on piles, and a portion in
the centre could be drawn up either to let tall masts through or to stop
the thoroughfare to pursuers. It is valuable, too, for its costumes and
architecture. In a gondola is a dog, since one of those animals finds
its way into most of his works. This time it is S. Jerome's dog from the
picture at S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni. An English translation of the
Santa Croce story might well be placed in this room.

Before leaving this room one should look again at the haunting portrait
of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani, No. 570, by Gentile Bellini, which has faded
and stained so graciously into a quiet and beautiful decoration.

It is the S. Ursula pictures in Room XVI for which, after Titian's
"Assumption," most visitors to Venice esteem the Accademia; but to my
mind the charm of Carpaccio is not displayed here so fully as in his
decorations at S. Giorgio. The Ursula pictures are, however, of deep
interest and are unforgettable.

But first for the story. As _The Golden Legend_ tells it, it runs thus.
Ursula was the daughter of a Christian king in Britain named Notus or
Maurus, and the fame of her beauty and wisdom spread afar, so that the
King of England, who was a heathen himself, heard of it and wished her
for his son's wife. His son, too, longed for the match, but the paganism
of his family was against it. Ursula therefore stipulated that before
the marriage could be solemnized the King of England should send to her
ten virgins as companions, and each of these virgins and herself, making
eleven, should have a retinue of a thousand other virgins, making eleven
thousand in all (or to be precise, eleven thousand and eleven) for
prayer and consecration; and that the prince moreover should be
baptised; and then at the end of three years she would marry him. The
conditions were agreed to, and the virgins collected, and all, after
some time spent in games and jousting, with noblemen and bishops among
the spectators, joined Ursula, who converted them. Being converted, they
set sail from Britain for Rome. There they met the pope, who, having a
prevision of their subsequent martyrdom, resigned the papacy, much
against the will of the Church and for reasons which are not too clear.
In Rome they were seen also by two fellow-princes named Maximus and
Africanus, who, disliking them for their Christianity, arranged with one
Julian, a prince of the Huns, that on their arrival at Cologne, on their
return journey, he sh