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Giacopo Foscari.

appeal to the Senate for a mitigation of punish

ment.

The fellow to whom he entrusted this sacred epistle betrayed him, and the Senate of Venice did recall him, but only to stretch him for the third time on the rack for the high crime and misdemeanor of having sought the mediation of any foreign power in aught that concerned the government of the republic.

The hapless youth, amidst his tortures, avowed his exultation that he had been betrayed; he confessed that he had thus planned it, and wished it, since it had recalled him to Venice, where once, if only for once, he besought that he might again embrace his wife, his little ones, his father, eighty years old, his aged mother.

The mournful interview was granted, and when the fleeting, bitter moments were past, from the Doge himself, from the lips of that father, came the dreadful sentence to his noble-minded, innocent son-To submit to the laws of his country which decreed Banishment for Life:-Imprisonment for a year :-Imprisonment perpetual, if e'er again he appealed to aught out of Venice.

Ere the sun had set, Foscari was once more on the seas ploughing his way to his distant cell. Here he long lingered in protracted, bitterest anguish, and here he expired-when lo! some time afterwards, the death-bed confession of Nicholas

Errizzo stamped himself as the foul murderer, and proclaimed aloud the entire innocence of Foscari.

The fate of the unhappy father, Francis Foscari, so sad a sequel to the catastrophe of his son, I briefly dispatch.-Pursued with the bitterest, the most unrelenting hate by Giacomo Loredano, for some real, or supposed injuries to his family, the venerable, but heart-broken Doge after thirtyfour years sovereignty in Venice, after twice fruitlessly intreating to resign his ducal honours, after adding Bergamo, Cremasco, Ravenna, Brescia, with part of Lombardy to the sway of Venice, and after thus living to the glory of his country till he had attained 86 years of age; at this date he was by cabal and faction constrained to resign his sceptre, to doff his ducal bonnet, and break his mystic ring; and on 30th October, 1457, Pasqual Malipieri, Procurator of St. Mark, was elected in his place.

The great bell of St. Mark that rang the peal which announced another Doge while the rightful one yet lived, tolled the death-knell of Foscari, for no sooner did it strike upon his ears than in his agitation he burst a blood-vessel, and sank lifeless on the spot.

Father, son, widow, children, all, now desolate, heart-broken, or in the cold grave; Loredano the implacable went to his desk; he took out his book

338

Francis Foscari.

of commerce, he turned to the page wherein he had written Foscari "Debtor for the death of my father and my uncle;" and he inscribed on the opposite blank leaf, on the creditor's side-" He has payed me."*

Sanuto-Daru-Simonde de Sismondi.

Senate Hall of Venice.

339

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SENATE HOUSE OF VENICE- PICTURES-SCULPTURES-CANOVA'S HEBE-THE DOGE MARINO FALIERO-HIS HISTORY -INSULT TO THE DOGARESSA — CONSPIRES AGAINST HIS COUNTRY- -DETECTION -DECAPITATION-VENICE GENERALLY RIALTO- ·PROMENADES-GONDOLAS-ARCHITECTURE-CHURCH OF ST. MARK-EMPEROR BARBAROSSA, AND ALEXANDER III-ANTIQUE BRONZE HORSES-STEEPLEPIAZZA OF ST. MARK-PIAZZETTA-CHURCHES-ST. JOHN AND ST. PAUL-Sa. MARIA DELLA SALUTE-IL REDENTORE —SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE—JESUITS—I FRATI, AND TITIAN'S TOMB SCALZI ST. ROCCO-OPERA - PICTURES IN THE ACADEMY-COLLECTION OF IL SIGNOR MANFRINI-TITIAN.

THE spot at Venice most fitted to excite the vivid recollection of her former despotic, yet venerated senators; and to recall that melancholy reverence felt for departed greatness, is the Grand Hall of the former palace of their Doges, where these

"Most potent, grave, and reverend, Signiors,"

met to seal those laws which exalted their city to such a pinnacle of glory.

I was much interested in traversing this once so august a place of assembly. Around it are a series of portraits of Doges. Beneath these are a collection of paintings by the first Venetian masters, allusive to the glories of their country, chiefly during the era of Pope Alexander III and the Doge Zeani, whose victories over Frederic Barbarossa replaced the pontiff on his throne in 1177.

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Pictures and Sculpture.

On the opposite side are depicted the victories of one of the greatest warriors Venice can boast ; of the Doge Henry Dandolo, to whom I have already so amply alluded.

At one end of the room is a representation of Paradise, by Tintoretto, a picture of prodigious size, as well as a work of incredible labour from the multitudes of figures; and a painting which is certainly, in many parts, very excellent. On the centre of the ceiling is the very finest picture of Paul Veronese I have yet seen, being really a chef d'œuvre. It represents Venice crowned, and seated on the clouds. All the accompanying figures, but particularly the colouring, are in the finest style of art.

Here also are ranged some antique sculptures. There is an Eagle and Ganymede, asserted as the work of Phidias; but there is also a Leda and Swan, so exquisite as hardly to allow looking at; much less, description.

We, moreover, saw the original Hebe of Canova, the property of an individual here resident, with her golden fillet, vase, and cup. It were almost profanation to find fault with an artist I so much reverence; yet I could not help observing how firmly her entire hands grasped both vase, and cup; but in the Academy we have subsequently seen a cast from his second Hebe, executed for Lord Cawdor, in which her taper fingers just hold the goblet with a goddess grace.