_.; Therefore be not precipitant;
consider well what you are about to do.]

[Footnote 42: _--with warning all as blunt:_; That is, as gross as the
dull metal.]

HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT FIRST.

(A) The foundation of Venice is attributed to the inhabitants of the
surrounding districts, who fled from the cruelty of Attila, King of the
Huns, and took refuge among the islets at the mouth of the Brenta. Here,
about the middle of the fifth century, they founded two small towns,
called Rivoalto and Malmocco, and, being in a manner shut out from all
other modes of employment, naturally devoted themselves to commerce. In
this way they soon became prosperous, and their numbers increased so
rapidly, that in the year 697 they made application to the Emperor to be
elected into a body politic, and obtained authority to elect a chief, to
whom they gave the name of Duke or Doge. The town, continuing to
increase, gradually extended its buildings to the adjacent islands, and,
at the same time, acquired considerable tracts of territory on the
mainland, then inhabited by the Veneti, from whence the rising city is
supposed to have borrowed its name of Venetia or Venice.

(B) This is the heart of Venice, and is one of the most imposing
architectural objects in Europe. Three of the sides are occupied by
ranges of lofty buildings, which are connected by a succession of
covered walk; or arcades. The church of St Mark, founded in the year
828, closes up the square on the east. The lofty Campanile, or
Bell-tower, over 300 feet in height, was begun A.D. 902, and finished in
1155.

In the reign of Justiniani Participazio, A.D., 827, the son and
Successor of Angelo, undistinguished by events of more important
character, the Venetians became possessed of the relics of that saint to
whom they ever afterwards appealed as the great patron of their state
and city. These remains were obtained from Alexandria by a pious
stratagem, at a time when the church wherein they were originally
deposited was about to be destroyed, in order that its rich marbles
might be applied to the decoration of a palace. At that fortunate
season, some Venetian ships (it is said no less than ten, a fact proving
the prosperous extent of their early commerce) happened to be trading in
that port; and their captains, though not without much difficulty,
succeeded in obtaining from the priests, who had the custody of the holy
treasure, its deliverance into their hands, in