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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bravo, by J. Fenimore Cooper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bravo
+
+Author: J. Fenimore Cooper
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2003 [EBook #10363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRAVO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BRAVO
+
+A TALE
+
+BY J. FENIMORE COOPER
+
+
+"Giustizia in palazzo, e pane in piazza."
+
+
+1872.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+It is to be regretted the world does not discriminate more justly in its
+use of political terms. Governments are usually called either monarchies
+or republics. The former class embraces equally those institutions in
+which the sovereign is worshipped as a god, and those in which he
+performs the humble office of a manikin. In the latter we find
+aristocracies and democracies blended in the same generic appellation.
+The consequence of a generalization so wide is an utter confusion on the
+subject of the polity of states.
+
+The author has endeavored to give his countrymen, in this book, a
+picture of the social system of one of the _soi-disant_ republics of the
+other hemisphere. There has been no attempt to portray historical
+characters, only too fictitious in their graver dress, but simply to set
+forth the familiar operations of Venetian policy. For the justification
+of his likeness, after allowing for the defects of execution, he refers
+to the well-known work of M. Daru.
+
+A history of the progress of political liberty, written purely in the
+interests of humanity, is still a desideratum in literature. In nations
+which have made a false commencement, it would be found that the
+citizen, or rather the subject, has extorted immunity after immunity, as
+his growing intelligence and importance have both instructed and
+required him to defend those particular rights which were necessary to
+his well-being. A certain accumulation of these immunities constitutes,
+with a solitary and recent exception in Switzerland, the essence of
+European liberty, even at this hour. It is scarcely necessary to tell
+the reader, that this freedom, be it more or less, depends on a
+principle entirely different from our own. Here the immunities do not
+proceed from, but they are granted to, the government, being, in other
+words, concessions of natural rights made by the people to the state,
+for the benefits of social protection. So long as this vital difference
+exists between ourselves and other nations, it will be vain to think of
+finding analogies in their institutions. It is true that, in an age like
+this, public opinion is itself a charter, and that the most despotic
+government which exists within the pale of Christendom, must, in some
+degree, respect its influence. The mildest and justest governments in
+Europe are, at this moment, theoretically despotisms. The characters of
+both prince and people enter largely into the consideration of so
+extraordinary results; and it should never be forgotten that, though the
+character of the latter be sufficiently secure, that of the former is
+liable to change. But, admitting every benefit which possibly can flow
+from a just administration, with wise and humane princes, a government
+which is not properly based on the people, possesses an unavoidable and
+oppressive evil of the first magnitude, in the necessity of supporting
+itself by physical force and onerous impositions, against the natural
+action of the majority.
+
+Were we to characterize a republic, we should say it was a state in
+which power, both theoretically and practically, is derived from the
+nation, with a constant responsibility of the agents of the public to
+the people--a responsibility that is neither to be evaded nor denied.
+That such a system is better on a large than on a small scale, though
+contrary to brilliant theories which have been written to uphold
+different institutions, must be evident on the smallest reflection,
+since the danger of all popular governments is from popular mistakes;
+and a people of diversified interests and extended territorial
+possessions, are much less likely to be the subjects of sinister
+passions than the inhabitants of a single town or county. If to this
+definition we should add, as an infallible test of the genus, that a
+true republic is a government of which all others are jealous and
+vituperative, on the instinct of self-preservation, we believe there
+would be no mistaking the class. How far Venice would have been
+obnoxious to this proof, the reader is left to judge for himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  "I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
+  A palace and a prison on each hand;
+  I saw from out the wave her structures rise,
+  As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand;
+  A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
+  Around me, and a dying glory smiles
+  O'er the far times, when many a subject land
+  Looked to the winged lions' marble piles,
+  Where Venice sat in state, throned on her hundred isles."
+                                          BYRON.
+
+
+The sun had disappeared behind the summits of the Tyrolean Alps, and the
+moon was already risen above the low barrier of the Lido. Hundreds of
+pedestrians were pouring out of the narrow streets of Venice into the
+square of St. Mark, like water gushing through some strait aqueduct,
+into a broad and bubbling basin. Gallant cavalieri and grave cittadini;
+soldiers of Dalmatia, and seamen of the galleys; dames of the city, and
+females of lighter manners; jewellers of the Rialto, and traders from
+the Levant; Jew, Turk, and Christian; traveller, adventurer, podestŕ,
+valet, avvocato, and gondolier, held their way alike to the common
+centre of amusement. The hurried air and careless eye; the measured step
+and jealous glance; the jest and laugh; the song of the cantatrice, and
+the melody of the flute; the grimace of the buffoon, and the tragic
+frown of the improvisatore; the pyramid of the grotesque, the compelled
+and melancholy smile of the harpist, cries of water-sellers, cowls of
+monks, plumage of warriors, hum of voices, and the universal movement
+and bustle, added to the more permanent objects of the place, rendered
+the scene the most remarkable of Christendom.
+
+On the very confines of that line which separates western from eastern
+Europe, and in constant communication with the latter, Venice possessed
+a greater admixture of character and costume, than any other of the
+numerous ports of that region. A portion of this peculiarity is still to
+be observed, under the fallen fortunes of the place; but at the period
+of our tale, the city of the isles, though no longer mistress of the
+Mediterranean, nor even of the Adriatic, was still rich and powerful.
+Her influence was felt in the councils of the civilized world, and her
+commerce, though waning, was yet sufficient to uphold the vast
+possessions of those families, whose ancestors had become rich in the
+day of her prosperity. Men lived among her islands in that state of
+incipient lethargy, which marks the progress of a downward course,
+whether the decline be of a moral or of a physical decay.
+
+At the hour we have named, the vast parallelogram of the piazza was
+filling fast, the cafés and casinos within the porticoes, which surround
+three of its sides, being already thronged with company. While all
+beneath the arches was gay and brilliant with the flare of torch and
+lamp, the noble range of edifices called the Procuratories, the massive
+pile of the Ducal Palace, the most ancient Christian church, the granite
+columns of the piazzetta, the triumphal masts of the great square, and
+the giddy tower of the campanile, were slumbering in the more mellow
+glow of the moon.
+
+Facing the wide area of the great square stood the quaint and venerable
+cathedral of San Marco. A temple of trophies, and one equally
+proclaiming the prowess and the piety of its founders, this remarkable
+structure presided over the other fixtures of the place, like a monument
+of the republic's antiquity and greatness. Its Saracenic architecture,
+the rows of precious but useless little columns that load its front, the
+low Asiatic domes which rest upon its walls in the repose of a thousand
+years, the rude and gaudy mosaics, and above all the captured horses of
+Corinth which start from out the sombre mass in the glory of Grecian
+art, received from the solemn and appropriate light, a character of
+melancholy and mystery, that well comported with the thick recollections
+which crowd the mind as the eye gazes at this rare relic of the past.
+
+As fit companions to this edifice, the other peculiar ornaments of the
+place stood at hand. The base of the campanile lay in shadow, but a
+hundred feet of its grey summit received the full rays of the moon along
+its eastern face. The masts destined to bear the conquered ensigns of
+Candia, Constantinople, and the Morea, cut the air by its side, in dark
+and fairy lines; while at the extremity of the smaller square, and near
+the margin of the sea, the forms of the winged lion and the patron saint
+of the city, each on his column of African granite, were distinctly
+traced against the back-ground of the azure sky.
+
+It was near the base of the former of these massive blocks of stone,
+that one stood who seemed to gaze at the animated and striking scene,
+with the listlessness and indifference of satiety. A multitude, some in
+masques and others careless of being known, had poured along the quay
+into the piazzetta, on their way to the principal square, while this
+individual had scarce turned a glance aside, or changed a limb in
+weariness. His attitude was that of patient, practised, and obedient
+waiting on another's pleasure. With folded arms, a body poised on one
+leg, and a vacant though good-humored eye, he appeared to attend some
+beck of authority ere he quitted the spot. A silken jacket, in whose
+tissue flowers of the gayest colors were interwoven, the falling collar
+of scarlet, the bright velvet cap with armorial bearings embroidered on
+its front, proclaimed him to be a gondolier in private service.
+
+Wearied at length with the antics of a distant group of tumblers, whose
+pile of human bodies had for a time arrested his look, this individual
+turned away, and faced the light air from the water. Recognition and
+pleasure shot into his countenance, and in a moment his arms were
+interlocked with those of a swarthy mariner, who wore the loose attire
+and Phrygian cap of men of his calling. The gondolier was the first to
+speak, the words flowing from him in the soft accents of his native
+islands.
+
+"Is it thou, Stefano? They said thou hadst fallen into the gripe of the
+devils of Barbary, and that thou wast planting flowers for an infidel
+with thy hands, and watering them with thy tears!"
+
+The answer was in the harsher dialect of Calabria, and it was given with
+the rough familiarity of a seaman.
+
+"La Bella Sorrentina is no housekeeper of a curato! She is not a damsel
+to take a siesta with a Tunisian rover prowling about in her
+neighborhood. Hadst ever been beyond the Lido, thou wouldst have known
+the difference between chasing the felucca and catching her."
+
+"Kneel down and thank San Teodoro for his care. There was much praying
+on thy decks that hour, caro Stefano, though none is bolder among the
+mountains of Calabria when thy felucca is once safely drawn up on the
+beach!"
+
+The mariner cast a half-comic, half-serious glance upward at the image
+of the patron saint, ere he replied.
+
+"There was more need of the wings of thy lion than of the favor of thy
+saint. I never come further north for aid than San Gennaro, even when it
+blows a hurricane."
+
+"So much the worse for thee, caro, since the good bishop is better at
+stopping the lava than at quieting the winds. But there was danger,
+then, of losing the felucca and her brave people among the Turks?"
+
+"There was, in truth, a Tunis-man prowling about, between Stromboli and
+Sicily; but, Ali di San Michele! he might better have chased the cloud
+above the volcano than run after the felucca in a sirocco!"
+
+"Thou wast chicken-hearted, Stefano!"
+
+"I!--I was more like thy lion here, with some small additions of chains
+and muzzles."
+
+"As was seen by thy felucca's speed?"
+
+"Cospetto! I wished myself a knight of San Giovanni a thousand times
+during the chase, and La Bella Sorrentina a brave Maltese galley, if it
+were only for the cause of Christian honor! The miscreant hung upon my
+quarter for the better part of three glasses; so near, that I could tell
+which of the knaves wore dirty cloth in his turban, and which clean. It
+was a sore sight to a Christian, Stefano, to see the right thus borne
+upon by an infidel."
+
+"And thy feet warmed with the thought of the bastinado, caro mio?"
+
+"I have run too often barefoot over our Calabrian mountains, to tingle
+at the sole with every fancy of that sort."
+
+"Every man has his weak spot, and I know thine to be dread of a Turk's
+arm. Thy native hills have their soft as well as their hard ground, but
+it is said the Tunisian chooses a board knotty as his own heart, when he
+amuses himself with the wailings of a Christian."
+
+"Well, the happiest of us all must take such as fortune brings. If my
+soles are to be shod with blows, the honest priest of Sant' Agata will
+be cheated by a penitent. I have bargained with the good curato, that
+all such accidental calamities shall go in the general account of
+penance. But how fares the world of Venice?--and what dost thou among
+the canals at this season, to keep the flowers of thy jacket from
+wilting?"
+
+"To-day, as yesterday, and to-morrow will be as to-day I row the
+gondola from the Rialto to the Giudecca; from San Giorgio to San Marco;
+from San Marco to the Lido, and from the Lido home. There are no
+Tunis-men by the way, to chill the heart or warm the feet."
+
+"Enough of friendship. And is there nothing stirring in the
+republic?--no young noble drowned, nor any Jew hanged?"
+
+"Nothing of that much interest--except the calamity which befell Pietro.
+Thou rememberest Pietrello? he who crossed into Dalmatia with thee once,
+as a supernumerary, the time he was suspected of having aided the young
+Frenchman in running away with a senator's daughter?"
+
+"Do I remember the last famine? The rogue did nothing but eat maccaroni,
+and swallow the lachryma christi, which the Dalmatian count had on
+freight."
+
+"Poverino! His gondola has been run down by an Ancona-man, who passed
+over the boat as if it were a senator stepping on a fly."
+
+"So much for little fish coming into deep water."
+
+"The honest fellow was crossing the Giudecca, with a stranger, who had
+occasion to say his prayers at the Redentore, when the brig hit him in
+the canopy, and broke up the gondola, as if it had been a bubble left by
+the Bucentaur."
+
+"The padrone should have been too generous to complain of Pietro's
+clumsiness, since it met with its own punishment."
+
+"Madre di Dio! He went to sea that hour, or he might be feeding the
+fishes of the Lagunes! There is not a gondolier in Venice who did not
+feel the wrong at his heart; and we know how to obtain justice for an
+insult, as well as our masters."
+
+"Well, a gondola is mortal, as well as a felucca, and both have their
+time; better die by the prow of a brig than fall into the gripe of a
+Turk. How is thy young master, Gino; and is he likely to obtain his
+claims of the senate?"
+
+"He cools himself in the Giudecca in the morning; and if thou would'st
+know what he does at evening, thou hast only to look among the nobles in
+the Broglio."
+
+As the gondolier spoke he glanced an eye aside at a group of patrician
+rank, who paced the gloomy arcades which supported the superior walls of
+the doge's palace, a spot sacred, at times, to the uses of the
+privileged.
+
+"I am no stranger to the habit thy Venetian nobles have of coming to
+that low colonnade at this hour, but I never before heard of their
+preferring the waters of the Giudecca for their baths."
+
+"Were even the doge to throw himself out of a gondola, he must sink or
+swim, like a meaner Christian."
+
+"Acqua dell' Adriatico! Was the young duca going to the Redentore, too,
+to say his prayers?"
+
+"He was coming back after having; but what matters it in what canal a
+young noble sighs away the night! We happened to be near when the
+Ancona-man performed his feat; while Giorgio and I were boiling with
+rage at the awkwardness of the stranger, my master, who never had much
+taste or knowledge in gondolas, went into the water to save the young
+lady from sharing the fate of her uncle."
+
+"Diavolo! This is the first syllable thou hast uttered concerning any
+young lady, or of the death of her uncle!"
+
+"Thou wert thinking of thy Tunis-man, and hast forgotten. I must have
+told thee how near the beautiful signora was to sharing the fate of the
+gondola, and how the loss of the Roman marchese weighs, in addition, on
+the soul of the padrone."
+
+"Santo Padre! That a Christian should die the death of a hunted dog by
+the carelessness of a gondolier!"
+
+"It may have been lucky for the Ancona-man that it so fell out; for they
+say the Roman was one of influence enough to make a senator cross the
+Bridge of Sighs, at need."
+
+"The devil take all careless watermen, say I! And what became of the
+awkward rogue?"
+
+"I tell thee he went outside the Lido that very hour, or----"
+
+"Pietrello?"
+
+"He was brought up by the oar of Giorgio, for both of us were active in
+saving the cushions and other valuables."
+
+"Could'st thou do nothing for the poor Roman? Ill-luck may follow that
+brig on account of his death!"
+
+"Ill-luck follow her, say I, till she lays her bones on some rock that
+is harder than the heart of her padrone. As for the stranger, we could
+do no more than offer up a prayer to San Teodoro, since he never rose
+after the blow. But what has brought thee to Venice, caro mio? for thy
+ill-fortune with the oranges, in the last voyage, caused thee to
+denounce the place."
+
+The Calabrian laid a finger on one cheek, and drew the skin down in a
+manner to give a droll expression to his dark, comic eye, while the
+whole of his really fine Grecian face was charged with an expression of
+coarse humor.
+
+"Look you, Gino--thy master sometimes calls for his gondola between
+sunset and morning?"
+
+"An owl is not more wakeful than he has been of late. This head of mine
+has not been on a pillow before the sun has come above the Lido, since
+the snows melted from Monselice."
+
+"And when the sun of thy master's countenance sets in his own palazzo,
+thou hastenest off to the bridge of the Rialto, among the jewellers and
+butchers, to proclaim the manner in which he passed the night?"
+
+"Diamine! 'Twould be the last night I served the Duca di Sant' Agata,
+were my tongue so limber! The gondolier and the confessor are the two
+privy-councillors of a noble, Master Stefano, with this small
+difference--that the last only knows what the sinner wishes to reveal,
+while the first sometimes knows more. I can find a safer, if not a more
+honest employment, than to be running about with my master's secrets in
+the air."
+
+"And I am wiser than to let every Jew broker in San Marco, here, have a
+peep into my charter-party."
+
+"Nay, old acquaintance, there is some difference between our
+occupations, after all. A padrone of a felucca cannot, in justice, be
+compared to the most confidential gondolier of a Neapolitan duke, who
+has an unsettled right to be admitted to the Council of Three Hundred."
+
+"Just the difference between smooth water and rough--you ruffle the
+surface of a canal with a lazy oar, while I run the channel of Piombino
+in a mistral, shoot the Faro of Messina in a white squall, double Santa
+Maria di Leuca in a breathing Levanter, and come skimming up the
+Adriatic before a sirocco that is hot enough to cook my maccaroni, and
+which sets the whole sea boiling worse than the caldrons of Scylla."
+
+"Hist!" eagerly interrupted the gondolier, who had indulged, with
+Italian humor, in the controversy for preeminence, though without any
+real feeling, "here comes one who may think, else, we shall have need of
+his hand to settle the dispute--Eccolo!"
+
+The Calabrian recoiled apace, in silence, and stood regarding the
+individual who had caused this hurried remark, with a gloomy but steady
+air. The stranger moved slowly past. His years were under thirty, though
+the calm gravity of his countenance imparted to it a character of more
+mature age. The cheeks were bloodless, but they betrayed rather the
+pallid hue of mental than of bodily disease. The perfect condition of
+the physical man was sufficiently exhibited in the muscular fulness of a
+body which, though light and active, gave every indication of strength.
+His step was firm, assured, and even; his carriage erect and easy, and
+his whole mien was strongly characterized by a self-possession that
+could scarcely escape observation; and yet his attire was that of an
+inferior class. A doublet of common velvet, a dark Montero cap, such as
+was then much used in the southern countries of Europe, with other
+vestments of a similar fashion, composed his dress. The face was
+melancholy rather than sombre, and its perfect repose accorded well with
+the striking calmness of the body. The lineaments of the former,
+however, were bold and even noble, exhibiting that strong and manly
+outline which is so characteristic of the finer class of the Italian
+countenance. Out of this striking array of features gleamed an eye that
+was full of brilliancy, meaning, and passion.
+
+As the stranger passed, his glittering organs rolled over the persons of
+the gondolier and his companion, but the look, though searching, was
+entirely without interest. 'Twas the wandering but wary glance, which
+men who have much reason to distrust, habitually cast on a multitude. It
+turned with the same jealous keenness on the face of the next it
+encountered, and by the time the steady and well balanced form was lost
+in the crowd, that quick and glowing eye had gleamed, in the same rapid
+and uneasy manner, on twenty others.
+
+Neither the gondolier nor the mariner of Calabria spoke until their
+riveted gaze after the retiring figure became useless. Then the former
+simply ejaculated, with a strong respiration--
+
+"Jacopo!"
+
+His companion raised three of his fingers, with an occult meaning,
+towards the palace of the doges.
+
+"Do they let him take the air, even in San Marco?" he asked, in
+unfeigned surprise.
+
+"It is not easy, caro amico, to make water run up stream, or to stop the
+downward current. It is said that most of the senators would sooner lose
+their hopes of the horned bonnet, than lose him. Jacopo! He knows more
+family secrets than the good Priore of San Marco himself, and he, poor
+man, is half his time in the confessional."
+
+"Aye, they are afraid to put him in an iron jacket, lest awkward secrets
+should be squeezed out."
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! there would be little peace in Venice, if the Council
+of Three should take it into their heads to loosen the tongue of yonder
+man in that rude manner."
+
+"But they say, Gino, that thy Council of Three has a fashion of feeding
+the fishes of the Lagunes, which might throw the suspicion of his death
+on some unhappy Ancona-man, were the body ever to come up again."
+
+"Well, no need of bawling it aloud, as if thou wert hailing a Sicilian
+through thy trumpet, though the fact should be so. To say the truth,
+there are few men in business who are thought to have more custom than
+he who has just gone up the piazzetta."
+
+"Two sequins!" rejoined the Calabrian, enforcing his meaning by a
+significant grimace.
+
+"Santa Madonna! Thou forgettest, Stefano, that not even the confessor
+has any trouble with a job in which he has been employed. Not a caratano
+less than a hundred will buy a stroke of his art. Your blows, for two
+sequins, leave a man leisure to tell tales, or even to say his prayers
+half the time."
+
+"Jacopo!" ejaculated the other, with an emphasis which seemed to be a
+sort of summing up of all his aversion and horror.
+
+The gondolier shrugged his shoulders with quite as much meaning as a man
+born on the shores of the Baltic could have conveyed by words; but he
+too appeared to think the matter exhausted.
+
+"Stefano Milano," he added, after a moment of pause, 'there are things
+in Venice which he who would eat his maccaroni in peace, would do well
+to forget. Let thy errand in port be what it may, thou art in good
+season to witness the regatta which will be given by the state itself
+to-morrow."
+
+"Hast thou an oar for that race?"
+
+"Giorgio's, or mine, under the patronage of San Teodoro. The prize will
+be a silver gondola to him who is lucky or skilful enough to win; and
+then we shall have the nuptials with the Adriatic."
+
+"Thy nobles had best woo the bride well; for there are heretics who lay
+claim to her good will. I met a rover of strange rig and miraculous
+fleetness, in rounding the headlands of Otranto, who seemed to have half
+a mind to follow the felucca in her path towards the Lagunes."
+
+"Did the sight warm thee at the soles of thy feet, Gino dear?"
+
+"There was not a turbaned head on his deck, but every sea-cap sat upon a
+well covered poll and a shorn chin. Thy Bucentaur is no longer the
+bravest craft that floats between Dalmatia and the islands, though her
+gilding may glitter brightest. There are men beyond the pillars of
+Hercules who are not satisfied with doing all that can be done on their
+own coasts, but who are pretending to do much of that which can be done
+on ours."
+
+"The republic is a little aged, caro, and years need rest. The joints of
+the Bucentaur are racked by time and many voyages to the Lido. I have
+heard my master say that the leap of the winged lion is not as far as it
+was, even in his young days."
+
+"Don Camillo has the reputation of talking boldly of the foundation of
+this city of piles, when he has the roof of old Sant' Agata safely over
+his head. Were he to speak more reverently of the horned bonnet, and of
+the Council of Three, his pretensions to succeed to the rights of his
+forefathers might seem juster in the eyes of his judges. But distance is
+a great mellower of colors and softener of fears. My own opinion of the
+speed of the felucca, and of the merits of a Turk, undergo changes of
+this sort between port and the open sea; and I have known thee, good
+Gino, forget San Teodoro, and bawl as lustily to San Gennaro, when at
+Naples, as if thou really fancied thyself in danger from the mountain."
+
+"One must speak to those at hand, in order to be quickest heard,"
+rejoined the gondolier, casting a glance that was partly humorous, and
+not without superstition, upwards at the image which crowned the granite
+column against whose pedestal he still leaned. "A truth which warns us
+to be prudent, for yonder Jew cast a look this way, as if he felt a
+conscientious scruple in letting any irreverent remark of ours go
+without reporting. The bearded old rogue is said to have other dealings
+with the Three Hundred besides asking for the moneys he has lent to
+their sons. And so, Stefano, thou thinkest the republic will never plant
+another mast of triumph in San Marco, or bring more trophies to the
+venerable church?"
+
+"Napoli herself, with her constant change of masters, is as likely to do
+a great act on the sea as thy winged beast just now! Thou art well
+enough to row a gondola in the canals, Gino, or to follow thy master to
+his Calabrian castle; but if thou would'st know what passes in the wide
+world, thou must be content to listen to mariners of the long course.
+The day of San Marco has gone by, and that of the heretics more north
+has come."
+
+"Thou hast been much of late among the lying Genoese, Stefano, that thou
+comest hither with these idle tales of what a heretic can do. Genova la
+Superba! What has a city of walls to compare with one of canals and
+islands like this?--and what has that Apennine republic performed, to be
+put in comparison with the great deeds of the Queen of the Adriatic?
+Thou forgettest that Venezia has been--"
+
+"Zitto, zitto! that _has_ been, caro mio, is a great word with all
+Italy. Thou art as proud of the past as a Roman of the Trastevere."
+
+"And the Roman of the Trastevere is right. Is it nothing, Stefano
+Milano, to be descended from a great and victorious people?"
+
+"It is better, Gino Monaldi, to be one of a people which is great and
+victorious just now. The enjoyment of the past is like the pleasure of
+the fool who dreams of the wine he drank yesterday."
+
+"This is well for a Neapolitan, whose country never was a nation,"
+returned the gondolier, angrily. "I have heard Don Camillo, who is one
+educated as well as born in the land, often say that half of the people
+of Europe have ridden the horse of Sicily, and used the legs of thy
+Napoli, except those who had the best right to the services of both."
+
+"Even so; and yet the figs are as sweet as ever, and the beccafichi as
+tender! The ashes of the volcano cover all!"
+
+"Gino," said a voice of authority, near the gondolier.
+
+"Signore."
+
+He who interrupted the dialogue pointed to the boat without saying more.
+
+"A rivederli," hastily muttered the gondolier. His friend squeezed his
+hand in perfect amity--for, in truth, they were countrymen by birth,
+though chance had trained the former on the canals--and, at the next
+instant, Gino was arranging the cushions for his master, having first
+aroused his subordinate brother of the oar from a profound sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  "Hast ever swam in a gondola at Venice?"
+                           SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+When Don Camillo Monforte entered the gondola, he did not take his seat
+in the pavilion. With an arm leaning on the top of the canopy, and his
+cloak thrown loosely over one shoulder, the young noble stood, in a
+musing attitude, until his dexterous servitors had extricated the boat
+from the little fleet which crowded the quay, and had urged it into open
+water. This duty performed, Gino touched his scarlet cap, and looked at
+his master as if to inquire the direction in which they were to proceed.
+He was answered by a silent gesture that indicated the route of the
+great canal.
+
+"Thou hast an ambition, Gino, to show thy skill in the regatta?" Don
+Camillo observed, when they had made a little progress. "The motive
+merits success. Thou wast speaking to a stranger when I summoned thee to
+the gondola?"
+
+"I was asking the news of our Calabrian hills from one who has come into
+port with his felucca, though the man took the name of San Gennaro to
+witness that his former luckless voyage should be the last."
+
+"How does he call his felucca, and what is the name of the padrone?"
+
+"La Bella Sorrentina, commanded by a certain Stefano Milano, son of an
+ancient servant of Sant' Agata. The bark is none of the worst for speed,
+and it has some reputation for beauty. It ought to be of happy fortune,
+too, for the good curato recommended it, with many a devout prayer, to
+the Virgin and to San Francesco."
+
+The noble appeared to lend more attention to the discourse, which, until
+now, on his part, had been commenced in the listless manner with which a
+superior encourages an indulged dependant.
+
+"La Bella Sorrentina! Have I not reason to know the bark?"
+
+"Nothing more true, Signore. Her padrone has relations at Sant' Agata,
+as I have told your eccellenza, and his vessel has lain on the beach
+near the castle many a bleak winter."
+
+"What brings him to Venice?"
+
+"That is what I would give my newest jacket of your eccellenza's colors
+to know, Signore. I have as little wish to inquire into other people's
+affairs as any one, and I very well know that discretion is the chief
+virtue of a gondolier. I ventured, however, a deadly hint concerning his
+errand, such as ancient neighborhood would warrant, but he was as
+cautious of his answers as if he were freighted with the confessions of
+fifty Christians. Now, if your eccellenza should see fit to give me
+authority to question him in your name, the deuce is in't if between
+respect for his lord, and good management, we could not draw something
+more than a false bill of lading from him."
+
+"Thou wilt take thy choice of my gondolas for the regatta, Gino,"
+observed the Duke of Sant' Agata, entering the pavilion, and throwing
+himself on the glossy black leathern cushions, without adverting to the
+suggestion of his servant.
+
+The gondola continued its noiseless course, with the sprite-like
+movement peculiar to that description of boat. Gino, who, as superior
+over his fellow, stood perched on the little arched deck in the stern,
+pushed his oar with accustomed readiness and skill, now causing the
+light vessel to sheer to the right, and now to the left, as it glided
+among the multitude of craft, of all sizes and uses, which it met in
+its passage. Palace after palace had been passed, and more than one of
+the principal canals, which diverged towards the different spectacles,
+or the other places of resort frequented by his master, was left behind,
+without Don Camillo giving any new direction. At length the boat arrived
+opposite to a building which seemed to excite more than common
+expectation. Giorgio worked his oar with a single hand, looking over his
+shoulder at Gino, and Gino permitted his blade fairly to trail on the
+water. Both seemed to await new orders, manifesting something like that
+species of instinctive sympathy with him they served, which a long
+practised horse is apt to show when he draws near a gate that is seldom
+passed unvisited by his driver.
+
+The edifice which caused this hesitation in the two gondoliers was one
+of those residences at Venice, which are quite as remarkable for their
+external riches and ornaments as for their singular situation amid the
+waters. A massive rustic basement of marble was seated as solidly in the
+element as if it grew from a living rock, while story was seemingly
+raised on story, in the wanton observance of the most capricious rules
+of meretricious architecture, until the pile reached an altitude that is
+little known, except in the dwellings of princes. Colonnades,
+medallions, and massive cornices overhung the canal, as if the art of
+man had taken pride in loading the superstructure in a manner to mock
+the unstable element which concealed its base. A flight of steps, on
+which each gentle undulation produced by the passage of the barge washed
+a wave, conducted to a vast vestibule, that answered many of the
+purposes of a court. Two or three gondolas were moored near, but the
+absence of their people showed they were for the use of those who dwelt
+within. The boats were protected from rough collision with the passing
+craft by piles driven obliquely into the bottom. Similar spars, with
+painted and ornamented heads, that sometimes bore the colors and arms
+of the proprietor, formed a sort of little haven for the gondolas of the
+household, before the door of every dwelling of mark.
+
+"Where is it the pleasure of your eccellenza to be rowed?" asked Gino,
+when he found his sympathetic delay had produced no order.
+
+"To the Palazzo."
+
+Giorgio threw a glance of surprise back at his comrade, but the obedient
+gondola shot by the gloomy, though rich abode, as if the little bark had
+suddenly obeyed an inward impulse. In a moment more it whirled aside,
+and the hollow sound, caused by the plash of water between high walls,
+announced its entrance into a narrower canal. With shortened oars the
+men still urged the boat ahead, now turning short into some new channel,
+now glancing beneath a low bridge, and now uttering, in the sweet shrill
+tones of the country and their craft, the well known warning to those
+who were darting in an opposite direction. A backstroke of Gino's oar,
+however, soon brought the side of the arrested boat to a flight of
+steps.
+
+"Thou wilt follow me," said Don Camillo, as he placed his foot, with the
+customary caution, on the moist stone, and laid a hand on the shoulder
+of Gino; "I have need of thee."
+
+Neither the vestibule, nor the entrance, nor the other visible
+accessories of the dwelling were so indicative of luxury and wealth as
+that of the palace on the great canal. Still they were all such as
+denoted the residence of a noble of consideration.
+
+"Thou wilt do wisely, Gino, to trust thy fortunes to the new gondola,"
+said the master, as he mounted the heavy stone stairs to an upper floor,
+pointing, as he spoke, to a new and beautiful boat, which lay in a
+corner of the large vestibule, as carriages are seen standing in the
+courts of houses built on more solid ground. "He who would find favor
+with Jupiter must put his own shoulder to the wheel, thou knowest, my
+friend."
+
+The eye of Gino brightened, and he was voluble in his expression of
+thanks. They had ascended to the first floor, and were already deep in a
+suite of gloomy apartments, before the gratitude and professional pride
+of the gondolier were exhausted.
+
+"Aided by a powerful arm and a fleet gondola, thy chance will be as good
+as another's, Gino," said Don Camillo, closing the door of his cabinet
+on his servant; "at present thou mayest give some proof of zeal in my
+service, in another manner. Is the face of a man called Jacopo Frontoni
+known to thee?"
+
+"Eccellenza!" exclaimed the gondolier, gasping for breath.
+
+"I ask thee if thou knowest the countenance of one named Frontoni?"
+
+"His countenance, Signore!"
+
+"By what else would'st thou distinguish a man?"
+
+"A man, Signor' Don Camillo!"
+
+"Art thou mocking thy master, Gino? I have asked thee if thou art
+acquainted with the person of a certain Jacopo Frontoni, a dweller here
+in Venice?"
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"He I mean has been long remarked by the misfortunes of his family; the
+father being now in exile on the Dalmatian coast, or elsewhere."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"There are many of the name of Frontoni, and it is important that thou
+should'st not mistake the man. Jacopo, of that family, is a youth of
+some five-and-twenty, of an active frame and melancholy visage, and of
+less vivacity of temperament than is wont, at his years."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"One who consorts but little with his fellows, and who is rather noted
+for the silence and industry with which he attends to his concerns, than
+for any of the usual pleasantries and trifling of men of his cast. A
+certain Jacopo Frontoni, that hath his abode somewhere near the
+arsenal?"
+
+"Cospetto! Signor' Duca, the man is as well known to us gondoliers as
+the bridge of the Rialto! Your eccellenza has no need to trouble
+yourself to describe him."
+
+Don Camillo Monforte was searching among the papers of a secretaire. He
+raised his eyes in some little amazement at the sally of his dependant,
+and then he quietly resumed his occupation.
+
+"If thou knowest the man, it is enough."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes. And what is your pleasure with this accursed Jacopo?"
+
+The Duke of Sant' Agata seemed to recollect himself. He replaced the
+papers which had been deranged, and he closed the secretaire.
+
+"Gino," he said, in a tone of confidence and amity, "thou wert born on
+my estates, though so long trained here to the oar in Venice, and thou
+hast passed thy life in my service."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"It is my desire that thou should'st end thy days where they began. I
+have had much confidence in thy discretion hitherto, and I have
+satisfaction in saying it has never failed thee, notwithstanding thou
+hast necessarily been a witness of some exploits of youth which might
+have drawn embarrassment on thy master were thy tongue less disposed to
+silence."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+Don Camillo smiled; but the gleam of humor gave way to a look of grave
+and anxious thought.
+
+"As thou knowest the person of him I have named, our affair is simple.
+Take this packet," he continued, placing a sealed letter of more than
+usual size into the hand of the gondolier, and drawing from his finger a
+signet ring, "with this token of thy authority. Within that arch of the
+Doge's palace which leads to the canal of San Marco, beneath the Bridge
+of Sighs, thou wilt find Jacopo. Give him the packet; and, should he
+demand it, withhold not the ring. Wait his bidding, and return with the
+answer."
+
+Gino received this commission with profound respect, but with an awe he
+could not conceal. Habitual deference to his master appeared to struggle
+with deep distaste for the office he was required to perform; and there
+was even some manifestation of a more principled reluctance, in his
+hesitating yet humble manner. If Don Camillo noted the air and
+countenance of his menial at all, he effectually concealed it.
+
+"At the arched passage of the palace, beneath the Bridge of Sighs," he
+coolly added; "and let thy arrival there be timed, as near as may be, to
+the first hour of the night."
+
+"I would, Signore, that you had been pleased to command Giorgio and me
+to row you to Padua!"
+
+"The way is long. Why this sudden wish to weary thyself?"
+
+"Because there is no Doge's palace, nor any Bridge of Sighs, nor any dog
+of Jacopo Frontoni among the meadows."
+
+"Thou hast little relish for this duty; but thou must know that what the
+master commands it is the duty of a faithful follower to perform. Thou
+wert born my vassal, Gino Monaldi; and though trained from boyhood in
+this occupation of a gondolier, thou art properly a being of my fiefs in
+Napoli."
+
+"St. Gennaro make me grateful for the honor, Signore! But there is not a
+water-seller in the streets of Venice, nor a mariner on her canals, who
+does not wish this Jacopo anywhere but in the bosom of Abraham. He is
+the terror of every young lover, and of all the urgent creditors on the
+islands."
+
+"Thou seest, silly babbler, there is one of the former, at least, who
+does not hold him in dread. Thou wilt seek him beneath the Bridge of
+Sighs, and, showing the signet, deliver the package according to my
+instructions."
+
+"It is certain loss of character to be seen speaking with the miscreant!
+So lately as yesterday, I heard Annina, the pretty daughter of the old
+wine-seller on the Lido, declare, that to be seen once in company with
+Jacopo Frontoni was as bad as to be caught twice bringing old rope from
+the arsenal, as befell Roderigo, her mother's cousin."
+
+"Thy distinctions savor of the morals of the Lido. Remember to exhibit
+the ring, lest he distrust thy errand."
+
+"Could not your eccellenza set me about clipping the wings of the lion,
+or painting a better picture than Tiziano di Vecelli? I have a mortal
+dislike even to pass the mere compliments of the day with one of your
+cut-throats. Were any of our gondoliers to see me in discourse with the
+man, it might exceed your eccellenza's influence to get me a place in
+the regatta."
+
+"If he detain thee, Gino, thou wilt wait his pleasure; and if he dismiss
+thee at once, return hither with all expedition, that I may know the
+result."
+
+"I very well know, Signor Don Camillo, that the honor of a noble is more
+tender of reproach than that of his followers, and that the stain upon
+the silken robe of a senator is seen farther than the spot upon a velvet
+jacket. If any one unworthy of your eccellenza's notice has dared to
+offend, here are Giorgio and I, ready, at any time, to show how deeply
+we can feel an indignity which touches our master's credit; but a
+hireling of two, or ten, or even of a hundred sequins!"
+
+"I thank thee for the hint, Gino. Go thou and sleep in thy gondola, and
+bid Giorgio come into my cabinet."
+
+"Signore!"
+
+"Art thou resolute to do none of my biddings?"
+
+"Is it your eccellenza's pleasure that I go to the Bridge of Sighs by
+the footways of the streets, or by the canals?"
+
+"There may be need of a gondola--thou wilt go with the oar."
+
+"A tumbler shall not have time to turn round before the answer of Jacopo
+shall be here."
+
+With this sudden change of purpose the gondolier quitted the room, for
+the reluctance of Gino disappeared the moment he found the confidential
+duty assigned him by his master was likely to be performed by another.
+Descending rapidly by a secret stair instead of entering the vestibule
+where half a dozen menials of different employments were in waiting, he
+passed by one of the narrow corridors of the palace into an inner court,
+and thence by a low and unimportant gate into an obscure alley which
+communicated with the nearest street.
+
+Though the age is one of so great activity and intelligence, and the
+Atlantic is no longer a barrier even to the ordinary amusements of life,
+a great majority of Americans have never had an opportunity of
+personally examining the remarkable features of a region, of which the
+town that Gino now threaded with so much diligence is not the least
+worthy of observation. Those who have been so fortunate as to have
+visited Italy, therefore, will excuse us if we make a brief, but what we
+believe useful digression, for the benefit of those who have not had
+that advantage.
+
+The city of Venice stands on a cluster of low sandy islands. It is
+probable that the country which lies nearest to the gulf, if not the
+whole of the immense plain of Lombardy itself, is of alluvial formation.
+Whatever may have been the origin of that wide and fertile kingdom, the
+causes which have given to the Lagunes their existence, and to Venice
+its unique and picturesque foundation, are too apparent to be mistaken.
+Several torrents which flow from the valleys of the Alps pour their
+tribute into the Adriatic at this point. Their waters come charged with
+the débris of the mountains, pulverized nearly to their original
+elements. Released from the violence of the stream, these particles have
+necessarily been deposited in the gulf, at the spot where they have
+first become subjected to the power of the sea. Under the influence of
+counteracting currents, eddies, and waves, the sands have been thrown
+into submarine piles, until some of the banks have arisen above the
+surface, forming islands, whose elevation has been gradually augmented
+by the decay of vegetation. A glance at the map will show that, while
+the Gulf of Venice is not literally, it is practically, considered with
+reference to the effect produced by the south-east wind called the
+Sirocco, at the head of the Adriatic. This accidental circumstance is
+probably the reason why the Lagunes have a more determined character at
+the mouths of the minor streams that empty themselves here than at the
+mouths of most of the other rivers, which equally flow from the Alps or
+the Apennines into the same shallow sea.
+
+The natural consequence of a current of a river meeting the waters of
+any broad basin, and where there is no base of rock, is the formation,
+at or near the spot where the opposing actions are neutralized, of a
+bank, which is technically called a bar. The coast of the Union
+furnishes constant evidence of the truth of this theory, every river
+having its bar, with channels that are often shifted, or cleared, by the
+freshets, the gales, or the tides. The constant and powerful operation
+of the south-eastern winds on one side, with the periodical increase of
+the Alpine streams on the other, have converted this bar at the entrance
+of the Venetian Lagunes, into a succession of long, low, sandy islands,
+which extend in a direct line nearly across the mouth of the gulf. The
+waters of the rivers have necessarily cut a few channels for their
+passage, or, what is now a lagune, would long since have become a lake.
+Another thousand years may so far change the character of this
+extraordinary estuary as to convert the channels of the bay into rivers,
+and the muddy banks into marshes and meadows, resembling those that are
+now seen for so many leagues inland.
+
+The low margin of sand that, in truth, gives all its maritime security
+to the port of Venice and the Lagunes, is called the Lido di Palestrino.
+It has been artificially connected and secured, in many places, and the
+wall of the Lido (literally the beach), though incomplete, like most of
+the great and vaunted works of the other hemisphere, and more
+particularly of Italy, ranks with the mole of Ancona, and the sea-wall
+of Cherbourg. The hundred little islands which now contain the ruins of
+what, during the middle ages, was the mart of the Mediterranean, are
+grouped together within cannon-shot of the natural barrier. Art has
+united with nature to turn the whole to good account; and, apart from
+the influence of moral causes, the rivalry of a neighboring town, which
+has been fostered by political care, and the gradual filling up of the
+waters, by the constant deposit of the streams, it would be difficult to
+imagine a more commodious, or a safer haven when entered, than that
+which Venice affords, even to this hour.
+
+As all the deeper channels of the Lagunes have been preserved, the city
+is intersected in every direction by passages, which from their
+appearance are called canals, but which, in truth, are no more than so
+many small natural branches of the sea. On the margin of these passages,
+the walls of the dwellings arise literally from out of the water, since
+economy of room has caused their owners to extend their possessions to
+the very verge of the channel, in the manner that quays and wharfs are
+pushed into the streams in our own country. In many instances the
+islands themselves were no more than banks, which were periodically
+bare, and on all, the use of piles has been necessary to support the
+superincumbent loads of palaces, churches, and public monuments, under
+which, in the course of ages, the humble spits of sand have been made
+to groan.
+
+The great frequency of the canals, and perhaps some attention to economy
+of labor, has given to by far the greater part of the buildings the
+facility of an approach by water. But, while nearly every dwelling has
+one of its fronts on a canal, there are always communications by the
+rear with the interior passages of the town. It is a fault in most
+descriptions, that while the stranger hears so much of the canals of
+Venice, but little is said of her streets: still, narrow, paved,
+commodious, and noiseless passages of this description, intersect all
+the islands, which communicate with each other by means of a countless
+number of bridges. Though the hoof of a horse or the rumbling of a wheel
+is never heard in these strait avenues, they are of great resort for all
+the purposes of ordinary intercourse.
+
+Gino issued into one of these thoroughfares when he quitted the private
+passage which communicated with the palace of his master. He threaded
+the throng by which it was crowded, with a dexterity that resembled the
+windings of an eel among the weeds of the Lagunes. To the numerous
+greetings of his fellows, he replied only by nods; nor did he once
+arrest his footsteps, until they had led him through the door of a low
+and dark dwelling that stood in a quarter of the place which was
+inhabited by people of an inferior condition. Groping his way among
+casks, cordage, and rubbish of all descriptions, the gondolier succeeded
+in finding an inner and retired door that opened into a small room,
+whose only light came from a species of well that descended between the
+walls of the adjacent houses and that in which he was.
+
+"Blessed St. Anne! Is it thou, Gino Monaldi!" exclaimed a smart Venetian
+grisette, whose tone and manner betrayed as much of coquetry as of
+surprise. "On foot, and by the secret door! Is this an hour to come on
+any of thy errands?"
+
+"Truly, Annina, it is not the season for affairs with thy father, and
+it is something early for a visit to thee. But there is less time for
+words than for action, just now. For the sake of San Teodoro, and that
+of a constant and silly young man, who, if not thy slave, is at least
+thy dog, bring forth the jacket I wore when we went together to see the
+merry-making at Fusina."
+
+"I know nothing of thy errand, Gino, nor of thy reason for wishing to
+change thy master's livery for the dress of a common boatman. Thou art
+far more comely with those silken flowers than in this faded velveteen;
+and if I have ever said aught in commendation of its appearance, it was
+because we were bent on merry-making, and being one of the party, it
+would have been churlish to have withheld a word of praise to a
+companion, who, as thou knowest, does not dislike a civil speech in his
+own praise."
+
+"Zitto, zitto! here is no merry-making and companions, but a matter of
+gravity, and one that must be performed offhand. The jacket, if thou
+lovest me!"
+
+Annina, who had not neglected essentials while she moralized on motives,
+threw the garment on a stool that stood within reach of the gondolier's
+hand, as he made this strong appeal in a way to show that she was not to
+be surprised out of a confession of this sort, even in the most
+unguarded moment.
+
+"If I love thee, truly! Thou hast the jacket, Gino, and thou mayest
+search in its pockets for an answer to thy letter, which I do not thank
+thee for having got the duca's secretary to indite. A maiden should be
+discreet in affairs of this sort; for one never knows but he may make a
+confidant of a rival."
+
+"Every work of it is as true as if the devil himself had done the office
+for me, girl," muttered Gino, uncasing himself from his flowery
+vestment, and as rapidly assuming the plainer garment he had
+sought--"The cap, Annina, and the mask!"
+
+"One who wears so false a face, in common, has little need of a bit of
+silk to conceal his countenance," she answered, throwing him,
+notwithstanding, both the articles he required.
+
+"This is well. Father Battista himself, who boasts he can tell a sinner
+from a penitent merely by the savor of his presence, would never suspect
+a servitor of Don Camillo Monforte in this dress. Cospetto! but I have
+half a mind to visit that knave of a Jew, who has got thy golden chain
+in pledge, and give him a hint of what may be the consequences, should
+he insist on demanding double the rate of interest we agreed on."
+
+"'Twould be Christian justice! but what would become of thy matter of
+gravity the while, Gino, and of thy haste to enter on its performance?"
+
+"Thou sayest truly, girl. Duty above all other things; though to
+frighten a grasping Hebrew may be as much of a duty as other matters.
+Are all thy father's gondolas in the water?"
+
+"How else could he be gone to the Lido, and my brother Luigi to Fusini,
+and the two serving-men on the usual business to the islands, or how
+else should I be alone?"
+
+"Diavolo! is there no boat in the canal?"
+
+"Thou art in unwonted haste, Gino, now thou hast a mask and jacket of
+velvet. I know not that I should suffer one to enter my father's house
+when I am in it alone, and take such disguises to go abroad, at this
+hour. Thou wilt tell me thy errand, that I may judge of the propriety of
+what I do."
+
+"Better ask the Three Hundred to open the leaves of their book of doom!
+Give me the key of the outer door, girl, that I may go my way."
+
+"Not till I know whether this business is likely to draw down upon my
+father the displeasure of the Senate. Thou knowest, Gino, that I am----"
+
+"Diamine! There goes the clock of San Marco, and I tarry past my hour.
+If I am too late, the fault will rest with thee."
+
+"'Twill not be the first of thy oversights which it has been my business
+to excuse. Here thou art, and here shalt thou remain, until I know the
+errand which calls for a mask and jacket, and all about this matter of
+gravity."
+
+"This is talking like a jealous wife instead of a reasonable girl,
+Annina. I have told thee that I am on business of the last importance,
+and that delay may bring heavy calamities."
+
+"On whom? What is thy business? Why art thou, whom in general it is
+necessary to warn from this house by words many times repeated, now in
+such a haste to leave it?"
+
+"Have I not told thee, girl, 'tis an errand of great concern to six
+noble families, and if I fail to be in season there may be a
+strife--aye, between the Florentine and the Republic!"
+
+"Thou hast said nothing of the sort, nor do I put faith in thy being an
+ambassador of San Marco. Speak truth for once, Gino Monaldi, or lay
+aside the mask and jacket, and take up thy flowers of Sant' Agata."
+
+"Well, then, as we are friends, and I have faith in thy discretion,
+Annina, thou shalt know the truth to the extremity, for I find the bell
+has only tolled the quarters, which leaves me yet a moment for
+confidence."
+
+"Thou lookest at the wall, Gino, and art consulting thy wits for some
+plausible lie!"
+
+"I look at the wall because conscience tells me that too much weakness
+for thee is about to draw me astray from duty. What thou takest for
+deceit is only shame and modesty."
+
+"Of that we shall judge, when the tale is told."
+
+"Then listen. Thou hast heard of the affair between my master and the
+niece of the Roman Marchese, who was drowned in the Giudecca by the
+carelessness of an Ancona-man, who passed over the gondola of Pietro as
+if his felucca had been a galley of state?"
+
+"Who has been upon the Lido the month past without hearing the tale
+repeated, with every variation of a gondolier's anger?"
+
+"Well, the matter is likely to come to a conclusion this night; my
+master is about to do, as I fear, a very foolish thing."
+
+"He will be married!"
+
+"Or worse! I am sent in all haste and secresy in search of a priest."
+
+Annina manifested strong interest in the fiction of the gondolier.
+Either from a distrustful temperament, long habit, or great familiarity
+with the character of her companion, however, she did not listen to his
+explanation without betraying some doubts of its truth.
+
+"This will be a sudden bridal feast!" she said, after a moment of pause.
+"'Tis well that few are invited, or its savor might be spoiled by the
+Three Hundred! To what convent art thou sent?"
+
+"My errand is not particular. The first that may be found, provided he
+be a Franciscan, and a priest likely to have bowels for lovers in
+haste."
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte, the heir of an ancient and great line, does not
+wive with so little caution. Thy false tongue has been trying to deceive
+me, Gino; but long use should have taught thee the folly of the effort.
+Unless thou sayest truth, not only shalt thou not go to thy errand, but
+here art thou prisoner at my pleasure."
+
+"I may have told thee what I expect will shortly happen, rather than
+what has happened. But Don Camillo keeps me so much upon the water of
+late, that I do little besides dream, when not at the oar."
+
+"It is vain to attempt deceiving me, Gino, for thine eye speaketh
+truth, let thy tongue and brains wander where they will. Drink of this
+cup, and disburden thy conscience, like a man."
+
+"I would that thy father would make the acquaintance of Stefano Milano,"
+resumed the gondolier, taking a long breath, after a still longer
+draught. "'Tis a padrone of Calabria, who oftentimes brings into the
+port excellent liquors of his country, and who would pass a cask of the
+red lachryma christi through the Broglio itself, and not a noble of them
+all should see it. The man is here at present, and, if thou wilt, he
+shall not be long without coming into terms with thee for a few skins."
+
+"I doubt if he have better liquors than this which hath ripened upon the
+sands of the Lido. Take another draught, for the second taste is thought
+to be better than the first."
+
+"If the wine improve in this manner, thy father should be heavy-hearted
+at the sight of the lees. 'Twould be no more than charity to bring him
+and Stefano acquainted."
+
+"Why not do it immediately? His felucca is in the port, thou sayest, and
+thou canst lead him hither by the secret door and the lanes."
+
+"Thou forgettest my errand. Don Camillo is not used to be served the
+second. Cospetto! 'T were a pity that any other got the liquor which I
+am certain the Calabrian has in secret."
+
+"This errand can be no matter of a moment, like that of being sure of
+wine of the quality thou namest; or, if it be, thou canst first dispatch
+thy master's business, and then to the port, in quest of Stefano. That
+the purchase may not fail, I will take a mask and be thy companion, to
+see the Calabrian. Thou knowest my father hath much confidence in my
+judgment in matters like this."
+
+While Gino stood half stupified and half delighted at this proposition,
+the ready and wily Annina made some slight change in her outer
+garments, placed a silken mask before her face, applied a key to the
+door, and beckoned to the gondolier to follow.
