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Updated: June 5, 2025
Of historical accounts, the following in Mrs. Oliphant's best manner is justly regarded as the most impressive which has hitherto appeared in English. Marino Falieri had been an active servant of Venice through a long life. He had filled almost all the great offices which were intrusted to her nobles.
It is thus evident that Falieri was not a man used to the position of a lay figure, although at seventy-six the dignified retirement of a throne, even when so encircled with restrictions, would seem not inappropriate. That he was of a haughty and hasty temper seems apparent.
Even when their names and characters had alike been moulded into Southern form, the "Seven Houses" of Pisa boasted of their descent from the seven barons of Emperor Otto. The Participazii, the Dandoli, the Falieri, the Foscari, told of the flight of their Roman fathers before the barbarian sword from Pavia, Gaeta, Fano, Messina.
As for me, I need not tell you how I am suited. Falieri. Had we been less extravagant, we might at this moment have been sitting quietly in our palaces; but as things stand now Parozzi. Well, as things stand now I verily believe that Falieri is going to moralise. Contarino. That is ever the way with old sinners when they have lost the power to sin any longer.
Dimly burnt the lights; lowering and tempestuous were the skies without; gloomy and fearful were the souls of the libertines within. What, are you both dreaming? Ho, there, Memmo, Falieri, fill your goblets. Well, to please you . But I care not for wine to-night. Falieri. Nor I. Methinks it tastes like vinegar: yet the wine itself is good: 'tis our ill temper spoils it. Parozzi.
The question is one which it is difficult to discuss with any certainty. That Falieri desired to establish as so many had done in other cities an independent despotism in Venice, seems entirely unproved. It was the prevailing fear; the one suggestion which alarmed everybody and made sentiment unanimous.
Even from that refuge his bones have been driven forth, but his name remains in the corner of the Hall of the Great Council, where with a certain dramatic affectation the painter-historians have painted a black veil across the vacant place. "This is the place of Marino Falieri, beheaded for his crimes," is all the record left of the Doge disgraced. Was it a crime?
I tell you he is the most contemptible blockhead that the universe can furnish! Courage perhaps he possesses, but of brains not an atom. Contarino. And I tell you that Andreas is as brave as a lion, and as crafty as a fox. Falieri. Pshaw! pshaw! Everything would go to rack and ruin were it not for the wiser heads of this triumvirate of counsellors, whom Heaven confound!
There's an infernal adventure for you. Parozzi. I shall go mad. Falieri. Everything we design is counteracted; the more trouble we give ourselves, the further we are from the goal. Memmo. I confess it seems to me as if Heaven gave us warning to desist. How say you? Contarino. Pshaw, these are trifles! Such accidents should only serve to sharpen our wits.
The Villa d'Asola, the country residence of the Signor Falieri, was in a state of unusual excitement. Some of the most distinguished patricians of Venice had been bidden to a great banquet, which was to surpass in magnificence any entertainment ever before given, even by the wealthy and hospitable Signer Falieri.
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