en the wide quay
in front, the Riva dei Schiavoni, which now renders the Sea Facade as
important as that to the Piazzetta. There was only a narrow walk
between the pillars and the water; and the _old_ palace of Ziani still
faced the Piazzetta, and interrupted, by its decrepitude, the
magnificence of the square where the nobles daily met. Every increase of
the beauty of the new palace rendered the discrepancy between it and the
companion building more painful; and then began to arise in the minds of
all men a vague idea of the necessity of destroying the old palace, and
completing the front of the Piazzetta with the same splendor as the Sea
Facade. But no such sweeping measure of renovation had been contemplated
by the Senate when they first formed the plan of their new Council
Chamber. First a single additional room, then a gateway, then a larger
room; but all considered merely as necessary additions to the palace,
not as involving the entire reconstruction of the ancient edifice. The
exhaustion of the treasury, and the shadows upon the political horizon,
rendered it more than imprudent to incur the vast additional expense
which such a project involved; and the Senate, fearful of itself, and
desirous to guard against the weakness of its own enthusiasm, passed a
decree, like the effort of a man fearful of some strong temptation to
keep his thoughts averted from the point of danger. It was a decree, not
merely that the old palace should not be rebuilt, but that no one should
_propose_ rebuilding it. The feeling of the desirableness of doing so
was too strong to permit fair discussion, and the Senate knew that to
bring forward such a motion was to carry it.

Sec. XXI. The decree, thus passed in order to guard against their own
weakness, forbade any one to speak of rebuilding the old palace under
the penalty of a thousand ducats. But they had rated their own
enthusiasm too low: there was a man among them whom the loss of a
thousand ducats could not deter from proposing what he believed to be
for the good of the state.

Some excuse was given him for bringing forward the motion, by a fire
which occurred in 1419, and which injured both the church of St. Mark's,
and part of the old palace fronting the Piazzetta. What followed, I
shall relate in the words of Sanuto.[128]

Sec. XXII. "Therefore they set themselves with all diligence and care to
repair and adorn sumptuously, first God's house; but in the Prince's
house things w