The Doge:

A VENETIAN STORY.

MOST

OST of my young friends who read Parley's Geography well know that there is such a place as Venice. That it is in the Adriatic Sea, or Gulf of Venice, standing in forty-five degrees, forty minutes, of north latitude; that it is a city rising from the waters, being built on a number of small islands, which are situated at the mouths of the numerous rivers which discharge themselves over a space of thirty leagues on the north-western coast of the Gulf of Venice. Towards the land these islands are protected by the channels of several rivers, and partly by a bed of soft mud covered with water not exceeding for the most part one or two feet in depth, and extending at the same time some twenty or thirty miles from the outer shore. The entrances through the outer barrier are few, and the navigation afterwards most intricate and difficult.

The situation of the city is beautiful and romantic. Nothing

can be more wonderful than to see one of the finest cities in the world rising out of the ocean, and appearing to float upon the waves. Its magnificent palaces, and lofty towers, washed by the flood, form a noble and delightful spectacle. One would almost think them either the splendid work of some magician's wand, or one of fancy's light ærial scenes. Yet, notwithstanding this beauty, Venice has been the focus of crime, and scenes of the most dreadful character have been transacted within its walls.

The original form of the Venetian government was that of magistrates chosen by a general assembly of the people, who gave them the name of tribunes, which existed for about one hundred and fifty years. A chief magistrate was then elected by the others, who bore the name of Duke or Doge, who had the power of life and death, peace and war, and the election of many high offices in his hands. The first Doge was Anofesto, elected in the year 697.

The College, called the Seigniority, or supreme cabinet council of the state, was originally composed of the Doge and six councillors only, after which the number was increased to forty by additions from the people of the city. But the most fearful engine of the state was the Consiglio di Dicci, or Council of Ten, a high penal court, which consisted of ten councillors, with the Doge as president. It was supreme in all state crimes, and possessed the power of bringing any one that was accused before them; of committing him to close confinement, and prohibiting all communication with his friends and relatives; of examining, torturing, and trying him in a summary manner, and if a majority of the council pronounced him guilty, of condemning him to death. The death might be public, be

tween the red columns of the market-place, or private, in the depths of the dungeon. This tribunal was established in the year 1310, and about two centuries after a still more despotic power was entrusted to three individuals, always chosen from the above Council of Ten, and from the court called the State Inquisition. These inquisitors also kept the keys of the chests which were kept on several posts of the ducal palace, inclosed within the open jaws of lions' heads, carved on the walls, through which notes were conveyed by any one who was disposed to drop them, and thus notice was secretly given to government of conspiracies or other matters.

No government has been more attacked by deep-laid plots and conspiracies than that of Venice, many of which have been brought to the very eve of execution. One of the most remarkable was that which I have already detailed in a former volume, formed by Marino Faliero, in the year 1355. But I shall now detail the story of another conspiracy-not by a Doge against the state, but of some of the Venetian nobles against the tyranny of the Doge and the infamous wickedness of the Council of Ten.

Among the powerful nobles whom the long troubles of the north of Italy had raised to petty sovereignty Martino, della Stella had established one of the largest principalities, and was most powerful. He had two sons, Alberto and Ubertino, and one daughter, Ursula, alike celebrated for their heroism and personal accomplishments, and the family at large long held the reputation of being not only the most noble, but the most patriotic of all the Venetian state. At this time the Doge was Bartolomeo Gradenigo, an imperious ruler, who looked with extreme jealousy upon the rise or popularity of any family whose

increasing power might rival that of the chief magistracy, and he had for some time watched the growing influence of that of Martino, and determined not only to check it, but to utterly destroy it; and it was his only task to weave a web by which, as he jestingly said to himself, this great bluebottle-fly might be caught. He therefore beset his house with secret emissaries, who, as priests, revealed the most secret of Martino's thoughts, and who kept perpetual watch upon all his actions. Not unfrequently did this nobleman let fall his opinions upon the detestable tyranny of the Venetian state, the Council of Ten, and the Doge; and his observations were accompanied with aspirations for giving liberty to those who pined in the secret dungeons of the Bridge of Sighs, and of rescuing the community from the incubus which pressed upon them. But with the wariness of age and experience he took care to qualify his expressions in such a manner that they lost much of their sternness of purport. Not so, however, the sons, Alberto and Ubertino-they spoke with the heedless warmth of youth, feeling their detestation of the state system of their country; and as they frequently missed some of their fellow nobles, and could only conjecture that they had been seized by the inexorable council for state purposes, and kept in confinement, their public zeal received fresh fire from the association of it with private wrong.

It was in the year 1341, when an inundation of many days' continuance had raised the waters of the Lagoon three cubits higher than it had ever been before in Venice, and during a stormy night, while the flood was at its height, Alberto and Ubertino made their way along the chief canals of the city to mark the devastations made by the rising flood, and to