And what effect has this splendour on those who pass beneath it?  You may walk from sunrise to sunset, to and fro, before the gateway of St. Mark’s, and you will not see an eye lifted to it, nor a countenance brightened by it.  Priest and layman, soldier and civilian, rich and poor, pass by it alike regardlessly.  Up to the very recesses of the porches, the meanest tradesmen of the city push their counters; nay, the foundations of its pillars are themselves the seats—­not “of them that sell doves"[156] for sacrifice, but of the vendors of toys and caricatures.  Round the whole square in front of the church there is almost a continuous line of cafes, where the idle Venetians of the middle classes lounge, and read empty journals; in its centre the Austrian bands play during the time of vespers, their martial music jarring with the organ notes,—­the march drowning the miserere, and the sullen crowd thickening round them,—­a crowd, which, if it had its will, would stiletto every soldier that pipes to it.  And in the recesses of the porches, all day long, knots of men of the lowest classes, unemployed and listless, lie basking in the sun like lizards; and unregarded children,—­every heavy glance of their young eyes full of desperation and stony depravity, and their throats hoarse with cursing,—­gamble, and fight, and snarl, and sleep, hour after hour, clashing their bruised centesimi upon the marble ledges of the church porch.  And the images of Christ and His angels look down upon it continually.

  [143] Acts xiii, 13 and xv, 38, 39. [Ruskin.]

  [144] The reader who desires to investigate it may consult
  Galliciolli, Delle Memorie Venete (Venice, 1795), tom. 2, p. 332,
  and the authorities quoted by him. [Ruskin.]

  [145] Venice, 1761 tom. 1, p. 126. [Ruskin.]

  [146] A wonderful City, such as was never seen before.

[147] St. Mark’s Place, “partly covered by turf, and planted with a few trees; and on account of its pleasant aspect called Brollo or Broglio, that is to say, Garden.”  The canal passed through it, over which is built the bridge of the Malpassi.  Galliciolli, lib.  I, cap. viii. [Ruskin.]

  [148] My authorities for this statement are given below, in the
  chapter on the Ducal Palace. [Ruskin.]

  [149] In the Chronicles, Sancti Marci Ducalis Cappdla. [Ruskin.]

[150] “To God the Lord, the glorious Virgin Annunciate, and the Protector St. Mark.”—­Corner, p. 14.  It is needless to trouble the reader with the various authorities for the above statements:  I have consulted the best.  The previous inscription once existing on the church itself: 

    Anno milleno transacto bisque trigeno Desuper undecimo fuit facta
    primo,

  is no longer to be seen, and is conjectured by Corner, with much
  probability, to have perished “in qualche ristauro.” [Ruskin.]