+
+The canal with which the dwelling of the wine-dealer communicated, was
+narrow, gloomy, and little frequented. A gondola of the plainest
+description was fastened near, and the girl entered it, without
+appearing to think any further arrangement necessary. The servant of Don
+Camillo hesitated a single instant, but having seen that his
+half-meditated project of escaping by the use of another boat could not
+be accomplished for want of means, he took his worried place in the
+stern, and began to ply the oar with mechanical readiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  "What well appointed leader fronts us here?"
+                       KING HENRY VI.
+
+
+The presence of Annina was a grave embarrassment to Gino. He had his
+secret wishes and limited ambition, like other men, and among the
+strongest of the former, was the desire to stand well in the favor of
+the wine-seller's daughter. But the artful girl, in catering to his
+palate with a liquor that was scarcely less celebrated among people of
+his class for its strength than its flavor, had caused a momentary
+confusion in the brain of Gino, that required time to disperse. The boat
+was in the Grand Canal, and far on its way to the place of its
+destination, before this happy purification of the intellects of the
+gondolier had been sufficiently effected. By that time, however, the
+exercise of rowing, the fresh air of the evening, and the sight of so
+many accustomed objects, restored his faculties to the necessary degree
+of coolness and forethought. As the boat approached the end of the canal
+he began to cast his eyes about him in quest of the well known felucca
+of the Calabrian.
+
+Though the glory of Venice had departed, the trade of the city was not
+then at its present low ebb. The port was still crowded with vessels
+from many distant havens, and the flags of most of the maritime states
+of Europe were seen, at intervals, within the barrier of the Lido. The
+moon was now sufficiently high to cast its soft light on the whole of
+the glittering basin, and a forest composed of lateen yards, of the
+slender masts of polaccas, and of the more massive and heavy hamper of
+regularly rigged ships, was to be seen rising above the tranquil
+element.
+
+"Thou art no judge of a vessel's beauty, Annina," said the gondolier to
+his companion, who was deeply housed in the pavilion of the boat, "else
+should I tell thee to look at this stranger from Candia. 'Tis said that
+a fairer model has never entered within the Lido than that same Greek!"
+
+"Our errand is not with the Candian trader, Gino; therefore ply thy oar,
+for time passes."
+
+"There's plenty of rough Greek wine in his hold; but, as thou sayest, we
+have naught with him. Yon tall ship, which is moored without the smaller
+craft of our seas, is the vessel of a Lutheran from the islands of
+Inghilterra. 'Twas a sad day for the Republic, girl, when it first
+permitted the stranger to come into the waters of the Adriatic!"
+
+"Is it certain, Gino, that the arm of St. Mark was strong enough to keep
+him out?"
+
+"Mother of Diana! I would rather thou didst not ask that question in a
+place where so many gondoliers are in motion! Here are Ragusans,
+Maltese, Sicilians, and Tuscans without number; and a little fleet of
+French lie near each other there, at the entrance of the Giudecca. They
+are a people who get together, afloat or ashore, for the benefit of the
+tongue. Here we are, at the end of our journey."
+
+The oar of Gino gave a backward sweep, and the gondola was at rest by
+the side of a felucca.
+
+"A happy night to the Bella Sorrentina and her worthy padrone!" was the
+greeting of the gondolier, as he put his foot on the deck of the vessel.
+"Is the honest Stefano Milano on board the swift felucca?"
+
+The Calabrian was not slow to answer; and in a few moments the padrone
+and his two visitors were in close and secret conference.
+
+"I have brought one here who will be likely to put good Venetian
+sequins into thy pocket, caro," observed the gondolier, when the
+preliminaries of discourse had been properly observed. "She is the
+daughter of a most conscientious wine-dealer, who is quite as ready at
+transplanting your Sicilian grapes into the islands as he is willing and
+able to pay for them."
+
+"And one, no doubt, as handsome as she is ready," said the mariner, with
+blunt gallantry, "were the black cloud but fairly driven from before her
+face."
+
+"A mask is of little consequence in a bargain provided the money be
+forthcoming. We are always in the Carnival at Venice; and he who would
+buy, or he who would sell, has the same right to hide his face as to
+hide his thoughts. What hast thou in the way of forbidden liquors,
+Stefano, that my companion may not lose the night in idle words?"
+
+"Per Diana! Master Gino, thou puttest thy questions with little
+ceremony. The hold of the felucca is empty, as thou mayest see by
+stepping to the hatches; and as for any liquor, we are perishing for a
+drop to warm the blood."
+
+"And so far from coming to seek it here," said Annina, "we should have
+done better to have gone into the cathedral, and said an Ave for thy
+safe voyage home. And now that our wit is spent, we will quit thee,
+friend Stefano, for some other less skilful in answers."
+
+"Cospetto! thou knowest not what thou sayest," whispered Gino, when he
+found that the wary Annina was not disposed to remain. "The man never
+enters the meanest creek in Italy, without having something useful
+secreted in the felucca on his own account. One purchase of him would
+settle the question between the quality of thy father's wines and those
+of Battista. There is not a gondolier in Venice but will resort to thy
+shop if the intercourse with this fellow can be fairly settled."
+
+Annina hesitated; long practised in the small, but secret exceedingly
+hazardous commerce which her father, notwithstanding the vigilance and
+severity of the Venetian police, had thus far successfully driven, she
+neither liked to risk an exposure of her views to an utter stranger, nor
+to abandon a bargain that promised to be lucrative. That Gino trifled
+with her as to his true errand needed no confirmation, since a servant
+of the Duke of Sant' Agata was not likely to need a disguise to search a
+priest; but she knew his zeal for her personal welfare too well to
+distrust his faith in a matter that concerned her own safety.
+
+"If thou distrust that any here are the spies of the authorities," she
+observed to the padrone, with a manner that readily betrayed her wishes,
+"it will be in Gino's power to undeceive thee. Thou wilt testify, Gino,
+that I am not to be suspected of treachery in an affair like this."
+
+"Leave me to put a word into the private ear of the Calabrian," said the
+gondolier, significantly.--"Stefano Milano, if thou love me," he
+continued, when they were a little apart, "keep the girl in parley, and
+treat with her fairly for thy adventure."
+
+"Shall I sell the vintage of Don Camillo, or that of the Viceroy of
+Sicily, caro? There is as much wine of each on board the Bella
+Sorrentina, as would float the fleet of the Republic."
+
+"If, in truth, thou art dry, then feign that thou hast it, and differ in
+thy prices. Entertain her but a minute with fair words, while I can get
+unseen into my gondola; and then, for the sake of an old and tried
+friend, put her tenderly on the quay, in the best manner thou art able."
+
+"I begin to see into the nature of the trade," returned the pliant
+padrone, placing a finger on the side of his nose. "I will discourse the
+woman by the hour about the flavor of the liquor, or, if thou wilt, of
+her own beauty; but to squeeze a drop of anything better than the water
+of the Lagunes out of the ribs of the felucca, would be a miracle worthy
+of San Teodoro."
+
+"There is but little need to touch on aught but the quality of thy
+wine. The girl is not like most of her sex, and she takes sudden offence
+when there is question of her appearance. Indeed, the mask she wears is
+as much to hide a face that has little to tempt the eye, as from any
+wish at concealment."
+
+"Since Gino has entered frankly into the matter," resumed the
+quick-witted Calabrian, cheerfully, and with an air of sudden confidence
+to the expectant Annina, "I begin to see more probability of our
+understanding each other's meaning. Deign, bella donna, to go into my
+poor cabin, where we will speak more at our ease, and something more to
+our mutual profit and mutual security."
+
+Annina was not without secret doubts, but she suffered the padrone to
+lead her to the stairs of the cabin, as if she were disposed to descend.
+Her back was no sooner turned, than Gino slid into the gondola, which
+one shove of his vigorous arm sent far beyond the leap of man. The
+action was sudden, rapid, and noiseless; but the jealous eye of Annina
+detected the escape of the gondolier, though not in time to prevent it.
+Without betraying uneasiness, she submitted to be led below, as if the
+whole were done by previous concert.
+
+"Gino has said that you have a boat which will do the friendly office to
+put me on the quay when our conference is over," she remarked, with a
+presence of mind that luckily met the expedient of her late companion.
+
+"The felucca itself should do that much, were there want of other
+means," gallantly returned the manner when they disappeared in the
+cabin.
+
+Free to discharge his duty, Gino now plied his task with redoubled zeal.
+The light boat glided among the vessels, inclining, by the skilful
+management of his single oar, in a manner to avoid all collision, until
+it entered the narrow canal which separates the palace of the Doge from
+the more beautiful and classic structure that contains the prisons of
+the Republic. The bridge which continues the communication of the quays,
+was first passed, and then he was stealing beneath that far-famed arch
+which supports a covered gallery leading from the upper story of the
+palace into that of the prisons, and which, from its being appropriated
+to the passage of the accused from their cells to the presence of their
+judges, has been so poetically, and it may be added so pathetically,
+called the Bridge of Sighs.
+
+The oar of Gino now relaxed its efforts, and the gondola approached a
+flight of steps over which, as usual, the water cast its little waves.
+Stepping on the lowest flag, he thrust a small iron spike to which a
+cord was attached, into a crevice between two of the stones, and left
+his boat to the security of this characteristic fastening. When this
+little precaution was observed, the gondolier passed up lightly beneath
+the massive arch of the water-gate of the palace, and entered its large
+but gloomy court.
+
+At that hour, and with the temptation of the gay scene which offered in
+the adjoining square, the place was nearly deserted. A single female
+water-carrier was at the well, waiting for the element to filter into
+its basin, in order to fill her buckets, while her ear listened in dull
+attention to the hum of the moving crowd without. A halberdier paced the
+open gallery at the head of the Giant's Stairs, and, here and there, the
+footfall of other sentinels might be heard among the hollow and
+ponderous arches of the long corridors. No light was shed from the
+windows; but the entire building presented a fit emblem of that
+mysterious power which was known to preside over the fortunes of Venice
+and her citizens. Ere Gino trusted himself without the shadow of the
+passage by which he had entered, two or three curious faces had appeared
+at the opposite entrance of the court, where they paused a moment to
+gaze at the melancholy and imposing air of the dreaded palace, before
+they vanished in the throng which trifled in the immediate proximity of
+that secret and ruthless tribunal, as man riots in security even on the
+verge of an endless and unforeseen future.
+
+Disappointed in his expectation of meeting him he sought, on the
+instant, the gondolier advanced, and taking courage by the possibility
+of his escaping altogether from the interview, he ventured to furnish
+audible evidence of his presence by a loud hem. At that instant a figure
+glided into the court from the side of the quay, and walked swiftly
+towards its centre. The heart of Gino beat violently, but he mustered
+resolution to meet the stranger. As they drew near each other, it became
+evident, by the light of the moon, which penetrated even to that gloomy
+spot, that the latter was also masked.
+
+"San Teodoro and San Marco have you in mind!" commenced the gondolier.
+"If I mistake not, you are the man I am sent to meet."
+
+The stranger started, and first manifesting an intention to pass on
+quickly, he suddenly arrested the movement to reply.
+
+"This may be so or not. Unmask, that I may judge by thy countenance if
+what thou sayest be true."
+
+"By your good leave, most worthy and honorable Signore, and if it be
+equally agreeable to you and my master, I would choose to keep off the
+evening air by this bit of pasteboard and silk."
+
+"Here are none to betray thee, wert thou naked as at thy birth. Unless
+certain of thy character, in what manner may I confide in thy honesty?"
+
+"I have no distrust of the virtues of an undisguised face, Signore, and
+therefore do I invite you, yourself, to exhibit what nature has done for
+you in the way of features, that I, who am to make the confidence, be
+sure it be to the right person."
+
+"This is well, and gives assurance of thy prudence. I may not unmask,
+however; and as there seemeth little probability of our coming to an
+understanding, I will go my way. A most happy night to thee."
+
+"Cospetto!--Signore, you are far too quick in your ideas and movements
+for one little used to negotiations of this sort. Here is a ring whose
+signet may help us to understand each other."
+
+The stranger took the jewel, and holding the stone in a manner to
+receive the light of the moon, he started in a manner to betray both
+surprise and pleasure.
+
+"This is the falcon crest of the Neapolitan--he that is the lord of
+Sant' Agata!"
+
+"And of many other fiefs, good Signore, to say nothing of the honors he
+claims in Venice. Am I right in supposing my errand with you?"
+
+"Thou hast found one whose present business has no other object than Don
+Camillo Monforte. But thy errand was not solely to exhibit the signet?"
+
+"So little so, that I have a packet here which waits only for a
+certainty of the person with whom I speak, to be placed into his hands."
+
+The stranger mused a moment; then glancing a look about him, he answered
+hurriedly--
+
+"This is no place to unmask, friend, even though we only wear our
+disguises in pleasantry. Tarry here, and at my return I will conduct
+thee to a more fitting spot."
+
+The words were scarcely uttered when Gino found himself standing in the
+middle of the court alone. The masked stranger had passed swiftly on,
+and was at the bottom of the Giant's Stairs ere the gondolier had time
+for reflection. He ascended with a light and rapid step, and without
+regarding the halberdier, he approached the first of three or four
+orifices which opened into the wall of the palace, and which, from the
+heads of the animal being carved in relief around them, had become
+famous as the receptacles of secret accusations under the name of the
+Lion's Mouths. Something he dropped into the grinning aperture of the
+marble, though what, the distance and the obscurity of the gallery
+prevented Gino from perceiving; and then his form was seen gliding like
+a phantom down the flight of massive steps.
+
+Gino had retired towards the arch of the water-gate, in expectation that
+the stranger would rejoin him within its shadows; but, to his great
+alarm, he saw the form darting through the outer portal of the palace
+into the square of St. Mark. It was not a moment ere Gino, breathless
+with haste, was in chase. On reaching the bright and gay scene of the
+piazza, which contrasted with the gloomy court he had just quitted like
+morning with night, he saw the utter fruitlessness of further pursuit.
+Frightened at the loss of his master's signet, however, the indiscreet
+but well intentioned gondolier rushed into the crowd, and tried in vain
+to select the delinquent from among a thousand masks.
+
+"Harkee, Signore," uttered the half-distracted gondolier to one, who,
+having first examined his person with distrust, evidently betrayed a
+wish to avoid him, "if thou hast sufficiently pleased thy finger with my
+master's signet, the occasion offers to return it."
+
+"I know thee not," returned a voice, in which Gino's ear could detect no
+familiar sound.
+
+"It may not be well to trifle with the displeasure of a noble as
+powerful as him, you know," he whispered at the elbow of another, who
+had come under his suspicions. "The signet, if thou pleasest, and the
+affair need go no further."
+
+"He who would meddle in it, with or without that gage, would do well to
+pause."
+
+The gondolier again turned away disappointed.
+
+"The ring is not suited to thy masquerade, friend of mine," he essayed
+with a third; "and it would be wise not to trouble the podestŕ about
+such a trifle."
+
+"Then name it not, lest he hear thee." The answer proved, like all the
+others, unsatisfactory and bootless.
+
+Gino now ceased to question any; but he threaded the throng with an
+active and eager eye. Fifty times was he tempted to speak, but as often
+did some difference in stature or dress, some laugh, or trifle uttered
+in levity, warn him of his mistake. He penetrated to the very head of
+the piazza, and, returning by the opposite side, he found his way
+through the throng of the porticoes, looking into every coffee-house,
+and examining each figure that floated by, until he again issued into
+the piazzetta, without success. A slight jerk at the elbow of his jacket
+arrested his steps, and he turned to look at the person who had detained
+him. A female, attired like a contadina, addressed him in the feigned
+voice common to all.
+
+"Whither so fast, and what hast thou lost in this merry crowd? If a
+heart, 'twill be wise to use diligence, for many here may be willing to
+wear the jewel."
+
+"Corpo di Bacco!" exclaimed the disappointed gondolier; "any who find
+such a bauble of mine under foot, are welcome to their luck! Hast thou
+seen a domino of a size like that of any other man, with a gait that
+might pass for the step of a senator, padre, or Jew, and a mask that
+looks as much like a thousand of these in the square as one side of the
+campanile is like the other?"
+
+"Thy picture is so well drawn that one cannot fail to know the original.
+He stands beside thee."
+
+Gino wheeled suddenly, and saw that a grinning harlequin was playing his
+antics in the place where he had expected to find the stranger.
+
+"And thy eyes, bella contadina, are as dull as a mole's."
+
+He ceased speaking; for, deceived in his person, she who had saluted him
+was no longer visible. In this manner did the disappointed gondolier
+thread his way towards the water, now answering to the boisterous salute
+of some clown, and now repelling the advances of females less disguised
+than the pretended contadina, until he gained a space near the quays,
+where there was more room for observation. Here he paused, undetermined
+whether to return and confess his indiscretion to his master, or whether
+he should make still another effort to regain the ring which had been so
+sillily lost. The vacant space between the two granite columns was left
+to the quiet possession of himself and one other, who stood near the
+base of that which sustained the lion of St. Mark, as motionless as if
+he too were merely a form of stone. Two or three stragglers, either led
+by idle curiosity or expecting to meet one appointed to await their
+coming, drew near this immovable man, but all glided away, as if there
+were repulsion in his marble-like countenance. Gino had witnessed
+several instances of this evident dislike to remain near the unknown
+figure, ere he felt induced to cross the space between them, in order to
+inquire into its cause. A slow movement at the sound of his footsteps,
+brought the rays of the moon full upon the calm countenance and
+searching eye of the very man he sought.
+
+The first impulse of the gondolier, like that of all the others he had
+seen approach the spot, was to retreat; but the recollection of his
+errand and his loss came in season to prevent such an exhibition of his
+disgust and alarm. Still he did not speak; but he met the riveted gaze
+of the Bravo with a look that denoted, equally, confusion of intellect
+and a half-settled purpose.
+
+"Would'st thou aught with me?" demanded Jacopo, when the gaze of each
+had continued beyond the term of accidental glances.
+
+"My master's signet."
+
+"I know thee not."
+
+"That image of San Teodoro could testify that this is holy truth, if it
+would but speak! I have not the honor of your friendship, Signor Jacopo;
+but one may have affairs even with a stranger. If you met a peaceable
+and innocent gondolier in the court of the palace since the clock of the
+piazza told the last quarter, and got from him a ring, which can be of
+but little use to any but its rightful owner, one so generous will not
+hesitate to return it."
+
+"Dost thou take me for a jeweller of the Rialto that thou speakest to me
+of rings?"
+
+"I take you for one well known and much valued by many of name and
+quality, here in Venice, as witness my errand from my own master."
+
+"Remove thy mask. Men of fair dealing need not hide the features which
+nature has given them."
+
+"You speak nothing but truths, Signor Frontoni, which is little
+remarkable considering thy opportunities of looking into the motives of
+men. There is little in my face to pay you for the trouble of casting a
+glance at it. I would as lief do as others in this gay season, if it be
+equally agreeable to you."
+
+"Do as thou wilt; but I pray thee to give me the same permission."
+
+"There are few so bold as to dispute thy pleasure, Signore."
+
+"It is, to be alone."
+
+"Cospetto! There is not a man in Venice who would more gladly consult
+it, if my master's errand were fairly done!" muttered Gino, between his
+teeth. "I have here a packet, which it is my duty to put into your
+hands, Signore, and into those of no other."
+
+"I know thee not--thou hast a name?"
+
+"Not in the sense in which you speak, Signore. As to that sort of
+reputation I am as nameless as a foundling."
+
+"If thy master is of no more note than thyself the packet may be
+returned."
+
+"There are few within the dominions of St. Mark of better lineage or of
+fairer hopes than the Duke of Sant' Agata."
+
+The cold expression of the Bravo's countenance changed.
+
+"If thou comest from Don Camillo Monforte, why dost thou hesitate to
+proclaim it? Where are his requests?"
+
+"I know not whether it is his pleasure or that of another which this
+paper contains, but such as it is, Signor Jacopo, my duty commands me to
+deliver it to thee."
+
+The packet was received calmly, though the organ which glanced at its
+seal and its superscription, gleamed with an expression which the
+credulous gondolier fancied to resemble that of the tiger at the sight
+of blood.
+
+"Thou said'st something of a ring. Dost thou bear thy master's signet? I
+am much accustomed to see pledges ere I give faith."
+
+"Blessed San Teodore grant that I did! Were it as heavy as a skin of
+wine, I would willingly bear the load; but one that I mistook for you,
+Master Jacopo, has it on his own light finger, I fear."
+
+"This is an affair that thou wilt settle with thy master," returned the
+Bravo, coldly, again examining the impression of the seal.
+
+"If you are acquainted with the writing of my master," hurriedly
+remarked Gino, who trembled for the fate of the packet, "you will see
+his skill in the turn of those letters. There are few nobles in Venice,
+or indeed in the Sicilies, who have a more scholarly hand, with a quill,
+than Don Camillo Monforte; I could not do the thing half so well
+myself."
+
+"I am no clerk," observed the Bravo, without betraying shame at the
+confession. "The art of deciphering a scroll, like this, was never
+taught me; if thou art so expert in the skill of a penman, tell me the
+name the packet bears."
+
+"'Twould little become me to breathe a syllable concerning any of my
+master's secrets," returned the gondolier, drawing himself up in sudden
+reserve. "It is enough that he bid me deliver the letter; after which I
+should think it presumption even to whisper more."
+
+The dark eye of the Bravo was seen rolling over the person of his
+companion, by the light of the moon, in a manner that caused the blood
+of the latter to steal towards his heart.
+
+"I bid thee read to me aloud the name the paper bears," said Jacopo,
+sternly. "Here is none but the lion and the saint above our heads to
+listen."
+
+"Just San Marco! who can tell what ear is open or what ear is shut in
+Venice? If you please, Signor Frontoni, we will postpone the examination
+to a more suitable occasion."
+
+"Friend, I do not play the fool! The name, or show me some gage that
+thou art sent by him thou hast named, else take back the packet; 'tis no
+affair for my hand."
+
+"Reflect a single moment on the consequences, Signor Jacopo, before you
+come to a determination so hasty."
+
+"I know no consequences which can befall a man who refuses to receive a
+message like this."
+
+"Per Diana! Signore, the Duca will not be likely to leave me an ear to
+hear the good advice of Father Battista."
+
+"Then will the Duca save the public executioner some trouble."
+
+As he spoke, the Bravo cast the packet at the feet of the gondolier, and
+began to walk calmly up the piazzetta. Gino seized the letter, and, with
+his brain in a whirl, with the effort to recall some one of his master's
+acquaintances to whom he would be likely to address an epistle on such
+an occasion, he followed.
+
+"I wonder, Signor Jacopo, that a man of your sagacity has not remembered
+that a packet to be delivered to himself should bear his own name."
+
+The Bravo took the paper, and held the superscription again to the
+light.
+
+"That is not so. Though unlearned, necessity has taught me to know when
+I am meant."
+
+"Diamine! That is just my own case, Signore. Were the letter for me,
+now the old should not know its young quicker than I would come at the
+truth."
+
+"Then thou canst not read?"
+
+"I never pretended to the art. The little said was merely about writing.
+Learning, as you well understand, Master Jacopo, is divided into
+reading, writing, and figures; and a man may well understand one,
+without knowing a word of the others. It is not absolutely necessary to
+be a bishop to have a shaved head, or a Jew to wear a beard."
+
+"Thou would'st have done better to have said this at once; go, I will
+think of the matter."
+
+Gino gladly turned away, but he had not left the other many paces before
+he saw a female form gliding behind the pedestal of one of the granite
+columns. Moving swiftly in a direction to uncover this seeming spy, he
+saw at once that Annina had been a witness of his interview with the
+Bravo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+       "'T will make me think
+  The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune
+  Runs 'gainst the bias."
+                       RICHARD THE SECOND.
+
+
+Though Venice at that hour was so gay in her squares, the rest of the
+town was silent as the grave. A city in which the hoof of horse or the
+rolling of wheels is never heard, necessarily possesses a character of
+its own; but the peculiar form of the government, and the long training
+of the people in habits of caution, weighed on the spirits of the gay.
+There were times and places, it is true, when the buoyancy of youthful
+blood, and the levity of the thoughtless, found occasion for their
+display--nor were they rare; but when men found themselves removed from
+the temptation, and perhaps from the support of society, they appeared
+to imbibe the character of their sombre city.
+
+Such was the state of most of the town, while the scene described in the
+previous chapter was exhibited in the lively piazza of San Marco. The
+moon had risen so high that its light fell between the range of walls,
+here and there touching the surface of the water, to which it imparted a
+quivering brightness, while the domes and towers rested beneath its
+light in a solemn but grand repose. Occasionally the front of a palace
+received the rays on its heavy cornices and labored columns, the gloomy
+stillness of the interior of the edifice furnishing, in every such
+instance, a striking contrast to the richness and architectural beauty
+without. Our narrative now leads us to one of these patrician abodes of
+the first class.
+
+A heavy magnificence pervaded the style of the dwelling. The vestibule
+was vast, vaulted, and massive. The stairs, rich in marbles, heavy and
+grand. The apartments were imposing in their gildings and sculpture,
+while the walls sustained countless works on which the highest geniuses
+of Italy had lavishly diffused their power. Among these relics of an age
+more happy in this respect than that of which we write, the connoisseur
+would readily have known the pencils of Titian, Paul Veronese, and
+Tintoretto--the three great names in which the subjects of St. Mark so
+justly prided themselves. Among these works of the higher masters were
+mingled others by the pencils of Bellino, and Montegna, and Palma
+Vecchio--artists who were secondary only to the more renowned colorists
+of the Venetian school. Vast sheets of mirrors lined the walls, wherever
+the still more precious paintings had no place; while the ordinary
+hangings of velvet and silk became objects of secondary admiration, in a
+scene of nearly royal magnificence. The cool and beautiful floors, made
+of a composition in which all the prized marbles of Italy and of the
+East polished to the last degree of art, were curiously embedded, formed
+a suitable finish to a style so gorgeous, and in which luxury and taste
+were blended in equal profusion.
+
+The building, which, on two of its sides, literally rose from out the
+water, was, as usual, erected around a dark court. Following its
+different faces, the eye might penetrate, by many a door, open at that
+hour for the passage of the air from off the sea, through long suites of
+rooms, furnished and fitted in the manner described, all lighted by
+shaded lamps that spread a soft and gentle glow around. Passing without
+notice ranges of reception and sleeping rooms--the latter of a
+magnificence to mock the ordinary wants of the body--we shall at once
+introduce the reader into the part of the palace where the business of
+the tale conducts us.
+
+At the angle of the dwelling on the side of the smaller of the two
+canals, and most remote from the principal water-avenue of the city on
+which the edifice fronted, there was a suite of apartments, which, while
+it exhibited the same style of luxury and magnificence as those first
+mentioned in its general character, discovered greater attention in its
+details to the wants of ordinary life. The hangings were of the richest
+velvets or of glossy silks, the mirrors were large and of exquisite
+truth, the floors of the same gay and pleasing colors, and the walls
+were adorned with their appropriate works of art. But the whole was
+softened down to a picture of domestic comfort. The tapestries and
+curtains hung in careless folds, the beds admitted of sleep, and the
+pictures were delicate copies by the pencil of some youthful amateur,
+whose leisure had been exercised in this gentle and feminine employment.
+
+The fair being herself, whose early instruction had given birth to so
+many skilful imitations of the divine expression of Raphael, or to the
+vivid tints of Titian, was at that hour in her privacy, discoursing with
+her ghostly adviser, and one of her own sex, who had long discharged the
+joint trusts of instructor and parent. The years of the lady of the
+palace were so tender that, in a more northern region, she would
+scarcely have been deemed past the period of childhood, though in her
+native land, the justness and maturity of her form, and the expression
+of a dark, eloquent eye, indicated both the growth and the intelligence
+of womanhood.
+
+"For this good counsel I thank you, my father, and my excellent Donna
+Florinda will thank you still more, for your opinions are so like her
+own, that I sometimes admire the secret means by which experience
+enables the wise and the good to think so much alike, on a matter of so
+little personal interest."
+
+A slight but furtive smile struggled around the mortified mouth of the
+Carmelite, as he listened to the naive observation of his ingenuous
+pupil.
+
+"Thou wilt learn, my child," he answered, "as time heaps wisdom on thy
+head, that it is in concerns which touch our passions and interests
+least, we are most apt to decide with discretion and impartiality.
+Though Donna Florinda is not yet past the age when the heart is finally
+subdued, and there is still so much to bind her to the world, she will
+assure thee of this truth, or I greatly mistake the excellence of that
+mind, which hath hitherto led her so far blameless, in this erring
+pilgrimage to which we are all doomed."
+
+Though the cowl was over the head of the speaker, who was evidently
+preparing to depart, and his deeply-seated eye never varied from its
+friendly look at the fair face of her he instructed, the blood stole
+into the pale cheeks of the maternal companion, and her whole
+countenance betrayed some such reflection of feeling at his praise, as a
+wintry sky exhibits at a sudden gleam from the setting sun.
+
+"I trust that Violetta does not now hear this for the first time,"
+observed Donna Florinda, in a voice so meek and tremulous as to be
+observed.
+
+"Little that can be profitably told one of my inexperience has been left
+untaught," quickly answered the pupil, unconscious herself that she
+reached her hand towards that of her constant monitor, though too intent
+on her object to change her look from the features of the Carmelite.
+"But why this desire in the Senate to dispose of a girl who would be
+satisfied to live for ever, as she is now, happy in her youth, and
+contented with the privacy which becomes her sex?"
+
+"The relentless years will not stay their advance, that even one
+innocent as thou may never know the unhappiness and trials of a more
+mature age. This life is one of imperious and, oftentimes, of tyrannical
+duties. Thou art not ignorant of the policy that rules a state which
+hath made its name so illustrious by high deeds in arms, its riches, and
+its widely-spread influence. There is a law in Venice which commandeth
+that none claiming an interest in its affairs shall so bind himself to
+the stranger as to endanger the devotion all owe to the Republic. Thus
+may not the patrician of St. Mark be a lord in other lands, nor may the
+heiress of a name, great and valued as thine, be given in marriage to
+any of note, in a foreign state, without counsel and consent from those
+who are appointed to watch over the interests of all."
+
+"Had Providence cast my lot in an humbler class, this would not have
+been. Methinks it ill comports with the happiness of woman to be the
+especial care of the Council of Ten!"
+
+"There is indiscretion, and I lament to say, impiety in thy words. Our
+duty bids us submit to earthly laws, and more than duty, reverence
+teaches us not to repine at the will of Providence. But I do not see the
+weight of this grievance against which thou murmurest, daughter. Thou
+art youthful, wealthy beyond the indulgence of all healthful desires, of
+a lineage to excite an unwholesome worldly pride, and fair enough to
+render thee the most dangerous of thine own enemies--and thou repinest
+at a lot to which all of thy sex and station are, of necessity,
+subject!"
+
+"For the offence against Providence I am already a penitent," returned
+the Donna Violetta. "But surely it would be less embarrassing to a girl
+of sixteen, were the fathers of the state so much occupied with more
+weighty affairs as to forget her birth and years, and haply her wealth?"
+
+"There would be little merit in being content with a world fashioned
+after our own caprices, though it may be questioned if we should be
+happier by having all things as we desire than by being compelled to
+submit to them as they are. The interest taken by the Republic in thy
+particular welfare, daughter, is the price thou payest for the ease and
+magnificence with which thou art encircled. One more obscure, and less
+endowed by fortune, might have greater freedom of will, but it would be
+accompanied by none of the pomp which adorns the dwelling of thy
+fathers."
+
+"I would there were less of luxury and more of liberty within its
+walls."
+
+"Time will enable thee to see differently. At thy age all is viewed in
+colors of gold, or life is rendered bootless, because we are thwarted in
+our ill-digested wishes. I deny not, however, that thy fortune is
+tempered by some peculiar passages. Venice is ruled by a policy that is
+often calculating, and haply some deem it remorseless." Though the voice
+of the Carmelite had fallen, he paused and glanced an uneasy look from
+beneath his cowl ere he continued. "The caution of the senate teaches it
+to preclude, as far as in it lies, the union of interests that may not
+only oppose each other, but which may endanger those of the state. Thus,
+as I have said, none of senatorial rank may hold lands without the
+limits of the Republic, nor may any of account connect themselves, by
+the ties of marriage, with strangers of dangerous influence, without the
+consent and supervision of the Republic. The latter is thy situation,
+for of the several foreign lords who seek thy hand the council see none
+to whom the favor may be extended without the apprehension of creating
+an influence here, in the centre of the canals, which ought not to be
+given to a stranger. Don Camillo Monforte, the cavalier to whom thou art
+indebted for thy life, and of whom thou hast so lately spoken with
+gratitude, has far more cause to complain of these hard decrees, than
+thou mayest have, in any reason."
+
+"'Twould make my griefs still heavier, did I know that one who has shown
+so much courage in my behalf, has equal reason to feel their justice,"
+returned Violetta, quickly. "What is the affair that, so fortunately for
+me, hath brought the Lord of Sant' Agata to Venice, if a grateful girl
+may, without indiscretion, inquire?"
+
+"Thy interest in his behalf is both natural and commendable," answered
+the Carmelite, with a simplicity which did more credit to his cowl than
+to his observation. "He is young, and doubtless he is tempted by the
+gifts of fortune and the passions of his years to divers acts of
+weakness. Remember him, daughter, in thy prayers, that part of the debt
+of gratitude may be repaid. His worldly interest here is one of general
+notoriety, and I can ascribe thy ignorance of it only to a retired
+manner of life."
+
+"My charge hath other matters to occupy her thoughts than the concerns
+of a young stranger, who cometh to Venice for affairs," mildly observed
+Donna Florinda,
+
+"But if I am to remember him in my prayers, Father, it might enlighten
+my petition to know in what the young noble is most wanting."
+
+"I would have thee remember his spiritual necessities only. He wanteth,
+of a truth, little in temporalities that the world can offer, though the
+desires of life often lead him who hath most in quest of more. It would
+seem that an ancestor of Don Camillo was anciently a senator of Venice,
+when the death of a relation brought many Calabrian signories into his
+possession. The younger of his sons, by an especial decree, which
+favored a family that had well served the state, took these estates,
+while the elder transmitted the senatorial rank and the Venetian
+fortunes to his posterity. Time hath extinguished the elder branch; and
+Don Camillo hath for years besieged the council to be restored to those
+rights which his predecessor renounced."
+
+"Can they refuse him?"
+
+"His demand involves a departure from established laws. Were he to
+renounce the Calabrian lordships, the Neapolitan might lose more than he
+would gain; and to keep both is to infringe a law that is rarely
+suffered to be dormant. I know little, daughter, of the interests of
+life; but there are enemies of the Republic who say that its servitude
+is not easy, and that it seldom bestows favors of this sort without
+seeking an ample equivalent."
+
+"Is this as it should be? If Don Camillo Monforte has claims in Venice,
+whether it be to palaces on the canals, or to lands on the main; to
+honors in the state, or voice in the senate; justice should be rendered
+without delay, lest it be said the Republic vaunts more of the sacred
+quality than it practises."
+
+"Thou speakest as a guileless nature prompts. It is the frailty of man,
+my daughter, to separate his public acts from the fearful responsibility
+of his private deeds; as if God, in endowing his being with reason and
+the glorious hopes of Christianity, had also endowed him with two souls,
+of which only one was to be cared for."
+
+"Are there not those, Father, who believe that, while the evil we commit
+as individuals is visited on our own persons, that which is done by
+states, falls on the nation?"
+
+"The pride of human reason has invented diverse subtleties to satisfy
+its own longings, but it can never feed itself on a delusion more fatal
+than this! The crime which involves others in its guilt or consequences,
+is doubly a crime, and though it be a property of sin to entail its own
+punishment, even in our present life, he trusts to a vain hope who
+thinks the magnitude of the offence will ever be its apology. The chief
+security of our nature is to remove it beyond temptation, and he is
+safest from the allurements of the world who is farthest removed from
+its vices. Though I would wish justice done to the noble Neapolitan, it
+may be for his everlasting peace that the additional wealth he seeks
+should be withheld."
+
+"I am unwilling to believe, Father, that a cavalier, who has shown
+himself so ready to assist the distressed, will easily abuse the gifts
+of fortune."
+
+The Carmelite fastened an uneasy look on the bright features of the
+young Venetian. Parental solicitude and prophetic foresight were in his
+glance, but the expression was relieved by the charity of a chastened
+spirit.
+
+"Gratitude to the preserver of thy life becomes thy station and sex; it
+is a duty. Cherish the feeling, for it is akin to the holy obligation of
+man to his Creator."
+
+"Is it enough to feel grateful!" demanded Violetta. "One of my name and
+alliances might do more. We can move the patricians of my family in
+behalf of the stranger, that his protracted suit may come to a more
+speedy end."
+
+"Daughter, beware; the intercession of one in whom St. Mark feels so
+lively an interest, may raise up enemies to Don Camillo, instead of
+friends."
+
+Donna Violetta was silent, while the monk and Donna Florinda both
+regarded her with affectionate concern. The former then adjusted his
+cowl, and prepared to depart. The noble maiden approached the Carmelite,
+and looking into his face with ingenuous confidence and habitual
+reverence, she besought his blessing. When the solemn and customary
+office was performed, the monk turned towards the companion of his
+spiritual charge. Donna Florinda permitted the silk, on which her needle
+had been busy, to fall into her lap, and she sat in meek silence, while
+the Carmelite raised his open palms towards her bended head. His lips
+moved, but the words of benediction were inaudible. Had the ardent being
+intrusted to their joint care been less occupied with her own feelings,
+or more practised in the interests of that world into which she was
+about to enter, it is probable she would have detected some evidence of
+that deep but smothered sympathy, which so often betrayed itself in the
+silent intelligence of her ghostly father and her female Mentor.
+
+"Thou wilt not forget us, Father?" said Violetta, with winning
+earnestness. "An orphan girl, in whose fate the sages of the Republic so
+seriously busy themselves, has need of every friend in whom she can
+confide."
+
+"Blessed be thy intercessor," said the monk, "and the peace of the
+innocent be with thee."
+
+Once more he waved his hand, and turning, he slowly quitted the room.
+The eye of Donna Florinda followed the white robes of the Carmelite,
+while they were visible; and when it fell again upon the silk, it was
+for a moment closed, as if looking at the movements of the rebuked
+spirit within. The young mistress of the palace summoned a menial, and
+bade him do honor to her confessor, by seeing him to his gondola. She
+then moved to the open balcony. A long pause succeeded; it was such a
+silence, breathing, thoughtful, and luxurious with the repose of Italy,
+as suited the city and the hour. Suddenly Violetta receded from the open
+window, and withdrew a step, in alarm.
+
+"Is there a boat beneath?" demanded her companion, whose glance was
+unavoidably attracted to the movement.
+
+"The water was never more quiet. But thou hearest those strains of the
+hautboys?"
+
+"Are they so rare on the canals, that they drive thee from the balcony?"
+
+"There are cavaliers beneath the windows of the Mentoni palace;
+doubtless they compliment our friend Olivia."
+
+"Even that gallantry is common. Thou knowest that Olivia is shortly to
+be united to her kinsman, and he takes the usual means to show his
+admiration."
+
+"Dost thou not find this public announcement of a passion painful? Were
+I to be wooed, I could wish it might only be to my own ear."
+
+"That is an unhappy sentiment for one whose hand is in the gift of the
+Senate! I fear that a maiden of thy rank must be content to hear her
+beauty extolled and her merits sung, if not exaggerated, even by
+hirelings beneath a balcony."
+
+"I would that they were done!" exclaimed Violetta, stopping her ears.
+"None know the excellence of our friend better than I; but this open
+exposure of thoughts that ought to be so private, must wound her."
+
+"Thou mayest go again into the balcony; the music ceases."
+
+"There are gondoliers singing near the Rialto--these are sounds I love!
+Sweet in themselves, they do no violence to our sacred feelings. Art
+thou for the water to-night, my Florinda?"
+
+"Whither would'st thou?"
+
+"I know not; but the evening is brilliant, and I pine to mingle with the
+splendor and pleasure without."
+
+"While thousands on the canals pine to mingle with the splendor and
+pleasure within! Thus is it ever with life: that which is possessed is
+little valued, and that which we have not is without price."
+
+"I owe my duty to my guardian," said Violetta; "we will row to his
+palace."
+
+Though Donna Florinda had uttered so grave a moral, she spoke without
+severity. Casting aside her work, she prepared to gratify the desire of
+her charge. It was the usual hour for the high in rank and the secluded
+to go abroad; and neither Venice with its gay throng, nor Italy with its
+soft climate, ever offered greater temptation to seek the open air.
+
+The groom of the chambers was called, the gondoliers were summoned, and
+the ladies, cloaking and taking their masks, were quickly in the boat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+                       "If your master
+  Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him
+  That majesty, to keep decorum, must
+  No less beg than a kingdom."
+                               ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
+
+
+The silent movement of the hearse-like gondola soon brought the fair
+Venetian and her female Mentor to the water-gate of the noble, who had
+been intrusted by the Senate with the especial guardianship of the
+person of the heiress. It was a residence of more than common gloom,
+possessing all the solemn but stately magnificence which then
+characterized the private dwellings of the patricians in that city of
+riches and pride. Its magnitude and architecture, though rather less
+imposing than those which distinguished the palace of the Donna
+Violetta, placed it among the private edifices of the first order, and
+all its external decorations showed it to be the habitation of one of
+high importance. Within, the noiseless steps and the air of silent
+distrust among the domestics, added to the gloomy grandeur of the
+apartments, rendered the abode no bad type of the Republic itself.
+
+As neither of his present visitors was a stranger beneath the roof of
+the Signor Gradenigo--for so the proprietor of the palace was
+called--they ascended its massive stairs, without pausing to consider
+any of those novelties of construction that would attract the eye of one
+unaccustomed to such a dwelling. The rank and the known consequence of
+the Donna Violetta assured her of a ready reception; and while she was
+ushered to the suite of rooms above, by a crowd of bowing menials, one
+had gone, with becoming speed, to announce her approach to his master.
+When in the ante-chamber, however, the ward stopped, declining to
+proceed any further, in deference to the convenience and privacy of her
+guardian. The delay was short; for no sooner was the old senator
+apprised of her presence, than he hastened from his closet to do her
+honor, with a zeal that did credit to his fitness for the trust he
+filled. The countenance of the old patrician--a face in which thought
+and care had drawn as many lines as time--lighted with unequivocal
+satisfaction as he pressed forward to receive his beautiful ward. To her
+half-uttered apologies for the intrusion, he would not listen; but as he
+led her within, he gallantly professed his pleasure at being honored
+with her visits even at moments that, to her scrupulous delicacy, might
+appear the most ill-timed.
+
+"Thou canst never come amiss, child as thou art of my ancient friend,
+and the especial care of the state!" he added. "The gates of the
+Gradenigo palace would open of themselves, at the latest period of the
+night, to receive such a guest. Besides, the hour is most suited to the
+convenience of one of thy quality who would breathe the fresh evening
+air on the canals. Were I to limit thee to hours and minutes, some
+truant wish of the moment--some innocent caprice of thy sex and years,
+might go ungratified. Ah! Donna Florinda, we may well pray that all our
+affection--not to call it weakness--for this persuasive girl, shall not
+in the end lead to her own disadvantage!"
+
+"For the indulgence of both, I am grateful," returned Violetta; "I only
+fear to urge my little requests at moments when your precious time is
+more worthily occupied in behalf of the state."
+
+"Thou overratest my consequence. I sometimes visit the Council of Three
+Hundred; but my years and infirmities preclude me now from serving the
+Republic as I could wish Praise be to St. Mark, our patron! its affairs
+are not unprosperous for our declining fortunes. We have dealt bravely
+with the infidel of late; the treaty with the Emperor is not to our
+wrong; and the anger of the church, for the late seeming breach of
+confidence on our part, has been diverted. We owe something in the
+latter affair to a young Neapolitan, who sojourns here at Venice, and
+who is not without interest at the Holy See, by reason of his uncle, the
+Cardinal Secretary. Much good is done by the influence of friends
+properly employed. 'Tis the secret of our success in the actual
+condition of Venice; for that which power cannot achieve must be trusted
+to favor and a wise moderation."
+
+"Your declarations encourage me to become, once more, a suitor; for I
+will confess that, in addition to the desire of doing you honor, I have
+come equally with the wish to urge your great influence in behalf of an
+earnest suit I have."
+
+"What now! Our young charge, Donna Florinda, has inherited, with the
+fortunes of her family, its ancient habits of patronage and protection!
+But we will not discourage the feeling, for it has a worthy origin, and,
+used with discretion, it fortifies the noble and powerful in their
+stations."
+
+"And may we not say," mildly observed Donna Florinda, "that when the
+affluent and happy employ themselves with the cares of the less
+fortunate, they not only discharge a duty, but they cultivate a
+wholesome and useful state of mind?"
+
+"Doubt it not. Nothing can be more useful than to give to each class in
+society, a proper sense of its obligations, and a just sentiment of its
+duties. These are opinions I greatly approve, and which I desire my ward
+may thoroughly understand."
+
+"She is happy in possessing instructors so able and so willing to teach
+all she should know," rejoined Violetta.
+
+"With this admission, may I ask the Signor Gradenigo to give ear to my
+petition?"
+
+"Thy little requests are ever welcome. I would merely observe, that
+generous and ardent temperaments sometimes regard a distant object so
+steadily, as to overlook others that are not only nearer, and perhaps of
+still more urgent importance, but more attainable. In doing a benefit to
+one, we should be wary not to do injury to many. The relative of some
+one of thy household may have thoughtlessly enlisted for the wars?"
+
+"Should it be so, I trust the recruit will have the manhood not to quit
+his colors."
+
+"Thy nurse, who is one little likely to forget the service she did thy
+infancy, urges the claim of some kinsman to an employment in the
+customs?"
+
+"I believe all of that family are long since placed," said Violetta,
+laughing, "unless we might establish the good mother herself in some
+station of honor. I have naught to ask in their behalf."
+
+"She who hath reared thee to this goodly and healthful beauty, would
+prefer a well-supported suit, but still is she better as she is,
+indolent, and, I fear, pampered by thy liberality. Thy private purse is
+drained by demands on thy charity;--or, perhaps, the waywardness of a
+female taste hath cost thee dear, of late?"
+
+"Neither. I have little need of gold, for one of my years cannot
+properly maintain the magnificence of her condition. I come, guardian,
+with a far graver solicitation than any of these."
+
+"I hope none in thy favor have been indiscreet of speech!" exclaimed the
+Signor Gradenigo, casting a hasty and suspicious look at his ward.
+
+"If any have been so thoughtless, let them abide the punishment of their
+fault."
+
+"I commend thy justice. In this age of novel opinions, innovations of
+all descriptions cannot be too severely checked. Were the senate to shut
+its ears to all the wild theories that are uttered by the unthinking and
+vain, their language would soon penetrate to the ill-regulated minds of
+the ignorant and idle. Ask me, if thou wilt, for purses in scores, but
+do not move me to forgetfulness of the guilt of the disturber of the
+public peace!"
+
+"Not a sequin. My errand is of nobler quality."
+
+"Speak without riddle, that I may know its object."
+
+Now that nothing stood between her wish to speak, and her own manner of
+making known the request, Donna Violetta appeared to shrink from
+expressing it. Her color went and came, and she sought support from the
+eye of her attentive and wondering companion. As the latter was ignorant
+of her intention, however, she could do no more than encourage the
+supplicant by such an expression of sympathy as woman rarely refuses to
+her sex, in any trial that involves their peculiar and distinctive
+feelings. Violetta struggled with her diffidence, and then laughing at
+her own want of self-possession, she continued--
+
+"You know, Signor Gradenigo," she said, with a loftiness that was not
+less puzzling, though far more intelligible than the agitation which a
+moment before had embarrassed her manner, "that I am the last of a line
+eminent for centuries in the state of Venice."
+
+"So sayeth our history."
+
+"That I bear a name long known, and which it becomes me to shield from
+all imputation of discredit in my own person."
+
+"This is so true, that it scarce needed so clear an exposure," drily
+returned the senator.
+
+"And that, though thus gifted by the accidents of fortune and birth, I
+have received a boon that remains still unrequited, in a manner to do no
+honor to the house of Thiepolo."
+
+"This becometh serious! Donna Florinda, our ward is more earnest than
+intelligible, and I must ask an explanation at your hands. It becometh
+her not to receive boons of this nature from any."
+
+"Though unprepared for this request," mildly replied the companion, "I
+think she speaks of the boon of life."
+
+The Signor Gradenigo's countenance assumed a dark expression.
+
+"I understand you," he said, coldly. "It is true that the Neapolitan was
+ready to rescue thee, when the calamity befell thy uncle of Florence,
+but Don Camillo Monforte is not a common diver of the Lido, to be
+rewarded like him who finds a bauble dropped from a gondola. Thou hast
+thanked the cavalier; I trust that a noble maiden can do no more in a
+case like this."
+
+"That I have thanked him, and thanked him from my soul, is true!"
+fervently exclaimed Violetta. "When I forget the service, Maria
+Santissima and the good saints forget me!"
+
+"I doubt, Signora Florinda, that your charge hath spent more hours among
+the light works of her late father's library, and less time with her
+missal, than becomes her birth?"
+
+The eye of Violetta kindled, and she folded an arm around the form of
+her shrinking companion, who drew down her veil at this reproof, though
+she forbore to answer.
+
+"Signor Gradenigo," said the young heiress, "I may have done discredit
+to my instructors, but if the pupil has been idle the fault should not
+be visited on the innocent. It is some evidence that the commands of
+holy church have not been neglected, that I now come to entreat favor in
+behalf of one to whom I owe my life. Don Camillo Monforte has long
+pursued, without success, a claim so just, that were there no other
+motive to concede it, the character of Venice should teach the senators
+the danger of delay."
+
+"My ward has spent lier leisure with the doctors of Padua! The Republic
+hath its laws, and none who have right on their side appeal to them in
+vain. Thy gratitude is not to be censured; it is rather worthy of thy
+origin and hopes; still, Donna Violetta, we should remember how
+difficult it is to winnow the truth from the chaff of imposition and
+legal subtlety, and, most of all, should a judge be certain before he
+gives his decree, that, in confirming the claims of one applicant, he
+does not defeat those of another."
+
+"They tamper with his rights! Being born in a foreign realm, he is
+required to renounce more in the land of the stranger than he will gain
+within the limits of the Republic! He wastes life and youth in pursuing
+a phantom! You are of weight in the senate, my guardian, and were you to
+lend him the support of your powerful voice and great instruction, a
+wronged noble would have justice, and Venice, though she might lose a
+trifle from her stores, would better deserve the character of which she
+is so jealous."
+
+"Thou art a persuasive advocate, and I will think of what thou urgest,"
+said the Signor Gradenigo, changing the frown which had been gathering
+about his brow, to a look of indulgence, with a facility that betrayed
+much practice in adapting the expression of his features to his policy.
+"I ought only to hearken to the Neapolitan in my public character of a
+judge; but his service to thee, and my weakness in thy behalf, extorts
+that thou would'st have."
+
+Donna Violetta received the promise with a bright and guileless smile.
+She kissed the hand he extended as the pledge of his faith, with a
+fervor that gave her attentive guardian serious uneasiness.
+
+"Thou art too winning even to be resisted by one wearied with rebutting
+plausible pretensions," he added. "The young and the generous, Donna
+Florinda, believe all to be as their own wishes and simplicity would
+have them. As for this right of Don Camillo--but no matter--thou wilt
+have it so, and it shall be examined with that blindness which is said
+to be the failing of justice."
+
+"I have understood the metaphor to mean blind to favor, but not
+insensible to the right."
+
+"I fear that is a sense which might defeat our hopes--but we will look
+into it. My son has been mindful of his duty and respect of late, Donna
+Violetta, as I would have him? The boy wants little urging, I know, to
+do honor to my ward and the fairest of Venice. Thou wilt receive him
+with friendship, for the love thou bearest his father?"
+
+Donna Violetta curtsied, but it was with womanly reserve.
+
+"The door of my palace is never shut on the Signor Giacomo on all proper
+occasions," she said, coldly. "Signore, the son of my guardian could
+hardly be other than an honored visitor."
+
+"I would have the boy attentive--and even more, I would have him prove
+some little of that great esteem,--but we live in a jealous city, Donna
+Florinda, and one in which prudence is a virtue of the highest price. If
+the youth is less urgent than I could wish, believe me, it is from the
+apprehension of giving premature alarm to those who interest themselves
+in the fortunes of our charge."
