e curious remarks on it in Weston's _Specimens of the
conformity of the European languages with the Oriental_, p. 135; in
Seelen _Miscellanea_, tom. 1. 298; and in Pinkertoa's _Recollections of
Paris_, ii. 336.--_Douce's illustrations_.

(C) These two magnificent granite columns, which, adorn the Piazzetta of
St. Mark, on the Molo or Quay, near the Doge's Palace, were among the
trophies brought by Dominico Michieli on his victorious return from
Palestine in 1125; and it is believed that they were plundered from some
island in the Archipelago. A third pillar, which accompanied them, was
sunk while landing. It was long before any engineer could be found
sufficiently enterprising to attempt to rear them, and they were left
neglected on the quay for more than fifty years. In 1180, however,
Nicolo Barattiero[A], a Lombard, undertook the task, and succeeded. Of
the process which he employed, we are uninformed; for Sabellico records
no more than that he took especial pains to keep the ropes continually
wetted, while they were strained by the weight of the huge marbles. The
Government, more in the lavish spirit of Oriental bounty, than in
accordance with the calculating sobriety of European patronage, had
promised to reward the architect by granting whatever boon, consistent
with its honour, he might ask.

It may be doubted whether he quite strictly adhered to the requisite
condition, when he demanded that games of chance, hitherto forbidden
throughout the capital, might be played in the space between the
columns: perhaps with a reservation to himself of any profits accruing
from them. His request was granted, and the disgraceful monopoly became
established; but afterward, in order to render the spot infamous, and to
deter the population from frequenting it, it was made the scene of
capital executions; and the bodies of countless malefactors were thus
gibbeted under the very windows of the palace of the chief magistrate. A
winged lion in bronze, the emblem of St. Mark, was raised on the summit
of one of these columns; and the other was crowned with a statue of St.
Theodore, a yet earlier patron of the city, armed with a lance and
shield, and trampling on a serpent. A blunder, made by the statuary in
this group, has given occasion for a sarcastic comment from Amelot de la
Houssaye. The saint is sculptured with the shield in his right hand, the
lance in his left; a clear proof, says the French writer, of the
unacquaintance of th