ing rather décoltée, low-necked), "half concealing, half revealing," the most beautiful busts I have ever seen. Their hands and feet are very small, possibly from the little use they make of them. They seem a joyous, contented people, kind and cordial, satisfied with the present, and thoughtless of the future. It was like opening one's heart to the sunlight to look upon this scene of happiness and mirth. The Venetians, in spite of the tyranny which oppresses them, appear content with existence. Their delicious climate and natures, quickly alive to the influence of pleasure, may perhaps dispel trouble as soon as felt; their faces certainly are irradiated by a bright expression rarely seen elsewhere.

We passed several cafes, the constant resort of the Greeks, where we stopped to admire their admirable and classic contour of face and form, their liquid eyes and noble brows, worthy to have inspired the genius of Phidias. After drinking coffee at Florian's (quite a famous café), we walked home along the silent streets, so narrow they scarcely deserve the name of street. They are but winding alleys, for by stretching out one's arms, the houses on either side were touched. By the side of some of the canals there is a ledge about two or three feet in width, where persons may walk. The bridges are very numerous, and are formed one step above the other to the summit. They are all made sufficiently high to permit the gondolas to pass under them, save along the quai and the Piazza and Piazzetta. The most intense silence prevails, and when it is broken by the voice, never elsewhere have I heard it so loud.

During one of our visits to an old convent, we met a courteous friar, who kindly showed me, in the ancient library, a map or chart of Venice in its earliest day. The numerous islands (seventy-two) upon which it is built are laid down as only little dots upon the surface of the Adriatic. What en

FOUNDATION AND EARLY DAYS OF VENICE. 247

ergy and industry were required to rear a great city upon such a foundation! Long piles were first driven deep into the marsh formed by the débris brought down from the Alps by many rapid streams. Within circles of these piles, stones and great rocks, brought with infinite labor from the mainland, were thrown, thus slowly making small islands. Upon them the fugitives built rude houses and churches. The space between these islands was cleared away, and the waters of the Adriatic suffered to flow freely through them, forming streets like canals. Hence, the gondola was as necessary to Venice as the sunlight to the flower, and quite as much a part and portion of its glory as are its splendid palaces, glittering domes, and lofty towers.

In the first days of Venice it was only a fishing town, where the terror-stricken Veneti fled from the fearful Hun, and building, like the sea-bird, their home among the sedges and rushes of the islets, they seemed endowed by Providence, ever "benignant and kind," with a genius, and an adaptativeness to their-condition, unprecedented in the annals of the world. If the Romans imbibed strength and vigor from the wolf's milk, the Venetians certainly derived their power and energy from the stern poverty of their condition, and the unceasing necessity of action, of toil, and of struggle. Over all the surroundings of a hard fortune they triumphed, and became the great commercial power of Europe. Her ships were on all the seas, and the name of Venice was never uttered except with the words "glorious and rich" preceding it. From the period of its first creation by the fugitives from the desolating power of Attila, until its downfall before the victorious Bonaparte, there were thirteen hundred years. First, there was poverty and constant combat with difficulties; next, prosperity and splendor; then, cor

ruption and treachery, and at last the surrender of all power into the hands of strangers and hard masters.

From Attila to Bonaparte there is a long array of glorious names, which still light up the pages of history, and can never grow dim while the love for Shakspeare, for Byron, for Schiller, for Dante, and for Tasso, have a home and hold upon the human heart. They have perpetuated the noble deeds, and graven upon the soul the impassioned romance, of its people:

"Ours is a trophy which will not decay

With the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor,
And Pierre, can not be swept or worn away,

The Keystones of the Arch! Though all were o'er,
For us repeopled were the solitary shore."

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE churches of Venice are exceedingly numerous, of different styles of architecture, from the Gothic to the modern Italian. Those, however, built by the great Palladio are by far the most magnificent. Venice, styled by an old Italian author "The Rome of Northern Italy," almost equals the "Holy City" in the number and splendor of its temples to religion. They are richly decorated, filled with works of art, and monuments so costly, the wealth of entire families was often needed to rear them. Then, about the altars are scattered precious jewels and vessels of gold, while above them are the paintings of Titian, of Paul Veronese, of Pal.ma, Vecchio, and other artists, not so dear to me as those before whose pictures we lingered long and admiringly.

In the Middle Ages, when a signal blessing of the good God had been granted to a people, they gave expression to their gratitude by erecting some noble edifice, dedicated to his everlasting worship. Thus was built the Maria della Salute, in 1632, by the decree of the Senate, after the cessation of the great Plague, when sixty thousand of the inhabitants died. It is a circular church, with a lofty dome, sustained by columns, and in the recesses are eight chapels, adorned with valuable pictures and statuary.

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The Church of the Jesuits, built in 1728, quite a modern structure, is gorgeous and splendid in the extreme. The pillars are of white marble, with verd antique inlaid on their surface, to represent the leaves of a vine climbing up them. The altar has columns of verd antique cut out of a solid block, and above it the "Martyrdom of San Lorenzo," by Titian. Just in front of the altar is a slab, marking the resting-place of Manin, the last Doge of Venice, who, when he was called upon to take the oath of allegiance to Austria, fell senseless upon the ground. It was his descendant, Manin, who in 1848 and '49 so gallantly strove to recover the lost liberties of the Republic.

The Church of the Santissimo Redentore is upon the Island of the Guidecca, just vis-à-vis to the Palace of the Doges. It is also an ex-voto (a thanksgiving) for the cessation of the plague in 1576, and is one of the finest structures of Palladio.

The Church of San Giovanni e Paolo has the monument of the Doge Vendramin, deemed one of the most magnificent in Venice, and also contains the famous "Martyrdom of St. Peter," by Titian, said to be the third picture in the world in point of excellence and touching beauty. This painting was considered so precious that the Senate issued a decree forbidding the Dominicans, the Monks of that Church, to sell it on penalty of death. This Basilica of St. John and St. Paul is quite the Westminster of Venice. There are multitudes of tombs of the haughty Doges and noble Patricians. Even to the grave was carried the love of splendor which characterized them in life. In front of the Church, in a little square, is the bronze equestrian statue of Colleoni, the General who first introduced the use of cannon on the field of battle: before, they had only been used in batteries.