Southern District of New-York, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twentieth day of December, in the forty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, C. S VAN WINKLE, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"Giovanni Sbogarro. A Venetian Tale. [Taken from the French] By Percival G. In two volumes.

Ever renown blows a note of fame,

And a note of fear, when she sounds his name:
Much of bloodshed and much of scathe,

Have been their lot who have waked his wrath.
Harold the Dauntless."

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also, to an act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits. thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.” GILBERT LIVINGSTON THOMPSON,

Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

ENCY. LIBRAR

NEW YORK

GIOVANNI SBOGARRO.

CHAPTER I.

I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
A palace and a prison on each hand;
I saw from out the wave her structures rise,
As from the stroke of an enchanter's wand.
CHILDE HAROLD.

ONE of the greatest ornaments of Venice, is the island of San Giorgio Maggiore; for it lies directly in face of the square of St. Mark, and is occupied by

the splendid church of St. George, with

the monastery and the spacious gardens which appertain to it.

It was to this place that Madame Alberoni's party repaired from the arsenal ; but they paused about midway, immediately in front of the two granite columns, to enjoy a prospect of Venice from the most magnificent and imposing point of view.

Palaces and churches, colonnades and cupolas, and airy pinnacles, rose on every side, contrasting and blending the beauties of Grecian, Gothic, and Oriental architectnie. The grandeur of these structures bore witness to that proud era when Venice sat enthroned upon her hundred isles, the mistress of the ocean; when she monopolized the commerce of the East, and decked her haughty capital with trophies from the remotest regions of the earth.

"To this fair queen of Adria's stormy gulf,
The mart of nations! long obedient seas
Roll'd all the treasures of the radiant East.
-But now no more!"

Antonia's eyes were fixed on that part of the place of St. Mark that lies open to the water, and her sister was naming to her the stately buildings which invest it. The ducal palace, distinguished for its superb and singular style of architecture, had attracted her particular regard; when Orsonio directed her attention to a covered passage that passed over an intervening canal at some elevation in the air, and led from this palace to an adjacent building of dark and ponderous structure:the prison of state.

"That," said Orsonio," is emphatically

termed The Bridge of Sighs. By that secret passage, prisoners accused of crimes against the state are brought privately to a trial, which has often proved a mere mockery of justice; before a tribunal where their inveterate enemies and secret accusers often sit as judges--and by that passage they are remanded to their dungeons to await their destiny.

"The council of ten," he continued, "is a secret tribunal, charged with the safety of the state, and clothed with the absolute control of life and death. They are not responsible to any authority, and three state inquisitors are the depositaries of their power. They are the awe and terror of the public, for they