d these soft,
harmonious colours must have been the work of ages, especially those
portions which necessitated the patient artist working on his back,
while fixing each tiny cube into its proper place in the ceiling. The
antique pavement, undulating from sheer age and tread of multitudes of
worshippers in the past, and also probably from a sinking of the
foundation, is likewise tessellated with all the colours of the prism,
arranged in mystic symbols and intricate figuring. But it appeared to
me, at least, that this wonderful, Mosque-like building only wanted
great groups of monster idols, to complete a perfect resemblance to some
vast Hindoo temple of a dark bygone age, when the people's conception of
the Deity was of a being rather to be feared than loved, rather to be
dreaded than trusted.

Various services were going on in the numerous little chapels; and when
the principal morning service at the chancel was over, we ascended the
steps of the high altar in order to examine and admire the ancient
twisted red alabaster pillars, said to have been originally a part of
Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem; for nearly every stone in St. Mark's has
its history. The bronze folding doors came from the Mosque of St. Sophia
at Stamboul; the pillars at the entrance of the baptistery were part of
the booty of Arre; while there are three red flagstones on which
Barbarossa knelt to do reverence to St. Peter, in the person of the
Pope. The guide held a lighted taper on one side of the column, that we
might observe its glowing transparency. I could well enter into the
feeling of noble triumph which must have animated those great and
powerful Doges of past times, in thus being able to beautify their own
Christian temple in Venice at the expense of the unbelieving, barbarous
Turk, whose usurpation of these sacred relics and of the Holy Land was
righteously considered a scandal and a shame to the Christian world.

We visited the Treasure Chapel, and saw the precious things of the
temple--offerings of princes, potentates, and devotees, collected from
all ends of the world. Each apartment was secured by no end of bolts,
bars, and locks. Among other curiosities we were shown a cover of the
books of the Gospels, embellished with gold and jewels, from the Church
of St. Sophia, Constantinople; a crystal vase containing the blood of
the Saviour (!); a silver column supporting a fragment of the pillar at
which Christ was scourged; a cup of agate con