The sea-charm of Venice

by Stopford A. Brooke

THE SEA-CHARM OF VENICE

THE SEA-CHARM
OF
VENICE

BY

STOPFORD A. BROOKE

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND CO.
1907

All rights reserved.

THE SEA-CHARM OF VENICE

When Attila came storming into Europe, his conquests may be said to have given rise to two great sea-powers. His rush on the north along the Baltic shores probably caused so much pressure on the continental English, that many of them, all the Engle especially, left their lands, found another country in Britain, and gave it the name of England. It is now, and has been for some centuries, the mistress of the seas, both in commerce and in war. But when Attila drove his war-plough southward, he crossed the Alps, and descended on the cities of the plain between Trieste and the Po. When he reached Altinum, Aquileia, and the other towns bordering on the lagoon, the Roman nobles, many of whom might be called merchant princes, and their dependants fled to Torcello, to Rialto, and to other islands where, before the conqueror came, they had established depôts for their trading, where the fishermen and boatmen were already in their pay. When the Goths followed the invading track of Attila, the emigration of the Roman inhabitants of the mainland to the lagoon continued year after year; and out of this emigrant flight grew Venice, the Queen of the Sea.