VENICE 



595 



And now let us mount by the Scala d'Oro 

 to the wide, echoing, gold-incrusted halls, 

 where the Great Council held its sittings, 

 where are the statues of the famous men 

 who have sprung from the Republic, and 

 the portraits of the Doges who ruled 

 over it. 



SHADOWS AMID SPIvIlNDORS 



But yet a little shadow rests on these 

 splendors. A slight shudder mars the 

 enchantment, for the hands of Venice are 

 stained with blood — much noble blood 

 sacrificed to unworthy passions. There 

 is the Bocca di Leone, into which envy 

 threw its secret accusations. We pass by 

 the door that leads to the prisons and the 

 Bridge of Sighs ; we see amidst the line 

 of Doges, the black space from whence 

 Marino Faliero's portrait was effaced 

 when his head had fallen beneath the axe 

 of the executioner. 



In the Sala del Maggior Consiglio the 

 Great Council held its sittings. All the 

 members wore scarlet robes. Here the 

 die was cast for war or peace, for honor 

 or disgrace ; and the pride that uplifted 

 their hearts is, as it were, embodied in 

 the masterpieces which adorn walls and 

 roof. 



Everywhere victories, coronations, 

 gods — nay, Tintoret, who produced in 

 this hall the largest painting known in 

 the history of art — chose no meaner sub- 

 ject than the World of the Blessed! 

 Venice dreamt only of Paradise. We 

 pass on through a long series of saloons. 

 Here the Doge was elected by the Nobili ; 

 there he received ambassadors from for- 

 eign lands ; yonder was his bedchamber, 

 and here the guards paced to and fro 

 watching over the most precious jewel of 

 Venice — the Doge's life. 



A BI^OODY TRIBUNAL 



The triumphal arch through which we 

 entered was erected for Morosini, the 

 hero who subjugated the Morea, the 

 barbarian whose cannon destroyed the 

 Parthenon, burying hundreds of Athen- 

 ians under the most magnificent ruin that 

 the earth has ever seen. We come to a 

 little chapel on our v/ay, in which the 

 Doge was accustomed to hear mass every 

 morning. He was accompanied during 

 the ceremony by the Council of Ten, and 



in the last room which we enter this 

 council held its bloody tribunal. 



"Consiglio de' Died!" That was a 

 word of terror to all citizens of Venice; 

 and whatsoever pains her defenders may 

 take to prove the contrary, it must be al- 

 lowed that though the Republic might be 

 free in other respects, yet in this tribunal 

 she had a power which could only be 

 compared with that of Robespierre or the 

 bloodthirsty Marat. 



All crimes against the security of the 

 State (and therefore all crimes!) were 

 subject to their jurisdiction. The Doge 

 himself was liable to feel their mysterious 

 power. In secrecy and silence the wit- 

 nesses were examined ; in secrecy and si- 

 lence the sentence was carried out ; and, 

 in order still further to simplify their 

 proceedings, three inquisitors were, more- 

 over, named of whom no one was al- 

 lowed to know the persons or the resi- 

 dence. But they existed, and their in- 

 visible omnipresence lay like a dark ban 

 upon men's spirits, 



INTO vene;tian dungeons 



The complete truth about Venice can- 

 not be learned in the lofty Ducal Palace, 

 where the ceilings are full of gold and 

 where art, free and untrammeled, created 

 her masterpieces. We must go down 

 even as far as the Pozzi, into the dun- 

 geons below the level of the water, or 

 we must mount into the hot leaden cells 

 (the Piombi) ; then we begin to conceive 

 what was i\it secret canker gnawing at 

 the root of all this beauty ; then we feel 

 with unspeakable horror what is the 

 shadow on the conscience of the proud 

 Queen of the Adriatic. 



But this shadow is necessary to the 

 perfect portrait. Who does not know 

 whence the Bridge of Sighs derives its 

 name? — that wondrously elegant arch 

 which spans the Rio del Palazzo, leading 

 from the noblest beauty to the deepest 

 misery! And Avho could see the fearful 

 Piombi unmoved? 



It was a smiling ]\Iay morning when 

 we first visited them ; first the prisons, 

 and then the torture chamber, on whose 

 ceiling the hook may still be seen to which 

 the unfortunate wretches were hoisted 

 up, and whose floor is paved with smooth 