+
+Both the ladies bowed, and by the manner in which they drew their cloaks
+about them, they made evident their wish to retire. Donna Violetta
+craved a blessing, and after the usual compliments, and a short dialogue
+of courtesy, she and her companion withdrew to their boat.
+
+The Signor Gradenigo paced the room in which he had received his ward
+for several minutes in silence. Not a sound of any sort was audible
+throughout the whole of that vast abode, the stillness and cautious
+tread of those within, answering to the quiet town without; but a young
+man, in whose countenance and air were to be seen most of the usual
+signs of a well-bred profligacy, sauntering along the suite of
+chambers, at length caught the eye of the senator, who beckoned him to
+approach.
+
+"Thou art unhappy, as of wont, Giacomo," he said, in a tone between
+paternal indulgence and reproach. "The Donna Violetta has, but a minute
+since, departed, and thou wert absent. Some unworthy intrigue with the
+daughter of a jeweller, or some injurious bargain of thy hopes with the
+father, hath occupied the time that might have been devoted more
+honorably, and to far better profit."
+
+"You do me little justice," returned the youth. "Neither Jew nor Jewess
+hath this day greeted my eye."
+
+"The calendar should mark the time for its singularity! I would know,
+Giacomo, if thou turnest to a right advantage the occasion of my
+guardianship, and if thou thinkest with sufficient gravity of the
+importance of what I urge?"
+
+"Doubt it not, father. He who hath so much suffered for the want of that
+which the Donna Violetta possesses in so great a profusion, needeth
+little prompting on such a subject. By refusing to supply my wants, you
+have made certain of my consent. There is not a fool in Venice who sighs
+more loudly beneath his mistress's window, than I utter my pathetic
+wishes to the lady--when there is opportunity, and I am in the humor."
+
+"Thou knowest the danger of alarming the senate?"
+
+"Fear me not. My progress is by secret and gradual means. Neither my
+countenance nor my mind is unused to a mask--thanks to necessity! My
+spirits have been too buoyant not to have made me acquainted with
+duplicity!"
+
+"Thou speakest, ungrateful boy, as if I denied thy youth the usual
+indulgences of thy years and rank. It is thy excesses, and not thy
+spirits, I would check. But I would not now harden thee with reproof.
+Giacomo, thou hast a rival in the stranger. His act in the Giudecca has
+won upon the fancy of the girl; and like all of generous and ardent
+natures, ignorant as she is of his merits, she supplies his character
+with all necessary qualities by her own ingenuity."
+
+"I would she did the same by me!"
+
+"With thee, Sirrah, my ward might be required to forget, rather than
+invent. Hast thou bethought thee of turning the eyes of the council on
+the danger which besets their heiress?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"And the means?"
+
+"The plainest and the most certain--the lion's mouth."
+
+"Ha! that, indeed, is a bold adventure."
+
+"And, like all bold adventures, it is the more likely to succeed. For
+once, fortune hath not been a niggard with me. I have given them the
+Neapolitan's signet by way of proof."
+
+"Giacomo! dost thou know the hazard of thy temerity? I hope there is no
+clue left in the handwriting, or by any other means taken to obtain the
+ring?"
+
+"Father, though I may have overlooked thy instruction in less weighty
+matters, not an admonition which touches the policy of Venice hath been
+forgotten. The Neapolitan stands accused, and if thy council is
+faithful, he will be a suspected, if not a banished man."
+
+"That the Council of Three will perform its trust is beyond dispute. I
+would I were as certain that thy indiscreet zeal may not lead to some
+unpleasant exposure!"
+
+The shameless son stared at the father a moment in doubt, and then he
+passed into the more private parts of the palace, like one too much
+accustomed to double-dealing, to lend it a second, or a serious thought.
+The senator remained. His silent walk was now manifestly disturbed by
+great uneasiness; and he frequently passed a hand across his brow, as if
+he mused in pain. While thus occupied, a figure stole through the long
+suite of ante-chambers, and stopped near the door of the room he
+occupied. The intruder was aged; his face was tawny by exposure, and
+his hair thinned and whitened by time. His dress was that of a
+fisherman, being both scanty and of the meanest materials. Still there
+was a naturally noble and frank intelligence in his bold eye and
+prominent features, while the bare arms and naked legs exhibited a
+muscle and proportion which proved that nature was rather at a stand
+than in the decline. He had been many moments dangling his cap, in
+habitual but unembarrassed respect, before his presence was observed.
+
+"Ha! thou here, Antonio!" exclaimed the senator, when their eyes met.
+"Why this visit?"
+
+"Signore, my heart is heavy."
+
+"Hath the calendar no saint--the fisherman no patron? I suppose the
+sirocco hath been tossing the waters of the bay, and thy nets are empty.
+Hold! thou art my foster-brother, and thou must not want."
+
+The fisherman drew back with dignity, refusing the gift, simply, but
+decidedly, by the act.
+
+"Signore, we have lived from childhood to old age since we drew our milk
+from the same breast; in all that time have you ever known me a beggar?"
+
+"Thou art not wont to ask these boons, Antonio, it is true; but age
+conquers our pride with our strength. If it be not sequins that thou
+seekest, what would'st thou?"
+
+"There are other wants than those of the body, Signore, and other
+sufferings besides hunger."
+
+The countenance of the senator lowered. He cast a sharp glance at his
+foster-brother, and ere he answered he closed the door which
+communicated with the outer chamber.
+
+"Thy words forebode disaffection, as of wont. Thou art accustomed to
+comment on measures and interests that are beyond thy limited reason,
+and thou knowest that thy opinions have already drawn displeasure on
+thee. The ignorant and the low are, to the state, as children, whose
+duty it is to obey, and not to cavil. Thy errand?"
+
+"I am not the man you think me, Signore. I am used to poverty and want,
+and little satisfies my wishes. The senate is my master, and as such I
+honor it; but a fisherman hath his feelings as well as the Doge!"
+
+"Again! These feelings of thine, Antonio, are most exacting. Thou namest
+them on all occasions, as if they were the engrossing concerns of life."
+
+"Signore, are they not to me? Though I think mostly of my own concerns,
+still I can have a thought for the distress of those I honor. When the
+beautiful and youthful lady, your eccellenza's daughter, was called away
+to the company of the saints, I felt the blow as if it had been the
+death of my own child; and it has pleased God, as you very well know,
+Signore, not to leave me unacquainted with the anguish of such a loss."
+
+"Thou art a good fellow, Antonio," returned the senator, covertly
+removing the moisture from his eyes; "an honest and a proud man, for thy
+condition!"
+
+"She from whom we both drew our first nourishment, Signore, often told
+me, that next to my own kin, it was my duty to love the noble race she
+had helped to support. I make no merit of natural feeling, which is a
+gift from Heaven, and the greater is the reason that the state should
+not deal lightly with such affections."
+
+"Once more the state! Name thy errand."
+
+"Your eccellenza knows the history of my humble life. I need not tell
+you, Signore, of the sons which God, by the intercession of the Virgin
+and blessed St. Anthony, was pleased to bestow on me, or of the manner
+in which he hath seen proper to take them one by one away."
+
+"Thou hast known sorrow, poor Antonio; I well remember thou hast
+suffered, too."
+
+"Signore, I have. The deaths of five manly and honest sons is a blow to
+bring a groan from a rock. But I have known how to bless God, and be
+thankful!"
+
+"Worthy fisherman, the Doge himself might envy this resignation. It is
+often easier to endure the loss than the life of a child, Antonio!"
+
+"Signore, no boy of mine ever caused me grief, but the hour in which he
+died. And even then"--the old man turned aside to conceal the working of
+his features--"I struggled to remember from how much pain, and toil, and
+suffering they were removed to enjoy a more blessed state."
+
+The lip of the Signer Gradenigo quivered, and he moved to and fro with a
+quicker step.
+
+"I think, Antonio," he said, "I think, honest Antonio, I had masses said
+for the souls of them all?"
+
+"Signore, you had; St. Anthony remember the kindness in your own
+extremity! I was wrong in saying that the youths never gave me sorrow
+but in dying, for there is a pain the rich cannot know, in being too
+poor to buy a prayer for a dead child!"
+
+"Wilt thou have more masses? Son of thine shall never want a voice with
+the saints, for the ease of his soul!"
+
+"I thank you, eccellenza, but I have faith in what has been done, and,
+more than all, in the mercy of God. My errand now is in behalf of the
+living."
+
+The sympathy of the senator was suddenly checked, and he already
+listened with a doubting and suspicious air.
+
+"Thy errand?" he simply repeated.
+
+"Is to beg your interest, Signore, to obtain the release of my grandson
+from the galleys. They have seized the lad in his fourteenth year, and
+condemned him to the wars with the Infidels, without thought of his
+tender years, without thought of evil example, without thought of my age
+and loneliness, and without justice; for his father died in the last
+battle given to the Turk."
+
+As he ceased, the fisherman riveted his look on the marble countenance
+of his auditor, wistfully endeavoring to trace the effect of his words.
+But all there was cold, unanswering, and void of human sympathy. The
+soulless, practised, and specious reasoning of the state, had long since
+deadened all feeling in the senator on any subject that touched an
+interest so vital as the maritime power of the Republic. He saw the
+hazard of innovation in the slightest approach to interests so delicate,
+and his mind was drilled by policy into an apathy that no charity could
+disturb, when there was question of the right of St. Mark to the
+services of his people.
+
+"I would thou hadst come to beg masses, or gold, or aught but this,
+Antonio!" he answered, after a moment of delay. "Thou hast had the
+company of the boy, if I remember, from his birth, already."
+
+"Signore, I have had that satisfaction, for he was an orphan born; and I
+would wish to have it until the child is fit to go into the world armed
+with an honesty and faith that shall keep him from harm. Were my own
+brave son here, he would ask no other fortune for the lad than such
+counsel and aid as a poor man has a right to bestow on his own flesh and
+blood."
+
+"He fareth no worse than others; and thou knowest that the Republic hath
+need of every arm."
+
+"Eccellenza, I saw the Signor Giacomo land from his gondola, as I
+entered the palace."
+
+"Out upon thee, fellow! dost thou make no distinction between the son of
+a fisherman, one trained to the oar and toil, and the heir of an ancient
+house? Go to, presuming man, and remember thy condition, and the
+difference that God hath made between our children."
+
+"Mine never gave me sorrow but the hour in which they died," said the
+fisherman, uttering a severe but mild reproof.
+
+The Signor Gradenigo felt the sting of this retort, which in no degree
+aided the cause of his indiscreet foster-brother. After pacing the room
+in agitation for some time, he so far conquered his resentment as to
+answer more mildly, as became his rank.
+
+"Antonio," he said, "thy disposition and boldness are not strangers to
+me; if thou would'st have masses for the dead, or gold for the living,
+they are thine; but in asking for my interest with the general of the
+galleys, thou askest that which, at a moment so critical, could not be
+yielded to the son of the Doge, were the Doge--"
+
+"A fisherman," continued Antonio, observing that he hesitated--"Signore,
+adieu; I would not part in anger with my foster-brother, and I pray the
+saints to bless you and your house. May you never know the grief of
+losing a child by a fate far worse than death--that of destruction by
+vice."
+
+As Antonio ceased, he made his reverence and departed by the way he had
+entered. He retired unnoticed, for the senator averted his eyes with a
+secret consciousness of the force of what the other in his simplicity
+had uttered; and it was some time before the latter knew he was alone.
+Another step, however, soon diverted his attention. The door re-opened,
+and a menial appeared. He announced that one without sought a private
+audience.
+
+"Let him enter," answered the ready senator, smoothing his features to
+the customary cautious and distrustful expression.
+
+The servant withdrew, when one masked and wearing a cloak quickly
+entered the room. When the latter instrument of disguise was thrown upon
+an arm, and the visor was removed, the form and face of the dreaded
+Jacopo became visible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  "Caesar himself has work, and our oppression
+  Exceeds what we expected."
+                                  SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+"Didst thou note him that left me?" eagerly demanded the Signer
+Gradenigo.
+
+"I did."
+
+"Enough so to recognise form and countenance?"
+
+"'Twas a fisherman of the Lagunes, named Antonio."
+
+The senator dropped the extended limb, and regarded the Bravo with a
+look in which surprise and admiration were equally blended. He resumed
+his course up and down the room, while his companion stood waiting his
+pleasure in an attitude so calm as to be dignified. A few minutes were
+wasted in this abstraction.
+
+"Thou art quick of sight, Jacopo!" continued the patrician, breaking the
+pause--"Hast thou had dealings with the man?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Thou art certain it is--"
+
+"Your eccellenza's foster-brother."
+
+"I did not inquire into thy knowledge of his infancy and origin, but of
+his present state," returned the Signor Gradenigo, turning away to
+conceal his countenance from the glowing eye of Jacopo--"Has he been
+named to thee by any in authority?"
+
+"He has not--my mission does not lie with fishermen."
+
+"Duty may lead us into still humbler society, young man. They who are
+charged with the grievous burden of the state, must not consider the
+quality of the load they carry. In what manner hath this Antonio come to
+thy knowledge?"
+
+"I have known him as one esteemed by his fellows--a man skilful in his
+craft, and long practised in the mystery of the Lagunes."
+
+"He is a defrauder of the revenue, thou would'st be understood to say?"
+
+"I would not. He toils too late and early to have other means of support
+than labor."
+
+"Thou knowest, Jacopo, the severity of our laws in matters that concern
+the public moneys?"
+
+"I know that the judgment of St. Mark, Signore, is never light when its
+own interest is touched."
+
+"Thou art not required to utter opinions beyond the present question.
+This man hath a habit of courting the goodwill of his associates, and of
+making his voice heard concerning affairs of which none but his
+superiors may discreetly judge."
+
+"Signore, he is old, and the tongue grows loose with years."
+
+"This is not the character of Antonio. Nature hath not treated him
+unkindly; had his birth and education been equal to his mind, the senate
+might have been glad to listen--at it is, I fear he speaks in a sense to
+endanger his own interests."
+
+"Surely, if he speaks to offend the ear of St. Mark."
+
+There was a quick suspicious glance from the senator to the Bravo, as if
+to read the true meaning of the latter's words. Finding, however, the
+same expression of self-possession in the quiet features he scrutinized,
+the latter continued as if distrust had not been awakened.
+
+"If, as thou sayest, he so speaks as to injure the Republic, his years
+have not brought discretion. I love the man, Jacopo, for it is usual to
+regard, with some partiality, those who have drawn nourishment from the
+same breast with ourselves."
+
+"Signore, it is."
+
+"And feeling this weakness in his favor, I would have him admonished to
+be prudent. Thou art acquainted, doubtless, with his opinions concerning
+the recent necessity of the state, to command the services of all the
+youths on the Lagunes in her fleets?"
+
+"I know that the press has taken from him the boy who toiled in his
+company."
+
+"To toil honorably, and perhaps gainfully, in behalf of the Republic!"
+
+"Signore, perhaps!"
+
+"Thou art brief in thy speech to-night, Jacopo! But if thou knowest the
+fisherman, give him counsel of discretion. St. Mark will not tolerate
+such free opinions of his wisdom. This is the third occasion in which
+there has been need to repress that fisherman's speech; for the paternal
+care of the senate cannot see discontent planted in the bosom of a
+class, it is their duty and pleasure to render happy. Seek opportunities
+to let him hear this wholesome truth, for in good sooth, I would not
+willingly see a misfortune light upon the head of a son of my ancient
+nurse, and that, too, in the decline of his days."
+
+The Bravo bent his body in acquiescence, while the Signor Gradenigo
+paced the room, in a manner to show that he really felt concern.
+
+"Thou hast had advice of the judgment in the matter of the Genoese?"
+resumed the latter, when another pause had given time to change the
+current of his thoughts. "The sentence of the tribunals has been prompt,
+and, though there is much assumption of a dislike between the two
+republics, the world can now see how sternly justice is con sulted on
+our isles. I hear the Genoese will have ample amends, and that certain
+of our own citizens will be mulcted of much money."
+
+"I have heard the same since the sun set, in the Piazzetta, Signore!"
+
+"And do men converse of our impartiality, and more than all of our
+promptitude? Bethink thee, Jacopo, 'tis but a se'nnight since the claim
+was preferred to the senate's equity!"
+
+"None dispute the promptitude with which the Republic visits offences."
+
+"Nor the justice, I trust also, good Jacopo. There is a beauty and a
+harmony in the manner in which the social machine rolls on its course,
+under such a system, that should secure men's applause! Justice
+administers to the wants of society, and checks the passions with a
+force as silent and dignified, as if her decrees came from a higher
+volition. I often compare the quiet march of the state, contrasted with
+the troubled movements of some other of our Italian sisters, to the
+difference between the clatter of a clamorous town, and the stillness of
+our own noiseless canals. Then the uprightness of the late decree is in
+the mouths of the masquers to-night?"
+
+"Signore, the Venetians are bold when there is an opportunity to praise
+their masters."
+
+"Dost thou think thus, Jacopo? To me, they have ever seemed more prone
+to vent their seditious discontent. But 'tis the nature of man to be
+niggardly of praise and lavish of censure. This decree of the tribunal
+must not be suffered to die, with the mere justice of the case. Our
+friends should dwell on it, openly, in the cafés, and at the Lido. They
+will have no cause to fear, should they give their tongues a little
+latitude. A just government hath no jealousy of comment."
+
+"True, Signore."
+
+"I look to thee and thy fellows to see that the affair be not too
+quickly forgotten. The contemplation of acts such as this, will quicken
+the dormant seeds of virtue in the public mind. He who has examples of
+equity incessantly before his eyes, will come at last to love the
+quality. The Genoese, I trust, will depart satisfied?"
+
+"Doubt it not, Signore; he has all that can content a sufferer; his own
+with usury, and revenge of him who did the wrong."
+
+"Such is the decree--ample restoration and the chastening hand of
+punishment. Few states would thus render a judgment against themselves,
+Jacopo!"
+
+"Is the state answerable for the deed of the merchant, Signore?"
+
+"Through its citizen. He who inflicts punishment on his own members, is
+a sufferer, surely. No one can part with his own flesh without pain; is
+not this true, fellow?"
+
+"There are nerves that are delicate to the touch, Signore, and an eye or
+a tooth is precious; but the paring of a nail, or the fall of the beard,
+is little heeded."
+
+"One who did not know thee, Jacopo, would imagine thee in the interest
+of the emperor! The sparrow does not fall in Venice, without the loss
+touching the parental feelings of the senate. Well, is there further
+rumor among the Jews, of a decrease of gold? Sequins are not so abundant
+as of wont, and the chicanery of that race lends itself to the scarcity,
+in the hope of larger profits."
+
+"I have seen faces on the Rialto, of late, Signore, that look empty
+purses. The Christian seems anxious, and in want, while the unbelievers
+wear their gaberdines with a looser air than is usual."
+
+"This hath been expected. Doth report openly name any of the Israelites
+who are in the custom of lending, on usury, to the young nobles?"
+
+"All, who have to lend, may be accounted of the class; the whole
+synagogue, rabbis, and all, are of a mind, when there is question of a
+Christian's purse."
+
+"Thou likest not the Hebrew, Jacopo; but he is of good service in the
+Republic's straits. We count all friends, who are ready with their gold
+at need. Still the young hopes of Venice must not be left to waste their
+substance in unwary bargains with the gainful race, and should'st thou
+hear of any of mark, who are thought to be too deeply in their clutches,
+thou wilt do wisely to let the same be known, with little delay, to the
+guardians of the public weal. We must deal tenderly with those who prop
+the state, but we must also deal discreetly with those who will shortly
+compose it. Hast thou aught to say in the matter?"
+
+"I have heard men speak of Signor Giacomo as paying dearest for their
+favors."
+
+"Gesu Maria! my son and heir! Dost thou not deceive me, man, to gratify
+thine own displeasure against the Hebrews?"
+
+"I have no other malice against the race, Signore, than the wholesome
+disrelish of a Christian. Thus much I hope may be permitted to a
+believer, but beyond that, in reason, I carry hatred to no man. It is
+well known that your heir is disposing freely of his hopes, and at
+prices that lower expectations might command."
+
+"This is a weighty concern! The boy must be speedily admonished of the
+consequences, and care must be had for his future discretion. The Hebrew
+shall be punished, and as a solemn warning to the whole tribe, the debt
+confiscated to the benefit of the borrower. With such an example before
+their eyes, the knaves will be less ready with their sequins. Holy St.
+Theodore! 'twere self-destruction to suffer one of such promise to be
+lost for the want of prudent forethought. I will charge myself with the
+matter, as an especial duty, and the senate shall have no cause to say
+that its interests have been neglected. Hast thou had applications of
+late, in thy character of avenger of private wrongs?"
+
+"None of note--there is one that seeks me earnestly, though I am not yet
+wholly the master of his wishes."
+
+"Thy office is of much delicacy and trust, and, as thou art well aware,
+the reward is weighty and sure." The eyes of the Bravo kindled with an
+expression which caused his companion to pause. But observing that the
+repose, for which the features of Jacopo were so remarkable, again
+presided over his pallid face, he continued, as if there had been no
+interruption, "I repeat, the bounty and clemency of the state will not
+be forgotten. If its justice is stern and infallible, its forgiveness is
+cordial, and its favors ample. Of these facts I have taken much pains to
+assure thee, Jacopo. Blessed St. Mark! that one of the scions of thy
+great stock should waste his substance for the benefit of a race of
+unbelievers! But thou hast not named him who seeks thee with this
+earnestness?"
+
+"As I have yet to learn his errand, before I go further, Signore, it may
+be well to know more of his wishes."
+
+"This reserve is uncalled for. Thou art not to distrust the prudence of
+the Republic's ministers, and I should be sorry were the Inquisitors to
+get an unfavorable opinion of thy zeal. The individual must be
+denounced."
+
+"I denounce him not. The most that I can say is, that he hath a desire
+to deal privately with one, with whom it is almost criminal to deal at
+all."
+
+"The prevention of crime is better than its punishment, and such is the
+true object of all government. Thou wilt not withhold the name of thy
+correspondent?"
+
+"It is a noble Neapolitan, who hath long sojourned in Venice, on matters
+touching a great succession, and some right even to the senate's
+dignity."
+
+"Ha! Don Camillo Monforte! Am I right, sirrah?"
+
+"Signore, the same!"
+
+The pause which followed was only broken by the clock of the great
+square striking eleven, or the fourth hour of the night, as it is
+termed, by the usage of Italy. The senator started, consulted a
+time-piece in his own apartment, and again addressed his companion.
+
+"This is well," he said; "thy faith and punctuality shall be remembered.
+Look to the fisherman Antonio; the murmurs of the old man must not be
+permitted to awaken discontent, for a cause so trifling as this transfer
+of his descendant from a gondola to a galley; and most of all, keep thy
+ears attentive to any rumors on the Rialto. The glory and credit of a
+patrician name must not be weakened by the errors of boyhood. As to this
+stranger--quickly, thy mask and cloak--depart as if thou wert merely a
+friend bent on some of the idle pleasantries of the hour."
+
+The Bravo resumed his disguise with the readiness of one long practised
+in its use, but with a composure that was not so easily disconcerted as
+that of the more sensitive senator. The latter did not speak again,
+though he hurried Jacopo from his presence by an impatient movement of
+the hand.
+
+When the door was closed and the Signor Gradenigo was again alone, he
+once more consulted the time-piece, passed his hand slowly and
+thoughtfully across his brow, and resumed his walk. For nearly an hour
+this exercise, or nervous sympathy of the body with a mind that was
+possibly overworked, continued without any interruption from without.
+Then came a gentle tap at the door, and, at the usual bidding, one
+entered, closely masked like him who had departed, as was so much the
+usage of that city in the age of which we write. A glance at the figure
+of his guest seemed to apprise the senator of his character, for the
+reception, while it was distinguished by the quaint courtesy of the age,
+was that of one expected.
+
+"I am honored in the visit of Don Camillo Monforte," said the host,
+while the individual named laid aside his cloak and silken visor;
+"though the lateness of the hour had given me reason to apprehend that
+some casualty had interfered between me and the pleasure."
+
+"A thousand excuses, noble senator, but the coolness of the canals, and
+the gaiety of the square, together with some apprehension of intruding
+prematurely on time so precious, has, I fear, kept me out of season. But
+I trust to the known goodness of the Signor Gradenigo for my apology."
+
+"The punctuality of the great lords of Lower Italy is not their greatest
+merit," the Signor Gradenigo drily answered. "The young esteem life so
+endless, that they take little heed of the minutes that escape them;
+while we, whom age begins to menace, think chiefly of repairing the
+omissions of youth. In this manner, Signor Duca, does man sin and repent
+daily, until the opportunities of doing either are imperceptibly lost.
+But we will not be more prodigal of the moments than there is need--are
+we to hope for better views of the Spaniard?"
+
+"I have neglected little that can move the mind of a reasonable man, and
+I have, in particular, laid before him the advantage of conciliating the
+senate's esteem."
+
+"Therein have you done wisely, Signore, both as respects his interests
+and your own. The senate is a liberal paymaster to him who serves it
+well, and a fearful enemy to those who do harm to the state. I hope the
+matter of the succession draws near a conclusion?"
+
+"I wish it were possible to say it did. I urge the tribunal in all
+proper assiduity, omitting no duty of personal respect nor of private
+solicitation. Padua has not a doctor more learned than he who presents
+my right to their wisdom, and yet the affair lingers like life in the
+hectic. If I have not shown myself a worthy son of St. Mark, in this
+affair with the Spaniard, it is more from the want of a habit of
+managing political interests than from any want of zeal."
+
+"The scales of justice must be nicely balanced to hang so long, without
+determining to one side or the other! You will have need of further
+assiduity, Don Camillo, and of great discretion in disposing the minds
+of the patricians in your favor. It will be well to make your attachment
+to the state be observed by further service near the ambassador. You are
+known to have his esteem, and counsel coming from such a quarter will
+enter deeply into his mind. It should also quicken the exertions of so
+benevolent and generous a young spirit, to know that in serving his
+country, he also aids the cause of humanity."
+
+Don Camillo did not appear to be strongly impressed with the justice of
+the latter remark. He bowed, however, in courtesy to his companion's
+opinion.
+
+"It is pleasant, Signore, to be thus persuaded," he answered; "my
+kinsman of Castile is a man to hear reason, let it come from what
+quarter it may. Though he meets my arguments with some allusions to the
+declining power of the Republic, I do not see less of deep respect for
+the influence of a state, that hath long made itself remarkable by its
+energy and will."
+
+"Venice is no longer what the City of the Isles hath been, Signer Duca;
+still she is not powerless. The wings of our lion are a little clipped,
+but his leap is still far, and his teeth dangerous. If the new-made
+prince would have his ducal coronet sit easily on his brow, he would do
+well to secure the esteem of his nearest neighbors."
+
+"This is obviously true, and little that my influence can do towards
+effecting the object, shall be wanting. And now, may I entreat of your
+friendship, advice as to the manner of further urging my own
+long-neglected claims?"
+
+"You will do well, Don Camillo, to remind the senators of your presence,
+by frequent observance of the courtesies due to their rank and yours."
+
+"This do I never neglect, as seemly both in my station and my object."
+
+"The judges should not be forgotten, young man, for it is wise to
+remember that justice hath ever an ear for solicitation."
+
+"None can be more assiduous in the duty, nor is it common to see a
+suppliant so mindful of those whom he troubleth, by more substantial
+proofs of respect."
+
+"But chiefly should we be particular to earn the senate's esteem. No act
+of service to the state is overlooked by that body, and the smallest
+good deed finds its way into the recesses of the two councils."
+
+"Would I could have communication with those reverend fathers! I think
+the justice of my claim would speedily work out its own right."
+
+"That were impossible!" gravely returned the senator. "Those august
+bodies are secret, that their majesty may not be tarnished by
+communication with vulgar interests. They rule like the unseen influence
+of mind over matter, and form, as it were, the soul of the state, whose
+seat, like that of reason, remains a problem exceeding human
+penetration."
+
+"I express the desire rather as a wish than with any hope of its being
+granted," returned the Duke of St. Agata, resuming his cloak and mask,
+neither of which had been entirely laid aside. "Adieu, noble Signore; I
+shall not cease to move the Castilian with frequent advice, and, in
+return, I commit my affair to the justice of the patricians, and your
+own good friendship."
+
+Signor Gradenigo bowed his guest through all the rooms of the long suite
+but the last, where he committed him to the care of the groom of his
+chambers.
+
+"The youth must be stirred to greater industry in this matter, by
+clogging the wheels of the law. He that would ask favors of St. Mark
+must first earn them, by showing zealous dispositions in his behalf."
+
+Such were the reflections of the Signor Gradenigo, as he slowly
+returned towards his closet, after a ceremonious leave-taking with his
+guest, in the outer apartment. Closing the door, he commenced pacing the
+small apartment with the step and eye of a man who again mused with some
+anxiety. After a minute of profound stillness, a door, concealed by the
+hangings of the room, was cautiously opened, and the face of still
+another visitor appeared.
+
+"Enter!" said the senator, betraying no surprise at the apparition; "the
+hour is past, and I wait for thee."
+
+The flowing dress, the grey and venerable beard, the noble outline of
+features, the quick, greedy, and suspicious eye, with an expression of
+countenance that was, perhaps, equally marked by worldly sagacity, and
+feelings often rudely rebuked, proclaimed a Hebrew of the Rialto.
+
+"Enter, Hosea, and unburden thyself," continued the senator, like one
+prepared for some habitual communication. "Is there aught new that
+touches the public weal?"
+
+"Blessed is the people over whom there is so fatherly a care! Can there
+be good or evil to the citizen of the Republic, noble Signore, without
+the bowels of the senate moving, as the parent yearneth over his young?
+Happy is the country in which men of reverend years and whitened heads
+watch, until night draws towards the day, and weariness is forgotten in
+the desire to do good, and to honor the state!"
+
+"Thy mind partaketh of the eastern imagery of the country of thy
+fathers, good Hosea, and thou art apt to forget that thou art not yet
+watching on the steps of the Temple. What of interest hath the day
+brought forth?"
+
+"Say rather the night, Signore, for little worthy of your ear hath
+happened, save a matter of some trifling import, which hath grown out of
+the movements of the evening."
+
+"Have there been stilettoes busy on the bridge?--ha!--or do the people
+joy less than common in their levities?"
+
+"None have died wrongfully, and the square is gay as the fragrant
+vineyards of Engedi. Holy Abraham! what a place is Venice for its
+pleasures, and how the hearts of old and young revel in their merriment!
+It is almost sufficient to fix the font in the synagogue, to witness so
+joyous a dispensation in behalf of the people of these islands! I had
+not hoped for the honor of an interview to-night, Signore, and I had
+prayed, before laying my head upon the pillow, when one charged by the
+council brought to me a jewel, with an order to decipher the arms and
+other symbols of its owner. 'Tis a ring, with the usual marks which
+accompany private confidences."
+
+"Thou hast the signet?" said the noble, stretching out an arm.
+
+"It is here, and a goodly stone it is; a turquoise of price."
+
+"Whence came it--and why is it sent to thee?"
+
+"It came, Signore, as I gather more through hints and intimations of the
+messenger than by his words, from a place resembling that which the
+righteous Daniel escaped in virtue of his godliness and birth."
+
+"Thou meanest the Lion's Mouth?"
+
+"So say our ancient books, Signore, in reference to the prophet, and so
+would the council's agent seem to intimate in reference to the ring?"
+
+"Here is naught but a crest with the equestrian helmet--comes it of any
+in Venice?"
+
+"The upright Solomon guided the judgment of his servant in a matter of
+this delicacy! The jewel is of rare beauty, such as few possess but
+those who have gold in store for other purposes. Do but regard the soft
+lustre in this light, noble Signore, and remark the pleasing colors that
+rise by the change of view!"
+
+"Ay--'tis well--but who claimeth the bearings?"
+
+"It is wonderful to contemplate how great a value may lie concealed in
+so small a compass! I have known sequins of full weight and heavy amount
+given for baubles less precious."
+
+"Wilt thou never forget thy stall and the wayfarers of the Rialto? I
+bid thee name him who beareth these symbols as marks of his family and
+rank."
+
+"Noble Signore, I obey. The crest is of the family of Monforte, the last
+senator of which died some fifteen years since."
+
+"And his jewels?"
+
+"They have passed with other movables of which the state taketh no
+account, into the keeping of his kinsman and successor--if it be the
+senate's pleasure that there shall be a successor to that ancient
+name--Don Camillo of St. Agata. The wealthy Neapolitan who now urges his
+rights here in Venice, is the present owner of this precious stone."
+
+"Give me the ring; this must be looked to--hast thou more to say?"
+
+"Nothing, Signore--unless to petition, if there is to be any
+condemnation and sale of the jewel, that it may first be offered to an
+ancient servitor of the Republic, who hath much reason to regret that
+his age hath been less prosperous than his youth."
+
+"Thou shalt not be forgotten. I hear it said, Hosea, that divers of our
+young nobles frequent thy Hebrew shops with intent to borrow gold,
+which, lavished in present prodigality, is to be bitterly repaid at a
+later day by self-denial, and such embarrassments as suit not the heirs
+of noble names. Take heed of this matter--for if the displeasure of the
+council should alight on any of thy race, there would be long and
+serious accounts to settle! Hast thou had employment of late with other
+signets besides this of the Neapolitan?"
+
+"Unless in the vulgar way of our daily occupation, none of note,
+illustrious Signore."
+
+"Regard this," continued the Signor Gradenigo, first searching in a
+secret drawer, whence he drew a small bit of paper, to which a morsel of
+wax adhered; "canst thou form any conjecture, by the impression,
+concerning him who used that seal?"
+
+The jeweller took the paper and held it towards the light, while his
+glittering eyes intently examined the conceit.
+
+"This would surpass the wisdom of the son of David!" he said, after a
+long and seemingly fruitless examination; "here is naught but some
+fanciful device of gallantry, such as the light-hearted cavaliers of the
+city are fond of using, when they tempt the weaker sex with fair words
+and seductive vanities."
+
+"It is a heart pierced with the dart of love, and the motto of _'pensa
+al cuore trafitto d'amore?'_"
+
+"Naught else, as my eyes do their duty. I should think there was but
+very little meant by those words, Signore!"
+
+"That as may be. Thou hast never sold a jewel with that conceit?"
+
+"Just Samuel! We dispose of them daily to Christians of both sexes and
+all ages. I know no device of greater frequency, whereby I conceive
+there is much commerce in this light fidelity."
+
+"He who used it did well in concealing his thoughts beneath so general a
+dress! There will be a reward of a hundred sequins to him who traces the
+owner."
+
+Hosea was about to return the seal as beyond his knowledge, when this
+remark fell casually from the lips of the Signor Gradenigo. In a moment
+his eyes were fortified with a glass of microscopic power, and the paper
+was again before the lamp.
+
+"I disposed of a cornelian of no great price, which bore this conceit,
+to the wife of the emperor's ambassador, but conceiving there was no
+more in the purchase than some waywardness of fancy, I took no
+precaution to note the stone. A gentleman in the family of the Legate of
+Ravenna, also trafficked with me for an amethyst of the same design, but
+with him neither did I hold it important to be particular. Ha! here is
+a private mark, that in truth seemeth to be of my own hand!"
+
+"Dost thou find a clue? What is the sign of which thou speakest?"
+
+"Naught, noble senator, but a slur in a letter, which would not be apt
+to catch the eye of an over-credulous maiden."
+
+"And thou parted with the seal to----?"
+
+Hosea hesitated, for he foresaw some danger of losing his reward by a
+too hasty communication of the truth.
+
+"If it be important that the fact be known, Signore," he said, "I will
+consult my books. In a matter of this gravity, the senate should not be
+misled."
+
+"Thou sayest well. The affair is grave, and the reward a sufficient
+pledge that we so esteem it."
+
+"Something was said, illustrious Signore, of a hundred sequins; but my
+mind taketh little heed of such particulars when the good of Venice is
+in question."
+
+"A hundred is the sum I promised."
+
+"I parted with a signet-ring, bearing some such design, to a female in
+the service of the Nuncio's first gentleman. But this seal cannot come
+of that, since a woman of her station----"
+
+"Art sure?" eagerly interrupted the Signor Gradenigo.
+
+Hosea looked earnestly at his companion; and reading in his eye and
+countenance that the clue was agreeable, he answered promptly,--
+
+"As that I live under the law of Moses! The bauble had been long on hand
+without an offer, and I abandoned it to the uses of my money."
+
+"The sequins are thine, excellent Jew! This clears the mystery of every
+doubt. Go; thou shalt have thy reward; and if thou hast any particulars
+in thy secret register, let me be quickly possessed of them. Go to, good
+Hosea, and be punctual as of wont. I tire of these constant exercises
+of the spirit."
+
+The Hebrew, exulting in his success, now took his leave, with a manner
+in which habitual cupidity and subdued policy completely mastered every
+other feeling. He disappeared by the passage through which he had
+entered.
+
+It seemed, by the manner of the Signor Gradenigo, that the receptions
+for that evening had now ended. He carefully examined the locks of
+several secret drawers in his cabinet, extinguished the lights, closed
+and secured the doors, and quitted the place. For some time longer,
+however, he paced one of the principal rooms of the outer suite, until
+the usual hour having arrived, he sought his rest, and the palace was
+closed for the night.
+
+The reader will have gained some insight into the character of the
+individual who was the chief actor in the foregoing scenes. The Signor
+Gradenigo was born with all the sympathies and natural kindliness of
+other men, but accident, and an education which had received a strong
+bias from the institutions of the self-styled Republic, had made him the
+creature of a conventional policy. To him Venice seemed a free state,
+because he partook so largely of the benefits of her social system; and,
+though shrewd and practised in most of the affairs of the world, his
+faculties, on the subject of the political ethics of his country, were
+possessed of a rare and accommodating dulness. A senator, he stood in
+relation to the state as a director of a moneyed institution is
+proverbially placed in respect to his corporation; an agent of its
+collective measures, removed from the responsibilities of the man. He
+could reason warmly, if not acutely, concerning the principles of
+government, and it would be difficult, even in this money-getting age,
+to find a more zealous convert to the opinion that property was not a
+subordinate, but the absorbing interest of civilized life. He would talk
+ably of character, and honor, and virtue, and religion, and the rights
+of persons, but when called upon to act in their behalf, there was in
+his mind a tendency to blend them all with worldly policy, that proved
+as unerring as the gravitation of matter to the earth's centre. As a
+Venetian he was equally opposed to the domination of one, or of the
+whole; being, as respects the first, a furious republican, and, in
+reference to the last, leaning to that singular sophism which calls the
+dominion of the majority the rule of many tyrants! In short, he was an
+aristocrat; and no man had more industriously or more successfully
+persuaded himself into the belief of all the dogmas that were favorable
+to his caste. He was a powerful advocate of vested rights, for their
+possession was advantageous to himself; he was sensitively alive to
+innovations on usages and to vicissitudes in the histories of families,
+for calculation had substituted taste for principles; nor was he
+backward, on occasion, in defending his opinions by analogies drawn from
+the decrees of Providence. With a philosophy that seemed to satisfy
+himself, he contended that, as God had established orders throughout his
+own creation, in a descending chain from angels to men, it was safe to
+follow an example which emanated from a wisdom that was infinite.
+Nothing could be more sound than the basis of his theory, though its
+application had the capital error of believing there was any imitation
+of nature in an endeavor to supplant it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  "The moon went down; and nothing now was seen
+  Save where the lamp of a Madonna shone
+  Faintly."
+                                      ROGERS.
+
+
+Just as the secret audiences of the Palazzo Gradenigo were ended, the
+great square of St. Mark began to lose a portion of its gaiety. The
+cafés were now occupied by parties who had the means, and were in the
+humor, to put their indulgences to more substantial proof than the
+passing gibe or idle laugh; while those who were reluctantly compelled
+to turn their thoughts from the levities of the moment to the cares of
+the morrow, were departing in crowds to humble roofs and hard pillows.
+There remained one of the latter class, however, who continued to occupy
+a spot near the junction of the two squares, as motionless as if his
+naked feet grew to the stone on which he stood. It was Antonio.
+
+The position of the fisherman brought the whole of his muscular form and
+bronzed features beneath the rays of the moon. The dark, anxious, and
+stern eyes were fixed upon the mild orb, as if their owner sought to
+penetrate into another world, in quest of that peace which he had never
+known in this. There was suffering in the expression of the weather-worn
+face; but it was the suffering of one whose native sensibilities had
+been a little deadened by too much familiarity with the lot of the
+feeble. To one who considered life and humanity in any other than their
+familiar and vulgar aspects, he would have presented a touching picture
+of a noble nature, enduring with pride, blunted by habit; while to him,
+who regards the accidental dispositions of society as paramount laws, he
+might have presented the image of dogged turbulence and discontent,
+healthfully repressed by the hand of power. A heavy sigh struggled from
+the chest of the old man, and, stroking down the few hairs which time
+had left him, he lifted his cap from the pavement, and prepared to move.
+
+"Thou art late from thy bed, Antonio," said a voice at his elbow. "The
+triglie must be of good price, or of great plenty, that one of thy trade
+can spare time to air himself in the Piazza at this hour. Thou hearest,
+the clock is telling the fifth hour of the night."
+
+The fisherman bent his head aside, and regarded the figure of his masked
+companion, for a moment, with indifference, betraying neither curiosity
+nor feeling at his address.
+
+"Since thou knowest me," he answered, "it is probable thou knowest that
+in quitting this place I shall go to an empty dwelling. Since thou
+knowest me so well, thou should'st also know my wrongs."
+
+"Who hath injured thee, worthy fisherman, that thou speakest so boldly
+beneath the very windows of the Doge?"
+
+"The state."
+
+"This is hardy language for the ear of St. Mark! Were it too loudly
+spoken, yonder lion might growl. Of what dost thou accuse the Republic?"
+
+"Lead me to them that sent thee, and I will spare the trouble of a
+go-between. I am ready to tell my wrongs to the Doge, on his throne; for
+what can one, poor and old as I, dread from their anger?"
+
+"Thou believest me sent to betray thee?"
+
+"Thou knowest thine own errand."
+
+The other removed his mask, and turned his face towards the moon.
+
+"Jacopo!" exclaimed the fisherman, gazing at the expressive Italian
+features; "one of thy character can have no errand with me."
+
+A flush, that was visible even in that light, passed athwart the
+countenance of the Bravo; but he stilled every other exhibition of
+feeling.
+
+"Thou art wrong. My errand is with thee."
+
+"Does the senate think a fisherman of the Lagunes of sufficient
+importance to be struck by a stiletto? Do thy work, then!" he added,
+glancing at his brown and naked bosom; "there is nothing to prevent
+thee!"
+
+"Antonio, thou dost me wrong. The senate has no such purpose. But I have
+heard that thou hast reason for discontent, and that thou speakest
+openly, on the Lido and among the islands, of affairs that the
+patricians like not to be stirred among men of your class. I come, as a
+friend, to warn thee of the consequences of such indiscretion, rather
+than as one to harm thee."
+
+"Thou art sent to say this?"
+
+"Old man, age should teach thy tongue moderation. What will avail vain
+complaints against the Republic, or what canst thou hope for, as their
+fruits, but evil to thyself, and evil to the child that thou lovest?"
+
+"I know not; but when the heart is sore the tongue will speak. They have
+taken away my boy, and they have left little behind that I value. The
+life they threaten is too short to be cared for."
+
+"Thou should'st temper thy regrets with wisdom. The Signor Gradenigo has
+long been friendly to thee, and I have heard that thy mother nursed him.
+Try his ears with prayers, but cease to anger the Republic with
+complaints."
+
+Antonio looked wistfully at his companion, but when he had ceased he
+shook his head mournfully, as if to express the hopelessness of relief
+from that quarter.
+
+"I have told him all that a man, born and nursed on the Lagunes, can
+find words to say. He is a senator, Jacopo; and he thinks not of
+suffering he does not feel."
+
+"Art thou not wrong, old man, to accuse him who hath been born in
+affluence of hardness of heart, merely that he doth not feel the misery
+thou would'st avoid, too, were it in thy power? Thou hast thy gondola
+and nets, with health and the cunning of thy art, and in that art thou
+happier than he who hath neither; would'st thou forget thy skill, and
+share thy little stock with the beggar of San Marco, that your fortunes
+might be equal?"
+
+"There may be truth in what thou sayest of our labor and our means, but
+when it comes to our young, nature is the same in both. I see no reason
+why the son of the patrician should go free and the child of the
+fisherman be sold to blood. Have not the senators enough of happiness in
+their riches and greatness, that they rob me of my son?"
+
+"Thou knowest, Antonio, the state must be served, and were its officers
+to go into the palaces in quest of hardy mariners for the fleet, would
+they, think you, find them that would honor the winged lion in the hour
+of his need? Thy old arm is muscular, and thy leg steady on the water,
+and they seek those who, like thee, have been trained to the seas."
+
+"Thou should'st have said, also, and thy old breast is scarred. Before
+thy birth, Jacopo, I went against the infidel, and my blood was shed,
+like water, for the state. But they have forgotten it, while there are
+rich marbles raised in the churches, which speak of what the nobles did,
+who came unharmed from the same wars."
+
+"I have heard my father say as much," returned the Bravo, gloomily, and
+speaking in an altered voice. "He, too, bled in that war; but that is
+forgotten."
+
+The fisherman glanced a look around, and perceiving that several groups
+were conversing near, in the square, he signed to his companion to
+follow him, and walked towards the quays.
+
+"Thy father," he said, as they moved slowly on together, "was my comrade
+and my friend. I am old, Jacopo, and poor; my days are passed in toil,
+on the Lagunes, and my nights in gaining strength to meet the labor of
+the morrow; but it hath grieved me to hear that the son of one I much
+loved, and with whom I have so often shared good and evil, fair and
+foul, hath taken to a life like that which men say is thine. The gold
+that is the price of blood was never yet blessed to him that gave or him
+that received."
+
+The Bravo listened in silence, though his companion, who, at another
+moment, and under other emotions, would have avoided him as one shrinks
+from contagion, saw, on looking mournfully up into his face, that the
+muscles were slightly agitated, and that a paleness crossed his cheeks,
+which the light of the moon rendered ghastly.
+
+"Thou hast suffered poverty to tempt thee into grievous sin, Jacopo; but
+it is never too late to call on the saints for aid, and to lay aside the
+stiletto. It is not profitable for a man to be known in Venice as thy
+fellow, but the friend of thy father will not abandon one who shows a
+penitent spirit. Lay aside thy stiletto, and come with me to the
+Lagunes. Thou wilt find labor less burdensome than guilt, and though
+thou never canst be to me like the boy they have taken, for he was
+innocent as the lamb! thou wilt still be the son of an ancient comrade,
+and a stricken spirit. Come with me then to the Lagunes, for poverty and
+misery like mine cannot meet with more contempt, even for being thy
+companion."
+
+"What is it men say, that thou treatest me thus?" demanded Jacopo, in a
+low, struggling voice.
+
+"I would they said untruth! But few die by violence, in Venice, that thy
+name is not uttered."
+
+"And would they suffer one thus marked to go openly on the canals, or
+to be at large in the great square of San Marco?"
+
+"We never know the reasons of the senate. Some say thy time is not yet
+come, while others think thou art too powerful for judgment."
+
+"Thou dost equal credit to the justice and the activity of the
+inquisition. But should I go with thee to-night, wilt thou be more
+discreet in speech among thy fellows of the Lido, and the islands?"
+
+"When the heart hath its load, the tongue will strive to lighten it. I
+would do anything to turn the child of my friend from his evil ways, but
+forget my own. Thou art used to deal with the patricians, Jacopo; would
+there be possibility for one, clad in this dress, and with a face
+blackened by the sun, to come to speak with the Doge?"
+
+"There is no lack of seeming justice in Venice, Antonio; the want is in
+the substance. I doubt not thou would'st be heard."
+
+"Then will I wait, here, upon the stones of the square, until he comes
+forth for the pomp of to-morrow, and try to move his heart to justice.
+He is old, like myself, and he hath bled, too, for the state, and what
+is more he is a father."
+
+"So is the Signor Gradenigo."
+
+"Thou doubtest his pity--ha?"
+
+"Thou canst but try. The Doge of Venice will hearken to a petition from
+the meanest citizen. I think," added Jacopo, speaking so low as to be
+scarcely audible, "he would listen even to me."
+
+"Though I am not able to put my prayer in such speech as becometh the
+ear of a great prince, he shall hear the truth from a wronged man. They
+call him the chosen of the state, and such a one should gladly listen to
+justice. This is a hard bed, Jacopo," continued the fisherman, seating
+himself at the foot of the column of St. Theodore, "but I have slept on
+colder and as hard, when there was less reason to do it--a happy night."
+
+The bravo lingered a minute near the old man, who folded his arms on his
+naked breast, which was fanned by the sea-breeze, and disposed of his
+person to take his rest in the square, a practice not unusual among men
+of his class; but when he found that Antonio was inclined to be alone,
+he moved on, leaving the fisherman to himself.
+
+The night was now getting to be advanced, and few of the revellers
+remained in the areas of the two squares. Jacopo cast a glance around,
+and noting the hour and the situation of the place, he proceeded to the
+edge of the quay. The public gondoliers had left their boats moored, as
+usual, at this spot, and a profound stillness reigned over the whole
+bay. The water was scarce darkened by the air, which rather breathed
+upon than ruffled its surface, and no sound of oar was audible amid the
+forest of picturesque and classical spars, which crowded the view
+between the Piazzetta and the Giudecca. The Bravo hesitated, cast
+another wary glance around him, settled his mask, undid the slight
+fastenings of a boat, and presently he was gliding away into the centre
+of the basin.
+
+"Who cometh?" demanded one, who seemingly stood at watch, in a felucca,
+anchored a little apart from all others.
+
+"One expected," was the answer.
+
+"Roderigo?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"Thou art late," said the mariner of Calabria, as Jacopo stepped upon
+the low deck of the Bella Sorrentina. "My people have long been below,
+and I have dreamt thrice of shipwreck, and twice of a heavy sirocco,
+since thou hast been expected."
+
+"Thou hast had more time to wrong the customs. Is the felucca ready for
+her work?"
+
+"As for the customs, there is little chance of gain in this greedy
+city. The senators secure all profits to themselves and their friends,
+while we of the barks are tied down to low freights and hard bargains. I
+have sent a dozen casks of lachryma christi up the canals since the
+masquers came abroad, and beyond that I have not occasion. There is
+enough left for thy comfort, at need. Wilt drink?"
+
+"I am sworn to sobriety. Is thy vessel ready, as wont, for the errand?"
+
+"Is the senate as ready with its money? This is the fourth of my voyages
+in their service; and they have only to look into their own secrets to
+know the manner in which the work hath been done."
+
+"They are content, and thou hast been well rewarded."
+
+"Say it not. I have gained more gold by one lucky shipment of fruits
+from the isles than by all their night-work. Would those who employ me
+give a little especial traffic on the entrance of the felucca, there
+might be advantage in the trade."
+
+"There is nothing which St. Mark visits with a heavier punishment than
+frauds on his receipts. Have a care with thy wines, or thou wilt lose
+not only thy bark and thy voyage, but thy liberty!"
+
+"This is just the ground of my complaint, Signor Roderigo. Rogue and no
+rogue, is the Republic's motto. Here they are as close in justice as a
+father amid his children; and there it is better that what is done
+should be done at midnight. I like not the contradiction, for just as my
+hopes are a little raised by what I have witnessed, perhaps a little too
+near, they are all blown to the winds by such a frown as San Gennero
+himself might cast upon a sinner."
+
+"Remember thou art not in thy wide Mediterranean, but on a canal of
+Venice. This language might be unsafe, were it heard by less friendly
+ears."
+
+"I thank thee for thy care, though the sight of yonder old palace is as
+good a hint to the loose tongue as the sight of a gibbet on the
+sea-shore to a pirate. I met an ancient fellow in the Piazzetta about
+the time the masquers came in, and we had some words on this matter. By
+his tally every second man in Venice is well paid for reporting what the
+others say and do. 'Tis a pity, with all their seeming love of justice,
+good Roderigo, that the senate should let divers knaves go at large;
+men, whose very faces cause the stones to redden with anger and shame!"
+
+"I did not know that any such were openly seen in Venice; what is
+secretly done may be favored for a time, through difficulty of proof,
+but--"
+
+"Cospetto! They tell me the councils have a short manner of making a
+sinner give up his misdeeds. Now, here is the miscreant Jacopo. What
+aileth thee, man? The anchor on which thou leanest is not heated."
