men under
whom their family and state declined, until the Visconti of Milan,
having overcome the princes, built the citadel, and fortified Castello
San Pietro.

We must not omit to state that under Bartolomeo, the third of the
Scaligers, that tragic end was put to the rivalry of the great families,
Capelletti and Montecchi, which served Bandello as the foundation of one
of his most popular novels, and Shakspeare as the plot of Romeo and
Juliet. The tomb now shown as that of Juliet, is an ancient sarcophagus
of red granite: it has suffered from the fire which, burnt down the
church where it was originally placed.

The Visconti did not long rule in Verona: about the year 1405, the
Veronese placed themselves under the protection of Venice, whose good
and ill fortune they partook of, until the period of the French
Revolution, when, in 1796, the Venetian Republic ceased to exist. In
1798, the German army occupied Verona, and thought itself secure behind
walls which had stood against Catinat, and which had been improved and
strengthened by Prince Eugene; but, in 1801, it fell into the hands of
the French, and became part of the kingdom of Italy. The events of 1814
placed the Veronese under the dominion of Austria; and, in 1822, this
ancient capital of the North of Italy was the scene of a congress,
wherein the divisions of Europe were remodelled, and its proportions
changed in a manner that it is to be hoped will, in the end, conduce to
its prosperity. Never had such a royal meeting taken place since the
days of Theodoric, whose companions were princes from every nation on
earth.

But they looked on the ruins of Verona. The Roman Amphitheatre is,
perhaps, the least injured of all the public buildings. On the walls,
the four bridges, the castles, and even the churches, the havoc of mines
and the disfiguring effects of bullets are every where visible. The
poverty that war leaves behind is to be seen in the neglected state of
the public buildings, the substitution of gilded and silvered wood for
the sacred golden candlesticks of the altar, and the destruction or
disappearance of pictures of great price. Yet enough remains to show
that Verona once partook of the riches, the polish, the luxury of
Venice. There are relics of her schools, and fragments of her beautiful
architecture. From the Gothic times to the present, we may trace,
step by step, the improvements and variations of public and private
buildings. The majestic San