eventh, others in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries.

On this ground it seems to me probable that the existing apse of Murano
is part of the original earliest church, and that the inscribed
fragments used in it have been brought from the mainland. The
balustrade, however, may still be later than the rest; it will be
examined, hereafter, more carefully.[15]

I have not space to give any farther account of the exterior of the
building, though one half of what is remarkable in it remains untold. We
must now see what is left of interest within the walls.

[Illustration: Fig. III.]

Sec. XXXIV. All hope is taken away by our first glance; for it falls on a
range of shafts whose bases are concealed by wooden panelling, and which
sustain arches decorated in the most approved style of Renaissance
upholstery, with stucco roses in squares under the soffits, and egg and
arrow mouldings on the architraves, gilded, on a ground of spotty black
and green, with a small pink-faced and black-eyed cherub on every
keystone; the rest of the church being for the most part concealed
either by dirty hangings, or dirtier whitewash, or dim pictures on
warped and wasting canvas; all vulgar, vain, and foul. Yet let us not
turn back, for in the shadow of the apse our more careful glance shows
us a Greek Madonna, pictured on a field of gold; and we feel giddy at
the first step we make on the pavement, for it, also, is of Greek mosaic
waved like the sea, and dyed like a dove's neck.

Sec. XXXV. Nor are the original features of the rest of the edifice
altogether indecipherable; the entire series of shafts marked in the
ground plan on each side of the nave, from the western entrance to the
apse, are nearly uninjured; and I believe the stilted arches they
sustain are those of the original fabric, though the masonry is covered
by the Renaissance stucco mouldings. Their capitals, for a wonder, are
left bare, and appear to have sustained no farther injury than has
resulted from the insertion of a large brass chandelier into each of
their abaci, each chandelier carrying a sublime wax candle two inches
thick, fastened with wire to the wall above. The due arrangement of
these appendages, previous to festal days, can only be effected from a
ladder set against the angle of the abacus; and ten minutes before I
wrote this sentence, I had the privilege of watching the candlelighter
at his work, knocking his ladder about the heads of the capitals as if
the