left Venice, and no disaster had befallen them. The Adriatic and Ionian Seas were safely passed; threading the Islands of the Archipelago, crossing the ^Egean, and through the Straits of the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmora, even to the quays of the Byzantine capital, had they come, and no voice or hand had been raised to stay them. When a nearer approach revealed to them the beauty, the strength, and the magnitude of the city they hoped to conquer, we may well believe, as Gibbon has said, " that each heart was chilled by the reflection that, since the beginning of the world, such an enterprise had never been undertaken by such a handful of warriors. " Rising from seven hills, the city towered above two continents ; five hundred palaces and splendidly domed churches bristling with spires, were doubled by reflection in the waters, while the ramparts were crowded with warriors and citizens. The Emperor, Alexius the Elder, had known all their movements ; but until the fleet was almost at the border of his garden on the Golden Horn, he would not allow tli.it the Crusaders could come as his enemies. When, after some delay, the fleet was anchored off Scutari, and the army encamped within full view of Constantinople, across the Bosphorus, Alexius was filled with alarm, and sent a messenger to the leaders to demand why they had come THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 49 into his territory, to assure them of his readiness to sup- ply all their wants, and of his unwillingness to injure them, at the same time declaring his power to do so. The astonished Crusaders returned a sufficiently clear answer. They declared the Emperor to be a usurper; that the rightful ruler, the son of Isaac, was with them, and if the crown and empire were at once surrendered to him, the Crusaders would ask the young Emperor to par- don his uncle and give him enough to live upon in luxury. They then assured the messenger that unless he returned with an answer assenting to these proposals, he had better not dare to come at all. The leaders believed that a large party existed in Con- stantinople who would favor the young Alexius, and deemed it expedient to give this party an opportunity to declare themselves. They manned and armed the galleys ; Dandolo, Boniface, and Alexius were on one, and an army of knights and barons on the others. The walls of the city came to the water's edge for a long distance, and the deep water permitted the ships to approach very near them; the ramparts were filled with spectators, as the grand procession crossed the Bosphorus and halted under their very eyes. Some one near to Alexius proclaimed : " Here is your rightful lord. We come not to harm you, but to protect you if you do right. He whom you now obey rules you wrongfully, against the law of God and man. Here is the real heir. If you do not acknowledge him, we will do our worst against you. V This proclama- tion was received with derision, and the people answered : "We know nothing of him. Who is he?" The Crusaders returned to Scutari, and made their plans for attacking the city. So serious a matter as was now in hand overcame all disaffections ; their task seemed hopeless, and every man realized that he must fight for the cause and not for himself. The priests urged the confes- 4 50 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. sion on all, advised the making of wills, and held solemn services, praying to all the saints for protection, and promising generous returns for such assistance. When all was ready for action, the French undertook an assault by land. The knights with their horses embarked on the transports, which could be opened in such a way as to permit the mounted men to ride across the gangways. The foot-soldiers followed on the larger ships. Alexius went with the barons, attended with all the state possi- ble. The crossbowmen and archers were so placed as to clear a landing; the impatient knights leaped into the water while it was still up to the waist, and, lance in hand, reached the shore. The landing was made without oppo- sition, and the army encamped in the Jewish quarter. The Tower or Castle of Galata was taken next morning with little opposition ; by this means the immense chain which closed the harbor, or the entrance to the Golden Horn, was loosened and the Venetians were able to enter with their ships. They surprised the Greek galleys, cap- tured a part of them, and sunk others. Four days were now spent in preparations for the grand attack by sea anti land ; and on the fifth day, which was the 17th of July, the terrible struggle was begun. The French conducted the land attack with vigor, and had the Greeks been their only opponents they would have been easily overcome. But the brave English and Danes, the Varangians, as they were called, although the hired soldiers of the Emperor, drove back the invaders, and bravely defeated the attack. Meantime the Doge placed a fleet in the Golden Horn, in line along the eastern wall of the city, and began his attack in earnest. Wherever the danger was greatest there was the Doge; and his achievements are almost beyond belief, when his great age and weak sight are remembered. Gibbon was not over-fond of the Venetians ; let us quote his tribute to them on this proud day : THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 51 "On the side of the harbor the attack was more successfully conducted by the Venetians ; and that industrious people em- ployed every resource that was known and practised before the invention of gunpowder. A double line, three bowshots in front, was formed by the galleys and ships ; and the swift motion of the former was supported by the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks and poops and turrets were the platforms of military engines that discharged their shot over the heads of the first line. The soldiers who leaped from the galleys on shore immediately planted and ascended their scaling-ladders, while the large ships, advancing more slowly into the intervals and lowering a drawbridge, opened a way through the air from their masts to the rampart. "In the midst of the conflict the Doge's venerable and con- spicuous form stood aloft in complete armor on the prow of his galley. The great standard of St. Mark was displayed before him ; his threats, promises, and exhortations urged the diligence of the rowers ; his vessel was the first that struck ; and Dandolo was the first warrior on shore. The nations admired the mag- nanimity of the blind old man, without reflecting that his age and infirmities diminished the price of life and enhanced the value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand (for the standard-bearer was probably slain), the banner of the Republic was fixed on the rampart, twenty-five towers were rap- idly occupied, and, by the cruel expedient of fire, the Greeks were driven from the adjacent quarter." Fearful for the fate of the French, Dandolo now has- tened to their relief with his troops. The Emperor Alexius had made a sally, but the aspect of his foes terri- fied him more and more. At evening he withdrew his forces, and in the darkness of the night, taking 10, 000 and many rich jewels with him, by the way of the Bosphorus he reached obscurity in Thrace. He deserted his throne and his people, his wife and his children, taking with him his daughter Irene alone. The chief eunuch of the palace, Constantino, prefect of 52 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. the treasury, first discovered this flight, and sagely warned the most noble of the Greeks, that they might arrange for the safety of the throne at once. The old Isaac was re- leased from his dungeon, taken to the palace of Blachernae, dressed in royal apparel, and seated on the throne of which he had been so treacherously deprived. His nobles jostled each other in their haste to protest devotion and loyalty ; and when day dawned, messengers were sent to the allies announcing his peaceful restoration, his impa- tience to see his son, and his desire to reward his " generous deliverers. " These last did not forget their rights in their generosity. They would not release the young Alexius until his promises had been made good, and a number of ambassadors were sent to the palace, among whom was our friend, Villehardouin, the scribe. When the gates were opened, the Varangian guards, bearing their battle-axes, lined the streets ; in the presence- chamber, which sparkled with gold and jewels, the blind old Isaac was enthroned with his wife at his side, while senators, soldiers, and noble matrons filled the room. The ambassadors, without hesitation, clearly stated the recompense promised them by the young Alexius on the fulfilment of their agreement. Isaac could not under- stand their speech, but their tone impressed him with their determination to have their dues. He retired to an inner room with an interpreter, the Empress, and the ambassadors, and there was made to comprehend that he was pledged to submit to the Church of Rome, to aid in the conquest of Palestine, and to pay to the Venetians the two hundred thousand marks so long overdue them. With great prudence he worded his reply : "These conditions are weighty, they are hard to accept and difficult to perform; but no conditions can exceed the measure of your services and deserts." He then affixed the golden seal of the Empire to the treaty; and THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 53 his son, whose voice he longed to hear, was restored to him." On the 1st of August the father and the son were crowned in St. Sophia with grand solemnities. The quarter of Pera was assigned to the French and Venetians, and any regret or fear that existed on either side was concealed by appar- ent content and enjoyment. But it was not possible that all the discordant elements which existed within Constantinople before the arrival of the invaders, and those which they added should live together in harmony. It soon became evident that Alexius was most unpopular; his long residence abroad had tinged his manners with a foreign air, and the familiarity in which he indulged the Frenchmen was most distasteful to the Greeks. Beneath his gay exterior the mind of Alexius was greatly disturbed. He at once paid the allies all the money that he could possibly control; and small as the sum proved to be it was obtained by violating the sanctu- ary, and sequestrating not only the effects of the late Emperor's family, but also those of such individuals as had fallen under the suspicion or dislike of Alexius IV. The allies, as well as Alexius, realized that time must be allowed for future payments, and that the submission of the Greek to the Latin Church could not be made at once. But the alarm of the young Emperor was inexpressible when he reflected that the time agreed upon for the departure of the Crusaders was at hand. The Greeks more than suspected the promises that bound the Emperors to the Latins, and were neither pleased to support their rulers in magnificent luxury nor to pay foreigners for invading their capital. Alexius well knew in what dan- ger the departure of the fleet would leave him, and strove to find a way to detain it. He entreated the allies not to desert him until he could 54 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. establish his power; he represented that his father and he had lost the good-will of the Greeks through their friendship for the Latins, and protested his belief that their departure would be the signal for a revolution which would take away his power to furnish them troops or pay them money. Again the sufferings and dangers of a win- ter campaign in a hostile land were represented ; again he made promises, of payment of his whole debt in the spring, of the immediate organization of ten thousand soldiers and five hundred knights for the service of God, and the supply of all necessary provisions for the allies until the Passover; while to the Doge he promised to keep the fleet afloat until the same time at his own cost. The Patriarch and clergy meanwhile abjured the Greek heresy, which mollified the opposition of the more devout, and finally the time of their departure was deferred to April, 1204. Alexius desired to visit the cities on or near the Bos- phorus in order to establish his authority and receive their submission, and for sixteen hundred gold crowns a portion of the troops was sent with him. The expedition had but a questionable success, and on his return, early in Novem- ber, he found that a party of foreign soldiers, when excited by wine, had attacked a Jewish quarter and burst open a synagogue. Naturally a fierce fight ensued; and some Flemings, in order to cover their retreat, set several houses on fire. A frightful conflagration resulted; for eight days the fire raged, and when at last it was extinguished, a third of the Byzantine capital no longer existed. Several ships in the port had burned to the water's edge; the number of churches and palaces as well as more humble dwelling- houses, the amount of merchandise and other wealth that had been destroyed, was unknown and unknowable. The district burned was the most populous of the city, and the THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 55 hatred of the Latins was so much increased that about fifteen thousand colonists, who had before lived quietly in the midst of the Greeks, now fled to Pera to be under the protection of the allies. The whole condition of affairs was most alarming, both for the Greeks and the Latins, and but a spark was needed to kindle another sort of fire that would destroy thousands of lives as well as the city and its wealth. The conduct of Alexius began plainly to show his double dealing. The Latins and their reminders of his promises were treated with such indifference as excited their rage and alarm. At length they lost all patience, and in Janu- ary, 1204, sent an embassy of three noble Frenchmen and as many Venetians to demand anew from the two Emperors the fulfilment of their contract, and to add that the Doge and the barons had resolved to take by force what was not peacefully given them. This was a dangerous mission; but the six warriors, one of whom was our scribe, with few attendants alighted at the gate of the Blachernae, and on foot, passing between two lines of Varangians, reached the palace. The two Emperors with their families were surrounded by the court ; a brilliant throng of ladies, ministers, and nobles, and an army of attendants filled the hall. Conon de Be*thune delivered the message from the allies in a commanding voice ; and, their duty accomplished, the ambassadors retired at once, and fortunately reached their horses in safety. Their sudden coming and more sudden going caused an unusual excitement in the city; and when the truth was known, the Greeks were in a frenzy of rage that such an insult had been offered them and the perpetrators of it allowed to depart in safety ; with one accord they turned their wrath against those who had permitted the ambas- sadors to escape their vengeance. They cursed the Angeli 56 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. as unfit to reign, and Alexius for having sold his country to the Latins ; they swore that the time had come to choose a loyal sovereign who would lead them to glory and freedom. The mob destroyed the colossal statue of Minerva in the Square of Constantine, because they believed that her right hand, pointing towards the west, had invited the invasion of the French and Venetians ! A bronze figure of a Caledonian boar in the Hippodrome was accredited with power to charm away sedition, and Isaac ordered it brought within the grounds of his palace ! Such were some of the preparations for the threatened attack of the allies. Alexius was enraged, and the blind old Isaac was pros- trated by fear ; the whole city resounded with the din of confusion, and the Greeks resolved on a characteristic revenge, the destruction of the fleet by fire. On a dark winter night a French sentinel was startled by the appear- ance of a broad sheet of flame approaching the Venetian fleet. He gave the alarm instantly, and the alert sailors saw and understood their danger; a line of fire-ships had been lighted and allowed to drift towards the fleet; the sailors hastily rowed towards them, seized them with hooks on long poles, and towed them to the mouth of the harbor, where a current swept them away, the only loss being that of a vessel belonging to the incendiaries. A tiresome succession of proposals, made only to be modified or withdrawn, now ensued ; and the Latins deter- mined to be inactive no longer, but at once to attack Constantinople for the second time. At this juncture a Greek of a certain sort of influence came to the front. His name was Alexius Ducas, but he was called Marzoufle on account of his shaggy eyebrows. He possessed great energy and boundless ambition, and was utterly void of moral perception or principle. As THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 57 grand-chamberlain he had been near the Emperors, and gradually had come to be their chief adviser. He flattered them, and incited the people against them; such faith had both father and son in Marzoufle that when the people, by his connivance, assembled in St. Sophia to elect a new emperor, they refused to believe that this was the object of the gathering. It was with great difficulty that any one could be per- suaded to assume the purple under the present conditions ; but at last, overcome by intimidation, a young noble of high rank and worthy character, Nicholas Canabes, accepted the diadem. He had no fitness for such respon- sibilities as now rested on the. Greek Emperor. In truth, there was no savior of Constantinople at hand. The strongest man was Marzoufle, and in reality he was con- ducting the affairs of the Empire. Hypocritically he worked his way until he gained the ear of the treasurer and could tamper with the Varangians, and then in a single night he consigned Canabes to a dungeon, and ordered the murder of the young Alexius before his eyes, and a few days later superintended his interment with great pomp. The old Isaac survived his son's death but a few days, and Marzoufle seated himself upon the vacant throne without opposition. Immediately after the murder of Alexius, Marzoufle sent an invitation to Dandolo and the barons to sup with the young Emperor, who wished to consult with them. The barons accepted the invitation, and so long as the messenger remained, Dandolo was silent; but as soon as he had departed, the old Doge so forcibly represented the danger of such a step that the acceptance was withdrawn, and, on learning the truth about Alexius, they felt that they owed their lives to the prudence and wisdom of Dandolo. Marzoufle was greatly vexed at his failure to entrap the 58 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. leaders of the allies, but watched carefully for another occasion, which soon presented itself. The Count of Flanders, with a thousand men, went to Phinea, on the Bosphorus, in search of provisions. Marzoufle followed with a large body of troops, intending to meet the French on their return and cut them off when they should be overweighted with booty and weary from their expedition. But this second scheme resulted in favor of the allies ; the Greeks were totally defeated, and Marzoufle himself only saved from being made a prisoner by the fleetness of his horse. Having boldly assumed full power, his next move was to invite the Crusaders to a conference in order to make a plan for the fulfilment of the contract made with Isaac and Alexius IV. The Crusaders were now minded to refuse to consult with an assassin and usurper; but Dan- dolo believed that no opportunity for a possible settlement should be neglected, and offered to go alone to meet Marzoufle. Accordingly, the Doge, in his galley, met the traitor near the Golden Horn. Dandolo stood erect in the prow of his barge, Marzoufle was on horseback, and their salutations were distant and formal. Dandolo, after expressing his horror at the crimes which Marzoufle had committed, assured him of the distrust with which the allies viewed him, and then recounted to him the terms of the treaty to which Isaac had set the seal of the Empire. Marzoufle assented to all the conditions except that of submission to the Latin Church ; sooner than consent to that, he would bury his country, and himself die beneath its ruins. In vain he was reminded that the Greek clergy had already renounced their heresy; he was immovable in this regard, and the two men parted with no result from their conference except that Dandolo could say that he had used his best endeavors to bring about a peace. A THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 59 second attempt was soon after made to fire the ships. It proved useless, like the first; and then Marzoufle saw that his only course was to prepare for open war. And here one can but admire the ability of Marzoufle. lie found the treasury empty, and replenished it by a strict inquiry into the abuses under the Angeli, and the confiscation of the property of those who had amassed wealth unlawfully. The people were unfriendly to the crown ; but by his address, his gayety, and tact he made himself popular. The Greeks were indifferent to the wel- fare of their city, but under his leading they were aroused to patriotism and energy. The walls were repaired, and in some places raised to a great height; lofty stone towers alternating with those of wood were built and filled with soldiers well supplied with the means of defence ; mango- nels for throwing stones and darts were mounted between the towers, and all possible provision made for harassing the invaders and protecting the Greeks. And Marzoufle was everywhere, with an iron mace in his hand, and the bearing of a warrior, ordering the works, encouraging the timid, and striking terror to the hearts of the discontented. The Crusaders were equally industrious in their prepa- rations. The decks of their vessels were piled with enormous stores of missiles and the machines for hurling them, as well as others for belching forth combustible matter freighted with death and destruction. The 9th of April had been fixed for the beginning of the assault, and a council was called and an agreement made concerning the manner in which the booty should be divided, a new ruler chosen, and other similar affairs be settled in case they succeeded in taking the city. An instrument was drawn up, signed, and sealed by Dandolo and the barons at the camp of Galata, and little else remained to be done before the attack should begin. As we regard the posi- tion of the allies, it would seem that madness alone could 60 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. lead them to this assault. Their temerity is appalling. Before them was an apparently impregnable fortress, and four hundred thousand men, who now had a bold leader and were themselves filled with hatred of their foes. The allies numbered less than twenty thousand, and could neither hope for assistance from friends without, nor from treachery within the walls. They could only rely on their bravery and their good fortune. The Greeks depended on their position and their overwhelming numbers. All alike believed that Heaven would favor them, and thus sustained their courage. Gibbon thus graphically describes the siege : "A fearless spectator, whose mind could entertain the ideas of pomp and pleasure, might have admired the long array of two embattled armies, which extended above half a league, the one on the ships and galleys, the other on the walls and towers raised above the ordinary level by several stages of wooden turrets. Their first fury was spent in the discharge of darts, stones, and fire from the engines ; but the water was deep, the French were bold, the Venetians were skilful. They approached the walls ; and a desperate conflict of swords, spears, and battle-axes was fought on the trembling bridges that grappled the floating to the stable batteries. In more than a hundred places the assault was urged and the defence was sustained, till the superiority of ground and numbers finally prevailed, and the Latin trumpets sounded a retreat. " On the ensuing days the attack was renewed with equal vigor and a similar event ; and, in the night, the Doge and the barons held a council, apprehensive only for the public danger. Not a voice pronounced the words of escape or treaty ; and each warrior, according to his temper, embraced the hope of victory or the assurance of a glorious death. By the experience of the former siege the Greeks were instructed, but the Latins were ani- mated ; and the knowledge that Constantinople might be taken was of more avail than the local precautions which that knowl- edge had inspired for its defence. THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 61 " In the third assault two ships were linked together to double their strength ; a strong north wind drove them on the shore ; the bishops of Troyes and Soissons led the van ; and the auspi- cious names of the 'Pilgrim' and the 'Paradise' resounded along the line. The episcopal banners were displayed on the walls ; a hundred marks of silver had been promised to the first adventurers ; and if their reward was intercepted by death, their names have been immortalized by fame. 1 Four towers were scaled ; three gates were burst open ; and the French knights, who might tremble on the waves, felt themselves invincible on horseback on the solid ground. " Shall I relate that the thousands who guarded the emperor's person fled on the approach, and before the lance, of a single warrior ? Their ignominious flight is attested by their coun- tryman Nicetas : an army of phantoms marched with the French hero, and he was magnified to a giant in the eyes of the Greeks. While the fugitives deserted their posts and cast away their arms, the Latins entered the city under the banners of their leaders : the streets and gates opened for their passage ; and either design or accident kindled a third conflagration, which consumed in a few hours the measure of three of the largest cities in France. "In the close of evening the barons checked their troops and fortified their stations ; they were awed by the extent and popu- lousness of the capital, which might yet require the labor of a month, if the churches and palaces were conscious of their internal strength. But in the morning a suppliant procession, with crosses and images, announced the submission of the Greeks, and deprecated the wrath of the conquerors : the usurper escaped through the golden gate; the palaces of Blachernae and Boucoleon were occupied by the Count of Flanders and the Marquis of Montferrat ; and the Empire, which still bore the name of Con- stantine and the title of Roman, was subverted by the arms of the Latin pilgrims." The anxieties and cares of the conquerors were by no means ended by victory. They had overcome the strong- 1 Pietro Alberti and Andre d'Urboise. 62 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. est fortress in existence, and were in possession of a city whose vast size and inconceivable wealth (as yet but half known to them) impressed them with their responsibili- ties, and foreshadowed difficulties which must be met with the greatest prudence. The Greeks were a degenerate and effeminate people, demoralized by bad government and pleasure-seeking. In the language of an old historian, they " cheated time and offended Nature, by rearing flowers in winter, and culling in spring the fruits of autumn." Dandolo and the barons perceived that this people must be protected; and how to do this before the whirlwind of profligacy and avarice which was sure to follow, was a grave question. "The Marquis of Monteferrato was the model of virtue; the Count of Flanders, the mirror of chastity ; " and they, as well as Dandolo, endeavored to avert the terrors of pillage and rapine. A proclamation was issued in their name, commanding that the helpless and innocent should be spared; and the Count of St. Pol hanged one of his knights, who offered abuse to a woman, with his shield and coat-of-arms about his neck, as a warning that the leaders must be obeyed. But avarice was not checked. The imperial treasury and the arsenal were guarded, and the rest of the city was given up to plunder. Under the penalties of perjury, excommunication, and death, the whole body of Crusaders and Venetians were bound to deposit all their plunder, of whatever sort, in three churches selected for the purpose. In spite of all these precautions and the severe punishment of the dis- obedient, Gibbon says that the plunder which was secreted exceeded in value that which was exposed and divided according to the agreement previously made. This may easily have been true of the rare precious gems and small articles of inestimable value which existed in Constanti- nople, but that which was divided far exceeded any anticipations which had been indulged by the leaders. THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 63 Sismondi estimates that the riches of Constantinople before the siege reached twenty-four million pounds ster- ling. The Count of Flanders wrote to the Pope that the wealth of Constantinople exceeded that of all Europe put together; and Villehardouin declared that never in the history of the world had so great riches been collected in a single city. The property divided was valued at one million eight hundred thousand pounds ; and if Gibbon is correct, the whole booty must have reached four million pounds sterling. In the division half was given to the Crusaders, and half to the Venetians; and the latter received fifty thousand silver marks additional, which was due them from the barons. The whole story of the terrible destruction of works of art of bronzes sent to the melting-pot, of marbles and other beautiful statues and ornaments that were ruthlessly broken is heart-rending, but is not strictly a part of the story of Venice, since the ignominy and sacrilege of these deeds belong to other nations as well. Nothing was sacred to the plunderers. Pears tells us "Every insult was offered to the religion of the conquered citizens. Churches and monasteries were the richest store- houses, and were therefore the first buildings to be rifled. Monks and priests were selected for insult. The priest's robes were placed by the Crusaders on their horses. The icons were ruthlessly torn down from the screens or were broken. The sacred buildings were ransacked for relics or their beautiful caskets. The chalices were stripped of their precious stones and converted into drinking-cups. The sacred plate was heaped with ordinary plunder. The altar-cloths and the screens of cloth-of-gold, richly embroidered and bejewelled, were torn down, and either divided among the troops or destroj^ed for the sake of the gold and silver which were woven into them. The altars of Hagia Sophia, which had been the admiration of all men, were broken for the sake of the material of which they were made. Horses and mules were taken into the church in 64 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. order to carry off the loads of sacred vessels, and the gold and silver plates of the throne, the pulpits, and the doors, and the beautiful ornaments of the church. The soldiers made the chief church of Christendom the scene of their profanity. A prostitute was seated in the patriarchal chair, who danced, and sang a ribald song for the amusement of the soldiers. . . . The plunder of the same church in 1453 by Mahomet the Second compares favorably with that made by the Crusaders of 1204." Hazlitt adds to his account of the pillage : "Gems of the choicest water, vases of inestimable value, relics of odorous sanctity, were pilfered from the altars, the reliquaries, or from private dwellings, by rapacious soldiers, who sold them at a paltry price; and although these matchless rarities were recovered, partly by process of exchange and the ignorance of art, no inconsiderable portion was irretrievably lost. Some, however, found a worthy destination. The proud monuments of human genius, sculptures, paintings, frescos, mosaics, and minerals, which the industry and taste of ten generations of men had gradually amassed in that city of cities, were scattered by this great revolution among the palaces and churches, the castles and abbeys, of Western Europe. Many of the Venetian public buildings were decorated with the trophies which fell to the lot of the Republic herself; and Venice ac- counted no treasures more precious than the four antique bronzes, which were afterward known as the 'Horses of St. Mark.' J Many beautiful objects from St. Sophia were also taken to Venice, and placed in San Marco. The high altar with its bronze gates and marble columns was a rich trophy, as well as many sculptures and pictures, vessels of gold and silver, and a great quantity of church furni- ture. The famous picture of the Virgin, believed to have been painted by Saint Luke when inspired by the Holy Ghost, was also obtained by the Venetians, who were accused of having taken the larger share of the spoils and of having concealed many treasures in their vessels. THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 65 It was not until the 9th of May that attention was given to the important matter of the election of a new Emperor. Six Venetians and six Frenchmen or Lombards, according to the agreement made before the siege, met in the chapel of the Boucoleon to deliberate on this momentous and difficult question. The choice lay between Baldwin, whom the French favored, Boniface, who was the choice of the Lombards, and Dandolo, whom the Venetians believed the most worthy and best to have earned the purple. "That old man," said they, "has gained the wisdom and experience of age without losing the vigor and fire of youth ; his sight may be dim ; but his intellect is clear and strong, it is he who took Constantinople." The electors, too, were of this opinion, until one of the Venetians opposed it, and in a long argument showed so many good reasons against the election of Dandolo that the matter rested between Baldwin and Boniface, and at midnight the expectant thousands heard the cry, "Long live the Emperor Baldwin!" Boniface and Dandolo hastened to congratulate the Count of Flanders, and to take their part in raising him on the buckler; according to the ancient custom, he was thus carried from the palace to St. Sophia, and placed on the golden throne of the Emperors, while the barons pressed forward to kiss his hand, and he was solemnly invested with the scarlet buskins. A few days later, he was crowned by the Legate, as no Patriarch then existed in Constantinople. The Venetians, however, soon had the satisfaction of seeing one of their nobles, Thomas Morosiui, on the ecclesiastical throne, while their clergy filled the Chapter of St. Sophia. The French clergy did not regard this with favor, and a lengthy correspondence with Rome ensued. At first Innocent declared the election of Morosini to be entirely null; but in the course of the correspondence 5 66 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. many considerations were presented to his Holiness which moderated his views. He did not love the Venetians, but he feared them, and thought it wiser to be at peace with them than to arouse their stubbornness. Indeed, Venice now had some claim to consideration at the Vati- can. The restorers of the papal supremacy at the Greek capital were a different people from the conquerors of Zara, and after mature reflection Innocent approved of the elevation of Morosini to the Patriarchate of Constan- tinople. One can but feel a certain sympathy with Innocent at the result of the great Crusade for which he had labored and from which he hoped so much. "His long and careful preparations had been defeated by Philip, Boniface, and Dandolo. All the efforts he had made to strike a deadly blow at Islam had come to naught. The prepa- rations made at so much cost had resulted in an attack upon Christians, and not upon Moslems. Constantinople bad been captured instead of Jerusalem. The opportunity, so favorable from many causes, had been lost, and no other presenting equal advantages was ever to occur again. Tbe internal quarrel be- tween tbe Saracen leaders, and the weakening of Egypt by the non-rising of the Nile during a succession of years, were acci- dental circumstances which were never repeated. The supreme moment for striking a blow at the Saracens at a time when it could have been struck with effect had passed. Innocent's en- ergy was too great to allow him to sit idle under the failure, but all his efforts were unable to create an expedition equal in strength to that of 1202." Preparations were now made for the second coronation of Baldwin by the Patriarch on a scale of magnificence which surprised the Crusaders. He was again seated on a shield and raised on the shoulders of the chiefs, and then descending was conducted to St. Sophia by the barons and principal officials. Boniface carried the imperial robe of cloth of gold. The Count of St. Pol THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 67 bore the imperial sword. At St. Sophia a solemn Mass was celebrated, the crown was placed on his head, and the words " He is worthy " pronounced and repeated by the bishops and people. After the new sovereign had com- municated, he received all the imperial insignia, and headed the procession from the church to the Boucoleon, attended by the Varangians. The streets and houses on the way were decorated with all the rich carpets and hangings which had been spared by the three fires and the pillage, and a Frank Emperor was seated on the throne of Con- stantine with the full approbation of the Holy See. Again a grave question, that of the division of the conquered territory, occupied the attention of the Doge and the barons. Twenty -four commissioners, one half of whom were Venetians, were authorized to make the allot- ment. Venice received the Morea, the Illyric Islands, a large portion of Thessaly, the Sporades, the Cyclades, the cities of Adrianople, Trajanople, Didymotichos, and Durazzo, the province of Servia, and the coasts of the Hellespont. But with all this, the Venetians were not con- tent. They desired possession of Candia, which had been given to Boniface. This island would be most advantageous to a maritime and mercantile nation ; but of what use to a prince who had neither ships nor commerce? This reason- ing so commended itself to Boniface that he gladly sold the coveted possession to the Republic for thirty pounds weight of gold, or about ten thousand eight hundred pounds sterling. Various titles were conferred by Baldwin on the com- panions of his labors and honors. Some of these were most fantastic ; and the one suggestion of the weakness of age recorded of Dandolo is that to his dignity of Doge of Venice, Dalmatia, and Croatia, he added the epithet of "Despot and Lord of One Fourth and One Half of the Romanian Empire ; " and as indicating that he was second 68 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. only to Baldwin, he claimed the right to tinge his buskins with the imperial purple ! Thus far all was well ; but Baldwin and his friends knew that much serious work remained to be done. Other con- quests must be made, and a powerful foe vanquished in Theodore Lascaris, the brave son-in-law of Alexius III., who had many adherents throughout the Empire. But before making any offensive movements it was necessary to obtain provisions and secure reinforcements, which had been promised by the Armenians. The summer was spent in foraging and exploring expeditions, and during the winter the Latins made themselves comfortable in their luxurious quarters. Baldwin grew very impatient of the delay of the Arme- nian troops. They were absolutely needful to insure his success in any siege or attack. At last his impatience overcame his prudence ; and in March, a small contingent having arrived, he set out for Adrianople, where in April he was joined by Dandolo and the Venetians, who doubled his numbers. The lofty ramparts of the great city could not be easily taken, nor its numerous garrison hastily overcome. The King of Bulgaria with his troops had come to the aid of Lascaris. Fourteen thousand Comans, who, mounted on their fleet steeds, used their bows and lances with unequalled dexterity, continually skirmished almost within bowshot of the army of the Latins, inspiring even these brave soldiers with doubt and hesitation. At length, however, these taunts pro- duced their effect, and the whole Crusading army were eager to chastise the insolence of these barbarians. Even Dandolo, "the Prudent of the Prudent," was as much in favor of an attack as he was ignorant of its risks ; and it was settled that he, with a few of the barons, should remain in charge of the camp and siege-works with a reserve corps, while Baldwin should lead the attack. THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 69 With the first movement of the Crusaders, the Comans retreated ; and Baldwin, deceived by their tactics, pursued them fully two leagues, when suddenly he perceived that he had been led almost within the lines in which King John had disposed his troops for battle. The Comans then wheeled round and attacked their pursuers with the swiftness of lightning. Just when Baldwin thought him- self on the point of victory, the whole Bulgarian army was upon him, and he must retreat or see his own army cut to pieces. He decided on retreat; and Dandolo and Ville- hardouin were informed by the first stragglers who reached the camp of the total rout of the army, the death of the Count of Blois, and the capture of the Emperor Baldwin. This news fell upon Dandolo like a thunderbolt, and he immediately saw that a retreat to Constantinople must be made at once. The Bulgarians were approaching, and the Latins were too few to meet them. In the night, in spite of many obstacles, the retreat was begun ; after four painful days the old Doge and the remnant of the troops reached the capital, bringing such tidings as overwhelmed the whole city with grief and dread. No news had they of Baldwin's fate; not only the Count of Blois, but the flower of the army of the Crusaders, had been cut off in the retreat; the Bulgarians might soon attack Constanti- nople; the neighboring cities favored Lascaris, and aided the Comans ; and worst of all, they had learned that these bold horsemen had met and destroyed every man of the Armenian army which had been sent to Baldwin. The garrison of the capital was small, provisions were scarce, and it would require months for help to come from Venice, France, or the Vatican. And now came the cruelest blow of all in the death of Dandolo. He died at the Boucoleon on June 14. His disease (dysentery) might have been overcome had his mortification and anxiety been less; he could not survive 70 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. the thought that the great undertaking to which he had devoted all his powers, and which had been so fruitful of great results, should end ingloriously for Venice and for himself. He was interred in St. Sophia with imperial honors; his armor was buried with him, and for nearly two cen- turies and a half his grave was unviolated, and Gentile Bellini had the proud satisfaction of bringing the cuirass, the sword, and the helmet which the great Doge had worn at the taking of Constantinople to Venice, and presenting them to the descendants of the grand old hero. There is an inexpressible sadness in the death of the Doge under such a weight of sorrow and disappointment, and tortured by apprehensions of evil which were never realized. King John did not suspect the weakness of the Latins ; the Comans fled to the north to avoid the sum- mer's heat ; and the Bulgarian monarch turned his back on Constantinople, and attacked the King of Thessalonica. The result of Dandolo's achievements was of vast import and value to his beloved Republic. She acquired world- wide glory and new territory, greater scope for commerce and extended feudal domain; her standard now floated above almost every seaport, large or small, from the Lido to the Golden Horn. "The great power of Venice over the Adriatic, the ^Egean, and especially over the islands mentioned, and over a portion of the Morea, dates from the Latin conquest, a power which was used, on the whole, well and wisely, which introduced or con- tinued fairly good government, and which has left traces in well- constructed roads and fortresses. But, as was natural, the results of the Latin conquest were more markedly visible in Venice her- self than in any of the possessions she obtained. Her marts were filled with merchandise; her ships crowded the great canals and her harbor with the spoils of Asia and the products of the Levant; her architecture reproduced and improved upon that of THE VENETIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 71 Constantinople. The spoils of the New Rome were her proudest ornaments. Her wealth rapidly increased. The magnificence of the New Rome was transferred to Venice, which was during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the most splendid of Christian cities." A fourth of Constantinople was assigned as a residence for the Venetians, where they were permitted to have their own magistrates and laws; throughout the Greek realm the coins, weights, and measures of Venice were recog- nized, and the treaty of 1198 was resumed with its privi- leges to Venetian merchants. The Doge of Venice was to be represented in Constantinople by an officer who should protect the commercial interests of Venice in the East. Marino Zeno, who had been a close friend of Dandolo, was at once elected to this office of Balio, or Podesta* Three Councillors of State, a Treasurer and an Advocate, a Court of Proprio and a Court of Justice of the Peace, and a commandant of the troops of the Republic in Romania were sent out to support Zeno in his lofty and arduous duties. The Venetians cherished the memory of Dandolo. His genius had long added lustre to the Republic, and the news of his death plunged the whole city into sincere mourning. His achievements and the exploits of his army aroused the pride of the Venetians to its highest pitch, and they desired to perpetuate in some stable manner the fame of what is known as the Fourth Crusade. Fortunately the time was propitious to their wishes; the close of the thirteenth century brought a revival of art and literature which, among its many glorious results, numbers the rehearsal of the deeds of Dandolo and his allies by the historians, and the picturing of their immortal achieve- ments upon the walls of the Ducal Palace. CHAPTER V. MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. MEDIAEVAL Venice was a city of imposing spec- tacles. Its church was a national church, and its Patriarch, the heir of Saint Mark, was, from the Venetian point of view, the peer of the heir of Saint Peter. It being a strictly Venetian or State church, the Doge was its head equally with the Patriarch, and indeed in a certain way was more important; for the chief church of Venice was not that of the Patriarch, but the Chapel of the Doge, while the Chapter of San Marco was far more powerful than the Bishop, who was officially its superior. But it pleased the State to make its church prominent in its public ceremonies; and each great event in its his- tory be it the deliverance from the plague or a con- spiracy, or a success in having proved a plague to any foe was commemorated by a religious function. Some of these splendid processions corresponded to those of other Catholic countries and cities, such as those of the Corpus Domini and Palm Sunday; and Gentile Bellini's pictures of religious processions now in the Academy still impress us with the unequalled pomp and magnificence with which the Venetians loved to dazzle themselves and the stran- gers within their gates. The festivals which were peculiar to Venice were important. The procession of the Doge to the smallest and perhaps the oldest church in Venice, San Vio, founded in 917, celebrated the deliverance of the city from the MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 73 conspiracy of Tiepolo in 1310 ; and as it occurred on the 15th of June, that lovely season in Venice, we can but regret its discontinuance. But the deliverance from the plague in 1576 and in 1631 is still celebrated each year. The ravages of the plague in Venice at various times were almost beyond belief. That of 1171 is curiously asso- ciated with the Giustiniani. A hundred or more members of this most noble house were cut off by this scourge, and its very name was in danger of extinction, since the young Niccolo, who now represented the family, was a novice in the convent of San Niccolo, on the Lido. The Doge Michieli, under these circumstances, thought it not wrong to send at once to the Pope, asking that Niccolo Gius- tiniani might be released from his vows, and married to Anna Michieli, the daughter of the Doge. Mrs. Oliphant pictures the interval between the departure of the mes- senger and his return : "The old Giustiniani fathers, in the noble houses which were not as yet the palaces we know, must have waited among their weeping women for the decision from Rome. And it is wonder- ful that no dramatist or modern Italian romancer should have thought of taking for his hero this young monk upon the silent shores of the Lido, amid all the wonderful dramas of light and shade that go on upon the low horizon sweeping round on every side, a true globe of level, long reflections, of breadth and space and solitude, so apt for thought. "Had he known, perhaps, before he thought of dedication to the church, young Anna Michieli, between whose eyes and his, from her windows in the Doge's palace to the green line of the Lido, there was nothing but the dazzle of the sunshine and the ripple of the sea ? Was there a simple romance of this natural kind, waiting to be turned into joyful fulfilment by the Pope's favorable answer ? Or had the novice to give up his dreams of holy seclusion, or those highest, all-engrossing visions of ambi- tion, which were to no man more open than to a bold and able priest ? " 74 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. The Pope could but consent under such circumstances, and the marriage was celebrated immediately. Nine sons and three daughters were born of this union; and many men of illustrious character and some great orators after- ward proceeded from the Casa Giustiniani. But his life in the world, with all its good fortune, did not make Xiccolo forgetful of his early vows nor of the peace of his convent; and when his duty to the State was done, he there re-dedicated himself to God's service, and his wife Anna entered her chosen nunnery, where the holiness of her life caused her to be made a Beata after her death. Four centuries later Venice was again decimated; and the deliverance from the plague of 1576 is celebrated to this day on the third Sunday of July, which is called THE FETE OF THE REDENTORE. For some days previously the city is in commotion. A pontoon bridge is thrown across the Grand Canal ; and the ferrymen, whose earnings are thus lessened, receive three francs a day as compensation. Pilgrims from the neigh- boring islands and from the mainland are constantly arriving, and a motley crowd throngs all Venice. All Sunday morning the Piazza of San Marco is a busy place, for there the priests from every parish of Venice gather, and form the procession that marches hence to the Church of the Redentore. The variously colored stoles of the priests indicate the parishes to which they belong ; and when the procession is seen from a distance, these stripes of color are very curious in effect. As the church has a commanding position on the island of La Giudecca, one may easily have a fine view of the procession on the bridge, and by quickly crossing in a gondola lose little of the pageant in the church, which has no doubt lost much of its original splendor. MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 75 But the great interest of the festa is outside the church. The quays are filled with tents and stalls, decorated gayly with flags, and displaying cheap toys, cakes, ices, and fennel, as well as hot fritelle, and more solid food for those who wish. The children are never weary of these tents, while dancing-halls have been hastily improvised for their elders. And so all day long there is tramping and chattering, a sense of confusion and unrest, which invades even the interiors of the most retired houses ; and one is better off to join in the festivities and fully do his part than to attempt to be quiet. The real festa, however, seems to begin only when the day is ended. As soon as the sun sinks to rest, the whole Giudecca Canal is covered with boats fancifully decorated with boughs, and illuminated with lanterns shaped like lilies, fuschias, and other flowers whose form lends itself to illumination. Much time and skill is lavished on these decorations, as the best device gains a handsome prize. A little later the supper gondolas appear. These are brilliantly lighted with lamps, and so beautifully dressed with green branches and wreaths that they seem like liv- ing bowers. The tables are well filled, and the boats crowded with joyous holiday-seekers, whose laughs and jests, intermingled with the sound of mandolins and songs, are most contagious in their merriment. As soon as it is dark enough, fireworks are set off in many parts of the city, but especially on the Giudecca, and the air is full of rockets and Roman candles. The gayety of the scene can scarcely be exaggerated ; and its whole appear- ance is so characteristic of Venice, and so unlike any other place, that it is quite impossible to draw a true picture of it in words. From the inauguration of the festa of the Redentore, it has been the custom to pass the night on the water; and about two o'clock the boats all move 76 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. towards the Lido, there to salute the rising sun, and many of the people rush into the water to hail the God of Day. Thus ends the midsummer fete, so well worth seeing and so unique. But is not all a Venetian summer full of charm ? To us each day is a lovely festa. A REGATTA. Venice is especially suited to scenic displays upon the water, the winding Grand Canal, cutting the city like a mammoth letter S> opening into the Basin of St. Mark, the Ducal Palace on one side, and San Giorgio on the other, the curve of the Riva degli Schiavoni running into the public gardens, all lend themselves to spectacles with perfect fitness. Of late yars, too, the Town Council has generously encouraged the regatta with money and influence. The course of the race is from the stairs of the public gardens to the Station, and back to the Palazzo Foscari. The prizes are money and flags, red, green, and blue for the first three boats, and a sucking pig and a yellow flag with a pig embroidered on it for the last boat. One would think that after falling behind so much as to surely fail of the first prizes, there would be a contention for the hindmost place. There is no end to the varieties of the Venetian craft, gondolas, sandolos, barche, fiarchette, topos, cavaline, vipere, bissoni, and many more. Before the regatta begins, the Grand Canal is covered with boats of every size. All the palaces are hung with tapestries, rugs, cur- tains, and any stuffs of a gay color, while flags flutter everywhere. Every balcony and window is full of people and heads, while the roofs are black with those who have no more advantageous outlooks. By far the most interesting boats are the bissone and Festival Scene, Bridge of the Rittltti. MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 77 peote, rowed by ten and twelve oars, whose duty it is to keep the race-course clear. These are decorated by the commercial houses of the city, and are symbolical in their designs, the crews being dressed in accordance with the decorations. One may resemble a Chinese junk ; another represents the tropics, bearing palms and gorgeous flow- ers and even tropical birds; another may have a Polar bear on its bows, with its rowers imitating walruses, and sitting on cakes of ice ; one is usually decorated with glass from Murano, which sparkles like precious stones in the sunlight. These have each a special color, blue, gold, pink, silver, green, and, in truth, all the gay colors known; and as, in order to keep the course clear, they must constantly move about, they make a charming effect, and are vastly amusing to those who are waiting and watching for the race. The gondolas of the nobility are frequently gay, with the livery of the four gondoliers they carry. Many of them are dressed in antique style, with puffed hose, long silk stockings, gay doublets, and plumed hats; and other private boats, especially the large bissone, carry gayly dressed parties, while their crews are in liveries of velvet or silk with lace and costly trimmings. Suddenly the boom of a cannon hushes all voices. The race has begun. It is rowed in small, light gondolas, and every eye is fixed on the spot where these boats will first be seen. When they are near enough to tell who leads, there are cheers and shouts of encouragement. The race sweeps by and disappears. The excitement becomes intense, and bets are freely made, comments of all sorts are heard, and until the boats again come in sight, on their return, one might well question if Babel were as noisy as Venice at a regatta. As the victor nears the winning post, the silence is breathless. He saatches his flag; his name is shouted by thousands; the regatta is 78 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. finished ; and already the people are talking of the amuse- ments which are still to be enjoyed. THE SERENADE. Coming after the regatta, the serenade is a fresh delight The anxieties are ended, and everybody can now enjoy the lovely evening, the cool breeze, the glimpses of exquisite palace interiors, of gondolas filled with ladies in festa costumes, and of decorations and illuminations everywhere. Eight o'clock is the hour for beginning; and a large barge decorated with many green and red lamps arranged in pyramids and other more fanciful designs carries the orchestra and the singers. It starts from above the Rialto, and is soon surrounded by numberless gondolas. Each gondolier strives for the best position, and that is thought to be at the bow of the music barge. The whole mass of boats float with the tide ; and as they come to the narrower part of the canal, neither barge nor any gondola can move forward or back. Under the arch of the bridge the scene is like a good- natured pandemonium. The police bid the rowers do this and do that, but they only make a pretence of trying to obey. The police shout, "Avanti, avanti!" the boatmen repeat the cry, but nothing moves. At last the chief official, by means of a trumpet, gives an order to "pump," and at once a fire-engine on the barge throws a stream of water which loosens the block a little, and the barge advances a few feet A very curious effect is produced by the different sorts of lights. The cold, colorless elec- tric, the brilliant hues of the Bengal lights, and the soft glimmering from the stars in the clear blue above, bring out the statuesque figures of the gondoliers and the fronts of the palaces, now like startling ghosts, again like MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 79 blushing youths, and then as impalpable spirit-forms. They appear and disappear as the lights change and as the boats move. The gondoliers are mostly clothed in white, and seem like dream figures, as do the exquisite fa9adcs with their delicate tracery and ornament. The serenade is apparently endless ; for in spite of the pumping, its progress is very slow, and the barge will not reach the Salute until long past midnight. There the lights are put out, and the musicians released. Little attention is given to the music, which seems only to be a nucleus for this most novel and fantastic scene, from which one may easily escape by a side canal, and end the evening with one more spectacle. THE ILLUMINATION. This is the appropriate end of a really grand festival ; and the scene in the Piazza is as beautiful, if not as excit- ing, as the race or the serenade. So brilliant is the light that not a detail of the architecture is lost. Every column, with all its ornament, each cornice, pillar, and curve is outlined by little jets of golden flame, and even of a deeper tint; and all these lights are flickering just enough to dazzle the eye with an effect like a rippling sea of fire. In weird contrast is the fa9ade of San Marco, lighted by electricity. It is pale and unearthly, and its domes seem to be suspended in air. No wonder that the doves fly hither and thither in fright and amazement, and cluster in the darker Piazzetta, where they and we may thank- fully rest our eyes and look out to San Giorgio, now all aflame with many-colored lamps. Again to the Piazza, to note what we may not yet have seen. The two Procuratie and the Piazza walls are like sheets of fire, for the lamps of the square have globes of crimson glass. Surely nowhere else has one seen such 80 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. color, so splendid and fascinating, so blinding and con- fusing, that late though it be we bid our good gondolier make a giro in the quiet canals, which seem to wel- come us as old friends do, and restore the equilibrium which the regatta, the serenade, and the illumination have somewhat disturbed; and in this quiet there come back to us the lines we learned so long ago, writ by another pilgrim in this same Venice, I can repeople with the past, and of The present there is still for eye and thought, And meditation chastened down, enough ; And more, it may be, than I hoped or sought ; And of the happiest moments which were wrought Within the web of my existence, some From thee, fair Venice ! have their colors caught. LORD BTHON. THE MADONNA DELL A SALUTE. The plague of 1630 was the seventieth, and the last great plague of Venice. Eighty-two thousand victims had died in the city and the neighboring islands, and six- teen months of horror and suffering had passed since its outbreak. Not a sound of joy was heard in all the extent of Venice when special public prayers were made, and the Senate vowed to the Holy Virgin " Mary, the Mother of Health " that a church should be built in her honor if she would but stay the plague. And lo! suddenly, in November, 1631, the scourge was stayed. Fifty-five years before, the votive church of the Reden- tore had been built in gratitude to a similar answer to their prayers; and now the people were determined to erect a still more splendid church, upon a piece of land on the point of the Dogana, which the Knights Templars had given to the Republic. But it would take a long time to build a church, and the people were in haste to put all their sadness behind them, and to have one festal Church of Santa Maria delta Salute. MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 81 day without delay. Accordingly, the 28th of November- was appointed, and a wooden structure erected hastily, in which to celebrate the jubilee. The procession left the high altar of San Marco; and when it reached the centre of the Piazza, the health officers announced that the plague was stayed by the Virgin. This announcement was welcomed by salvos of artillery, peals of bells, and blare of trumpets. The pro- cession then moved on, and crossing the Grand Canal by a pontoon bridge, it reached the wooden church. A writer of that period tells us that the day was most propitious. Not a cloud obscured the deep blue sky, and the air was as mild as that of spring. Nothing was omit- ted that could add to the splendor of the procession. The gorgeous robes of the priests, the candlesticks of gold and silver, the flags of all the noble guilds and companies, the elder nobles with long white tapers in their hands, and the younger in all the bravery of doublets and hose, fur- nished a spectacle not easily excelled; and in every year of the two hundred and sixty-two that have since passed, this jubilee has been repeated with all possible splendor. On the April following the first stone was laid in the new church, which rests on 1,200,000 piles. And there, at the entrance of the canal it stands, with its buttresses and statues and cupolas, in a word, with all its archi- tectural audacity, declaring the grateful veneration of the Venetians for "Mary, the Mother of Health;" and on this festa every Venetian, be he devout or not, feels it a duty to visit her church. From the early morning the noise of the gathering crowds is heard. All around the church are stalls with hot coffee, fish, and other food for sale, and above all gal- lani, a delicacy which belongs especially to this jubilee, of which the Venetians are very fond. It consists of little cups of pastry filled with a preparation of lard, white of 82 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. eggs, and flour whipped to a froth. It must be an acquired taste to be enjoyed by any but a true Venetian. Other little booths are filled with " portraits " and statuettes of the Madonna and the saints; and there is a lively fair all about the church before the hour for the great function. This begins at half-past ten. The procession is formed, and moves to the church in the same manner as that of the Redentore. Within the church the people light the candles they have brought, one taking the fire from another; and these lighted candles, in all sizes, from the largest that are on sale down to mere tapers, are handed to the priests within the altar-rails, and are placed near the statue of the Madonna, triumphing over a symbolic figure of the plague. Thousands of candles are thus massed, until the space around the altar is a sheet of flame. Those who add to the candles a small sum of money receive a picture of the Madonna, which they kiss devoutly, and then conceal in some hiding-place about their dress. Then the solemn services begin, one Mass succeeding another, until the vespers and benediction close the day at five o'clock. Meantime the women sit and gaze at the men constantly moving under the great cupola, wherever they can thread the crowd. They are all clean, well shaven, and dressed in their best. The gondoliers, with blue sashes, present " a symphony in shirts ; " for in this use of flannel they are able to show their love for color, and most of them are artists enough to know the tint that is most becoming. The season of the year forbids the open-air festivities which accompany other fetes; but the wine-shops and restaurants make a rich harvest through the evening and far into the night, and jests and songs are heard in all the streets. In truth, the hour when one may really sleep becomes a doubtful question; for it happens many MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 83 times that just when one is comfortably dreaming^ per- haps for the twentieth time, he hears in musical tones, sometimes singly and again in trios or quartettes, " Viva Italia! Vi vail Re!" FETES OF THE PEOPLE. But perhaps the most interesting of all the Venetian feste, and certainly the most characteristic, are those dis- tinctly of the people, and confined to the contrada, or quarter, in which the event occurs. A quarter is often thrown into the greatest excitement by a challenge to a rowing-match. The qualities of the champions are hotly discussed, bets are made, and the spirit of rivalry recalls that of the ancient Nicolotti and Castellani. Indeed, these very terms are still used on such occasions, though one is puzzled to know in what way one of these poor boatmen can represent the aristocratic Nicolotti of Hera- clea. However, since these wear a black cap and sash, and the Castellani wear red, the names and their colors still serve a good purpose. The street-fights between these parties, the Forze d'Ercole, and other trials of their strength and skill are all things of the past; and it is only on the occasion of a regatta of the people that the question is asked, "Who will win, Castello or San Niccolo ? " The day before these races the two boats are carefully cleaned, everything being scraped off the bottoms. They are then weighed at the Custom House, and tied to the posts of a ferry, where they remain, under the guard of a friend of each of the contestants, during the night. The race is rowed early in the morning; and only those who may most decidedly be called il popolo show any knowledge or interest concerning it. They gather in all sorts of crafts close by the gardens and by San Giorgio. At half- 84 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. past seven the report of a gun is heard, and in a few minutes the race sweeps past. The red caps are lead- ing ; and those in the boats who favor that color are pro- portionately gay, while the black caps are silent and downcast. All the boats that have been waiting follow the race for a certain distance; but its speed is too great for them, and near the end of the Giudecca they await the return. The course is usually about twelve miles; and after an hour and a quarter, or perhaps a little less, two white specks are seen far away across the water. These specks grow larger and clearer, and the greatest impatience possesses the watchers until they can discover which color leads. The boats stream out in two lines to meet the racers, who are taking different courses, and are so far apart that no one can yet decide as to the end. But when the first boat reaches the fa$ade of San Giorgio, it is still the red cap that holds the lead. " Bravo, bravo ! " is heard from all sides in joyous shouts ; but the boats vanish like those in a dissolving view. They have given all the time they can afford, and each must now go to his duty, except a few of the more active spirits, who haste to greet the victor, and arrange a supper in his honor. This feast usually takes place within the week, and is a gay affair, for after the supper there is dancing, and all are in the best of spirits. The hall in which the tables are laid is always decorated with the portraits of victori- ous boatmen, and flags and banners won in other races. The ancient custom of having a portrait made of the winner still survives, and it is a matter of great pride to collect these each time a new victory is gained for the red caps or the black. The supper requires a long time; for three quarters of an hour is allowed to pass in smoking, talking, and sing- ing between the courses. Wine is there in plenty ; for if MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 85 only men are at the supper, it is brought in a forty-litre tub, suspended on poles from the shoulders of two men, and welcomed with huzzas. The room grows warm, and jackets are thrown off, as the merriment increases, expos- ing the brilliant flannel shirts and sashes, until at last the final course of the orthodox boatmen's supper has been eaten, for the menu is as unalterable as the courses of the stars. And now the tables must be cleared and the dancing begin. And such dancing ! Their waltz is slow and long, and they love it to madness. They abandon themselves to its rhythmic movement with delight, and often sing as they dance, as if every possible expression must be given to their perfect happiness. One cannot foretell the hour when it will end. Not so long as the musicians will play, for when was a dancing gondolier known to be weary? And when the Marcia reale or Garibaldi's Hymn is played, with what impetuosity do the dancers respond I THE SACRA, OR PARISH FETE. Each parish in Venice has its patron saint, and on that saint's day the whole parish is devoted to its celebration. Early in the morning a procession visits every shrine within the borders of the parish to burn incense before it. First in the procession are those who carry the crosses, banners, and candelabra, all the portable belongings of the Church, made as fresh as possible for the sagra, and a Madonna, usually seated in a somewhat shaky chair. These bearers wear a sort of priestly vestment over their work-day clothes; and these are carefully arranged in groups of different colors, first blue, then red, and lastly white. It is most interesting to see the faces of these bronzed, weather-beaten men, more accustomed to rowing than to walking. They stagger beneath their burdens 86 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. from side to side of the narrow calle; but they smile as they meet the gaze of neighbors and friends, who watch from the windows and doorways the progress of their carissima Madonna. Behind the bearers comes the sacristan, a person of importance, clothed in scarlet, walking backward, and ringing a bell. He is the marshal of the procession ; and every boy is sober and properly behaved when within sight of this important official. Following him the music comes, usually a clarinet, fife, trombone, and drum, playing the most cheerful themes, and followed by three little acolytes, who swing their censers with such a will as to send up perfect clouds of incense. The parish priest comes next, and is usually an old and venerable man. He is dressed in rich robes and laces, and attended by men bearing a canopy over his head. He carries the Host reverently in his hands, and is followed by all the lesser clergy and officials of the parish. Then the pious men and women, the first in black clothes and bareheaded, and the last in long black veils, make a large part of the procession ; and here a most curious economical custom is observed. Each of these parishioners carries a lighted taper, and to avoid its dripping, holds it sideways across the breast; and beside each one of these walks some one with a paper bag in which to catch the drippings of the wax. And so the procession winds in and out of every possible place in all the parish. It is often forced to halt by some obstacle in the narrow way; and those below are nodding and smiling to those above, for every window and balcony is filled. The procession stops at the last bridge in the parish, which has been covered with gayly colored mats. The music ceases ; the priest alone, under his canopy, climbs to the highest point on the arch of the bridge, and raises the Host in air. Every voice is hushed, every head uncovered, and every knee bent. The only MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 87 sound is of the water gliding on and on to the sea. All is enclosed by high walls; but if one throws the head quite back, a strip of lovely placid blue symbolizes the peace which these humble worshippers are hoping to gain at last. Suddenly the music plays its gayest waltz, the proces- sion returns to the church with the consciousness of duty done, and the rest of the day is devoted to festivity, and in the evening the principal open space of the contrada is illuminated with a few extra lamps and some Bengal lights. Before almost every window hangs a picture of the saint whose day it is, and these are lighted by little oil-lamps. Here, too, as in the greater festivals, are stalls for selling fruit and pasties, or hot boiled chestnuts and fritelle ; and much wit is expended in buying and selling these wares. Somewhere in the quarter there is dancing, too, usually in the middle of the square; and when the spectator is fortunate in his position, the whole scene is a delightful repetition of the fairs and feste of the people so often seen upon the theatre or operatic stage, but far more beautiful and fascinating if the night be a moonlit one of early summer. These parish festivals are managed entirely by the people, and are more or less impressive according to the collections that the capo, or manager, is able to make. On this depend the amount of the illumination and the bril- liancy of the fireworks at the end; and no triumphant general ever had more pride in his victory than has this capo, when at the close of the festa he is applauded, and bids the band play the finale, which is, of course, the ever-present "Viva Italia! viva il Re." It is only with plenty of time, and that at the right season, that one can really come to know the Venice of to-day, and nothing so plainly shows the spirit of a people 88 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. as to see them at their play ; and when, as in the case of these contrada feste, these working classes are quite by themselves, it is a tribute to their government and to their own natures to find them light-hearted and merry, easily amused, and contented in the quiet round of their every-day life. GOOD FRIDAY. This fast to the rest of the Christian world in Venice assumes the air of a feast. The people are all in holiday attire, and the children in crowds are romping and roll- ing, shaking their rattles to scare away Judas, turning somersaults and frolicking generally. And this day, more than any festival, affords delight to children, who have a custom of fitting up a Holy Sepulchre (Santo Sepolcro), and appealing for coppers to all passers-by. They take the idea, naturally enough, from the Holy Sepulchres they see in all the churches ; but the surpris- ing thing is the readiness with which they improvise the Santo Sepolcro out of nothing, and then the ease with which they obtain the little coins. A small box, a bit of green, some candle-ends, and all is done ; and if the child be sweet- voiced and winning, her Good Friday success is assured. But at evening, in the most populous quarters, and those least invaded by strangers, the most unusual Good Friday custom is seen. The people of the quarter con- duct a unique service of song, quite independent of the Church and at their own cost. They agree to sing the Passion of Our Lord, for which they use a chant with twenty -four verses. The necessary means are furnished by subscriptions of money, oil, wine, or anything that may be used in the celebration. At one end of the calle a shrine is erected representing a temple, each part of which pillars, pediment, and so MODERN PROCESSIONS AND FESTIVALS. 