+
+"Nor is it of feathers; one's bones may ache from its touch, without
+offence, I hope."
+
+"The iron is of Elba, and was forged in a volcano. This Jacopo is one
+that should not go at large in an honest city, and yet is he seen pacing
+the square with as much ease as a noble in the Broglio!"
+
+"I know him not."
+
+"Not to know the boldest hand and surest stiletto in Venice, honest
+Roderigo, is to thy praise. But he is well marked among us of the port,
+and we never see the man but we begin to think of our sins, and of
+penances forgotten. I marvel much that the inquisitors do not give him
+to the devil on some public ceremony, for the benefit of small
+offenders!"
+
+"Are his deeds so notorious that they might pronounce on his fate
+without proof?"
+
+"Go, ask that question in the streets! Not a Christian loses his life in
+Venice without warning; and the number is not few, to say nothing of
+those who die with state fevers, but men see the work of his sure hand
+in the blow. Signor Roderigo, your canals are convenient graves for
+sudden deaths!"
+
+"Methinks there is contradiction in this. Thou speakest of proofs of the
+hand that gave it, in the manner of the blow, and then thou callest in
+the aid of the canals to cover the whole deed. Truly, there is some
+wrong done this Jacopo, who is, haply, a man slandered."
+
+"I have heard of slandering a priest, for they are Christians, bound to
+keep good names for the church's honor, but to utter an injury against a
+bravo would a little exceed the tongue of an avocato. What mattereth it
+whether the hand be a shade deeper in color or not, when blood is on
+it."
+
+"Thou sayest truly," answered the pretended Roderigo, drawing a heavy
+breath. "It mattereth little indeed to him condemned, whether the
+sentence cometh of one or of many crimes."
+
+"Dost know, friend Roderigo, that this very argument hath made me less
+scrupulous concerning the freight I am called on to carry, in this
+secret trade of ours. Thou art fairly in the senate's business, worthy
+Stefano, I say to myself, and therefore the less reason that thou
+should'st be particular in the quality of the merchandise. That Jacopo
+hath an eye and a scowl that would betray him, were he chosen to the
+chair of St. Peter! But doff thy mask, Signor Roderigo, that the sea-air
+may cool thy cheek; 'tis time there should no longer be this suspicion
+between old and tried friends."
+
+"My duty to those that send me forbid the liberty, else would I gladly
+stand face to face with thee, Master Stefano."
+
+"Well, notwithstanding thy caution, cunning Signore, I would hazard ten
+of the sequins thou art to pay to me, that I will go on the morrow into
+the crowd of San Marco, and challenge thee openly, by name, among a
+thousand. Thou mayest as well unmask, for I tell thee thou art as well
+known to me as the lateen yards of my felucca."
+
+"The less need to uncover. There are certain signs, no doubt, by which
+men who meet so often should be known to each other."
+
+"Thou hast a goodly countenance, Signore, and the less need to hide it.
+I have noted thee among the revellers, when thou hast thought thyself
+unseen; and I will say of thee this much, without wish to gain aught in
+our bargain, one of appearance fair as thine, Signor Roderigo, had
+better be seen openly than go thus for ever behind a cloud."
+
+"My answer hath been made. What the state wills cannot be overlooked;
+but since I see thou knowest me, take heed not to betray thy knowledge."
+
+"Thou would'st not be more safe with thy confessor. Diamine! I am not a
+man to gad about among the water-sellers, with a secret at the top of my
+voice; but thou didst leer aside when I winked at thee dancing among the
+masquers on the quay. Is it not so, Roderigo?"
+
+"There is more cleverness in thee, Master Stefano, than I had thought;
+though thy readiness with the felucca is no secret."
+
+"There are two things, Signor Roderigo, on which I value myself, but
+always, I hope, with Christian moderation. As a mariner of the coast, in
+mistral or sirocco, levanter or zephyr, few can claim more practice; and
+for knowing an acquaintance in a carnival, I believe the father of evil
+himself could not be so disguised that eye of mine should not see his
+foot! For anticipating a gale, or looking behind a mask, Signor
+Roderigo, I know not my own equal among men of small learning."
+
+"These faculties are great gifts in one who liveth by the sea and a
+critical trade."
+
+"Here came one Gino, a gondolier of Don Camillo Monforte, and an ancient
+fellow of mine, aboard the felucca, attended by a woman in mask. He
+threw off the girl dexterously enough, and, as he thought, among
+strangers; but I knew her at a glance for the daughter of a wine-seller,
+who had already tasted lachryma christi of mine. The woman was angered
+at the trick, but making the best of luck, we drove a bargain for the
+few casks which lay beneath the ballast, while Gino did his master's
+business in San Marco."
+
+"And what that business was thou didst not learn, good Stefano?"
+
+"How should I, Master Roderigo, when the gondolier scarce left time for
+greeting; but Annina--"
+
+"Annina!"
+
+"The same. Thou knowest Annina, old Tomaso's daughter; for she danced in
+the very set in which I detected thy countenance! I would not speak thus
+of the girl, but that I know thou art not backward to receive liquors
+that do not visit the custom-house, thyself."
+
+"For that, fear nothing. I have sworn to thee that no secret of this
+nature shall pass my lips. But this Annina is a girl of quick wit and
+much boldness."
+
+"Between ourselves, Signor Roderigo, it is not easy to tell who is in
+the senate's pay here in Venice, or who is not. I have sometimes
+fancied, by thy manner of starting, and the tones of thy voice, that
+thou wert thyself no less than the lieutenant-general of the galleys, a
+little disguised."
+
+"And this with thy knowledge of men!"
+
+"If faith were always equal, where would be its merit? Thou hast never
+been hotly chased by an infidel, Master Roderigo, or thou would'st know
+how the mind of man can change from hope to fear, from the big voice to
+the humble prayer! I remember once, in the confusion and hurry of
+baffling winds and whistling shot, having always turbans before the eye,
+and the bastinado in mind, to have beseeched St. Stefano in some such
+voice as one would use to a dog, and to have bullied the men with the
+whine of a young kitten. Corpo di Bacco! One hath need of experience in
+these affairs, Signor Roderigo, to know even his own merits."
+
+"I believe thee. But who is this Gino of whom thou hast spoken, and what
+has his occupation, as a gondolier, to do with one known in thy youth in
+Calabria?"
+
+"Therein lie matters exceeding my knowledge. His master, and I may say
+my master, for I was born on his estates, is the young Duca di Sant'
+Agata--the same that pushes his fortunes with the senate in a claim to
+the riches and honors of the last Monforte that sat in thy councils. The
+debate hath so long endured, that the lad hath made himself a gondolier
+by sheer shoving an oar between his master's palace and those of the
+nobles he moves with interest--at least such is Gino's own history of
+his education."
+
+"I know the man. He wears the colors of him he serves. Is he of quick
+wit?"
+
+"Signor Roderigo, all who come of Calabria cannot boast that advantage.
+We are no more than our neighbors, and there are exceptions, in all
+communities as in all families. Gino is ready enough with his oar, and
+as good a youth in his way as need be. But as to looking into things
+beyond their surface, why we should not expect the delicacy of a
+beccafica in a goose. Nature makes men, though kings make nobles. Gino
+is a gondolier."
+
+"And of good skill?"
+
+"I say nothing of his arm or his leg, both of which are well enough in
+their places; but when it comes to knowing men and things--poor Gino is
+but a gondolier! The lad hath a most excellent heart, and is never
+backward to serve a friend. I love him, but thou would'st not have me
+say more than the truth will warrant."
+
+"Well, keep thy felucca in readiness, for we know not the moment it may
+be needed."
+
+"Thou hast only to bring thy freight, Signore, to have the bargain
+fulfilled."
+
+"Adieu. I would recommend to thee to keep apart from all other trades,
+and to see that the revelries of to-morrow do not debauch thy people."
+
+"God speed thee, Signor Roderigo. Naught shall be wanting."
+
+The Bravo stepped into his gondola, which glided from the felucca's side
+with a facility which showed that an arm skilled in its use held the
+oar. He waved his hand in adieu to Stefano, and then the boat
+disappeared among the hulls that crowded the port.
+
+For a few minutes the padrone of the Bella Sorrentina continued to pace
+her decks, snuffing the fresh breeze that came in over the Lido, and
+then he sought his rest. By this time the dark, silent gondolas, which
+had been floating by hundreds through the basin, were all gone. The
+sound of music was heard no longer on the canals, and Venice, at all
+times noiseless and peculiar, seemed to sleep the sleep of the dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                         "The fisher came
+  From his green islet, bringing o'er the waves
+  His wife and little one; the husbandman
+  From the firm land, with many a friar and nun.
+  And village maiden, her first flight from home,
+  Crowding the common ferry."
+                                     ROGERS.
+
+
+A brighter day than that which succeeded the night last mentioned never
+dawned upon the massive domes, the gorgeous palaces, and the glittering
+canals of Venice. The sun had not been long above the level of the Lido
+before the strains of horns and trumpets arose from the square of St.
+Mark. They were answered in full echoes from the distant arsenal. A
+thousand gondolas glided from the canals, stealing in every direction
+across the port, the Giudecca, and the various outer channels of the
+place; while the well known routes from Fusina and the neighboring isles
+were dotted with endless lines of boats urging their way towards the
+capital.
+
+The citizens began to assemble early, in their holiday attire, while
+thousands of contadini landed at the different bridges, clad in the gay
+costumes of the main. Before the day had far advanced, all the avenues
+of the great square were again thronged, and by the time the bells of
+the venerable cathedral had finished a peal of high rejoicing, St.
+Mark's again teemed with its gay multitude. Few appeared in masks, but
+pleasure seemed to lighten every eye, while the frank and unconcealed
+countenance willingly courted the observation and sympathy of its
+neighbors. In short, Venice and her people were seen, in all the gaiety
+and carelessness of a favorite Italian festa. The banners of the
+conquered nations flapped heavily on the triumphal masts, each
+church-tower hung out its image of the winged lion, and every palace was
+rich in its hangings of tapestry and silk, floating from balcony and
+window.
+
+In the midst of this exhilarating and bright spectacle was heard the din
+of a hundred thousand voices. Above the constant hum, there arose, from
+time to time, the blasts of trumpets and the symphonies of rich music.
+Here the improvisatore, secretly employed by a politic and mysterious
+government, recounted, with a rapid utterance, and in language suited to
+the popular ear, at the foot of the spars which upheld the conquered
+banners of Candia, Crete, and the Morea, the ancient triumphs of the
+Republic; while there, a ballad-singer chanted, to the greedy crowd, the
+glory and justice of San Marco. Shouts of approbation succeeded each
+happy allusion to the national renown, and bravos, loud and
+oft-repeated, were the reward of the agents of the police, whenever they
+most administered to the self-delusion and vanity of their audience.
+
+In the meantime, gondolas rich in carvings and gildings, and containing
+females renowned for grace and beauty, began to cluster in hundreds
+around the port. A general movement had already taken place among the
+shipping, and a wide and clear channel was opened from the quay at the
+foot of the Piazzetta, to the distant bank, which shut out the waves of
+the Adriatic. Near this watery path, boats of all sizes and
+descriptions, filled with the curious and observant, were fast
+collecting.
+
+The crowd thickened as the day drew in, all the vast plains of the
+Padovano appearing to have given up their people to swell the numbers of
+those that rejoiced. A few timid and irresolute masquers now began to
+appear in the throng, stealing a momentary pleasure under the favor of
+that privileged disguise, from out of the seclusion and monotony of
+their cloisters. Next came the rich marine equipages of the accredited
+agents of foreign states, and then, amid the sound of clarions and the
+cries of the populace, the Bucentaur rowed out of the channel of the
+arsenal, and came sweeping to her station at the quay of St. Mark.
+
+These preliminaries, which occupied some hours, being observed, the
+javelin-men, and others employed about the person of the head of the
+Republic, were seen opening an avenue through the throng. After which,
+the rich strains of a hundred instruments proclaimed the approach of the
+Doge.
+
+We shall not detain the narrative, to describe the pomp in which a
+luxurious and affluent aristocracy, that in general held itself aloof
+from familiar intercourse with those it ruled, displayed its
+magnificence to the eyes of the multitude, on an occasion of popular
+rejoicing. Long lines of senators, dressed in their robes of office, and
+attended by crowds of liveried followers, came from under the galleries
+of the palace, and descended by the Giant's Stairway into the sombre
+court. Thence, the whole issued into the Piazzetta in order, and
+proceeded to their several stations on the canopied deck of the well
+known bark. Each patrician had his allotted place, and before the rear
+of the cortčge had yet quitted the quay, there was a long and imposing
+row of grave legislators seated in the established order of their
+precedency. The ambassadors, the high dignitaries of the state, and the
+aged man who had been chosen to bear the empty honors of sovereignty,
+still remained on the land, waiting, with the quiet of trained docility,
+the moment to embark. At this moment, a man of an embrowned visage, legs
+bare to the knee, and breast open to the breeze, rushed through the
+guards, and knelt on the stones of the quay at his feet.
+
+"Justice!--great prince!" cried the bold stranger; "justice and mercy!
+Listen to one who has bled for St. Mark, and who hath his scars for his
+witnesses."
+
+"Justice and mercy are not always companions," calmly observed he who
+wore the horned bonnet, motioning to his officious attendants to let the
+intruder stay.
+
+"Mighty prince! I come for the last."
+
+"Who and what art thou?"
+
+"A fisherman of the Lagunes. One named Antonio, who seeketh the liberty
+of the prop of his years--a glorious boy, that force and the policy of
+the state have torn from me."
+
+"This should not be! Violence is not the attribute of justice--but the
+youth hath offended the laws, and he suffereth for his crimes?"
+
+"He is guilty, Excellent and most Serene Highness, of youth, and health,
+and strength, with some skill in the craft of the mariner. They have
+taken him, without warning or consent, for the service of the galleys,
+and have left me in my age, alone."
+
+The expression of pity, which had taken possession of the venerable
+features of the prince, changed instantly to a look of uneasiness and
+distrust. The eye, which just before had melted with compassion, became
+cold and set in its meaning, and signing to his guards, he bowed with
+dignity to the attentive and curious auditors, among the foreign agents,
+to proceed.
+
+"Bear him away," said an officer, who took his master's meaning from the
+glance; "the ceremonies may not be retarded for a prayer so idle."
+
+Antonio offered no resistance, but yielding to the pressure of those
+around him, he sank back meekly among the crowd, disappointment and
+sorrow giving place, for an instant, to an awe and an admiration of the
+gorgeous spectacle, that were perhaps in some degree inseparable from
+his condition and habits. In a few moments, the slight interruption
+produced by this short scene, was forgotten in the higher interest of
+the occasion.
+
+When the ducal party had taken their places, and an admiral of
+reputation was in possession of the helm, the vast and gorgeous bark,
+with its gilded galleries thronged with attendants, swept away from the
+quay with a grand and stately movement. Its departure was the signal for
+a new burst of trumpets and clarions, and for fresh acclamations from
+the people. The latter rushed to the edge of the water, and by the time
+the Bucentaur had reached the middle of the port, the stream was black
+with the gondolas that followed in her train. In this manner did the gay
+and shouting cortčge sweep on, some darting ahead of the principal bark,
+and some clinging, like smaller fish swimming around the leviathan, as
+near to her sides as the fall of the ponderous oars would allow. As each
+effort of the crew sent the galley further from the land, the living
+train seemed to extend itself, by some secret principle of expansion;
+nor was the chain of its apparent connexion entirely broken, until the
+Bucentaur had passed the island, long famous for its convent of
+religious Arminians. Here the movement became slower, in order to permit
+the thousand gondolas to approach, and then the whole moved forward, in
+nearly one solid phalanx, to the landing of the Lido.
+
+The marriage of the Adriatic, as the ceremony was quaintly termed, has
+been too often described to need a repetition here. Our business is
+rather with incidents of a private and personal nature than with
+descriptions of public events, and we shall pass over all that has no
+immediate connexion with the interest of the tale.
+
+When the Bucentaur became stationary, a space around her stern was
+cleared, and the Doge appeared in a rich gallery, so constructed as to
+exhibit the action to all in sight. He held a ring, glittering with
+precious stones, on high, and, pronouncing the words of betrothal, he
+dropped it upon the bosom of his fancied spouse. Shouts arose, trumpets
+blew their blasts, and each lady waved her handkerchief, in felicitation
+of the happy union. In the midst of the fracas--which was greatly
+heightened by the roar of cannon on board the cruisers in the channel,
+and from the guns in the arsenal--a boat glided into the open space
+beneath the gallery of the Bucentaur. The movement of the arm which
+directed the light gondola was dexterous and still strong, though the
+hairs of him who held the oar were thin and white. A suppliant eye was
+cast up at the happy faces that adorned the state of the prince, and
+then the look was changed intently to the water. A small fisherman's
+buoy fell from the boat, which glided away so soon, that, amid the
+animation and uproar of that moment, the action was scarce heeded by the
+excited throng.
+
+The aquatic procession now returned towards the city, the multitude
+rending the air with shouts at the happy termination of a ceremony, to
+which time and the sanction of the sovereign pontiff had given a species
+of sanctity that was somewhat increased by superstition. It is true that
+a few among the Venetians themselves regarded these famous nuptials of
+the Adriatic with indifference; and that several of the ministers of the
+northern and more maritime states, who were witnesses on the occasion,
+had scarcely concealed, as they cast glances of intelligence and pride
+among themselves, their smiles. Still, such was the influence of
+habit--for so much does even arrogant assumption, when long and
+perseveringly maintained, count among men--that neither the increasing
+feebleness of the Republic, nor the known superiority of other powers on
+the very element which this pageant was intended to represent as the
+peculiar property of St. Mark, could yet cover the lofty pretension with
+the ridicule it merited. Time has since taught the world that Venice
+continued this idle deception for ages after both reason and modesty
+should have dictated its discontinuance; but, at the period of which we
+write, that ambitious, crapulous, and factitious state was rather
+beginning to feel the symptomatic evidence of its fading circumstances,
+than to be fully conscious of the swift progress of a downward course.
+In this manner do communities, like individuals, draw near their
+dissolution, inattentive to the symptoms of decay, until they are
+overtaken with that fate which finally overwhelms empires and their
+power in the common lot of man.
+
+The Bucentaur did not return directly to the quay, to disburden itself
+of its grave and dignified load. The gaudy galley anchored in the centre
+of the port, and opposite to the wide mouth of the great canal. Officers
+had been busy, throughout the morning, in causing all the shipping and
+heavy boats, of which hundreds lay in that principal artery of the city,
+to remove from the centre of the passage, and heralds now summoned the
+citizens to witness the regatta, with which the public ceremonies of the
+day were to terminate.
+
+Venice, from her peculiar formation and the vast number of her watermen,
+had long been celebrated for this species of amusement. Families were
+known and celebrated in her traditions for dexterous skill with the oar,
+as they were known in Rome for feats of a far less useful and of a more
+barbarous nature. It was usual to select from these races of watermen
+the most vigorous and skilful; and after invoking the aid of
+patron-saints, and arousing their pride and recollections by songs that
+recounted the feats of their ancestors, to start them for the goal, with
+every incitement that pride and the love of victory could awaken.
+
+Most of these ancient usages were still observed. As soon as the
+Bucentaur was in its station, some thirty or forty gondoliers were
+brought forth, clad in their gayest habiliments, and surrounded and
+supported by crowds of anxious friends and relatives. The intended
+competitors were expected to sustain the long-established reputations of
+their several names, and they were admonished of the disgrace of
+defeat. They were cheered by the men, and stimulated by the smiles and
+tears of the other sex. The rewards were recalled to their minds; they
+were fortified by prayers to the saints; and then they were dismissed,
+amid the cries and the wishes of the multitude, to seek their allotted
+places beneath the stern of the galley of state.
+
+It has already been mentioned in these pages, that the city of Venice is
+divided into two nearly equal parts by a channel much broader than that
+of the ordinary passages of the town. This dividing artery, from its
+superior size and depth, and its greater importance, is called the Grand
+Canal. Its course is not unlike that of an undulating line, which
+greatly increases its length. As it is much used by the larger boats of
+the bay--being, in fact, a sort of secondary port--and its width is so
+considerable, it has throughout the whole distance but one bridge, the
+celebrated Rialto. The regatta was to be held on this canal, which
+offered the requisites of length and space, and which, as it was lined
+with most of the palaces of the principal senators, afforded all the
+facilities necessary for viewing the struggle.
+
+In passing from one end of this long course to the other, the men
+destined for the race were not permitted to make any exertion. Their
+eyes roamed over the gorgeous hangings, which, as is still wont
+throughout Italy on all days of festa, floated from every window, and on
+groups of females in rich attire, brilliant with the peculiar charms of
+the famed Venetian beauty, that clustered in the balconies. Those who
+were domestics, rose and answered to the encouraging signals thrown from
+above, as they passed the palaces of their masters; while those who were
+watermen of the public, endeavored to gather hope among the sympathizing
+faces of the multitude.
+
+At length every formality had been duly observed, and the competitors
+assumed their places. The gondolas were much larger than those commonly
+used, and each was manned by three watermen in the centre, directed by a
+fourth, who, standing on the little deck in the stern, steered, while he
+aided to impel the boat. There were light, low staffs in the bows, with
+flags, that bore the distinguishing colors of several noble families of
+the Republic, or which had such other simple devices as had been
+suggested by the fancies of those to whom they belonged. A few
+flourishes of the oars, resembling the preparatory movements which the
+master of fence makes ere he begins to push and parry, were given; a
+whirling of the boats, like the prancing of curbed racers, succeeded;
+and then, at the report of a gun, the whole darted away as if the
+gondolas were impelled by volition. The start was followed by a shout,
+which passed swiftly along the canal, and an eager agitation of heads
+that went from balcony to balcony, till the sympathetic movement was
+communicated to the grave load under which the Bucentaur labored.
+
+For a few minutes the difference in force and skill was not very
+obvious. Each gondola glided along the element apparently with that ease
+with which a light-winged swallow skims the lake, and with no visible
+advantage to any one of the ten. Then, as more art in him who steered,
+or greater powers of endurance in those who rowed, or some of the latent
+properties of the boat itself came into service, the cluster of little
+barks which had come off like a closely-united flock of birds taking
+flight together in alarm, began to open, till they formed a long and
+vacillating line in the centre of the passage. The whole train shot
+beneath the bridge so near each other as to render it still doubtful
+which was to conquer, and the exciting strife came more in view of the
+principal personages of the city.
+
+But here those radical qualities which insure success in efforts of this
+nature manifested themselves. The weaker began to yield, the train to
+lengthen, and hopes and fears to increase, until those in front
+presented the exhilarating spectacle of success, while those behind
+offered the still more noble sight of men struggling without hope.
+Gradually the distances between the boats increased, while that between
+them and the goal grew rapidly less, until three of those in advance
+came in, like glancing arrows, beneath the stern of the Bucentaur, with
+scarce a length between them. The prize was won, the conquerors were
+rewarded, and the artillery gave forth the usual signals of rejoicing.
+Music answered to the roar of cannon and the peals of bells, while
+sympathy with success, that predominant and so often dangerous principle
+of our nature, drew shouts even from the disappointed.
+
+The clamor ceased, and a herald proclaimed aloud the commencement of a
+new and different struggle. The last, and what might be termed the
+national race, had been limited by an ancient usage to the known and
+recognised gondoliers of Venice. The prize had been awarded by the
+state, and the whole affair had somewhat of an official and political
+character. It was now announced, however, that a race was to be run, in
+which the reward was open to all competitors, without question as to
+their origin, or as to their ordinary occupations. An oar of gold, to
+which was attached a chain of the same precious metal, was exhibited as
+the boon of the Doge to him who showed most dexterity and strength in
+this new struggle; while a similar ornament of silver was to be the
+portion of him who showed the second-best dexterity and bottom. A mimic
+boat of less precious metal was the third prize. The gondolas were to be
+the usual light vehicles of the canals, and as the object was to display
+the peculiar skill of that city of islands, but one oarsman was allowed
+to each, on whom would necessarily fall the whole duty of guiding, while
+he impelled his little bark. Any of those who had been engaged in the
+previous trial were admitted to this; and all desirous of taking part in
+the new struggle were commanded to come beneath the stern of the
+Bucentaur within a prescribed number of minutes, that note might be had
+of their wishes. As notice of this arrangement had been previously
+given, the interval between the two races was not long.
+
+The first who came out of the crowd of boats which environed the vacant
+place that had been left for the competitors, was a gondolier of the
+public landing, well known for his skill with the oar, and his song on
+the canal.
+
+"How art thou called, and in whose name dost thou put thy chance?"
+demanded the herald of this aquatic course.
+
+"All know me for Bartolomeo, one who lives between the Piazzetta and the
+Lido, and, like a loyal Venetian, I trust in San Teodoro."
+
+"Thou art well protected; take thy place and await thy fortune."
+
+The conscious waterman swept the water with a back stroke of his blade,
+and the light gondola whirled away into the centre of the vacant spot,
+like a swan giving a sudden glance aside.
+
+"And who art thou?" demanded the official of the next that came.
+
+"Enrico, a gondolier of Fusina. I come to try my oar with the braggarts
+of the canals."
+
+"In whom is thy trust?"
+
+"Sant' Antonio di Padua?"
+
+"Thou wilt need his aid, though we commend thy spirit. Enter, and take
+place."--"And who art thou?" he continued, to another, when the second
+had imitated the easy skill of the first.
+
+"I am called Gino of Calabria, a gondolier in private service."
+
+"What noble retaineth thee?"
+
+"The illustrious and most excellent Don Camillo Monforte, Duca and Lord
+of Sant' Agata in Napoli, and of right a senator in Venice."
+
+"Thou should'st have come of Padua, friend, by thy knowledge of the
+laws! Dost thou trust in him thou servest for the victory?"
+
+There was a movement among the senators at the answer of Gino; and the
+half-terrified varlet thought he perceived frowns gathering on more than
+one brow. He looked around in quest of him whose greatness he had
+vaunted, as if he sought succor.
+
+"Wilt thou name thy support in this great trial of force?" resumed the
+herald.
+
+"My master," uttered the terrified Gino, "St. Januarius, and St. Mark."
+
+"Thou art well defended. Should the two latter fail thee, thou mayest
+surely count on the first!"
+
+"Signor Monforte has an illustrious name, and he is welcome to our
+Venetian sports," observed the Doge, slightly bending his head towards
+the young Calabrian noble, who stood at no great distance in a gondola
+of state, regarding the scene with a deeply-interested countenance. This
+cautious interruption of the pleasantries of the official was
+acknowledged by a low reverence, and the matter proceeded.
+
+"Take thy station, Gino of Calabria, and a happy fortune be thine," said
+the latter; then turning to another, he asked in surprise--"Why art thou
+here?"
+
+"I come to try my gondola's swiftness."
+
+"Thou art old, and unequal to this struggle; husband thy strength for
+daily toil. An ill-advised ambition hath put thee on this useless
+trial."
+
+The new aspirant had forced a common fisherman's gondola, of no bad
+shape, and of sufficient lightness, but which bore about it all the
+vulgar signs of its daily uses, beneath the gallery of the Bucentaur. He
+received the reproof meekly, and was about to turn his boat aside,
+though with a sorrowing and mortified eye, when a sign from the Doge
+arrested his arm.
+
+"Question him, as of wont," said the prince.
+
+"How art thou named?" continued the reluctant official, who, like all of
+subordinate condition, had far more jealousy of the dignity of the
+sports he directed, than his superior.
+
+"I am known as Antonio, a fisherman of the Lagunes."
+
+"Thou art old!"
+
+"Signore, none know it better than I. It is sixty summers since I first
+threw net or line into the water."
+
+"Nor art thou clad as befitteth one who cometh before the state of
+Venice in a regatta."
+
+"I am here in the best that I have. Let them who would do the nobles
+greater honor, come in better."
+
+"Thy limbs are uncovered--thy bosom bare--thy sinews feeble--go to; thou
+art ill advised to interrupt the pleasures of the nobles by this
+levity."
+
+Again Antonio would have shrunk from the ten thousand eyes that shone
+upon him, when the calm voice of the Doge once more came to his aid.
+
+"The struggle is open to all," said the sovereign; "still I would advise
+the poor and aged man to take counsel; give him silver, for want urges
+him to this hopeless trial."
+
+"Thou hearest; alms are offered thee; but give place to those who are
+stronger and more seemly for the sport."
+
+"I will obey, as is the duty of one born and accustomed to poverty. They
+said the race was open to all, and I crave the pardon of the nobles,
+since I meant to do them no dishonor."
+
+"Justice in the palace, and justice on the canals," hastily observed the
+prince. "If he will continue, it is his right. It is the pride of St.
+Mark that his balances are held with an even hand."
+
+A murmur of applause succeeded the specious sentiment, for the powerful
+rarely affect the noble attribute of justice, however limited may be its
+exercise, without their words finding an echo in the tongues of the
+selfish.
+
+"Thou hearest--His Highness, who is the voice of a mighty state, says
+thou mayest remain;--though thou art still advised to withdraw."
+
+"I will then see what virtue is left in this naked arm," returned
+Antonio, casting a mournful glance, and one that was not entirely free
+from the latent vanity of man, at his meagre and threadbare attire. "The
+limb hath its scars, but the infidels may have spared enough, for the
+little I ask."
+
+"In whom is thy faith?"
+
+"Blessed St. Anthony, of the Miraculous Draught."
+
+"Take thy place.--Ha! here cometh one unwilling to be known! How now!
+who appears with so false a face?"
+
+"Call me, Mask."
+
+"So neat and just a leg and arm need not have hid their follow, the
+countenance. Is it your Highness's pleasure that one disguised should be
+entered for the sports?"
+
+"Doubt it not. A mask is sacred in Venice. It is the glory of our
+excellent and wise laws, that he who seeketh to dwell within the privacy
+of his own thoughts, and to keep aloof from curiosity by shadowing his
+features, rangeth our streets and canals as if he dwelt in the security
+of his own abode. Such are the high privileges of liberty, and such it
+is to be a citizen of a generous, a magnanimous, and a free state."
+
+A thousand bowed in approbation of the sentiment, and a rumor passed
+from mouth to mouth that a young noble was about to try his strength in
+the regatta, in compliment to some wayward beauty.
+
+"Such is justice!" exclaimed the herald, in a loud voice, admiration
+apparently overcoming respect, in the ardor of the moment. "Happy is he
+that is born in Venice, and envied are the people in whose councils
+wisdom and mercy preside, like lovely and benignant sisters! On whom
+dost thou rely?"
+
+"Mine own arm."
+
+"Ha! this is impious! None so presuming may enter into these privileged
+sports."
+
+The hurried exclamation of the herald was accompanied by a general stir,
+such as denotes sudden and strong emotion in a multitude.
+
+"The children of the Republic are protected by an even hand," observed
+the venerable prince. "It formeth our just pride, and blessed St. Mark
+forbid that aught resembling vain-glory should be uttered! but it is
+truly our boast that we know no difference between our subjects of the
+islands or those of the Dalmatian coast; between Padua or Candia; Corfu
+or St. Giorgio. Still it is not permitted for any to refuse the
+intervention of the saints."
+
+"Name thy patron, or quit the place," continued the observant herald,
+anew.
+
+The stranger paused, as if he looked into his mind, and then he
+answered--
+
+"San Giovanni of the Wilderness."
+
+"Thou namest one of blessed memory!"
+
+"I name him who may have pity on me, in this living desert."
+
+"The temper of thy soul is best known to thyself, but this reverend rank
+of patricians, yonder brilliant show of beauty, and that goodly
+multitude, may claim another name.--Take thy place."
+
+While the herald proceeded to take the names of three or four more
+applicants, all gondoliers in private service, a murmur ran through the
+spectators, which proved how much their interest and curiosity had been
+awakened by the replies and appearance of the two last competitors. In
+the meantime, the young nobles who entertained those who came last,
+began to move among the throng of boats, with the intention of making
+such manifestations of their gallant desires and personal devotion, as
+suited the customs and opinions of the age. The list was now proclaimed
+to be full, and the gondolas were towed off, as before, towards the
+starting point, leaving the place beneath the stern of the Bucentaur,
+vacant. The scene that followed, consequently passed directly before the
+eyes of those grave men, who charged themselves with most of the private
+interests, as well as with the public concerns of Venice.
+
+There were many unmasked and high-born dames, whirling about in their
+boats, attended by cavaliers in rich attire, and here and there appeared
+a pair of dark lustrous eyes, peeping through the silk of a visor, that
+concealed some countenance too youthful for exposure in so gay a scene.
+One gondola, in particular, was remarked for the singular grace and
+beauty of the form it held, qualities which made themselves apparent,
+even through the half-disguise of the simple habiliments she wore. The
+boat, the servants, and the ladies, for there were two, were alike
+distinguished for that air of severe but finished simplicity, which
+oftener denotes the presence of high quality and true taste, than a more
+lavish expenditure of vulgar ornament. A Carmelite, whose features were
+concealed by his cowl, testified that their condition was high, and lent
+a dignity to their presence by his reverend and grave protection. A
+hundred gondolas approached this party, and after as many fruitless
+efforts to penetrate the disguises, glided away, while whispers and
+interrogatories passed from one to another, to learn the name and
+station of the youthful beauty. At length, a gay bark, with watermen in
+gorgeous liveries, and in whose equipment there was a studied display of
+magnificence, came into the little circle that curiosity had drawn
+together. The single cavalier who occupied the seat, arose, for few
+gondolas appeared that day with their gloomy-looking and mysterious
+pavilions, and saluted the masked females with the ease of one
+accustomed to all presences, but with the reserve of deep respect.
+
+"I have a favorite follower in this race," he said gallantly, "and one
+in whose skill and force I put great trust. Until now I have uselessly
+sought a lady of a beauty and merit so rare, as to warrant that I should
+place his fortune on her smiles. But I seek no further."
+
+"You are gifted with a keen sight, Signore, that you discover all you
+seek beneath these masks," returned one of the two females, while their
+companion, the Carmelite, bowed graciously to the compliment, which
+seemed little more than was warranted by the usage of such scenes.
+
+"There are other means of recognition than the eyes, and other sources
+of admiration than the senses, lady. Conceal yourselves as you will,
+here do I know that I am near the fairest face, the warmest heart, and
+the purest mind of Venice!"
+
+"This is bold augury, Signore," returned she who was evidently the
+oldest of the two, glancing a look at her companion as if to note the
+effect of this gallant speech. "Venice has a name for the beauty of its
+dames, and the sun of Italy warms many a generous heart."
+
+"Better that such noble gifts should be directed to the worship of the
+Creator than of the creature," murmured the monk.
+
+"Some there are, holy father, who have admiration for both. Such I would
+fain hope is the happy lot of her who is favored with the spiritual
+counsel of one so virtuous and wise as yourself. Here I place my
+fortune, let what may follow; and here would I gladly place a heavier
+stake, were it permitted."
+
+As the cavalier spoke, he tendered to the silent fair a bouquet of the
+sweetest and most fragrant flowers; and among them were those to which
+poets and custom have ascribed the emblematic qualities of constancy and
+love. She, to whom this offering of gallantry was made, hesitated to
+accept it. It much exceeded the reserve imposed on one of her station
+and years to allow of such homage from the other sex, though the
+occasion was generally deemed one that admitted of more than usual
+gallantry; and she evidently shrank, with the sensitiveness of one whose
+feelings were unpractised, from a homage so public.
+
+"Receive the flowers, my love," mildly whispered her companion--"the
+cavalier who offers them simply intends to show the quality of his
+breeding."
+
+"That will be seen in the end," hastily returned Don Camillo--for it was
+he. "Signora, adieu; we have met on this water when there was less
+restraint between us."
+
+He bowed, and, signing to his gondolier, was quickly lost in the crowd
+of boats. Ere the barks, however, were separated, the mask of the silent
+fair was slightly moved as if she sought relief from the air; and the
+Neapolitan was rewarded for his gallantry by a momentary glance at the
+glowing countenance of Violetta.
+
+"Thy guardian hath a displeased eye," hurriedly observed Donna Florinda.
+"I wonder that we should be known!"
+
+"I should more wonder that we were not. I could recall the noble
+Neapolitan cavalier amid a million. Thou dost not remember all that I
+owe to him!"
+
+Donna Florinda did not answer; but in secret she offered up a fervent
+prayer that the obligation might be blessed to the future happiness of
+her who had received it. There was a furtive and uneasy glance between
+her and the Carmelite; but as neither spoke, a long and thoughtful
+silence succeeded the rencontre.
+
+From this musing the party, in common with all the gay and laughing
+multitude by which they were surrounded, were reminded of the business
+on which they were assembled by the signal-gun, the agitation on the
+great canal nearest the scene of strife, and a clear blast of the
+trumpets. But in order that the narrative may proceed regularly, it is
+fit that we should return a little in the order of time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  "Here art thou in appointment fresh and fair,
+  Anticipating time with starting courage."
+                                   SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+It has been seen that the gondolas, which were to contend in the race,
+had been towed towards the place of starting, in order that the men
+might enter on the struggle with undiminished vigor. In this precaution,
+even the humble and half-clad fisherman had not been neglected, but his
+boat, like the others, was attached to the larger barges to which this
+duty had been assigned. Still, as he passed along the canal, before the
+crowded balconies and groaning vessels which lined its sides, there
+arose that scornful and deriding laugh, which seems ever to grow more
+strong and bold, as misfortune weighs most heavily on its subject.
+
+The old man was not unconscious of the remarks of which he was the
+subject; and, as it is rare indeed that our sensibilities do not survive
+our better fortunes, even he was so far conscious of a fall as not to be
+callous to contempt thus openly expressed. He looked wistfully on every
+side of him, and seemed to seek in every eye he encountered, some
+portion of the sympathy which his meek and humble feelings still craved.
+But even the men of his caste and profession threw jibes upon his ear;
+and though, of all the competitors, perhaps the one whose motive most
+hallowed his ambition, he was held to be the only proper subject of
+mirth. For the solution of this revolting trait of human character we
+are not to look to Venice and her institutions, since it is known that
+none are so arrogant, on occasions, as the ridden, and that the abject
+and insolent spirits are usually tenants of the same bosom.
+
+The movement of the boats brought those of the masked waterman, and the
+subjects of those taunts, side by side.
+
+"Thou art not the favorite in this strife," observed the former, when a
+fresh burst of jibes was showered on the head of his unresisting
+associate. "Thou hast not been sufficiently heedful of thy attire, for
+this is a town of luxury, and he who would meet applause must appear on
+the canals in the guise of one less borne upon by fortune."
+
+"I know them! I know them!" returned the fisherman; "they are led away
+by their pride, and they think ill of one who cannot share in their
+vanities. But, friend unknown, I have brought with me a face, which, old
+though it be, and wrinkled, and worn by the weather like the stones of
+the sea-shore, is uncovered to the eye, and without shame."
+
+"There may be reasons which thou knowest not, why I wear a mask. But if
+my face be hid the limbs are bare, and thou seest there is no lack of
+sinews to make good that which I have undertaken. Thou should'st have
+thought better of the matter ere thou puttest thyself in the way of so
+much mortification. Defeat will not cause the people to treat thee more
+tenderly."
+
+"If my sinews are old and stiffened, Signor Mask, they are long used to
+toil. As to shame, if it is a shame to be below the rest of mankind in
+fortune, it will not now come for the first time. A heavy sorrow hath
+befallen me, and this race may lighten the burden of grief. I shall not
+pretend that I hear this laughter, and all these scornful speeches, as
+one listens to the evening breeze on the Lagunes--for a man is still a
+man, though he lives with the humblest, and eats of the coarsest. But
+let it pass, Sant' Antonio will give me heart to bear it."
+
+"Thou hast a stout mind, fisherman, and I would gladly pray my patron
+to grant thee a stronger arm, but that I have much need of this victory
+myself. Wilt thou be content with the second prize, if, by any manner of
+skill, I might aid thy efforts? for, I suppose, the metal of the third
+is as little to thy taste as it is to my own."
+
+"Nay, I count not on gold or silver."
+
+"Can the honor of such a struggle awaken the pride of one like thee?"
+
+The old man looked earnestly at his companion, but he shook his head
+without answer. Fresh merriment, at his expense, caused him to bend his
+face towards the scoffers, and he perceived they were just then passing
+a numerous group of his fellows of the Lagunes, who seemed to feel that
+his unjustifiable ambition reflected, in some degree, on the honor of
+their whole body.
+
+"How now, old Antonio!" shouted the boldest of the band, "is it not
+enough that thou hast won the honors of the net, but thou would'st have
+a golden oar at thy neck?"
+
+"We shall yet see him of the senate!" cried a second.
+
+"He standeth in need of the horned bonnet for his naked head," continued
+a third. "We shall see the brave Admiral Antonio sailing in the
+Bucentaur, with the nobles of the land!"
+
+Their sallies were succeeded by coarse laughter. Even the fair in the
+balconies were not uninfluenced by these constant jibes, and the
+apparent discrepancy between the condition and the means of so unusual a
+pretender to the honors of the regatta. The purpose of the old man
+wavered, but he seemed goaded by some inward incentive that still
+enabled him to maintain his ground. His companion closely watched the
+varying expression of a countenance that was far too little trained in
+deception to conceal the feelings within; and, as they approached the
+place of starting, he again spoke.
+
+"Thou mayest yet withdraw," he said; "why should one of thy years make
+the little time he has to stay bitter, by bearing the ridicule of his
+associates for the rest of his life?"
+
+"St. Anthony did a greater wonder when he caused the fishes to come up
+on the waters to hear his preaching, and I will not show a cowardly
+heart at a moment when there is most need of resolution."
+
+The masked waterman crossed himself devoutly; and, relinquishing all
+further design to persuade the other to abandon the fruitless contest,
+he gave all his thoughts to his own interest in the coming struggle.
+
+The narrowness of most of the canals of Venice, with the innumerable
+angles and the constant passing, have given rise to a fashion of
+construction and of rowing that are so peculiar to that city and its
+immediate dependencies as to require some explanation. The reader has
+doubtless already understood that a gondola is a long, narrow, and light
+boat, adapted to the uses of the place, and distinct from the wherries
+of all other towns. The distance between the dwellings on most of the
+canals is so small, that the width of the latter does not admit of the
+use of oars on both sides, at the same time. The necessity of constantly
+turning aside to give room for others, and the frequency of the bridges
+and the corners, have suggested the expediency of placing the face of
+the waterman in the direction in which the boat is steering, and, of
+course, of keeping him on his feet. As every gondola, when fully
+equipped, has its pavilion in the centre, the height of the latter
+renders it necessary to place him who steers on such an elevation as
+will enable him to overlook it. From these several causes a one-oared
+boat in Venice is propelled by a gondolier, who stands on a little
+angular deck in its stern, formed like the low roof of a house, and the
+stroke of the oar is given by a push, instead of a pull, as is common
+elsewhere. This habit of rowing erect, however, which is usually done
+by a forward, instead of a backward movement of the body, is not
+unfrequent in all the ports of the Mediterranean, though in no other is
+there a boat which resembles the gondola in all its properties or uses.
+The upright position of the gondolier requires that the pivot on which
+the oar rests should have a corresponding elevation; and there is,
+consequently, a species of bumkin raised from the side of the boat to
+the desired height, and which, being formed of a crooked and very
+irregular knee of wood, has two or three row-locks, one above the other,
+to suit the stature of different individuals, or to give a broader or a
+narrower sweep of the blade as the movement shall require. As there is
+frequent occasion to cast the oar from one of these row-locks to the
+other, and not unfrequently to change its side, it rests in a very open
+bed; and the instrument is kept in its place by great dexterity alone,
+and by a perfect knowledge of the means of accommodating the force and
+the rapidity of the effort to the forward movement of the boat and the
+resistance of the water. All these difficulties united render skill in a
+gondolier one of the most delicate branches of a waterman's art, as it
+is clear that muscular strength alone, though of great aid, can avail
+but little in such a practice.
+
+The great canal of Venice, following its windings, being more than a
+league in length, the distance in the present race was reduced nearly
+half, by causing the boats to start from the Rialto. At this point,
+then, the gondolas were all assembled, attended by those who were to
+place them. As the whole of the population which before had been
+extended along the entire course of the water, was now crowded between
+the bridge and the Bucentaur, the long and graceful avenue resembled a
+vista of human heads. It was an imposing sight to look along that bright
+and living lane, and the hearts of each competitor beat high, as hope,
+or pride, or apprehension, became the feeling of the moment.
+
+"Gino of Calabria," cried the marshal who placed the gondolas, "thy
+station is on the right. Take it, and St. Januarius speed thee!"
+
+The servitor of Don Camillo assumed his oar, and the boat glided
+gracefully into its berth.
+
+"Thou comest next, Enrico of Fusina. Call stoutly on thy Paduan patron,
+and husband thy strength; for none of the main have ever yet borne away
+a prize in Venice."
+
+He then summoned, in succession, those whose names have not been
+mentioned, and placed them side by side, in the centre of the canal.
+
+"Here is place for thee, Signore," continued the officer, inclining his
+head to the unknown gondolier; for he had imbibed the general impression
+that the face of some young patrician was concealed beneath the mask, to
+humor the fancy of some capricious fair.--"Chance hath given thee the
+extreme left."
+
+"Thou hast forgotten to call the fisherman," observed the masker, as he
+drove his own gondola into its station.
+
+"Does the hoary fool persist in exposing his vanity and his rags to the
+best of Venice?"
+
+"I can take place in the rear," meekly observed Antonio. "There may be
+those in the line it doth not become one like me to crowd, and a few
+strokes of the oar, more or less, can differ but little in so long; a
+strife."
+
+"Thou hadst better push modesty to discretion, and remain."
+
+"If it be your pleasure, Signore, I would rather see what St. Anthony
+may do for an old fisherman, who has prayed to him, night and morning,
+these sixty years?"
+
+"It is thy right; and, as thou seemest content with it, Keep the place
+thou hast in the rear. It is only occupying it a little earlier than
+thou would'st otherwise. Now, recall the rules of the games, hardy
+gondoliers, and make your last appeal to your patrons. There is to be no
+crossing, or other foul expedients; naught except ready oars, and
+nimble wrists. He who varies needlessly from his line until he leadeth,
+shall be recalled by name; and whoever is guilty of any act to spoil the
+sports, or otherwise to offend the patricians, shall be both checked and
+punished. Be ready for the signal."
+
+The assistant, who was in a strongly manned boat, fell back a little,
+while runners, similarly equipped, went ahead to order the curious from
+the water. These preparations were scarcely made, when a signal floated
+on the nearest dome. It was repeated on the campanile, and a gun was
+fired at the arsenal. A deep but suppressed murmur arose in the throng,
+which was as quickly succeeded by suspense.
+
+Each gondolier had suffered the bows of his boat to incline slightly
+towards the left shore of the canal, as the jockey is seen, at the
+starting-post, to turn his courser aside, in order to repress its ardor,
+or divert its attention. But the first long and broad sweep of the oar
+brought them all in a line again, and away they glided in a body.
+
+For the first few minutes there was no difference in speed, nor any sign
+by which the instructed might detect the probable evidence of defeat or
+success. The whole ten, which formed the front line, skimmed the water
+with an equal velocity, beak to beak, as if some secret attraction held
+each in its place, while the humble, though equally light bark of the
+fisherman steadily kept its position in the rear.
+
+The boats were soon held in command. The oars got their justest poise
+and widest sweep, and the wrists of the men accustomed to their play.
+The line began to waver, It undulated, the glittering prow of one
+protruding beyond the others; and then it changed its form. Enrico of
+Fusina shot ahead, and, privileged by success, he insensibly sheered
+more into the centre of the canal, avoiding by the change the eddies,
+and the other obstructions of the shore. This manoeuvre which, in the
+language of the course, would have been called "taking the track," had
+the additional advantage of throwing upon those who followed some
+trifling impediment from the back-water. The sturdy and practised
+Bartolomeo of the Lido, as his companions usually called him, came next,
+occupying the space on his leader's quarter, where he suffered least
+from the reaction caused by the stroke of his oar. The gondolier of Don
+Camillo, also, soon shot out of the crowd, and was seen plying his arms
+vigorously still farther to the right, and a little in the rear of
+Bartolomeo. Then came in the centre of the canal, and near as might be
+in the rear of the triumphant waterman of the main, a dense body, with
+little order and varying positions, compelling each other to give way,
+and otherwise increasing the difficulties of their struggle. More to the
+left, and so near to the palaces as barely to allow room for the sweep
+of his oar, was the masked competitor, whose progress seemed retarded by
+some unseen cause, for he gradually fell behind all the others, until
+several boats' lengths of open water lay between him and even the group
+of his nameless opponents. Still he plied his arms steadily, and with
+sufficient skill. As the interest of mystery had been excited in his
+favor, a rumor passed up the canal, that the young cavalier had been
+little favored by fortune in the choice of a boat. Others, who reflected
+more deeply on causes, whispered of the folly of one of his habits
+taking the risk of mortification by a competition with men whose daily
+labor had hardened their sinews, and whose practice enabled them to
+judge closely of every chance of the race. But when the eyes of the
+multitude turned from the cluster of passing boats to the solitary barge
+of the fisherman, who came singly on in the rear, admiration was again
+turned to derision.
+
+Antonio had cast aside the cap he wore of wont, and the few straggling
+hairs that were left streamed about his hollow temples, leaving the
+whole of his swarthy features exposed to view. More than once, as the
+gondola came on, his eyes turned aside reproachfully, as if he keenly
+felt the stings of so many unlicensed tongues applied to feelings which,
+though blunted by his habits and condition, were far from extinguished.
+Laugh arose above laugh, however, and taunt succeeded taunt more
+bitterly, as the boats came among the gorgeous palaces which lined the
+canal nearer to the goal. It was not that the owners of these lordly
+piles indulged in the unfeeling triumph, but their dependants,
+constantly subject themselves to the degrading influence of a superior
+presence, let loose the long-pent torrents of their arrogance on the
+head of the first unresisting subject which offered.
+
+Antonio bore all these jibes manfully, if not in tranquillity, and
+always without retort, until he again approached the spot occupied by
+his companions of the Lagunes. Here his eye sank under the reproaches,
+and his oar faltered. The taunts and denunciations increased as he lost
+ground, and there was a moment when the rebuked and humbled spirit of
+the old man seemed about to relinquish the contest. But dashing a hand
+across his brow, as if to clear a sight which had become dimmed and
+confused, he continued to ply the oar, and, happily, he was soon past
+the point most trying to his resolution. From this moment the cries
+against the fisherman diminished, and as the Bucentaur, though still
+distant, was now in sight, interest in the issue of the race absorbed
+all other feelings.
+
+Enrico still kept the lead; but the judges of the gondolier's skill
+began to detect signs of exhaustion in his faltering stroke. The
+waterman of the Lido pressed him hard, and the Calabrian was drawing
+more into a line with them both. At this moment, too, the masked
+competitor exhibited a force and skill that none had expected to see in
+one of his supposed rank. His body was thrown more upon the effort of
+the oar, and as his leg was stretched behind to aid the stroke, it
+discovered a volume of muscle, and an excellence of proportion, that
+excited murmurs of applause. The consequence was soon apparent. His
+gondola glided past the crowd in the centre of the canal, and by a
+change that was nearly insensible, he became the fourth in the race. The
+shouts which rewarded his success had scarcely parted from the
+multitude, ere their admiration was called to a new and an entirely
+unexpected aspect in the struggle.
+
+Left to his own exertions, and less annoyed by that derision and
+contempt which often defeat even more generous efforts, Antonio had
+drawn nearer to the crowd of nameless competitors. Though
+undistinguished in this narrative, there were seen, in that group of
+gondoliers, faces well known on the canals of Venice, as belonging to
+watermen in whose dexterity and force the city took pride. Either
+favored by his isolated position, or availing himself of the
+embarrassment these men gave to each other, the despised fisherman was
+seen a little on their left, coining up abreast, with a stroke and
+velocity that promised further success. The expectation was quickly
+realized. He passed them all, amid a dead and wondering silence, and
+took his station as fifth in the struggle.
