EPILOGUE 243

And as they prayed, with one accord, suddenly there rose up among the multitude the cry, ‘Domenico Selvo, we will, and we approve,’ whom a crowd of the nobles brought instantly forward thereupon, and raised him on their own shoulders and carried him to his own boat; into which when he had entered, he put off his shoes from his feet, that he might in all humility approach the church of St. Mark. And while the boats began to row from the islands towards Venice, the monk who saw this, and tells us of it, himself began to sing the Te Deum. All around the voices of the people took up the hymn, following it with Kyrie Eleison, with such litany keeping time to their oars in the bright noonday, and rejoicing on their native sea; all the towers of the city answering with triumph peals as they grew nearer. They brought their Doge to the Field of St. Mark, and carried him again on their shoulders to the porch of the church; there, entering barefoot, with songs of praise to God round him-’such that it seemed as if the vaults must fall,’-he prostrated himself on the earth and gave thanks to God and St. Mark, and uttered such vow as was in his heart to utter before them. Rising, he received at the altar the Venetian sceptre, and thence entering the Ducal Palace, received there the oath of fealty from the people.”*

(2.) “At which time (1258) we all, with a joyful mind, with a perfect will, and with a single spirit, to the honour of the Most Holy Saviour and Lord sir Jesus Christ, and of the glorious Virgin Madonna Saint Mary His Mother, and of the happy and blessed sir Saint Theodore, martyr and cavalier of God,-(‘martir et cavalier de Dio’)-and of all the other saints and saintesses of God” (have set our names,-understood), “to the end that the above sir, sir Saint Theodore, who stands continually before the throne of God, with the other saints, may pray to our Lord Jesus Christ that we

* This account of the election of the Doge Selvo is given by Sansovino (Venetia Descritta, lib. xi. 40: Venice, 1663, p. 477)-saying at the close of it simply,-”Thus writes Domenico Rino, who was his chaplain, and who was present at what I have related.”-Part of Note to St. Mark’s Rest.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]