"The 'Bridge of Sighs' (_i.e._ Ponte de'i Sospiri) is that which divides, or rather joins, the palace of the Doge to the prison of the state. It has two passages: the criminal went by the one to judgment, and returned by the other to death, being strangled in a chamber adjoining, where there was a mechanical process for the purpose. "This is the first stanza of our new Canto; and now for a line of the second:-- "In Venice, Tasso's echoes are no more, And silent rows the songless gondolier, Her palaces, &c. &c. "You know that formerly the gondoliers sung always, and Tasso's Gierusalemme was their ballad. Venice is built on seventy-two islands. "There! there's a brick of your new Babel! and now, sirrah! what say you to the sample? "Yours, &c. "P.S. I shall write again by and by." * * * * * LETTER 287. TO MR. MURRAY. "La Mira, near Venice, July 8. 1817 "If you can convey the enclosed letter to its address, or discover the person to whom it is directed, you will confer a favour upon the Venetian creditor of a deceased Englishman. This epistle is a dun to his executor, for house-rent. The name of the insolvent defunct is, or was, _Porter Valter_, according to the account of the plaintiff, which I rather suspect ought to be _Walter Porter_, according to our mode of collocation. If you are acquainted with any dead man of the like name a good deal in debt, pray dig him up, and tell him that 'a pound of his fair flesh' or the ducats are required, and that 'if you deny them, fie upon your law!' "I hear nothing more from you about Moore's poem, Rogers, or other literary phenomena; but to-morrow, being post-day, will bring perhaps some tidings. I write to you with people talking Venetian all about, so that you must not expect this letter to be all English.