+
+From this moment all interest in those who formed the vulgar mass was
+lost. Every eye was turned towards the front, where the strife increased
+at each stroke of the oar, and where the issue began to assume a new and
+doubtful character. The exertions of the waterman of Fusina were
+seemingly redoubled, though his boat went no faster. The gondola of
+Bartolomeo shot past him; it was followed by those of Gino and the
+masked gondolier, while not a cry betrayed the breathless interest of
+the multitude. But when the boat of Antonio also swept ahead, there
+arose such a hum of voices as escapes a throng when a sudden and violent
+change of feeling is produced in their wayward sentiments. Enrico was
+frantic with the disgrace. He urged every power of his frame to avert
+the dishonor, with the desperate energy of an Italian, and then he cast
+himself into the bottom of the gondola, tearing his hair and weeping in
+agony. His example was followed by those in the rear, though with more
+governed feelings, for they shot aside among the boats which lined the
+canal, and were lost to view.
+
+From this open and unexpected abandonment of the struggle, the
+spectators got the surest evidence of its desperate character. But as a
+man has little sympathy for the unfortunate when his feelings are
+excited by competition, the defeated were quickly forgotten. The name of
+Bartolomeo was borne high upon the winds by a thousand voices, and his
+fellows of the Piazzetta and the Lido called upon him, aloud, to die for
+the honor of their craft. Well did the sturdy gondolier answer to their
+wishes, for palace after palace was left behind, and no further change
+was made in the relative positions of the boats. But, like his
+predecessor, the leader redoubled his efforts with a diminished effect,
+and Venice had the mortification of seeing a stranger leading one of the
+most brilliant of her regattas. Bartolomeo no sooner lost place, than
+Gino, the masker, and the despised Antonio, in turn, shot by, leaving
+him who had so lately been first in the race, the last. He did not,
+however, relinquish the strife, but continued to struggle with the
+energy of one who merited a better fortune.
+
+When this unexpected and entirely new character was given to the
+contest, there still remained a broad sheet of water between the
+advancing gondolas and the goal. Gino led, and with many favorable
+symptoms of his being able to maintain his advantage. He was encouraged
+by the shouts of the multitude, who now forgot his Calabrian origin in
+his success, while many of the serving-men of his master cheered him on
+by name. All would not do. The masked waterman, for the first time,
+threw the grandeur of his skill and force into the oar. The ashen
+instrument bent to the power of an arm whose strength appeared to
+increase at will, and the movements of his body became rapid as the
+leaps of the greyhound. The pliant gondola obeyed, and amid a shout
+which passed from the Piazzetta to the Rialto, it glided ahead.
+
+If success gives force and increases the physical and moral energies,
+there is a fearful and certain reaction in defeat. The follower of Don
+Camillo was no exception to the general law, and when the masked
+competitor passed him the boat of Antonio followed as if it were
+impelled by the same strokes. The distance between the two leading
+gondolas even now seemed to lessen, and there was a moment of breathless
+interest when all there expected to see the fisherman, in despite of his
+years and boat, shooting past his rival.
+
+But expectation was deceived. He of the mask, notwithstanding his
+previous efforts, seemed to sport with the toil, so ready was the sweep
+of his oar, so sure its stroke, and so vigorous the arm by which it was
+impelled. Nor was Antonio an antagonist to despise. If there was less of
+the grace of a practised gondolier of the canals in his attitudes than
+in those of his companion, there was no relaxation in the force of his
+sinews. They sustained him to the last with that enduring power which
+had been begotten by threescore years of unremitting labor, and while
+his still athletic form was exerted to the utmost there appeared no
+failing of its energies.
+
+A few moments sent the leading gondolas several lengths ahead of their
+nearest followers. The dark beak of the fisherman's boat hung upon the
+quarter of the more showy bark of his antagonist, but it could do no
+more. The port was open before them, and they glanced by church, palace,
+barge, mystick, and felucca, without the slightest inequality in their
+relative speed. The masked waterman glanced a look behind as if to
+calculate his advantage, and then bending again to his pliant oar he
+spoke, loud enough to be heard only by him who pressed so hard upon his
+track.
+
+"Thou hast deceived me, fisherman!" he said--"there is more of manhood
+in thee yet than I had thought."
+
+"If there is manhood in my arms there is childlessness and sorrow at the
+heart," was the reply.
+
+"Dost thou so prize a golden bauble? Thou art second; be content with
+thy lot."
+
+"It will not do; I must be foremost or I have wearied my old limbs in
+vain!"
+
+This brief dialogue was uttered with an ease that showed how far use had
+accustomed both to powerful bodily efforts, and with a firmness of tones
+that few could have equalled in a moment of so great physical effort.
+The masker was silent, but his purpose seemed to waver. Twenty strokes
+of his powerful oar-blade and the goal was attained: but his sinews were
+not so much extended, and that limb which had shown so fine a
+development of muscle, was less swollen and rigid. The gondola of old
+Antonio glided abeam.
+
+"Push thy soul into the blade," muttered he of the mask, "or thou wilt
+yet be beaten!"
+
+The fisherman threw every effort of his body on the coming effort, and
+he gained a fathom. Another stroke caused the boat to quiver to its
+centre, and the water curled from its bows like the ripple of a rapid.
+Then the gondola darted between the two goal-barges, and the little
+flags that marked the point of victory fell into the water. The action
+was scarce noted ere the glittering beak of the masquer shot past the
+eyes of the judges, who doubted for an instant on whom success had
+fallen. Gino was not long behind, and after him came Bartolomeo, fourth
+and last in the best contested race which had ever been seen on the
+waters of Venice.
+
+When the flags fell, men held their breaths in suspense. Few knew the
+victor, so close had been the struggle. But a flourish of the trumpets
+soon commanded attention, and then a herald proclaimed that--
+
+"Antonio, a fisherman of the Lagunes, favored by his holy patron of the
+Miraculous Draught, had borne away the prize of gold--while a waterman
+who wore his face concealed, but who hath trusted to the care of the
+blessed San Giovanni of the Wilderness, is worthy of the silver prize,
+and that the third had fallen to the fortunes of Gino of Calabria, a
+servitor of the illustrious Don Camillo Monforte, Duca di Sant' Agata,
+and lord of many Neapolitan Seignories."
+
+When this formal announcement was made, there succeeded a silence like
+that of the tomb. Then there arose a general shout among the living
+mass, which bore on high the name of Antonio as if they celebrated the
+success of some conqueror. All feeling of contempt was lost in the
+influence of his triumph. The fishermen of the Lagunes, who so lately
+had loaded their aged companion with contumely, shouted for his glory
+with a zeal that manifested the violence of the transition from
+mortification to pride; and, as has ever been and ever will be the meed
+of success, he who was thought least likely to obtain it was most
+greeted with praise and adulation when it was found that the end had
+disappointed expectation. Ten thousand voices were lifted in proclaiming
+his skill and victory, and young and old, the fair, the gay, the noble,
+the winner of sequins and he who lost, struggled alike to catch a
+glimpse of the humble old man, who had so unexpectedly wrought this
+change of sentiment in the feelings of a multitude.
+
+Antonio bore his triumph meekly. When his gondola had reached the goal
+he checked its course, and, without discovering any of the usual signs
+of exhaustion, he remained standing, though the deep heaving of his
+broad and tawny chest proved that his powers had been taxed to their
+utmost. He smiled as the shouts arose on his ear, for praise is grateful
+even to the meek; still he seemed oppressed with an emotion of a
+character deeper than pride. Age had somewhat dimmed his eye, but it was
+now full of hope. His features worked, and a single burning drop fell
+on each rugged cheek. The fisherman then breathed more freely.
+
+Like his successful antagonist, the waterman of the mask betrayed none
+of the debility which usually succeeds great bodily exertion. His knees
+were motionless, his hands still grasped the oar firmly, and he too
+kept his feet with a steadiness that showed the physical perfection of
+his frame. On the other hand, both Gino and Bartolomeo sank in their
+respective boats as they gained the goal in succession; and so exhausted
+was each of these renowned gondoliers, that several moments elapsed
+before either had breath for speech. It was during this momentary pause
+that the multitude proclaimed its sympathy with the victor by their
+longest and loudest shouts. The noise had scarcely died away, however,
+before a herald summoned Antonio of the Lagunes, the masked waterman of
+the Blessed St. John of the Wilderness, and Gino the Calabrian, to the
+presence of the Doge, whose princely hand was to bestow the promised
+prizes of the regatta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  "We shall not spend a large expense of time,
+  Before we reckon with your several loves,
+  And make us even with you."
+                                  MACBETH.
+
+
+When the three gondolas reached the side of the Bucentaur, the fisherman
+hung back, as if he distrusted his right to intrude himself into the
+presence of the senate. He was, however, commanded to ascend, and signs
+were made for his two companions to follow.
+
+The nobles, clad in their attire of office, formed a long and imposing
+lane from the gangway to the stern, where the titular sovereign of that
+still more titular Republic was placed, in the centre of the high
+officers of state, gorgeous and grave in borrowed guise and natural
+qualities.
+
+"Approach," said the Prince, mildly, observing that the old and
+half-naked man that led the victors hesitated to advance. "Thou art the
+conqueror, fisherman, and to thy hands must I consign the prize."
+
+Antonio bent his knee to the deck, and bowed his head lowly ere he
+obeyed. Then taking courage, he drew nearer to the person of the Doge,
+where he stood with a bewildered eye and rebuked mien, waiting the
+further pleasure of his superiors. The aged Prince paused for stillness
+to succeed the slight movements created by curiosity. When he spoke, it
+was amid a perfect calm.
+
+"It is the boast of our glorious Republic," he said, "that the rights of
+none are disregarded; that the lowly receive their merited rewards as
+surely as the great; that St. Mark holds the balance with an even hand,
+and that this obscure fisherman, having deserved the honors of this
+regatta, will receive them with the same readiness on the part of him
+who bestows, as if he were the most favored follower of our own house.
+Nobles and burghers of Venice, learn to prize your excellent and equable
+laws in this occasion, for it is most in acts of familiar and common
+usage that the paternal character of a government is seen, since in
+matters of higher moment the eyes of a world impel a compliance with its
+own opinions."
+
+The Doge delivered these preliminary remarks in a firm tone, like one
+confident of his auditors' applause. He was not deceived. No sooner had
+he done, than a murmur of approbation passed through the assembly, and
+extended itself to thousands who were beyond the sound of his voice, and
+to more who were beyond the reach of his meaning. The senators bent
+their heads in acknowledgment of the justice of what their chief had
+uttered, and the latter, having waited to gather these signs of an
+approving loyalty, proceeded.
+
+"It is my duty, Antonio, and, being a duty, it hath become a pleasure to
+place around thy neck this golden chain. The oar which it bears is an
+emblem of thy skill; and among thy associates it will be a mark of the
+Republic's favor and impartiality, and of thy merit. Take it, then,
+vigorous old man, for though age hath thinned thy temples and furrowed
+thy cheek, it hath scarcely affected thy wonderful sinews and hardy
+courage!"
+
+"Highness!" observed Antonio, recoiling apace, when he found that he was
+expected to stoop, in order that the bauble might be bestowed, "I am not
+fit to bear about me such a sign of greatness and good fortune. The
+glitter of the gold would mock my poverty, and a jewel which comes from
+so princely a hand would be ill placed on a naked bosom."
+
+This unexpected refusal caused a general surprise, and a momentary
+pause.
+
+"Thou hast not entered on the struggle, fisherman, without a view to its
+prize? But thou sayest truly, the golden ornament would, indeed, but ill
+befit thy condition and daily wants. Wear it for the moment, since it is
+meet that all should know the justice and impartiality of our decisions,
+and bring it to my treasurer when the sports are done; he will make such
+an exchange as better suits thy wishes. There is precedent for this
+practice, and it shall be followed."
+
+"Illustrious Highness! I did not trust my old limbs in so hard a strife
+without hopes of a reward. But it was not gold, nor any vanity to be
+seen among my equals with that glittering jewel, that led me to meet the
+scorn of the gondoliers, and the displeasure of the great."
+
+"Thou art deceived, honest fisherman, if thou supposest that we regard
+thy just ambition with displeasure. We love to see a generous emulation
+among our people, and take all proper means to encourage those aspiring
+spirits who bring honor to a state, and fortune to our shores."
+
+"I pretend not to place my poor thoughts against those of my Prince,"
+answered the fisherman; "my fears and shame have led me to believe that
+it would give more pleasure to the noble and gay had a younger and
+happier borne away this honor."
+
+"Thou must not think this. Bend then thy knee, that I may bestow the
+prize. When the sun sets thou wilt find those in my palace who will
+relieve thee of the ornament at a just remuneration."
+
+"Highness!" said Antonio, looking earnestly at the Doge, who again
+arrested his movement in surprise, "I am old, and little wont to be
+spoilt by fortune. For my wants, the Lagunes, with the favor of the Holy
+St. Anthony, are sufficient; but it is in thy power to make the last
+days of an old man happy, and to have thy name remembered in many an
+honest and well meant prayer. Grant me back my child, forget the
+boldness of a heart-broken father!"
+
+"Is not this he who urged us with importunity concerning a youth that is
+gone into the service of the state?" exclaimed the Prince, across whose
+countenance passed that expression of habitual reserve which so often
+concealed the feelings of the man.
+
+"The same," returned a cold voice, which the ear of Antonio well knew
+came from the Signor Gradenigo.
+
+"Pity for thy ignorance, fisherman, represses our anger. Receive thy
+chain, and depart."
+
+Antonio's eye did not waver. He kneeled with an air of profound respect,
+and folding his hands on his bosom, he said--
+
+"Misery has made me bold, dread Prince! What I say comes from a heavy
+heart rather than from a licentious tongue, and I pray your royal ear to
+listen with indulgence."
+
+"Speak briefly, for the sports are delayed."
+
+"Mighty Doge! riches and poverty have caused a difference in our
+fortunes, which knowledge and ignorance have made wider. I am rude in my
+discourse, and little suited to this illustrious company. But, Signore,
+God hath given to the fisherman the same feelings, and the same love for
+his offspring, as he has given to a prince. Did I place dependence only
+on the aid of my poor learning, I should now be dumb, but there is a
+strength within that gives me courage to speak to the first and noblest
+in Venice in behalf of my child!"
+
+"Thou canst not impeach the senate's justice, old man, or utter aught in
+truth against the known impartiality of the laws?"
+
+"Sovrano mio! deign to listen, and you shall hear. I am what your eyes
+behold--a man, poor, laborious, and drawing near to the hour when he
+shall be called to the side of the blessed St. Anthony of Rimini, and
+stand in a presence even greater than this. I am not vain enough to
+think that my humble name is to be found among those of the patricians
+who have served the Republic in her wars--that is an honor which none
+but the great, and the noble, and the happy, can claim; but if the
+little I have done for my country is not in the Golden Book, it is
+written here," as Antonio spoke, he pointed to the scars on his
+half-naked form; "these are signs of the enmity of the Turk, and I now
+offer them as so many petitions to the bounty of the senate."
+
+"Thou speakest vaguely. What is thy will?"
+
+"Justice, mighty Prince. They have forced the only vigorous branch from
+the dying trunk--they have lopped the withering stem of its most
+promising shoot--they have exposed the sole companion of my labors and
+pleasures, the child to whom I have looked to close my eyes, when it
+shall please God to call me away, untaught, and young in lessons of
+honesty and virtue, a boy in principle as in years, to all the
+temptation, and sin, and dangerous companionship of the galleys!"
+
+"Is this all? I had thought thy gondola in the decay, or thy right to
+use the Lagunes in question!"
+
+"Is this all?" repeated Antonio, looking around him in bitter
+melancholy. "Doge of Venice, it is more than one, old, heart-stricken,
+and bereaved, can bear?"
+
+"Go to; take thy golden chain and oar, and depart among thy fellows in
+triumph. Gladden thy heart at a victory, on which thou could'st not, in
+reason, have counted, and leave the interests of the state to those that
+are wiser than thee, and more fitted to sustain its cares."
+
+The fisherman arose with an air of rebuked submission, the result of a
+long life passed in the habit of political deference; but he did not
+approach to receive the proffered reward.
+
+"Bend thy head, fisherman, that his Highness may bestow the prize,"
+commanded an officer.
+
+"I ask not for gold, nor any oar, but that which carries me to the
+Lagunes in the morning, and brings me back into the canals at night.
+Give me my child, or give me nothing."
+
+"Away with him!" muttered a dozen voices; "he utters sedition! let him
+quit the galley."
+
+Antonio was hurried from the presence, and forced into his gondola with
+very unequivocal signs of disgrace. This unwonted interruption of the
+ceremonies clouded many a brow, for the sensibilities of a Venetian
+noble were quick, indeed, to reprehend the immorality of political
+discontent, though the conventional dignity of the class suppressed all
+other ill-timed exhibition of dissatisfaction.
+
+"Let the next competitor draw near," continued the sovereign, with a
+composure that constant practice in dissimulation rendered easy.
+
+The unknown waterman to whose secret favor Antonio owed his success,
+approached, still concealed by the licensed mask.
+
+"Thou art the gainer of the second prize," said the Prince, "and were
+rigid justice done, thou should'st receive the first also, since our
+favor is not to be rejected with impunity. Kneel, that I may bestow the
+favor."
+
+"Highness, pardon!" observed the masker, bowing with great respect, but
+withdrawing a single step from the offered reward; "if it be your
+gracious will to grant a boon for the success of the regatta, I too have
+to pray that it may be given in another form."
+
+"This is unusual! It is not wont that prizes, offered by the hand of a
+Venetian Doge, should go a-begging."
+
+"I would not seem to press more than is respectful, in this great
+presence. I ask but little, and, in the end, it may cost the Republic
+less, than that which is now offered."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"I, too, and on my knee, in dutiful homage to the chief of the state,
+beg that the prayer of the old fisherman be heard, and that the father
+and son may be restored to each other, for the service will corrupt the
+tender years of the boy, and make the age of his parent miserable."
+
+"This touches on importunity! Who art thou, that comest in this hidden
+manner, to support a petition once refused?"
+
+"Highness--the second victor in the ducal regatta."
+
+"Dost trifle in thy answers? The protection of a mask, in all that does
+not tend to unsettle the peace of the city, is sacred. But here seemeth
+matter to be looked into. Remove thy disguise, that we see thee eye to
+eye."
+
+"I have heard that he who kept civil speech, and in naught offended
+against the laws, might be seen at will, disguised in Venice, without
+question of his affairs or name."
+
+"Most true, in all that does not offend St. Mark. But here is a concert
+worthy of inquiry: I command thee, unmask."
+
+The waterman, reading in every face around him the necessity of
+obedience, slowly withdrew the means of concealment, and discovered the
+pallid countenance and glittering eyes of Jacopo. An involuntary
+movement of all near, left this dreaded person standing singly,
+confronted with the Prince of Venice, in a wide circle of wondering and
+curious listeners.
+
+"I know thee not!" exclaimed the Doge, with an open amazement that
+proved his sincerity, after regarding the other earnestly for a moment.
+"Thy reasons for the disguise should be better than thy reasons for
+refusing the prize."
+
+The Signor Gradenigo drew near to the sovereign, and whispered in his
+ear. When he had done, the latter cast one look, in which curiosity and
+aversion were in singular union, at the marked countenance of the Bravo,
+and then he silently motioned to him to depart. The throng drew about
+the royal person with instinctive readiness, closing the space in his
+front.
+
+"We shall look into this at our leisure," said the Doge. "Let the
+festivities proceed."
+
+Jacopo bowed low, and withdrew. As he moved along the deck of the
+Bucentaur, the senators made way, as if pestilence was in his path,
+though it was quite apparent, by the expression of their faces, that it
+was in obedience to a feeling of a mixed character. The avoided, but
+still tolerated Bravo descended to his gondola, and the usual signals
+were given to the multitude beneath, who believed the customary
+ceremonies were ended.
+
+"Let the gondolier of Don Camillo Monforte stand forth," cried a herald,
+obedient to the beck of a superior.
+
+"Highness, here," answered Gino, troubled and hurried.
+
+"Thou art of Calabria?"
+
+"Highness, yes."
+
+"But of long practice on our Venetian canals or thy gondola could never
+have outstripped those of the readiest oarsmen. Thou servest a noble
+master?"
+
+"Highness, yes."
+
+"And it would seem that the Duke of St. Agata is happy in the possession
+of an honest and faithful follower?"
+
+"Highness, too happy."
+
+"Kneel, and receive the reward of thy resolution and skill."
+
+Gino, unlike those who had preceded him, bent a willing knee to the
+deck, and took the prize with a low and humble inclination of the body.
+At this moment the attention of the spectators was drawn from the short
+and simple ceremony by a loud shout, which arose from the water at no
+great distance from the privileged bark of the senate. A common movement
+drew all to the side of the galley, and the successful gondolier was
+quickly forgotten.
+
+A hundred boats were moving in a body towards the Lido, while the space
+they covered on the water presented one compact mass of the red caps of
+fishermen. In the midst of this marine picture was seen the bare head of
+Antonio, borne along in the floating multitude, without any effort of
+his own. The general impulsion was received from the vigorous arms of
+some thirty or forty of their number, who towed those in the rear by
+applying their force to three or four large gondolas in advance.
+
+There was no mistaking the object of this singular and characteristic
+procession. The tenants of the Lagunes, with the fickleness with which
+extreme ignorance acts on human passions, had suddenly experienced a
+violent revolution in their feelings towards their ancient comrade. He
+who, an hour before, had been derided as a vain and ridiculous
+pretender, and on whose head bitter imprecations had been so lavishly
+poured, was now lauded with cries of triumph.
+
+The gondoliers of the canals were laughed to scorn, and the ears of even
+the haughty nobles were not respected, as the exulting band taunted
+their pampered menials.
+
+In short, by a process which is common enough with man in all the
+divisions and subdivisions of society, the merit of one was at once
+intimately and inseparably connected with the glory and exultation of
+all.
+
+Had the triumph of the fishermen confined itself to this natural and
+commonplace exhibition, it would not have given grave offence to the
+vigilant and jealous power that watched over the peace of Venice. But
+amid the shouts of approbation were mingled cries of censure. Words of
+grave import were even heard, denouncing those who refused to restore to
+Antonio his child; and it was whispered on the deck of the Bucentaur,
+that, filled with the imaginary importance of their passing victory, the
+hardy band of rioters had dared to menace a forcible appeal, to obtain
+what they audaciously termed the justice of the case.
+
+This ebullition of popular feeling was witnessed by the assembled
+senate in ominous and brooding silence. One unaccustomed to reflection
+on such a subject, or unpractised in the world, might have fancied alarm
+and uneasiness were painted on the grave countenances of the patricians,
+and that the signs of the times were little favorable to the continuance
+of an ascendency that was dependent more on the force of convention than
+on the possession of any physical superiority. But, on the other hand,
+one who was capable of judging between the power of political
+ascendency, strengthened by its combinations and order, and the mere
+ebullitions of passion, however loud and clamorous, might readily have
+seen that the latter was not yet displayed in sufficient energy to break
+down the barriers which the first had erected.
+
+The fishermen were permitted to go their way unmolested, though here and
+there a gondola was seen stealing towards the Lido, bearing certain of
+those secret agents of the police whose duty it was to forewarn the
+existing powers of the presence of danger. Among the latter was the boat
+of the wine-seller, which departed from the Piazzetta, containing a
+stock of his merchandise, with Annina, under the pretence of making his
+profit out of the present turbulent temper of their ordinary customers.
+In the meantime, the sports proceeded, and the momentary interruption
+was forgotten; or, if remembered, it was in a manner suited to the
+secret and fearful power which directed the destinies of that remarkable
+republic.
+
+There as another regatta, in which men of inferior powers contended, but
+we deem it unworthy to detain the narrative by a description.
+
+Though the grave tenants of the Bucentaur seemed to take an interest in
+what was passing immediately before their eyes, they had ears for every
+shout that was borne on the evening breeze from the distant Lido; and
+more than once the Doge himself was seen to bend his looks in that
+direction, in a manner which betrayed the concern that was uppermost in
+his mind.
+
+Still the day passed on as usual. The conquerors triumphed, the crowd
+applauded, and the collected senate appeared to sympathize with the
+pleasures of a people, over whom they ruled with a certainty of power
+that resembled the fearful and mysterious march of destiny.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  "Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?"
+                                         SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+The evening of such a day, in a city with the habits of Venice, was not
+likely to be spent in the dulness of retirement. The great square of St.
+Mark was again filled with its active and motley crowd, and the scenes
+already described in the opening chapters of this work were resumed, if
+possible, with more apparent devotion to the levities of the hour, than
+on the occasion mentioned. The tumblers and jugglers renewed their
+antics, the cries of the fruit-sellers and other venders of light
+luxuries were again mingled with the tones of the flute and the notes of
+the guitar and harp; while the idle and the busy, the thoughtless and
+the designing, the conspirator and the agent of the police, once more
+met in privileged security.
+
+The night had advanced, beyond its turn, when a gondola came gliding
+through the shipping of the port with that easy and swan-like motion
+which is peculiar to its slow movement, and touched the quay with its
+beak, at the point where the canal of St. Mark forms its junction with
+the bay.
+
+"Thou art welcome, Antonio," said one, who approached the solitary
+individual that had directed the gondola, when the latter had thrust the
+iron spike of his painter between the crevices of the stones, as
+gondoliers are accustomed to secure their barges; "thou art welcome,
+Antonio, though late."
+
+"I begin to know the sounds of that voice, though they come from a
+masked face," said the fisherman. "Friend, I owe my success to-day to
+thy kindness, and though it has not had the end for which I had both
+hoped and prayed, I ought not to thank thee less. Thou hast thyself been
+borne hard upon by the world, or thou would'st not have bethought thee
+of an old and despised man, when the shouts of triumph were ringing in
+thy ear, and when thy own young blood was stirred with the feelings of
+pride and victory."
+
+"Nature gives thee strong language, fisherman. I have not passed the
+hours, truly, in the games and levities of my years. Life has been no
+festa to me--but no matter. The senate was not pleased to hear of
+lessening the number of the galleys' crew, and thou wilt bethink thee of
+some other reward. I have here the chain and golden oar in the hope that
+it will still be welcome."
+
+Antonio looked amazed, but, yielding to a natural curiosity, he gazed a
+moment with a longing at the prize. Then recoiling with a shudder, he
+uttered moodily, and with the tones of one whose determination was made:
+"I should think the bauble coined of my grandchild's blood! Keep it;
+they have trusted it to thee, for it is thine of right, and now that
+they refuse to hear my prayer, it will be useless to all but to him who
+fairly earned it."
+
+"Thou makest no allowance, fisherman, for difference of years and for
+sinews that are in their vigor. Methinks that in adjudging such a prize,
+thought should be had to these matters, and then wouldest thou be found
+outstripping us all. Holy St. Theodore! I passed my childhood with the
+oar in hand, and never before have I met one in Venice who has driven my
+gondola so hard! Thou touchest the water with the delicacy of a lady
+fingering her harp, and yet with the force of the wave rolling on the
+Lido!"
+
+"I have seen the hour, Jacopo, when even thy young arm would have tired
+in such a strife between us. That was before the birth of my eldest son,
+who died in battle with the Ottoman, when the dear boy he left me was
+but an infant in arms. Thou never sawest the comely lad, good Jacopo?"
+
+"I was not so happy, old man; but if he resembled thee, well mayest thou
+mourn his loss. Body of Diana! I have little cause to boast of the small
+advantage youth and strength gave me."
+
+"There was a force within that bore me and the boat on, but of what use
+hath it been? Thy kindness and the pain given to an old frame, that hath
+been long racked by hardship and poverty, are both thrown away on the
+rocky hearts of the nobles."
+
+"We know not yet, Antonio. The good saints will hear our prayers, when
+we least think they are listening. Come with me, for I am sent to seek
+thee."
+
+The fisherman regarded his new acquaintance with surprise, and then
+turning to bestow an instant of habitual care on his boat, he cheerfully
+professed himself ready to proceed. The place where they stood was a
+little apart from the thoroughfare of the quays, and though there was a
+brilliant moon, the circumstance of two men in their garbs being there,
+was not likely to attract observation; but Jacopo did not appear to be
+satisfied with this security from remark. He waited until Antonio had
+left the gondola, and then unfolding a cloak, which had lain on his arm,
+he threw it, without asking permission, over the shoulders of the other.
+A cap, like that he wore himself, was next produced, and being placed on
+the grey hairs of the fisherman, effectually completed his
+metamorphosis.
+
+"There is no need of a mask," he said, examining his companion
+attentively, when his task was accomplished. "None would know thee,
+Antonio, in this garb."
+
+"And is there need of what thou hast done, Jacopo? I owe thee thanks for
+a well meant, and, but for the hardness of heart of the rich and
+powerful, for what would have proved a great kindness. Still I must
+tell thee that a mask was never yet put before my face; for what reason
+can there be why one who rises with the sun to go to his toil, who
+trusteth to the favor of the blessed St. Anthony for the little he hath,
+should go abroad like a gallant, ready to steal the good name of a
+virgin, or a robber at night?"
+
+"Thou knowest our Venetian custom, and it may be well to use some
+caution in the business we are on."
+
+"Thou forgettest that thy intention is yet a secret to me. I say it
+again, and I say it with truth and gratitude, that I owe thee many
+thanks, though the end is defeated, and the boy is still a prisoner in
+the floating-school of wickedness; but thou hast a name, Jacopo, that I
+could wish did not belong to thee. I find it hard to believe all that
+they have this day said on the Lido, of one who has so much feeling for
+the weak and wronged."
+
+The Bravo ceased to adjust the disguise of his companion, and the
+profound stillness which succeeded his remark proved so painful to
+Antonio, that he felt like one reprieved from suffocation, when he heard
+the deep respiration that announced the relief of his companion.
+
+"I would not willingly say--"
+
+"No matter," interrupted Jacopo, in a hollow voice. "No matter,
+fisherman; we will speak of these things on some other occasion. At
+present, follow, and be silent."
+
+As he ceased, the self-appointed guide of Antonio beckoned for the
+latter to come on, when he led the way from the water side. The
+fisherman obeyed; for little did it matter to one poor and
+heart-stricken as he, whither he was conducted. Jacopo took the first
+entrance into the court of the Doge's palace. His footstep was
+leisurely, and to the passing multitude they appeared like any others of
+the thousands who were abroad to breathe the soft air of the night, or
+to enter into the pleasures of the piazza.
+
+When within the dimmer and broken light of the court, Jacopo paused,
+evidently to scan the persons of those it contained. It is to be
+presumed he saw no reason to delay, for with a secret sign to his
+companion to follow, he crossed the area, and mounted the well known
+steps, down which the head of the Faliero had rolled, and which, from
+the statues on the summit, is called the Giant's Stairs. The celebrated
+mouths of the lions were passed, and they were walking swiftly along the
+open gallery when they encountered a halberdier of the ducal guard.
+
+"Who comes?" demanded the mercenary, throwing forward his long and
+dangerous weapon.
+
+"Friends to the state and to St. Mark."
+
+"None pass at this hour without the word."
+
+Jacopo motioned to Antonio to stand fast, while he drew nearer to the
+halberdier and whispered. The weapon was instantly thrown up, and the
+sentinel again paced the long gallery with practised indifference. The
+way was no sooner cleared than they proceeded. Antonio, not a little
+amazed at what he had already seen, eagerly followed his guide, for his
+heart began to beat high with an exciting but undefined hope. He was not
+so ignorant of human affairs as to require to be told that those who
+ruled would sometimes concede that in secret which policy forbade them
+to yield openly. Full, therefore, of the expectation of being ushered
+into the presence of the Doge himself, and of having his child restored
+to his arms, the old man stepped lightly along the gloomy gallery, and
+darting through an entrance, at the heels of Jacopo, he found himself at
+the foot of another flight of massive steps. The route now became
+confused to the fisherman, for, quitting the more public vomitories of
+the palace, his companion held his way by a secret door, through many
+dimly lighted and obscure passages. They ascended and descended
+frequently, as often quitting or entering rooms of but ordinary
+dimensions and decorations, until the head of Antonio was completely
+turned, and he no longer knew the general direction of their course. At
+length they stopped in an apartment of inferior ornaments, and of a
+dusky color, which the feeble light rendered still more gloomy.
+
+"Thou art well acquainted with the dwelling of our prince," said the
+fisherman, when his companion enabled him to speak, by checking his
+swift movements. "The oldest gondolier of Venice is not more ready on
+the canals, than thou appearest to be among these galleries and
+corridors."
+
+"'Tis my business to bring thee hither, and what I am to do, I endeavor
+to do well. Antonio, thou art a man that feareth not to stand in the
+presence of the great, as this day hath shown. Summon thy courage, for a
+moment of trial is before thee."
+
+"I have spoken boldly to the Doge. Except the Holy Father himself, what
+power is there on earth besides to fear?"
+
+"Thou mayest have spoken, fisherman, too boldly. Temper thy language,
+for the great love not words of disrespect."
+
+"Is truth unpleasant to them?"
+
+"That is as may be. They love to hear their own acts praised, when their
+acts have merited praise, but they do not like to hear them condemned,
+even though they know what is said to be just."
+
+"I fear me," said the old man, looking with simplicity at the other,
+"there is little difference between the powerful and the weak, when the
+garments are stripped from both, and the man stands naked to the eye."
+
+"That truth may not be spoken here."
+
+"How! Do they deny that they are Christians, and mortals, and sinners?"
+
+"They make a merit of the first, Antonio--they forget the second, and
+they never like to be called the last by any but themselves."
+
+"I doubt, Jacopo, after all, if I get from them the freedom of the
+boy."
+
+"Speak them fair, and say naught to wound their self-esteem, or to
+menace their authority--they will pardon much, if the last, in
+particular, be respected."
+
+"But it is that authority which has taken away my child! Can I speak in
+favor of the power which I know to be unjust?"
+
+"Thou must feign it, or thy suit will fail."
+
+"I will go back to the Lagunes, good Jacopo, for this tongue of mine
+hath ever moved at the bidding of the heart. I fear I am too old to say
+that a son may righteously be torn from the father by violence. Tell
+them, thou, from me, that I came thus far, in order to do them respect,
+but that, seeing the hopelessness of beseeching further, I have gone to
+my nets, and to my prayers to blessed St. Anthony."
+
+As he ceased speaking, Antonio wrung the hand of his motionless
+companion, and turned away, as if to retire. Two halberds fell to the
+level of his breast ere his foot had quitted the marble floor, and he
+now saw, for the first time, that armed men crossed his passage, and
+that, in truth, he was a prisoner. Nature had endowed the fisherman with
+a quick and just perception, and long habit had given great steadiness
+to his nerves. When he perceived his real situation, instead of entering
+into useless remonstrance, or in any manner betraying alarm, he again
+turned to Jacopo with an air of patience and resignation.
+
+"It must be that the illustrious Signore wish to do me justice," he
+said, smoothing the remnant of his hair, as men of his class prepare
+themselves for the presence of their superiors, "and it would not be
+decent in an humble fisherman to refuse them the opportunity. It would
+be better, however, if there were less force used here in Venice, in a
+matter of simple right and wrong. But the great love to show their
+power, and the weak must submit."
+
+"We shall see!" answered Jacopo, who had manifested no emotion during
+the abortive attempt of the other to retire.
+
+A profound stillness succeeded. The halberdiers maintained their rigid
+attitudes within the shadow of the wall, looking like two insensible
+statues in the attire and armor of the age, while Jacopo and his
+companion occupied the centre of the room with scarcely more of the
+appearance of consciousness and animation. It may be well to explain
+here to the reader some of the peculiar machinery of the State, in the
+country of which we write, and which is connected with the scene that is
+about to follow: for the name of a Republic, a word which, if it mean
+anything, strictly implies the representation and supremacy of the
+general interests, but which has so frequently been prostituted to the
+protection and monopolies of privileged classes, may have induced him to
+believe that there was at least a resemblance between the outlines of
+that government, and the more just, because more popular, institutions
+of his own country.
+
+In an age when rulers were profane enough to assert, and the ruled weak
+enough to allow, that the right of a man to govern his fellows was a
+direct gift from God, a departure from the bold and selfish principle,
+though it were only in profession, was thought sufficient to give a
+character of freedom and common sense to the polity of a nation. This
+belief is not without some justification, since it establishes in
+theory, at least, the foundations of government on a base sufficiently
+different from that which supposes all power to be the property of one,
+and that one to be the representative of the faultless and omnipotent
+Ruler of the Universe. With the first of these principles we have
+nothing to do, except it be to add that there are propositions so
+inherently false that they only require to be fairly stated to produce
+their own refutation; but our subject necessarily draws us into a short
+digression on the errors of the second as they existed in Venice.
+
+It is probable that when the patricians of St. Mark created a community
+of political rights in their own body, they believed their State had
+done all that was necessary to merit the high and generous title it
+assumed. They had innovated on a generally received principle, and they
+cannot claim the distinction of being either the first or the last who
+have imagined that to take the incipient steps in political improvement
+is at once to reach the goal of perfection. Venice had no doctrine of
+divine right, and as her prince was little more than a pageant, she
+boldly laid claim to be called a Republic. She believed that a
+representation of the most prominent and brilliant interests in society
+was the paramount object of government, and faithful to the seductive
+but dangerous error, she mistook to the last, collective power for
+social happiness.
+
+It may be taken as a governing principle, in all civil relations, that
+the strong will grow stronger and the feeble more weak, until the first
+become unfit to rule or the last unable to endure. In this important
+truth is contained the secret of the downfall of all those states which
+have crumbled beneath the weight of their own abuses. It teaches the
+necessity of widening the foundations of society until the base shall
+have a breadth capable of securing the just representation of every
+interest, without which the social machine is liable to interruption
+from its own movement, and eventually to destruction from its own
+excesses.
+
+Venice, though ambitious and tenacious of the name of a republic, was,
+in truth, a narrow, a vulgar, and an exceedingly heartless oligarchy. To
+the former title she had no other claim than her denial of the naked
+principle already mentioned, while her practice is liable to the
+reproach of the two latter, in the unmanly and narrow character of its
+exclusion, in every act of her foreign policy, and in every measure of
+her internal police. An aristocracy must ever want the high personal
+feeling which often tempers despotism by the qualities of the chief or
+the generous and human impulses of a popular rule. It has the merit of
+substituting things for men, it is true, but unhappily it substitutes
+the things of a few men for those of the whole. It partakes, and it
+always has partaken, though necessarily tempered by circumstances and
+the opinions of different ages, of the selfishness of all corporations
+in which the responsibility of the individual, while his acts are
+professedly submitted to the temporizing expedients of a collective
+interest, is lost in the subdivision of numbers. At the period of which
+we write, Italy had several of these self-styled commonwealths, in not
+one of which, however, was there ever a fair and just confiding of power
+to the body of the people, though perhaps there is not one that has not
+been cited sooner or later in proof of the inability of man to govern
+himself! In order to demonstrate the fallacy of a reasoning which is so
+fond of predicting the downfall of our own liberal system, supported by
+examples drawn from transatlantic states of the middle ages, it is
+necessary only to recount here a little in detail the forms in which
+power was obtained and exercised in the most important of them all.
+
+Distinctions in rank, as separated entirely from the will of the nation,
+formed the basis of Venetian polity. Authority, though divided, was not
+less a birthright than in those governments in which it was openly
+avowed to be a dispensation of Providence. The patrician order had its
+high and exclusive privileges, which were guarded and maintained with a
+most selfish and engrossing spirit. He who was not born to govern, had
+little hope of ever entering into the possession of his natural rights:
+while he who was, by the intervention of chance, might wield a power of
+the most fearful and despotic character. At a certain age all of
+senatorial rank (for, by a specious fallacy, nobility did not take its
+usual appellations) were admitted into the councils of the nation. The
+names of the leading families were inscribed in a register, which was
+well entitled the "Golden Book," and he who enjoyed the envied
+distinction of having an ancestor thus enrolled could, with a few
+exceptions (such as that named in the case of Don Camillo), present
+himself in the senate and lay claim to the honors of the "Horned
+Bonnet." Neither our limits nor our object will permit a digression of
+sufficient length to point out the whole of the leading features of a
+system so vicious, and which was, perhaps, only rendered tolerable to
+those it governed by the extraneous contributions of captured and
+subsidiary provinces, of which in truth, as in all cases of metropolitan
+rule, the oppression weighed most grievously. The reader will at once
+see that the very reason why the despotism of the self-styled Republic
+was tolerable to its own citizens was but another cause of its eventual
+destruction.
+
+As the senate became too numerous to conduct with sufficient secresy and
+dispatch the affairs of a state that pursued a policy alike tortuous and
+complicated, the most general of its important interests were intrusted
+to a council composed of three hundred of its members. In order to avoid
+the publicity and delay of a body large even as this, a second selection
+was made, which was known as the Council of Ten, and to which much of
+the executive power that aristocratical jealousy withheld from the
+titular chief of the state, was confided. To this point the political
+economy of the Venetian Republic, however faulty, had at least some
+merit for simplicity and frankness. The ostensible agents of the
+administration were known, and though all real responsibility to the
+nation was lost in the superior influence and narrow policy of the
+patricians, the rulers could not entirely escape from the odium that
+public opinion might attach to their unjust or illegal proceedings. But
+a state whose prosperity was chiefly founded on the contribution and
+support of dependants, and whose existence was equally menaced by its
+own false principles, and by the growth of other and neighboring
+powers, had need of a still more efficient body in the absence of that
+executive which its own Republican pretensions denied to Venice. A
+political inquisition, which came in time to be one of the most fearful
+engines of police ever known, was the consequence. An authority as
+irresponsible as it was absolute, was periodically confided to another
+and still smaller body, which met and exercised its despotic and secret
+functions under the name of the Council of Three. The choice of these
+temporary rulers was decided by lot, and in a manner that prevented the
+result from being known to any but to their own number and to a few of
+the most confidential of the more permanent officers of the government.
+Thus there existed at all times in the heart of Venice a mysterious and
+despotic power that was wielded by men who moved in society unknown, and
+apparently surrounded by all the ordinary charities of life; but which,
+in truth, was influenced by a set of political maxims that were perhaps
+as ruthless, as tyrannic, and as selfish, as ever were invented by the
+evil ingenuity of man. It was, in short, a power that could only be
+intrusted, without abuse, to infallible virtue and infinite
+intelligence, using the terms in a sense limited by human means; and yet
+it was here confided to men whose title was founded on the double
+accident of birth, and the colors of balls, and by whom it was wielded
+without even the check of publicity.
+
+The Council of Three met in secret, ordinarily issued its decrees
+without communicating with any other body, and had them enforced with a
+fearfulness of mystery, and a suddenness of execution, that resembled
+the blows of fate. The Doge himself was not superior to its authority,
+nor protected from its decisions, while it has been known that one of
+the privileged three has been denounced by his companions. There is
+still in existence a long list of the state maxims which this secret
+tribunal recognised as its rule of conduct, and it is not saying too
+much to affirm, that they set at defiance every other consideration but
+expediency,--all the recognised laws of God, and every principle of
+justice, which is esteemed among men. The advances of the human
+intellect, supported by the means of publicity, may temper the exercise
+of a similar irresponsible power, in our own age; but in no country has
+this substitution of a soulless corporation for an elective
+representation, been made, in which a system of rule has not been
+established, that sets at naught the laws of natural justice and the
+rights of the citizen. Any pretension to the contrary, by placing
+profession in opposition to practice, is only adding hypocrisy to
+usurpation.
+
+It appears to be an unavoidable general consequence that abuses should
+follow, when power is exercised by a permanent and irresponsible body,
+from whom there is no appeal. When this power is secretly exercised, the
+abuses become still more grave. It is also worthy of remark, that in the
+nations which submit, or have submitted, to these undue and dangerous
+influences, the pretensions to justice and generosity are of the most
+exaggerated character; for while the fearless democrat vents his
+personal complaints aloud, and the voice of the subject of professed
+despotism is smothered entirely, necessity itself dictates to the
+oligarchist the policy of seemliness, as one of the conditions of his
+own safety. Thus Venice prided herself on the justice of St. Mark, and
+few states maintained a greater show or put forth a more lofty claim to
+the possession of the sacred quality, than that whose real maxims of
+government were veiled in a mystery that even the loose morality of the
+age exacted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  "A power that if but named
+  In casual converse, be it where it might,
+  The speaker lowered at once his voice, his eyes,
+  And pointed upward as at God in heaven."
+                                   ROGERS.
+
+
+The reader has probably anticipated, that Antonio was now standing in an
+antechamber of the secret and stern tribunal described in the preceding
+chapter. In common with all of his class, the fisherman had a vague idea
+of the existence, and of the attributes, of the council before which he
+was to appear; but his simple apprehension was far from comprehending
+the extent or the nature of functions that equally took cognizance of
+the most important interests of the Republic, and of the more trifling
+concerns of a patrician family. While conjectures on the probable result
+of the expected interview were passing through his mind, an inner door
+opened, and an attendant signed for Jacopo to advance.
+
+The deep and imposing silence which instantly succeeded the entrance of
+the summoned into the presence of the Council of Three, gave time for a
+slight examination of the apartment and of those it contained. The room
+was not large for that country and climate, but rather of a size suited
+to the closeness of the councils that had place within its walls. The
+floor was tessellated with alternate pieces of black and white marble;
+the walls were draped in one common and sombre dress of black cloth; a
+single lamp of dark bronze was suspended over a solitary table in its
+centre, which, like every other article of the scanty furniture, had
+the same melancholy covering as the walls. In the angles of the room
+there were projecting closets, which might have been what they seemed,
+or merely passages into the other apartments of the palace. All the
+doors were concealed from casual observation by the hangings, which gave
+one general and chilling aspect of gloom to the whole scene. On the side
+of the room opposite to that on which Antonio stood, three men were
+seated in curule chairs; but their masks, and the drapery which
+concealed their forms, prevented all recognition of their persons. One
+of this powerful body wore a robe of crimson, as the representative that
+fortune had given to the select council of the Doge, and the others
+robes of black, being those which had drawn the lucky, or rather the
+unlucky balls, in the Council of Ten, itself a temporary and
+chance-created body of the senate. There were one or two subordinates
+near the table, but these, as well as the still more humble officials of
+the place, were hidden from all ordinary knowledge, by disguises similar
+to those of the chiefs. Jacopo regarded the scene like one accustomed to
+its effect, though with evident reverence and awe; but the impression on
+Antonio was too manifest to be lost. It is probable that the long pause
+which followed his introduction was intended to produce, and to note
+this effect, for keen eyes were intently watching his countenance during
+its continuance.
+
+"Thou art called Antonio of the Lagunes?" demanded one of the
+secretaries near the table, when a sign had been secretly made from the
+crimson member of that fearful tribunal to proceed.
+
+"A poor fisherman, eccellenza, who owes much to blessed Saint Antonio of
+the Miraculous Draught."
+
+"And thou hast a son who bears thine own name, and who follows the same
+pursuit?"
+
+"It is the duty of a Christian to submit to the will of God! My boy has
+been dead twelve years, come the day when the Republic's galleys chased
+the infidel from Corfu to Candia. He was slain, noble Signore, with
+many others of his calling, in that bloody fight."
+
+There was a movement of surprise among the clerks, who whispered
+together, and appeared to examine the papers in their hands with some
+haste and confusion. Glances were sent back at the judges, who sate
+motionless, wrapped in the impenetrable mystery of their functions. A
+secret sign, however, soon caused the armed attendants of the place to
+lead Antonio and his companion from the room.
+
+"Here is some inadvertency!" said a stern voice, from one of the masked
+Three, so soon as the fall of the footsteps of those who retired was no
+longer audible. "It is not seemly that the inquisition of St. Mark
+should show this ignorance."
+
+"It touches merely the family of an obscure fisherman, illustrious
+Signore," returned the trembling dependant; "and it may be that his art
+would wish to deceive us in the opening interrogatories."
+
+"Thou art in error," interrupted another of the Three. "The man is named
+Antonio Vecchio, and, as he sayeth, his only child died in the hot
+affair with the Ottoman. He of whom there is question is a grandson, and
+still a boy."
+
+"The noble Signore is right!" returned the clerk--"In the hurry of
+affairs, we have misconceived a fact, which the wisdom of the council
+has been quick to rectify. St. Mark is happy in having among his
+proudest and oldest names, senators who enter thus familiarly into the
+interests of his meanest children!"
+
+"Let the man be again introduced," resumed the judge, slightly bending
+his head to the compliment. "These accidents are unavoidable in the
+press of affairs."
+
+The necessary order was given, and Antonio, with his companion
+constantly at his elbow, was brought once more into the presence.
+
+"Thy son died in the service of the Republic, Antonio?" demanded the
+secretary.
+
+"Signore, he did. Holy Maria have pity on his early fate, and listen to
+my prayers! So good a child and so brave a man can have no great need of
+masses for his soul, or his death would have been doubly grievous to me,
+since I am too poor to buy them."
+
+"Thou hast a grandson?"
+
+"I had one, noble senator; I hope he still lives."
+
+"He is not with thee in thy labors on the Lagunes?"
+
+"San Teodoro grant that he were! he is taken, Signore, with many more of
+tender years, into the galleys, whence may our Lady give him a save
+deliverance! If your eccellenza has an opportunity to speak with the
+general of the galleys, or with any other who may have authority in such
+a matter, on my knees I pray you to speak in behalf of the child, who is
+a good and pious lad, that seldom casts a line into the water without an
+ave or a prayer to St. Anthony, and who has never given me uneasiness,
+until he fell into the grip of St. Mark."
+
+"Rise--this is not the affair in which I have to question thee. Thou
+hast this day spoken of thy prayer to our most illustrious prince, the
+Doge?"
+
+"I have prayed his highness to give the boy liberty."
+
+"And this thou hast done openly, and with little deference to the high
+dignity and sacred character of the chief of the Republic?"
+
+"I did it like a father and a man. If but half what they say of the
+justice and kindness of the state were true, his highness would have
+heard me as a father and a man."
+
+A slight movement among the fearful Three caused the secretary to pause;
+when he saw, however, that his superiors chose to maintain their
+silence, he continued--
+
+"This didst thou once in public and among the senators, but when
+repulsed, as urging a petition both out of place and out of reason, thou
+soughtest other to prefer thy request?"
+
+"True, illustrious Signore."
+
+"Thou camest among the gondoliers of the regatta in an unseemly garb,
+and placed thyself foremost with those who contended for the favor of
+the senate and its prince?"
+
+"I came in the garb which I wear before the Virgin and St. Antonio, and
+if I was foremost in the race, it was more owing to the goodness and
+favor of the man at my side, than any virtue which is still left in
+these withered sinews and dried bones. San Marco remember him in his
+need, for the kind wish, and soften the hearts of the great to hear the
+prayer of a childless parent!"
+
+There was another slight expression of surprise or curiosity among the
+inquisitors, and once more the secretary suspended his examination.
+
+"Thou hearest, Jacopo," said one of the Three. "What answer dost thou
+make the fisherman?"
+
+"Signore, he speaketh truth."
+
+"And thou hast dared to trifle with the pleasures of the city, and to
+set at naught the wishes of the Doge!"
+
+"If it be a crime, illustrious senator, to have pitied an old man who
+mourned for his offspring, and to have given up my own solitary triumph
+to his love for the boy, I am guilty."
+
+There was along and silent pause after his reply. Jacopo had spoken with
+habitual reverence, but with the grave composure that appeared to enter
+deeply into the composition of his character. The paleness of the cheek
+was the same, and the glowing eye which so singularly lighted and
+animated a countenance that possessed a hue not unlike that of death,
+scarce varied its gaze while he answered. A secret sign caused the
+secretary to proceed with his duty.
+
+"And thou owest thy success in the regatta, Antonio, to the favor of thy
+competitor--he who is now with thee in the presence of the council?"
+
+"Under San Teodoro and St. Antonio, the city's patron and my own."
+
+"And thy whole desire was to urge again thy rejected petition in behalf
+of the young sailor?"
+
+"Signore, I had no other. What is the vanity of a triumph among the
+gondoliers, or the bauble of a mimic oar and chain, to one of my years
+and condition?"
+
+"Thou forgettest that the oar and chain are gold?"
+
+"Excellent gentlemen, gold cannot heal the wounds which misery has left
+on a heavy heart. Give me back the child, that my eyes may not be closed
+by strangers, and that I may speak good counsel into his young ears,
+while there is hope my words may be remembered, and I care not for all
+the metals of the Rialto! Thou mayest see that I utter no vain vaunt, by
+this jewel, which I offer to the nobles with the reverence due to their
+greatness and wisdom."
