in Venetian history; for the close of the
tenth century saw the conquest of Dalmatia, and the foundations of
Venetian supremacy in the Adriatic--that water-avenue to the Levant and
the Orient--while by the opening of the sixteenth the Cape route had
been discovered, the League of Cambray was in sight, and the end at
hand.

The tower, too, was a landmark to those at sea, and when the mariner had
the Campanile of San Nicolo on the Lido covering the Campanile of St.
Marks, he knew he had the route home and could make the Lido port. The
tower was the center of popular festivals, such as that of the Svolo on
Giovedi grasso, when an acrobat descended by a rope from the summit of
the Campanile to the feet of the Doge, who was a spectator from the
loggia of the Ducal Palace.

HOW THE CAMPANILE FELL[49]

BY HORATIO T. BROWN

We come now to the dolorous moment of the fall in July, 1902.
Infiltration of water had been observed in the roof of Sansovino's
Loggetta where that roof joined the shaft of the Campanile. At this
point a thin ledge of stone, let into the wall of the Campanile,
projected over the junction between the leaden roof of the Loggetta and
the shaft of the tower. In order to remedy the mischief of infiltration
it was resolved to remove and replace this projecting ledge. To do this
a chase was made in the wall of the Campanile, which, at this point,
consisted of a comparatively modern surface of masonry, placed there to
repair the damage caused by lightning strokes.

This chase was cut, not piecemeal, but continuously. The work was
carried out on Monday, July 7th. During the process the architect in
charge became alarmed at the condition of the inner part of the wall
laid bare by the cut. He exprest his fears to his superiors, but
apparently no examination of the tower was made till the Thursday
following. Even then the imminence of the danger does not seem to have
been grasped. On Saturday, the 12th, a crack was observed spreading
upward in a sloping direction from the cut above the roof of the
Loggetta toward the northeast angle of the shaft, then crossing the
angle and running up almost perpendicularly in the line of the little
windows that gave light to the internal passage from the base to the
bell-chamber.

This crack assumed such a threatening aspect, and was making such
visible progress, that the authorities in charge of the tower felt bound
to inform the Prefect, tho the danger was represente