89 on is outlined by small lamps ; while in the centre of the shrine there is a gas-jet with its paler light. A crowd gathers before the little temple waiting for the music to begin, while every window within hearing distance is open and filled with listeners, who meantime gossip with the people in the street. Somewhere in the calle there is sure to be a Madonna and Infant Jesus, who have on this day been carefully cleaned and trimmed with wreaths of flowers, long sprays of graceful vines, and bits of ribbon. When the leader of the singers begins the chant, all other sounds are hushed. Even the children know that they must now be quiet. The key-note being thus given, other voices join in ; and each verse requires about three minutes for its rendering, and between the verses there is a pause of five or six minutes, when the chatter of the men and women and the pranks of the children are resumed, until again cut short by the voice of the leader. This is repeated until the twenty-four verses of sombre chant are sung in a manner much resembling ordinary psalm-sing- ing elsewhere. The music over, the evening ends, as do all Venetian celebrations, with a supper at the nearest wine-shop. This singular observance of a day so sadly solemn else- where makes a curious impression at first on strangers who witness it, and is perhaps the most characteristic of all the public customs that one can observe in Venice. CHAPTER VI. GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OP TEN. ANEW era was inaugurated in Venice by the fall of Constantinople. Prosperous and powerful as the Republic had previously been, it now sprang, as if by magic, into a position of which her most ambitious and far-seeing statesmen could not have dreamed. A little more than a quarter of a century had elapsed since the visit of Pope Alexander, at which time sixty- five thousand was the highest estimate that could be made of her population; now, at the end of the Fourth Crusade, her nominal sovereignty embraced millions of souls, and the actual numbers within the borders of the Republic itself had vastly increased. The new territory and the various rights and privileges which she had acquired in the Lower Empire had largely increased her commerce and the sources of her wealth, and she hastened to make all these advantages permanent by a liberal and wise sys- tem of colonization. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the Venetian nobility was the most powerful and opulent class in the world, as well as the most polished and enlightened, and were everywhere held in the highest consideration as men, soldiers, and diplomats. In the history of the Republic one fact stands forth prominently, the devotion of Vene- tians to Venice, devotion to the Republic, and to her elevation to the highest ideal of which they could conceive. To this end her sons directed all their powers, and were willing to sink their personality in her aggrandizement. GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 91 Not in a spirit of humility, for never a prouder race existed; but it was the pride of patriotism which moved them, pride if by any act they could add to the stature of the Republic. Not in any spirit of sacrifice, for they felt it no hardship to spend and be spent if only the name of Venice could thereby be made more resonant wherever it was spoken. Venetians were united in one aim, that Venice should be the most beautiful and most powerful of cities. And so it happens that in the voluminous records of her history and life, while they give a vivid realization of the thought, energy, and power which thou- sands of her sons must have possessed and must have dedicated to her glory ; while as one reads he may almost hear the hum of her busy life and feel the throbbing of her pulses, little prominence is given to individuals. It is not of men nor of family that we read ; it is of Venice, first, last, and always. Often as the names of Contarini, Michieli, Ziani, Dan- dolo, and Tiepolo appear, no one family ever held absolute power, or was independent of the others. Was this the result of their jealousy of one another? Perhaps; and it answered a great end. Never was Venice at the mercy of a race like the Medici or Visconti ; and when the great ambi- tion of her sons was turned from personal exaltation and centred in the good of the State, it became an overmastering passion, and could but produce glorious results. Ten times it happened that the Republic was on the verge of ruin ; and as many times did its leaders in Council, Senate, and College, together with the Doge, stake all they possessed for the preservation of Venice, and always with success. The wisdom of its laws conduced to bring about this state of things ; for every boy of the noble class knew that at twenty years of age he must appear before the proper magistrate and claim admission to the Great Council, he being the legitimate son of one whose name was in the 92 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Libro d' Oro. From that day, if he had ability, he must be a servant of Venice. He could follow no personal tastes in studies or pursuits. A refusal to accept appoint- ments was subject to so heavy a fine as to occur but rarely. At the age of twenty-five, the beginning of manhood, he must enter the Great Council, serve on laborious commit- tees, go thence to the Senate, and be elected or appointed to one position after another that demanded all his power of service. Sometimes he must fill several offices at once, and to the last day of life he can give himself no repose if the State finds his service valuable. No matter how old he is, nor how feeble, if Venice chooses him for her Doge, he must assume the beretta, the mantle of gold and ermine, and bear them as well as he can until the end of life brings his release. Thus, by the middle of the thirteenth century the Vene- tians were held in the highest consideration throughout the civilized world, and still their reputation was increas- ing. The voice of Venice was powerful in every cabinet ; her flag was respected on every sea ; and, in fact, from the Great Council of Venice magistrates were chosen to rule in other parts of Italy where the native governing class was violent in its jealousies. To Milan, Bologna, Padua, and other important cities had these Venetians been called, and wherever they ruled the influence of Venice was potent. The intimate knowledge of the affairs of other provinces and cities which these Venetian governors gained was shared with the home government, and many advantages accrued from it. The thirteenth century was an intermediate period, so to speak; for it followed the tremendous efforts with which the twelfth century closed and preceded the period when Venice reached its greatest glory and prosperity. It was largely spent in adjusting the Republic to the new conditions consequent upon its greatly enlarged territory, GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 93 and in changes of matters of internal policy. There were struggles in its colonies, struggles with Genoa and with the Papal See, as well as insurrections and serious party differences at home. A large anti-patrician party had arisen, and an effort was made to return to the old method of electing the Doge by acclamation. So bitter were the troubles with Rome that the Republic was laid under an interdict, and all the offices of religion strictly forbidden ; and had not Martin IV. died suddenly in 1286, Venice must have suffered unspeakably from his severity. But the advent of a new Pope gave an opportunity for a reconciliation, and it is believed that the principal condition of the peace made with Rome in 1289 was the establishment of the Inqui- sition in Venice. This was the last act approved by Giovanni Dandolo. Prior to this date there had been trials of heretics from time to time, but no permanent institution had existed. Indeed, the Republic had stood out against the wishes and commands of ten Pontiffs, and even now such restrictions were placed upon the Holy Office as disarmed it of much of its power and danger. Two months later, in November, 1289, Giovanni Dandolo died, and the time and occasion had come when the Democracy had determined to assert themselves. They congregated in large numbers in the Piazza of San Marco, and declared Giacomo Tiepolo to be elected Doge by acclamation. Two centuries before, this sort of revolu- tion had been successful, but a different order of things now existed. Tiepolo was a sincere democrat; he was a wise and good man, one of those whose love of Venice far exceeded his love of self. He knew that his party could not suc- ceed, and that such an attempt to overcome established customs could only end in the gravest consequences; accordingly he hastened to withdraw from the contest, and 94 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. retired to Villa Marocco to await the result of the election. His party, thus abandoned, seemed to disappear from the stage; but the tumult had proved to those in power that still firmer ground must be taken to secure the ascendancy of the aristocracy. To further this end, Pietro Gradenigo (contemptuously called Perazzo) was elected Doge in the usual manner. Gradenigo was not a popular man, as the corruption of his name shows, for Perazzo was not a complimentary title, and he was known as a firm supporter of the patri- cian party. Many remonstrances against his election were made by the opposition ; but the democrats were not organized, they had no reliable leaders nor any settled plan, and the firm determination of the aristocrats carried things with a high hand. The deputy who was sent to announce the election of Gradenigo to the National Assembly pronounced the formula, "Pietro Gradenigo is your Doge, if it please you, " and at once withdrew. As no dissent was heard by this deputy, the election was considered legal. Gradenigo was at Capo d' Istria ; and a squadron of honor, carrying twelve noblemen as his escort, was sent to announce his election and invite his return. And now commenced a reign which continued twenty- two years (1289-1311), during which time the most important changes were made in the government of Venice ; serious wars were undertaken, and great disasters encountered; the Republic was placed under the ban of the Church; grave revolutions occurred. Indeed, these years seem not to have had a day that was not heavy with important results ; and yet, as we now review them after the lapse of centuries, we know that the effect of wars, insurrections, interdict, and plague combined, did not compare in importance with two great political changes which were brought about under Gradenigo's leadership, - GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 95 the closing of the Great Council (Serrota del Consiglio Maggiore), and the establishment of the Council of Ten. Daniel Barbaro sums up the character of Gradenigo thus : "He was a person of infinite astuteness and sagacity. For the vigor of his understanding and the soundness of his judg- ment he was not more remarkable than for his constancy of pur- pose and firmness of will. In the prosecution of his formed designs his energy and resolution were indomitable. As an orator, his delivery was fluent, his language copious, and his manner persuasive. Toward his friends and partisans, no one was more urbane in deportment, more profuse in kindness, more apparently studious to please. Toward those who had provoked his enmity, no one could be more unforgiving and implacable. In politics he was a dexterous tactician and an habitual dissem- bler ; and he at all times evinced a backwardness to employ force, until intrigue and artifice were exhausted." There is little doubt that Gradenigo was pledged to fully carry out the policy of the aristocrats. By a certain management they had been essentially in power for a long time, but occasionally they were made to realize the dis- satisfaction of the people and their claim to authority. The time was favorable for the politicians to perfect and initiate their schemes, almost unnoticed by the people, who were fully occupied with the Genoese war, which gave them much anxiety and distracted their thoughts from what was being quietly done in their very midst. The intent of the closing of the Great Council was to exclude from election all save the aristocrats ; it is thus explained by Romanin : "The citizens were divided into three classes: first, those who neither in their own persons nor through their ancestors had ever formed part of the Great Council ; second, those whose progenitors had been members of it ; third, those who were themselves members of the Council, both they and their fathers. 96 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. The first were called new men, and were never admitted save by special grace ; the second class were included from time to time; finally, the third were elected by full right." This measure was not perfected without much diplo- macy extending over many years, indeed, it may be said to have been initiated in 1172, and when it was finally accomplished Venice was ruled by an oligarchy beyond dispute, and for all time. It was confirmed in the statute- book when all Venice was occupied with the fitting out of the great fleet to be commanded by the A dmiral Andrea Dandolo. The Genoese war had thus far been uncertain in its results, the advantage being sometimes on one side, and again on the other, until the Venetians were thor- oughly aroused, and willing to contribute money and men, and to do everything possible to put an end to this vexa- tious conflict. Dandolo's fleet numbered ninety -five vessels, and carried more than thirty thousand fighting men. One man-of-war was fitted out and commanded by Marco Polo, lately returned from travels in Tartary and other countries then rarely visited. So rich was he that he was called " Messer Marco Milioni ; " and but for his engaging in this war our knowledge of him to-day might have been confined to this title. The fleet sailed from Venice early in September, 1298, and proceeded down the Adriatic to the island of Curzola, where Dandolo learned that Lampa Doria, with the Genoese fleet, was approaching. He had but seventy- eight ships, many of them being much larger and heavier than those of the Venetians. Doria had hoped to reach Venice before Dandolo sailed, and was much chagrined to find the enemy's squadron stretched across the gulf in three lines, completely barring his passage. Doria was so impressed by the superiority of the Vene- tians, and so well knew their indomitable spirit, that he GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 97 at once gave up the thought of a battle, and sent to Dandolo to arrange terms of submission, offering to give up all his stores. Dandolo answered that the only terms he would accept were those of the unconditional surrender of the Genoese. This acted like a tonic on the courage of Doria and his men, and they determined to fight. Ten Genoese galleys were placed in concealment behind the island, and the remaining sixty- eight were disposed in line of battle. Dandolo, finding that he was so placed that his men must fight with both the sun and wind in their faces, began to doubt the wisdom of his haughty and insolent reply, and decided to consult the civil councillors who had been sent from Venice as his advisers. Dandolo did not hesitate from fear, but from common prudence, which recognized the disadvantages he must encounter. But the civilians in their ignorance and arrogance urged him to fight, and he at once proceeded to do all in his power to overcome his unfortunate position. The action took place on Sunday, September 8; and in the very beginning the Venetians crashed down on the Genoese, and ten of their vessels were sunk with every soul on board. The sea was strewn with the de'bris of these ships, and for some hours it seemed that victory still, as ever, attended the Venetians. As the ships met, the Venetians did not hesitate to board those of the enemy, who, knowing their fate if captured by the men of the Republic, fought like wild beasts in despair. Wounded men were hurled into the sea ; many were crushed between the ships ; the vessels of the two admirals were in conflict for hours, and the Venetians had almost won the day, when suddenly the wind changed, and several Venetian galleys were driven on the coast and completely wrecked. Now all was changed ; vainly did Dandolo exert every power to encourage his men and restore order; vainly did Quirini, Marco Polo, and other brave men expose their 7 98 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. lives with patriotic devotion; vainly did the men of Zara and Chioggia perform feats of valor ; twelve captains were seized with such fear that they took to flight, and thus led to irretrievable defeat. Doria quickly perceived his advantage, and his order to advance flew all along his line like lightning. A strug- gle followed which in desperation and loss of life has rarely been equalled, never surpassed. The conflict seemed still so equal that neither side could feel the confidence of success, when suddenly the Genoese, by a skilful move- ment, forced the Venetian centre, their reserve came up, and the rout of the Venetians was complete. The only vessels saved were the twelve which ran away; eighty-three were foundered in action or fell into the hands of the enemy, who dismantled and burned nearly all of them. Five thousand Venetians were prisoners to the Genoese ; the number killed was not known; Dandolo and Marco Polo, who had shown the most impetuous daring and bravery, were taken alive, and all the misgivings with which the brave admiral had opened the battle were more than justified. "The spectacle which presents itself at Curzola on that ter- rible 8th of September, after the action, can be pictured more easily than described. In the evening the followers of Doria are seen in a dreamy and trance-like posture, holding with tremulous hands the palm which they have so dearly won, and thinking of the reply which they must give when, on their return, mothers ask for their children, and children for their fathers, who have lost their liberty or their lives on that too eventful day. Curzola hears no shouts of victory, no songs of triumph ; several thousand Genoese have felt the edge of Vene- tian steel ; several thousand Venetians see before their dim and feverish vision the horror and ignominy of a Genoese dungeon ; and as the sun goes down on the conquerors and the conquered, GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 99 its serene effulgence affords a striking contrast to the deep lurid hue which has been imparted to the sky for several miles around by the gradual immersion of sixty galleys in a sea of belching fire." Even the Genoese writers speak of this victory as for- tuitous ; the losses of the combatants were nearly equal, and the squadrons were well matched, as the superior number of the Venetian ships was fully compensated by the size and strength of the opposing vessels; and even after the change of the wind, if the heroic conduct of Dandolo and his chiefs, of the Zaratines and Chioggians, had not been neutralized by the infamous desertion of twelve ships, the victory might yet have been with the Lion of St. Mark. "No joy-bells or other manifestations of popular enthusiasm awaited the return of Doria to his country. Too many among the multitude which thronged the quays to witness the landing of the troops were doomed to retrace their steps to a bereaved home, and to hearths made desolate by war ; and in the extrem- ity of their affliction, the Genoese were almost tempted to forget their glory, and to check their unbecoming exultation at the abasement of Venetian insolence and purse pride. "But there was one who was expected to be in the crowd of Venetian prisoners, and whom the Genoese displayed the great- est eagerness to see in chains. He was not there. Unable to support the galling thought that the son of a Doge of Venice was about to grace a Genoese triumph, to be paraded in fetters before a Genoese mob, and then to rot in a Genoese dungeon, the brave and unfortunate Dandolo took an opportunity of dash- ing his head against the gunwale of the vessel which was con- veying him to his new destination, and thus miserably terminated his existence." Marco Polo was wounded and in an alarming condition when taken to prison; but so much admired was he, and so capable of fascinating enemies as well as friends, that 100 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. he was cared for in such a way as to insure his recovery, and was even visited by Genoese gentlemen. All who came near him listened to his stories of travels and adven- tures with rapt attention and delight; and especially a fellow-prisoner, a Pisan, Rusticiano, who had been a writer in his day, and was seized with a desire to write out all the wonderful tales which Marco repeated again and again. Through the kindly offices of a Genoese noble the necessary materials were furnished, and three months were devoted to writing, in curious antique French sea- soned with Italian idioms, the tales of the modern Herodotus. We can imagine the supreme felicity with which Rusticiano began: "Oh, emperors and kings, oh, dukes, princes, marquises, barons, and cavaliers, and all who delight in knowing the different races of the world and the variety of countries, take this book and read it ! " The first perfect copy was presented to the Republic of Genoa. The length of Polo's imprisonment is not positively known ; but he probably returned to Venice in 1299, just when the " Serrata " and the insurrections con- vulsed the city. But his public life was finished ; and his marriage, the making of his will in 1323, and such per- sonal matters are the only records of his remaining life. The Venetians at once set about the building and organi- zation of a new fleet of one hundred galleys, and rose from their defeat with an energy and spirit that astonished the world. They bought artillery in Spain, and built vessels with such rapidity that the Genoese were undoubtedly influenced to make their peace with Venice by the convic- tion that she would be ready again to attack much sooner than they to repel. At all events, within a few months, these rivals concluded a perpetual peace with all possible pledges of friendship and mutual respect. The Venetians now gradually turned their attention to what the Doge and his creatures had accomplished while GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 101 all eyes had been directed elsewhere; and great excite- ment and discontent were soon manifested. The populace had seemed childish and almost worse than that in the simple and unreasoning way in which they had cherished the fallacy that they retained any political power worthy of the name; but of late, in certain directions, notably by trying to elect their own Doge, they had evinced an awakening appreciation of the facts, and a determination to re-establish themselves. Naturally, when the closing of the Grand Council was understood and the whole drift of the government appre- hended, a demonstration was made, led by Marino Bocconio, who had already made himself prominent by his emphatic opposition to the election of Gradenigo. Early in 1300 Bocconio, with some of his followers, demanded admittance to the Great Council, in order to protest against recent measures of the government. The Doge was present at the Council when this demand was made, and after some hesitation the visitors were admitted. What occurred has never been known; but the next day Bocconio and ten others were tried for sedition, condemned to death, and immediately hanged between the columns in the Piaz- zetta. It will be easily understood that this immediate and extreme punishment of malcontents brought peace to Venice, in seeming at least. It is interesting to note one peculiar element in the policy of Gradenigo. By the changes in the Great Council the power of the Doge had been greatly lessened, and " The Forty," or the "Quarantia," was now the supreme power in the Republic. Gradenigo had thus strengthened the aristocrats to the prejudice of his own authority. Various reasons have been given for his course in this matter, the most reasonable one being that he thus redeemed his pledge to advance the policy of the aristocrats to the extent of his power. 102 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. During the preceding half-century the power of the Doge had been merely nominal ; he was now simply the instrument of the officials about him. At the same time his pomp and circumstance had been augmented as much as his real power had declined, and the public occasions on which he appeared gradually increased in magnificence. Martino da Canale thus describes the Easter procession which could not have occurred later than 1268, as the Doge Renier Zeno died that year : "On Easter Day, then, the Doge descends from his palace ; before him go eight men bearing eight silken banners blazoned with the image of St. Mark, and on each staff are the eagles of the Empire. After the standards come two lads who carry, one the faldstool, the other the cushion of the Doge ; then six trum- peters, who blow through silver trumpets, followed by two with cymbals, also of silver. Comes next a clerk, wbo holds a great cross all beautiful with gold, silver, and precious stones ; a second clerk carries tbe Gospels, and a third a silver censer; and all three are dressed in damask of gold. Then follow the twenty- two canons of St. Mark in their robes, chanting. Behind tbe canons walks Monsignor tbe Doge, under tbe umbrella which Monsignor tbe Apostle (the Pope) gave him, the umbrella is of cloth of gold, and a lad bears it in his bands. By tbe Doge's side is the Primiciero of St. Mark's, wbo wears a bisbop's mitre; on his other side, the priest who shall cbant the Mass. Mon- signor tbe Doge wears a crown of gold and precious stones, and is draped in cloth of gold. Hard by tbe Doge walks a gentle- man wbo bears a sword of exquisite workmanship ; then follow the gentlemen of Venice. In such order Monsignor tbe Doge comes into the Piazza of St. Mark, which is a stone-throw long; he walks as far as the church of San Gimignano, and returns thence in the same order. The Doge bears a white wax candle in his hands. They halt in the middle of the Piazza, and three of the ducal chaplains advance before the Doge, and chant to him the beautiful versicles and responses. Then all enter tbe Church of St. Mark ; three chaplains move forward to tbe altar- GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 103 rai,ls, and say in a loud voice, 'Let Christ be victorious, let Christ rule, let Christ reign ; to our lord Renier Zeno, by the grace of God illustrious Doge of Venice, Dalmatia, and Croatia, conqueror of a fourth part and of half a fourth part of all the Roman Empire, salvation, honor, life, and victory; let Christ be victorious, let Christ rule, let Christ reign.' Then the three chaplains say, 'Holy Mary,' and all respond, 'Help thou Him.' The Primiciero removes his mitre, and begins the Mass. Then the Doge shows himself to the people from the loggia, and after- wards enters his palace, where he finds the table spread ; he dines there, and with him all the chaplains of St. Mark." The coronation of the Doge had also come to be a mag- nificent fete. The day was a general holiday, the streets were fes- tooned with garlands, richly emblazoned banners floated from the windows, draperies were suspended from the balconies, and all the beauty of Venice gathered in case- ments and verandas to see the processions as they passed. We have a description of the Coronation of Lorenzo Tiepolo the successor of Renier Zeno, in 1268, which is a type of these ceremonies. The newly elected Doge was escorted to San Marco by a solemn deputation, and at the door was met by the Vice-Doge and the clergy of the Ducal Chapel. At the high altar he took his oath of office, and received the standard of the Republic. He was then led to the throne, and invested with the mantle and other insignia of office, the youngest senators encircling his brow with the ducal beretta. All this was witnessed by a vast concourse of people, who were enthusiastic in their reception of the new Duke. The chaplains of San Marco then conducted the Doga- ressa to the Ducal Palace, where, amid great pomp and rejoicing, she was seated on the throne beside her husband. The coronation was followed by splendid festivities. A water fete was held ; and a squadron of galleys, gaylj 104 THE Ql'KKX OF THE ADRIATIC. and fancifully dressed with pennants, passed close along the canal in front of the palace, while choristers on board chanted verses in praise of the Doge and Dogaressa whicli were written for the occasion. The procession of trades was an imposing feature of this festival. It was led by the smiths, who, wearing crowns and chaplets of flowers, carried banners and inarched to the sound of musical instruments; the fur- riers followed, arrayed in ermine and minnever; and then came the skinners in taffeta robes, displaying their choicest manufactures ; these were succeeded by the tan- ners, iron-masters, barbers, hosiers, drapers, cotton- spinners, gold-cloth workers dressed in their precious products, the weavers and tailors attired in sumptuous white costumes with rich, fur-trimmed mantles. The dress of the mercers, glass-blowers, fishmongers, butchers, and victuallers was equally costly, some being red and others yellow. Each corporation wore a badge or token of their calling, and the drapers carried olive branches in their hands. The four deputies of the barbers were disguised as knights errant, two being mounted on richly caparisoned horses, while the other two walked beside them; they were accompanied by four damsels, fantastically dressed, whom they claimed to have rescued from deadly peril. When they were near the platform of the Doge, they halted and made a speech claiming to have come from some far country seeking their fortunes, and offering to defend the maidens against any others who might claim them. The Doge made a reply of welcome, and assured them of their safety under his protection; they then shouted, "Long live our Prince, the noble Doge of Venice ! " and moved on. Then ten master-tailors changed their dresses, and donned white suits sprinkled with vermilion stars, and GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 105 traversed the city singing the popular songs of the day ; each one carried a goblet of malmsey and occasionally sipped it. This was extremely Venetian ; and we can but wonder if the tunes these tailors sung are not the same that have descended through many generations to the gondoliers of our own day. There were also games in which buffoons played the principal parts, and men carrying cages of birds many of which were liberated when they came near the court; this was greeted with hearty approbation, and the whole scene was as merry as possible. We are sorry to add that then, as now on like occasions, there were many light- fingered ones among the crowd who filled their pockets at the expense of honest folk. All these entertainments closed with an industrial exhibition in the palace in compliment to the Dogaressa, who, as she passed through the apartments, was presented with gifts which she graciously received ; and thus auspi- ciously was the reign of the new Doge inaugurated. This flattered his vanity ; and when he was borne about the Piazza, scattering gold as he went, he may have been elated and imagined himself of great consequence. Every four years the citizens swore allegiance to him, his person was declared sacred, and he never left the palace without an attendant train of nobles and citizens. On the other hand, his oath now obliged him to execute the orders of the various councils implicitly. He was not permitted to exhibit his portrait, bust, or coat-of-arms outside the Ducal Palace ; he could not announce his election to any court save that of Rome ; no one could kiss his hand, or kneel to him, or make him gifts, in short, no homage must be personal to the Doge ; it must be rendered to the aristocracy who had made him Doge, and who were the State. No member of the Doge's family could hold govern- ment appointments in any part of the Venetian territory ; 106 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. and his sons, who had formerly been associated with him in office, could now be elected to the Great Council and Senate only, and in the latter had no vote. To make the power behind the throne more absolute, it was finally decreed that no one elected to the ducal office could refuse to serve, neither could he resign nor leave Venice. Thus the Ducal Palace became a prison, and the Doge the only man in Venice who absolutely could have no will of his own. The quiet that followed the execution of Bocconio was a quiet full of storms. The discontents were not yet ready, and had no leader to inaugurate a revolution. Meantime the foreign policy of Gradenigo was making him the best-hated man imaginable. He had involved the Republic in a most disastrous war with Ferrara, in consequence of