+
+When the fisherman had done speaking, he advanced with the timid step of
+a man unaccustomed to move in superior presences, and laid upon the dark
+cloth of the table a ring that sparkled with what at least seemed to be
+very precious stones. The astonished secretary raised the jewel, and
+held it in suspense before the eyes of the judges.
+
+"How is this?" exclaimed he of the Three, who had oftenest interfered in
+the examination; "that seemeth the pledge of our nuptials!"
+
+"It is no other, illustrious senator: with this ring did the Doge wed
+the Adriatic, in the presence of the ambassadors and the people."
+
+"Hadst thou aught to do with this, also, Jacopo?" sternly demanded the
+judge.
+
+The Bravo turned his eye on the jewel with a look of interest, but his
+voice maintained its usual depth and steadiness as he answered--
+
+"Signore, no--until now, I knew not the fortune of the fisherman."
+
+A sign to the secretary caused him to resume his questions.
+
+"Thou must account and clearly account, Antonio," he said, "for the
+manner in which the sacred ring came into thy possession; hadst thou any
+one to aid thee in obtaining it?"
+
+"Signore, I had."
+
+"Name him at once, that we take measures for his security."
+
+"'Twill be useless, Signore; he is far above the power of Venice."
+
+"What meanest thou, fellow? None are superior to the right and the force
+of the Republic that dwell within her limits. Answer without evasion, as
+thou valuest thy person."
+
+"I should prize that which is of little value, Signore, and be guilty of
+a great folly as well as of a great sin, were I to deceive you to save a
+body old and worthless as mine from stripes. If your excellencies are
+willing to hear, you will find that I am no less willing to tell the
+manner in which I got the ring."
+
+"Speak, then, and trifle not."
+
+"I know not, Signori, whether you are used to hearing untruths, that you
+caution me so much not to deal with them; but we of the Lagunes are not
+afraid to say what we have seen and done, for most of our business is
+with the winds and waves, which take their orders from God himself.
+There is a tradition, Signori, among us fishermen, that in times past,
+one of our body brought up from the bay the ring with which the Doge is
+accustomed to marry the Adriatic. A jewel of that value was of little
+use to one who casts his nets daily for bread and oil, and he brought it
+to the Doge, as became a fisherman into whose hands the saints had
+thrown a prize to which he had no title, as it were to prove his
+honesty. This act of our companion is much spoken of on the Lagunes and
+at the Lido, and it is said there is a noble painting done by some of
+our Venetian masters, in the halls of the palace, which tells the story
+as it happened, showing the prince on his throne, and the lucky
+fisherman with his naked legs rendering back to his highness that which
+had been lost. I hope there is foundation for this belief, Signore,
+which greatly flatters our pride, and is not without use in keeping some
+among us truer to the right, and better favored in the eyes of St.
+Anthony than might otherwise be."
+
+"The fact was so."
+
+"And the painting, excellent Signore? I hope our vanity has not deceived
+us concerning the picture, neither?"
+
+"The picture you mention is to be seen within the palace."
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! I have had my misgivings on that point, for it is not
+common that the rich and happy should take such note of what the humble
+and the poor have done. Is the work from the hands of the great Tiziana
+himself, eccellenza?"
+
+"It is not; one of little name hath put his pencil to the canvas."
+
+"They say that Tiziano had the art of giving to his work the look and
+richness of flesh, and one would think that a just man might find, in
+the honesty of the poor fisherman, a color bright enough to have
+satisfied even his eye. But it may be that the senate saw danger in thus
+flattering us of the Lagunes."
+
+"Proceed with the account of thine own fortune with the ring."
+
+"Illustrious nobles, I have often dreamed of the luck of my fellow of
+the old times; and more than once have I drawn the nets with an eager
+hand in my sleep, thinking to find that very jewel entangled in its
+meshes, or embowelled by some fish. What I have so often fancied has at
+last happened. I am an old man, Signore, and there are few pools or
+banks between Fusina and Giorgio, that my lines of my nets have not
+fathomed or covered. The spot to which the Bucentoro is wont to steer in
+these ceremonies is well known to me, and I had a care to cover the
+bottom round about with all my nets in the hope of drawing up the ring.
+When his highness cast the jewel, I dropped a buoy to mark the
+spot--Signore, this is all--my accomplice was St. Anthony."
+
+"For doing this you had a motive?"
+
+"Holy Mother of God! Was it not sufficient to get back my boy from the
+gripe of the galleys?" exclaimed Antonio, with an energy and a
+simplicity that are often found to be in the same character. "I thought
+that if the Doge and the senate were willing to cause pictures to be
+painted, and honors to be given to one poor fisherman for the ring, they
+might be glad to reward another, by releasing a lad who can be of no
+great service to the Republic, but who is all to his parent."
+
+"Thy petition to his Highness, thy strife in the regatta, and thy search
+for the ring, had the same object?"
+
+"To me, Signore, life has but one."
+
+There was a slight but suppressed movement among the council.
+
+"When thy request was refused by his Highness as ill-timed--"
+
+"Ah! eccellenza, when one has a white head and a failing arm, he cannot
+stop to look for the proper moment in such a cause!" interrupted the
+fisherman, with a gleam of that impetuosity which forms the true base of
+Italian character.
+
+"When thy request was denied, and thou hadst refused the reward of the
+victor, thou went among thy fellows and fed their ears with complaints
+of the injustice of St. Mark, and of the senate's tyranny?"
+
+"Signore, no. I went away sad and heart-broken, for I had not thought
+the Doge and nobles would have refused a successful gondolier so light a
+boon."
+
+"And this thou didst not hesitate to proclaim among the fishermen and
+idlers of the Lido?"
+
+"Eccellenza, it was not needed--my fellows knew my unhappiness, and
+tongues were not wanting to tell the worst."
+
+"There was a tumult, with thee at its head, and sedition was uttered,
+with much vain-boasting of what the fleet of the Lagunes could perform
+against the fleet of the Republic."
+
+"There is little difference, Signore, between the two, except that the
+men of the one go in gondolas with nets, and the men of the other are in
+the galleys of the state. Why should brothers seek each other's blood?"
+
+The movement among the judges was more manifest than ever. They
+whispered together, and a paper containing a few lines rapidly written
+in pencil, was put into the hands of the examining secretary.
+
+"Thou didst address thy fellows, and spoke openly of thy fancied wrongs;
+thou didst comment on the laws which require the services of the
+citizens, when the Republic is compelled to send forth a fleet against
+its enemies."
+
+"It is not easy to be silent, Signore, when the heart is full."
+
+"And there was a consultation among thee of coming to the palace in a
+body, and of asking the discharge of thy grandson from the Doge, in the
+name of the rabble of the Lido."
+
+"Signore, there were some generous enough to make the offer, but others
+were of advice it would be well to reflect before they took so bold a
+measure."
+
+"And thou--what was thine own counsel on that point?"
+
+"Eccellenza, I am old, and though unused to be thus questioned by
+illustrious senators, I had seen enough of the manner in which St. Mark
+governs, to believe a few unarmed fishermen and gondoliers would not be
+listened to with--"
+
+"Ha! Did the gondoliers become of thy party? I should have believed
+them jealous, and displeased with the triumph of one who was not of
+their body."
+
+"A gondolier is a man, and though they had the feelings of human nature
+on being beaten, they had also the feelings of human nature when they
+heard that a father was robbed of his son--Signore," continued Antonio,
+with great earnestness and a singular simplicity, "there will be great
+discontent on the canals, if the galleys sail with the boy aboard them!"
+
+"Such is thy opinion; were the gondoliers on the Lido numerous?"
+
+"When the sports ended, eccellenza, they came over by hundreds, and I
+will do the generous fellows the justice to say, that they had forgotten
+their want of luck in the love of justice. Diamine! these gondoliers are
+not so bad a class as some pretend, but they are men like ourselves, and
+can feel for a Christian as well as another."
+
+The secretary paused, for his task was done; and a deep silence pervaded
+the gloomy apartment. After a short pause one of the three resumed--
+
+"Antonio Vecchio," he said, "thou hast served thyself in these said
+galleys, to which thou now seemest so averse--and served bravely, as I
+learn?"
+
+"Signore, I have done my duty by St. Mark. I played my part against the
+infidel, but it was after my beard was grown, and at an age when I had
+learnt to know good from evil. There is no duty more cheerfully
+performed by us all, than to defend the islands and the Lagunes against
+the enemy."
+
+"And all the Republic's dominions.--Thou canst make no distinctions
+between any of the rights of the state."
+
+"There is wisdom granted to the great, which God has denied the poor and
+the weak, Signore. To me it does not seem clear that Venice, a city
+built on a few islands, hath any more right to carry her rule into Crete
+or Candia, than the Turk hath to come here."
+
+"How! Dost thou dare on the Lido to question the claim of the Republic
+to her conquests? or do the irreverent fishermen dare thus to speak
+lightly of her glory?"
+
+"Eccellenza, I know little of rights that come by violence. God hath
+given us the Lagunes, but I know not that he has given us more. This
+glory of which you speak may sit lightly on the shoulder of a senator,
+but it weighs heavily on a fisherman's heart."
+
+"Thou speakest, bold man, of that which thou dost not comprehend."
+
+"It is unfortunate, Signore, that the power to understand hath not been
+given to those who have so much power to suffer."
+
+An anxious pause succeeded this reply.
+
+"Thou mayest withdraw, Antonio," said he, who apparently presided in the
+dread councils of the Three. "Thou wilt not speak of what has happened,
+and thou wilt await the inevitable justice of St. Mark in full
+confidence of its execution."
+
+"Thanks, illustrious senator; I will obey your excellency; but my heart
+is full, and I would fain say a few words concerning the child, before I
+quit this noble company."
+
+"Thou mayest speak--and here thou mayest give free vent to all thy
+wishes, or to all thy griefs, if any thou hast. St. Mark has no greater
+pleasure than to listen to the wishes of his children."
+
+"I believe they have reviled the Republic in calling its chiefs
+heartless, and sold to ambition!" said the old man, with generous
+warmth, disregarding the stern rebuke which gleamed in the eye of
+Jacopo. "A senator is but a man, and there are fathers and children
+among them, as among us of the Lagunes."
+
+"Speak, but refrain from seditious or discreditable discourse," uttered
+a secretary, in a half-whisper. "Proceed."
+
+"I have little now to offer, Signori; I am not used to boast of my
+services to the state, excellent gentlemen, but there is a time when
+human modesty must give way to human nature. These scars were got in one
+of the proudest days of St. Mark, and in the foremost of all the galleys
+that fought among the Greek Islands. The father of my boy wept over me
+then, as I have since wept over his own son--yes--I might be ashamed to
+own it among men, but if the truth must be spoken, the loss of the boy
+has drawn bitter tears from me in the darkness of night, and in the
+solitude of the Lagunes. I lay many weeks, Signori, less a man than a
+corpse, and when I got back again to my nets and my toil, I did not
+withhold my son from the call of the Republic. He went in my place to
+meet the infidel--a service from which he never came back. This was the
+duty of men who had grown in experience, and who were not to be deluded
+into wickedness by the evil company of the galleys. But this calling of
+children into the snares of the devil grieves a father, and--I will own
+the weakness, if such it be--I am not of a courage and pride to send
+forth my own flesh and blood into the danger and corruption of war and
+evil society, as in days when the stoutness of the heart was like the
+stoutness of the limbs. Give me back, then, my boy, till he has seen my
+old head laid beneath the sands, and until, by the aid of blessed St.
+Anthony, and such counsels as a poor man can offer, I may give him more
+steadiness in his love of the right, and until I may have so shaped his
+life, that he will not be driven about by every pleasant or treacherous
+wind that may happen to blow upon his bark. Signori, you are rich, and
+powerful, and honored, and though you may be placed in the way of
+temptations to do wrongs that are suited to your high names and
+illustrious fortunes, ye know little of the trials of the poor. What are
+the temptations of the blessed St. Anthony himself, to those of the evil
+company of the galleys! And now, Signori, though you may be angry to
+hear it, I will say, that when an aged man has no other kin on earth,
+or none so near as to feel the glow of the thin blood of the poor, than
+one poor boy, St. Mark would do well to remember that even a fisherman
+of the Lagunes can feel as well as the Doge on his throne. This much I
+say, illustrious senators, in sorrow, and not in anger; for I would get
+back the child, and die in peace with my superiors, as with my equals."
+
+"Thou mayest depart," said one of the Three.
+
+"Not yet, Signore, I have still more to say of the men of the Lagunes,
+who speak with loud voices concerning this dragging of boys into the
+service of the galleys."
+
+"We will hear their opinions."
+
+"Noble gentlemen, if I were to utter all they have said, word for word,
+I might do some disfavor to your ears! Man is man, though the Virgin and
+the saints listen to his aves and prayers from beneath a jacket of serge
+and a fisherman's cap. But I know too well my duty to the senate to
+speak so plainly. But, Signori, they say, saving the bluntness of their
+language, that St. Mark should have ears for the meanest of his people
+as well as for the richest noble; and that not a hair should fall from
+the head of a fisherman, without its being counted as if it were a lock
+from beneath the horned bonnet; and that where God hath not made marks
+of his displeasure, man should not."
+
+"Do they dare to reason thus?"
+
+"I know not if it be reason, illustrious Signore, but it is what they
+say, and, eccellenza, it is holy truth. We are poor workmen of the
+Lagunes, who rise with the day to cast our nets, and return at night to
+hard beds and harder fare; but with this we might be content, did the
+senate count us as Christians and men. That God hath not given to all
+the same chances in life, I well know, for it often happens that I draw
+an empty net, when my comrades are groaning with the weight of their
+draughts; but this is done to punish my sins, or to humble my heart,
+whereas it exceeds the power of man to look into the secrets of the
+soul, or to foretell the evil of the still innocent child. Blessed St.
+Anthony knows how many years of suffering this visit to the galleys may
+cause to the child in the end. Think of these things, I pray you,
+Signori, and send men of tried principles to the wars."
+
+"Thou mayest retire," rejoined the judge.
+
+"I should be sorry that any who cometh of my blood," continued the
+inattentive Antonio, "should be the cause of ill-will between them that
+rule and them that are born to obey. But nature is stronger even than
+the law, and I should discredit her feelings were I to go without
+speaking as becomes a father. Ye have taken my child and sent him to
+serve the state at the hazard of body and soul, without giving
+opportunity for a parting kiss, or a parting blessing--ye have used my
+flesh and blood as ye would use the wood of the arsenal, and sent it
+forth upon the sea as if it were the insensible metal of the balls ye
+throw against the infidel. Ye have shut your ears to my prayers, as if
+they were words uttered by the wicked, and when I have exhorted you on
+my knees, wearied my stiffened limbs to do ye pleasure, rendered ye the
+jewel which St. Anthony gave to my net, that it might soften your
+hearts, and reasoned with you calmly on the nature of your acts, you
+turn from me coldly, as if I were unfit to stand forth in defence of the
+offspring that God hath left my age! This is not the boasted justice of
+St. Mark, Venetian senators, but hardness of heart and a wasting of the
+means of the poor, that would ill become the most grasping Hebrew of the
+Rialto!"
+
+"Hast thou aught more to urge, Antonio?" asked the judge, with the wily
+design of unmasking the fisherman's entire soul.
+
+"Is it not enough, Signore, that I urge my years, my poverty, my scars,
+and my love for the boy? I know ye not, but though ye are hid behind the
+folds of your robes and masks, still must ye be men. There may be among
+ye a father, or perhaps some one who hath a still more sacred charge,
+the child of a dead son. To him I speak. In vain ye talk of justice when
+the weight of your power falls on them least able to bear it; and though
+ye may delude yourselves, the meanest gondolier of the canal knows--"
+
+He was stopped from uttering more by his companion, who rudely placed a
+hand on his mouth.
+
+"Why hast thou presumed to stop the complaints of Antonio?" sternly
+demanded the judge.
+
+"It was not decent, illustrious senators, to listen to such disrespect
+in so noble a presence," Jacopo answered, bending reverently as he
+spoke. "This old fisherman, dread Signori, is warmed by love for his
+offspring, and he will utter that which, in his cooler moments, he will
+repent."
+
+"St. Mark fears not the truth! If he has more to say, let him declare
+it."
+
+But the excited Antonio began to reflect. The flush which had ascended
+to his weather-beaten cheek disappeared, and his naked breast ceased to
+heave. He stood like one rebuked, more by his discretion than his
+conscience, with a calmer eye, and a face that exhibited the composure
+of his years, and the respect of his condition.
+
+"If I have offended, great patricians," he said, more mildly, "I pray
+you to forget the zeal of an ignorant old man, whose feelings are master
+of his breeding, and who knows less how to render the truth agreeable to
+noble ears, than to utter it."
+
+"Thou mayest depart."
+
+The armed attendants advanced, and obedient to a sign from the
+secretary, they led Antonio and his companion through the door by which
+they had entered. The other officials of the place followed, and the
+secret judges were left by themselves in the chamber of doom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  "Oh! the days that we have seen."
+                             SHELTON.
+
+
+A pause like that which accompanies self-contemplation, and perhaps
+conscious distrust of purpose, succeeded. Then the Three arose together,
+and began to lay aside the instruments of their disguise. When the masks
+were removed, they exposed the grave visages of men in the decline of
+life, athwart which worldly cares and worldly passions had drawn those
+deep lines, which no subsequent ease or resignation can erase. During
+the process of unrobing neither spoke, for the affair on which they had
+just been employed, caused novel and disagreeable sensations to them
+all. When they were delivered from their superfluous garments and their
+masks, however, they drew near the table, and each sought that relief
+for his limbs and person which was natural to the long restraint he had
+undergone.
+
+"There are letters from the French king intercepted," said one, after
+time had permitted them to rally their thoughts;--"it would appear they
+treat of the new intentions of the emperor."
+
+"Have they been restored to the ambassador? or are the originals to go
+before the senate?" demanded another.
+
+"On that we must take counsel at our leisure. I have naught else to
+communicate, except that the order given to intercept the messenger of
+the Holy See hath failed of its object."
+
+"Of this the secretaries advertised me. We must look into the negligence
+of the agents, for there is good reason to believe much useful
+knowledge would have come from that seizure."
+
+"As the attempt is already known and much spoken of, care must be had to
+issue orders for the arrest of the robbers, else may the Republic fall
+into disrepute with its friends. There are names on our list which might
+be readily marked for punishment, for that quarter of our patrimony is
+never in want of proscribed to conceal an accident of this nature."
+
+"Good heed will be had to this, since, as you say, the affair is
+weighty. The government or the individual that is negligent of
+reputation, cannot expect long to retain the respect of its equals."
+
+"The ambition of the House of Hapsburgh robs me of my sleep!" exclaimed
+the other, throwing aside some papers, over which his eye had glanced in
+disgust. "Holy St. Theodore! what a scourge to the race is the desire to
+augment territories and to extend an unjust rule, beyond the bounds of
+reason and nature! Here have we, in Venice, been in undisputed
+possession of provinces that are adapted to our institutions, convenient
+to our wants, and agreeable to our desires, for ages; provinces that
+were gallantly won by our ancestors, and which cling to us as habits
+linger in our age: and yet are they become objects of a covetous
+ambition to our neighbor, under a vain pretext of a policy that I fear
+is strengthened by our increasing weakness. I sicken, Signori, of my
+esteem for men, as I dive deeper into their tempers and desires, and
+often wish myself a dog, as I study their propensities. In his appetite
+for power, is not the Austrian the most rapacious of all the princes of
+the earth?"
+
+"More so, think you, worthy Signore, than the Castilian? You overlook
+the unsatiated desire of the Spanish king to extend his sway in Italy."
+
+"Hapsburgh or Bourbon; Turk or Englishman, they all seem actuated by the
+same fell appetite for dominion; and now that Venice hath no more to
+hope, than to preserve her present advantages, the least of all our
+enjoyments becomes a subject of covetous envy to our enemies. There are
+passions to weary one of an interference with governments, and to send
+him to his cord of penitence and the cloisters!"
+
+"I never listen to your observations, Signore, without quitting the
+chamber an edified man! Truly, this desire in the strangers to trespass
+on our privileges, and it may be well said, privileges which have been
+gained by our treasures and our blood, becomes more manifest daily.
+Should it not be checked, St. Mark will be stripped, in the end, of even
+a landing-place for a gondola on the main."
+
+"The leap of the winged lion is much curtailed, excellent Sir, or these
+things might not be! It is no longer in our power to persuade, or to
+command, as of old; and our canals begin to be encumbered with slimy
+weeds, instead of well freighted argosies and swift-sailing feluccas."
+
+"The Portuguese hath done us irretrievable harm, for without his African
+discoveries we might yet have retained the traffic in Indian
+commodities. I cordially dislike the mongrel race, being, as it is, half
+Gothic and half Moorish!"
+
+"I trust not myself to think of their origin or of their deeds, my
+friends, lest prejudice should kindle feelings unbecoming a man and a
+Christian. How now, Signor Gradenigo; thou art thoughtful?"
+
+The third member of the secret council, who had not spoken since the
+disappearance of the accused, and who was no other than the reader's old
+acquaintance of the name just mentioned, slowly lifted his head from a
+meditative position at this address.
+
+"The examination of the fisherman hath recalled scenes of my boyhood,"
+he answered, with a touch of nature that seldom found place in that
+chamber.
+
+"I heard thee say he was thy foster-brother," returned the other,
+struggling to conceal a gape.
+
+"We drank of the same milk, and, for the first years of life, we spoiled
+at the same games."
+
+"These imaginary kindred often give great uneasiness. I am glad your
+trouble hath no other source, for I had heard that the young heir of
+your house hath shown a prodigal disposition of late, and I feared that
+matter might have come to your knowledge, as one of the council, that a
+father might not wish to learn."
+
+The selfish features of the Signor Gradenigo instantly underwent a
+change. He glanced curiously, and with a strong distrust, but in a
+covert manner, at the fallen eyes of his two companions, anxious to
+penetrate their secret thoughts ere he ventured to expose his own.
+
+"Is there aught of complaint against the youth?" he demanded in a voice
+of hesitation. "You understand a father's interest, and will not conceal
+the truth."
+
+"Signore, you know that the agents of the police are active, and little
+that comes to their knowledge fails to reach the ears of the council.
+But, at the worst, the matter is not of life or death. It can only cost
+the inconsiderate young man a visit to Dalmatia, or an order to waste
+the summer at the foot of the Alps."
+
+"Youth is the season of indiscretion, as ye know, Signori," returned the
+father, breathing more freely--"and as none become old that have not
+been young, I have little need to awaken your recollection of its
+weaknesses. I trust my son is incapable of designing aught against the
+Republic?"
+
+"Of that he is not suspected." A slight expression of irony crossed the
+features of the old senator as he spoke. "But he is represented as
+aiming too freely at the person and wealth of your ward; and that she
+who is the especial care of St. Mark is not to be solicited without the
+consent of the Senate, is an usage well known to one of its most
+ancient and most honorable members."
+
+"Such is the law, and none coming of me shall show it disrespect. I have
+preferred my claims to that connexion openly, but with diffidence; and I
+await the decision of the state in respectful confidence."
+
+His associates bowed in courteous acknowledgment of the justice of what
+he said, and of the loyalty of his conduct, but it was in the manner of
+men too long accustomed to duplicity to be easily duped.
+
+"None doubt it, worthy Signor Gradenigo, for thy faith to the state is
+ever quoted as a model for the young, and as a subject for the
+approbation of the more experienced. Hast thou any communications to
+make on the interest of the young heiress, thyself?"
+
+"I am pained to say that the deep obligation conferred by Don Camillo
+Monforte, seems to have wrought upon her youthful imagination, and I
+apprehend that, in disposing of my ward, the state will have to contend
+with the caprice of a female mind. The waywardness of that age will give
+more trouble than the conduct of far graver matters."
+
+"Is the lady attended by suitable companions in her daily life?"
+
+"Her companions are known to the Senate. In so grave an interest, I
+would not act without their authority and sanction. But the affair hath
+great need of delicacy in its government. The circumstance that so much
+of my ward's fortune lies in the states of the church, renders it
+necessary to await the proper moment for disposing of her rights, and of
+transferring their substance within the limits of the Republic, before
+we proceed to any act of decision. Once assured of her wealth, she may
+be disposed of as seemeth best to the welfare of the state, without
+further delay."
+
+"The lady hath a lineage and riches, and an excellence of person, that
+might render her of great account in some of these knotty negotiations
+which so much fetter our movements of late. The time hath been when a
+daughter of Venice, not more fair, was wooed to the bed of a sovereign."
+
+"Signore, those days of glory and greatness exist no longer. Should it
+be thought expedient to overlook the natural claims of my son, and to
+bestow my ward to the advantage of the Republic, the most that can be
+expected through her means, is a favorable concession in some future
+treaty, or a new prop to some of the many decaying interests of the
+city. In this particular, she maybe rendered of as much, or even more
+use, than the oldest and wisest of our body. But that her will may be
+free and the child may have no obstacles to her happiness, it will be
+necessary to make a speedy determination of the claim preferred by Don
+Camillo. Can we do better than to recommend a compromise, that he may
+return without delay to his own Calabria?"
+
+"The concern is weighty, and it demands deliberation."
+
+"He complains of our tardiness already, and not without show of reason.
+It is five years since the claim was first preferred."
+
+"Signor Gradenigo, it is for the vigorous and healthful to display their
+activity--the aged and the tottering must move with caution. Were we in
+Venice to betray precipitation in so weighty a concern, without seeing
+an immediate interest in the judgment, we should trifle with a gale of
+fortune that every sirocco will not blow into the canals. We must have
+terms with the lord of Sant' Agata, or we greatly slight our own
+advantage."
+
+"I hinted of the matter to your excellencies, as a consideration for
+your wisdom; methinks it will be something gained to remove one so
+dangerous from the recollection and from before the eyes of a love-sick
+maiden."
+
+"Is the damsel so amorous?"
+
+"She is of Italy, Signore, and our sun bestows warm fancies and fervent
+minds."
+
+"Let her to the confessional and her prayers! The godly prior of St.
+Mark will discipline her imagination till she shall conceit the
+Neapolitan a Moor and an infidel. Just San Teodoro, forgive me! But thou
+canst remember the time, my friends, when the penance of the church was
+not without service on thine own fickle tastes and truant practices."
+
+"The Signore Gradenigo was a gallant in his time," observed the third,
+"as all well know who travelled in his company. Thou wert much spoken of
+at Versailles and at Vienna; nay, thou canst not deny thy vogue to one
+who, if he hath no other merit, hath a memory."
+
+"I protest against these false recollections," rejoined the accused, a
+withered smile lighting his faded countenance; "we have been young,
+Signori, but among us all, I never knew a Venetian of more general
+fashion and of better report, especially with the dames of France, than
+he who has just spoken."
+
+"Account it not--account it not--'twas the weakness of youth and the use
+of the times!--I remember to have seen thee, Enrico, at Madrid, and a
+gayer or more accomplished gentleman was not known at the Spanish
+court."
+
+"Thy friendship blinded thee. I was a boy and full of spirits; no more,
+I may assure thee. Didst hear of my affair with the mousquetaire when at
+Paris?"
+
+"Did I hear of the general war? Thou art too modest to raise this doubt
+of a meeting that occupied the coteries for a month, as it had been a
+victory of the powers! Signor Gradenigo, it was a pleasure to call him
+countryman at that time; for I do assure thee, a sprightlier or more
+gallant gentleman did not walk the terrace."
+
+"Thou tellest me of what my own eyes have been a witness. Did I not
+arrive when men's voices spoke of nothing else? A beautiful court and a
+pleasant capital were those of France in our day, Signori."
+
+"None pleasanter or of greater freedom of intercourse. St. Mark aid me
+with his prayers! The many pleasant hours that I have passed between the
+Marais and the Chateau! Didst ever meet La Comtesse de Mignon in the
+gardens?"
+
+"Zitto, thou growest loquacious, caro; nay, she wanted not for grace and
+affability, that I will say. In what a manner they played in the houses
+of resort at that time!"
+
+"I know it to my cost. Will you lend me your belief, dear friends? I
+arose from the table of La Belle Duchesse de------, the loser of a
+thousand sequins, and to this hour it seemeth but a moment that I was
+occupied."
+
+"I remember the evening. Thou wert seated between the wife of the
+Spanish ambassador and a miladi of England. Thou wert playing at
+rouge-et-noir in more ways than one; for thy eyes were on thy neighbors,
+instead of thy cards. Giulio, I would have paid half the loss, to have
+read the next epistle of the worthy senator thy father!"
+
+"He never knew it--he never knew it. We had our friends on the Rialto,
+and the account was settled a few years later. Thou wast well with
+Ninon, Enrico?"
+
+"A companion of her leisure, and one who basked in the sunshine of her
+wit."
+
+"Nay, they said thou wert of more favor--"
+
+"Mere gossip of the saloons. I do protest, gentlemen--not that others
+were better received--but idle tongues will have their discourse!"
+
+"Wert thou of the party, Alessandro, that went in a fit of gaiety from
+country to country till it numbered ten courts at which it appeared in
+as many weeks?"
+
+"Was I not its mover? What a memory art thou getting! 'Twas for a
+hundred golden louis, and it was bravely won by an hour. A postponement
+of the reception by the elector of Bavaria went near to defeat us; but
+we bribed the groom of the chambers, as thou mayest remember, and got
+into the presence as it were by accident."
+
+"Was that held to be sufficient?"
+
+"That was it--for our terms mentioned the condition of holding discourse
+with ten sovereigns in as many weeks, in their own palaces. Oh! it was
+fairly won, and I believe I may say that it was as gaily expended!"
+
+"For the latter will I vouch, since I never quitted thee while a piece
+of it all remained. There are divers means of dispensing gold in those
+northern capitals, and the task was quickly accomplished. They are
+pleasant countries for a few years of youth and idleness!"
+
+"It is a pity that their climates are so rude."
+
+A slight and general shudder expressed their Italian sympathy, but the
+discourse did not the less proceed.
+
+"They might have a better sun and a clearer sky, but there is excellent
+cheer, and no want of hospitality," observed the Signor Gradenigo, who
+maintained his full share of the dialogue, though we have not found it
+necessary to separate sentiments that were so common among the different
+speakers. "I have seen pleasant hours even with the Genoese, though
+their town hath a cast of reflection and sobriety that is not always
+suited to the dispositions of youth."
+
+"Nay, Stockholm and Copenhagen have their pleasures too, I do assure
+thee. I passed a season between them. Your Dane is a good joker and a
+hearty bottle companion."
+
+"In that the Englishman surpasseth all! If I were to relate their powers
+of living in this manner, dear friends, ye would discredit me. That
+which I have seen often, seemeth impossible even to myself. 'Tis a
+gloomy abode, and one that we of Italy little like, in common."
+
+"Name it not in comparison with Holland--wert ever in Holland, friends?
+didst ever enjoy the fashion of Amsterdam and the Hague? I remember to
+have heard a young Roman urge a friend to pass a winter there; for the
+witty rogue termed it the beau-ideal of the land of petticoats!"
+
+The three old Italians, in whom this sally excited a multitude of absurd
+recollections and pleasant fancies, broke out into a general and hearty
+fit of laughter. The sound of their cracked merriment, echoing in that
+gloomy and solemn room, suddenly recalled them to the recollection of
+their duties. Each listened an instant, as if in expectation that some
+extraordinary consequence was to follow so extraordinary an interruption
+of the usual silence of the place, like a child whose truant
+propensities were about to draw detection on his offence, and then the
+principal of the council furtively wiped the tears from his eyes, and
+resumed his gravity.
+
+"Signori," he said, fumbling in a bundle of papers, "we must take up the
+matter of the fisherman--but we will first inquire into the circumstance
+of the signet left the past night in the lion's mouth. Signor Gradenigo,
+you were charged with the examination."
+
+"The duty hath been executed, noble Sirs, and with a success I had not
+hoped to meet with. Haste at our last meeting prevented a perusal of the
+paper to which it was attached, but it will now be seen that the two
+have a connexion. Here is an accusation which charges Don Camillo
+Monforte with a design to bear away, beyond the power of the Senate, the
+Donna Violetta, my ward, in order to possess her person and riches. It
+speaketh of proofs in possession of the accuser, as if he were an agent
+intrusted by the Neapolitan. As a pledge of his truth, I suppose, for
+there is no mention made of any other use, he sends the signet of Don
+Camillo himself, which cannot have been obtained without that noble's
+confidence."
+
+"Is it certain that he owns the ring?"
+
+"Of that I am well assured. You know I am especially charged with
+conducting his personal demand with the Senate, and frequent interviews
+have given me opportunity to note that he was wont to wear a signet,
+which is now wanting. My jeweller of the Rialto hath sufficiently
+identified this, as the missing ring."
+
+"Thus far it is clear, though there is an obscurity in the circumstance
+that the signet of the accused should be found with the accusation,
+which, being unexplained, renders the charge vague and uncertain. Have
+you any clue to the writing, or any means of knowing whence it comes?"
+
+There was a small but nearly imperceptible red spot on the cheek of the
+Signor Gradenigo, that did not escape the keen distrust of his
+companions; but he concealed his alarm, answering distinctly that he had
+none.
+
+"We must then defer a decision for further proof. The justice of St.
+Mark hath been too much vaunted to endanger its reputation by a hasty
+decree, in a question which so closely touches the interest of a
+powerful noble of Italy. Don Camillo Monforte hath a name of
+distinction, and counteth too many of note among his kindred, to be
+dealt with as we might dispose of a gondolier, or the messenger of some
+foreign state."
+
+"As respects him, Signore, you are undoubtedly right. But may we not
+endanger our heiress by too much tenderness?"
+
+"There are many convents in Venice, Signore."
+
+"The monastic life is ill suited to the temper of my ward," the Signor
+Gradenigo drily observed, "and I fear to hazard the experiment; gold is
+a key to unlock the strongest cell; besides, we cannot, with due
+observance of propriety, place a child of the state in durance."
+
+"Signor Gradenigo, we have had this matter under long and grave
+consideration, and agreeably to our laws, when one of our number hath a
+palpable interest in the affair, we have taken counsel of his highness,
+who is of accord with as in sentiment. Your personal interest in the
+lady might have warped your usually excellent judgment, else, be
+assured, we should have summoned you to the conference."
+
+The old senator, who thus unexpectedly found himself excluded from
+consultation on the very matter that of all others made him most value
+his temporary authority, stood abashed and silent; reading in his
+countenance, however, a desire to know more, his associates proceeded to
+communicate all it was their intention he should hear.
+
+"It hath been determined to remove the lady to a suitable retirement,
+and for this purpose care hath been already had to provide the means.
+Thou wilt be temporarily relieved of a most grievous charge, which
+cannot but have weighed heavily on thy spirits, and in other particulars
+have lessened thy much-valued usefulness to the Republic."
+
+This unexpected communication was made with marked courtesy of manner,
+but with an emphasis and tone that sufficiently acquainted the Signor
+Gradenigo with the nature of the suspicions that beset him. He had too
+long been familiar with the sinuous policy of the council, in which, at
+intervals, he had so often sat, not to understand that he would run the
+risk of a more serious accusation were he to hesitate in acknowledging
+its justice. Teaching his features, therefore, to wear a smile as
+treacherous as that of his wily companion, he answered with seeming
+gratitude:
+
+"His highness and you, my excellent colleagues, have taken counsel of
+your good wishes and kindness of heart, rather than of the duty of a
+poor subject of St. Mark, to toil on in his service while he hath
+strength and reason for the task," he said. "The management of a
+capricious female mind is a concern of no light moment; and while I
+thank you for this consideration of my case, you will permit me to
+express my readiness to resume the charge whenever it shall please the
+state again to confer it."
+
+"Of this none are more persuaded than we, nor are any better satisfied
+of your ability to discharge the trust faithfully. But you enter,
+Signore, into all our motives, and will join us in the opinion that it
+is equally unbecoming the Republic, and one of its most illustrious
+citizens, to leave a ward of the former in a position that shall subject
+the latter to unmerited censure. Believe me, we have thought less of
+Venice in this matter than of the honor and the interests of the house
+of Gradenigo; for, should this Neapolitan thwart our views, you of us
+all would be most liable to be disapproved of."
+
+"A thousand thanks, excellent Sir," returned the deposed guardian. "You
+have taken a load from my mind, and restored some of the freshness and
+elasticity of youth! The claim of Don Camillo now is no longer urgent,
+since it is your pleasure to remove the lady for a season from the
+city."
+
+"'Twere better to hold it in deeper suspense, if it were only to occupy
+his mind. Keep up thy communications as of wont, and withhold not hope,
+which is a powerful exciter in minds that are not deadened by
+experience. We shall not conceal from one of our number, that a
+negotiation is already near a termination, which will relieve the state
+from the care of the damsel, and at some benefit to the Republic. Her
+estates lying without our limits greatly facilitate the treaty, which
+hath only been withheld from your knowledge by the consideration, that
+of late we have rather too much overloaded thee with affairs."
+
+Again the Signor Gradenigo bowed submissively, and with apparent joy. He
+saw that his secret designs had been penetrated, notwithstanding all his
+practised duplicity and specious candor; and he submitted with that
+species of desperate resignation, which becomes a habit, if not a
+virtue, in men long accustomed to be governed despotically. When this
+delicate subject, which required the utmost finesse of Venetian policy,
+since it involved the interests of one who happened, at that moment, to
+be in the dreaded council itself, was disposed of, the three turned
+their attention to other matters, with that semblance of indifference to
+personal feeling, which practice in tortuous paths of state-intrigue
+enabled men to assume.
+
+"Since we are so happily of opinion concerning the disposition of the
+Donna Violetta," coolly observed the oldest senator, a rare specimen of
+hackneyed and worldly morality, "we may look into our list of daily
+duties--what say the lions' mouths to-night?"
+
+"A few of the ordinary and unmeaning accusations that spring from
+personal hatred," returned another. "One chargeth his neighbor with
+oversight in religious duties, and with some carelessness of the fasts
+of Holy Church--a. foolish scandal, fitted for the ears of a curate."
+
+"Is there naught else?"
+
+"Another complaineth of neglect in a husband. The scrawl is in a woman's
+hand, and beareth on its face the evidence of woman's resentment."
+
+"Sudden to rise and easy to be appeased. Let the neighborhood quiet the
+household by its sneers.--What next?"
+
+"A suitor in the courts maketh complaint of the tardiness of the
+judges."
+
+"This toucheth the reputation of St. Mark; it must be looked to!"
+
+"Hold!" interrupted the Signor Gradenigo. "The tribunal acted
+advisedly--'tis in the matter of a Hebrew, who is thought to have
+secrets of importance. The affair hath need of deliberation, I do assure
+you."
+
+"Destroy the charge.--Have we more?"
+
+"Nothing of note. The usual number of pleasantries and hobbling verses
+which tend to nothing. If we get some useful gleanings by these secret
+accusations, we gain much nonsense. I would whip a youngster of ten who
+could not mould our soft Italian into better rhyme than this?"
+
+"'Tis the wantonness of security. Let it pass, for all that serveth to
+amuse suppresseth turbulent thoughts. Shall we now see his highness,
+Signori?"
+
+"You forget the fisherman," gravely observed the Signor Gradenigo.
+
+"Your honor sayeth true. What a head for business hath he! Nothing that
+is useful escapeth his ready mind."
+
+The old senator, while he was too experienced to be cajoled by such
+language, saw the necessity of appearing flattered. Again he bowed, and
+protested aloud and frequently against the justice of compliments that
+he so little merited. When this little byplay was over, they proceeded
+gravely to consider the matter before them.
+
+As the decision of the Council of Three will be made apparent in the
+course of the narrative, we shall not continue to detail the
+conversation that accompanied their deliberations. The sitting was long,
+so long indeed that when they arose, having completed their business,
+the heavy clock of the square tolled the hour of midnight.
+
+"The Doge will be impatient," said one of the two nameless members, as
+they threw on their cloaks, before leaving the chamber. "I thought his
+highness wore a more fatigued and feeble air to-day, than he is wont to
+exhibit at the festivities of the city."
+
+"His highness is no longer young, Signore. If I remember right, he
+greatly outnumbers either of us in years. Our Lady of Loretto lend him
+strength long to wear the ducal bonnet, and wisdom to wear it well!"
+
+"He hath lately sent offerings to her shrine."
+
+"Signore, he hath. His confessor hath gone in person with the offering,
+as I know of certainty. 'Tis not a serious gift, but a mere remembrance
+to keep himself in the odor of sanctity. I doubt that his reign will not
+be long!"
+
+"There are, truly, signs of decay in his system. He is a worthy prince,
+and we shall lose a father when called to weep for his loss!"
+
+"Most true, Signore: but the horned bonnet is not an invulnerable
+shield against the arrows of death. Age and infirmities are more potent
+than our wishes."
+
+"Thou art moody to-night, Signor Gradenigo. Thou art not used to be so
+silent with thy friends."
+
+"I am not the less grateful, Signore, for their favors. If I have a
+loaded countenance, I bear a lightened heart. One who hath a daughter of
+his own so happily bestowed in wedlock as thine, may judge of the relief
+I feel by this disposition of my ward. Joy affects the exterior,
+frequently, like sorrow; aye, even to tears."
+
+His two companions looked at the speaker with much obvious sympathy in
+their manners. They then left the chamber of doom together. The menials
+entered and extinguished the lights, leaving all behind them in an
+obscurity that was no bad type of the gloomy mysteries of the place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  "Then methought,
+  A serenade broke silence, breathing hope
+  Through walls of stone."
+                             ITALY.
+
+
+Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, the melody of music was rife
+on the water. Gondolas continued to glide along the shadowed canals,
+while the laugh or the song was echoed among the arches of the palaces.
+The piazza and piazzetta were yet brilliant with lights, and gay with
+their multitudes of unwearied revellers.
+
+The habitation of Donna Violetta was far from the scene of general
+amusement. Though so remote, the hum of the moving throng, and the
+higher strains of the wind-instruments, came, from time to time, to the
+ears of its inmates, mellowed and thrilling by distance.
+
+The position of the moon cast the whole of the narrow passage which
+flowed beneath the windows of her private apartments into shadow. In a
+balcony which overhung the water, stood the youthful and ardent girl,
+listening with a charmed ear and a tearful eye to one of those soft
+strains, in which Venetian voices answered to each other from different
+points on the canals, in the songs of the gondoliers. Her constant
+companion and Mentor was near, while the ghostly father of them both
+stood deeper in the room.
+
+"There may be pleasanter towns on the main, and capitals of more
+revelry," said the charmed Violetta, withdrawing her person from its
+leaning attitude, as the voices ceased; "but in such a night and at this
+witching hour, what city may compare with Venice?"
+
+"Providence has been less partial in the distribution of its earthly
+favors than is apparent to a vulgar eye," returned the attentive
+Carmelite. "If we have our peculiar enjoyments and our moments of divine
+contemplation, other towns have advantages of their own; Genoa and Pisa,
+Firenze, Ancona, Roma, Palermo, and, chiefest of all, Napoli--"
+
+"Napoli, father!"
+
+"Daughter, Napoli. Of all the towns of sunny Italy, 'tis the fairest and
+the most blessed in natural gifts. Of every region I have visited,
+during a life of wandering and penitence, that is the country on which
+the touch of the Creator hath been the most God-like!"
+
+"Thou art imaginative to-night, good Father Anselmo. The land must be
+fair indeed, that can thus warm the fancy of a Carmelite."
+
+"The rebuke is just. I have spoken more under the influence of
+recollections that came from days of idleness and levity, than with the
+chastened spirit of one who should see the hand of the Maker in the most
+simple and least lovely of all his wondrous works."
+
+"You reproach yourself causelessly, holy father," observed the mild
+Donna Florinda, raising her eyes towards the pale countenance of the
+monk; "to admire the beauties of nature, is to worship Him who gave them
+being."
+
+At that moment a burst of music rose on the air, proceeding from the
+water beneath the balcony. Donna Violetta started back, abashed; and as
+she held her breath in wonder, and haply with that delight which open
+admiration is apt to excite in a youthful female bosom, the color
+mounted to her temples.
+
+"There passeth a band," calmly observed the Donna Florinda.
+
+"No, it is a cavalier! There are gondoliers, servitors in his colors."
+
+"This is as hardy as it may be gallant," returned the monk, who
+listened to the air with an evident and grave displeasure.
+
+There was no longer any doubt but that a serenade was meant. Though the
+custom was of much use, it was the first time that a similar honor had
+been paid beneath the window of Donna Violetta. The studied privacy of
+her life, her known destiny, and the jealousy of the despotic state, and
+perhaps the deep respect which encircled a maiden of her tender years
+and high condition, had, until that moment, kept the aspiring, the vain,
+and the interested, equally in awe.
+
+"It is for me!" whispered the trembling, the distressed, the delighted
+Violetta.
+
+"It is for one of us, indeed," answered the cautious friend.
+
+"Be it for whom it may, it is bold," rejoined the monk.
+
+Donna Violetta shrank from observation behind the drapery of the window,
+but she raised a hand in pleasure as the rich strains rolled through the
+wide apartments.
+
+"What a taste rules the band!" she half-whispered, afraid to trust her
+voice lest a sound should escape her ears. "They touch an air of
+Petrarch's sonatas! How indiscreet, and yet how noble!"
+
+"More noble than wise," said the Donna Florinda, who entered the balcony
+and looked intently on the water beneath.
+
+"Here are musicians in the color of a noble in one gondola," she
+continued, "and a single cavalier in another."
+
+"Hath he no servitor? Doth he ply the oar himself?"
+
+"Truly that decency hath not been overlooked; one in a flowered jacket
+guides the boat."
+
+"Speak, then, dearest Florinda, I pray thee."
+
+"Would it be seemly?"
+
+"Indeed I think it. Speak them fair. Say that I am the Senate's--that it
+is not discreet to urge a daughter of the state thus--say what thou
+wilt--but speak them fair."
+
+"Ha! it is Don Camillo Monforte! I know him by his noble stature and
+the gallant wave of his hand."
+
+"This temerity will undo him! His claim will be refused--himself
+banished. Is it not near the hour when the gondola of the police passes?
+Admonish him to depart, good Florinda--and yet can we use this rudeness
+to a Signor of his rank!"
+
+"Father, counsel us; you know the hazards of this rash gallantry in the
+Neapolitan--aid us with thy wisdom, for there is not a moment to lose."
+
+The Carmelite had been an attentive and an indulgent observer of the
+emotion which sensations so novel had awakened in the ardent but
+unpractised breast of the fair Venetian. Pity, sorrow, and sympathy,
+were painted on his mortified face, as he witnessed the mastery of
+feeling over a mind so guileless, and a heart so warm; but the look was
+rather that of one who knew the dangers of the passions, than of one who
+condemned them without thought of their origin or power. At the appeal
+of the governess he turned away and silently quitted the room. Donna
+Florinda left the balcony and drew near her charge. There was no
+explanation, nor any audible or visible means of making their sentiments
+known to each other. Violetta threw herself into the arms of her more
+experienced friend, and struggled to conceal her face in her bosom. At
+this moment the music suddenly ceased, and the plash of oars falling
+into the water succeeded.
+
+"He is gone!" exclaimed the young creature who had been the object of
+the serenade, and whose faculties, spite of her confusion, had lost none
+of their acuteness. "The gondolas are moving away, and we have not made
+even the customary acknowledgments for their civility!"
+
+"It is not needed--or rather it might increase a hazard that is already
+too weighty. Remember thy high destiny, my child, and let them depart."
+
+"And yet methinks one of my station should not fail in courtesy. The
+compliment may mean no more than any other idle usage, and they should
+not quit us unthanked."
+
+"Rest you within. I will watch the movement of the boats, for it
+surpasseth female endurance not to note their aspect."
+
+"Thanks, dearest Florinda! hasten, lest they enter the other canal ere
+thou seest them."
+
+The governess was quickly in the balcony. Active as was her movement,
+her eyes were scarcely cast upon the shadow beneath, before a hurried
+question demanded what she beheld.
+
+"Both gondolas are gone," was the answer; "that with the musicians is
+already entering the great canal, but that of the cavalier hath
+unaccountably disappeared!"
+
+"Nay, look again; he cannot be in such haste to quit us."
+
+"I had not sought him in the right direction. Here is his gondola, by
+the bridge of our own canal."
+
+"And the cavalier? He waits for some sign of courtesy; it is meet that
+we should not withhold it."
+
+"I see him not. His servitor is seated on the steps of the landing,
+while the gondola appeareth to be empty. The man hath an air of waiting,
+but I nowhere see the master!"
+
+"Blessed Maria! can aught have befallen the gallant Duca di Sant'
+Agata?"
+
+"Naught but the happiness of casting himself here!" exclaimed a voice
+near the person of the heiress. The Donna Violetta turned her gaze from
+the balcony, and beheld him who filled all her thoughts at her feet.
+
+The cry of the girl, the exclamation of her friend, and a rapid and
+eager movement of the monk, brought the whole party into a group.
+
+"This may not be," said the latter in a reproving voice. "Arise, Don
+Camillo, lest I repent listening to your prayer; you exceed our
+conditions."
+
+"As much as this emotion exceedeth my hopes," answered the noble. "Holy
+father, it is a sin to oppose Providence! Providence brought me to the
+rescue of this lovely being when accident threw her into the Giudecca,
+and once more Providence is my friend, by permitting me to be a witness
+of this feeling. Speak, fair Violetta, thou wilt not be an instrument of
+the Senate's selfishness--thou wilt not hearken to their wish of
+disposing of thy hand on the mercenary who would trifle with the most
+sacred of all vows to possess thy wealth?"
+
+"For whom am I destined?" demanded Violetta.
+
+"No matter, since it be not for me. Some trafficker in happiness, some
+worthless abuser of the gifts of fortune."
+
+"Thou knowest, Camillo, our Venetian custom, and must see that I am
+hopelessly in their hands."
+
+"Arise, Duke of St. Agata," said the monk, with authority--"when I
+suffered you to enter this palace, it was to remove a scandal from its
+gates, and to save you from your own rash disregard of the state's
+displeasure. It is idle to encourage hopes that the policy of the
+Republic opposes. Arise then, and respect your pledges."
+
+"That shall be as this lady may decide. Encourage me with but an
+approving look, fairest Violetta, and not Venice, with its Doge and
+inquisition, shall stir me an inch from thy feet!"
+
+"Camillo!" answered the trembling girl, "thou, the preserver of my life,
+hast little need to kneel to me!"
+
+"Duke of St. Agata--daughter!"
+
+"Nay, heed him not, generous Violetta. He utters words of convention--he
+speaks as all speak in age, when men's tongues deny the feelings of
+their youth. He is a Carmelite, and must feign this prudence. He never
+knew the tyranny of the passions. The dampness of his cell has chilled
+the ardor of the heart. Had he been human, he would have loved; had he
+loved, he would never have worn a cowl."
+
+Father Anselmo receded a pace, like one pricked in conscience, and the
+paleness of his ascetic features took a deadly hue. His lips moved as if
+he would have spoken, but the sounds were smothered by an oppression
+that denied him utterance. The gentle Florinda saw his distress, and she
+endeavored to interpose between the impetuous youth and her charge.
+
+"It may be as you say, Signor Monforte," she said--"and that the Senate,
+in its fatherly care, searches a partner worthy of an heiress of a house
+so illustrious and so endowed as that of Tiepolo. But in this, what is
+there more than of wont? Do not the nobles of all Italy seek their
+equals in condition and in the gifts of fortune, in order that their
+union may be fittingly assorted. How know we that the estates of my
+young friend have not a value in the eye of the Duke of St. Agata as
+well as in those of him that the Senate may elect for thy husband?"
+
+"Can this be true?" exclaimed Violetta.
+
+"Believe it not; my errand in Venice is no secret. I seek the
+restitution of lands and houses long withheld from my family, with the
+honors of the Senate that are justly mine. All these do I joyfully
+abandon for the hope of thy favor."
+
+"Thou nearest, Florinda: Don Camillo is not to be distrusted!"
+
+"What are the Senate and the power of St. Mark that they should cross
+our lives with misery? Be mine, lovely Violetta, and in the fastnesses
+of my own good Calabrian castle we will defy their vengeance and policy.
+Their disappointment shall furnish merriment for my vassals, and our
+felicity shall make the happiness of thousands. I affect no disrespect
+for the dignity of the councils, nor any indifference to that I lose,
+but to me art thou far more precious than the horned bonnet itself, with
+all its fancied influence and glory."
+
+"Generous Camillo!"
+
+"Be mine, and spare the cold calculators of the Senate another crime.
