e forgotten; and the casual reader of her history
may perhaps be surprised to be reminded, that the expedition which was
commanded by the noblest of her princes, and whose results added most to
her military glory, was one in which while all Europe around her was
wasted by the fire of its devotion, she first calculated the highest
price she could exact from its piety for the armament she furnished, and
then, for the advancement of her own private interests, at once broke
her faith and betrayed her religion.

"And yet, in the midst of this national criminality, we shall be struck
again and again by the evidences of the most noble individual feeling.
The tears of Dandolo were not shed in hypocrisy, though they could not
blind him to the importance of the conquest of Zara. The habit of
assigning to religion a direct influence over all _his own_ actions, and
all the affairs of _his own_ daily life, is remarkable in every great
Venetian during the times of the prosperity of the state; nor are
instances wanting in which the private feeling of the citizens reaches
the sphere of their policy, and even becomes the guide of its course
where the scales of expediency are doubtfully balanced. I sincerely
trust that the inquirer would be disappointed who should endeavor to
trace any more immediate reasons for their adoption of the cause of
Alexander III. against Barbarossa, than the piety which was excited by
the character of their suppliant, and the noble pride which was provoked
by the insolence of the emperor. But the heart of Venice is shown only
in her hastiest counsels; her worldly spirit recovers the ascendency
whenever she has time to calculate the probabilities of advantage, or
when they are sufficiently distinct to need no calculation; and the
entire subjection of private piety to national policy is not only
remarkable throughout the almost endless series of treacheries and
tyrannies by which her empire was enlarged and maintained, but
symbolized by a very singular circumstance in the building of the city
itself. I am aware of no other city of Europe in which its cathedral was
not the principal feature. But the principal church in Venice was the
chapel attached to the palace of her prince, and called the "Chiesa
Ducale." The patriarchal church, inconsiderable in size and mean
decoration, stands on the outermost islet of the Venetian group, and its
name, as well as its site, is probably unknown to the greater number of
travel