formed his stronghold in times of popular tumult or family fray; but at
Venice the strong arm of St. Mark suppressed all turbulence in a city
secure from foreign war; and the peaceful arts rejoiced in undisturbed
possession of the palaces, which rose in the most delicate and fantastic
beauty, and mirrored in the brine a dream of sea-deep strangeness and
richness. You see much of the beauty yet, but the pride and opulence which
called it into being are gone forever.

Most palaces, whether of the Gothic or classicistic period, have the same
internal arrangement of halls and chambers, and are commonly built of two
lofty and two low stories. On the ground floor, or water level, is a hall
running back from the gate to a bit of garden at the other side of the
palace; and on either side of this hall, which in old times was hung with
the family trophies of the chase and war, are the porter's lodge and
gondoliers' rooms. On the first and second stories are the family
apartments, opening on either side from great halls, of the same extent as
that below, but with loftier roofs, of heavy rafters gilded or painted.
The fourth floor is of the same arrangement, but has a lower roof, and was
devoted to the better class of servants. Of the two stories used by the
family, the third is the loftier and airier, and was occupied in summer;
the second was the winter apartment. On either hand the rooms open in
suites.

We have seen something of the ceremonies, public and private, which gave
peculiar gayety and brilliance to the life of the Venetians of former
days; but in his political character the noble had yet greater
consequence. He was part of the proudest, strongest, and securest system
of his time. He was a king with the fellowship of kings, flattered with
the equality of an aristocracy which was master of itself, and of its
nominal head. During the earlier times it was his office to go daily to