+They think to dispose of thee, as if thou wert worthless merchandise, to
+their own advantage. But thou wilt defeat their design. I read the
+generous resolution in thine eye, Violetta; thou wilt manifest a will
+superior to their arts and egotism."
+
+"I would not be trafficked for, Don Camillo Monforte, but wooed and won
+as befitteth a maiden of my condition. They may still leave me liberty
+of choice. The Signor Gradenigo hath much encouraged me of late with
+this hope, when speaking of the establishment suited to my years."
+
+"Believe him not; a colder heart, a spirit more removed from charity,
+exists not in Venice. He courts thy favor for his own prodigal son; a
+cavalier without honor, the companion of profligates, and the victim of
+the Hebrews. Believe him not, for he is stricken in deceit."
+
+"He is the victim of his own designs, if this be true. Of all the youths
+of Venice I esteem Giacomo Gradenigo least."
+
+"This interview must have an end," said the monk, imposing effectually,
+and compelling the lover to rise. "It would be easier to escape the
+toils of sin than to elude the agents of the police. I tremble lest this
+visit should be known, for we are encircled with the ministers of the
+state, and not a palace in Venice is more narrowly watched than this.
+Were thy presence here detected, indiscreet young man, thy youth might
+pine in a prison, while thou would'st be the cause of persecution and
+unmerited sorrow to this innocent and inexperienced maiden."
+
+"A prison, sayest thou, father!"
+
+"No less, daughter. Lighter offences are often expiated by heavier
+judgments, when the pleasure of the Senate is thwarted."
+
+"Thou must not be condemned to a prison, Camillo!"
+
+"Fear it not. The years and peaceful calling of the father make him
+timid. I have long been prepared for this happy moment, and I ask but a
+single hour to put Venice and all her toils at defiance. Give me the
+blessed assurance of thy truth, and confide in my means for the rest."
+
+"Thou nearest, Florinda!"
+
+"This bearing is suited to the sex of Don Camillo, dearest, but it ill
+becometh thee. A maiden of high quality must await the decision of her
+natural guardians."
+
+"But should that choice be Giacomo Gradenigo?"
+
+"The Senate will not hear of it. The arts of his father have long been
+known to thee; and thou must have seen, by the secresy of his own
+advances, that he distrusts their decision. The state will have a care
+to dispose of thee as befitteth thy hopes. Thou art sought of many, and
+those who guard thy fortune only await the proposals which best become
+thy birth."
+
+"Proposals that become my birth?"
+
+"Suitable in years, condition, expectations, and character."
+
+"Am I to regard Don Camillo Monforte as one beneath me?"
+
+The monk again interposed.
+
+"This interview must end," he said. "The eyes drawn upon us by your
+indiscreet music, are now turned on other objects, Signore, and you must
+break your faith, or depart."
+
+"Alone, father?"
+
+"Is the Donna Violetta to quit the roof of her father with as little
+warning as an unfavored dependant?"
+
+"Nay, Signor Monforte, you could not, in reason, have expected more, in
+this interview, than the hope of some future termination to your suit---
+some pledge--"
+
+"And that pledge?"
+
+The eye of Violetta turned from her governess to her lover, from her
+lover to the monk, and from the latter to the floor.
+
+"Is thine, Camillo."
+
+A common cry escaped the Carmelite and the governess.
+
+"Thy mercy, excellent friends," continued the blushing but decided
+Violetta. "If I have encouraged Don Camillo, in a manner that thy
+counsels and maiden modesty would reprove, reflect that had he hesitated
+to cast himself into the Giudecca, I should have wanted the power to
+confer this trifling grace. Why should I be less generous than my
+preserver? No, Camillo, when the senate condemns me to wed another than
+thee, it pronounces the doom of celibacy; I will hide my griefs in a
+convent till I die!"
+
+There was a solemn and fearful interruption to a discourse which was so
+rapidly becoming explicit, by the sound of the bell, that the groom of
+the chambers, a long-tried and confidential domestic, had been commanded
+to ring before he entered. As this injunction had been accompanied by
+another not to appear, unless summoned, or urged by some grave motive,
+the signal caused a sudden pause, even at that interesting moment.
+
+"How now!" exclaimed the Carmelite to the servant, who abruptly entered.
+"What means this disregard of my injunctions?"
+
+"Father, the Republic!"
+
+"Is St. Mark in jeopardy, that females and priests are summoned to aid
+him?"
+
+"There are officials of the state below, who demand admission in the
+name of the Republic?"
+
+"This grows serious," said Don Camillo, who alone retained his
+self-possession. "My visit is known, and the active jealousy of the
+state anticipates its object. Summon your resolution, Donna Violetta,
+and you, father, be of heart! I will assume the responsibility of the
+offence, if offence it be, and exonerate all others from censure."
+
+"Forbid it, Father Anselmo. Dearest Florinda, we will share his
+punishment!" exclaimed the terrified Violetta, losing all self-command
+in the fear of such a moment. "He has not been guilty of this
+indiscretion without participation of mine; he has not presumed beyond
+his encouragement."
+
+The monk and Donna Florinda regarded each other in mute amazement, and
+haply there was some admixture of feeling in the look that denoted the
+uselessness of caution when the passions were intent to elude the
+vigilance of those who were merely prompted by prudence. The former
+simply motioned for silence, while he turned to the domestic.
+
+"Of what character are these ministers of the state?" he demanded.
+
+"Father, they are its known officers, and wear the badges of their
+condition."
+
+"And their request?"
+
+"Is to be admitted to the presence of the Donna Violetta."
+
+"There is still hope!" rejoined the monk, breathing more freely. Moving
+across the room, he opened a door which communicated with the private
+oratory of the palace. "Retire within this sacred chapel, Don Camillo,
+while we await the explanation of so extraordinary a visit."
+
+As the time pressed, the suggestion was obeyed on the instant. The lover
+entered the oratory, and when the door was closed upon his person, the
+domestic, one known to be worthy of all confidence, was directed to
+usher in those who waited without.
+
+But a single individual appeared. He was known, at a glance, for a
+public and responsible agent of the government, who was often charged
+with the execution of secret and delicate duties. Donna Violetta
+advanced to meet him, in respect to his employers, and with the return
+of that self-possession which long practice interweaves with the habits
+of the great.
+
+"I am honored by this care of my dreaded and illustrious guardians," she
+said, making an acknowledgment for the low reverence with which the
+official saluted the richest ward of Venice. "To what circumstance do I
+owe this visit?"
+
+The officer gazed an instant about him, with an habitual and suspicious
+caution, and then repeating his salutations, he answered.
+
+"Lady," he said, "I am commanded to seek an interview with the daughter
+of the state, the heiress of the illustrious house of Tiepolo, with the
+Donna Florinda Mercato, her female companion, with the Father Anselmo,
+her commissioned confessor, and with any other who enjoy the pleasure of
+her society and the honor of her confidence."
+
+"Those you seek are here; I am Violetta Tiepolo; to this lady am I
+indebted for a mother's care, and this reverend Carmelite is my
+spiritual counsellor. Shall I summon my household?"
+
+"It is unnecessary. My errand is rather of private than of public
+concern. At the decease of your late most honored and much lamented
+parent, the illustrious senator Tiepolo, the care of your person, lady,
+was committed by the Republic, your natural and careful protector, to
+the especial guardianship and wisdom of Signore Alessandro Gradenigo, of
+illustrious birth and estimable qualities."
+
+"Signore, you say true."
+
+"Though the parental love of the councils may have seemed to be dormant,
+it has ever been wakeful and vigilant. Now that the years, instruction,
+beauty, and other excellences of their daughter, have come to so rare
+perfection, they wish to draw the ties that unite them nearer, by
+assuming their own immediate duties about her person."
+
+"By this I am to understand that I am no longer a ward of the Signor
+Gradenigo?"
+
+"Lady, a ready wit has helped you to the explanation. That illustrious
+patrician is released from his cherished and well acquitted duties.
+To-morrow new guardians will be charged with the care of your prized
+person, and will continue their honorable trust, until the wisdom of the
+Senate shall have formed for you such an alliance, as shall not
+disparage a noble name and qualities that might adorn a throne."
+
+"Am I to be separated from those I love?" demanded Violetta impetuously.
+
+"Trust to the Senate's wisdom. I know not its determination concerning
+those who have long dwelt with you, but there can be no reason to doubt
+its tenderness or discretion. I have now only to add, that until those
+charged anew with the honorable office of your protectors shall arrive,
+it will be well to maintain the same modest reserve in the reception of
+visitors as of wont, and that your door, lady, must in propriety be
+closed against the Signor Gradenigo as against all others of his sex."
+
+"Shall I not even thank him for his care?"
+
+"He is tenfold rewarded in the Senate's gratitude."
+
+"It would have been gracious to have expressed my feelings towards the
+Signor Gradenigo in words; but that which is refused to the tongue will
+be permitted to the pen."
+
+"The reserve that becomes the state of one so favored is absolute. St.
+Mark is jealous where he loves. And, now my commission is discharged, I
+humbly take my leave, flattered in having been selected to stand in such
+a presence, and to have been thought worthy of so honorable a duty."
+
+As the officer ceased speaking and Violetta returned his bows, she fixed
+her eyes, filled with apprehension, on the sorrowful features of her
+companions. The ambiguous language of those employed in such missions
+was too well known to leave much hope for the future. They all
+anticipated their separation on the morrow, though neither could
+penetrate the reason of this sudden change in the policy of the state.
+Interrogation was useless, for the blow evidently came from the secret
+council, whose motives could no more be fathomed than its decrees
+foreseen. The monk raised his hands in silent benediction towards his
+spiritual charge, and unable, even in the presence of the stranger, to
+repress their grief, Donna Florinda and Violetta sank into each other's
+arms, and wept.
+
+In the mean time the minister of this cruel blow had delayed his
+departure, like one who had a half-formed resolution. He regarded the
+countenance of the unconscious Carmelite intently, and in a manner that
+denoted the habit of thinking much before he decided.
+
+"Reverend Father," he said, "may I crave a moment of your time, for an
+affair that concerns the soul of a sinner?"
+
+Though amazed, the monk could not hesitate about answering such an
+appeal. Obedient to a gesture of the officer, he followed him from the
+apartment, and continued at his side while the other threaded the
+magnificent rooms and descended to his gondola.
+
+"You must be much honored of the Senate, holy monk," observed the latter
+while they proceeded, "to hold so near a trust about the person of one
+in whom the state takes so great an interest?"
+
+"I feel it as such, my son. A life of peace and prayer should have made
+me friends."
+
+"Men like you, father, merit the esteem they crave. Are you long of
+Venice?"
+
+"Since the last conclave. I came into the Republic as confessor to the
+late minister from Florence."
+
+"An honorable trust. You have been with us then long enough to know that
+the Republic never forgets a servitor, nor forgives an affront."
+
+"'Tis an ancient state, and one whose influence still reaches far and
+near."
+
+"Have a care of the step. These marbles are treacherous to an uncertain
+foot."
+
+"Mine is too practised in the descent to be unsteady. I hope I do not
+now descend these stairs for the last time?"
+
+The minister of the council affected not to understand the question,
+but he answered as if replying only to the previous observation.
+
+"'Tis truly a venerable state," he said, "but a little tottering with
+its years. All who love liberty, father, must mourn to see so glorious a
+sway on the decline. _Sic transit gloria mundi!_ You bare-footed
+Carmelites do well to mortify the flesh in youth, by which you escape
+the pains of a decreasing power. One like you can have few wrongs of his
+younger days to repair?"
+
+"We are none of us without sin," returned the monk, crossing himself.
+"He who would flatter his soul with being perfect lays the additional
+weight of vanity on his life."
+
+"Men of my occupation, holy Carmelite, have few opportunities of looking
+into themselves, and I bless the hour that hath brought me into company
+so godly. My gondola waits--will you enter?"
+
+The monk regarded his companion in distrust, but knowing the uselessness
+of resistance, he murmured a short prayer and complied. A strong dash of
+the oars announced their departure from the steps of the palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+  O pescator! dell' onda
+    Fi da lin;
+  O pescator! dell' onda,
+    Fi da lin;
+  Vien pescar in qua;
+  Colla bella tua barca,
+  Colla bella se ne va,
+  Fi da lin, lin, la--
+                    VENETIAN BOAT SONG.
+
+
+The moon was at the height. Its rays fell in a flood on the swelling
+domes and massive roofs of Venice, while the margin of the town was
+brilliantly defined by the glittering bay. The natural and gorgeous
+setting was more than worthy of that picture of human magnificence; for
+at that moment, rich as was the Queen of the Adriatic in her works of
+art, the grandeur of her public monuments, the number and splendor of
+her palaces, and most else that the ingenuity and ambition of man could
+attempt, she was but secondary in the glories of the hour.
+
+Above was the firmament, gemmed with worlds, and sublime in immensity.
+Beneath lay the broad expanse of the Adriatic, endless to the eye,
+tranquil as the vault it reflected, and luminous with its borrowed
+light. Here and there a low island, reclaimed from the sea by the
+patient toil of a thousand years, dotted the Lagunes, burdened with the
+group of some conventual dwellings, or picturesque with the modest roofs
+of a hamlet of the fisherman. Neither oar, nor song, nor laugh, nor flap
+of sail, nor jest of mariner, disturbed the stillness. All in the near
+view was clothed in midnight loveliness, and all in the distance bespoke
+the solemnity of nature at peace. The city and the Lagunes, the gulf
+and the dreamy Alps, the interminable plain of Lombardy, and the blue
+void of heaven, lay alike in a common and grand repose.
+
+There suddenly appeared a gondola. It issued from among the watery
+channels of the town, and glided upon the vast bosom of the bay,
+noiseless as the fancied progress of a spirit. A practised and nervous
+arm guided its movement, which was unceasing and rapid. So swift indeed
+was the passage of the boat, as to denote pressing haste on the part of
+the solitary individual it contained. It held the direction of the
+Adriatic, steering between one of the more southern outlets of the bay
+and the well known island of St. Giorgio. For half an hour the exertions
+of the gondolier were unrelaxed, though his eye was often cast behind
+him, as if he distrusted pursuit; and as often did he gaze ahead,
+betraying an anxious desire to reach some object that was yet invisible.
+When a wide reach of water lay between him and the town, however, he
+permitted his oar to rest, and he lent all his faculties to a keen and
+anxious search.
+
+A small dark spot was discovered on the water still nearer to the sea.
+The oar of the gondolier dashed the element behind him, and his boat
+again glided away, so far altering its course as to show that all
+indecision was now ended. The darker spot was shortly beheld quivering
+in the rays of the moon, and it soon assumed the form and dimensions of
+a boat at anchor. Again the gondolier ceased his efforts, and he leaned
+forward, gazing intently at this undefined object, as if he would aid
+his powers of sight by the sympathy of his other faculties. Just then
+the notes of music came softly across the Lagunes. The voice was feeble
+even to trembling, but it had the sweetness of tone and the accuracy of
+execution which belong so peculiarly to Venice. It was the solitary man,
+in the distant boat, indulging in the song of a fisherman. The strains
+were sweet, and the intonations plaintive to melancholy. The air was
+common to all who plied the oar in the canals, and familiar to the ear
+of the listener. He waited until the close of a verse had died away, and
+then he answered with a strain of his own. The alternate parts were thus
+maintained until the music ceased, by the two singing a final verse in
+chorus.
+
+When the song was ended, the oar of the gondolier stirred the water
+again, and he was quickly by the other's side.
+
+"Thou art busy with thy hook betimes, Antonio," said he who had just
+arrived, as he stepped into the boat of the old fisherman already so
+well known to the reader. "There are men, that an interview with the
+Council of Three would have sent to their prayers and a sleepless bed."
+
+"There is not a chapel in Venice, Jacopo, in which a sinner may so well
+lay bare his soul as in this. I have been here on the empty Lagunes,
+alone with God, having the gates of Paradise open before my eyes."
+
+"One like thee hath no need of images to quicken his devotion."
+
+"I see the image of my Saviour, Jacopo, in those bright stars, that
+moon, the blue heavens, the misty bank of mountain, the waters on which
+we float, aye, even in my own sinking form, as in all which has come
+from his wisdom and power. I have prayed much since the moon has risen."
+
+"And is habit so strong in thee that thou thinkest of God and thy sins
+while thou anglest?"
+
+"The poor must toil and the sinful must pray. My thoughts have dwelt so
+much of late on the boy, that I have forgotten to provide myself with
+food. If I fish later or earlier than common, 'tis because a man cannot
+live on grief."
+
+"I have bethought me of thy situation, honest Antonio; here is that
+which will support life and raise thy courage.
+
+"See," added the Bravo, stretching forth an arm Into his own gondola,
+from which he drew a basket, "here is bread from Dalmatia, wine of Lower
+Italy, and figs from the Levant--eat, then, and be of cheer."
+
+The fisherman threw a wistful glance at the viands, for hunger was
+making powerful appeals to the weakness of nature, but his hand did not
+relinquish its hold of the line, with which he still continued to angle.
+
+"And these are thy gifts, Jacopo?" he asked, in a voice that, spite of
+his resignation, betrayed the longings of appetite.
+
+"Antonio, they are the offerings of one who respects thy courage and
+honors thy nature."
+
+"Bought with his earnings?"
+
+"Can it be otherwise? I am no beggar for the love of the saints, and few
+in Venice give unasked. Eat, then, without fear; seldom wilt thou be
+more welcome."
+
+"Take them away, Jacopo, if thou lovest me. Do not tempt me beyond what
+I can bear."
+
+"How! art thou commanded to a penance?" hastily exclaimed the other.
+
+"Not so--not so. It is long since I have found leisure or heart for the
+confessional."
+
+"Then why refuse the gift of a friend? Remember thy years and
+necessities."
+
+"I cannot feed on the price of blood!"
+
+The hand of the Bravo was withdrawn as if repelled by an electric touch.
+The action caused the rays of the moon to fall athwart his kindling eye,
+and firm as Antonio was in honesty and principle, he felt the blood
+creep to his heart as he encountered the fierce and sudden glance of his
+companion. A long pause succeeded, during which the fisherman diligently
+plied his line, though utterly regardless of the object for which it had
+been cast.
+
+"I have said it, Jacopo," he added at length, "and tongue of mine shall
+not belie the thought of my heart. Take away thy food then, and forget
+all that is past; for what I have said hath not been said in scorn, but
+out of regard to my own soul. Thou knowest how I have sorrowed for the
+boy, but next to his loss I could mourn over thee--aye, more bitterly
+than over any other of the fallen!"
+
+The hard breathing of the Bravo was audible, but still he spoke not.
+
+"Jacopo," continued the anxious fisherman, "do not mistake me. The pity
+of the suffering and poor is not like the scorn of the rich and worldly.
+If I touch a sore, I do not bruise it with my heel. Thy present pain is
+better than the greatest of all thy former joys."
+
+"Enough, old man," said the other in a smothered voice, "thy words are
+forgotten. Eat without fear, for the offering is bought with earnings as
+pure as the gleanings of a mendicant friar."
+
+"I will trust to the kindness of St. Anthony and the fortune of my
+hook," simply returned Antonio. "'Tis common for us of the Lagunes to go
+to a supperless bed: take away the basket, good Jacopo, and let us speak
+of other things."
+
+The Bravo ceased to press his food upon the fisherman. Laying aside his
+basket, he sat brooding over what had occurred.
+
+"Hast thou come thus far for naught else, good Jacopo?" demanded the old
+man, willing to weaken the shock of his refusal.
+
+The question appeared to restore Jacopo to a recollection of his errand.
+He stood erect, and looked about him, for more than a minute, with a
+keen eye and an entire intentness of purpose. The look in the direction
+of the city was longer and more earnest than those thrown towards the
+sea and the main, nor was it withdrawn, until an involuntary start
+betrayed equally surprise and alarm.
+
+"Is there not a boat, here, in a line with the tower of the campanile?"
+he asked quickly, pointing towards the city.
+
+"It so seems. It is early for my comrades to be abroad, but the draughts
+have not been heavy of late, and the revelry of yesterday drew many of
+our people from their toil. The patricians must eat, and the poor must
+labor, or both would die."
+
+The Bravo slowly seated himself, and he looked with concern into the
+countenance of his companion.
+
+"Art thou long here, Antonio?"
+
+"But an hour. When they turned us away from the palace, thou knowest
+that I told thee of my necessities. There is not, in common, a more
+certain spot on the Lagunes than this, and yet have I long played the
+line in vain. The trial of hunger is hard, but, like all other trials,
+it must be borne. I have prayed to my patron thrice, and sooner or later
+he will listen to my wants. Thou art used to the manners of these masked
+nobles, Jacopo; dost thou think them likely to hearken to reason? I hope
+I did the cause no wrong for want of breeding, but I spoke them fair and
+plainly as fathers and men with hearts."
+
+"As senators they have none. Thou little understandest, Antonio, the
+distinctions of these patricians. In the gaiety of their palaces, and
+among the companions of their pleasures, none will speak you fairer of
+humanity and justice--aye--even of God! but when met to discuss what
+they call the interests of St. Mark, there is not a rock on the coldest
+peak of yonder Alp with less humanity, or a wolf among their valleys
+more heartless!"
+
+"Thy words are strong, Jacopo--I would not do injustice even to those
+who have done me this wrong. The Senators are men, and God has given all
+feelings and nature alike."
+
+"The gift is then abused. Thou hast felt the want of thy daily
+assistant, fisherman, and thou hast sorrowed for thy child; for thee it
+is easy to enter into another's griefs; but the Senators know nothing
+of suffering. Their children are not dragged to the galleys, their hopes
+are never destroyed by laws coming from hard task-masters, nor are their
+tears shed for sons ruined by being made companions of the dregs of the
+Republic. They will talk of public virtue and services to the state, but
+in their own cases they mean the virtue of renown, and services that
+bring with them honors and rewards. The wants of the state is their
+conscience, though they take heed those wants shall do themselves no
+harm."
+
+"Jacopo, Providence itself hath made a difference in men. One is large,
+another small; one weak, another strong; one wise, another foolish. At
+what Providence hath done, we should not murmur?"
+
+"Providence did not make the Senate; 't is an invention of man. Mark me,
+Antonio, thy language hath given offence, and thou art not safe in
+Venice. They will pardon all but complaints against their justice. That
+is too true to be forgiven."
+
+"Can they wish to harm one who seeks his own child?"
+
+"If thou wert great and respected, they would undermine thy fortune and
+character, ere thou should'st put their system in danger--as thou art
+weak and poor, they will do thee some direct injury, unless thou art
+moderate. Before all, I warn thee that their system must stand!"
+
+"Will God suffer this?"
+
+"We may not enter into his secrets," returned the Bravo, devoutly
+crossing himself. "Did his reign end with this world, there might be
+injustice in suffering the wicked to triumph, but, as it is, we------
+Yon boat approaches fast! I little like its air and movements."
+
+"They are not fishermen, truly, for there are many oars and a canopy!"
+
+"It is a gondola of the state!" exclaimed Jacopo, rising and stepping
+into his own boat, which he cast loose from that of his companion, when
+he stood in evident doubt as to his future proceedings. "Antonio, we
+should do well to row away."
+
+"Thy fears are natural," said the unmoved fisherman, "and 'tis a
+thousand pities that there is cause for them. There is yet time for one
+skilful as thou to outstrip the fleetest gondola on the canals."
+
+"Quick, lift thy anchor, old man, and depart, my eye is sure. I know the
+boat."
+
+"Poor Jacopo! what a curse is a tender conscience! Thou hast been kind
+to me in my need, and if prayers from a sincere heart can do thee
+service, thou shalt not want them."
+
+"Antonio!" cried the other, causing his boat to whirl away, and then
+pausing an instant like a man undecided--"I can stay no longer--trust
+them not--they are false as fiends--there is no time to lose--I must
+away."
+
+The fisherman murmured an ejaculation of pity, as he waved a hand in
+adieu.
+
+"Holy St. Anthony, watch over my own child, lest he come to some such
+miserable life!" he added, in an audible prayer--"There hath been good
+seed cast on a rock, in that youth, for a warmer or kinder heart is not
+in man. That one like Jacopo should live by striking the assassin's
+blow!"
+
+The near approach of the strange gondola now attracted the whole
+attention of the old man. It came swiftly towards him, impelled by six
+strong oars, and his eye turned feverishly in the direction of the
+fugitive. Jacopo, with a readiness that necessity and long practice
+rendered nearly instinctive, had taken a direction which blended his
+wake in a line with one of those bright streaks that the moon drew on
+the water, and which, by dazzling the eye, effectually concealed the
+objects within its width. When the fisherman saw that the Bravo had
+disappeared, he smiled and seemed at ease.
+
+"Aye, let them come here," he said; "it will give Jacopo more time. I
+doubt not the poor fellow hath struck a blow, since quitting the palace,
+that the council will not forgive! The sight of gold hath been too
+strong, and he hath offended those who have so long borne with him. God
+forgive me, that I have had communion with such a man! but when the
+heart is heavy, the pity of even a dog will warm our feelings. Few care
+for me now, or the friendship of such as he could never have been
+welcome."
+
+Antonio ceased, for the gondola of the state came with a rushing noise
+to the side of his own boat, where it was suddenly stopped by a backward
+sweep of the oars. The water was still in ebullition, when a form passed
+into the gondola of the fisherman, the larger boat shot away again to
+the distance of a few hundred feet, and remained at rest.
+
+Antonio witnessed this movement in silent curiosity; but when he saw the
+gondoliers of the state lying on their oars, he glanced his eye again
+furtively in the direction of Jacopo, saw that all was safe, and faced
+his companion with confidence. The brightness of the moon enabled him to
+distinguish the dress and aspect of a bare-footed Carmelite. The latter
+seemed more confounded than his companion, by the rapidity of the
+movement, and the novelty of his situation. Notwithstanding his
+confusion, however, an evident look of wonder crossed his mortified
+features when he first beheld the humble condition, the thin and
+whitened locks, and the general air and bearing of the old man with whom
+he now found himself.
+
+"Who art thou?" escaped him, in the impulse of surprise.
+
+"Antonio of the Lamines! A fisherman that owes much to St. Anthony, for
+favors little deserved."
+
+"And why hath one like thee fallen beneath the Senate's displeasure?"
+
+"I am honest and ready to do justice to others. If that offend the
+great, they are men more to be pitied than envied."
+
+"The convicted are always more disposed to believe themselves
+unfortunate than guilty. The error is fatal, and it should be eradicated
+from the mind, lest it lead to death."
+
+"Go tell this to the patricians. They have need of plain counsel, and a
+warning from the church."
+
+"My son, there is pride and anger, and a perverse heart in thy replies.
+The sins of the senators--and as they are men, they are not without
+spot--can in no manner whiten thine own. Though an unjust sentence
+should condemn one to punishment, it leaves the offences against God in
+their native deformity. Men may pity him who hath wrongfully undergone
+the anger of the world, but the church will only pronounce pardon on him
+who confesseth his errors, with a sincere admission of their magnitude."
+
+"Have you come, father, to shrive a penitent?"
+
+"Such is my errand. I lament the occasion, and if what I fear be true,
+still more must I regret that one so aged should have brought his
+devoted head beneath the arm of justice."
+
+Antonio smiled, and again he bent his eyes along that dazzling streak of
+light which had swallowed up the gondola and the person of the Bravo.
+
+"Father," he said, when a long and earnest look was ended, "there can be
+little harm in speaking truth to one of thy holy office. They have told
+thee there was a criminal here in the Lagunes, who hath provoked the
+anger of St. Mark?"
+
+"Thou art right."
+
+"It is not easy to know when St. Mark is pleased, or when he is not,"
+continued Antonio, plying his line with indifference, "for the very man
+he now seeks has he long tolerated; aye, even in presence of the Doge.
+The Senate hath its reasons which lie beyond the reach of the ignorant,
+but it would have been better for the soul of the poor youth, and more
+seemly for the Republic, had it turned a discouraging countenance on his
+deeds from the first."
+
+"Thou speakest of another! thou art not then the criminal they seek!"
+
+"I am a sinner, like all born of woman, reverend Carmelite, but my hand
+hath never held any other weapon than the good sword with which I struck
+the infidel. There was one lately here, that, I grieve to add, cannot
+say this!"
+
+"And he is gone?"
+
+"Father, you have your eyes, and you can answer that question for
+yourself. He is gone; though he is not far; still is he beyond the reach
+of the swiftest gondola in Venice, praised be St. Mark!"
+
+The Carmelite bowed his head, where he was seated, and his lips moved,
+either in prayer or in thanksgiving.
+
+"Are you sorry, monk, that a sinner has escaped?"
+
+"Son, I rejoice that this bitter office hath passed from me, while I
+mourn that there should be a spirit so depraved as to require it. Let us
+summon the servants of the Republic, and inform them that their errand
+is useless."
+
+"Be not of haste, good father. The night is gentle, and these hirelings
+sleep on their oars, like gulls in the Lagunes. The youth will have more
+time for repentance, should he be undisturbed."
+
+The Carmelite, who had risen, instantly reseated himself, like one
+actuated by a strong impulse.
+
+"I thought he had already been far beyond pursuit," he muttered,
+unconsciously apologizing for his apparent haste.
+
+"He is over bold, and I fear he will row back to the canals, in which
+case you might meet nearer to the city--or there may be more gondolas
+of the state out--in short, father, thou wilt be more certain to escape
+hearing the confession of a Bravo, by listening to that of a fisherman,
+who has long wanted an occasion to acknowledge his sins."
+
+Men who ardently wish the same result, require few words to understand
+each other. The Carmelite took, intuitively, the meaning of his
+companion, and throwing back his cowl, a movement that exposed the
+countenance of Father Anselmo, he prepared to listen to the confession
+of the old man.
+
+"Thou art a Christian, and one of thy years hath not to learn the state
+of mind that becometh a penitent," said the monk, when each was ready.
+
+"I am a sinner, father; give me counsel and absolution, that I may have
+hope."
+
+"Thy will be done--thy prayer is heard--approach and kneel."
+
+Antonio, who had fastened his line to his seat, and disposed of his net
+with habitual care, now crossed himself devoutly, and took his station
+before the Carmelite. His acknowledgments of error then began. Much
+mental misery clothed the language and ideas of the fisherman with a
+dignity that his auditor had not been accustomed to find in men of his
+class. A spirit so long chastened by suffering had become elevated and
+noble. He related his hopes for the boy, the manner in which they had
+been blasted by the unjust and selfish policy of the state, his
+different efforts to procure the release of his grandson, and his bold
+expedients at the regatta, and the fancied nuptials with the Adriatic.
+When he had thus prepared the Carmelite to understand the origin of his
+sinful passions, which it was now his duty to expose, he spoke of those
+passions themselves, and of their influence on a mind that was
+ordinarily at peace with mankind. The tale was told simply and without
+reserve, but in a manner to inspire respect, and to awaken powerful
+sympathy in him who heard it.
+
+"And these feelings thou didst indulge against the honored and powerful
+of Venice!" demanded the monk, affecting a severity he could not feel.
+
+"Before my God do I confess the sin! In bitterness of heart I cursed
+them; for to me they seemed men without feeling for the poor, and
+heartless as the marbles of their own palaces."
+
+"Thou knowest that to be forgiven, thou must forgive. Dost thou, at
+peace with all of earth, forget this wrong, and can'st thou, in charity
+with thy fellows, pray to Him who died for the race, in behalf of those
+who have injured thee?"
+
+Antonio bowed his head on his naked breast, and he seemed to commune
+with his soul.
+
+"Father," he said, in a rebuked tone, "I hope I do."
+
+"Thou must not trifle with thyself to thine own perdition. There is an
+eye in yon vault above us which pervades space, and which looks into the
+inmost secrets of the heart. Can'st thou pardon the error of the
+patricians in a contrite spirit for thine own sins?"
+
+"Holy Maria pray for them, as I now ask mercy in their behalf! Father,
+they are forgiven."
+
+"Amen!"
+
+The Carmelite arose and stood over the kneeling Antonio with the whole
+of his benevolent countenance illuminated by the moon. Stretching his
+arms towards the stars, he pronounced the absolution in a voice that was
+touched with pious fervor. The upward expectant eye, with the withered
+lineaments of the fisherman, and the holy calm of the monk, formed a
+picture of resignation and hope that angels would have loved to witness.
+
+"Amen! amen!" exclaimed Antonio, as he arose crossing himself; "St.
+Anthony and the Virgin aid me to keep these resolutions!"
+
+"I will not forget thee, my son, in the offices of holy church. Receive
+my benediction, that I may depart."
+
+Antonio again bowed his knee while the Carmelite firmly pronounced the
+words of peace. When this last office was performed, and a decent
+interval of mutual but silent prayer had passed, a signal was given to
+summon the gondola of the state. It came rowing down with great force,
+and was instantly at their side. Two men passed into the boat of
+Antonio, and with officious zeal assisted the monk to resume his place
+in that of the Republic.
+
+"Is the penitent shrived?" half whispered one, seemingly the superior of
+the two.
+
+"Here is an error. He thou seek'st has escaped. This aged man is a
+fisherman named Antonio, and one who cannot have gravely offended St.
+Mark. The Bravo hath passed towards the island of San Giorgio, and must
+be sought elsewhere."
+
+The officer released the person of the monk, who passed quickly beneath
+the canopy, and he turned to cast a hasty glance at the features of the
+fisherman. The rubbing of a rope was audible, and the anchor of Antonio
+was lifted by a sudden jerk. A heavy plashing of the water followed, and
+the two boats shot away together, obedient to a violent effort of the
+crew. The gondola of the state exhibited its usual number of gondoliers,
+bending to their toil, with its dark and hearse-like canopy, but that of
+the fisherman was empty!
+
+The sweep of the oars and the plunge of the body of Antonio had been
+blended in a common wash of the surge. When the fisherman came to the
+surface after his fall, he was alone in the centre of the vast but
+tranquil sheet of water. There might have been a glimmering of hope as
+he arose from the darkness of the sea to the bright beauty of that
+moonlit night. But the sleeping domes were too far for human strength,
+and the gondolas were sweeping madly towards the town. He turned, and
+swimming feebly, for hunger and previous exertion had undermined his
+strength, he bent his eye on the dark spot which he had constantly
+recognised as the boat of the Bravo.
+
+Jacopo had not ceased to watch the interview with the utmost intentness
+of his faculties. Favored by position, he could see without being
+distinctly visible. He saw the Carmelite pronouncing the absolution, and
+he witnessed the approach of the larger boat. He heard a plunge heavier
+than that of falling oars, and he saw the gondola of Antonio towing away
+empty. The crew of the Republic had scarcely swept the Lagunes with
+their oar-blades before his own stirred the water.
+
+"Jacopo!--Jacopo!" came fearfully and faintly to his ears.
+
+The voice was known, and the occasion thoroughly understood. The cry of
+distress was succeeded by the rush of the water, as it piled before the
+beak of the Bravo's gondola. The sound of the parted element was like
+the sighing of a breeze. Ripples and bubbles were left behind, as the
+driven scud floats past the stars, and all those muscles which had once
+before that day been so finely developed in the race of the gondoliers,
+were now expanded, seemingly in twofold volumes. Energy and skill were
+in every stroke, and the dark spot came down the streak of light, like
+the swallow touching the water with its wing.
+
+"Hither, Jacopo--thou steerest wide!"
+
+The beak of the gondola turned, and the glaring eye of the Bravo caught
+a glimpse of the fisherman's head.
+
+"Quickly, good Jacopo,--I fail!"
+
+The murmuring of the water again drowned the stifled words. The efforts
+of the oar were frenzied, and at each stroke the light gondola appeared
+to rise from its element.
+
+"Jacopo--hither--dear Jacopo!"
+
+"The mother of God aid thee, fisherman!--I come."
+
+"Jacopo--the boy!--the boy!"
+
+The water gurgled; an arm was visible in the air, and it disappeared.
+The gondola drove upon the spot where the limb had just been visible,
+and a backward stroke, that caused the ashen blade to bend like a reed,
+laid the trembling boat motionless. The furious action threw the Lagune
+into ebullition, but, when the foam subsided, it lay calm as the blue
+and peaceful vault it reflected.
+
+"Antonio!"--burst from the lips of the Bravo.
+
+A frightful silence succeeded the call. There was neither answer nor
+human form. Jacopo compressed the handle of his oar with fingers of
+iron, and his own breathing caused him to start. On every side he bent a
+frenzied eye, and on every side he beheld the profound repose of that
+treacherous element which is so terrible in its wrath. Like the human
+heart, it seemed to sympathize with the tranquil beauty of the midnight
+view; but, like the human heart, it kept its own fearful secrets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  "Yet a few days and dream-perturbed nights,
+  And I shall slumber well--but where?--no matter.
+  Adieu, my Angiolina."
+                             MARINO FALIERO.
+
+
+When the Carmelite re-entered the apartment of Donna Violetta his face
+was covered with the hue of death, and his limbs with difficulty
+supported him to a chair. He scarcely observed that Don Camillo Monforte
+was still present, nor did he note the brightness and joy which glowed
+in the eyes of the ardent Violetta. Indeed his appearance was at first
+unseen by the happy lovers, for the Lord of St. Agata had succeeded in
+wresting the secret from the breast of his mistress, if that may be
+called a secret which Italian character had scarcely struggled to
+retain, and he had crossed the room before even the more tranquil look
+of the Donna Florinda rested on his person.
+
+"Thou art ill!" exclaimed the governess. "Father Anselmo hath not been
+absent without grave cause!"
+
+The monk threw back his cowl for air, and the act discovered the deadly
+paleness of his features. But his eye, charged with a meaning of horror,
+rolled over the faces of those who drew around him, as if he struggled
+with memory to recall their persons.
+
+"Ferdinando! Father Anselmo!" cried the Donna Florinda, correcting the
+unbidden familiarity, though she could not command the anxiety of her
+rebel features; "Speak to us--thou art suffering!"
+
+"Ill at heart, Florinda."
+
+"Deceive us not--haply thou hast more evil tidings--Venice--"
+
+"Is a fearful state."
+
+"Why hast thou quitted us?--why in a moment of so much importance to our
+pupil--a moment that may prove of the last influence on her
+happiness--hast thou been absent for a long hour?"
+
+Violetta turned a surprised and unconscious glance towards the clock,
+but she spoke not.
+
+"The servants of the state had need of me," returned the monk, easing
+the pain of his spirit by a groan.
+
+"I understand thee, father;--thou hast shrived a penitent?"
+
+"Daughter, I have: and few depart more at peace with God and their
+fellows!"
+
+Donna Florinda murmured a short prayer for the soul of the dead, piously
+crossing herself as she concluded. Her example was imitated by her
+pupil, and even the lips of Don Camillo moved, while his head was bowed
+by the side of his fair companion in seeming reverence.
+
+"'Twas a just end, father?" demanded Donna Florinda.
+
+"It was an unmerited one!" cried the monk, with fervor, "or there is no
+faith in man. I have witnessed the death of one who was better fitted to
+live, as happily he was better fitted to die, than those who pronounced
+his doom. What a fearful state is Venice!"
+
+"And such are they who are masters of thy person, Violetta," said Don
+Camillo: "to these midnight murderers will thy happiness be consigned!
+Tell us, father, does thy sad tragedy touch in any manner on the
+interests of this fair being? for we are encircled here by mysteries
+that are as incomprehensible, while they are nearly as fearful as fate
+itself."
+
+The monk looked from one to the other, and a more human expression began
+to appear in his countenance.
+
+"Thou art right," he said; "such are the men who mean to dispose of the
+person of our pupil. Holy St. Mark pardon the prostitution of his
+revered name, and shield her with the virtue of his prayers!"
+
+"Father, are we worthy to know more of that thou hast witnessed?"
+
+"The secrets of the confessional are sacred, my son; but this hath been
+a disclosure to cover the living, not the dead, with shame."
+
+"I see the hand of those up above in this!" for so most spoke of the
+Council of Three. "They have tampered with my right for years to suit
+their selfish purposes, and to my shame must I own it, they have driven
+me to a submission, in order to obtain justice, that as ill accords with
+my feelings as with my character."
+
+"Nay, Camillo, thou art incapable of this injustice to thyself!"
+
+"'Tis a fearful government, dearest, and its fruits are equally
+pernicious to the ruler and the subject. It hath, of all other dangers
+the greatest, the curse of secresy on its intentions, its acts, and its
+responsibilities!"
+
+"Thou sayest true, my son; there is no security against oppression and
+wrong in a state but the fear of God or the fear of man. Of the first,
+Venice hath none, for too many souls share the odium of her sins; and as
+for the last, her deeds are hid from their knowledge."
+
+"We speak boldly, for those who live beneath her laws," observed Donna
+Florinda, glancing a look timidly around her. "As we can neither change
+nor mend the practices of the state, better that we should be silent."
+
+"If we cannot alter the power of the council, we may elude it," hastily
+answered Don Camillo, though he too dropped his voice, and assured
+himself of their security by closing the casement, and casting his eyes
+towards the different doors of the room. "Are you assured of the
+fidelity of the menials, Donna Florinda?"
+
+"Far from it, Signore; we have those who are of ancient service and of
+tried character; but we have those who are named by the Senator
+Gradenigo, and who are doubtless no other than the agents of the State."
+
+"In this manner do they pry into the privacy of all! I am compelled to
+entertain in my palace varlets that I know to be their hirelings; and
+yet do I find it better to seem unconscious of their views, lest they
+environ me in a manner that I cannot even suspect. Think you, father,
+that my presence here hath escaped the spies?"
+
+"It would be to hazard much were we to rely on such security. None saw
+us enter, as I think, for we used the secret gate and the more private
+entrance; but who is certain of being unobserved when every fifth eye is
+that of a mercenary?"
+
+The terrified Violetta laid her hand on the arm of her lover.
+
+"Even now, Camillo," she said, "thou mayest be observed, and secretly
+devoted to punishment!"
+
+"If seen, doubt it not: St. Mark will never pardon so bold an
+interference with his pleasure. And yet, sweetest Violetta, to gain thy
+favor this risk is nothing; nor will a far greater hazard turn me from
+my purpose."
+
+"These inexperienced and confiding spirits have taken advantage of my
+absence to communicate more freely than was discreet," said the
+Carmelite, in the manner of one who foresaw the answer.
+
+"Father, nature is too strong for the weak preventives of prudence."
+
+The brow of the monk became clouded. His companions watched the workings
+of his mind, as they appeared in a countenance that in common was so
+benevolent, though always sad. For a few moments none broke the silence.
+
+The Carmelite at length demanded, raising his troubled look to the
+countenance of Don Camillo,--
+
+"Hast thou duly reflected on the consequences of this rashness, son?
+What dost thou purpose in thus braving the anger of the Republic, and in
+setting at defiance her arts, her secret means of intelligence, and her
+terrors?"
+
+"Father, I have reflected as all of my years reflect, when in heart and
+soul they love. I have brought myself to feel that any misery would be
+happiness compared to the loss of Violetta, and that no risk can exceed
+the reward of gaining her favor. Thus much for the first of thy
+questions; for the last I can only say that I am too much accustomed to
+the wiles of the Senate to be a novice in the means of counteracting
+them."
+
+"There is but one language for youth, when seduced by that pleasing
+delusion which paints the future with hues of gold. Age and experience
+may condemn it, but the weakness will continue to prevail in all until
+life shall appear in its true colors. Duke of Sant' Agata, though a
+noble of high lineage and illustrious name, and though lord of many
+vassals, thou art not a power--thou can'st not declare thy palace in
+Venice a fortress, nor send a herald to the Doge with defiance."
+
+"True, reverend monk; I cannot do this--nor would it be well for him who
+could, to trust his fortune on so reckless a risk. But the states of St.
+Mark do not cover the earth--we can fly."
+
+"The Senate hath a long arm, and it hath a thousand secret hands."
+
+"None know it better than I. Still it does no violence without motive;
+the faith of their ward irretrievably mine, the evil, as respects them,
+becomes irreparable."
+
+"Think'st thou so! Means would quickly be found to separate you. Believe
+not that Venice would be thwarted of its design so easily; the wealth of
+a house like this would purchase many an unworthy suitor, and thy right
+would be disregarded, or haply denied."
+
+"But, father, the ceremony of the church may not be despised!"
+exclaimed Violetta; "it comes from heaven and is sacred."
+
+"Daughter, I say it with sorrow, but the great and the powerful find
+means even to set aside that venerable and holy sacrament. Thine own
+gold would serve to seal thy misery."
+
+"This might arrive, father, were we to continue within the grasp of St.
+Mark," interrupted the Neapolitan; "but once beyond his borders, 'twould
+be a bold interference with the right of a foreign state to lay hands on
+our persons. More than this, I have a castle in St. Agata, that will
+defy their most secret means, until events might happen which should
+render it more prudent for them to desist than to persevere."
+
+"This reason hath force wert thou within the walls of St. Agata, instead
+of being, as thou art, among the canals."
+
+"Here is one of Calabria, a vassal born of mine, a certain Stefano
+Milano, the padrone of a Sorrentine felucca, now lying in the port. The
+man is in strict amity with my own gondolier, he who was third in this
+day's race. Art thou ill, father, that thou appearest troubled?"
+
+"Proceed with thy expedient," answered the monk, motioning that he
+wished not to be observed.
+
+"My faithful Gino reports that this Stefano is on the canals, on some
+errand of the Republic, as he thinks; for though the mariner is less
+disposed to familiarity than is wont, he hath let drop hints that lead
+to such a conclusion; the felucca is ready from hour to hour to put to
+sea, and doubt not that the padrone would rather serve his natural lord
+than these double-dealing miscreants of the Senate. I can pay as well as
+they, if served to my pleasure, and I can punish too, when offended."
+
+"There is reason in this, Signore, wert thou beyond the wiles of this
+mysterious city. But in what manner thou embark, without drawing the
+notice of those who doubtless watch our movements, on thy person?"
+
+"There are maskers on the canals at all hours, and if Venice be so
+impertinent in her system of watchfulness, thou knowest, father, that,
+without extraordinary motive, that disguise is sacred. Without this
+narrow privilege, the town would not be habitable a day."
+
+"I fear the result," observed the hesitating monk, while it was evident
+from the thoughtfulness of his countenance, that he calculated the
+chances of the adventure. "If known and arrested, we are all lost!"
+
+"Trust me, father, that thy fortune shall not be forgotten, even in that
+unhappy issue. I have an uncle, as you know, high in the favor of the
+pontiff, and who wears the scarlet hat. I pledge to you the honor of a
+cavalier, all my interest with this relative, to gain such intercession
+from the church as shall weaken the blow to her servant."
+
+The features of the Carmelite flushed, and for the first time the ardent
+young noble observed around his ascetic mouth an expression of worldly
+pride.
+
+"Thou hast unjustly rated my apprehensions, Lord of St. Agata," he said;
+"I fear not for myself, but for others. This tender and lovely child
+hath not been confided to my care, without creating a parental
+solicitude in her behalf, and"--he paused, and seemed to struggle with
+himself--"I have too long known the mild and womanly virtues of Donna
+Florinda, to witness with indifference her exposure to a near and
+fearful danger. Abandon our charge we cannot; nor do I see in what
+manner, as prudent and watchful guardians, we may in any manner consent
+to this risk. Let us hope that they who govern, will yet consult the
+honor and happiness of Donna Violetta."
+
+"That were to hope the winged lion would become a lamb, or the dark and
+soulless senate a community of self-mortifying and godly Carthusians!
+No, reverend monk, we must seize the happy moment, and none is likely
+to be more fortunate than this, or trust our hopes to a cold and
+calculating policy that disregards all motives but its own object. An
+hour--nay, half the time--would suffice to apprise the mariner, and ere
+the morning light, we might see the domes of Venice sinking into their
+own hated Lagunes."
+
+"These are the plans of confident youth, quickened by passion. Believe
+me, son, it is not easy as thou imaginest, to mislead the agents of the
+police. This palace could not be quitted, the felucca entered, or any
+one of the many necessary steps hazarded, without drawing upon us their
+eyes. Hark!--I hear the wash of oars--a gondola is even now at the
+water-gate!"
+
+Donna Florinda went hastily to the balcony, and as quickly returned to
+report that she had seen an officer of the Republic enter the palace.
+There was no time to lose, and Don Camillo was again urged to conceal
+himself in the little oratory. This necessary caution had hardly been
+observed before the door of the room opened, and the privileged
+messenger of the senate announced his own appearance. It was the very
+individual who had presided at the fearful execution of the fisherman,
+and who had already announced the cessation of the Signor Gradenigo's
+powers. His eye glanced suspiciously around the room as he entered, and
+the Carmelite trembled in every limb at the look which encountered his
+own. But all immediate apprehensions vanished when the usual artful
+smile with which he was wont to soften his disagreeable communications,
+took place of the momentary expression of a vague and habitual
+suspicion.
+
+"Noble lady," he said, bowing with deference to the rank of her he
+addressed, "you may learn by this assiduity on the part of their
+servant, the interest which the Senate takes in your welfare. Anxious to
+do you pleasure, and ever attentive to the wishes of one so young, it
+hath been decided to give you the amusement and variety of another
+scene, at a season when the canals of our city become disagreeable, from
+their warmth and the crowds which live in the air. I am sent to request
+you will make such preparations as may befit your convenience during a
+few months' residence in a purer atmosphere, and that this may be done
+speedily, as your journey, always to prevent discomfort to yourself,
+will commence before the rising of the sun."
+
+"This is short notice, Signore, for a female about to quit the dwelling
+of her ancestors!"
+
+"St. Mark suffers his love and parental care to overlook the vain
+ceremonies of form. It is thus the parent dealeth with the child. There
+is little need of unusual notice, since it will be the business of the
+government to see all that is necessary dispatched to the residence
+which is to be honored with the presence of so illustrious a lady."
+
+"For myself, Signore, little preparation is needed. But I fear the train
+of servitors, that befit my condition, will require more leisure for
+their arrangements."
+
+"Lady, that embarrassment hath been foreseen, and to remove it, the
+council hath decided to supply you with the only attendant you will
+require, during an absence from the city which will be so short."
+
+"How, Signore! am I to be separated from my people?"
+
+"From the hired menials of your palace, lady, to be confided to those
+who will serve your person from a nobler motive."
+
+"And my maternal friend--my ghostly adviser?"
+
+"They will be permitted to repose from their trusts, during your
+absence."
+
+An exclamation from Donna Florinda, and an involuntary movement of the
+monk, betrayed their mutual concern. Donna Violetta suppressed the
+exhibition of her own resentment, and of her wounded affections, by a
+powerful effort, in which she was greatly sustained by her pride; but
+she could not entirely conceal the anguish of another sort, that was
+seated in her eye.
+
+"Do I understand that this prohibition extends to her who in common
+serves my person?"
+
+"Signora, such are my instructions."
+
+"Is it expected that Violetta Tiepolo will do these menial offices for
+herself?"
+
+"Signora, no. A most excellent and agreeable attendant has been provided
+for that duty. Annina," he continued, approaching the door, "thy noble
+mistress is impatient to see thee."
+
+As he spoke, the daughter of the wine-seller appeared. She wore an air
+of assumed humility, but it was accompanied by a secret mien, that
+betrayed independence of the pleasure of her new mistress.
+
+"And this damsel is to be my nearest confidante!" exclaimed Donna
+Yioletta, after studying the artful and demure countenance of the girl,
+a moment, with a dislike she did not care to conceal.
+
+"Such hath been the solicitude of your illustrious guardians, lady. As
+the damsel is instructed in all that is necessary, I will intrude no
+longer, but take my leave, recommending that you improve the hours,
+which are now few, between this and the rising sun, that you may profit
+by the morning breeze in quitting the city."
+
+The officer glanced another look around the room, more, however, through
+habitual caution than any other reason, bowed, and departed.
+
+A profound and sorrowful silence succeeded. Then the apprehension that
+Don Camillo might mistake their situation and appear, flashed upon the
+mind of Violetta, and she hastened to apprise him of the danger, by
+speaking to the new attendant.
+
+"Thou hast served before this, Annina?" she asked, so loud as to permit
+the words to be heard in the oratory.
+
+"Never a lady so beautiful and illustrious, Signora. But I hope to make
+myself agreeable to one that I hear is kind to all around her."
+
+"Thou art not new to the flattery of thy class; go then, and acquaint my
+ancient attendants with this sudden resolution, that I may not
+disappoint the council by tardiness. I commit all to thy care, Annina,
+since thou knowest the pleasure of my guardians--those without will
+furnish the means."