which the Pope had pronounced the sen- tence of excommunication against the whole Republic of Venice. It is difficult in our day to appreciate the full meaning of this. Not only the inhabitants of the Republic, but all who aided them in any way, were placed outside the pale of the Church; their property, wherever found, was declared sequestrated ; their treaties were null ; it was made unlaw- ful to trade or eat or converse with them ; every one was at liberty to take them and sell them into slavery; all sacraments were refused them; even the rites of burial were denied, and the clergy left Venice. A new Crusade was published, and papal indulgence given to all attacks upon Venetians or their property. In several parts of Italy Venetians were put to death; and at Genoa many of the prisoners of Curzola were sold as slaves. "In England, in France, in Italy, in the East, the merchants were robbed. From Southampton to Pera the Venetian counting- houses, banks, and factories were forced, sacked, and destroyed. The commerce of Venice trembled on the verge of extinction ; . Bridge of the Rinlto. GBADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 107 and all these evils were laid at the door of the Doge and the new aristocracy. But the party in power never wavered ; their deter- mination was the result and the proof of their youth, their con- fidence, their real capacity for governing. Though they were surrounded by a people suffering intensely from physical and spiritual want, as well as by a nobility who openly declared their hatred of the new policy and of its authors, yet they never devi- ated for a single moment from the predetermined line. Every- thing was done to win the regard and support of the people. The Doge instituted a yearly banquet to the poor, and the picturesque ceremony of washing and kissing twelve fishermen from the lagoons." At the same time everything possible was done to hum- ble and insult the opposing party. The noble Marco Quirini was refused a seat in the Privy Council, and his place given to a Dalmatian, who, according to the statute, was not eligible to this Council. It was attempted to strictly enforce the law against carrying arms in the street, which occasioned grave troubles. A watchman, called a "Signior of the Night," met Pietro Quirini in the Piazza one evening, and insisted on examining him ; Quirini knocked the man down, and was heavily fined. Meetings of the Opposition were held at the house of Marco Quirini, near the Rialto, and an organization was made. They determined to make Bajamonte Tiepolo their leader; he was a son-in-law of Quirini, and was greatly beloved by the people, who called him il gran Cavaliero. He had inherited all the popularity of his father, the Tiepolo who had been elected Doge by acclamation. Quirini had been the head of the Opposition. He was of exalted rank and personal character; and his relation to Bajamonte Tiepolo had increased his consideration by the union of two great families, so that he was now the most influential man in the Great Council. He had been sent as Podesta to Ferrara, doubtless in the hope that he would 108 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. never return; but he escaped pestilence and all other dangers, and was at home in time to engage in the insur- rection with all his heart. Bajamonte had been for several years at his Villa Marocco in the March of Treviso ; but when, in 1310, his brother nobles invited his return, he readily assented, and his arrival in Venice was the signal for greater excitement and determination. He urged immediate action; and so many of his party agreed with him that the more cautious counsel of their elders was set aside, and on June 14, ten years after the execution of Bocconio, the fires of revolution were again kindled in Venice. It was arranged that the conspirators should gather at night in the house of Quirini, and with the dawn rush to the Piazza, gain possession of the centre of the city, and kill Gradenigo. The night was terrific; thunder and lightning, and torrents of rain raised a tempest in which the cries "Death to the Doge!" and "Freedom to the People ! " could not be heard ; and under the cover of this terrible storm the insurrectionists went forth. One divi- sion, under Bajamonte, proceeded by the Calle of the Merceria; a second, under Quirini, took the nearer way by the bridge of Malpasso (now di Dai) and the Fondamenta; and all were to meet in the Piazza, Up to this time the meetings of the revolutionists had escaped observation; but now a traitor, Marco Donato, gave such information to Gradenigo as led him to send three officers to ascertain the truth. At the Rialto they were met by drawn swords, and fled for their lives. The Doge at once apprehended the situation, and sent to the governors of the neighboring islands for a speedy supply of troops. He arranged his soldiers with great care, by the aid of the flashes of lightning ; posted guards at every entrance to the Piazza; the main body being massed in the centre, awaiting the rebels in silence. No more dra- matic scene is described in history. GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 109 The conspirators had believed that their marching would be the signal for a rising of the people ; but they were disappointed, and each advancing step proved that they had no sympathy from the masses. Quirini reached the Piazza first ; and as he entered the square, the soldiers charged on him with the cry of "Traitors! kill them, kill them!" Quirini and his two sons were cut down at once, it is said by the hand of Giustiniani himself, and seeing their leader killed, his followers fled wildly. When Bajamonte reached the Piazza, he was received in like manner; his standard, inscribed LIBERTX, was struck to the ground, the bearer being killed by a heavy flower-pot thrown from a window above him by a woman. This was the signal for a panic ; and Bajamonte, with his men, turned to fly. Here and there they made a stand, and a fight ensued ; they burned the customs offices, and at length reached the Rialto. This wooden bridge was cut down behind them ; and they shut themselves within the house of Quirini, which was a fortress and defensible. Meantime the followers of Quirini who escaped from the Piazza were attacked by soldiers in the Campo San Luca, and cut to pieces. The only hope remaining to the insurgents was that Badoer might arrive from Padua with the aid he had been sent to ask ; but he was cut off by the Chioggians, and Bajamonte had no reliance save him- self, his few followers, and the strength of his position. The Doge soon sent envoys to him, offering amnesty and even pardon, should the rebels submit ; but Bajamonte steadily refused. Gradenigo knew that Tiepolo could not be taken in his present quarters without a great loss of men and property; he also reflected that if he captured the leader he must either permit a traitor to go free, or execute the most popular man in all Venice. For these reasons he determined to use all possible means to bring 110 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. about a satisfactory negotiation; but everything proved ineffectual until an old man, and one much respected, Filippo Belegno, after many arguments and long persua- sion, prevailed on Bajamonte to relent and accept the terms of the Doge, which he had at first believed to be but a snare for him and his followers. By these terms Bajamonte and all the insurgents who had a right to a seat in the Council were banished to Dalmatia for four years ; those of lower rank were par- doned on swearing allegiance to the Doge and the Constitution, and returning all the goods that had been taken from private dwellings or government stores. The lives of any of the exiles detected in breaking their parole would be forfeited, and to harbor them or correspond with them was made treasonable. Their wives and fami- lies were expelled from the Dogado, and the houses of Bajamonte and of the Quirini were demolished ; on the site of the first a Column of Infamy was raised, and the armorial bearings of both houses were changed. One cannot avoid a feeling of sympathy for Badoer and others who, being taken fighting, were beheaded, nor a sentiment of scorn for the traitor Donate, whose treachery was rewarded by a seat in the Council without elec- tion, while his family were made noble forever. Even Giustina Rosso was not forgotten, and for dashing down that flower-pot which came so near being fatal to Baja- monte, she was permitted to hold her residence in the Merceria for fifteen ducats annually, and to unfurl a stand- ard from the so-called "mortar casement" on every festival day, and in 1341 her bust was placed near the Sotto Portico del Capello. The 15th of June, being the day of San Vito, was made a festival, and one of the great Venetian anniversaries, when the Doge went in grand and solemn state to the very small and ancient church of that saint to give thanks GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. Ill for the deliverance from this most important of the Vene- tian insurrections. Bajarnonte Tiepolo lived a stormy and unhappy life. In 1311 he was a conspirator at Padua, and somewhat later was hunted out of Treviso; in 1322 the Ten offered a reward for his capture ; in 1328 the Doge was ordered to secure him if possible : but death fortunately released him from all his tortures. He had ever longed for the lagoons, the Piazza, his old contrada, and all the ways of his beloved Venice ; but he refused all the proposals made to him for his return, he could not trust the dreaded Ten. However, so long as Gradenigo lived, he was haunted by fear of Tiepolo, and of what he might do; indeed, one historian goes so far as to say that he died of this revolt and its consequences. For a time the Venetians were constantly suspecting an ambush in the streets, and went to their beds in dread of the night and of the morrow. It was believed that only the most stringent measures could prevent a repetition of this insurrection, and that even worse things might happen. This tendency of the public mind found expression in a petition for a Committee of Inquiry, which proved to be the origin of the famous Council of Ten. This Council was organized for a few months only, and for the special purpose of making a searching inquiry into all the ramifications of the late conspiracy. But on the following Michaelmas Day the Doge made one of his rare visits to the Great Council, for the purpose of saying that as the day had come on which the authority of the Ten expired, he recommended its extension for two months, as the need of it still existed in order to root out sedition and treason. The amendment was passed and the time extended to November 30, and again to January 30, 1311. At that time it was thought best to establish it for five years ; and at last, in 1335, it was made permanent, 112 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. and became the tyrant and terror of Venice. In his "Venetian Studies" Brown says: "More terrible than any personal despot, because impalpable, impervious to the dagger of the assassin, it was no concrete despotism, but the very essence of tyranny. To seek its over- throw was vain. Those who strove to wrestle with it clasped empty air ; they struck at it, but the blow was wasted on space. Evasive and pervasive, this dark, inscrutable body ruled Venice with a rod of iron. For good or for bad, the Council of Ten was the very child of the new aristocracy, which had won its battle against both the people and the old nobility. The victorious party breathed, and their breath became the Ten ; and it is the Ten which determined the internal aspect of Venice for the remainder of her existence." Thus had Gradenigo silently and determinedly worked a greater revolution than Bajamonte could have made, had he succeeded in his plans ; and he had made himself hated in his success, while his rival was beloved to the end. The name of Pietro Gradenigo is not so frequently mentioned as those of other Doges and generals of the Republic. The man who firmly established the aristocrats in power and originated the Council of Ten is forgotten in the importance and vast results of his work ; but so far as the sovereignty of Venice was concerned, no man was more remarkable than Gradenigo. When he died, in August, 1311, he was hastily buried at Murano. Whether this was because he was so hated that a riot was feared, or on account of his excommunica- tion, we know not. How truly of him could it be said, he brought nothing into this world; and it is certain he car- ried nothing out, not even sufficient respect from those he had benefited to lead them to follow him to his grave. This was all the more noticeable from its contrast with the usual obsequies of those who held his office. TTazlitt gives the following account of a Doge's funeral: GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 113 "In the first instance the ducal remains were transported from the Palace on the shoulders of twenty of the oldest Sena- ators to the saloon of the Signori di Notte; one of the house- hold marched in front, carrying a sheathed sword with the point upward; and a large number of patricians followed the corpse. The Doge was splendidly attired in the costume which he wore on state occasions; and the gilded spurs, indicating his eques- trian rank, were fastened at his heels. After a brief interval the procession was again set in motion; and, the members of the College having taken leave at this point, the rest proceeded to St. Mark's, where the Dogaressa and her ladies and a throng of mourning nobles had assembled. Here the burial service was performed with the accustomed solemnity; and after its celebration the bearers resumed their burden, and the body was conveyed, with every mark of pomp, to the family vault." With Bajamonte Tiepolo died the old nobility. He and it and the people were sacrificed to the new aristo- crats, who had overridden the old Constitution. From the Quirini-Tiepolo conspiracy the peculiar government which was purely Venetian, and unparalleled elsewhere, may be dated; and strangely enough, the leaders of the revolt contributed largely to the success of Gradenigo, since, but for the insurrection, it is doubtful if he could have riveted his chains and clasped them with the Council of Ten. Time has obliterated the traces of the rebellion. The Column of Infamy was broken soon after its erection by one of Bajamonte's admirers, and after many removals from one garden to another it was carried to Como. A square of white marble in the pavement of the Campo of Sant' Agostino, inscribed "Col: Bai: The: MCCCX.," is the sole reminder of the insurrection ; and this is where few strangers go, in the heart of Venice, between the Frari and the Campo San Polo. The family of the Tiepolo were not crushed by the failure and exile of Bajamonte. Their palaces, always 114 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. bearing two obelisks on the roofs, are still seen on the Grand Canal, and prove that in later days this house was not disgraced by the remembrance of the Gran Cavaliero. THE COUNCIL OP TEN. Until within the last half-century it would have been a matter of surprise to hear a charitable word spoken for this famous council, much more to hear it defended as the best method for the government of Venice at the time when it was the controlling spirit of the Republic. But in more recent years the historians of various nationali- ties, taking into account the more reliable and wider knowledge that has come from the study of the Venetian archives, are not inclined to the severe condemnation of the Ten which it formerly received, and have indeed been led to think it well suited to its era, and of great value in upholding the power and guarding the prosperity of the Republic. Formerly the opinion which Cooper expresses in the " Bravo " found an almost universal echo. After giving an account of the establishment of the Council, he says: "A political inquisition, which came in time to be one of the most fearful engines of police ever known, was the consequence. An authority as irresponsible as it was absolute was periodi- cally confided to another and still smaller body, which met and exercised its despotic and secret functions under the name of the Council of Three. The choice of these temporary rulers was decided by lot, and in a manner that prevented the result from being known to any but to their own number, and to a few of the most confidential of the more permanent officers of the gov- ernment. Thus there existed at all times in the heart of Venice a mysterious and despotic power that was wielded by men who moved in society unknown, and apparently surrounded by all the ordinary charities of life; but which, in truth, was influenced GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 115 "by a set of political maxims that were perhaps as ruthless, as tyrannic, and as selfish as ever was invented by the evil inge- nuity of man. It was, in short, a power that could only be intrusted, without abuse, to infallible virtue and infinite intelli- gence, using the terms in a sense limited by human means; and and yet it was here confided to men whose title was founded on the double accident of birth and the colors of halls, and by whom it was wielded without even the check of publicity. "The Council of Three met in secret, ordinarily issued its decrees without communicating with any other body, and had them enforced with a fearfulness of mystery and a suddenness of execution that resembled the blows of fate. The Doge himself was not superior to its authority, nor protected from its deci- sions, while it has been known that one of the privileged three has been denounced by his companions. . . . Thus Venice prided herself on the justice of St. Mark; and few States maintained a greater show, or put forth a more lofty claim to the possession of the sacred quality, than that whose real maxims of govern- ment were veiled in a mystery that even the loose morality of the age exacted." Since this Council is one of the most interesting and characteristic peculiarities of the Venetian government, it is worth while to quote a few authoritative and judicial opinions regarding it, and all the more that we have already cited those most severely against it. Hazlitt, the able English historian of the Venetian Republic, and a member of the Inner Temple, in speaking of the time (1335), when the Council of Ten was made permanent, says : "The Republic had now enjoyed halcyon days of peace since the return of the Zaratines to their allegiance in 1313. Twenty years of foreign war and domestic convulsion (1293-1313) were thus followed by twenty years of external and internal repose (1313-1333). Dalmatia was tranquillized; Genoa was humili- ated. The Lower Empire, though not without its alarming symptoms, was quiescent. The pressure of extraordinary taxes 116 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. was no longer sensible. Prices were low. Provisions were abun- dant. Commerce had received an enormous impulse and expan- sion. The condition of trade was highly flourishing. The upper classes were elated by the development of fresh sources of wealth. The lower orders were exhilarated by the removal of their bur- dens. It was under these auspicious circumstances that the time was approaching for the dissolution of the Council of Ten. "The original jurisdiction of this unique tribunal had been of a purely exclusive and strictly transient character. To devise measures for the safety of the State, to obtain by any expedients every new clew to the conspiracy of 1310, to unravel these clews to their source with untiring diligence, to bring to justice all who might have eluded detection, were the objects to which the labors of Decemvirs were directed, and the points to which their cognizance was confined. But the Council, even if its attributes had not been emphatically inquisitorial, showed no disposition to be perfunctory. The line of demarcation, if any such line had existed, was soon obliterated or ignored. Every branch of the Executive was submitted in its turn, under various pretexts, to the novel influence. Nor could it be denied that that influ- ence was exercised, on the whole, to a highly beneficial end. It had been accounted a great revolution when, so recently as 1298, the Great Council succeeded in* arrogating to itself the preroga- tives which formerly belonged to the people. But the narrow jealousy and distrust, which were gradually growing up in the ranks of the nobility, had long made it palpably evident to the more discerning, that a still higher and still more concentric power must eventually arise to wrest these prerogatives from the hands of the Great Council itself. That power was already found to exist in the Decemvirs. Primarily elected, and con- stantly renewed by the legislative body on the clearest ground of expediency, the Ten had incessantly striven to popularize themselves, and to strengthen their position by propitiating the lower classes on the one hand, and by turning to account, on the other hand, with unequalled dexterity the disunion among the pa- tricians, to rule that order with a hand of iron. By some the Dic- tatorship was viewed as an indispensable ingredient in the Constitution; by some it was tolerated as an odious necessity; GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 117 but all accepted the silent innovation in a spirit of acquiescence. The Decemvirs knew their strength, and they quickly made that strength felt. It was on the 30th of January, 1336, that their commission was about to expire ; on the 20th of July, 1335, they caused themselves to be declared a permanent Assembly. . . . "In the Middle Ages, when an almost total ignorance reigned of civil principles, it was not unnatural that a system pretend- ing to rise above the common level of crude simplicity should be viewed as slightly cabalistic and inscrutable. The Venetian Executive, indeed, displayed the earliest attempt to organize a bureaucratic machinery and a plan for the distribution of public functions ; and Venice also led the way in founding the practice of diplomatic etiquette and official routine. The Council of Ten was, perhaps, a constitutional evil; but it was certainly a con- stitutional necessity. The tribunal was more or less fatal to the political liberty of the Venetians; but it left untouched their civil privileges, and it was highly conducive to the preservation of the national independence. While it was inaccessible to the whispers of treason, it was not a stranger to the softer influences of humanity. Instances were known in which a female suppli- ant was permitted to penetrate into the Hall of the Decemvirs, and obtained that redress which had been denied to her else- where. An instance might be cited in which, when a foreign tyrant had tempted and overcome the virtue even of members of the College, the Ten, alone incorruptible and without a price, provided for the safety of the imperilled State ! ... It was not very long after their original institution in 1310 that the De- cemvirs resorted, in cases where peculiarly delicate investigation was requisite, to the practice of delegating their powers provi- sionally and specially to one, two, or three of their number, according to circumstances; and these extraordinary function- aries were known as the ' Inquisitor! dei Dieci, ' or the Inquisi- tors of the Ten. . . . The Capi submitted resolutions to their colleagues, and signed decrees in their name; and the letters purporting to be written by the Doge himself or his secretary were generally composed under their dictation, being forwarded to his Serenity only for subscription. The Inquisitors of the Ten, who were thus nearly coeval with the Ten themselves, may 118 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. be recognized as the forerunners of the famous ' Inquisitors of State.' But no tribunal existed at Venice under the latter title prior to 1596, nor even then was it clothed with the revolting attributes which have been ascribed to it by ignorance or malignity." M. Armand Baschet has written a book founded on the Archives of Venice, called "Histoire de la Chan- cellerie Secrete, " which treats of the Senate, the Cabinet, the Council of Ten, and the Inquisitors of State, in their relations to France. It is an exhaustive and learned work ; and having quoted an English authority, it is wise also to give a few sentences from this erudite French writer : "No institution has been more falsely represented and more misjudged than the Council of Ten. The profound secrecy of its deliberations, to secure which the extremest precautions were alwa} r s permitted, offered so favorable a subject for invention and exaggeration that pamphleteers and romancers could but seize upon it without reserve. Doubtless this extraordinary tri- bunal had its dramas, since politics and reasons of State imposed on it the duty of scrutinizing the depths of the heart. Assuredly, also, it had its faults, for although called supreme, it was not divine, and was therefore liable to err; but to believe that it was established for the calm commission of evil, rather than to prevent or correct it, is one of those extremely gross errors for which the active research into the truth of history which in our day is zealously carried so far endeavors to make reparation. "Was its creation the arbitrary outcome of the heated imagi- nation of a tyrant of the school of Nero ? Was it an offensive or defensive weapon invented by this tyrant in order to torment his people ? Good sense proves this to have been impossible. The Council of Ten was created by the votes, the discussions, and conclusions of a numerous and intelligent Assembly; strong in its united strength; full of political instincts, which did not ignore the truth that the power which by a vote it was about GRADENIGO, TIEPOLO, AND THE COUNCIL OF TEN. 119 to establish was created to prevent the dangers which men of great ambitions on the exterior, or revolutionists in the interior, might bring to the Republic. "Was its establishment the work of a day? Would this great Council, created for two months only, have been continued by a new vote for one year, five years, ten years, and at last per- manently, if the exercise of its power had not been recognized as a benefit rather than an evil ? Was not this State, which in establishing this Council created a judge for itself, the best gov- erned and most orderly which then existed in the world ? What other nation then had a parliament like that of Venice ? Could the sovereign exercise oppression even in his decrees ? What was the Doge in the presence of the Grand Council, the lesser Council, and the Senate, other than a person with less power than the Sovereign of Great Britain to-day, who must be in accord with the will of the Parliament and the House of Lords ? Moreover, it is manifest to one who seeks to know the Council of Ten from authentic sources, rather than from amusing his- tories without reliable knowledge, that this power was for the protection of the people against the patricians rather than against the people in favor of the patricians. " Go to its archives, open its records, examine its parchments, penetrate into its correspondence, initiate yourself in the mys- teries of its justice, understand its decrees, inform yourself as to its judgments, and you will see whether it made its power one long abuse, and whether the spirit of tyranny rather than that of justice was its inspiration and motive power. That it held a terrible power in its hands is incontestable; bxit that it used this power upon suspicion, and in the absence of other proof, is absolutely false. It is puerile to judge the penalties of those days by present standards. Should we not consider the manners and customs of its time ? Under the best of our kings, under the most just, the most amiable and honest, were not the abet- tors of certain crimes furiously quartered ? It is absurd to com- pare past history with the present, except it be to praise and admire the progress that has been made. "Moreover, the Council of Ten had to sustain, in the course of three centuries, the most searching tests to which a political 120 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. institution could be subjected. Three times its institution,* its existence, and its system were placed under the ban of the Par- liament which had created it. Three times was it called in question by a party in the Grand Council, and submitted to ex- amination and discussion. The tribune was free; the speeches made for and against its abolition still exist. In 1582, 1628, and 1762 the eloquence of the orators threatened its destruction. Judges were elected by vote to thoroughly inform themselves regarding it. They did not act under personal instruction to proceed against the individuals invested with full powers and accused of having used them against the welfare of the State. Quite otherwise were they instructed, since, according to the results of their investigation, a considerable Assembly would decide for or against the preservation of this institution in the Republic. Its most secret papers were submitted to them; and three times the Council of Ten triumphed over the party opposed to it, after having been subjected to the most exciting and searching discussions which could possibly engage a great and vigorous political assembly." CHAPTER VII. MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. / T > HE excursion to Murano must be made on a fine day, JL when the wind is favorable and the sea calm, as it is frequently very rough near that island. We leave Venice at the Fondamenta Nuove, and keep to the north. It is but a half -hour' s row to Murano, and the aspect of the lagoon here is quite different from that to the south of Venice. To the east lies the desolate marsh-land formerly called the Dogado, where the Doge had preserves for fish- ing and shooting. From these marshes came the wild duck which the Doge presented to every noble, on Decem- ber 4, Saint Barbara's Day. We soon reach San Michele, the cemetery of Venice, to which the boats with black flags, so often seen, are always going. The sight of it reminds us of Mr. Ho wells and his " Venetian Life : " "As we go by the cemetery of San Michele, Piero the gondo- lier and Giovanna improve us with a little solemn pleasantry. " 'It is a small place,' says Piero, 'but there is room enough for all Venice in it.' " 'It is true,' asserts Giovanna; 'and here we poor folks become landowners at last.' " We stay here long enough to see the handsome church built by Moro Lombardo in 1466 ; to examine the statues by Bernini, which, to say truth, do not seem to strike the Venetian key-note ; and to read the name of Fra Paolo Sarpi in the pavement, beneath which lies this brave 122 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. defender of Venice against Pope Paul V. From the Car- melite convent of San Michele went Placido Zurla to be made a cardinal, and that Cappelari who ascended the papal throne, in our own century, as Gregory XVI. Here also lived Frate Mauro, who made in 1457 the celebrated Mappa-Mondo for Alphonso V. of Portugal. It is now in the library of St. Mark, and is a geographical encyclo- paedia of all that was known about our planet at that time. It would be folly to attempt a new description of the panorama before us when we can quote a sentence from Ruskin which thus outlines the scene between Venice and Murano : "The pure cumuli of cloud lie crowded and leaning against one another, rank beyond rank, far over the shining water, each cut away at its foundation by a level line, trenchant and clear, till they sink to the horizon like a flight of marble steps, except where the mountains meet them, and are lost in them, barred across by the gray terraces of those cloud foundations, and re- duced into one crestless bank of blue, spotted here and there with strange flakes of wan, aerial, greenish light, strewed upon them like snow. And underneath is the long dark line of the mainland, fringed with low trees; and then the wide waving surface of the burnished lagoon trembling slowly, and shaking out into forked bands of lengthening light the images of the towers of cloud above. To the north, there is first the great cemetery wall, then the long stray buildings of Murano, and the inland villages beyond, glittering in intense crystalline ver- milion, like so much jewelry scattered on a mirror, their towers poised apparently in the air a little above the horizon, and their reflections, as sharp and vivid and substantial as themselves, thrown on the vacancy between them and the sea. And thus the villages seem standing on the air; and to the east there is a cluster of ships that seem sailing on the land; for the sandy line of the Lido stretches itself between us and them, and we can see the tall white sails moving beyond it, but not the sea; MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 123 only there is a sense of the great sea being indeed there, and a solemn strength of gleaming light in the sky above." Between the cemetery and Murano there is little more than a channel, and we enter a canal with narrow quays on each side, three or four feet above the canal. The houses, now inhabited by poor people, have certain really beautiful features in doorways and windows, which indi- cate that Murano "has seen better days." At present there is the sort of stir that belongs to a manufacturing town the world over, street-cries from the dealers in fruits and fish ; glass-makers coming and going, stopping now and then to speak with the women who are knitting in the doorways, and altogether an air of active, practical life that is very unlike Venice itself. Our first visit is naturally to the Cathedral of San Donato. The origin of this church is thus given in the legends: Otho the Great, who died in 973, had a vision in which the Virgin Mary showed him a triangular meadow covered with scarlet lilies, and desired him to build there a church in her honor. Nearly two centuries later, when the Doge Michiele II. brought from Cephalonia the embalmed body of Saint Donato, and gave it to this church, that saint was joined with the Virgin as its patron, and the cathedral henceforth called by his name. It is probable that the whole church was then rebuilt. At all events, the architecture is unmistakably of the twelfth century, and is very interesting, especially the semicircular apse, with its double rows of round arches and its beautifully sculptured marbles. The remarkable balustrade around the upper gallery is also noticeable; and the chief interest of this church, which stands in the northern angle of the triangle, is in its exterior. The campanile, a few yards away, is heavy ; and the modern buildings, with their ugly square windows and blank walls, make it difficult to enjoy even the little 124 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. that remains from the old davs. There is a ruined flag- * O staff foundation, with the iron hasps that held the stand- ard still remaining, and a well with the date 1502. The interior of San Donate has been so changed in recent times that it is simply commonplace, with the exception of the pavement, which is beautifully inlaid, and dates from 1140, and a Madonna in Greek mosaic, which is a remarkable imitation of the Byzantine, though by no means beautiful. Doubtless some of the columns with delicately sculptured capitals were brought from Altinum. The Church of the Angels must be visited for the sake of the Madonna by Gian Bellini, which was painted for the Doge Barberigo in 1488, and presented to the con- vent in which two of his daughters had taken the veil. The Doge, in all the pomp of his official attire, is pre- sented to the Virgin by Saints Mark and Augustine. It is a most interesting picture, as are all those by this old painter, who loved to paint the Divine Mother and Child with their attendant saints and angels; and, as in this picture, with "beds of weeds and flowers, in which the crane, the peacock, and partridge alike elect to congregate." But it is not for its churches, its architecture, or works of art that Murano is known to us. Neither is it of this Murano, with its few thousand inhabitants and less than a dozen manufactories, that we have been accustomed to think. It is of that Murano on which dwelt thirty thou- sand people, and from which ascended the smoke of three hundred furnaces, the fires of which were nearly all extin- guished after the fall of the Republic. Now, however, in the new life that has come to Italy, the glass -making of Murano is reviving. Salviati has done much to restore the art to its old- time excellence; and other countries again depend on MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 125 Venice for many of these products. Again the beads of Murano are very beautiful, and an important element of commerce ; and though many of the objects now made are more fantastic than useful, they are also very beautiful. Salviati imitates both the old glass and the mosaics, and varies his