United States or Honduras ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
To his vehement reproaches and threats they opposed a dignified silence, until Dandolo, appealing to his generosity, awakened those nobler feelings which were never long dormant. Then he quietly dismissed them to witness the downfall of their beloved city.
Delighted at having discovered the whole affair, at having arrived in time to prevent my friend who was goodness itself contracting an absurd marriage, I answered the hypocrite that I loved M. Dandolo, that I knew his temperament, and that I was certain that a marriage with a woman like Madame Tripolo would shorten his life.
When I woke in the morning, I saw De la Haye come into my room with a beaming countenance, and, assuming an air of devoted friendship, he made a great show of his feelings towards me. I knew what to think of it all, and I waited for the 'denouement'. "My dear friend," he said to me at last, "why did you dissuade M. Dandolo from doing what I had insinuated to him?"
To his vehement reproaches and threats they opposed a dignified silence, until Dandolo, appealing to his generosity, awakened those nobler feelings which were never long dormant. Then he quietly dismissed them to witness the downfall of their beloved city.
M. Dandolo asked me whether I would answer a question he would ask, the interpretation of which would belong only to him, as he was the only person acquainted with the subject of the question. I declared myself quite willing, for it was necessary to brazen it out, after having ventured as far as I had done.
His place, one would have said, was in the council-chamber, with the soberer heads; but that was an hour when every man gave his blood where it was most needed, and Cernuschi, Dandolo, Anfossi, della Porta fought shoulder to shoulder with students, artisans and peasants.
And our gold-maker himself going to the Senate like a noble, with his friends the Cornaro and the Dandolo in crimson robes the people thronging to see him pass!" "Ay, Bragadin was a saintly man!" one of them retorted mockingly.
The first of the Inquisitors was Sagredo, and intimate friend of the Procurator Morosini's; the second, Grimani, the friend of my good Dandolo; and M. Zaguri wrote to me that he would answer for the third, who, according to law, was one of the six councillors who assist the Council of Ten.
At first the Greeks were too strong, and a feeling grew among the allies that withdrawal was best; but Dandolo refused; they fought on, and Constantinople was theirs. Unhappily the victors then lost all control, and every kind of horror followed, including the wanton destruction of works of art beautiful beyond dreams.
But the destruction of old customs and old prejudices is often the work of long ages. I felt curious to know this character, and wrote to M. Dandolo to get me a letter of introduction to the marquis. In a week my good old friend sent me the desired letter. It was written by another Venetian, M. de Zaguri, an intimate friend of the marquis. The letter was not sealed, so I read it.
Word Of The Day