Of old the residence of merchant kings;

The fronts of some, tho' time had shatter'd them,

Still glowing with the richest hues of art,

As tho' the wealth within them had run o'er."

What would one naturally wish to see first in Venice? The Bridge of

Sighs, of course--and next the Church and the Great Square of St. Mark,

the Bronze Horses, and the famous Lion of St. Mark.

We intended to go to the Bridge of Sighs, but happened into the Ducal

Palace first--a building which necessarily figures largely in Venetian

poetry and tradition. In the Senate Chamber of the ancient Republic we

wearied our eyes with staring at acres of historical paintings by

Tintoretto and Paul Veronese, but nothing struck us forcibly except the

one thing that strikes all strangers forcibly--a black square in the

midst of a gallery of portraits. In one long row, around the great hall,

were painted the portraits of the Doges of Venice (venerable fellows,

with flowing white beards, for of the three hundred Senators eligible to

the office, the oldest was usually chosen Doge,) and each had its

complimentary inscription attached--till you came to the place that

should have had Marino Faliero's picture in it, and that was blank and

black--blank, except that it bore a terse inscription, saying that the

conspirator had died for his crime. It seemed cruel to keep that

pitiless inscription still staring from the walls after the unhappy

wretch had been in his grave five hundred years.

249

The Innocents Abroad