By the merest chance, but very fortunately, he was prevented from bedevilling the Ducal Palace after the fire in 1576.

He had the plans all ready, but a wiser than he, one Da Ponte, undertook to make the structure good without rebuilding, and carried out his word.

Terrible to think of what the Vicenza classicist would have done with that gentle, gay, and human facade! [Illustration: TRAGHETTO OF S.ZOBENIGO, GRAND CANAL] S.Giorgio has a few pictures, chief of which are the two great Tintorettos in the choir.

These are, however, very difficult to see.

My own efforts once led me myself to open the gates and enter, so that I might be nearer and in better light: a proceeding which turned the sacristan from a servant of God into an ugly brawler.