ent worship, and the
_Danteggiare_ of the northern Italians is thought even indiscreet by the
more moderate Tuscans.

There is still much curious information relative to the life and
writings of this great poet, which has not as yet been collected even by
the Italians; but the celebrated Ugo Foscolo meditates to supply this
defect, and it is not to be regretted that this national work has been
reserved for one so devoted to his country and the cause of truth.

19.

Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore:
Thy factions, in their worse than civil war,
Proscribed, etc.
Stanza lvii. lines 2, 3, and 4.

The elder Scipio Africanus had a tomb if he was not buried at Liternum,
whither he had retired to voluntary banishment. This tomb was near the
sea-shore, and the story of an inscription upon it, _Ingrata Patria_,
having given a name to a modern tower, is, if not true, an agreeable
fiction. If he was not buried, he certainly lived there.[606]

"In cosi angusta & solitaria uilla
Era grand' huom che d' Aphrica s' appella,
Perche prima col ferro al uiuo aprilla."[607]

Ingratitude is generally supposed the vice peculiar to republics; and
it seems to be forgotten that for one instance of popular inconstancy,
we have a hundred examples of the fall of courtly favourites. Besides, a
people have often repented--a monarch seldom or never. Leaving apart
many familiar proofs of this fact, a short story may show the difference
between even an aristocracy and the multitude.

Vettor Pisani, having been defeated in 1354 at Portolongo, and many
years afterwards in the more decisive action of Pola, by the Genoese,
was recalled by the Venetian government, and thrown into chains. The
Avvogadori proposed to behead him, but the supreme tribunal was content
with the sentence of imprisonment. Whilst Pisani was suffering this
unmerited disgrace, Chioza, in the vicinity of the capital,[608] was, by
the assistance of the _Signor of Padua_, delivered into the hands of
Pietro Doria. At the intelligence of that disaster, the great bell of
St. Mark's tower tolled to arms, and the people and the soldiery of the
galleys were summoned to the repulse of the approaching enemy; but they
protested they would not move a step, unless Pisani were liberated and
placed at their head. The great council was instantly assembled: the
prisoner was called before t