The Appointed hour : a romance of Venice

Preface

The signal popularity which has attended the publication of the Romance of Venetian Life, entitled ''The Appointed Hour," is probably mainly owing to the truthfulness of its incidents. All ■who are familiar with the domestic policy of the State of Venice under the Government of its Doges, will at once acknowledge how easily naturally the events detailed in this romance might occur, strange and wonder* ful as they appear to the ears of modern Englishmen. Indeed, the slight glance that is in " The Appointed Hour,'' given of the Bridge of Sighs, affords but a trifling commentary upon the horrors which the dungeon of that building really have witnessed, at a period when Venice was called the Queen of the Adriatic, and was carrying her acts and her arms throughout Europe, and most of Asia. The insidious attacks of Flavius upon the enormous treasures of the Doge, which were ."kept in the dungeon like recesses beneath the Palace of St. Mark, is an historical fact ; and after some years of incarceration as a lunatic, the Loid Treasure!.- was led forth to public execution, surrounded by every mark of opprobiun i, Grateful for ti tie marked interest which the lovers of Romantic Litcralure ■ have paid to " Tl ie Appointed Hour," the author returns his best acknowledgements. London, Dea ember, 1848. A ROMANCE OF VENICE. GORDONI RELATES TO THE ABBESS FLOKANTHE's ATTACK UPON SJXj^PeiffS 80.