It is interesting to compare these two sketches. The first shows the staircase as it stood some four years ago with an upper colonnade of fine “Cinquecento” work. The second shows that work swept away, under the delusion that it was better to see the staircase in its original form. ] the whole number died “naturally” in one day! The further statement that they had all died of the same complaint gave a momentary alarm as to an outbreak [Illustration: THE OUTSIDE STAIRCASE, PALAZZO DELLA RAGIONE] of the plague, but as no further victims succumbed this alarm also died away. A doorway by the great architect, San Micheli leads into a courtyard where traces of lovely but fast vanishing frescoes show what glories once reigned around, and remind one that barbarous and cruel in many ways as the rulers of Verona were, they were not indifferent to the beautifying of their town, nor to that patronage of art which rightly or wrongly we associate with a noble nature. On one side of the courtyard are some arches of pointed brick-work supported by stone columns with slightly decorated capitals, a work which was executed under the Venetian rule. Opposite is seen the Porta dei Bombardieri, an ugly erection of stone cannons, drums and implements of war which was set up in 1687. Inside this courtyard is a striking inscription in honour of Zaccaria Barbaro, who was the Podestă appointed by Venice over Verona during the latter half of the fifteenth century. It is recorded of him that he restored three castles in the city and several in the country, as well as changing the prætor’s house from wood to stone. His special claim to admiration, however lies in the fact that at a moment of scarcity of corn “he saw to relieving hunger, that he governed with integrity, administering equal rights to all, so that at the close of his office the people remembered him with tears, 1476.” A way was opened out from this courtyard by the Commune in 1817, so as to give employment to the work people of the town, it being then a time of dire want. This way leads to a small public garden, used as a Botanical School, and that was formerly the garden of Cansignorio della Scala. The next building of the Scaligers in the Piazza dei Signori is that built by Mastino I. (1272) and where [Illustration: FIFTEENTH CENTURY WELL IN VIA MAZZANTI]