24 THE STONES OF VENICE

I say domestic and individual; for-and this is the second point which I wish the reader to keep in mind-the most curious phenomenon in all Venetian history is the vitality of religion in private life, and its deadness in public policy. Amidst the enthusiasm, chivalry, or fanaticism of the other states of Europe, Venice stands, from first to last, like a masked statue; her coldness impenetrable; her exertion only aroused by the touch of a secret spring. That spring was her commercial interest,-this the one motive of all her important political acts, or enduring national animosities. She could forgive insults to her honour, but never rivalship in her commerce; she calculated the glory of her conquests by their value, and estimated their justice by their facility. The fame of success remains, when the motives of attempt are forgotten; and the casual reader of her history may perhaps be surprised to be reminded, that the expedition which was commanded by the noblest of her princes, and whose results added most to her military glory, was one in which, while all Europe around her was wasted by the fire of its devotion, she first calculated the highest price she could exact from its piety for the armament she furnished, and then, for the advancement of her own private interests, at once broke her faith* and betrayed her religion.

§ 9. And yet, in the midst of this national criminality, we shall be struck again and again by the evidences of the most noble individual feeling. The tears of Dandolo¹ were not shed

* By directing the arms of the Crusaders against a Christian prince. Daru, liv. [book] iv. ch. iv., viii.²

¹ [On the reception of the pilgrims before the Fourth Crusade: see Rogers’ Italy (“St. Mark’s Place”), and the authority there cited:-

“Then did he stand, erect, invincible,

Though wan his cheeks, and wet with many tears,

For in his prayers he had been weeping much.”]

² [The reference is to the bargain made by Venice with the leaders of the Fourth Crusade, to furnish so many transports and galleys in return for so much money, and for half of any conquests made; and to the subsequent diversion of the Crusade, under the Doge Enrico Dandolo (see above, p. 20 n.), first to the conquest of Zara and then against the Emperor Alexius at Constantinople. On the vexed question of the “breach of faith,” see H. F. Brown’s Venice, p. 120.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]