THE TWO FOSCARI.

IN 1445, Giacopo, the only surviving son of Francesco Foscari, was denounced to the Ten as having received presents from foreign potentates. The offence, according to the law, was one of the most heinous which a noble could commit. Even if Giacopo were guiltless of infringing this law, it was not easy to establish innocence before a Venetian tribunal. Under the eyes of his own father—compelled to preside at the unnatural examination, -a confession was extorted from the prisoner on the rack; and from the lips of that father, he received the sentence that banished him for life.

Some time after, being suspected, on slight grounds, of having instigated the assassination of a chief of the Ten, the young Foscari was recalled from Treviso, tortured again in his father's presence, and not absolved, even after he resolutely persisted in denial unto the end.

Banished once more from his country which, notwithstanding his wrongs, he still regarded with passionate love; excluded from all communication with his family; torn from the wife of his affections; debarred from the society of his children, and hopeless of again embracing those parents, who had already far outstripped the natural term of human existence, his imagination ever centered on the single desire to return. For this purpose he addressed a letter to the Duke of Milan, imploring his good offices with the senate; and for the heavy crime of soliciting foreign intercession with his native government, Giacopo was once more "raised on the accursed cord no less than thirty times" under the eyes of the unhappy Doge; and when released, was carried to the apartments of his father, torn, bleeding, senseless and dislocated, but unchanged in purpose.

THE TWO FOSCARI.

Neither had his enemies relented - they renewed his sentence of exile, and added that its first year should be spent in prison. Such are the historical facts on which Lord Byron has founded his tragedy. The scene chosen by the painter is where Giacopo, supported by his father and his wife, leaves the dungeon to proceed to the place of his banishment.