products in a thousand forms, which are still tinted with the old and famous colors, girasole (opal), acqua marina, rubino, lattimo, giallo d'oro, and many others. The frieze of mosaic at the South Kensington Museum in London, and the ceiling of the vestibule which leads from the grand staircase to the foyer in the Paris Opera House are excellent specimens of the modern mosaic work of Murano, which is now in full revival, and takes the first place in the world, as it did centuries ago. The following description of some splendid pieces made for Mr. H. Furber, of Chicago, shows the present impor- tance of this art in Venice. They are intended for the " Columbus Palace " near the grounds of the " Columbian Exposition " : " Among the important works recently executed is a large mosaic panel representing Columbus being received by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain after his return from America. This panel, measuring about two hundred square feet, shows Columbus when kneeling before the sovereigns, presenting to them the natives of the newly discovered land, and some products of the soil. The persons represented are about thirty-eight in number, many of them of the natural size, formed in three principal groups. In the most important group is Columbus, having at his side the young crown prince and the sovereigns, surrounded by the dignitaries of the court, ladies and noblemen, and pages holding the standards. In the middle group, but more to the left, are the native Indians; and near the entrance of the hall other Spanish nobles and the companions of Columbus. The gorgeous and various attires of all the figures, their warlike implements, the splendid stuffs of all sorts and 126 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. tints, the rich decoration of the hall, the pageantry of the court, the strange tones and costumes of the natives in full contrast with the others, and the various attitudes of all these personages form a whole in perfect harmony with the details of the scene, owing to the excellent distribution of the figures, and the per- fect fusion of tints. The work is so delicately executed that no one can believe that the panel is not painted until on touching it he discovers that it is entirely composed of small enamel cubes, put together without any aid of color or cement, and worked according to the mode of the old Venetian mosaic school. This panel will form the pendant of another representing Columbus landing in America." No glass has been so famous as that of Venice, because no other glass-makers have ever equalled the Venetians in the beauty of their products, nor in the marvellous manner in which they varied the use of their materials. Good authorities believe that this art was known to the earliest settlers of the lagoons, although they used their knowledge in the making of the necessities of life alone ; but the material of the antique glass and the Muranese glass is precisely the same. In 1292 the Grand Council, by a decree, ordered the removal of the glass-workers to Murano, and the destruc- tion of the furnaces at Riva Alto. From the inauguration of this industry at Murano, the Government was extremely jealous in preventing the secrets of glass-making from being discovered by any strangers. From the year 1275 the export of lump glass, or of the materials used in its composition, and even of broken glass, was forbidden, and a heavy penalty attached to such acts ; and from this time more stringent laws were made, and at length the manufactories were put in charge of the Council of Ten, so determined was the Republic to profit by the skill of its workers. These anxieties were not unreasonable, since it is known that men as high in position as the MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 127 ambassadors from France had a sort of police in their employ, who attempted to bribe the glass-workers, and to spy out the raw materials they used, and their manner of combining them. It appears most probable that to the original knowledge of the earliest Venetians some additions must have been made from the methods of the Oriental mosaic-workers, who were employed in San Marco as early as the tenth century, although later the productions of the Venetians were sought in the East, where the making of fine glass bad come to be a lost art. That this is true is proved by an order still existing for four hundred mosque lamps, bearing verses from the Koran, in colored enamels, to be made for the Grand Vizier of the Sultan. The Arabic influence which is so clearly shown in Venetian glass is supposed to have come from the specimens of glass found in the Roman Campagna, and in many other places in Italy, such as Nola, Campania, and so on, which in all probability were used as models at Murano. Venice gained immense sums by her trade in glass beads alone. Their place in commerce is almost incredible, especially when they began to be covered with enamels, gold, and opaline colors. The Orientals exchanged for them silks, spices, precious metals, and all sorts of exqui- site tissues. They found their way all over the world, and in modern days have been seen in central Africa, where they were used for money. The shrewd Venetians valued their exquisite pieces of glass, the"ir vases, gob- lets, mirror frames, and ewers ; but they were most jealous in the protection of their bead trade and manufacture. From the eleventh to the fourteenth century the prepa- ration of enamel for mosaic work was the most important department of the glass-works at Murano, and the mosaic glass there made has never been equalled in beauty or durability elsewhere. Even pavements in San Marco, 128 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. made from this glass, and now five or six centuries old, are still perfect in color, joints, and setting. Salviati gives the name of glass to the Venetian manu- facture alone, and applies " crystal or crystallified glass " to all other varieties, and Yriarte says : " These makers have but one object, to imitate the quality of crystal. Thus, when they have perfected the properties of clear- ness and brilliancy, they set about increasing the attractiveness of their productions by cutting them after they have been first run in moulds; that is to say, by employing mechanical means to obtain something like the richness, the variety of form, and vigor of line which alone can insure it success in the market. But to do this is to demand from glass qualities which it ought not to yield, and to change its nature, depriving it of its two essential qualities, lightness and ductility. "The glory of Murano is to have preserved the special prop- erties of the material, and to have made it yield all the beauties of which it was capable." These workers at Murano had two great advantages, the material they used was ductile, light, especially bril- liant, and possessed of vitreous appearance quite unique ; and, added to these important conditions, the workmen had natural good taste, and the immense aid of historical traditions, and by wisely employing its own resources Murano attained its great reputation; its forms and colors have not been equalled, and that they could be excelled is past imagining. We know the name of the man who made mosaics for San Marco in 1100. It was Pietro, and he worked for the Doge Vitale Michiele I. In 1268 the glass-workers had formed a corporation. In 1292 they settled permanently on Murano. In 1329 they were employed to furnish glass for churches in other cities; and in 1376 the Senate declared that a master glass-maker might marry the daughter of a noble, and their children be held as of noble MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 129 rank. It was at this time that the Venetian glass-workers decorated the fine edifices all over Italy, and made the windows for the Cathedral of Milan. So vast had the industry now become that it was divided into specialties, the verixelli made small objects and beads; the phioleri made bottles. In the beginning of the fifteenth century Angelo Beroviero had the most famous furnace at Murano, at the sign of the Angel. He made both vessels and windows, and being a learned chemist knew how to give the most varied and beautiful colors to his glass. Beroviero also made the discovery of a process by which to apply enamel to glass in different colors. He made exquisite goblets ; and special designs were executed for marriage and birth cups, or for any important occasion. Beroviero reached perfection in his art, and his brothers and sons were never surpassed in enamelled glass. To his son Marino may be ascribed the splendid glass in San Giovanni e Paolo, made after the designs of Girolamo Mocetto in 1473. In truth, it is to the Berovieri that the progress in glass- making is due. They invented in 1463 that transparent glass called crystal ; and giving up the old simplicity of form and decoration, they became bold and even audacious in their work. They used gold and enamel, and made those occasional pieces, now so precious, on which the designs and inscriptions furnish historical scenes from the fifteenth century. In the beginning of the sixteenth century Andrea Vidaore invented the process of making artificial pearls with the enameller's blow-pipe, and later he invented glass jet, both of which discoveries became very remu- nerative. In 1507 two Muranese petitioned the Council of Ten for a grant of the monopoly of mirror glass all over the Republic for twenty-five years, and for permission to keep their fires lighted during the two months and a half 130 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. when all the fires were bound to be extinguished. Prior to this time the method of preparing mirror glass had been known and was used elsewhere ; but at Venice the metal plates had been retained. Now, however, began the growth of that enormous industry in mirror plates which has retained its importance even in recent times, and which other nations have tried to appropriate. The art of cutting glass in facets, and imitating pre- cious stones, as well as of coloring " crystal " glass, was discovered in 1605 ; and all these inventions brought great wealth to the glass-workers, some of whom purchased nobility for themselves and their descendants. Through Colbert, France succeeded in competing with Murano. England did the same by aid of the Duke of Buckingham ; and Bohemia gave itself up to glass manu- facture in such a way that the Venetian industry suffered at the end of the seventeenth century. Giuseppe Briati, a passionate lover of his art, left Murano, and took ser- vice in a manufactory at Prague, and having learned the Bohemian secrets, he returned to Venice in 1736, and obtained a license, for ten years, to manufacture and sell crystals made in the Bohemian fashion. Briati estab- lished himself in Venice in the Via del Angello Raffaelo. At this period mirrors were framed with flowers and foliage of cut glass, in relief, and lustres were decorated with flowers, grapes, and leaves in brilliant colors. Filigrana (filigree), too, was much in favor; and some of Briati 's vases in this style are now very precious on account of their refinement of form and taste. Briati died in 1772, but at Murano his art survived. In 1790 a license was granted to Giorgio Barbaria to make black bottles for export to England ; and soon after he manufactured jet and enamels. Barbaria was the deputy of Murano until the fall of the Republic, when the island became almost a desert, and its master workmen MTJEANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 131 and journeymen sought in other lands the bread they could no longer earn at Murano. There are many interesting stories and traditions con- nected with the Berovieri. Angelo, who was the superior of them all, inherited a good business, and by his own discoveries became very rich. He had a large shop in Venice, besides his factory on Murano, from which he shipped immense quantities of glass to various ports in Europe and the Orient. His dwelling was in a part of Murano that was free from the smoke of the furnaces. It was of marble, and very handsome without, while within it was most luxurious and elegant. The garden stretched to the water's edge, and was laid out with much taste. Large trees afforded grateful shade at midday, and spicy odors from the flowers combined with the songs of the nightingales of the aviary in satisfying the senses. There were arbors so sheltered by vines that one could watch the gondolas on the blue waters and be quite unseen, and the lovely view was fitly crowned by the purple mountains in the distance. Beroviero was fortunate in all the circumstances of his life. His beautiful wife was a wealthy lady of Milan. His son, Marino, was of great promise, and his two daughters were lovely girls, who had inherited their mother's beauty and their father's intellect. But one sorrow had penetrated even here. The eldest, Felicia, from a fall in childhood, had weakened her spine, and was forced to spend much of her life in a recumbent position. When Buona, the younger, reached a marriageable age, there were many suitors for her hand among the young nobles of Venice. One day when Signor Beroviero was very busy, his wife sent him a note: Hasten home. I am in a great perplexity. The two young nobles, Da Canale and Mocenigo, have come separately 132 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. to sue for Buona. Mocenigo was first, and he is with me and Buona now; and we have put Da Canale in another room to talk to Felicia. Hasten to our rescue! Your wife. Most impatient at the interruption, Beroviero left his counting-house. Meanwhile the comedy was played by his wife and daughters. Signora Beroviero had heard that Buona was much admired, and her father had already received sev- eral offers for her hand, to which he had replied that his daughter should be won, not sold. Acting on this hint, these two young men had come to win her if possible. Both were members of the Great Council, and of high position. Mocenigo had been shown to the drawing-room, and received by Signora Beroviero and Buona. Before the usual compliments were exchanged, Da Canale arrived, and was taken to a charming room opening on the garden, where Felicia was busy with her embroidery. He was splendidly attired, and had evidently come on a visit of importance. He displayed some impatience, as he threw off his cloak, and saw his companion; but Felicia enter- tained him as best she could until her father came, and held him in conversation until Mocenigo, who had been told of the presence of his rival, could retreat, for Signora Beroviero had set her heart on Mocenigo for her son-in- law. But Buona was of quite another opinion, and in spite of all the praises of him that she heard she refused to marry him ; and when her mother appealed to the father, his only reply was, " She is free to marry as she chooses. " Just at this time Beroviero received an order from the Doge for a collection of glass to be presented to the Emperor Frederick III. on the occasion of his visit to Venice. This caused a great excitement. The father, son, and three advanced apprentices were constantly in solemn conclave. Among these last was one Giorgio, who, although the senior, had made small advance in his MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 133 art. When the important matter in hand was well under- stood, and a proper part assigned to each one, all the resources of the manufactory were devoted to making a grand display of Venetian skill in color and design. Other glass-workers were filled with jealousy of Bero- viero, when the truth about this order was known; and this feeling was not lessened by the magnificent display which was soon made in the window of his shop in Venice. Naturally many strangers came hither on account of the proposed visit of the Emperor, and all the tradesmen of the city were making their shops as attrac- tive as possible ; but no other drew such crowds of gazers as that of Beroviero, now that the gift from the Doge to the Emperor was on exhibition. A large vase glowed like a magnificent ruby ; white flowers, as delicate and natural as if actually growing, twined around a vase of glorious blue ; while cups and wineglasses of exquisite shape and ethereal thinness were in contrast to goblets heavy with gold and enamel. But the chief object was a lace-work goblet, such as was never made elsewhere. It was the most wonderful of all the Venetian glasses, and so fragile was it that its construction was a mystery. Marsh gives this account of the method : "In manufacturing it the workman first of all placed threads of opaque glass round the inside of a mould made of charcoal. Then he dipped his rod into a pot of molten glass, and blew a drop out within the mould until it touched the opaque threads, which at once adhered to the outer surface of the glass. The goblet so blown was as thin as the white film of an egg. Then a second goblet was blown, and the opaque threads were made to adhere on the inner surface of the glass, running in a reverse direction to those which adhered to the outer surface of the first goblet. Thus the workman obtained two goblets, the outside of one and the inner side of the other, bearing the opaque threads of glass. Having secured this object, he next proceeded to place 134 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. one glass inside the other. At the moment the threads of opaque glass touched one another they adhered, imprisoning in the centre of each diamond, formed by the threads crossing one another, a fine bubble of air. The body of the goblet was covered with these diamonds, the air bubble appearing in the centre of each. Notwithstanding the fact that the goblet was composed of two distinct casings, yet, when they were united, the two presented a body not half as thick as an ordinary wafer. This species of glass was the most exquisite that Venice ever produced." Beroviero had been invited to be present when the Emperor received this gift on which so much thought and labor had been lavished; and at length the day arrived. The Emperor, with his young bride, Elenora of Portugal, with a great assemblage of the rank and beauty of Venice, and many noble visitors, were gathered in the great hall of the Ducal Palace, where the Doge and high officials received them. Beroviero, his wife, son, and Buona, with representatives from some rival glass-works, were also there. First the Doge presented to the Empress a crown set with jewels, and many other costly articles of attire. He then offered to the Emperor the splendid service of glass ; to which his Majesty gave but slight attention, even while the Doge was describing its beauty and value. The Emperor replied in a cold and haughty tone ; and while he was thus expressing his thanks, his court-jester executed a pirouette, and hit the tray containing the glass, which fell to the ground, shivered into numberless pieces. The Emperor exclaimed, "Had they been of gold or silver, that calamity could not have happened ! " Tbe faces of the Doge and of the whole assembly expressed their horror and anger; and the Emperor begged to be allowed to order another set. But the Doge replied, " Venice does not sell her gifts ! " His Majesty offered large sums, but no glass-maker MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 135 would undertake to replace what had been destroyed ; and on the next day the Emperor departed, while the episode of the glass-breaking was the general topic of conversation in all Venice. Beroviero was filled with surprise and rage, while his rivals ridiculed him beyond endurance. The apprentices and workmen took sides with their masters, and fierce encounters took place between those of Beroviero and those of other factories. From that day Angelo Beroviero was a different man. He neglected his business, involved himself in quarrels, and was morose and irritable at home. And now the dull, inattentive Giorgio came to the front, and challenged the senior apprentices of the princi- pal rival establishments of Riva, Marcelli, and Gritti to a gondola tournament. The latter declined; but two con- tests would take place, and a day was fixed. Beroviero heard of this with pleasure, and was grateful to Giorgio for this dignified method of showing himself the friend of his master. On the appointed day hundreds of gondolas were off Murano, while crowds stood on the shore, and every bal- cony was filled with ladies and gentlemen, all anxious to see the contest. Each combatant was allowed an assist- ant to propel his gondola. This was usually the youngest apprentice ; and with Giorgio was Hector, a boy of four- teen, and a very skilful oarsman. He stood in the stern, while Giorgio was on the prow, bearing a leather shield and a blunt-headed lance. On the prow was a figure of an angel, while the rival boats carried their symbols of an anchor and a dolphin. Felicia could witness the whole sport from her window; but Buona, with their maid Giannetta, was on the shore. At last two gondolas shot out from the crowd of boats, and sped quickly towards a post moored at some distance 136 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. in the open water. As Giorgio, lightly clad, stood on the prow of the Angel, and approached the other gondola decorated with an anchor, the symbol of the house of the Riva, it was easily seen that the other apprentice, who was of heavy build, and handled his lance awkwardly, was no match for Giorgio. As they neared the post, there was much applause ; and as Giorgio turned his eyes towards his master's garden, he saw a handkerchief waving in the hand of Buona, who, as she saw the contest about to begin, exclaimed, "Now God and Saint Mark be with him!" Hearing this, her maid, Giannetta, uttered a little scream, for her mistress had put her own thought in words, and blushing she said that she had stepped on a sharp stone and hurt her foot; but in that moment Buona knew that the maid loved Giorgio, and Giannetta feared that her mistress cherished a like sentiment. The two gondolas were now advancing towards each other. The lances were lowered, the boats met and then separated, and it was seen that the gondola with the anchor at the prow was empty. Both the champion and his rower were gone. Giorgio had parried the opponent's lance, and putting his own lance between the legs of his enemy, had toppled him into the water, and then, as the lightened gondola passed him, a vigorous push in the breast of the rower had sent him splashing after his com- panion. These achievements were warmly applauded by the crowd on shore; and a number of boats, full of his friends, quickly surrounded that of Giorgio to congratulate him on his success. By the usual rules of combat the victor was entitled to an hour for repose before meeting his next opponent ; but Giorgio signified his readiness to begin again at once, and in a few minutes the gondola, with a dolphin as its symbol, and an apprentice of the Marcel li on its prow, rowed up to the starting-post. The second champion was MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS. 137 far superior to the first ; but after one or two slight thrusts from the lances, Giorgio profited by a fortunate moment, and hurled the second opponent into the water. Now was he a hero indeed, and all possible honors were shown him by his friends and even by his superiors. He had estab- lished a claim to the championship of all the gondoliers of Murano, with which the Berovieri were as well pleased as he. This day had revealed Buona to herself, and she was horrified to find that she was a rival to her own maid in the affections of a poor apprentice. She determined to stifle this unworthy sentiment; but so difficult did she find her task that physicians soon were summoned to account for her blanched cheeks, and restore her to health. Mocenigo, with her parents' consent, strove to arouse her to an interest in life ; but all was useless, and when fully convinced of her utter indifference to him, he quietly ceased to visit her, and she soon entered a convent. She confided her secret grief to her confessor alone, and never regretted the gay life she might have led at Venice as the bride of some young noble. As years went on, and the poor sought aid at her convent in their sea- sons of sorrow and suffering, the name of Suora Buona was that most frequently on their lips. From the day of the tournament Giorgio became seri- ously attentive to his business, and before very long he presented his master with a goblet, asking him to accept his first discovery. Beroviero examined it with curious delight. The inside was perfectly smooth, while the out- side was covered with a thousand irregular cracks, and the whole looked as if it had been frosted. Beroviero was filled with surprise, and declared the goblet to be beautiful and entirely new. Giorgio explained that his discovery was an accident, as most discoveries are. He had observed the effect on a 138 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. drop of hot glass when it fell into the water. It became crackled and frosted, and he at once tried the same thing on his goblet. Beroviero assured Giorgio that his dis- covery would prove of great value, and promised to take the young man to the palace, that he might show the gob- let to the Doge. But that very evening the old glass- maker was attacked by masked thieves as he was floating in his gondola, and survived his wounds but a few hours. Marino, who succeeded his father, claimed Giorgio's invention as the property of the firm, as Giorgio was still an apprentice , and the courts decided in his favor. Thus Marino had the sole right to make crackled glass; and Giorgio, driven to desperation by this injustice, stole the book in which Angelo Beroviero had written out all his methods and discoveries, and made an exact copy of it. This he sold to another firm, and with the proceeds set up a factory of his own. He married Giannetta, and seemed to have a promising future before him ; but what- ever he undertook ended unfortunately. The theft by which he thought to found a fortune was heavy on his conscience, and to it he attributed all his unhappiness. But under his son the Ballerini (Giorgio was called Ballerino in derision) became celebrated, and attained great eminence as glass-makers. When Buona entered the convent, Felicia devoted her- self to making an altar-cloth, in which she used the most costly materials that she could procure. The design was that of the Crucifixion. Three years she labored on it, and at last all was completed save the crown of thorns. She had constantly grown more and more fragile ; and one evening, as the sun was setting, she called her mother, saying, " See, dear mother, the end is come. I have pointed the last thorn in His earthly crown." As she ceased speaking, her head drooped, and she was dead. She was buried beneath the altar of the convent MUKANO AND THE GLASS-MAKEES. 139 church, and her exquisite embroidery served both as a cloth for the altar and a monument to her who had wrought it in loving faith. Marino Beroviero maintained the reputation of his family, and made still further advances in his art. His business was extensive and prosperous, and a few years after his father's death he married the sister of Mocenigo, the former suitor of Buona. CHAPTER VIII. MARINO FALIEBO; VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. IN the autumn of 1354, Marino Faliero of San Apostoli, Count of Valdemarino, although seventy-six years old, and having already served the Republic in several impor- tant offices, was elected Doge. At this time he was Venetian Legate at Avignon, and an envoy extraordinary was sent to inform him of his election and attend him on his return. At Verona lie was met by an escort of honor, and the Bucentaur awaited him at Chioggia, that he might make his entrance into Venice as became his dignity ; but as the State barge neared the city, a dense fog made it unsafe to proceed with so large a ship, and the ducal party was forced to take small boats to land. The gon- dola in which Faliero was seated drew up at the Molo, exactly between the Columns of Executions, which was thought by the Venetians to be a sinister augury in the beginning of a reign, and was frequently recalled in later years. During the forty-two years in which Faliero had filled positions of honor, at home and abroad, he had become accustomed to deciding important questions on his own responsibility ; his life had not prepared him to be a lay figure and enjoy it, and he soon found that a Doge was now little more than this. Faliero, too, was of a quick temper, and had not hesitated to box the ears of a bishop who had kept him waiting on a public occasion when he was Podest& at Treviso. He was vigorous in health and MARINO FALIERO. 141 youthful in feeling, and had married, late in life, a sec- ond wife, who was young and beautiful ; and his jealousy led him to believe that she was admired and coveted by every gentleman who had the privilege of her acquaint- ance. Naturally, her position as Dogaressa brought her in contact with all the nobility of Venice, and the gay and dashing young cavaliers soon discovered the weakness of the old husband. On Carnival Thursday, April 2, 1355, the old-time ceremony of immolating an ox and twelve boar-pigs, which symbolized the Patriarch of Aquileia and his canons, was celebrated in the Piazza, which was filled with a brilliant assemblage ; the court looked on from the palace windows, and later the Dogaressa gave a magnifi- cent entertainment to the rank and beauty of Venice. In the course of the festivities a knot of gay young fellows who surrounded the maids of honor grew boisterous, and indulged a freedom of conduct which aroused the wrath of the Doge. He singled Michele Steno as the victim of his displeasure, and commanded his exclusion from the scene. Steno, full of mortification and rage, sought his revenge, and before leaving the palace, managed to write, on the chair of the Doge, a most insulting taunt, which naturally roused him to fury. Steno was brought before the Forty, and sentenced to prison for two months and to exile for a year. This lenient punishment was regarded by Faliero as a more serious cause of complaint than the insult itself had been, and he demanded that Steno should come before the Ten and receive a severe sentence, if not death, at least perpetual banishment. But the age of the culprit, who might have been Faliero's grandson, and the considera- tion that his offence was a folly rather than a crime, precluded such severity ; and the old Doge was reminded that before the court he was but the equal of the poorest gondolier on the canals. 142 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Faliero cursed the patricians and the laws which had made the head of the Republic so helpless ; and just then the admiral of the Arsenal complained to him of an insult which he had received, and demanded redress. Faliero replied with bitterness that he could not obtain for others the justice which was denied him. One thing led to another, until the admiral darkly hinted at a revenge which would overturn the present condition of affairs and give the Doge more power. The two men soon understood each other, and when they parted were already conspirators against the State. Immediately they made a plan for a revolution ; each sought to enlist his friends in the conspiracy, and soon about twenty were pledged to its aid. The months that had passed since Faliero had been but a figure-head to that republic in which he had hitherto been a leading spirit, had brought him continual mortifi- cation and suffering. He had returned to Venice in proud triumph, having received the highest honor that the State could confer, which should be the crown and glory of his life. He had come to rule, but he had found the palace little less than a prison, his power a myth, and his con- dition a sort of gilded bondage. His opinion was domi- nated by that of the Ten; and even the giovinastri who paraded their youth and their finery in the Broglio could laugh him to ridicule, and insult him unpunished. The plot of the Doge and his sympathizers was badly and hastily devised. They believed that in ten days six hundred and fifty poniards would be at their service ; and on the 15th of April, amid cries of "Viva il Principe Faliero," the members of the obnoxious order were to be sacrificed as they gathered in the Piazza, the tocsin hav- ing been rung, and a false report of the arrival of a Genoese fleet off the Lido occupying their minds. Not a suspicion of the insurrection existed, and even the fol- MARINO FALIERO. 143 lowers of the chief conspirators did not know what they were to do ; they were simply to obey when commanded. But, as usually happens, when the time drew near, one of the conspirators had his own reasons for betraying the plot. In this case it was Beltramo, the skinner, who wished to save his especial patron, Lioni, who, being of quick wit, at the first hint from Beltraino had him arrested, and hastened to the palace to disclose his fears and suspicions to the Doge. Faliero made light of them, but in so awkward and embarrassed a manner as to arouse fresh misgivings where he endeavored to allay them ; and Lioni, taking two other nobles with him, returned for a second examination of Beltramo, who now exposed the whole plot, taking care, however, to conceal the part which Faliero had in it. The news was carried to the Ten at once. They too had heard a similar report, and were suspicious that some leaders of very exalted position were involved in the con- spiracy. The tribunal summoned all its members to an extra sitting, omitting only Niccolo Faliero^ nephew of the Doge. Decisive measures were taken at once ; the city was put under martial law, and the conspirators were arrested to the number of twenty or more. Ten of these were hanged at the casements of the palace two days before the rising was to have taken place ; one of the Falieri was imprisoned, and a Calendario was banished for life. Some names were entered on the Register of the Suspected; some of the suspected were set at liberty as blameless, and others received minor punishments. In the course of all these proceedings the truth concern- ing Faliero had become known, and on April 16 he was conducted to the Chamber of the Great Council, attired in his robes of state, and was there accused of treason. He made no plea of denial, but acknowledged all, and declared himself the worst of criminals. The question of his pun- 144 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. ishment was put to vote, and but one suffrage was cast in favor of his life. His sentence was delivered: "Marino Faliero, being convicted of conspiring against the Consti- tution, should be taken to the head of the grand staircase of St. Mark's, and there, being stripped of the ducal bonnet and the other emblems of his dignity, should be decapitated. " The Doge was then led back to the palace, maintaining his composure with heroic determination. The next morning he was again led to the Great Coun- cil Chamber, where a body of councillors, decemvirs, and advocates surrounded him and attended him to the place of execution. To the vast concourse of all conditions of men who were there assembled, the Doge made an address which was received in an awful stillness. He implored the forgiveness of the Venetians, and declared his sen- tence to be just. His crown and ducal robes were then removed, and replaced by a black cloak and cap. His head was severed from his body at a single stroke, and the mutilated remains were viewed by thousands, in San Marco, before the burial. This occurred at the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, the "Zanipolo" which we all know so well, either through visits or books ; there Faliero was secretly buried, and no inscription told those who walked above his grave that^there rest had been found for the body of the fiery old Doge. The Ten simply inscribed upon their books one sentence, "LET IT NOT BE WRITTEN," and his portrait was hung in the Hall of the Great Council after his death; but twelve years later, the Ten substituted for the picture a black crape veil with the inscription, "This is the place of Marino Faliero, beheaded for his crimes." Perhaps no better method could have been taken to keep his name alive and cause his story to be repeated from one genera- tion to another, ever raising the question, Was it a crime ? Is not Mrs. Oliphant near the truth when she says, VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. 