Arrived in Venice the remains were enclosed in a marble pillar for
greater safety, but only two or three persons knew which pillar, and,
these dying, the secret perished. In their dismay all the people
grieved, but suddenly the stones opened and revealed the corpse.
Thereafter many miracles were performed by it; Venice was visited by
pilgrims from all parts of the world; its reputation as a centre of
religion grew; and the Doge's foresight and address were justified.

Before, however, S. Mark and his lion could become the protectors of the
Republic, S. Theodore had to be deposed. S. Theodore's church, which
stood originally on a part of the Piazza (an inscription in the pavement
marks the site) now covered by the Campanile and one or two of the
flagstaffs, is supposed to have been built in the sixth century. That it
was destroyed by fire in the tenth, we know, and it is known too that
certain remains of it were incorporated in the present structure of S.
Mark's, which dates from the eleventh century, having been preceded by
earlier ones.

To my mind not one of the external mosaic pictures is worth study; but
some of the mosaic patterns over the doors are among the most lovely
things I ever saw. Look at the delicate black and gold in the arch over
the extreme right-hand door. Look at the black and gold bosses in that
next it. On the other side of the main entrance these bosses have a
little colour in them. On the extreme left we find symbolism: a golden
horseman, the emblems of the four Evangelists, and so forth, while above
is a relief in black stone, netted in: this and the group over the
central door being the only external statuary in Venice to which the
pigeons have no access.

The carvings over the central door are interesting, although they have a