h noble structures in every style of
architecture, reflected the splendour of a thousand lamps. There was
the palace of the Doge, which I knew not as yet; and there, on its lofty
column, was the winged lion of St Mark, which it was impossible not to
know; and, crowding the piazza, and walking to and fro on its marble
floor, was a countless multitude of men in all the costumes of the
world. With the deep hum of voices was softly blended the sound of the
Italian lute. A few strokes of the oar brought us to the Hotel dell'
Europa. I made a spring from the gondola, and alighted on the steps of
the hotel.

CHAPTER XV.

CITY OF VENICE.

Sabbath Morning--Beauty of Sunrise on the Adriatic--Worship in S.
Mark's--Popish Sabbath-schools--Sale of Indulgences for Living and
Dead--An Astrologer--How the Venetians spend their Sabbath
Afternoon and Evening--The Martyrs of Venice--A Young Englishman in
Trouble--The Doge's Palace--The Stone Lions--The Prisons of
Venice--The Venetians Discard their Old God, and adopt a New--The
Gothic Tower--The Academy of Fine Arts--The Moral of Venice--Why do
Nations Die?--Common Theory Unsatisfactory--History hitherto a
Series of ever-recurring Cycles, ending in
Barbarism--Instances--The "Three-score and Ten" of Nations--The
Solution to be sought with reference to the False Religions--The
Intellect of the Nation outgrows these--Conscience is
Dissolved--Virtue is Lost--Slavery and Barbarism
ensue--Christianity only can give Immortality to Nations--Decadence
of Civilization under Romanism--A Papist foretelling the Doom of
Popery.

The deep boom of the Austrian cannon awoke me next morning at day-break.
I remembered that it was Sabbath; and never had I seen the Sabbath dawn
amidst a silence so majestic. More tranquil could not have been its
first opening in the bowers of Eden. In this city of ocean there was no
sound of hurrying feet, no rattle of chariot-wheel, nor any of those
multitudinous noises that distract the cities of earth. There was
silence on the domes of Venice, silence on her seas, silence in the air
around her. In a little the sun rose, and shed a flood of glory on the
Lagunes. It would be difficult to describe the grandeur of the scene,
which has nothing elsewhere of the kind to equal it,--the white marble
city, serenely seated on the bosom of the Adriatic, with the Lagunes
outspread in the mornin