VENICE. THE DUCAL PALACE. Enter the palace by the marble stairs, Down which the grizzly head of old Faliero Roll'd from the block. Pass onward through the chamber, But one is wanting. ROGERS. THE principal, and, as it may be called, the state entrance of Venice from the sea, is by the Piazzetta di S. Marco, or Lesser Place of St. Mark, a smaller quadrangle opening into the Piazza, a great square of St. Mark. The side of the Piazzetta which is open to the Lagune is adorned with two magnificent granite columns. On the summit of one of these pillars, St. Mark yet sees his Lion where he stood When Venice was a queen with an unequalled dower. On the quay of the Piazzetta, the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa landed on the 23d of July, 1177, to accommodate his disputes with the sovereign pontiff, Alexander III., and to reconcile himself to holy church. Accompanied by the doge, the patriarch, the dignified clergy and citizens of Venice, he went in procession to the church of S. Marco, where the pope was waiting to par don his repentant son. In the vestibule of the church, Frederic, throwing off his mantle, prostrated himself at the feet of the supreme pontiff. In that temple porch Did Barbarossa fling his mantle off, And kneeling, on his neck receive the foot A piece of marble is still shown upon which, it is said, On the right of the Piazzetta stands the DUCAL PALACE, formerly called the Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo Publico, or Palazzo di S. Marco, but now the Palazzo Ex-ducale. This magnificent structure was for centuries the seat of one of the most powerful and terrible governments of Europe. The senate, which resembled a congress of kings rather than an assemblage of free merchants, the various councils of state, and the still more terrible inquisitors of state, the dreaded "Ten," here held their sittings. The splendid chambers in which the magnificent citizens were accustomed to meet, where their deliberations inspired christendom with hope, and struck dismay into the souls of the Ottomans, are still shown to the stranger; but the courage, and the constancy, and the wisdom, which then filled them, are fled. The Ducal Palace was originally erected in the ninth century; but having been on several occasions partially destroyed by fire, it has been, in portions, frequently rebuilt. Of the architecture of the palace, which, like Г that of other buildings in Venice, is rather Saracenic The stairs by which they mounted Upon the landing-place of these stairs, the Doge Marino Faliero was sentenced to be beheaded. As Doge, clad in the ducal robes and cap, Upon the spot where it was first assumed, Thy head shall be struck off, and Heaven have mercy "When the execution was over," says the Chronicle of Sanuto, "it is said, that one of the Council of Ten went to the columns of the palace, over-against the Place of St. Mark, and that he showed the bloody sword unto the people, crying out, with a loud voice, The terrible doom hath fallen upon the traitor;' and the doors were opened, and the people all rushed in to see the corpse of the duke who had been beheaded." It is a remarkable fact, that out of the first fifty Doges of Venice, five abdicated, five were banished with their eyes put out, five were massacred, and nine deposed. Well might Lord Byron say that the Venetians seem to have had a passion for breaking the hearts of their doges! The fatality which waited upon the chiefs of the republic tracked their footsteps to the end; and Manini, the last doge of Venice, was struck to the earth with sudden and mortal sickness while in the degrading act of swearing fidelity to the Austrians. The staircase leads to the apartments which were formerly appropriated to the doge, and to the various chambers of council and of state, in which the Venetian nobles were used to assemble. The apartments are filled with the noblest specimens of the Venetian school. In the hall of the college, on the east side of the building, where the signory were accustomed to grant audiences to the ambassadors of foreign states, may be seen a splendid picture of Europa, by Paul Veronese, with others from the pencil of Tintoret. The ceilings in the hall of the Council of Ten, and in the adjoining room, are also ornamented by the hand of the former master. Almost every room is filled with matchless specimens of art. On every side the eye of the stranger rests upon monuments of the faded glory of Venice. The walls of the grand-council hall are covered with pictures recalling |