requiem, as if for the burial of a father. It was a red
flag with a yellow border, and the winged lion in the centre, prepared
to defend the cross planted upon a base rising out of the sea. It was
only consigned to the army in maritime and land enterprises in the
Levant. The city was distinguished by Venice with the title of
"fedelissima gonfaloniera." The guards were selected from the twelve
"casate" into which the city was divided, the names being those of the
original feudal families. It is asserted that the Perastines had the
same honour conferred upon them by the Servian kings, the guard
consisting of a company of twelve. Some say that it was their valour in
taking the citadel of Cattaro in 1378 which was the origin of the trust.
After the contests with Cattaro in 1160 it followed the fortunes of that
city till 1365, but in that year Perasto put itself under Venice. The
activity shown in assisting Victor Pisani in 1378 had other results, for
it was attacked shortly afterwards and sacked by the allies of Lewis of
Hungary. Till about 1400 it was subject either to Lewis or Tvartko of
Bosnia. It is now quite a little place, with some 500 inhabitants. The
palaces, with fine stone balconies now falling into ruins, which were
inhabited by the noble families, show how it prospered under Venetian
rule, as do the high campanile and the fragment of a large church on the
model of La Salute at Venice, commenced some hundred and thirty years
ago, but never completed. It is entered from the sacristy of the small
church, the arch and vault of the apse towering above it, and showing
the whole of the vault and the caps of the pilasters over its roof. In
the museum are a banner taken from the Turks in 1654, a sword presented
to the commune by Peter Zrinyi, and the gonfalon already mentioned,
which was buried beneath the altar. A fine processional cross, a
sixteenth-century filigreed chalice, a monstrance, and several
reliquaries are also preserved in the place; and here is also the
mausoleum of Bishop Zmajevic of Antivari, who took the Albanians to
Borgo Erizzo near Zara, and was a Perastine by birth. It lies at the
foot of Monte Cassone (about 2,900 ft. high), upon which is Fort S.
Croce. From its base the Bay of Ljuta stretches away south-eastwards
towards Dobrota, with Orohovac at its foot. The two Stolivos beneath the
lofty Vrmac, and Perzagno may be seen on the opposite shore. This
last-named place stands finely on a promontory, w