"I stood in Venice on the 'Bridge of Sighs,' &c. &c.

"The 'Bridge of Sighs' (_i.e._ Ponte de'i Sospiri) is that which
divides, or rather joins, the palace of the Doge to the prison of
the state. It has two passages: the criminal went by the one to
judgment, and returned by the other to death, being strangled in a
chamber adjoining, where there was a mechanical process for the
purpose.

"This is the first stanza of our new Canto; and now for a line of
the second:--

"In Venice, Tasso's echoes are no more,
And silent rows the songless gondolier,
Her palaces, &c. &c.

"You know that formerly the gondoliers sung always, and Tasso's
Gierusalemme was their ballad. Venice is built on seventy-two
islands.

"There! there's a brick of your new Babel! and now, sirrah! what
say you to the sample?

"Yours, &c.

"P.S. I shall write again by and by."

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