145 "The incident altogether points more to a sudden outbreak of the rage and disappointment of an old public servant coming back from his weary labors for the State, in triumph and satis- faction to what seemed the supreme reward; and finding himself no more than a puppet in the hands of remorseless masters, sub- ject to the scoffs of the younger generation, supreme in no sense of the word, and with his eyes opened by his own suffering, per- ceiving for the first time what justice there was in the oft- repeated protest of the people, and how they and he alike were crushed under the iron heel of that oligarchy to which the power of the people and that of the prince was equally obnoxious." It seems like the irony of fate that the informer, Beltramo, should have been rewarded by the Ten with a thousand ducats and the privilege of wearing arms, while but two thousand ducats were given to the Doge's family- out of all his vast property. But Beltramo considered his claims so poorly satisfied that he outraged the Ten by his conduct and was thrown into prison. It is said that after his liberation he was assassinated by one of the conspira- tors whom he had betrayed. VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. On April 22, 1378, the Doge Andrea Contarini, in the Basilica of San Marco, invested Pisani with the supreme command of the Venetian fleet. As he presented the great banner to him, the Doge solemnly said : "You are destined by God to defend with your valor this Republic, and to retaliate upon those who have dared to insult her and to rob her of that security which she owes to the vir- tues of our progenitors. Wherefore we confide to you this victorious and dread standard, which it will be your duty to restore to us unsullied and triumphant. " Pisani was fifty-four years old, and during more than half his life had been in the active service of the Repub- 10 146 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. lie, sometimes in its naval battles, again as Governor of Candia, then as Captain of the Gulf, and everywhere suc- cessful. Now, in the full strength of middle life, he was adored by the common people, and by the nobles regarded with that hatred which is born of envy. Two days after receiving his command, Pisani sailed from the Lido with fourteen galleys, in pursuit of the Genoese fleet under Admiral Fieschi. Not meeting the enemy, Pisani boldly sailed up the Tuscan sea, spreading consternation in Genoa, which was just then threatened with an attack by land. But Pisani soon sailed away, and met Fieschi on May 30, off Porto d' Anzo. The day was most unpropitious for battle ; the sky was covered with black, angry-looking clouds, while the rain poured down in torrents. The galleys carried no sails, and the oars were frequently high in air on one side while the ship rolled in the sea on the other. The men found it difficult to stand ; and when the vessels met, it was dangerous and almost impossible to pass from one to another. At one moment two ships were in violent action, side by side; and then, quicker than it can be told, a mountainous wave raised one upon its crest while the other was buried in a yawning gulf. All through this terrible day the battle raged, and at its close Pisani was victorious. He had taken or sunk four of the nine Genoese ships; he had eight hundred prisoners, among whom was Fieschi himself. Half of them were sent to Candia, and half to Venice, where noble ladies dressed their wounds, and tended them with such charitable piety that the names of eight of their number have been preserved in history. The season was spent by Pisani in constantly cruising in search of another Genoese fleet under Luciano Doria, and in making a series of brilliant attacks on the towns of the Hungarian and Greek coasts. He was also sent to VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. 147 escort Valentina Visconti to her husband, Peter II. of Cyprus; and in the autumn, in opposition to his most earnest wishes, he was commanded to remain at that island for the winter. Pisani's lieutenant was Carlo Zeno, who came of a family noted for its bravery. He was ten years younger than Pisani, and had passed his life in adventures worthy of a knight of fame; indeed, he had been called "Zeno the Unconquered. " He also had scoured the sea during the summer of 1378, in search of the enemies of the Republic, and had performed feats of daring and skill. Like Pisani, he often acted on an impulse which savored of recklessness, while it was but bravery. Zeno was also a scholar, and had been eminent in his college at Padua ; but his besetting sin of gambling obliged him to fly, and his after life had been one long romance, until he entered the service of Venice in 1377. Pisani's forebodings for the winter at Cyprus were more than realized; and in the spring of 1379, out of nineteen galleys six only were fit for service, and scarcely men enough to man these were still alive. But his personal friends in Venice built and equipped twelve other ships, so that his fleet numbered eighteen sail. His enemies were busy at Venice ; but in spite of them and in spite of his absence, he was confirmed in his office, and Carlo Zeno and Michele Steno were made his lieutenants. During the spring Pisani diligently prosecuted his search for the Genoese fleet without success; but on the 7th of May, 1379, when he was returning from Brindisi with a large convoy of grain, Doria, with twenty-five sail, including two brigantines, suddenly presented himself in the roads of Pola. Pisani had many good reasons for not wishing to give battle to the Genoese at this time: his ships were fewer than Doria's ; there was much sickness among his men ; Zeno was absent on another expedition, 148 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. and he thought it wiser to act on the defensive only. But the council of civilians who were with him were unani- mous in favor of an engagement, and even hinted at cowardice in Pisani, whose rage at this injustice was almost uncontrollable, and it was with great difficulty that he so far governed himself as not to attack his accusers. He bade his captains prepare for battle, and soon all was in readiness. Pisani, in full armor, standing on the stern deck addressed his men : " Remember, my brethren, that those who now face you are the same whom you have vanquished with so much glory on the Roman shore. Let not the name of Luciano Doria terrify you ; it is not the names of commanders that will decide the conflict, but Venetian hearts and Venetian hands ! " He then cried out, " He that loves Saint Mark, let him follow me ! " and this battle-cry was echoed from ship to ship. At first the day was propitious to the Venetians, who fought with even more than their usual intrepidity, and victory seemed to be theirs, when the Genoese vessels began a retreat and Pisani followed in pursuit. After several miles had thus been made, and the Venetian ships were separated from each other, by a skilful manoeuvre Doria turned about, and renewing the combat with great vigor and ferocity, gained a complete victory. From seven to eight hundred Venetians perished; twenty-four hundred were made prisoners, and but six galleys remained afloat. Near the end of the conflict Doria had raised his visor, exclaiming, "The foe are already vanquished; the battle is all but ours," when Donate Zeno plunged his lance into the throat of the victorious admiral, killing him instantly. Venice was filled with consternation and surprise when this dreadful news was known. Her only fleet was destroyed; the enemy was approaching the lagoons, and . of -Siin Marco; Columns of Execution. VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. 149 Carlo Zeno was far away. A terrible cry was raised against Pisani ; his enemies could now make him pay for his popularity and greatness and for some of his out- bursts of temper from which they had suffered, and they demanded the extreme penalty. He was brought to Ven- ice in fetters, and was not permitted to speak a word in self-defence. In July it was moved in the Senate that he be beheaded between the Columns; but with a shudder, this motion was denied, and he was sentenced to prison for six months and to exclusion from all offices for five years. In August the Genoese fleet appeared before Venice, under the command of Pietro Doria. Happily, some preparations had been made, and the ports of Lido and Malamocco were blocked with sunken vessels, chains, and palisades, but that of Brondolo was still open, and there the enemy entered. Genoa was now allied with Hungary, Naples, Padua, Aquileia, Austria, and Ancona against Venice. Twenty-four thousand men were landed, and siege laid to the citadel of Chioggia. The Venetians who held the place under Pietro Emo were not more than thirty-five hundred; for six days these brave men held out against such fearful odds, and even then were defeated by accident. Hazlitt gives a picturesque description of the event : " On the 16th an alarm was suddenly spread among the troops of the Podesta that the bridge behind them was in flames. It was a fireship, of which the combustion in the canal of Santa Caterina had diffused the erroneous impression. The Genoese caught and echoed the cry, and renewed their flagging exertions with fresh ardor. They are mowed down by the guns as they advance; the carnage is terrific. Still, like demons in whose breast the thirst for vengeance and the lust of spoil has extin- guished the fear of death, they continue to come up. The Ve- netians begin to lose ground and to fall back upon the bridge. 150 THE QUEEN OF THE ADKIATIC. They recede a little and a little more. It is in vain that Emo and fifty chosen men-at-arms dispute the front with desperate tenacity and transcendent heroism, foot to foot and hand to hand. The position is slowly forced. The allies are upon the bridge. The Venetians quicken their retrograde pace. In their haste they omit to destroy the communication; and they enter the gates pell-mell with their pursuers. Thus Chioggia fell." The allies and Venetians had each lost many men, and nearly four thousand Venetians were prisoners. The town was pillaged, but the women were protected from harm. Some of the Venetians paid enormous ransoms, Emo three thousand ducats ; and others probably as much, so that the gain to the allies was large. No words can portray the effect of the news of the fall of Chioggia at Venice. The bell of the Campanile was tolled, and at once the armed citizens filled the Piazza. The sobs and moans of women were heard ; elsewhere they were seen wringing their hands and tearing their hair in mute despair. Some men, too, yielded to fear; while others in their avarice hid their treasures. But the majority were true Venetians, and declared that "the State cannot be lost while those remain who can man a galley and handle a pike ; " and the aged Doge, the Coun- cil, and Senate refused to allow any reason for despair. There was a scarcity of food, and the Republic was much straitened in its resources; but Venetian fidelity would endure everything before it would submit to defeat. Nothing had been known of Carlo Zeno since his sepa- ration from Pisani ; his arrival would turn the scale, and he might come any day, since an envoy had been sent to recall him, and before taking any further warlike meas- ures it was determined to try negotiation. But Doria, who almost felt that at Chioggia he had conquered Ven- ice, replied : " By God's faith, my Lords of Venice, ye shall have no peace from the Lord of Padua or from our VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. 151 Commune of Genoa until I have put a bit into the mouths of the horses of your Evangelist Saint Mark. When they have been bridled, you shall then, in sooth, have a good peace; and this is our purpose, and that of our Commune." Some Genoese prisoners had been sent with the embassy, and their unconditional surrender offered as a bait to the allies ; but Doria scornfully sent them back, saying that in a few days he would come to release them and the rest of his countrymen. Then all Venice was roused ; the bell which summoned the popular assembly was rung, and the people were informed of their present peril, and invited to aid the government with wisdom and advice. There was, how- ever, but one opinion; all desired to arm and go forth with such galleys as were at the Arsenal, they thought it better to perish in defence of Venice than to perish in her palaces and squares from want. A terrible crisis followed : all salaries were suspended; no business was done; and by a new loan, to which the citizens liberally subscribed, the finances were bettered. The city was fortified by earthworks from Lido to Santo Spirito, and towers were erected on each side the pass of San Niccolo. A new captain-general was now to be elected, and the favorite of the government, Taddeo Giustiniani, was nomi- nated; but the people with one accord refused to serve under any man save Vettore Pisani. After a day's debate, late in the evening some Senators were deputed to inform Pisani that the Doge and Senate were awaiting him. Naturally the hero was much moved ; and he replied that he preferred to have the night for reflection, and to wait on the Seigniory the next morning. Accordingly, at daybreak, the delegates, followed by the people, came to the gates of the prison; and when he appeared with his usual cheerful and good-humored aspect, he was lifted by some of his old sailors and borne 152 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. on their shoulders to the palace, amid cries of "Viva il Nostro Vettore ! Viva Vettore Pisani ! " but he chidingly cried, "Viva San Marco!" The Doge and senators met him on the staircase and graciously welcomed him. Mass was celebrated. Pisani was some time in conclave with the College, the people constantly shouting his name out- side ; and when he emerged he was borne, as he had come, to his own house in San Fantino, where he had not been for fifteen months. As he was passing the Campanile, his old pilot, Cor- baro, drew near to him and shouted out, "Now is the time, Compadre, for revenging yourself by seizing the dictatorship of this city. Behold, all are at your service ; all are willing at this very instant to proclaim you prince, if you choose!" Pisani boiled with rage, and dealing Corbaro a heavy blow on the cheek, burst into indig- nant speech, and at last exclaimed : " Let none who wish me well say Viva Pisani ! but, Viva San Marco ! " and the populace then shouted, "Viva San Marco e Vettore Pisani ! Viva il Pisani, ch'e nostro Padre ! " and the throng was so dense from the Piazza to San Fantino that not another man could have found room to stand. But the people soon learned that Pisani had merely been given the command of the Lido, while Giustiniani was at the head of the navy. Then a great tumult arose ; and although the government alleged that Pisani was needed at the Lido, the people to the number of fifty thou- sand refused to embark on the galleys until Vettore Pisani was made captain-general of all the forces of the Repub- lic by sea and land. The matter was then referred to the Ten, who were awed into compliance ; and the commission was granted as desired, and this but four days after the fall of Chioggia, so hastily had all been done. Meantime the allies had progressed less rapidly, owing to divisions in their counsels; but they had pushed for- VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. 153 ward to Malamocco, and there erected a battery within three miles of the capital. Many stray shots reached Santo Spirito. Pisani had much to do to make efficient sailors and soldiers of raw recruits, to provide for the safety of the city, to equip between twenty and thirty skeletons of galleys which were at the Arsenal and were ready for sea in three days, and to attend to the lists of the volunteers. The whole city was enthusiastically patriotic. "All classes hastened to enroll themselves. Painters quitted their studios to be initiated in the rudiments of naval discipline on the Giudecca ; cutlers and apothecaries closed their workshops, and devoted themselves to drilling and exercise. Artisans brought their savings ; women plucked the jewels from their dresses, and begged the Seigniory to dispose of them as they would." Pisani found the wooden towers which Giustiniani had erected at Porto Lido to be insufficient, and demolished them in order to build others of stone. Giustiniani, full of rage, endeavored to persuade the friends of Pisani not to approve of this ; and he, seeing the hesitation, seized a trowel, crying, " He that loves Saint Mark, let him follow me ! " and laid the first stone with his own hands. The men returned to their duty, and the castles of San Andrea and San Niccolo were built in four days! Many other preparations were made ; and when on August 24 the Genoese attempted an attack at two different points, they were repulsed in such a manner as to convince them of the futility of their efforts, and the siege of Venice was raised. After a few weeks Doria destroyed the works he had raised at Malamocco and retired to Chioggia, there to await the fall of Venice by starvation. The situation in Venice was so desperate that some of the councillors even made a motion for emigration to Candia or Negropont ; but this wild notion was met with 154 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. declarations that death among the ruins of Venice would be preferable to life elsewhere. Food was so scarce and dear that a large proportion of the people were famishing; even the wealthy families often ate their last loaf not know- ing where to get another, and they were also as charita- ble as it was in their power to be to their poorer country- men. Thus the autumn passed and winter had come, and yet Carlo Zeno had not returned. He was the only hope for Venice and her people. A letter found on a captured vessel gave information of splendid successes which he had achieved and rich booty that he had taken ; his name inspired terror from the Golden Horn to the Riviera, and he was now probably off Canea, whither a messenger was sent to command his immediate return. Just at this point Barbarigo captured three of the Genoese ships and took one hundred and fifty prisoners, and Pisani advised that this good fortune should be followed up by an endeavor to recover Chioggia. He recognized the daring and difficulty of the undertaking; but not to make this effort meant starvation, and they might reason- ably count on the aid of Zeno very soon. This advice was acted upon, and a decree was published that of those families of plebeians who should most liberally meet this emergency by the offer of soldiers and money, thirty should be summoned to the Great Council ; that to those not thus called five thousand ducats should be annually distributed, and continued to their heirs forever; that all foreign merchants who showed zeal for the cause should be made citizens, and all Venetians who eluded the bur- dens and hardships of the time should forfeit all civil rights. This measure produced immediate results. Men and money were freely offered; and the Doge Contarini, seventy-three years old, but hale and hearty still, wished to assume command, with Pisani as his admiral and vice- captain-general. VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. 155 Pisani had learned, by one means and another, that Doria had thirty thousand men, fifty galleys, seven hun- dred or more light craft, and full supplies of every sort. The odds against the Venetians were overwhelming, hut they delayed not, and December 21 was fixed for the beginning of the attack. Thirty-four galleys, sixty barks, and four hundred boats of all sorts of build and dimensions made up the Venetian fleet. Orders were issued that every man should be at his post in the ships, at noon, under pain of death. The whole force was divided into three parts, the first under command of Pisani ; the centre under the Doge, assisted by Cavalli ; and the last under Cornaro, called Collo storto from his crooked neck. At the hour for vespers the Doge, Pisani, and the leaders attended .a Mass in San Marco, and it was eight o'clock before Contarini mounted his barge and unfurled the same great banner which had floated above the victory over Barbarossa. All had been done rapidly and without noise. It was a mild winter evening; the stars were bright and the sea calm, and everything seemed propitious to the undertaking. Soon after passing the Lido a fog came on, but speedily disappeared; and not far from ten o'clock the fleet was off the Pass of Chioggia, at the southern point of Pelestrina. Pisani had planned to blockade the Geno- ese instead of attacking them ; and in the course of three days the Strait of Chioggia was choked and dammed oil the shores of Pelestrina and Brondolo. But this had been done at the cost of great hardships and loss of life. Even in this winter-time the men had worked in the water up to their waists, all the while in danger of drowning as well as of being shot by the enemy. They began to murmur ; they declared that this was more than flesh and blood could bear, and they demanded leave to return to Venice. Pisani had shared all their perils, 156 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. but he knew that great firmness was required to put down this discontent, and he asked the Doge, in a tone which made his request a command, to swear on his sword that he would not return to Venice unless Chioggia was taken. Contarini took this oath without hesitation. This scene occurred on Christmas eve. The Venetian engineers, now that the blockade was complete even to the canal of Lombardy, began the erec- tion of a fort at Fassone, and mounted it with cannon of the largest caliber; one, called the "Trevisan," could throw stones weighing one hundred and ninety-five pounds, and the " Victory " was almost as powerful. Neither of these could be fired more than once in twenty- four hours ! By the time that this work was accomplished, December 29, the condition of the Venetians was deplor- able. They were on half rations, and every day in col- lision with the enemy, while the cold was piercing. The officers, oarsmen, and crossbowmen now declared that they would brave all consequences and return to Venice. Even Pisani was shaken for a little ; but he summoned all his heroism and fortitude, and besought his men to hold out until Zeno could reach them. He prevailed, but at the cost of a pledge that if Zeno had not arrived on New Year's day, he would raise the blockade- and return home. Upon so slender a thread was Pisani forced to hang the existence of the Republic. Forty-eight hours might decide that the civilization of the world was to be sunk in darkness ; that art, science, and letters were to be lost in a deluge of bloodshed. For if Venice were conquered, by whom would she be ruled ? Such contentions must ensue as would involve all Europe, and result in consequences too disastrous to be imagined. The suspense of the last two days of the year was past any telling, and no change had come; but the first glimmer of the light of the New Year revealed fifteen sail in the offing. Can we under- VETTORE PISAM AND CARLO ZENO. 157 stand the anxiety of the Doge and his leaders as the} r asked the question, " Are these our ships under Zeno, or are they new forces for our enemies ? " Light boats were despatched to learn the truth, and no imagination can apprehend the delirious joy when it was found that the Lion of St. Mark had been hoisted by the new-comers. Carlo Zeno was there, and Venice was saved! It is needless to dwell upon the details of the continued siege of Chioggia and the various efforts made by the Genoese. They did not easily submit to their fate. They tried negotiation, and made every effort for a compro- mise ; but the Venetians had suffered too much to make any terms save those of unconditional surrender, and this came at last on June 22, and Chioggia was given up to pillage by the Star Company of Milan and the Tard Venus of Sir John Hawkwood, the mercenary troops to which this privilege had been promised. The booty was enor- mous, and the Republic gained nineteen good ships, and large stores of salt, powder, and equipments of all kinds ; the salt alone was valued at ninety thousand crowns. The prisoners numbered 4,440, and were more like ghosts than men, so near starvation had they come. They were sent to Venice, where many died in their prisons while preparations were being made for the triumphal return of Contarini. This occurred on the first day of July, and was as magnificent as such a spectacle at Venice was sure to be. But rarely, even in this city, had so remarkable a trio been seen as that of the patriotic and dauntless Doge, the single-hearted Pisani, and the peerless Zeno. But two days elapsed before Pisani again set sail and occupied himself in opposing the enemies of the Republic. In pursuit of the Genoese he reached Manfredonia on August 12. The hardships of service and imprisonment had told on the constitution of the Admiral, and he was 158 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. now attacked by fever which greatly alarmed his friends; but he made light of it, and on the 13th despatched Corbaro, his old companion, with eight galleys to follow the Genoese fleet, which was in sight. But his impatience overcame his resolution to remain behind, and in spite of all expostulation he left his sick-bed, armed himself, and directed his sails to be set. The enterprise failed; Corbaro was killed; Pisani was wounded slightly, and returned at evening to Manfredonia much dejected, ill, and fainting. He was removed to the house of the com- mandant of the port, who procured a physician for him; he requested an amanuensis, and dictated a long letter to the Senate, closing with his plans which should "make Genoa rue the day when she entered upon the War of Chioggia." The letter finished, he asked for water, and then for bread, which he began to eat ravenously, but suddenly changed color, gasped for breath, and sank lifeless upon his pillow. He was but fifty-six years old, and his life- work would have honored fourscore years, since we live not by time, but by deeds. He was deeply mourned, and the tears on the faces of the weather-beaten sailors when they learned of the death of their "Father" proved how truly they had loved their brave commander, who had survived the redemption of the Doge's vow but seven weeks. The most sumptuous funeral was decreed by the Senate, and he was to be buried in San Antonio di Castello, where his father and brother already rested. The whole people were so wrapped in grief, and the public mind so occupied with the obsequies, that " if the smallest Genoese fleet had made a descent at that conjuncture, the country would have stood in the utmost peril." As the procession was about to move, a popular clamor was raised, the people declaring that Pisani ought to be buried nowhere but in VETTORE PISANI AND CARLO ZENO. 159 the Ducal Chapel ; and just when a tumult was threat- ened, a sailor put his shoulder to the bier, crying out, " "We, his children, are carrying this brave captain to our Father, Saint Anthony ! " This quelled the excitement, and the procession began to move ; it extended from San Fantino to San Antonio, and yet, when the pall-bearers were entering the church, hundreds had not found a place in the line ! A splendid mausoleum was erected over the family vault, upon which was placed a statue of Pisani, in the uniform of a captain-general, grasping an ensign with two streamers, and surmounted by a cross. The capture of Cattaro, in August, 1379, was later painted to his honor by Andrea Vicentino in the Sala dello Scrutinio, in the Ducal Palace. In 1381 a peace was made at Turin between Venice and the allies, and immediately afterwards the Senate redeemed its promise and created thirty new councillors, selected from the loyal grocers, skinners, apothecaries, and other plebeian traders. A series of public festivities followed; the newly made nobles went in procession to San Marco, bearing lighted tapers in their hands; tourna- ments, regattas, and banquets were held with unusual rejoicings, for the sadness of many months was forgotten, and thankfulness and joy filled all hearts. We may well imagine that some patricians of ancient and honorable descent saluted the newly ennobled masons and other artisans with a poor grace ; but that was of small account to these men who had earned the honors that the others had simply been born to, by sacrificing much for the Republic, and they fully enjoyed their new estate and its privileges. Contarini lived to witness this happy conclusion of the recent war, and died in 1382, when seventy-four years old. He may be called the last of the hero-princes of 160 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. his time. He had been a grand central figure in the dread- ful days of the Chioggian War; by his example he had imparted courage to failing hearts, and by his oath to conquer Chioggia or see Venice no more, he made it impossible for his soldiers and sailors to desert him, and thus his chivalry warded off failure and catastrophe. The generation which followed him listened to the tales of those who had fought under Pisani on the sea, or served under Contarini at Chioggia, with the same breathless interest with which our youth now listen to the stories of the veterans who were engaged in our own struggles for the preservation of our country. When Vettore Pisani died, there was but one man thought worthy to replace him, and Carlo Zeno was made Admiral of the Fleet. Under him the Adriatic bore no enemies to Venice upon its bosom, and he suffered no defeat in any encounter, although the remaining thirty- six years of his life were largely spent in the service of the Republic. Jacopo Zeno, Bishop of Padua, was the grandson of Carlo, and his biographer. He tells us that Carlo was "square-shouldered, broad-chested, solidly and strongly made, with large and speaking eyes, and a manly, great, and full countenance; his stature neither short nor tall. Nothing was wanting to him which strength, health, decorum, and gravity demanded." The details of his life as given by the Bishop are not altogether assuring as regards " decorum and gravity ; " for although he certainly was an admirable general or admiral, he was equally capable as a pirate, and though his patri- otism was undoubted, he could make himself quite at home with any sort of men from an}' part of the globe. Indeed, he served Galeazzo Visconti at Milan and in Piedmont for ten years with the same zeal that he had served Venice. During this time he loaned four hundred VETTORE PISANI AND CAKLO ZENO. 161 ducats to Francesco da Carrara, who then was at peace with Venice ; some years later this money was repaid, and the entry in Carrara's book was simply this : " To Carlo Zeno, paid four hundred ducats." After the death of the Carrarese and after Zeno's return to Venice, this register was sent to the Ten. A suspicion that Carlo Zeno had accepted a bribe was the natural result, and he was called before the secret tribunal. He told the simple truth; but it availed nothing, and he was sentenced to loss of public place and rank, and two years in prison ! The Bishop vividly portrays the indignation which followed this sentence in Venice and in other cities where Zeno was known; and he does not say that hia grandfather was a prisoner for two years, but he does say that when he was at liberty he went to Jerusalem, and turned his thoughts to spiritual things. As he was returning, he aided the King of Cyprus to defeat the Genoese and save the island with the cunning and skill of his younger days, though he was now past seventy; and after reaching Venice, he married a third wife, as his grandson frankly states, " for no other reason than to secure good domestic government, and a consort and companion who would take upon herself all internal cares, and leave him free to study philosophy and the sacred writings." He surrounded himself with learned men, and his house became a centre for the exchange of thought among scholars, statesmen, and good citizens, while he spent his days in reading, writing, and constant attendance on the services of the Church. " In the cold winter he had his bed filled with books, so that when he had slept suffi- ciently he could sit up in bed, and pass the rest of the night in reading, nor would he put down his book save for some great necessity. " But this serene and undisturbed life did not continue to 11 162 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. his end. His wife and his favorite son, the father of the Bishop, died ; the son was but thirty, and his old father was desolate. His son Pietro was a naval commander of honorable repute, but it was on Jacopo that the old man's heart was fixed. At last, in 1418, when eighty- four years old, and honored by all Venice, the father also died. The religious orders claimed the privilege of carrying him to his grave ; but the seamen of Venice rose as one man, and hastened to the Doge to claim their right to bear the body of their beloved commander. "Their prayer was granted ; and with all the ecclesiastical splendors in front of them, and all the pomp of the State behind, the seamen of Venice carried him to his grave, each relay watching jealously that every man might have his turn. " His tomb was in a church of the Cistercians, destroyed long since. Its site is now a part of the Arsenal. Let us hope that his bones rest beneath so fitting a monument as this for " Zeno the Unconquered. " CHAPTER IX. BURANO AND TORCELLO. THE town of Burano, on the island of the same name, seven miles east of Venice, is now quite the supe- rior of Mazzorbo, from which, in its infancy, it begged a piece of land to build itself on. Its founders were few and very poor, but at present there are about ten thousand Buranelli, who well sustain the reputation for disorderli- ness which they have inherited ; for in the old days, even the women of Burano, who held a market in Venice, caused the magistrates much vexation by their quarrels, and now the Venetian gondoliers usually ascribe any troubles that arise on the canals to the Buranei, unless they know of the presence of those other disturbers, the Chiozzotti. Burano is noisy and dirty. The people are rough in manner and speech, and the children bold and persistent in following strangers. The muscular development of the Buranelli and their statuesque figures are the only traits that one can admire in them. The men are occupied in fishing and towing barges, filled with lagoon mud, which goes to enrich the soil of Pordenone. They have the reputation of doing good work for reasonable pay. The women are uproarious in their speech and behavior, and seem unfit to make the soft, lovely lace which is largely their occupation. But as one listens to their speech, it is found to be in a dialect so soft and sweet as to make one wonder how so much noise can be made with 164 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. vowels alone, for apparently all the consonants have been lost. H. F. Brown says : " They dwell upon the vowels, redoubling and prolonging them, so that their words seem to have no close, but die away in a kind of sigh. For instance, they call their own town Buraa instead of Buran. The effect is not unpleasant, but is rather too sweet and gripless for our northern ears. " Mazzorbo, which at the founding of Burano was the Urbs Major (the greater city), has gradually disappeared, and is now but the kitchen garden of Venice. Burano has annexed it by a bridge built on piles, and high enough in the centre for boats to pass under. There is scarcely a house left on the island, save the little inn where the boatmen get a glass of wine. Each morning the fruit and vegetable boats go to Venice, and their cargoes are sold near the Rialto. The difference between the people of these two islands is striking. Those of Mazzorbo are gentle and kind in manner, and really beautiful in person. What can make this dissimilarity in the twelve hundred feet which separates them ? But the special interest in Burano is the lace-making, which is now in full revival, thanks to the Countess Marcel lo, and other benevolent patrons, whose efforts have reproduced the Point de Burano in its old patterns. The hundreds of girls in the Fabbrica di Merletti di Burano are certainly more than good-looking, and are improving in their work each year. Indeed, one may believe that the old-time skill of their ancestors is not lost. The sacristan of San Martino exhibits some fine bits of old Point de Burano, and the robes of the priests are so exquisite that one need not be a judge of laces in order to appreciate their beauty. One who has ever visited this independent little island will recall its peculiarities, and certainly its lace-makers, in whatever distant part of the globe their handiwork may be seen. BURANO AND TORCELLO. 