It lived on terror and voluptuousness; its police was a system of secret confession, of each against the other.

Its cells, termed the _Piombi_ or _Leads_, and which were entered at night by the _Bridge of Sighs_, were a hell that closed on the captive never to re-open.

The wealth of the East flowed in on Venice from the fall of the Lower Empire.

She became the refuge of Greek civilisation, and the Constantinople of the Adriatic; and the arts had emigrated thither from Byzance, with commerce.

Its marvellous palaces, washed by the waves, were crowded together on a narrow spot of ground, so that the city was like a vessel at anchor, on board which a people driven from the land have taken refuge with all their treasures.