and commercially Venice would be greatly benefited if a really
first-class holy body could be preserved in her midst. Now S. Mark had
died in A.D. 57, after grievous imprisonment, during which
Christ appeared to him, speaking those words which are incised in the
very heart of Venice, "Pax tibi, Marce, evangelista meus"--"Peace be to
thee, Mark my evangelist"; and he was buried in Alexandria, the place of
his martyrdom, by his fellow-Christians. Why should not the sacred
remains be stolen from the Egyptian city and brought to Venice? Why not?
The Doge therefore arranged with two adventurers, Rustico of Torcello
and Buono of Malamocco, to make the attempt; and they were successful.
When the body was exhumed such sweetness proceeded from it that all
Alexandria marvelled, but did not trace the cause.

The saint seems to have approved of the sacrilege. At any rate, when his
remains were safely on board the Venetian ship, and a man in another
ship scoffed at the idea that they were authentic, the Venetian ship
instantly and mysteriously made for the one containing this sceptic,
stove its side in, and continued to ram it until he took back his
doubts. And later, when, undismayed by this event, one of the sailors on
S. Mark's own ship also denied that the body was genuine, he was
possessed of a devil until he too changed his mind.

The mosaics on the cathedral façade all bear upon the life of S. Mark.
That over the second door on the left, with a figure in red, oddly like
Anatole France, looking down upon the bed, represents S. Mark's death.
In the Royal Palace are pictures by Tintoretto of the finding of the
body of S. Mark by the Venetians, and the transportation of it from
Alexandria, under a terrific thunderstorm in which the merchants and
their camel are alone undismayed.