In visiting again the prisons under the ducal palace, several additional circumstances were told us. The condemned were compelled to become executioners. They were led from their cells into the dark passage where stood the secret guillotine, and without warning forced to put to death a fellow-creature either by this instrument, or the more horrible method of strangling against a grate. The guide said that the office of executioner was held in such horror that it was impossible to fill it, and hence this dreadful alternative. When a prisoner was about to be executed, his clothes were sent home to his family with the message, that "the state would care for him." How much more agonizing do these circumstances seem, when we remember that most of the victims were men of rank and education, condemned on suspicion of political crimes, and often with families refined to a most unfortunate capacity for mental torture! One ceases to regret the fall of the Venetian republic, when he sees with how much crime and tyranny her splendor was accompanied. * * * * * I saw at the arsenal to-day the model of the "Bucentaur," the state galley in which the Doge of Venice went out annually to marry him to the sea. This poetical relic (which, in Childe Harold's time, "lay rotting unrestored") was burnt by the French--why, I can not conceive. It was a departure from their usual habit of respect to the curious and beautiful; and if they had been jealous of such a vestige of the grandeur of a conquered people, it might at least have been sent to Paris as easily as "Saint Mark's steeds of brass," and would have been as great a curiosity. I would rather have seen the Bucentaur than all their other plunder. The arsenal contains many other treasures. The armor given to the city of Venice by Henry the Fourth is there, and a curious key constructed to shoot poisoned needles, and used by one of the Henrys, I have forgotten which, to despatch any one who offended him in his presence. One or two curious machines for torture were shown us--mortars into which the victim was put, with an iron armor which was screwed down upon him till his head was crushed, or confession stopped the torture. LETTER XXXIX. VENICE--SAN MARC'S CHURCH--RECOLLECTIONS OF HOME--FESTA AT THE LIDO--A POETICAL SCENE--AN ITALIAN SUNSET--PALACE OF MANFRINI--PESARO'S PALACE AND COUNTRY RESIDENCE--CHURCH OF SAINT MARY OF NAZARETH--PADUA--THE UNIVERSITY--STATUES OF DISTINGUISHED FOREIGNERS THE PUBLIC PALACE--BUST OF TITUS LIVY--BUST OF PETRARCH--CHURCH OF ST. ANTONY DURING MASS--THE SAINT'S CHIN AND TONGUE--MARTYRDOM OF ST. AGATHA--AUSTRIAN AND GERMAN SOLDIERS--TRAVELLER'S RECORD-BOOK--PETRARCH'S COTTAGE AND TOMB--ITALIAN SUMMER AFTERNOON--THE POET'S HOUSE--A FINE VIEW--THE ROOM WHERE PETRARCH DIED, ETC.