165 During the sixteenth century lace-making flourished in all the principal towns of northern Italy, but to Venice belongs the fame of needle-points; and Venetian ladies were the first to wear it, in the seventeenth century, from which time the fine Venetian lace-making dates. Before this time the ladies of Venice had worn lace, as their portraits attest, but not of this particular sort. Artists of the highest order did not disdain to make designs for Point coupe", which was made for ladies of illustrious rank, for princesses and queens; and bits of this exquisite point now bring prices that are simply fabulous, and worse, to any but a collector of laces or a connoisseur in them. "The special character of this lace consists in high reliefs, ornamental figures either in solid or open work, artistically formed and arranged in petals, overlaid with fantastic flowers of very broad design, the open blossoms of which detach them- selves from rich foliage of marvellous workmanship, and are connected by joining threads and very delicate network stitches." The authorities in this specialty put Venice point above all other laces, on account of its high relief, its softness and suppleness, and a certain velvety quality found only in needle-made laces. For some time the secret of the stitches used in making this lace were known only to the inventors. Its fame reached other countries immediately, and the demand for it naturally caused imitations to spring up. The real Venice point was made entirely with the needle. The foliage, the flower petals, the stems, all the raised parts, and all the connecting threads were made in one stitch. The time necessary for its comple- tion gave it an intrinsic value ; and its price was such that only very wealthy persons could pay it, while if exported the duty was also heavy. In other countries laces were made which from a dis- 166 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. tance had much the same effect, but could not be com- pared to the true Venetian point. Louis XIV. gave much attention to this lace, and instructed his ambassadors to give him all possible information about its manufacture. He even wrote letters on this subject with his own hand, and was greatly interested in keeping Venetian lace out of France, thus compelling the use of French point. And on the other hand, the Venetian ambassador to France was able to discover just what workmen the French had induced to go to France to introduce the lace-making, and sent a list of them to the Senate. All this resulted in a decree of the Inquisitors, as follows : "If any workman or artist transports his art into a foreign country to the detriment of the Republic, he shall be sent an order to return ; if he does not obey, his nearest relatives shall be imprisoned, so as to reduce him to obedience by his interest in them; if he returns, the past will be pardoned, and an estab- lishment in Venice will be procured for him; if, in spite of the imprisonment of his relations, he is still determined to live abroad, an emissary will be charged to kill him, and after his death his relations will be set at liberty." TORCELLO. Torcello, that once populous city, now uninhabitable from malaria, is a realization of complete desolation ; for the few traces of its past make its present more gloomy than if it had never been other than a desert isle. And yet in spring-time it is full of beauty, when its orchards and thorn-hedges are in bloom and fill the air with fra- grance, or in the golden autumn days, when the sea- lavender, with its delicate, feather-like bloom, tinges all the meadows with its purple. In his book on "Italian Sculptors" Mr. Perkins thus prettily tells the legend of the settlement of Torcello : BURANO AND TORCELLO. 167 "Two hundred years after the invasion of Attila had driven many of the inhabitants of Aquileja and Altina from their homes, the province was desolated by the Lombards. The Altinese, alarmed at their approach, anxiously deliberated whether they should remain to face this ' Australis plaga,' or seek safety in flight, when they beheld vast flocks of birds, with their fledglings in their beaks, take flight from the city walls and towers and direct their course seaward. Regarding this as a sign from heaven, some departed to Ravenna, some to Penta- polis, and others to Istria, leaving behind them a band of devout persons, who, in order to obtain a more direct manifesta- tion of the will of Heaven, determined to fast and pray for three days, according to the advice of their bishop, Paulus. At the end of the time they heard a voice like thunder, saying, ' As- cend into the city tower and look at the stars.' They beheld a vision of boats and ships and islands, and taking this as an indication that their course should be directed seaward, they re- moved their most precious possessions to the island of Torcello. . . . Paulus, Bishop of Altina, migrated with his flock, their relics and treasure, to Torcello and the neighboring islands, A. D. 641." The ascent of the tall, square Campanile (eleventh cen- tury) is not easy, for its ladders are rickety; but the view from its bell-chamber compensates for all the diffi- culty of reaching it. To the east lies a large district, which is neither sea nor land, but partly both, crossed and recrossed by broad ditches. These are the valli, in which fish, are bred. Many little huts stand beside the vallij in which Venetian gentlemen live while duck- shooting in the winter. The sport is so fine that, in spite of cold and the absence of all real comfort, a shooting- party usually lasts several days. To the south the view is over the Adriatic, and the eye follows the line of breakwaters, even to Chioggia. South- west lies Venice, her many towers and palaces cutting an irregular line across the azure sky, with the Euganean 168 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Hills for a background. To the north, far away beyond the plain, with nothing to intercept the view, stand the Doloraitic Alps, seen in perfection from Torcello. Tofano, Antelao, and Pelmo stand out boldly, their clear-cut peaks white with snow, and their long, lower ridges dark and shadowy. A more heavenly sky, a lovelier sea, more striking mountain peaks, and a more fancy-stirring city, can these be found in any one panorama to excel the view from the Campanile of Torcello ? The Cathedral of Torcello was so injured by the repairs under the Austrians that one can find little pleasure in visiting it. The one interesting feature is the arrange- ment of the chancel, where the semicircular seats rise one above the other, and the bishop's throne in the centre, reached by a steep staircase, towers above all. Authori- ties agree that the fittings of this apse give a better idea of the way in which apses were originally arranged than does any other church, either of the same period with this (seventh century), or even earlier. It is most unusual ; and Ruskin throws such a charm about it that it is pure pleasure to read what he says of it : " There is one circumstance which we ought to remember as giving peculiar significance to the position which the episcopal throne occupies in the island church; namely, that in the minds of all early Christians the church itself was most frequently symbolized under the image of a ship, of which the bishop was the pilot. Consider the force which this symbol would assume in the imaginations of men to whom the spiritual Church had become an ark of refuge in the midst of a destruction hardly less terrible than that from which the eight souls were saved of old, a destruction in which the wrath of man had become as broad as the earth and as merciless as the sea, and who saw the actual and literal edifice of the Church raised up, itself like an ark in the midst of the waters. No marvel if with the surf of the Adriatic rolling between them and the shores of their birth, BUKANO AND TORCELLO. 169 from which they were separated forever, they should have looked upon each other as the disciples did when the storm came down on Tiberias Lake, and have yielded ready and loving obedience to those who ruled them in His name who had there rebuked the winds and commanded stillness to the sea. And if the stranger would yet learn in what spirit it was that the dominion of Venice was begun, and in what strength she went forth con- quering and to conquer, let him not seek to estimate the wealth of her arsenals or numbers of her armies, nor look upon the pageantry of her palaces, nor enter into the secrets of her coun- cils ; but let him ascend the highest tier of the stern ledges that sweep round the altar of Torcello, and then, looking as the pilot did of old along the marble ribs of the goodly temple-ship, let him repeople its ruined deck with the shadows of its dead mari- ners, and strive to feel in himself the strength of heart that was kindled within them, when first, after the pillars of it had settled in the sand, and the roof of it had been closed against the angry sky that was still reddened by the fires of their home- steads, first, within the shelter of its knitted walls, amidst the murmur of the waste of waves and the beating of the wings of the sea-birds round the rock that was strange to them, rose that ancient hymn, in the power of their gathered voices : ' The sea is His, and He made it : and His hands prepared the dry land.' ' : A picturesque cloister connects the Baptistery or Church of St. Fosca with the cathedral. The relics of the virgin martyr are said to rest beneath the low, ancient church. The pillars of the cloisters are so short that a tall man can touch the arches they sustain; but they are of pure Greek marble, with delicately sculptured capitals. Every- thing seems so small, the two churches, the tower, an ancient well, and a marble column are all that remain, save one or two old buildings that may now have disap- peared, so tumble-down were they when last I saw them. The Piazza ( ! ) around which these buildings stand is such a bit of a grass -grown place! The only street is but a 170 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. footpath, and yet we reverence Torcello for its age. The banner of Venice has floated here more than a thousand years, more than six centuries before Columbus dis- covered our part of the globe. There is a little museum in which a few antiquities are gathered, where one may rest and think before taking leave of this ghost-haunted island of. Torcello, so well described by Helen Hunt : " Short sail from Venice sad Torcello lies, Deserted island low, and still and green. Before fair Venice was a bride and queen Torcello's court was held in fairer guise Than Doges knew. To-day death-vapors rise From fields where once her palaces were seen, And in her silent towers that crumbling lean Uuterrified the brooding swallow flies." As we row back to Venice in the lovely evening, with the orange and purple of the after-glow dissolving into paler and colder tints, and the stars peeping out one by one, Giacomo tells us a ghost-story which is familiar to the gondoliers and fishermen, a group of whom we have just met returning from Venice to their strange fishing- ground. The story runs that once upon a time six men were fishing and living together in a small hut among the valli. One of them had a little son who stayed in the hut to cook food for the men whenever they came in. As the night was the best time for fishing, the little fellow was often alone from sunset to dawn. One morning, as it was growing light, the men stopped their work and rowed toward home ; and on the way they saw the body of a drowned man, which the tide was taking out to sea. They lifted the corpse into their boat, and laid it on the prow, the head resting on the arm. The little boy was watching for them ; and when he saw the seventh man, BURANO AND TORCELLO. 171 he thought he was some other fisherman who had fallen asleep after his night of work. He cheerily called out, "Breakfast is ready; come along ! " and ran to the hut to see that all was right. When the six were seated at the table, the boy asked, " Where is the other man ? Will he not have breakfast too ? " " Why, is n't he here ? You had better run and call him, " answered one of the men. The boy ran to the canal and called out loudly, " Break- fast is ready, and there is enough for you. Why do you not come ? " Getting no answer, the boy went again to the hut, saying, "What ails him ? He will not speak." " Ah, " said another, " the old fool is deaf. You must shout at him and swear a little. " Again the boy went down and shouted, "The others wait for you. Come along, old fool ! " But again the man moved not. The third time back to the hut ran the boy, saying, "Come, one of you! He will not wake for me." But they only laughed and said, " Go shake his leg, and say we cannot wait till doomsday for him. " The boy did as he was bid, and clambered into the boat, and shook the man, who then sat up on the prow and said, " Go back and tell them I am coming. " Then the boy hastened back, and found the men all laughing and joking, and he cried out, " It is all right now, and he is coming." Suddenly the laughter ceased, and the six men turned ashy pale. They heard the footsteps approaching, and soon the dead man came in and sat in the boy's place. The eyes of the others were fixed on him, and they could neither eat nor speak. They could not turn their eyes from the stranger's face, and their blood was gradually chilled in their veins ; and when the sun was risen, seven 172 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. dead men sat around the table, and the poor little boy was alone. It is from this event that the valle is called the Valle dei Sette Morti. Ghost-stories are rare in Venice. There is another that one usually hears. It concerns a house called "haunted." It stands on the most easterly point of Venice, and is spoken of as the "Casa degli Spirit!." The old women say that " once upon a time " a fine young Venetian lived there with a charming bride, and the friend who had been their groomsman visited them fre- quently. He was godfather to their first child, which is a very sacred relation in Venice, and is called " Compare di San Zuan." After a time the young wife and the compare fell in love with each other. The husband knew this very well, and all three of them were most unhappy. Just then the compare died; and so greatly did the lady suffer that she grieved herself ill, and was about to die. Her faithful maid knew all the story of her love and grief, and with her last breath her mistress begged that when she was dead no one else should be permitted to watch beside her ; and although the other servants would gladly have kept the vigil, the maid was left alone beside her dead mistress. At midnight the door opened, and the dead compare came in. The maid could neither move nor cry out, and the ghost raised his dead love up, and she began to dress. When she was ready, the ghost took her arm, and signed to the maid to light them on their way. Then the three went down, down to the very lowest vault beneath the house ; and there the compare struck the torch from the hand of the maid, and she swooned on the floor. Thus runs the story of the old women; but there are other explanations of the name of this old house, which even now bears traces of its former beauty, though the whole edifice is going to wrack and ruin. A second BURANO AND TORCELLO 173 story is quite as gruesome as the first, since it says that here dead bodies were brought by medical students, and autopsies made before they were buried in San Michele, which is very near. This is the view adopted by J. A. Symonds, who says : " Yonder square white house, standing out to sea, fronting Murano and the Alps, they call the Casa degli Spirit!. No one cares to inhabit it ; for here, in old days, it was the wont of the Venetians to lay their dead for a night's rest before their final journey to the graveyard of S. Michele. So many generations of dead folk had made that house their inn, that it is now no fitting house for living men." But a pleasanter explanation is, that long ago an artis- tic and literary society held its meetings here, and from the beaux esprits who habitually gathered beneath its roof, it came to be called the Casa degli Spiriti. Perhaps the most amusing Venetian ghost-story is that of the parish priest of San Marcuola, who declared his disbelief in ghosts in a sermon, and exclaimed, " Where the dead are, there they stay ! " This made the ghosts of those who had been buried in San Marcuola very indig- nant, and they revenged themselves by going at night, in a body, to the chamber of this priest, whom they dragged out of bed, tossed about, and soundly thrashed for the insult he had put on them. Meantime, while this story-telling has gone on, it has grown quite dark, and as we come into the canals, the calls, Stali, Preme, are very frequent. These cries of the gondoliers are curiously startling, especially at night; but the celerity with which they are obeyed, and the narrow escapes from accidents, prove their usefulness. Stalir means go to the right; Premier, go to the left; and Sciar, or Siar, means that the boat is to be stopped by turning the flat side of the oar against the current. Monckton Millies prettily explains this in his verses : 174 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. " When along the light ripple the far serenade Has accosted the ear of each passionate maid, She may open the window that looks on the stream, She may smile on her pillow and blend it in dream ; Half in words, half in music, it pierces the gloom, ' I am coming stall hut you know not for whom ! Stall not for whom ! ' " Now the tones become clearer, you hear more and more How the water divided returns on the oar, Does the prow of the gondola strike on the stair ? Do the voices and instruments pause and prepare ? Oh ! they faint on the ear as the lamp on the view, ' I am passing preme but I stay not for you! Preme not for you ! ' " Then return to your couch, you who stifle a tear, Then awake not, fair sleeper, believe he is here ; For the young and the loving no sorrow endures. If to-day be another's, to-morrow is yours ; May the next time you listen your fancy be true, ' I am coming sciar and for you and to you ! Sciar and to you ! ' " CHAPTER X. THE TWO FOSCARI; CARMAGNOLA AND COLLEONI. WHEN the Doge Tommaso Mocenigo was about to die, he made a most remarkable statement, summing up the past and present condition of Venice, and giving much advice concerning its future, especially as to the election of his successor. One of his most pronounced judgments was against the election of Francesco Foscari. He prophesied that under his rule Venice would be per- petually at war, and that many other events would occur to lessen her prosperity. But in spite of all that he said, Foscari was made Doge at the tenth scrutiny, on April 15, 1423. It is true that under his reign Venice was constantly at war; but since he had even less power than any of his predecessors, the responsibility of war or peace did not rest with him. He was a man of great ability, and had filled many offices of trust with honor. Abroad he had served as ambassador at several courts. At home he had once been Chief of the Forty, three times Chief of the Ten, and twice their Inquisitor. At the time of his election he was fifty-one years old, the father of a large family, and the husband of a young wife who added to the number every year. Such festivities as satisfied even the Venetian taste for splendor followed his election; and, indeed, the tourna- ments and other spectacles were continued for a twelve- month. The thirty-four years of Foscari's reign was a 176 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. period of great importance. The Republic, by joining the Florentines against Milan, was involved in a series of conflicts, sometimes gaining, at others losing, always engaged in intrigues, sending and receiving embassies, making treaties only to be broken, as it would seem, but ' finally, in 1454, emerging from a struggle of thirty years indisputably the first of Italian powers. Hazlitt says : "The Venetian Empire was the most extensive, and prom- ised to be the most durable, which had been formed on any con- stitutional principles since the days of the Romans. The Venetian Senate was the most august assembly in the world. The Venetian Navy was the finest which Europe had ever seen. During war, Venice employed, even at an exorbitant stipend, the best troops to be procured and the ablest generals of the age ; and among her Captains of Companies it was not unusual to find Hereditary Princes. Her patricians, so far from being purely political in their education or sordid in their tastes, prided themselves on the extent and versatility of their acquire- ments. They excelled in all manly exercises and in all enlight- ened pursuits. Not content with reading contemporary history, with mastering the intricacies of diplomacy, or with attaining the highest honors in the military profession, they studied the language which Cicero spoke, the language of the Anabasis, and the language of Holy Writ. They applied themselves to the liberal, mechanical, and occult sciences, and to the Fine Arts. They became diligent scholiasts. They searched for manuscripts with an avidity eclipsing that of De Bure. They formed libraries, some of which were far larger than the Public Collections at Oxford or Paris. Some gave gratuitous instruc- tion in the Elements of Euclid; others lectured on Ethics or Metaphysics. A Trevisano devoted ten years to the composition of a single Treatise, which he never lived to finish. A Giorgio naturalized among his countrymen the literature of the Trouba- dours and the songs of Provence. To a Polo, scientific men were indebted for the first book on Travels in China, Kam- tschatka, and Japan. A Pisani filled Europe with the fame of THE TWO FOSCARL 177 her beauty and genius; and four nations competed for the privi- lege of doing her honor! She chose France, and France was flattered by the choice. ' D'avoir le prix en science et en doctrine, Bien merita de Pisan la Christine, Durant ses jours.' " But the deep interest we feel in Francesco Foscari is not centred in the affairs of Venice while he served as its figure-head and held but a semblance of power, the real potency being in the Seigniory and Council of Ten. In the great rush of state affairs, conducted as they had come to be, each single man was lost. The State only sur- vived ; and its methods of secret councils and its schemes of unlimited ambition made of this same State a vast and overwhelming machine, the workings of which in their completeness were only comprehended by a few patri- cians, each one of whom was jealously watching to pre- vent every other from the exercise of any distinguishing or undue power. It is with the personal experiences of the Doge that we are concerned. Within a few years his large family was swept away by death. Of his five sons Jacopo alone remained. He was a gay young fellow, who paraded in the Broglio, and took his part in all the gayeties and pleasures of his time. He was an elegant scholar, a col- lector of manuscripts, and altogether a delightful com- panion in a ladies' salon or on a festal day. In 1441 Jacopo Foscari was married to Lucrezia on- tarini, whose family had given three Doges to Venice. The marriage was celebrated in the Ducal Chapel before the immediate families of the Foscari and Contarini ; and not until the third day did the rejoicings begin, which continued for ten days, and were very magnificent, as the gentlemen of both families were members of the Compagnia della Calza (Company of the Stocking). This society of 12 178 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. young noblemen was formed for the purpose of holding jousts, serenades, regattas, and like entertainments, and took its name from its peculiar uniform, which consisted of a striped, party-colored stocking on the left leg, reach- ing to the hip, drawn over tight breeches, and embroidered with figures of animals and birds. With this was worn a doublet of velvet or cloth of gold, with open sleeves and facings, and a shirt-frill. A flowing mantle of some costly stuff was thrown back on the shoulder, displaying a richly embroidered stocking on the lining; and the whole was completed by long pointed shoes studded with precious stories, and a black or red bonnet, also bejewelled. Aristocratic ladies were honorary members, and wore a stocking embroidered on their sleeves on festive occasions. As the society increased, it was divided into various branches, of which the Immortelles, Royals, Ethereals, and Peacocks were the most noted ; but the most exclu- sive part of the society is said never to have numbered more than eighteen. Since Foscari and his bride were both members of the Calza, the festivities attending their marriage were under its care; and the presence of Francesco Sforza, Barbaro, and a hundred Brescian nobles then in Venice, added much to the elegance of the assemblies. The Doge and the College appointed a "Master of the Feast," whose duty was to regulate everything that took place. At the appointed time all the Company of the Calza, in their most gorgeous apparel, repaired to his house, where the proces- sion formed. Each member had two servants in his private livery, and four others in the livery of the Calza, besides other attendants, dressed in silk, and men-at-arms in full armor. Masters and men were all provided with horses capari- soned with green velvet trimmed with silver. The bride- groom had twenty mounted attendants, while others had THE TWO FOSCARI. 179 from ten to fifteen. The procession was magnificent. So many jewels flashed in the sun, so many richly colored velvets and hrocades were worn with easy grace, so many horses caracoled to the sound of trumpets, that the people in windows, balconies, and on the housetops could do nothing but applaud. The houses of the streets through which the cavalcade passed were hung with tapestries, silks, and banners, or arched with flags spread on lines stretched from one side to the other. The procession rode around the Piazza and the court of the Ducal Palace, and then over the Grand Canal, on a bridge of boats, to the Contarini Palace at San Barnaba. Here the fair young bride came out to meet the proces- sion. She was attended by two grave and reverend pro- curators of St. Mark in black dresses and cloaks, which by contrast heightened the beauty of her robes of white silk. Twelve children, all dressed in white, bore her train. In her dark hair diamonds were so woven that those who would see her face were forced to shade their eyes from the flashing of the jewels, and on her neck were the rarest of pearls, besides precious stones of great value on other portions of her person. She wore a cloak of lightest fur, as the wintry air compelled her to do. Sixty maids of honor followed her, all dressed in blue with many rare jewels, and all wearing cloaks. The Com- pany of the Calza and their attendants formed two lines. Foscari descended from his horse, and made a profound obeisance to his wife, then placed himself beside her, and they, followed by the sixty maidens, walked between the lines of the cavalcade to the Church of St. Barnaba, where they heard Mass. After this the Lady Lucrezia, her maids, and the members of the Calza, with Sforza, Barbaro, and the Brescian visitors, took their places in the square outside the church, and listened to a eulogy upon the two great families united by this marriage, pro- nounced from a pulpit by a richly dressed priest. 180 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. The oration ended, Foscari and his bride returned to the palace of her father, while the cavalcade rode through the city, displaying their horsemanship, and engaging in mock battles in the squares, to the great delight of the people. 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 Bucen- taur, 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 pro- ceeded 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 tourna- ment 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. The Pia^etta; Ducal Palace; San Marco. THE TWO FOSCARI. 181 But three years elapsed before Jacopo Foscari was sus- pected 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 pro- nounced, 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. Again, three years later, one of the Council of Ten who had condemned Jacopo was assassinated as he was leaving the palace. The evidence which connected Jacopo with this murder was so slight that it is not worth recount- ing; but suspicion of him was strong enough to cause his arrest, and it is even said that he was tortured, with no result. He was now banished to Candia, where, separated from wife and children, from the refinements that he loved, and without congenial pursuits, he suffered a rest- lessness so intense that he further criminated himself for the sake of returning to Venice, even though that might mean the rack anew. He wrote a letter to the Duke of Milan, the enemy of Venice, asking his aid with the Seigniory. This letter he managed to have fall into the hands of the Council, never trying to send it to Milan at all. He was also accused of having addressed a letter to the 182 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Sultan, imploring him to send a vessel to convey him away secretly. He was now brought to Venice, and before the Council made a full confession, no doubt through fear of the torture-chamber, so near at hand. Some of the Ten favored severity. Loredano even wished him to be beheaded between the Columns, but the mild sentence of a year's imprisonment at Candia was the final result. When this sentence was given, he prayed that he might see his family, all of whom had been rigidly excluded from him and from the court during his trial. His father, mother, wife, and children were permitted to visit him ; and when the time for his removal came, he was with them in the Ducal Palace. Even then, after all he had suffered and caused others to suffer, he did not seem to realize that the execution of his sentence was as sure as fate itself. He seemed rather to believe that some one could reverse it all ; and naturally that some one seemed to be the Doge, his father, who, alas ! knew but too well his utter powerlessness. Amid the sobs and kisses all around him, once more he cried, "Father, I beseech you, make them let me go home!" But the old Doge, in his despair, could only reply, "Jacopo, go; obey the will of the country, and try no more," in saying which no doubt he suffered more than he who heard these fatal words. All hearts were touched by these terrible griefs of the old Foscari, and six months later a full pardon was obtained for the son. But it was too late. He no longer lived to be condemned or forgiven. When this news came, the Doge was eighty-four years old. His courage was gone. He could no longer give heed to public mat- ters, nor could he endure to sit in that court which had tortured and exiled the last of his sons. And so he stayed away ; and soon there was a murmur against him, and a complaint that he no longer made a pretence of THE TWO FOSCARI. 183 having authority and of being necessary to the State, a lie which he was tired of acting. Foscari had more than once proposed to retire, but the Council would not hear of it. Now, however, he was asked to resign his office; and when he did not answer quickly enough to please his persecutors, he was told that if he did not leave the palace within the next eight days, his property would be confiscated. He made no resistance. The ducal ring was drawn from his finger and broken in his presence. The ducal bonnet was taken from his head, and he prom- ised to leave the palace at once. As the deputies left him, Foscari caught the eye of one, Jacopo Memmo, who looked at him with sympathy and compassion. He called him, took his hand, and said, " Whose son art thou ? " "I am the son of Marin Memmo. " And then the Doge : " He is my dear friend. Tell him from me that it would be sweet to me if he would come to pay me a visit, and go in my bark with me for a little pleasure. We might visit the monasteries." That very day the Doge left the palace with his old brother Marco, followed by his household. Marco said, "It is better to go to the boat by the stair that is covered;" but the old Doge replied, "I will go down by the same stair that I came up when I was made Doge." And then they rowed away to the splendid palace to which Jacopo had taken Lucrezia Contarini sixteen years before, the house that we may still see on the point of the Grand Canal, where it turns to the east, with the water on two sides, and its fine old gateway on the small canal at the back. Here, in 1574, Francis I. was lodged, it being thought more suited to his royalty than any other in all Venice. And here, many years before, on Oct. 24, 1457, came the old Foscari to die. The new Doge was elected on the 31st; and on All Souls Day, when the new prince 184 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. went to San Marco to Mass, Foscari's son-in-law there announced that Foscari was no more. His funeral was magnificent The new Doge was obliged to loan his crown to his predecessor, when he was laid in state in the palace from which he had been expelled but one short week before. Every honor was bestowed on him, dead, that the Republic could give. He was carried to the Frari, with many tapers lighting his way ; and, to quote Mrs. Oliphant, "there he lies under a weight of sculp- tured marble, his sufferings all over for five hundred years and more ; but never the story of his greatness, his wrongs, and sorrows, which last gave him such claims upon the recollection of mankind as no magnificence nor triumph can bestow. " When the bell rang At dawn, announcing a new Doge to Venice, It found him on his knees before the Cross, Clasping his aged hands in earnest prayer; And there he died. Ere half its task was done, It rang his knell. ROGERS. So intense was the excitement in Venice, caused by the deposition and death of the old Doge, that the Senate for- bade " the affair of Francesco Foscari to be mentioned on pain of death. " FRANCESCO CARMAGNOLA. The story of Jacopo Foscari affords a striking commen- tary upon the changes which had come over the armies of the Republic. It would seem that the want of any serious and engrossing occupation a sort of elegant idleness had led Jacopo to his misfortunes; and this idleness would not have been possible during so stirring a period as that of his father's reign, if the Venetians had still done their own fighting as they did it in the reign of Enrico Dandolo. FRANCESCO CARMAGNOLA. 185 In Foscari's day it had come to be the custom, all over Italy and in other countries of Europe, to hire men to kill and be killed for money. Mercenary troops they were fitly called; for they not only received their hire, but they robbed the peasant of his harvest, and from the wealthy land-owner they extorted gold. Venice had employed these bands when they were made up of Bretons, Hungarians, Gascons, and other men, who spoke no Italian, and thought solely of gain ; but by the middle of the fifteenth century the Free Lances had come to be an organized institution, with unwritten laws, which were well understood by them and by their employers ; and the general or leader of these bands who was not successful was in much danger of having his head taken off by the Seigneur or the government he served, on the charge of treason. A most famous leader of one of these bands of condottieri was Francesco Carmagnola. The name of his father was Bussone; but the soldier took his name from the town, near Turin, in which he was born, in 1390. While he, as a boy, tended flocks upon his native hills, the clash of arms and the noise of battle which filled all Europe reached even his ears ; and fired with desire for adventure, he deserted the first duty of his life, and through one chance and another entered the service of Facino Cane, a great general in the service of the Duke of Milan. Carmagnola soon proved his fitness for the profession he had chosen, but it is doubtful if the jealousy of Cane would have permitted him to come to the front. It may therefore be said to have been the making of his fortune when Facino Cane and Gian Maria Visconti died on the same day, and Filippo Maria Visconti became the head of the house; for when this young prince needed a general, he chose Carmagnola, who embraced his cause zealously, and at once took Milan for him, and subsequently, one after the other, overcame, the 186 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. cities which had revolted. Naturally this was a work of time; and meanwhile the great captain was high in the favor of his prince, held a conspicuous position at court, and was the chief counsellor of the Duke in all important matters. So distinguished had he become that the Duke had given him a wife from his own family, with the privilege of bearing the name of Visconti, and the arms of that reigning house were also conferred on him. To the large booty won in his service great wealth had been added, and this peasant soldier lived in Milan in a style suited to his riches and his wife's birth. He was in the midst of erecting the Broletto, a royal palace (now used for muni- cipal purposes), when the shadows of misfortune first fell on him. This was in 1424, when Foscari had been Doge of Venice for a year, and twelve years after Duke Filippo Maria had made Carmagnola his captain-general. This Duke suffered much from morbid timidity. His sensitiveness as to his personal appearance amounted to torture, and caused him to seek a seclusion that but increased his morbidness. He was so suspicious of all who served him that he made it the duty of one set of guards to watch over another, and so on, through several relays, and then purposed himself to watch the last. The fear of murder haunted him, and he used all his ingenuity in devising schemes of self-protection, such as constantly changing his apartments, and other methods equally futile if his fears were well grounded. He married the widow of Facino Cane, Carmagnola's first commander, and through the conquests and efficient counsels of his great captain, the Duke was now the master of the Lombard plains and many wealthy cities, while he was respected as well as feared by his rivals. Finally Carmagnola had added Genoa to his other con- quests ; and this proud rival of Venice, with her commerce FRANCESCO CARMAGNOLA. 