But at home evil days had fallen upon Venice. An awful tempest and inundation wrought havoc in the city. Houses and factories were levelled to the ground; the ancient capital Malamocco was engulfed in the sea. Scarcely had the unhappy citizens recovered from their terror when two disastrous fires consumed a great part of the city. Thirty churches were destroyed, and the ducal palace and St Mark’s injured. Abroad, the King of Hungary attacked their protectorate of Dalmatia, and the fleet was recalled from the East. It had done what was expected of it. A certain Friar Peter being at Constantinople heard that the body of St Stephen, the proto-martyr, was in a church there, and “found means to obtain it.” The fleet was in the harbour, and the sacred treasure put on board, not without opposition from the Greeks, who were with difficulty restrained from attacking the bearers. A great procession went forth to meet the fleet as it neared Venice, and the Doge himself transferred the holy burden on his shoulders to the ducal barge. Many churches contended for the possession of the relic, which at length was conferred on the rich Benedictine Abbey of S. Giorgio Maggiore, founded in the year 982. The Bishop of Castello, who had been sent to Constantinople to plead for help in the reconquest of Dalmatia, was no less successful. As a token of the Emperor’s favour, he returned with the right hand of St John the Baptist in a vase. Two armaments were sent to recover Dalmatia. In 1117, when the Venetians were wavering before a fierce attack of the Hungarians outside Zara, the Doge spurred forward to hearten them. His horse stumbled on a dead body: the enemy closed on him, and he was slain--the second Doge who had met a soldier’s death. [Illustration: THE SQUERO, S. TROVASO] Ordelafo Falier is remembered in Venice to-day by two monuments: one of art--the famous _Pala d’oro_ in St Mark’s; the other of civic utility--the scattered _squeri_ or shipyards were concentrated by him in the great Arsenal, whence issued the mighty vessels innumerable that for centuries maintained the naval supremacy of Venice. It was this _Arzanà_, now the _Arsenale Vecchio_, which Dante saw and immortalised in the famous description of the fifth of the Malebolge:-- “Quale nell’arzanà de’ Viniziani bolle l’inverno la tenace pece a rimpalmar li lor legni non sani, che navicar non ponno, e in quella vece chi fa suo legno nuovo, e chi ristoppa le coste a quel che più viaggi fece; chi ribatte da proda, e chi da poppa; altri fa remi, ed altri volge sarte; chi terzerudo ed artimon rintoppa.”[13]