a continuous line of cafes, where the idle Venetians of the
middle classes lounge, and read empty journals; in its centre the
Austrian bands play during the time of vespers, their martial music
jarring with the organ notes,--the march drowning the miserere, and the
sullen crowd thickening round them,--a crowd, which, if it had its
will, would stiletto every soldier that pipes to it. And in the
recesses of the porches, all day long, knots of men of the lowest
classes, unemployed and listless, lie basking in the sun like lizards;
and unregarded children,--every heavy glance of their young eyes full
of desperation and stony depravity, and their throats hoarse with
cursing,--gamble, and fight, and snarl, and sleep, hour after hour,
clashing their bruised centesimi upon the marble ledges of the church
porch. And the images of Christ and His angels look down upon it
continually.

[143] _Acts_ xiii, 13 and xv, 38, 39. [Ruskin.]

[144] The reader who desires to investigate it may consult
Galliciolli, _Delle Memorie Venete_ (Venice, 1795), tom. 2, p. 332,
and the authorities quoted by him. [Ruskin.]

[145] _Venice_, 1761 tom. 1, p. 126. [Ruskin.]

[146] A wonderful City, such as was never seen before.

[147] St. Mark's Place, "partly covered by turf, and planted with a
few trees; and on account of its pleasant aspect called Brollo or
Broglio, that is to say, Garden." The canal passed through it, over
which is built the bridge of the Malpassi. Galliciolli, lib. I,
cap. viii. [Ruskin.]

[148] My authorities for this statement are given below, in the
chapter on the Ducal Palace. [Ruskin.]

[149] In the Chronicles, _Sancti Marci Ducalis Cappdla_. [Ruskin.]

[150] "To God the Lord, the glorious Virgin Annunciate, and the
Protector St. Mark."--Corner, p. 14. It is needless to trouble the
reader with the various authorities for the above statements: I
have consulted the best. The previous inscription once existing on
the church itself:

Anno milleno transacto bisque trigeno Desuper undecimo fuit facta
primo,

is no longer to be seen, and is conjectured by Corner, with much
probability, to have perished "in qualche ristauro." [Ruskin.]

[151] Signed Bartolomeus Bozza, 1634, 1647, 1656, etc. [Ruskin.]

[152] An obvious slip. The mosaic is on the west wall of the south
transept. [Cook and Wedderburn.]

[153] _Guida di Venezia_, p. 6. [Ruskin.]

[154] Fritters