became the capital. Unluckily he excited suspicion by constructing a fort at the mouth of the Adige; and a demagogue, named Galba, got a troop of armed men together, fell upon him as he was returning from the works, and subjected him. to the same treatment as his predecessor in the magistracy. It thenceforth became the received custom in Venice to put out the eyes of deposed Doges; and Galba, who had contrived to usurp the sovereignty, and hold it for eleven years, found himself deposed, blinded, and an exile in the end.

The next but one obtained such an amount of popularity that he was enabled to get his son Giovanni associated with him in the ducal dignity, which ran considerable risk of becoming hereditary; for Giovanni had his son, Maurice, similarly nominated, and the descent might have continued unbroken had they conducted themselves with common prudence or decency. But no sooner were they firmly established, than both father and son threw off the mask, and rivalled each other in the worst and most insulting forms of tyranny, cruelty, and profligacy. A conspiracy was formed. The Emperor Charlemagne and the Pope threatened to interfere; and eventually Giovanni and Maurice, having sought safety in flight, Obelerio, the head of the conspiracy, was proclaimed Doge.

This was in 804. The events of the next five years are involved in obscurity. One thing is clear. Pepin, King of the Lombards, either under the pretence of a request for aid from the new Doge or to enforce some real or assumed rights of his own, declared war against the Republic, and waged it with such impetuosity that his fleet and army, after carrying all before them, were only separated from Malamocco, the capital, by a canal. In this emergency, Angelo Participazio, one of those men

who are produced by great occasions to mark an era, proposed that the entire population should remove to Rialto, which was separated by a broader arm of the sea from the enemy, and there hold out to the last. No sooner proposed than done. They hastily embarked their all; and when Pepin entered Malamocco, he found it deserted. After losing a large part of his fleet in an ill-advised attack on Rialto, he gave up the enterprise, and Angelo Participazo was elected Doge in recognition of his services, with two tribunes for counsellors.

One of his first acts was to make Rialto the capital, instead of Malamocco or Heraclea, which had each been the seat of Government at intervals. "There were round Rialto some sixty islets, which the Doge connected by bridges. They were soon covered with houses. They were girt with a fortification; and it was then that this population of fugitives gave to this rising city, which they had just founded in the middle of a morass, the name of Venetia, in memory of the fair countries from which their fathers had been forcibly expatriated. The province has lost its name, and become subject to the new Venice." 1

This public-spirited Doge could not resist the temptation of perpetuating the dignity in his race. He had two sons, Justinian and John: and during the absence of the eldest on an embassy, he, of his own mere motion and authority, made the youngest co-ruler with himself. But so vehement were the remonstrances of the elder, backed by public opinion, that the junior renounced in favour of the senior, who, moreover, contrived to make his own son Angelo a co-partner, so that the Republic was actually subjected to a

1 Daru, vol. i. p. 79. There are 72 islands connected by between 350 and 400 bridges.

triumvirate belonging to three generations. The grandson died first, and the son becoming sole Doge by the death of the father in 872, generously shared his power with the brother who had been superseded to make room for him. The most remarkable event in their joint reign was the translation of the body of St. Mark, and the adoption of that saint as the patron saint of the Republic. The original story, as related by the oldest of the Venetian chroniclers, runs thus:

"The King of Alexandria, who was building a magnificent palace, had ordered the most precious marbles to be procured, without sparing even the churches. That of Saint Mark was not excepted, and two holy men, Greek priests, who had the care of it, were groaning over the threatened profanation, when two Venetians, captains of vessels in the port, observed and asked the cause of their distress. On ascertaining it, they pressed to be entrusted with the body of Saint Mark, pledging themselves for its befitting reception by their countrymen. The priests refused" till the work of demolition began, then they consented; but it was necessary to keep the transaction secret from the people, who had a great veneration for the remains on account of the daily miracles they worked. The priests carefully cut open the envelope in which the remains were wrapped, and substituted the body of Saint Claudian. Such a perfume was instantly diffused through the Church, and even in the neighbouring places, that the crowd collected about the sacred reliques. There remained the difficulty of conveying them to the ship.

"The historians would not be believed if there was not still to be seen in our Church of Saint Mark a marvellous image which attests the fact. They placed the corpse in a large basket covered with herbs and swine's flesh which the Mussulmans hold in horror, and the bearers were directed to cry Khawzir (pork) to all who should ask questions or approach to search. In this manner they reached the vessel. The body was enveloped in the sails and suspended to the mainmast till the moment of departure, for it was necessary to conceal this precious booty from those who might come

to clear the vessel in the roads. At last the Venetians quitted the shore full of joy. They were hardly in the open sea when a great storm arose. We are assured that Saint Mark then appeared to the captain and warned him to strike all his sails immediately, lest the ship, driven before the wind, should be wrecked upon the hidden rocks. They owed their safety to this miracle."

remains was the The people were

The arrival of these sacred signal for a succession of fêtes. wild with enthusiasm, the general belief being that the presence of the Saint guaranteed the lasting prosperity of the Republic; and on many trying occasions this belief or superstition, by inspiring confidence, proved a genuine source of strength. Many a time has the cry of Viva San Marco revived the drooping courage of the Venetians when powerful States and monarchs were leagued for their destruction: many a time has it kept them true to their banner on battle-fields strewn with their dead. Yet far from relying exclusively on their patron saint, they established fêtes and ceremonies in honour of several others; and failing to induce the lawful possessors of the body of a much venerated one, Saint Tarasio, to part with it on reasonable terms, they resorted to the strong measure of stealing it, like the old lady mentioned by Fielding, who stole Tillotson's sermons for the sake of religion.' The objects of plunder most in request at the sack of Constantinople, in 1204, were the relics; and it is recorded that the Doge Dandolo transmitted (inter alia) to Venice a portion of the true Cross, an arm of Saint George, part of the skull of Saint John the Baptist, the bodies of Saint Luke and Saint Simeon, a phial of the Blood

1 "Amongst the pieces of good fortune which increased the reputation of the new Venice in all the Christian world, as well as in the other, was the acquisition of the body of St. Tarasio, stolen from a convent of monks, who refused to sell or part with it."—Marin, quoted by Daru.

of Christ, a fragment of the pillar at which He was scourged, and a prickle of the Crown of Thorns. The only monuments of art deemed worth transporting were the famous bronze horses.

Another notable epoch in early Venetian history is the grant on which she based her claim to the sovereignty of the Adriatic. In the course of the fierce struggle between Alexander III. and Frederic Barbarossa, the Pope, when his fortunes were at the lowest, took refuge with the Venetians, who, after a vain effort at reconciliation, made common. cause with him, and in a naval encounter obtained so signal a victory that the Emperor was compelled to sue for peace and submit to the most humiliating terms. The crowning scene of his degradation has been rendered familiar by the pencil, the chisel, and the pen.

Before entering Venice he was met by six cardinals, who received his oath of submission, gave him absolution, and reconciled him with the Church. He was then conducted by a procession of priests to the Place St. Mark, where, at the door of the cathedral, sat his Holiness, arrayed in his pontifical robes, surrounded by cardinals, prelates, representatives of foreign Powers, and high officers of state. The Emperor, as soon as he came into the sacred presence, stripped off his mantle and knelt down before the Pope to kiss his feet. Alexander, intoxicated with his triumph and losing all sense of moderation or generosity, placed his foot on the head or neck of his prostrate enemy, exclaiming, in the words of the Psalmist, "Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis" etc. (" Thou shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk: the lion. and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot"). "Non tibi, sed Petro" ("Not to thee, but Peter'), cried the outraged and indignant Emperor. "Et

VOL. II.

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