187 and her splendid harbor, seemed to complete the glory of the Duke of Milan. It may be that it was all suspicion on the part of the Duke (when one has such a nature as his, who can tell ? ) ; but at all events, it would seem that the glory which this last success brought to the Captain was more than the Duke could support. He feared lest Carmagnola should become too powerful, and naturally there were enemies of the successful man who were only too ready to encourage suspicions against him ; and though there had been no thought of treachery imputed to him, the Duke demanded the surrender of the troop of three hundred horse, which had been Carmagnola's special command. He implored the Duke not to deprive him of his sol- diers, without which his life would be wretched. But to his prayers no answer was made, and he began to perceive that evil influences were working against him. He was at Genoa, of which place he had been made governor, and the Duke was at a fortress on the borders of Piedmont, not far away; and his letters not being answered, he determined to face the Prince. In full assurance of regaining the confidence of the man for whom he had done so much, he set out with all the impulsiveness of a generous nature. Imagine his surprise when, arrived at Abbiate, he was not permitted to pass the bridge into the castle. The guards had been forbidden to admit their Commander-in- chief. However, he did not yet understand that he was insulted, and sent word to the Duke that he desired an audience. The answer directed him to communicate with Riccio (his deadly foe), as the Duke was too busy to see him. Carmagnola curbed his pride and anger, and again sent to say that his message was for the ear of the Duke alone ; and to this no answer was vouchsafed. As he waited with a handful of followers on the bridge, 188 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. his only answer being a command to speak to his well- known enemy, he thought he saw the face of the Duke at a loophole above. As he looked down on the scene around him, he found himself in the midst of his own hirelings, who were only too glad to see their peasant captain humbled. The fire of his rage flamed forth, and he called God to witness his innocence of any wrong to the Duke, in thought or deed, and then accused his enemies as perfidious traitors, and swore a solemn oath that they should soon feel the want of him to whom they would not now listen. He turned his horse and rode towards the Ticino, the border of Savoy, his native province. This much alarmed the conspirators, who were watching from the castle, and an attempt was made to call him back; but he rushed furiously on, and stopped not until he reached the castle of the Duke of Savoy, to whom he told his story and offered his services. But Amadeo was a clear-headed, cautious man, and well knew that he could not compete with Milan; and Carmagnola, seeing that there was no hope for him here, remembered that he knew of a power greater than that of Milan, and cautiously made his way to Venice. He was received with the distinction which his fame as a soldier commanded, and possibly more, just at the time of his arrival, when there was already a ques- tion of war with Milan, in behalf of Florence. Envoys from Milan and Florence were already at Venice when Carmagnola arrived, and the whole city was full of excitement. Indeed it was a curious thing to watch the representatives of these two Italian States, so near to each other geographically, both of one nation and tongue, and yet so different, the Florentines grave, and occupied only in the serious affairs which had brought them hither; the Milanese, gay in dress and manner, carelessly pass- ing here and there, as if their only object were to see the FRANCESCO CARMAGNOLA. 189 sights in this Queen of the Sea, of which they had heard so much. But they could scarcely have failed to have some uneasy thoughts when they saw Carmagnola there. The man whom they had driven from their midst by unjust accusations, the man whom they had insulted and betrayed, was not likely to help their cause with the Republic, nor speak to the Senate in accord with the representations they would there make. But all must have the privilege of speech, and the interest to hear was very great with the Venetians. The Florentine Ridolfi was the first to whom the Doge and Senate listened. He made a passionate and moving appeal, begging that the Venetians would unite with the Florentines to curb the power of Milan, and warning them that when Philip had once overcome Florence he would find the means to conquer Venice also. The Senate was greatly moved by his eloquence and the force of his argu- ments, but they were divided between sympathy for Florence and hesitation at the enormous cost of aiding her, between fear of Philip for themselves and doubt of his ability to overcome and dominate Florence and Venice; and they thought it best to listen to the Milanese before expressing themselves to the Florentines. Very different from the earnest pleading of Ridolfi was the bravado of the orator from Milan. He declared that he and his companions had come on no important embassy, but simply to pay their respects to Venice and her Senate in the name of their Duke. They had no league to make, no favors to ask, since the treaties which existed between Milan and the Republic were still unbroken. He then represented the Florentines as false men, whose speech was full of lies. He declared that though the former rulers of Milan had been enemies of the Venetians, Duke Philip was their friend, as the Visconti had been for a century, and that he desired peace and repose, being " the 190 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. very model of liberality and courtesy." In fact, no new light was thrown on any subject by the speech of the Milanese, and the Senators were much divided in their opinions. A part were for immediate war with Philip, who only desired to speak them fair until he could over- come Florence ; the others begged for greater caution, and recalled the truth that to begin a struggle was much easier than to end it. It was now Carmagnola's turn, and a new wrong which he had suffered filled his wrath to the full. At Treviso an attempt had been made to poison him. It had failed, and the perpetrator of the act had paid for it with his life; but it had turned the feeling of injury which Car- magnola had cherished before into fierce hatred, and he appeared before the Venetian Senate with fire in his heart and on his tongue. With hot words he depicted the benefits he had conferred on Philip, and the base ingrati- tude with which he had been treated. He declared that he had received no rewards, but simply the just hire for what he had accomplished; and now, he said, the prince he had thus served had not only wounded and insulted him, not only turned his back on him, and driven him into exile, but he had sought to kill him, not in a fair and open battle, such as soldiers love, but in the way of the cowardly assassin, with poison. He then congratu- lated himself on his preservation, and declared that although he had left his wife, his children, and his wealth in the country he had lost, he was still fortunate in that he had found a country where justice was honored and villains did not rule. Carmagnola then represented that Philip was far less powerful than he was thought by the Florentines; that his soldiers were not paid, his citizens were not rich, and his own means were much exhausted; that the Duke's successes had depended on himself; and that without him FRANCESCO CARMAGNOLA. 191 Philip was weaker than the Florentines, and much weaker than Venice. And finally he offered his services to the Republic, promising to increase its dominions and to con- quer Philip, and declaring that though they might have had greater commanders, none had been more loyal than he would be to Venice, and none had ever hated her enemies as he hated the Milanese. The speech of Ridolfi had appealed to the intellects of the Senators, but that of Carmagnola moved both their heads and hearts, and almost all pronounced for war. Foscari followed; and an old chronicler says that "the energetic speech and great influence of the Doge, which was greater than that of any prince before him," decided the Senate to make the league with the Florentines. War was at once declared against Milan, and Carmagnola was made general of the forces. He speedily led to action the soldiers who were ready, while all Italy was scoured for recruits. The first point of attack was Brescia, and the story of its possession is indeed a sad one. Historians disagree as to the extent of blame to be fixed on Carmagnola ; but at the best, as Bigli gives it, it seems a cold-blooded betrayal of the many Brescian friends of the" great cap- tain. By the aid of two men within the city, at the dead of night, Carmagnola marched his troops into the Piazza, the very centre of the city, and suddenly, with an illumi- nation of torches and blare of trumpets, announced his sovereignty in the name of Venice, which he now served. The historian says: "Though at first dismayed by the clang of the trumpets and arms, as soon as they [the inhabitants] perceived that it was Carmagnola, they remained quiet in their houses, except those who rushed forth to welcome the besiegers, or who had private rela- tions with the General. No movement was made from any of the fortified places in the city." 192 THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. So far all had gone well, but the real work was yet to be done ; and it was only after seven months of siege, of trenching and assaults, of shutting out supplies, and many tasks which demanded infinite skill and patience, that Carmagnola was master of the city with all its wealth, a splendid conquest for Venice. Brescia being actually reduced, the villages and castles belonging to it surrendered without resistance, and as far as the Lago di Garda the sovereignty of the Republic was acknowledged. Philip was furious, but as he was in no condition just then to make war, he employed a legate of the Pope to make peace for him; and this was accomplished at the cost of his relinquishing, not only Brescia, but a portion of the Cremonese territory, in all nearly forty miles in extent Meantime, in all these months, there had been some mysterious elements in the conduct of Carmagnola, which by no means escaped the all-searching eye of Venice. Very early in the siege of Brescia he had left the author- ity with his chief engineer, and after a plundering expedi- tion on Lago di Garda, had retired to the Baths of Abano, pleading that an old wound in his thigh gave him so much pain as to unfit him for service. The Venetians regarded this as a hint for some benefit to be conferred on their Captain-General, and they promptly made him a noble of Venice, with the title of Count of Castelnuovo, and offered him a principality in Cremonese territory if he would rejoin his army and push his victory across the river Adda. The Duke of Milan, on his part, was pursuing a tor- tuous policy, by which he set a snare for the great Free Lance. He determined to make it appear that he had some understanding with Carmagnola. His envoys were constantly seeking the General, and whenever Philip made any proposals to Venice, he named this officer as FRANCESCO CARMAGNOLA. 193 his ambassador. Carmagnola was weak enough to be flattered by this. He believed that he was absolutely essential to both Venice and Milan, that everything revolved around him, and that he might decide the fate of these two powers from his retirement at the Baths of Abano. The treaty which followed the fall of Brescia was signed in December, 1425, and in one clause of it the Duke promised to restore to Carmagnola his property in Lombardy; but Visconti broke this as well as other stipu- lations of the treaty, and it soon became evident that war was again inevitable. In February, 1427, Carmagnola was summoned to Venice to aid the government in its plans for a new campaign. Soon after his arrival his wife joined him, and was accorded, by the Seigniory, a splen- did reception, in which neither trouble nor money was spared ; and thus the Senate indicated to its Captain that his faithful service would be fully recognized by the Republic. The second campaign more plainly revealed the slug- gishness of Carmagnola. In spite of the impatience of Venice and the magnificence of the rewards she promised, there was no activity. Again the Duke was full of intrigue, and pretended intelligence with the Venetian commander. It began to be understood at Venice that Carmagnola was neither as great nor as sincere as the Senate had believed when he first addressed them; and their distrust was not lessened when again the Duke proposed terms of peace through the mediation of his sometime friend and commander. Casal Maggiore had been retaken by the Milanese. Angry letters were sent to Carmagnola, who replied that when the proper time arrived he would recover it in three days. This he did ; but as he wished to free all his pris- oners, according to the then custom of war, and as the 13 194 TIIE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. Republic was a law to herself, and did not aim to follow the rules of mercenaries, there was a direct disagivt'im-nt at once. The Senate ordered the captured garrisons to be detained. Carmagnola obeyed, but considered it a dis- grace to his honor as a soldier. He so resented this infringement of his authority that he allowed his oppor- tunities to slip away unimproved. The Duke was now sorely pressed by Savoy, as well as Venice, and yet Car- magnola refrained from entering his territory, and quietly remained in camp at Casalsecco and on Lago d' Iseo ; ami it was not until October, 1427, that by the battle of Macalo he retrieved his fame, and restored the Venetians to good-will towards him, in spite of the great dissatis- faction and grave suspicions of him which they had enter- tained for months. A house in Venice at San Eustachio was given him, with Castenedolo in the Bresciano for himself and his heirs ; and two nobles were sent to convey the thanks of the Republic to him, and at the same time to exhort him to follow up his victory at Macalo with a series of equally splendid triumphs, which were clearly within his reach. The government also suggested that the time had arrived for passing the Adda, and ending the war by a glorious victory which would insure an honorable peace. But it seemed that Macalo was deemed sufficient by Carmagnola to quiet Venice for a time; and though nil Italy agreed in the view of his employers, he did no more, and at the end of the year asked for permission to go again to the Baths. The disgust of the Venetians may easily be imagined; but as the Duke had already begun negotiations for peace through the friendly offices of the Pope, an ungracious consent was yielded to the request of their general ; and as the envoys of the Duke came to him, even at Abano, he fancied that he could return to Milan whenever he willed. He was playing a game for himself, FRANCESCO CAKMAGNOLA. like a true mercenary soldier, and lie desired \\\ his rtlug- gishness to lay the Duke under obligations I" him. No doubt he intended to return to the service of Visconti, whose constant wars brought him great wealth in booty; and then his half-finished palace was then-, ami \\c can readily imagine that his wife desired to return to her m\ n country. While he was at Abano the negotiations proceeded, and a peace which was advantageous to Venice \\as signed on the 19th of April, H'JS. Almost iinniedi.ii, l\ Car magnola made a triumphant entry into Venice, and his old father came to see how his mm was honored |>y the Republic. Forty years ago u peasant -herder, he was no\v a noble of the proudest republic of Italy. Days of festivi- ties followed. Venice had not reali/ed her fullest hopes; but the Peace of Ferrara gave her Brescia and Bergamo, and added much to her territory and her importance. But no peace with Milan could he long maintained, and soon the Senate knew that a third war was inevitable. They had paid Carmagnola the customary refaining-fco, and felt themselves , 65-67. Bordone, Paris, 307. Borgia, Lucrezia, 238. Bosphorus, The, 48, 49, 51, 54, 58. Boucoleon, Palace of, 61, 65, 67, 69. Boulogne, 33. Bourienne, 293. Bragadin, Giambattista, 289. " Bravo, The," 114. Brenta, The, 197, 237, 241, 297, 314. Brescia, 191-193, 195, 239, 275, 282. Bresciano, The, 194. Briati, Giuseppe, 130. " Brides of Venice," 210. Bridge of Sighs, 203. Broglio, The, 142, 177, 181. Broletto, The, 186. Brondolo, 149, 155, 297. Bronze Horses, 269. Brown, H. F., 112, 164, 233, 236, 276, 277. Brown, Mr. Rawdon, 326. Brunswick, Duke of, 337. Brussels, Peace of, 281, 282. Bucentaur, The, 9-11, 13, 140, 180, 216, 225, 229, 236, 306. Buckingham, Duke of, 130. Bulgaria, King of, 68. Buono of Malainocco, 304. Buranelli, The, 163. Burano, 163, 164. Byron, Lord, 80, 315. c. Cagliari, Carl or Carletto, 342, 847. Cagliari, Gabriele, 347. Caledonian Boar, 55. Calendario, 143. " Calza, Compagnia della," 177-179. Cambray, League of, 240, 279, 280, 282, 287, 343. Campania, 127. Campanile, The, 150, 152, 159, 160, 209, 211, 265, 266, 296, 299, 310, 348. Campo della Carita, 356. Campo Fornio, 293. Campo di San Agostino, 113, 326. Campo dei SS. Giovanni e Paolo, 364. Campo di San Marco, 367. Campo di San Polo, 113. Campo di San Stefano, 356. Canabes, Nicholas, 57. Canale, Martino da, 102, 131 132. Candia, 67, 146, 153, 181, 182, 263, 266, 284. Cane, Facino, 185. Canea, 154. Canova, 337. Cape of Good Hope, 277. Capo d' Istria, 94. Cappelari, 122. Carceri, The, 203, 206. Cardona, 280, 281. Carita, La, Convent of, 347, 356. Carmagnola, 175, 184-198, 245, 281. Carnival Thursday, 141. Carpaccio, 359, 360. Carrara, Francesco da, 161. Camera, Andrea de Costantino, 241. Camera, Rosalba, 218, 241-244. Casa degli Spirit!, 172, 173. Casalsecco, 194. Casal Maggiore, 193. Castellani, The, 83. Castello, The, 83. Castelnuovo, Count of, 192. Castenedolo, 194. Cattaro, 159. Cavalli, 155. INDEX. 373 Cavour, 299. Cephalonia, 123, 311. Chambord, Comte de, 337. Champagne, Count of, 33. Chancellerie Secrete. Histoire de la, 118. Charles Albert, 296, 298. Charles V., 281, 360. Charlotte Lusignan, 226, 227, 230, 232. Chartres, Count of, 33. Chicago, 125. Chioggia, 98, 140, 149, 150, 152-158, 160, 167, 212. Chios, 311. Chiozzotti, The, 163. Christina, St., 312. Clerc, Le, 350. Clough, Arthur Hugh, 266. Colbert, 130. Colleoni, 175, 198-201, 364. Columbian Exposition, 125. Columbus, Christopher, 251-254. Columns of Executions, 140, 149, 197, 267, 268, 288-290, 351. Comans, The, 68-70. Como, Lake, 113. Confederacy of the Lombards, 4. Conon de Bt-thune, 55. Constantine 67. Constantine, Prefect, 51. Constantine, Square of, 55. Constantinople, 32, 42, 45-49, 53, 56, 57, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 71, 262, 283, 309, 313. Contarini, 91, 332. Contarini, Doge Andrea, 145, 154-157. Contarini, Arrigo, 304, 310. Contarini, Giovanni, 341. Contarini, I.ucrezia, 177. Contarini Palace, 179, 180, 183. Cooper, 114. Corbaro, 152, 158. Corfu, 46, 47, 292. Cornaro, 155. Cornaro, Andrea, 226, 228, 229. Cornaro, Caterina, 218, 226, 228-241, 245, 359. Cornaro, Giorgio, 235, 236, 240. Cornaro, Marco, 232. Corpus Domini, 72. Council of Three, 114, 115. Council of Ten, 111-120, 126, 129, 143- 145, 152, 161, 177, 181, 182, 197, 216, 219, 235, 245, 246, 281, 286-292, 323, 325, 330, 340, 351. Credi, Lorenzo di, 200. Crema, 280. Croatia, 67. Crozat Hotel, 242. Crozat, Pierre, 242, 243. Curzola, 96. Custom House, 83. Custoza, 300. Cyclades, The, 67. Cyprus, 147, 161, 226-235, 263, 282, 283. Cyprus, King of, 226, 227, 231. Cyprus, Queen of, 218, 226, 228, 229, 232. D. Dalmatia, 67, 115. Dandolo, 91, 98. Dandolo, Andrea, 96, 97, 320. Dandolo, Enrico, 32, 35, 40-45, 47, 49, 51, 57, 58, 65-71, 184, 262. Dandolo, Giovanni, 93. Dandolo, Raniero, 39, 46. Dardanelles, The Straits of, 48. Deacon John, 26. Decameron, The, 206. Decemvirs, The, 116, 117. Diaz, 277. Didymotichos, 67. Dogado, The, 121. Dogana, The, 80, 209. Dogaressa, The, 9, 104, 105, 113, 141, 219, 225, 365. Dolomitic Alps, 168. Donatello, 199. Donate, Marco, 108, 110. Donate, St., 311. Donato, San, Cathedral of, 123, 124. Don John of Austria, 283. Doria, 153, 155. Doria, Lampa, 96, 97, 99. Doria, Luciano, 146-148. Doria, Pietro, 149-151. Ducal Chapel, 159, 208. Ducal Palace, 8, 27, 41, 71, 76, 103, 105, 106, 134, 159, 179-183, 202, 209, 215, 219, 221, 223, 228, 248, 256, 257, 268, 280, 332, 340, 349, 352, 358, 362, 367. Ducas, Alexius, 56. Durazzo, 46, 67. Durer, Albert, 247. 374 INDEX. E. Elena, Queen, 227. Elena, St., 2. Elenora of Portugal, 134. Elisabetta, Sant', 23. Emo, Governor, 313. Emo, Pietro, 149, 150. Erasmus, 330. Ethereals, The, 178. Euganean Hills, 167, 207, 237. Evorea, Bishop of, 311. F. Falieri, The, 364. Faliero, Marino, 140-144, 207, 245, 351, 352. Famagosta, 230, 231, 233, 235, 283. Fassone, 156. Fenice, La, 317. Ferdinand of Naples, 228, 230. Fergusson, 204. Ferrara, 238. Ferrara, Peace of, 195, 276. Festa delle Marie, 211. Fiaramingo, 348. Fieschi, Admiral, 146. Filippo Maria, Duke, 186. Flanders, Count of, 46, 58, 61-63, 65. Florence, 188-190, 200. Florentines, The, 176, 188, 189, 191, 278. Florian Cafe", 317. Fondachi, The, 247, 248. Fondaco del Turchi, 236, 326. Fondamenta Nuove, 121. Forty, The, 175. Fortunate, Patriarch, 27. Fosca, Saint, 311. Fosca, St., Church of, 169. Foscari, The, 175. Foscari, Doge Francesco, 175, 177, 182- 186, 196, 286. Foscari, Jacopo, 177-184, 222, 282. Foscari Palace, 76, 283. Foscarini, Antonio, 289, 290. Foscarini, Doge Marco, 319, 321. Foulkes of Neuilly, 32. Fountain Amorous, 235. Fourth Crusade, 347, 350. Francis I., 183, 281. Francis Joseph, Emperor, 301. Frari, The, 289, 366. Frari, Convent of the, 245, 360. Frederick Barbarossa, 3, 4, 6. Frederick III., Emperor, 132-135. Free Lances, 185. Furber, Mr. H., 125. G. Galata, Tower of, 50, 59. Gama, Vasco di, 277, 278. (ia m Harare, 241. Gamberato, Girolamo, 349. Garibaldi, 84, 298, 299. Gautier, 342. Geminiano, San, Church of, 31. Genoa, 106, 115, 146, 149, 151, 158, 186, 187, 226, 232. Ghost Stories, 170-173. Giants' Staircase, 295, 351. Giardini Pubblici, 3, 209. Gibbon, 43, 48, 50, 60, 62, 63. Giblet, Tristan, 334. Gibraltar, Straits of, 278. Giorgio (Ballerino), 132, 134-136. Giorgio, San, 76, 79, 83, 84. Giorgio Maggiore, San, 14, 203, 209, 307. Giorgione, 219, 308. Giudecca, La, 74, 75, 84, 153, 209. Ginstina, Rosso, 110. Giustiniani, 109, 152, 153, 284. Giustiniani, Casa, 74. Giustiniani, Niccolo, 73. Giustiniani, Pietro, 309. Giustiniani, Taddeo, 151. Goethe, 262. Golden Horn, The, 48, 50, 58, 70, 154, 309. Golden Rose, The, 9, 225. Gondolier's Cries, 173, 174. Gonzago, Duchess Isabella, 330. Good Friday, 88. Goro, 4. Gradenigo, 90, 94, 95, 101, 106, 108, 109, 111-113, 212. Grand Canal, 76, 81, 229, 236, 239, 247, 301, 334, 347, 369. Grassi, Giovanni, 268. Great Council, The, 12, 13, 286, 287, 290-292. 330, 345. Great Council-Chamber, 144, 346, 350, 369. Gregory XVI., Pope, 122. INDEX. 375 Grimani, Antonio, 367. Grimani, Cardinal, 332. Grimani, Doge Marino, 225. Gritti, Doge Andrea, 344. Guattemalata, 199. Guy, Abbot of Vaux-Cernay, 41, 42, H. Hagia Sophia, 63. Hall of the Great Council, 228. 295. Hawkwood, Sir John, 157. Hazlitt, 7, 33, 64, 112, 115, 149, 176. Hellespont, The, 67. Henry III., 215, 222, 257, 283, 345. Hippodrome, 55. Histoire de la Chancellerie Secrete, 118. Holy Land, 33. " Holy League," 280. Horses of St. Mark, 64, 262. Hospital, Public, 27. Hotels, Ancient, of Venice, 257. Howells, Mr., 121, 203, 259. Hungary, 149. Hungary, King of, 43. Hunt, Helen, 170. I. Ibrahim, Sultan, 284. Illumination, The, 79. II lyric Islands, 67. Immortelles, The, 178. Inner Temple, 115. Innocent III., 32, 35, 42, 43, 45, 65, 66. Inquisitor! dei Dieci, 117. Inquisitors of the Ten, 117, 281, 287- 292. Ionian Sea, 48. Irene, 51. Irene, Empress, 271. Iron Crown of Lombardy, 300. Isaac, Emperor, 44, 49, 52, 56-58. Isidore, St., 311. Istria, 167. J. James Lusignan, 227-231. Jameson, Mrs., 367. Jenson, Nicolas, 254. Jerusalem, 34, 40, 45, 66, 161. Jerusalem, Queen of, 229. John of Venice, 26. John, King, 69, 70. Julius II., Pope, 280. Justina, Saint, 312. K. Knights of Malta, 284. Knights of Rhodes, 227. Knights Templars, 80. Lace and Lace-making, 164-166. Lace-work Goblet, 133. Lago di Garda, 192. Lago d' Iseo, 194. Lascaris, Theodore, 68, 69. La Sensa, Feast of, 12. Lateran, St. John, 350. Lazzaro, San, 39, 312, 313. Legnano, Battle of, 4. Leonardo, Alessandro, 200, 264, 271. Lepanto, 215, 283, 342. Levant, The, 70, 247, 276, 282, 284. Library of St. Mark, 122, 345. Libreria Vecchia, 332, 333. Libro d' Oro, 92. Lido, The, 23, 36, 73, 76, 122, 142, 146, 149, 151, 152, 156, 215, 229, 235, 236. Lido, Porto di, 2, 153. Lioni, 143. Lion of St. Mark, 8, 9, 99, 157, 267, 292. Lion's Mouth, The, 341. Lisbon, 253, 278, 279. Lombardo, 271. Lombardo, Moro, 121. Lombardo, Santi, 336. Lombards, The, 167. Lombards, Confederacy of, 4. Lombardy, 193, 197, 280. Longfellow, 24. Loredan, Andrea, 337. Loredano, 182. Loredano, Doge Leonardo, 2, 64. Louis XL, 254. Louis XII., 381. Louis XIV., 166. Louis, Count of Blois and Chartres, 33. Louis of Savoy, 227. 376 INDEX. Lucrezia Contarini, 179, 180, 182. Luke, Saint, 64. Lusignan, Caterina Veneta, 229. Lusignan, James, 226, 228. M. Macalo, 194. Mahomet the Second, 64. Malamocco, 2, 149. 153, 288. Malatesta, Pandolfo, 239. Malpaga, 199. Malpasso, Bridge of, 108. Manfredonia, 157, 158. Manin, Daniele, 294-298, 301. Manin, Ludovico, 293. Mannucci or Manutio, 326. Mappamondo, The, 122, 352. March of Treviso, The, 108. Marcello, Countess of, 164. Marciana, The, 345. Marco Milione, 96, 340. Marco Polo, 96-100, 338-340. Marghera, 297. Mark, St., Horses of, 64. Mark, St., Library of, 122, 345. Marmora, Sea of, 48. Marne, The, 33. Marriage of the Adriatic, 9, 216. Marsh, John B., 133, 251. Martin IV., Pope, 93. Marzoufle, 56-59. Mastichelli, 228. Mauro, Frate, 122, 352. Mazzorbo, 163, 164. Mechitar, 312-314. Mechitaristican Society, 313, 314. Medici, 91. Memmo, Jacopo, 183. Memmo, Marin, 183. Merceria, The, 108, 110. Mestre, 197, 239, 295. Metternich, 293, 294. Michael Angelo, 349. Michieli, 91. Michieli, Anna, 73. Michieli III., 29. Michieli, Doge Domenico, 270, 311. Michieli, Giovanni, 304, 310. Michieli, Doge Vitale I., 128. Michieli, Doge Vitale II., 27, 153, 257, 304. Milan, 157, 160, 176, 181, 186, 188, 189, 191, 193, 195-197, 199, 232, 299, 344. Milan, Cathedral of, 129. Milan, Duke of, 181, 185-187, 192, 195, 216, 281. Milnes, Monckton, 173. Minerva, Statue of, 56. Minio, Bartolommeo, 251, 252. Mocenigo, 131, 132, 137, 139, 230, 231. Moceuigo, Admiral, 230, 231. Mocenigo, Lazzaro, 285. Mocenigo, Sebastiano, 313. Mocenigo, Doge Tommaso, 175. Mocetto, Girolamo, 129. Molo, The, 140, 202, 203, 267, 317. Montagnana, F. di F. da, 238. Monte" di Pieta, 236. Monteferrato, Boniface, Marquis of, 36, 41, 43-45, 62. Montferrat, 61. Montfort, Simon of, 43. Montmorency, Baron de, 41. Morea, The, 67, 70, 263, 285, 351. Moro, Doge Cristoforo, 270. Moro, Giulio dal, 350. Morosini, 65, 66, 218, 225. Morosini, Domenico, 262. Morosini, Francesco, 285, 286, 351. Municipal Museum, 10, 236. Murano, 2, 77, 112, 121-131, 135, 137, 311, 356. Muscorno, Giulio, 289. Museo Civico, 248. Music, Publishing of, 255. Mutinelli, 248. N. Nani, 332. Naples, 4, 149, 181. Naples, Viceroy of, 288. Napoleon, 209," 210, 292-294, 356. Nauplia, 285. Navagero, Andrea, 240, 321, 322, 324. Negropont, 153. Niccolo il Barattiere, 268. Nicetas, 61. Nicholas Canabes, 57. Nick the Blackleg, 268. Nicosia, 227, 231, 235, 283. Nicosia, Archbishop of, 226, 230. Nola, 127. Novara, 296. Novello, Francesco Carrara, 207. INDEX. 377 o. Oliphant, lire., 73, 144, 184, 200,321, 326, 327, 358. Olivolo, 210, 305. Olivolo, Bishop of, 210. Orio, Malipiero, 30 Orologio, Torre dell', 264. Orseolo I., 27. Orseolo, Pietro, 12, 270. Oselle, 30. Ossuna, Duke of, 288. Otho the Great, 123. Otho, son of Barbarossa, 5. P. Padua, 149, 160, 199, 233, 237, 324, 343. Paglia, The, 203. Pala dei Pesari, La, 366. Palad'Oro, 270. Palazzo Bern bo alia Celestia, 338. Palazzo Contarini, 338. Palazzo Cornaro, 228, 229. Palazzo Corner della Regina, 236. Palazzo delle due Torn, 205. Palazzo Farsetti, 337. Palazzo Ferrara, 236. Palazzo Foscari, 76. Palazzo Imperiale, 333. Palazzo Loredan, 337. Palazzo dei Poli, 338. Palazzo Vendramin Calergi, 336. Paleologo, Michele, 212. Paleologus, Elena, 226. Palestine, 32, 36, 45, 52. Palladio, 283, 356, 369. Pallium, The, 28. Pal ma, Giovane, 337, 345, 349, 352, 366. Palma Vecchio, 219, 362, 363. Palm Sunday, 72. " Paradise," The, 61. Paris, 205- Paris Opera House, 125. Parthenon, The, 285, 351. Paterniano, St., 301. Patmos, 204. Paul V., Pope, 122, 288. Paulus, Bishop of Altina, 167. Peacocks, The, 178. Pears, 63. Pelestrina, 155. Pellegrini, Antonio, 242, 243. Pelmo, 168. Pentapolis, 167. Pera, Quarter of, 53, 55. Perkins, Mr. C. C., 166. Persano, Admiral, 301. Pesari, The, 366. Peter of Capua, 37. Peter II. of Cyprus, 147. Petrarca, Cask del, 205. Petrarch, 205-207, 282, 320, 329, 332. Petrucci, Ottaviano, 255. Philip, Duke, 189, 190-192. Philip, Emperor of Suabia, 44-46, 66. Phinea, 58. Piane, The, 237. Piazza of St. Mark, 3, 6, 7, 31, 37, 74, 79, 81, 93, 102, 105, 108, 141, 150, 179, 199, 204, 211, 225, 236, 259, 265-268, 272-274, 280, 295, 310, 328, 333, 348, 356-358, 363, 369. Piazzetta, The, 3, 5, 24, 79, 180, 197, 202, 216, 267, 268, 288, 301, 317, 348. Piccinino, 199. Pico, Count, 327. Piedmont, 160, 187, 296, 298. Pierre, Giacomo, 288. Pietra del Bando, 267. Pietro, 129. Pietro in Castello, San, 12. "Pilgrim," The, 61. Pisa, 32. Pisani, The beautiful, 176, 218. Pisani, Giorgio, 29L Pisani, Vettore, 145-148, 152-158, 160, 245. Pizzighettone, 280. Pol, St., Count of, 46, 62, 66. Polo, 176. Ponte della Paglia, 203. Ponte del Paradise, 364. Ponte del Sepolcro, 205. Pordenone, 163. Porto d' Anzo, 146, 218. Portugal, 252. Presburg, 293. Priuli, 235, 236, 278. Procuratie, The, 79. Procuratie, Nuove, 333. Pyrenees, The, 33. 378 INDEX. Q. Qucrini, Angelo, 291. Quirini, 97, 108-110. Quirini, Marco, 107. Quirini, Pietro, 107. Quints Valle, 210. R. Radetzky, 298. Ravenna, 167, 275, 276, 311. Kedentore, Church of the, 74, 80, 82, 209. Redentore, Fete of the, 74, 75. Regatta, The, 76. Renier, Doge Paolo, 291. Renouard, 331. Rhodes, 227. Rhoetian Alps, 237. Rialto, The, 164, 303, 360. Riccio, 187. Ridolfi, 189, 191, 359, 367, 369. Rio, 352. Rio di Sant' Anna, 210. Riva di San Marco, 307. Riva degli Schiavoni, 14, 76, 202, 203, 205-208. Riviera, The, 154. Rizzo, 269. Rizzo, Marin, 234. Romagna, The, 275. Romanian Empire, 67. Rome, 227, 232, 299. Rosso, Giustina, 110. Royals, The, 178. Ruskin, Mr., 122, 168, 261, 272, 332, 335, 337, 360, 364. Rusticiano, 100. Rustico of Torcello, 304. S. Sabellico, Marco Antonio, 196, 320, 321. Sadowa, 300. Sagornino, Giovanni, 26, 320. Sagra, The, 85. Saint Victor, 370. Sala del Anticollegio, 342. Sala della Bussola, 341. Sala del Collegio, 342. Sala del Consiglio dei Died, 344. Sala del Maggior Consiglio, 345. Sala dei Pregardi, 343. Salla delle Quattro Porte, 341. Sala dello Scrutinio, 159, 285, 351. Sala dello Scudo, 352. Sala del Senate, 343. Salboro, Battle of, 5, 348, 349. Salute, Madonna della, 80. Salute, Maria della. Church of, 79, 209. Salviati, 124, 125, 128. San Andrea, 153. San Antonio, Church of, 169. San Antonio di Castello, 158, 309, 310. San Apostoli, 140, 240. San Barnaba, 179. San Donate, Cathedral of, 123, 124. San Eustachio, 194. San Fantino, 152, 159. San Gervasio e Protasio, 244. San Giacomo dell' Orio, 326. San Gian Crisostomo, 338. San Giorgio, 76, 79, 83, 84. San Giorgio Maggiore, 203, 209, 307. San Giovanni e Paola, 129, 362. San Giovanni in Bragora, 208. San Lazzaro, 312, 313. San Lorenzo, 358, 359. San Luca, Campo of, 109. San Marco, 3-6, 9, 24, 27, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40, 64, 79, 81, 103, 127, 128, 144, 145, 155, 159, 184, 210, 215, 225, 229, 236, 267-269, 272, 273, 283, 295, 301, 303, 305, 306, 308, 311, 332, 358. San Marcaola, 173. San Michele, 21. 121, 122, 297. San Moise, 356. San Niccolo, 2, 4, 11, 36, 73, 83, 151,153, 236, 307. San Niccolo di Bari, 311. San Niccolo del Lido, 311. San Pietro, 210. 212. San Pietro di Castello, 210. San Pietro, Island of, 210, 217. San Salvadore, 240, 304. San Silvestro, 4. Sansovino, 208, 269, 332, 369. Santa Maria Formosa, 211, 362. Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, 364. Santa Maria dell' Orto, 366. Santa Maria della Pace, Chapel of, 364. Santa Maria Zobenigo, 356. San Teodoro, 310. Santo Spirito, 151, 153. Sanudo II., Doge, 211. Sanudo or Sanuto, Marino, 263, 280, 309, 321-326, 337. INDEX. 379 San Vio, 72. San Vito, 110, 243. ban Zaccaria, 204, 205, 208,218, 312, 325. San Zaccaria, Quarter of, 216. Sau Zanipolo, 199, 364. Saracens, 32. Sarpi, Fra Paolo, 121. Savoy, 194, 232. Savcy, Duke of, 227. Scamozzi, 369. Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista, 326, 358. Scuola di San Marco, 199, 364, 367. Scuola di San Rocco, 366, 367. Scutari, 48, 49. Selim the Drunkard, 282. Selvo, Doge, 224. Serenade, The, 78. Serrata del Consiglio Maggiore, 95, 100. Servia, 67. Sforza, 199, 200. Sforza, Francesco, 178. Sforza Palace, 180. Simon of Montfort, 43. Sixtus IV., Pope, 276. Soissons, Bishop of, 61. Solferino, 299. Solomon, Temple of, 271. Sophia, St., 32, 53, 57, 64-67. 70, 270, 271. Soranzo, 231, 232. South Kensington Museum, 125. Spalato, Archbishop of, 240. Spanish Conspiracy, 288. Spanish Succession, War of, 282. Spinelli, 288. Spires, John of, 254. Sporades, The, 67. Sposalizio, The, 11, 12. Star Company of Milan, 157. Steno, Michele, 141, 147. Stocking, Company of the, 177. Straits of Gibraltar, 278. Strike of the Gondoliers, 20-22. Suabia, Philip, Emperor of. 44. Suleiman the Mngnificent, 282. Syria, 47. T. Taine, 260, 345, 353, 367. Tard Venus, The, 157. Ten, Chief of the, 175. Ten, Council of, 111, 112, 114-117, 119, 120, 126, 129, 143-145, 152, 161, 177, 181, 182, 197, 216, 219, 235, 245, 246, 281, 286-292, 323, 325, 330, 340, 351. Ten, Inquisitors of the, 117, 175, 287- 292. Thayer, W. R., 294, 295. Theobald, Count of Champagne, 33. 36. Theodora, Dogaressa, 224. Theodore, St., 267, 303-306. Thessaly, 67. Thessalonica, King of, 70. Thrace, 51. Three, Council of, 114, 115. Tiepolo, 73, 91, 93, 109, 111, 113. Tiepolo, Bajamonte, 107, 326. Tiepolo, Doge Giacomo, 365. Tiepolo, Lorenzo, 103, 266. Tintoretto, Domenico. 348-350. Tintoretto, Jacopo, 219, 224, 283, 307, 332, 333, 343, 345-347, 349, 350, 352, 366-369. Titian, 219, 229, 333, 343, 349, 360-363, 365, 366. Tofano, 168. Torcello, 166-170, 311, 312. Tradenigo, Doge, 204. Trajanople, 67. Treasury of St. Mark, 271. Trebizond, Emperor of, 226. Treviso, 140, 181, 189, 197. Treviso, March of, 108. Trieste, 2, 33, 181, 211. Troyes, Bishop of, 61. True Cross, 271. Turin, 159, 299. Tyre, 270, 311. V. Valdemarino, Count of, 140. Valier, The Doges, 365. Valle dei Sette Morti, 172. " Valli," The, 167. Valtelline, War of the, 282. Vaporetti, The, 20. Varangians, The, 50, 52, 55, 57, 67. Vasari, 367. Vassilacchi, Antonio, 341. Vatican, The, 66. Vaux-Cernay, Abbot Guy of, 41, 42. Vecelli, Marco, 343, 344. Vendramini, Andrea, 358. Venier, Sebastian, 283, 342. 380 INDEX. Veroccbio, 200, 201, 364. Verona, 140, 282, 291. Veronese, 224, 283, 332, 342, 345, 349, 362. Vioentino, Andrea, 159, 341, 349, 350. Vicenza, 237, 282. Victor Emmanuel, 300-302. Vidaore, Andrea, 129. Vienna, 294, 301. Vienna, Royal Academy at, 325. Villafranca, Peace of, 299. Villa Marocco, 108. Villehardouin, 33, 34, 47, 52, 63, 69. Vio, San, 72. Visconti, 91, 186, 189, 193, 195. Visconti, FUippo Maria, 185. Visconti, Galeazzo, 160. Visconti, Gian Maria, 185. Visconti, Valentina, 147, Vittoria, Alessandro, 205, 349. Vivarini, The, 356. Y. Yriarte, 128, 220. z. Zanetti, 360. Zanipolo, The, 144, 199, 364. Zara, 3T, 41-44, 66. Zaratines, The, 41, 42, 46, 99, 115. Zarla Lusignan, 231, 233. Zattere, The, 23, 317. Zeno, Cardinal, 271. Zeno, Carlo, 145, 147, 149, 150, 154, 156, 157, 160, 161, 320. Zeno, Donato, 148. Zeno, Jacopo, 160. Zeno, Marino, 71. Zeno, Pietro, 161. Zeno, Doge Renier, 102, 103. Zeno the Unconquered, 162. Ziani, 91. Ziani, Doge Sebastiano, 4, 5, 13^30-32, 268, 350. Zonta, The, 286. Zucchero, Federigo, 349. Zurla, Placido, 122. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000681 317 4