a half-circle, with seats rising one above another, as in an amphitheatre,
and a flight of steps ascending to the bishop's seat above all,--after the
manner of the earliest Christian churches. The partition parapet before
the high altar is of almost transparent marble, delicately and quaintly
sculptured with peacocks and lions, as the Byzantines loved to carve them;
and the capitals of the columns dividing the naves are of infinite
richness. Part of the marble pulpit has a curious bass-relief, said to be
representative of the worship of Mercury; and indeed the Torcellani owe
much of the beauty of their Duomo to unrequited antiquity. (They came to
be robbed in their turn: for the opulence of their churches was so great
that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the severest penalties had
to be enacted against those who stole from them. No one will be surprised
to learn that the clergy themselves participated in these spoliations; but
I believe no ecclesiastic was ever lashed in the piazza, or deprived of an
eye or a hand for his offense.) The Duomo has the peculiar Catholic
interest, and the horrible fascination, of a dead saint's mortal part in a
glass case.

An arcade runs along the facade of the cathedral, and around the side and
front of the adjoining church of Santa Fosca, which is likewise very old.
But we found nothing in it but a dusty, cadaverous stench, and so we came
away and ascended the campanile. From the top of this you have a view of
the lagoon, in all its iridescent hues, and of the heaven-blue sea. Here,
looking toward the main-land, I would have been glad to experience the
feelings of the Torcellani of old, as they descried the smoking advance of
Huns or Vandals. But the finer emotions are like gifted children, and are
seldom equal to occasions. I am ashamed to say that mine got no further
than Castle Bluebeard, with Lady Bluebeard's sister looking out for her
brothers, and tearfully responding to Lady B.'s repeated and agonized
entreaty, "O sister, do you see them yet?"