ke
the star of the Magi. In other cities, the meetings of the people were
often in places withdrawn from religious association, subject to
violence and to change; and on the grass of the dangerous rampart, and
in the dust of the troubled street, there were deeds done and counsels
taken, which, if we cannot justify, we may sometimes forgive. But the
sins of Venice, whether in her palace or in her piazza, were done with
the Bible at her right hand. The walls on which its testimony was
written were separated but by a few inches of marble from those which
guarded the secrets of her councils, or confined the victims of her
policy. And when in her last hours she threw off all shame and all
restraint, and the great square of the city became filled with the
madness of the whole earth, be it remembered how much her sin was
greater, because it was done in the face of the House of God, burning
with the letters of His Law. Mountebank and masquer laughed their laugh,
and went their way; and a silence has followed them, not unforetold; for
amidst them all, through century after century of gathering vanity and
festering guilt, that white dome of St. Mark's had uttered in the dead
ear of Venice, "Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee
into judgment."

FOOTNOTES

[19] Acts, xiii. 13; xv. 38, 39.

[20] The reader who desires to investigate it may consult Galliciolli,
"Delle Memorie Venete" (Venice, 1795), tom. ii. p. 332, and the
authorities quoted by him.

[21] Venice, 1761, tom. i. p. 126.

[22] St. Mark's Place, "partly covered by turf, and planted with a
few trees; and on account of its pleasant aspect called Brollo or
Broglio, that is to say, Garden." The canal passed through it, over
which is built the bridge of the Malpassi, Galliciolli, lib. i. cap.
viii.

[23] My authorities for this statement are given below, in the chapter
on the Ducal Palace.

[24] In the Chronicles, "Sancti Marci Ducalis Cappella."

[25] "To God the Lord, the glorious Virgin Annunciate, and the
Protector St. Mark."--_Corner_, p. 14. It is needless to trouble the
reader with the various authorities for the above statements: I have
consulted the best. The previous inscription once existing on the
church itself:

"Anno milleno transacto bisque trigeno
Desuper undecimo fuit facta primo,"

is no longer to be seen, and is conjectured by Corner, with much