en he had been at the head of the republic
but four months."--_Sabellico_, lib. viii.

3. "He was allowed but a short time to enjoy this high dignity, which
he had so well deserved by his rare virtues, for God called him to
Himself on the 15th of October."--_Muratori_, Annali de' Italia.

4. "Two candidates presented themselves; one was Zeno, the other that
Michael Morosini who, during the war, had tripled his fortune by his
speculations. The suffrages of the electors fell upon him, and he was
proclaimed Doge on the 10th of June."--_Daru_, Histoire de Venise,
lib. x.

5. "The choice of the electors was directed to Michele Morosini, a
noble of illustrious birth, derived from a stock which, coeval with
the republic itself, had produced the conqueror of Tyre, given a
queen to Hungary, and more than one Doge to Venice. The brilliancy of
this descent was tarnished in the present chief representative of the
family by the most base and grovelling avarice; for at that moment,
in the recent war, at which all other Venetians were devoting their
whole fortunes to the service of the state, Morosini sought in the
distresses of his country an opening for his own private enrichment,
and employed his ducats, not in the assistance of the national wants,
but in speculating upon houses which were brought to market at a
price far beneath their real value, and which, upon the return of
peace, insured the purchaser a fourfold profit. 'What matters the
fall of Venice to me, so as I fall not together with her?' was his
selfish and sordid reply to some one who expressed surprise at the
transaction."--_Sketches of Venetian History_. Murray, 1831.

Sec. LXVIII. The writer of the unpretending little history from which the
last quotation is taken has not given his authority for this statement,
and I could not find it, but believed, from the general accuracy of the
book, that some authority might exist better than Daru's. Under these
circumstances, wishing if possible to ascertain the truth, and to clear
the character of this great Doge from the accusation, if it proved
groundless, I wrote to the Count Carlo Morosini, his descendant, and one
of the few remaining representatives of the ancient noblesse of Venice;
one, also, by whom his great ancestral name is revered, and in whom it
is exalted. His answer appears to me altogether conclusive as to the
utter fallacy of the re