roof of a palace that forms an archway, is the remarkable clock, with its large detached bell, upon which, at noon and midnight, two metal giants, called i Mori, strike twelve prodigious blows with their ponderous hammers. Proceeding down the Riva de’ Schiavoni, the street of the Slavonians, towards the Doge’s palace, supported by innumerable arches curiously wrought, and resting upon as many pillars, what an extraordinary scene presents itself! It is not merely that jugglers and conjurers of all sorts here display their tricks, while the more elegant population of Venice, intermixed with Turks, Greeks, and Dalmatians, in splendid national costumes, pours along towards the Giardini publici; no, the eye of the intelligent observer is here met by a very grave but not less romantic point of view, namely, the palace of the state inquisitors, the prisons of three different kinds, (of which the Piombi, or lead roofs, and the Pozzi, or wells, were the most famous,) and a structure, the name of which strikes painfully on the ear---the Ponte de’ Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs, bestriding the dark canal del Orfano. Through its silent walls, with their small closely-grated windows, the condemned were conducted from sentence to execution. The entrances are secured on both sides with immense iron bars and padlocks. We need, in fact, neither the mysterious descriptions