+
+The girl lingered, and her watchful observers noted suspicion and
+hesitation in her reluctant manner of compliance. She obeyed, however,
+leaving the room with the domestic Donna Violetta summoned from the
+antechamber. The instant the door was closed behind her, Don Camillo was
+in the group, and the whole four stood regarding each other in a common
+panic.
+
+"Canst thou still hesitate, father?" demanded the lover.
+
+"Not a moment, my son, did I see the means of accomplishing flight."
+
+"How! Thou wilt not then desert me!" exclaimed Violetta, kissing his
+hands in joy. "Nor thou, my second mother!"
+
+"Neither," answered the governess, who possessed intuitive means of
+comprehending the resolutions of the monk; "we will go with thee, love,
+to the Castle of St. Agata, or to the dungeon of St. Mark."
+
+"Virtuous and sainted Florinda, receive my thanks!" cried the reprieved
+Violetta, clasping her hands on her bosom, with an emotion in which
+piety and gratitude were mingled. "Camillo, we await thy guidance."
+
+"Refrain," observed the monk; "a footstep--thy concealment."
+
+Don Camillo was scarce hid from view when Annina reappeared. She had the
+same suspicious manner of glancing her eye around, as the official, and
+it would seem, by the idle question she put, that her entrance had some
+other object than the mere pretence which she made of consulting her new
+mistress's humor in the color of a robe.
+
+"Do as thou wilt, girl," said Violetta, with impatience; "thou knowest
+the place of my intended retirement, and can'st judge of the fitness of
+my attire. Hasten thy preparations, that I be not the cause of delay.
+Enrico, attend my new maid to the wardrobe."
+
+Annina reluctantly withdrew, for she was far too much practised in wiles
+not to distrust this unexpected compliance with the will of the council,
+or not to perceive that she was admitted with displeasure to the
+discharge of her new duties. As the faithful domestic of Donna Violetta
+kept at her side, she was fain, however, to submit, and suffered herself
+to be led a few steps from the door. Suddenly pretending to recollect a
+new question, she returned with so much rapidity as to be again in the
+room before Enrico could anticipate the intention.
+
+"Daughter, complete thy errands, and forbear to interrupt our privacy,"
+said the monk, sternly. "I am about to confess this penitent, who may
+pine long for the consolations of the holy office ere we meet again. If
+thou hast not aught urgent, withdraw, ere thou seriously givest offence
+to the church."
+
+The severity of the Carmelite's tone, and the commanding, though subdued
+gleaming of his eye, had the effect to awe the girl. Quailing before his
+look, and in truth startled at the risk she ran in offending against
+opinions so deeply seated in the minds of all, and from which her own
+superstitious habits were far from free, she muttered a few words of
+apology, and finally withdrew. There was another uneasy and suspicious
+glance thrown around her, however, before the door was closed. When they
+were once more alone, the monk motioned for silence to the impetuous Don
+Camillo, who could scarce restrain his impatience until the intruder
+departed.
+
+"Son, be prudent," he said; "we are in the midst of treachery; in this
+unhappy city none know in whom they can confide."
+
+"I think we are sure of Enrico," said the Donna Florinda, though the
+very doubts she affected not to feel lingered in the tones of her voice.
+
+"It matters not, daughter. He is ignorant of the presence of Don
+Camillo, and in that we are safe. Duke of Sant' Agata, if you can
+deliver us from these toils we will accompany you."
+
+A cry of joy was near bursting from the lips of Violetta; but obedient
+to the eye of the monk, she turned to her lover, as if to learn his
+decision. The expression of Don Camillo's face was the pledge of his
+assent. Without speaking, he wrote hastily, with a pencil, a few words
+on the envelope of a letter, and inclosing a piece of coin in its folds,
+he moved with a cautious step to the balcony. A signal was given, and
+all awaited in breathless silence the answer. Presently they heard the
+wash of the water caused by the movement of a gondola beneath the
+window. Stepping forward again, Don Camillo dropped the paper with such
+precision that he distinctly heard the fall of the coin in the bottom of
+the boat. The gondolier scarce raised his eyes to the balcony, but
+commencing an air much used on the canals, he swept onward, like one
+whose duty called for no haste.
+
+"That has succeeded!" said Don Camillo, when he heard the song of Gino.
+"In an hour my agent will have secured the felucca, and all now depends
+on our own means of quitting the palace unobserved. My people will await
+us shortly, and perhaps 'twould be well to trust openly to our speed in
+gaining the Adriatic."
+
+"There is a solemn and necessary duty to perform," observed the monk;
+"daughters, withdraw to your rooms, and occupy yourselves with the
+preparation necessary for your flight, which may readily be made to
+appear as intended to meet the Senate's pleasure. In a few minutes I
+shall summon you hither again."
+
+Wondering, but obedient, the females withdrew. The Carmelite then made a
+brief but clear explanation of his intention. Don Camillo listened
+eagerly, and when the other had done speaking they retired together into
+the oratory. Fifteen minutes had not passed, before the monk reappeared,
+alone, and touched the bell which communicated with the closet of
+Violetta. Donna Florinda and her pupil were quickly in the room.
+
+"Prepare thy mind for the confessional," said the priest, placing
+himself with grave dignity in that chair which he habitually used when
+listening to the self-accusations and failings of his spiritual child.
+
+The brow of Violetta paled and flushed again, as if there lay a heavy
+sin on her conscience. She turned an imploring look on her maternal
+monitor, in whose mild features she met an encouraging smile, and then
+with a beating heart, though ill-collected for the solemn duty, but with
+a decision that the occasion required, she knelt on the cushion at the
+feet of the monk.
+
+The murmured language of Donna Violetta was audible to none but him for
+whose paternal ear it was intended, and that dread Being whose just
+anger it was hoped it might lessen. But Don Camillo gazed, through the
+half-opened door of the chapel, on the kneeling form, the clasped hands,
+and the uplifted countenance of the beautiful penitent. As she proceeded
+with the acknowledgment of her errors, the flush on her cheek deepened,
+and a pious excitement kindled in those eyes which he had so lately seen
+glowing with a very different passion. The ingenuous and disciplined
+soul of Violetta was not so quickly disburdened of its load of sin as
+that of the more practised mind of the Lord of Sant' Agata. The latter
+fancied that he could trace in the movement of her lips the sound of his
+own name, and a dozen times during the confession he thought he could
+even comprehend sentences of which he himself was the subject. Twice the
+good father smiled involuntarily, and at each indiscretion he laid a
+hand in affection on the bared head of the suppliant. But Violetta
+ceased to speak, and the absolution was pronounced with a fervor that
+the remarkable circumstances in which they all stood did not fail to
+heighten.
+
+When this portion of his duty was ended, the Carmelite entered the
+oratory. With steady hands he lighted the candles of the altar, and made
+the other dispositions for the mass. During this interval Don Camillo
+was at the side of his mistress, whispering with the warmth of a
+triumphant and happy lover. The governess stood near the door, watching
+for the sound of footsteps in the antechamber. The monk then advanced to
+the entrance of the little chapel, and was about to speak, when a
+hurried step from Donna Florinda arrested his words. Don Camillo had
+just time to conceal his person within the drapery of a window, before
+the door opened and Annina entered.
+
+When the preparations of the altar and the solemn countenance of the
+priest first met her eye, the girl recoiled with the air of one rebuked.
+But rallying her thoughts, with that readiness which had gained her the
+employment she filled, she crossed herself reverently, and took a place
+apart, like one who, while she knew her station, wished to participate
+in the mysteries of the holy office.
+
+"Daughter, none who commence this mass with us, can quit the presence
+ere it be completed,", observed the monk.
+
+"Father, it is my duty to be near the person of my mistress, and it is a
+happiness to be near it on the occasion of this early matin."
+
+The monk was embarrassed. He looked from one to the other, in
+indecision, and was about to frame some pretence to get rid of the
+intruder, when Don Cainillo appeared in the middle of the room.
+
+"Reverend monk, proceed," he said; "'tis but another witness of my
+happiness."
+
+While speaking, the noble touched the handle of his sword significantly
+with a finger, and cast a look at the half petrified Annina, which
+effectually controlled the exclamation that was about to escape her. The
+monk appeared to understand the terms of this silent compact, for with a
+deep voice he commenced the offices of the mass. The singularity of
+their situation, the important results of the act in which they were
+engaged, the impressive dignity of the Carmelite, and the imminent
+hazard which they all ran of exposure, together with the certainty of
+punishment for their daring to thwart the will of Venice, if betrayed,
+caused a deeper feeling than that which usually pervades a marriage
+ceremony, to preside at nuptials thus celebrated. The youthful Violetta
+trembled at every intonation of the solemn voice of the monk, and
+towards the close she leaned in helplessness on the arm of the man to
+whom she had just plighted her vows. The eye of the Carmelite kindled as
+he proceeded with the office, however; and long ere he had done, he had
+obtained such a command over the feelings of even Annina as to hold her
+mercenary spirit in awe. The final union was pronounced, and the
+benediction given.
+
+"Maria, of pure memory, watch over thy happiness, daughter!" said the
+monk, for the first time in his life saluting the fair brow of the
+weeping bride. "Duke of Sant' Agata, may thy patron hear thy prayers, as
+thou provest kind to this innocent and confiding child!"
+
+"Amen!--Ha!--we are not too soon united, my Violetta; I hear the sound
+of oars."
+
+A glance from the balcony assured him of the truth of his words, and
+rendered it apparent that it had now become necessary to take the most
+decided step of all. A six-oared gondola, of a size suited to endure
+the waves of the Adriatic at that mild season, and with a pavilion of
+fit dimensions, stopped at the water-gate of the palace.
+
+"I wonder at this boldness!" exclaimed Don Camillo. "There must be no
+delay, lest some spy of the Republic apprise the police. Away, dearest
+Violetta--away, Donna Florinda! Father, away!"
+
+The governess and her charge passed swiftly into the inner rooms. In a
+minute they returned bearing the caskets of Donna Violetta, and a
+sufficient supply of necessaries for a short voyage. The instant they
+reappeared, all was ready; for Don Camillo had long held himself
+prepared for this decisive moment, and the self-denying Carmelite had
+little need of superfluities. It was no moment for unnecessary
+explanation or trivial objections.
+
+"Our hope is in celerity," said Don Camillo. "Secresy is impossible."
+
+He was still speaking, when the monk led the way from the room. Donna
+Florinda and the half-breathless Violetta followed; Don Camillo drew the
+arm of Annina under his own, and in a low voice bid her, at her peril,
+refuse to obey.
+
+The long suite of outer rooms was passed without meeting a single
+observer of the extraordinary movement. But when the fugitive entered
+the great hall that communicated with the principal stairs, they found
+themselves in the centre of a dozen menials of both sexes.
+
+"Place," cried the Duke of Sant' Agata, whose person and voice were
+alike unknown to them. "Your mistress will breathe the air of the
+canals."
+
+Wonder and curiosity were alive in every countenance, but suspicion and
+eager attention were uppermost in the features of many. The foot of
+Donna Violetta had scarcely touched the pavement of the lower hall, when
+several menials glided down the flight and quitted the palace by its
+different outlets. Each sought those who engaged him in the service.
+One flew along the narrow streets of the islands, to the residence of
+the Signor Gradenigo; another sought his son; and one, ignorant of the
+person of him he served, actually searched an agent of Don Camillo, to
+impart a circumstance in which that noble was himself so conspicuous an
+actor. To such a pass of corruption had double-dealing and mystery
+reduced the household of the fairest and richest in Venice! The gondola
+lay at the marble steps of the water gate, held against the stones by
+two of its crew. Don Camillo saw at a glance that the masked gondoliers
+had neglected none of the precautions he had prescribed, and he inwardly
+commended their punctuality. Each wore a short rapier at his girdle, and
+he fancied he could trace beneath the folds of their garments evidence
+of the presence of the clumsy fire-arms in use at that period. These
+observations were made while the Carmelite and Violetta entered the
+boat. Donna Florinda followed, and Annina was about to imitate her
+example, when she was arrested by the arm of Don Camillo.
+
+"Thy service ends here," whispered the bridegroom. "Seek another
+mistress; in fault of a better, thou mayest devote thyself to Venice."
+
+The little interruption caused Don Camillo to look backwards, and for a
+single moment he paused to scrutinize the group of eyes that crowded the
+hall of the palace, at a respectful distance.
+
+"Adieu, my friends!" he added. "Those among ye who love your mistress
+shall be remembered."
+
+He would have said more, but a rude seizure of his arms caused him to
+turn hastily away. He was firm in the grasp of the two gondoliers who
+had landed. While he was yet in too much astonishment to struggle,
+Annina, obedient to a signal, darted past him and leaped into the boat.
+The oars fell into the water; Don Camillo was repelled by a violent
+shove backwards into the hall, the gondoliers stepped lightly into
+their places, and the gondola swept away from the steps, beyond the
+power of him they left to follow.
+
+"Gino!--miscreant!--what means this treachery?"
+
+The moving of the parting gondola was accompanied by no other sound than
+the usual washing of the water. In speechless agony Don Camillo saw the
+boat glide, swifter and swifter at each stroke of the oars, along the
+canal, and then whirling round the angle of a palace, disappear.
+
+Venice admitted not of pursuit like another city; for there was no
+passage along the canal taken by the gondola, but by water. Several of
+the boats used by the family, lay within the piles on the great canal,
+at the principal entrance, and Don Camillo was about to rush into one,
+and to seize its oars with his own hands, when the usual sounds
+announced the approach of a gondola from the direction of the bridge
+that had so long served as a place of concealment to his own domestic.
+It soon issued from the obscurity cast by the shadows of the houses, and
+proved to be a large gondola pulled, like the one which had just
+disappeared, by six masked gondoliers. The resemblance between the
+equipments of the two was so exact, that at first not only the wondering
+Camillo, but all the others present, fancied the latter, by some
+extraordinary speed, had already made the tour of the adjoining palaces,
+and was once more approaching the private entrance of that of Donna
+Violetta.
+
+"Gino!" cried the bewildered bridegroom.
+
+"Signore mio?" answered the faithful domestic.
+
+"Draw nearer, varlet. What meaneth this idle trifling at a moment like
+this?"
+
+Don Camillo leaped a fearful distance, and happily he reached the
+gondola. To pass the men and rush into the canopy needed but a moment;
+to perceive that it was empty was the work of a glance.
+
+"Villains, have you dared to be false!" cried the confounded noble.
+
+At that instant the clock of the city began to tell the hour of two,
+and it was only as that appointed signal sounded heavy and melancholy on
+the night-air, that the undeceived Camillo got a certain glimpse of the
+truth.
+
+"Gino," he said, repressing his voice, like one summoning a desperate
+resolution--"are thy fellows true?"
+
+"As faithful as your own vassals, Signore."
+
+"And thou didst not fail to deliver the note to my agent?"
+
+"He had it before the ink was dry, eccellenza."
+
+"The mercenary villain! He told thee where to find the gondola, equipped
+as I see it?"
+
+"Signore, he did; and I do the man the justice to say that nothing is
+wanting, either to speed or comfort."
+
+"Aye, he even deals in duplicates, so tender is his care!" muttered Don
+Camillo between his teeth. "Pull away, men; your own safety and my
+happiness now depend on your arms. A thousand ducats if you equal my
+hopes--my just anger if you disappoint them!"
+
+Don Camillo threw himself on the cushions as he spoke, in bitterness of
+heart, though he seconded his words by a gesture which bid the men
+proceed. Gino, who occupied the stern and managed the directing oar,
+opened a small window in the canopy which communicated with the
+interior, and bent to take his master's directions as the boat sprang
+ahead. Rising from his stooping posture, the practised gondolier gave a
+sweep with his blade, which caused the sluggish element of the narrow
+canal to whirl in eddies, and then the gondola glided into the great
+canal, as if it obeyed an instinct.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  "Why liest thou so on the green earth?
+  'Tis not the hour of slumber:--why so pale?"
+                                  CAIN.
+
+
+Notwithstanding his apparent decision, the Duke of Sant' Agata was
+completely at a loss in what manner to direct his future movements. That
+he had been duped by one or more of the agents to whom he had been
+compelled to confide his necessary preparations for the flight he had
+meditated several days, was too certain to admit of his deceiving
+himself with the hopes that some unaccountable mistake was the cause of
+his loss. He saw at once that the Senate was master of the person of his
+bride, and he too well knew its power and its utter disregard of human
+obligations when any paramount interest of the state was to be
+consulted, to doubt for an instant its willingness to use its advantage
+in any manner that was most likely to contribute to its own views. By
+the premature death of her uncle, Donna Violetta had become the heiress
+of vast estates in the dominions of the church, and a compliance with
+that jealous and arbitrary law of Venice, which commanded all of its
+nobles to dispose of any foreign possessions they might acquire, was
+only suspended on account of her sex, and, as has already been seen,
+with the hope of disposing of her hand in a manner that would prove more
+profitable to the Republic. With this object still before them, and with
+the means of accomplishing it in their own hands, the bridegroom well
+knew that his marriage would not only be denied, but he feared the
+witnesses of the ceremony would be so disposed of, as to give little
+reason ever to expect embarrassment from their testimony. For himself,
+personally, he felt less apprehension, though he foresaw that he had
+furnished his opponents with an argument that was likely to defer to an
+indefinite period, if it did not entirely defeat, his claims to the
+disputed succession. But he had already made up his mind to this result,
+though it is probable that his passion for Violetta had not entirely
+blinded him to the fact, that her Roman signories would be no unequal
+offset for the loss. He believed that he might possibly return to his
+palace with impunity, so far as any personal injury was concerned; for
+the great consideration he enjoyed in his native land, and the high
+interest he possessed at the court of Rome, were sufficient pledges that
+no open violence would be done him. The chief reason why his claim had
+been kept in suspense, was the wish to profit by his near connexion with
+the favorite cardinal; and though he had never been able entirely to
+satisfy the ever-increasing demands of the council in this respect, he
+thought it probable that the power of the Vatican would not be spared,
+to save him from any very imminent personal hazard. Still he had given
+the state of Venice plausible reasons for severity; and liberty, just at
+that moment, was of so much importance, that he dreaded falling into the
+hands of the officials, as one of the greatest misfortunes which could
+momentarily overtake him. He so well knew the crooked policy of those
+with whom he had to deal, that he believed he might be arrested solely
+that the government could make an especial merit of his future release,
+under circumstances of so seeming gravity. His order to Gino, therefore,
+had been to pull down the principal passage towards the port.
+
+Before the gondola, which sprang at each united effort of its crew, like
+some bounding animal, entered among the shipping, its master had time to
+recover his self-possession, and to form some hasty plans for the
+future. Making a signal for the crew to cease rowing, he came from
+beneath the canopy. Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, boats were
+plying on the water within the town, and the song was still audible on
+the canals. But among the mariners a general stillness prevailed, such
+as befitted their toil during the day, and their ordinary habits.
+
+"Call the first idle gondolier of thy acquaintance hither, Gino," said
+Don Camillo, with assumed calmness; "I would question him."
+
+In less than a minute he was gratified.
+
+"Hast seen any strongly manned gondola plying, of late, in this part of
+the canal?" demanded Don Camillo, of the man they had stopped.
+
+"None, but this of your own, Signore; which is the fastest of all that
+passed beneath the Rialto in this day's regatta."
+
+"How knowest thou, friend, aught of the speed of my boat?"
+
+"Signore, I have pulled an oar on the canals of Venice six-and-twenty
+years, and I do not remember to have seen a gondola move more swiftly on
+them than did this very boat but a few minutes ago, when it dashed among
+the feluccas, further down in the port, as if it were again running for
+the oar. Corpo di Bacco! There are rich wines in the palaces of the
+nobles, that men can give such life to wood!"
+
+"Whither did we steer?" eagerly asked Don Camillo.
+
+"Blessed San Teodoro! I do not wonder, eccellenza, that you ask that
+question, for though it is but a moment since, here I see you lying as
+motionless on the water as a floating weed!"
+
+"Friend, here is silver--addio."
+
+The gondolier swept slowly onwards, singing a strain in honor of his
+bark, while the boat of Don Camillo darted ahead. Mystic, felucca,
+xebec, brigantine, and three-masted ship, were apparently floating past
+them, as they shot through the maze of shipping, when Gino bent forward
+and drew the attention of his master to a large gondola, which was
+pulling with a lazy oar towards them, from the direction of the Lido.
+Both boats were in a wide avenue in the midst of the vessels, the usual
+track of those who went to sea, and there was no object whatever between
+them. By changing the course of his own boat, Don Camillo soon found
+himself within an oar's length of the other. He saw, at a glance, it was
+the treacherous gondola by which he had been duped.
+
+"Draw, men, and follow!" shouted the desperate Neapolitan, preparing to
+leap into the midst of his enemies.
+
+"You draw against St. Mark!" cried a warning voice from beneath the
+canopy. "The chances are unequal, Signore; for the smallest signal would
+bring twenty galleys to our succor."
+
+Don Camillo might have disregarded this menace, had he not perceived
+that it caused the half-drawn rapiers of his followers to return to
+their scabbards.
+
+"Robber!" he answered, "restore her whom you have spirited away."
+
+"Signore, you young nobles are often pleased to play your extravagances
+with the servants of the Republic. Here are none but the gondoliers and
+myself." A movement of the boat permitted Don Camillo to look into the
+covered part, and he saw that the other uttered no more than the truth.
+Convinced of the uselessness of further parley, knowing the value of
+every moment, and believing he was on a track which might still lead to
+success, the young Neapolitan signed to his people to go on. The boats
+parted in silence, that of Don Camillo proceeding in the direction from
+which the other had just come.
+
+In a short time the gondola of Don Camillo was in an open part of the
+Giudecca, and entirely beyond the tiers of the shipping. It was so late
+that the moon had begun to fall, and its light was cast obliquely on the
+bay, throwing the eastern sides of the buildings and the other objects
+into shadow. A dozen different vessels were seen, aided by the
+land-breeze, steering towards the entrance of the port. The rays of the
+moon fell upon the broad surface of those sides of their canvas which
+were nearest to the town, and they resembled so many spotless clouds,
+sweeping the water and floating seaward.
+
+"They are sending my wife to Dalmatia!" cried Don Camillo, like a man
+on whom the truth began to dawn.
+
+"Signore mio!" exclaimed the astonished Gino.
+
+"I tell thee, sirrah, that this accursed Senate hath plotted against my
+happiness, and having robbed me of thy mistress, hath employed one of
+the many feluccas that I see, to transport her to some of its
+strongholds on the eastern coast of the Adriatic."
+
+"Blessed Maria! Signor Duca, and my honored master; they say that the
+very images of stone in Venice have ears, and that the horses of bronze
+will kick, if an evil word is spoken against those up above."
+
+"Is it not enough, varlet, to draw curses from the meek Job, to rob him
+of a wife? Hast thou no feeling for thy mistres?'
+
+"I did not dream, eccellenza, that you were so happy as to have the one,
+or that I was so honored as to have the other."
+
+"Thou remindest me of my folly, good Gino. In aiding me on this
+occasion, thou wilt have thy own fortune in view, as thy efforts, like
+those of thy fellows, will be made in behalf of the lady to whom I have
+just plighted a husband's vows."
+
+"San Theodoro help us all, and hint what is to be done! The lady is most
+happy, Signor Don Camillo, and if I only knew by what name to mention
+her she should never be forgotten in any prayer that so humble a sinner
+might dare to offer."
+
+"Thou hast not forgotten the beautiful lady I drew from the Giudecca?"
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! Your eceellenza floated like a swan, and swam faster
+than a gull. Forgotten! Signore, no,--I think of it every time I hear a
+plash in the canals, and every time I think of it I curse the Ancona-man
+in my heart. St. Theodore forgive me if it be unlike a Christian to do
+so. But, though we all tell marvels of what our Lord did in the
+Giudecca, the dip of its waters is not the marriage ceremony, nor can we
+speak with much certainty of beauty that was seen to so great
+disadvantage."
+
+"Thou art right, Gino. But that lady, the illustrious Donna Violetta
+Tiepolo, the daughter and heiress of a famed senator, is now thy
+mistress. It remains for us to establish her in the Castle of Sant'
+Agata, where I shall defy Venice and its agents."
+
+Gino bowed his head in submission, though he cast a look behind to make
+sure that none of those agents, whom his master set so openly at
+defiance, were within ear-shot.
+
+In the meantime the gondola proceeded, for the dialogue in no manner
+interrupted the exertions of Gino, still holding the direction of the
+Lido. As the land-breeze freshened, the different vessels in sight
+glided away, and by the time Don Camillo reached the barrier of sand
+which separates the Lagunes from the Adriatic, most of them had glided
+through the passages, and were now shaping their courses, according to
+their different destinations, across the open gulf. The young noble had
+permitted his people to pursue the direction originally taken, in pure
+indecision. He was certain that his bride was in one of the many barques
+in sight, but he possessed no clue to lead him towards the right one,
+nor any sufficient means of pursuit were he even master of that
+important secret. When he landed, therefore, it was with the simple hope
+of being able to form some general conjecture as to the portion of the
+Republic's dominions in which he might search for her he had lost, by
+observing to what part of the Adriatic the different feluccas held their
+way. He had determined on immediate pursuit, however, and before he
+quitted the gondola, he once more turned to his confidential gondolier
+to give the necessary instructions.
+
+"Thou knowest, Gino," he said, "that there is one born a vassal on my
+estates, here in the port, with a felucca from the Sorrentine shore?"
+
+"I know the man better than I know my own faults Signore, or even my own
+virtues."
+
+"Go to him at once, and make sure of his presence. I have imagined a
+plan to decoy him into the service of his lord; but I would now know the
+condition of his vessel."
+
+Gino said a few words in commendation of the zeal of his friend Stefano,
+and in praise of the Bella Sorrentina, as the gondola receded from the
+shore; and then he dashed his oar into the water, like a man in earnest
+to execute the commission.
+
+There is a lonely spot on the Lido di Palestrina where Catholic
+exclusion has decreed that the remains of all who die in Venice, without
+the pale of the church of Rome, shall moulder into their kindred dust.
+Though it is not distant from the ordinary landing and the few buildings
+which line the shore, it is a place that, in itself, is no bad emblem of
+a hopeless lot. Solitary, exposed equally to the hot airs of the south
+and the bleak blasts of the Alps, frequently covered with the spray of
+the Adriatic, and based on barren sands, the utmost that human art,
+aided by a soil which has been fattened by human remains, can do, has
+been to create around the modest graves a meagre vegetation, that is in
+slight contrast to the sterility of most of the bank. This place of
+interment is without the relief of trees: at the present day it is
+uninclosed, and in the opinions of those who have set it apart for
+heretic and Jew, it is unblessed. And yet, though condemned alike to
+this, the last indignity which man can inflict on his fellow, the two
+proscribed classes furnish a melancholy proof of the waywardness of
+human passions and prejudice, by refusing to share in common the scanty
+pittance of earth which bigotry has allowed for their everlasting
+repose! While the Protestant sleeps by the side of the Protestant in
+exclusive obloquy, the children of Israel moulder apart on the same
+barren heath, sedulous to preserve, even in the grave, the outward
+distinctions of faith. We shall not endeavor to seek that deeply-seated
+principle which renders man so callous to the most eloquent and striking
+appeals to liberality, but rest satisfied with being grateful that we
+have been born in a land in which the interests of religion are as
+little as possible sullied by the vicious contamination of those of
+life; in which Christian humility is not exhibited beneath the purple,
+nor Jewish adhesion by intolerance; in which man is left to care for the
+welfare of his own soul, and in which, so far as the human eye can
+penetrate, God is worshipped for himself.
+
+Don Camillo Monforte landed near the retired graves of the proscribed.
+As he wished to ascend the low sand-hills, which have been thrown up by
+the waves and the winds of the gulf on the outer edge of the Lido, it
+was necessary that he should pass directly across the contemned spot, or
+make such a circuit as would have been inconvenient. Crossing himself,
+with a superstition that was interwoven with all his habits and
+opinions, and loosening his rapier, in order that he might not miss the
+succor of that good weapon at need, he moved across the heath tenanted
+by the despised dead, taking care to avoid the mouldering heaps of earth
+which lay above the bones of heretic or Jew. He had not threaded more
+than half the graves, however, when a human form arose from the grass,
+and seemed to walk like one who mused on the moral that the piles at
+his feet would be apt to excite. Again Don Camillo touched the handle of
+his rapier; then moving aside, in a manner to give himself an equal
+advantage from the light of the moon, he drew near the stranger. His
+footstep was heard, for the other paused, regarded the approaching
+cavalier, and folding his arms, as it might be in sign of neutrality,
+awaited his nearer approach.
+
+"Thou hast chosen a melancholy hour for thy walk, Signore," said the
+young Neapolitan; "and a still more melancholy scene. I hope I do not
+intrude on an Israelite, or a Lutheran, who mourns for his friend?"
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte, I am, like yourself, a Christian."
+
+"Ha! Thou knowest me--'tis Battista, the gondolier that I once
+entertained in my household?"
+
+"Signore, 'tis not Battista."
+
+As he spoke, the stranger faced the moon, in a manner that threw all of
+its mild light upon his features.
+
+"Jacopo!" exclaimed the duke, recoiling, as did all in Venice
+habitually, when that speaking eye was unexpectedly met.
+
+"Signore--Jacopo."
+
+In a moment the rapier of Don Camillo glittered in the rays of the moon.
+
+"Keep thy distance, fellow, and explain the motive that hath brought
+thee thus across my solitude!"
+
+The Bravo smiled, but his arms maintained their fold.
+
+"I might, with equal justice, call upon the Duke of Sant' Agata to
+furnish reasons why he wanders at this hour among the Hebrew graves."
+
+"Nay, spare thy pleasantry; I trifle not with men of thy reputation; if
+any in Venice have thought fit to employ thee against my person, thou
+wilt have need of all thy courage and skill ere thou earnest thy fee."
+
+"Put up thy rapier, Don Camillo, here is none to do you harm. Think
+you, if employed in the manner you name, I would be in this spot to seek
+you? Ask yourself whether your visit here was known, or whether it was
+more than the idle caprice of a young noble, who finds his bed less easy
+than his gondola. We have met, Duke of Sant' Agata, when you distrusted
+my honor less."
+
+"Thou speakest true, Jacopo," returned the noble, suffering the point of
+his rapier to fall from before the breast of the Bravo, though he still
+hesitated to withdraw the weapon. "Thou sayest the truth. My visit to
+this spot is indeed accidental, and thou could'st not have possibly
+foreseen it. Why art thou here?"
+
+"Why are these here?" demanded Jacopo, pointing to the graves at his
+feet. "We are born, and we die--that much is known to us all; but the
+when and the where are mysteries, until time reveals them."
+
+"Thou art not a man to act without good motive. Though these Israelites
+could not foresee their visit to the Lido, thine hath not been without
+intention."
+
+"I am here, Don Camillo Monforte, because my spirit hath need of room. I
+want the air of the sea--the canals choke me--I can only breathe in
+freedom on this bank of sand!"
+
+"Thou hast another reason, Jacopo?"
+
+"Aye, Signore--I loathe yon city of crimes!"
+
+As the Bravo spoke, he shook his hand in the direction of the domes of
+St. Mark, and the deep tones of his voice appeared to heave up from the
+depths of his chest.
+
+"This is extraordinary language for a----"
+
+"Bravo; speak the word boldly, Signore--it is no stranger to my ears.
+But even the stiletto of a Bravo is honorable, compared to that sword of
+pretended justice which St. Mark wields! The commonest hireling of
+Italy--he who will plant his dagger in the heart of his friend for two
+sequins, is a man of open dealing, compared to the merciless treachery
+of some in yonder town!"
+
+"I understand thee, Jacopo; thou art, at length, proscribed. The public
+voice, faint as it is in the Republic, has finally reached the ears of
+thy employers, and they withdraw their protection."
+
+Jacopo regarded the noble, for an instant, with an expression so
+ambiguous, as to cause the latter insensibly to raise the point of his
+rapier, but when he answered it was with his ordinary quiet.
+
+"Signor Duca," he said, "I have been thought worthy to be retained by
+Don Camillo Monforte!"
+
+"I deny it not--and now that thou recallest the occasion, new light
+breaks in upon me. Villain, to thy faithlessness I owe the loss of my
+bride!"
+
+Though the rapier was at the very throat of Jacopo, he did not flinch.
+Gazing at his excited companion, he laughed in a smothered manner, but
+bitterly.
+
+"It would seem that the Lord of Sant' Agata wishes to rob me of my
+trade," he said. "Arise, ye Israelites, and bear witness, lest men
+doubt the fact! A common bravo of the canals is waylaid, among your
+despised graves, by the proudest Signor of Calabria! You have chosen
+your spot in mercy, Don Camillo, for sooner or later this crumbling and
+sea-worn earth is to receive me. Were I to die at the altar itself, with
+the most penitent prayer of holy church on my lips, the bigots would
+send my body to rest among these hungry Hebrews and accursed heretics.
+Yes, I am a man proscribed, and unfit to sleep with the faithful!"
+
+His companion spoke with so strange a mixture of irony and melancholy,
+that the purpose of Don Camillo wavered. But remembering his loss, he
+shook the rapier's point, and continued:--
+
+"Thy taunts and effrontery will not avail thee, knave," he cried. "Thou
+knowest that I would have engaged thee as the leader of a chosen band,
+to favor the flight of one dear from Venice."
+
+"Nothing more true, Signore."
+
+"And thou didst refuse the service?"
+
+"Noble duke, I did."
+
+"Not content with this, having learned the particulars of my project,
+thou sold the secret to the Senate?"
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte, I did not. My engagements with the council would
+not permit me to serve you; else, by the brightest star of yonder vault!
+it would have gladdened my heart to have witnessed the happiness of two
+young and faithful lovers. No--no--no; they know me not, who think I
+cannot find pleasure in the joy of another. I told you that I was the
+Senate's, and there the matter ended."
+
+"And I had the weakness to believe thee, Jacopo, for thou hast a
+character so strangely compounded of good and evil, and bearest so fair
+a name for observance of thy faith, that the seeming frankness of the
+answer lulled me to security. Fellow, I have been betrayed, and that at
+the moment when I thought success most sure."
+
+Jacopo manifested interest, but, as he moved slowly on, accompanied by
+the vigilant and zealous noble, he smiled coldly, like one who had pity
+for the other's credulity.
+
+"In bitterness of soul, I have cursed the whole race for its treachery,"
+continued the Neapolitan.
+
+"This is rather for the priore of St. Mark, than for the ear of one who
+carries a public stiletto."
+
+"My gondola has been imitated--the liveries of my people copied--my
+bride stolen. Thou answerest not, Jacopo?"
+
+"What answer would you have? You have been cozened, Signore, in a state,
+whose very prince dare not trust his secrets to his wife. You would have
+robbed Venice of an heiress, and Venice has robbed you of a bride. You
+have played high, Don Camillo, and have lost a heavy stake. You have
+thought of your own wishes and rights, while you have pretended to serve
+Venice with the Spaniard."
+
+Don Camillo started in surprise.
+
+"Why this wonder, Signore? You forget that I have lived much among those
+who weigh the chances of every political interest, and that your name is
+often in their mouths. This marriage is doubly disagreeable to Venice,
+who has nearly as much need of the bridegroom as of the bride. The
+council hath long ago forbidden the banns."
+
+"Aye--but the means?--explain the means by which I have been duped, lest
+the treachery be ascribed to thee."
+
+"Signore, the very marbles of the city give up their secrets to the
+state. I have seen much, and understood much, when my superiors have
+believed me merely a tool; but I have seen much that even those who
+employed me could not comprehend. I could have foretold this
+consummation of your nuptials, had I known of their celebration."
+
+"This thou could'st not have done, without being an agent of their
+treachery."
+
+"The schemes of the selfish may be foretold; it is only the generous and
+the honest that baffle calculation. He who can gain a knowledge of the
+present interest of Venice is master of her dearest secrets of state;
+for what she wishes she will do, unless the service cost too dear. As
+for the means--how can they be wanting in a household like yours,
+Signore?"
+
+"I trusted none but those deepest in my confidence."
+
+"Don Camillo, there is not a servitor in your palace, Gino alone
+excepted, who is not a hireling of the Senate, or of its agents. The
+very gondoliers who row you to your daily pleasures have had their hauds
+crossed with the Republic's sequins. Nay, they are not only paid to
+watch you, but to watch each other."
+
+"Can this be true!"
+
+"Have you ever doubted it, Signore?" asked Jacopo, looking up like one
+who admired another's simplicity.
+
+"I knew them to be false--pretenders to a faith that in secret they
+mock; but I had not believed they dared to tamper with the very menials
+of my person. This undermining of the security of families is to destroy
+society at its core."
+
+"You talk like one who hath not been long a bridegroom, Signore," said
+the Bravo with a hollow laugh. "A year hence, you may know what it is to
+have your own wife turning your secret thoughts into gold."
+
+"And thou servest them, Jacopo?"
+
+"Who does not, in some manner suited to his habits? We are not masters
+of our fortune, Don Camillo, or the Duke of Sant' Agata would not be
+turning his influence with a relative to the advantage of the Republic.
+What I have done hath not been done without bitter penitence, and an
+agony of soul that your own light servitude may have spared you,
+Signore."
+
+"Poor Jacopo!"
+
+"If I have lived through it all, 'tis because one mightier than the
+state hath not deserted me. But, Don Camillo Monforte, there are crimes
+which pass beyond the powers of man to endure."
+
+The Bravo shuddered, and he moved among the despised graves in silence.
+
+"They have then proved too ruthless even for thee?" said Don Camillo,
+who watched the contracting eye and heaving form of his companion, in
+wonder.
+
+"Signore, they have. I have witnessed, this night, a proof of their
+heartlessness and bad faith, that hath caused me to look forward to my
+own fate. The delusion is over; from this hour I serve them no longer."
+
+The Bravo spoke with deep feeling, and his companion fancied, strange as
+it was coming from such a man, with an air of wounded integrity. Don
+Camillo knew that there was no condition of life, however degraded or
+lost to the world, which had not its own particular opinions of the
+faith due to its fellows; and he had seen enough of the sinuous course
+of the oligarchy of Venice, to understand that it was quite possible its
+shameless and irresponsible duplicity might offend the principles of
+even an assassin. Less odium was attached to men of that class, in Italy
+and at that day, than will be easily imagined in a country like this;
+for the radical defects and the vicious administration of the laws,
+caused an irritable and sensitive people too often to take into their
+own hands the right of redressing their own wrongs. Custom had lessened
+the odium of the crime; and though society denounced the assassin
+himself, it is scarcely too much to say, that his employer was regarded
+with little more disgust than the religious of our time regard the
+survivor of a private combat. Still it was not usual for nobles like Don
+Camillo to hold intercourse, beyond that which the required service
+exacted, with men of Jacopo's cast; but the language and manner of the
+Bravo so strongly attracted the curiosity, and even the sympathy of his
+companion, that the latter unconsciously sheathed his rapier and drew
+nearer.
+
+"Thy penitence and regrets, Jacopo, may lead thee yet nearer to virtue,"
+he said, "than mere abandonment of the Senate's service. Seek out some
+godly priest, and ease thy soul by confession and prayer."
+
+The Bravo trembled in every limb, and his eye turned wistfully to the
+countenance of the other.
+
+"Speak, Jacopo; even I will hear thee, if thou would'st remove the
+mountain from thy breast."
+
+"Thanks, noble Signore! a thousand thanks for this glimpse of sympathy
+to which I have long been a stranger! None know how dear a word of
+kindness is to one who has been condemned by all, as I have been. I have
+prayed--I have craved--I have wept for some ear to listen to my tale,
+and I thought I had found one who would have heard me without scorn,
+when the cold policy of the Senate struck him. I came here to commune
+with the hated dead, when chance brought us together. Could I--" the
+Bravo paused and looked doubtfully again at his companion.
+
+"Say on, Jacopo."
+
+"I have not dared to trust my secrets even to the confessional, Signore,
+and can I be so bold as to offer them to you."
+
+"Truly, it is a strange behest!"
+
+"Signore, it is. You are noble, I am of humble blood. Your ancestors
+were senators and Doges of Venice, while mine have been, since the
+fishermen first built their huts in the Lagunes, laborers on the canals,
+and rowers of gondolas. You are powerful, and rich, and courted; while I
+am denounced, and in secret, I fear, condemned. In short, you are Don
+Camillo Monforte, and I am Jacopo Frontoni!"
+
+Don Camillo was touched, for the Bravo spoke without bitterness, and in
+deep sorrow.
+
+"I would thou wert at the confessional, poor Jacopo!" he said; "I am
+little able to give ease to such a burden."
+
+"Signore, I have lived too long shut out from the good wishes of my
+fellows, and I can bear with it no longer. The accursed Senate may cut
+me off without warning, and then who will stop to look at my grave!
+Signore, I must speak or die!"
+
+"Thy case is piteous, Jacopo! Thou hast need of ghostly counsel."
+
+"Here is no priest, Signore, and I carry a weight past bearing. The only
+man who has shown interest in me, for three long and dreadful years, is
+gone!"
+
+"But he will return, poor Jacopo."
+
+"Signore, he will never return. He is with the fishes of the Lagunes."
+
+"By thy hand, monster!"
+
+"By the justice of the illustrious Republic," said the Bravo, with a
+smothered but bitter smile.
+
+"Ha! they are then awake to the acts of thy class? Thy repentance is
+the fruit of fear!"
+
+Jacopo seemed choked. He had evidently counted on the awakened sympathy
+of his companion, notwithstanding the difference in their situations,
+and to be thus thrown off again, unmanned him. He shuddered, and every
+muscle and nerve appeared about to yield its power. Touched by so
+unequivocal signs of suffering, Don Camillo kept close at his side,
+reluctant to enter more deeply into the feelings of one of his known
+character, and yet unable to desert a fellow-creature in so grievous
+agony.
+
+"Signor Duca," said the Bravo, with a pathos in his voice that went to
+the heart of his auditor, "leave me. If they ask for a proscribed man,
+let them come here; in the morning they will find my body near the
+graves of the heretics."
+
+"Speak, I will hear thee."
+
+Jacopo looked up with doubt expressed on his features.
+
+"Unburden thyself; I will listen, though thou recounted the
+assassination of my dearest friend."
+
+The oppressed Bravo gazed at him, as if he still distrusted his
+sincerity. His face worked, and his look became still more wistful; but
+as Don Camillo faced the moon, and betrayed the extent of his sympathy,
+the other burst into tears.
+
+"Jacopo, I will hear thee--I will hear thee, poor Jacopo!" cried Don
+Camillo, shocked at this exhibition of distress in one so stern by
+nature. A wave from the hand of the Bravo silenced him, and Jacopo,
+struggling with himself for a moment, spoke.
+
+"You have saved a soul from perdition, Signore," he said, smothering his
+emotion. "If the happy knew how much power belongs to a single word of
+kindness--a glance of feeling, when given to the despised, they would
+not look so coldly on the miserable. This night must have been my last,
+had you cast me off without pity--but you will hear my tale,
+Signore--you will not scorn the confession of a Bravo?"
+
+"I have promised. Be brief, for at this moment I have great care of my
+own."
+
+"Signore, I know not the whole of your wrongs, but they will not be less
+likely to be redressed for this grace."
+
+Jacopo made an effort to command himself, when he commenced his tale.
+
+The course of the narrative does not require that we should accompany
+this extraordinary man though the relation of the secrets he imparted to
+Don Camillo. It is enough for our present purposes to say, that, as he
+proceeded, the young Calabrian noble drew nearer to his side, and
+listened with growing interest. The Duke of Sant' Agata scarcely
+breathed, while his companion, with that energy of language and feeling
+which marks Italian character, recounted his secret sorrows, and the
+scenes in which he had been an actor. Long before he was done, Don
+Camillo had forgotten his own private causes of concern, and, by the
+time the tale was finished, every shade of disgust had given place to an
+ungovernable expression of pity. In short, so eloquent was the speaker,
+and so interesting the facts with which he dealt, that he seemed to play
+with the sympathies of the listener, as the improvisatore of that region
+is known to lead captive the passions of the admiring crowd.
+
+During the time Jacopo was speaking, he and his wondering auditor had
+passed the limits of the despised cemetery; and as the voice of the
+former ceased, they stood on the outer beach of the Lido. When the low
+tones of the Bravo were no longer audible, they were succeeded by the
+sullen wash of the Adriatic.
+
+"This surpasseth belief!" Don Camillo exclaimed after a long pause,
+which had only been disturbed by the rush and retreat of the waters.
+
+"Signore, as holy Maria is kind! it is true."
+
+"I doubt you not, Jacopo--poor Jacopo! I cannot distrust a tale thus
+told! Thou hast, indeed, been a victim of their hellish duplicity, and
+well mayest thou say, the load was past bearing. What is thy intention?"
+
+"I serve them no longer, Don Camillo--I wait only for the last solemn
+scene, which is now certain, and then I quit this city of deceit, to
+seek my fortune in another region. They have blasted my youth, and
+loaded my name with infamy--God may yet lighten the load!"
+
+"Reproach not thyself beyond reason, Jacopo, for the happiest and most
+fortunate of us all are not above the power of temptation. Thou knowest
+that even my name and rank have not, altogether, protected me from their
+arts."
+
+"I know them capable, Signore, of deluding angels! Their arts are only
+surpassed by their means, and their pretence of virtue by their
+indifference to its practice."
+
+"Thou sayest true, Jacopo: the truth is never in greater danger, than
+when whole communities lend themselves to the vicious deception of
+seemliness, and without truth there is no virtue. This it is to
+substitute profession for practice--to use the altar for a worldly
+purpose--and to bestow power without any other responsibility than that
+which is exacted by the selfishness of caste! Jacopo--poor Jacopo! thou
+shalt be my servitor--I am lord of my own seignories, and once rid of
+this specious Republic, I charge myself with the care of thy safety and
+fortunes. Be at peace as respects thy conscience: I have interest near
+the Holy See, and thou shalt not want absolution!"
+
+The gratitude of the Bravo was more vivid in feeling than in expression.
+He kissed the hand of Don Camillo, but it was with a reservation of
+self-respect that belonged to the character of the man.
+
+"A system like this of Venice," continued the musing noble, "leaves none
+of us masters of our own acts. The wiles of such a combination are
+stronger than the will. It cloaks its offences against right in a
+thousand specious forms, and it enlists the support of every man under
+the pretence of a sacrifice for the common good. We often fancy
+ourselves simple dealers in some justifiable state intrigue, when in
+truth we are deep in sin. Falsehood is the parent of all crimes, and in
+no case has it a progeny so numerous as that in which its own birth is
+derived from the state. I fear I may have made sacrifices to this
+treacherous influence, I could wish forgotten."
+
+Though Don Camillo soliloquized, rather than addressed his companion, it
+was evident, by the train of his thoughts, that the narrative of Jacopo
+had awakened disagreeable reflections on the manner in which he had
+pushed his own claims with the Senate. Perhaps he felt the necessity of
+some apology to one who, though so much his inferior in rank, was so
+competent to appreciate his conduct, and who had just denounced, in the
+strongest language, his own fatal subserviency to the arts of that
+irresponsible and meretricious body.
+
+Jacopo uttered a few words of a general nature, but such as had a
+tendency to quiet the uneasiness of his companion; after which, with a
+readiness that proved him qualified for the many delicate missions with
+which he had been charged, he ingeniously turned the discourse to the
+recent abduction of Donna Violetta, with the offer of rendering his new
+employer all the services in his power to regain his bride.
+
+"That thou mayest know all thou hast undertaken," rejoined Don Camillo,
+"listen, Jacopo, and I will conceal nothing from thy shrewdness."
+
+The Duke of Sant' Agata now briefly, but explicitly, laid bare to his
+companion all his own views and measures with respect to her he loved,
+and all those events with which the reader has already become
+acquainted.
+
+The Bravo gave great attention to the minutest parts of the detail, and
+more than once, as the other proceeded, he smiled to himself, like a man
+who was able to trace the secret means by which this or that intrigue
+had been effected. The whole was just related, when the sound of a
+footstep announced the return of Gino.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  "Pale she looked,
+  Yet cheerful; though methought, once, if not twice.
+  She wiped away a tear that would be coming."
+                                  ROGERS.
+
+
+The hours passed as if naught had occurred, within the barriers of the
+city, to disturb their progress. On the following morning men proceeded
+to their several pursuits, of business or of pleasure, as had been done
+for ages, and none stopped to question his neighbor of the scene which
+might have taken place during the night. Some were gay, and others
+sorrowing; some idle, and others occupied; here one toiled, there
+another sported; and Venice presented, as of wont, its noiseless,
+suspicious, busy, mysterious, and yet stirring throngs, as it had before
+done at a thousand similar risings of the sun.
+
+The menials lingered around the water-gate of Donna Violetta's palace
+with distrustful but cautious faces, scarce whispering among themselves
+their secret suspicions of the fate of their mistress. The residence of
+the Signor Gradenigo presented its usual gloomy magnificence, while the
+abode of Don Camillo Monforte betrayed no sign of the heavy
+disappointment which its master had sustained. The Bella Sorrentina
+still lay in the port, with a yard on deck, while the crew repaired its
+sails in the lazy manner of mariners who work without excitement.
+
+The Lagunes were dotted with the boats of fishermen, and travellers
+arrived and departed from the city by the well known channels of Fusina
+and Mestre. Here, some adventurer from the north quitted the canals on
+his return towards the Alps, carrying with him a pleasing picture of the
+ceremonies he had witnessed, mingled with some crude conjectures of that
+power which predominated in the suspected state; and there, a countryman
+of the Main sought his little farm, satisfied with the pageants and
+regatta of the previous day. In short, all seemed as usual, and the
+events we have related remained a secret with the actors, and that
+mysterious council which had so large a share in their existence.
+
+As the day advanced, many a sail was spread for the pillars of Hercules
+or the genial Levant, and feluccas, mystics, and golettas, went and came
+as the land or sea-breeze prevailed. Still the mariner of Calabria
+lounged beneath the awning which sheltered his deck, or took his siesta
+on a pile of old sails, which were ragged with the force of many a hot
+sirocco. As the sun fell, the gondolas of the great and idle began to
+glide over the water; and when the two squares were cooled by the air of
+the Adriatic, the Broglio began to fill with those privileged to pace
+its vaulted passage. Among these came the Duke of Sant' Agata, who,
+though an alien to the laws of the Republic, being of so illustrious
+descent, and of claims so equitable, was received among the senators, in
+their moments of ease, as a welcome sharer in this vain distinction. He
+entered the Broglio at the wonted hour, and with his usual composure,
+for he trusted to his secret influence at Rome, and something to the
+success of his rivals, for impunity. Reflection had shown Don Camillo
+that, as his plans were known to the council, they would long since have
+arrested him had such been their intention; and it had also led him to
+believe that the most efficient manner of avoiding the personal
+consequences of his adventure was to show confidence in his own power to
+withstand them. When he appeared, therefore, leaning on the arm of a
+high officer of the papal embassy, and with an eye that spoke assurance
+in himself, he was greeted, as usual, by all who knew him, as was due to
+his rank and expectations. Still Don Camillo walked among the patricians
+of the Republic with novel sensations. More than once he thought he
+detected, in the wandering glances of those with whom he conversed,
+signs of their knowledge of his frustrated attempt; and more than once,
+when he least suspected such scrutiny, his countenance was watched, as
+if the observer sought some evidence of his future intentions. Beyond
+this none might have discovered that an heiress of so much importance
+had been so near being lost to the state, or, on the other hand, that a
+bridegroom had been robbed of his bride. Habitual art, on the part of
+the state, and resolute but wary intention, on the part of the young
+noble, concealed all else from observation.
+
+In this manner the day passed, not a tongue in Venice, beyond those
+which whispered in secret, making any allusion to the incidents of our
+tale.
+
+Just as the sun was setting a gondola swept slowly up to the water-gate
+of the ducal palace. The gondolier landed, fastened his boat in the
+usual manner to the stepping-stones, and entered the court. He wore a
+mask, for the hour of disguise had come, and his attire was so like the
+ordinary fashion of men of his class, as to defeat recognition by its
+simplicity. Glancing an eye about him, he entered the building by a
+private door.
+
+The edifice in which the Doges of Venice dwelt still stands a gloomy
+monument of the policy of the Republic, furnishing evidence, in itself,
+of the specious character of the prince whom it held. It is built around
+a vast but gloomy court, as is usual with nearly all of the principal
+edifices of Europe. One of its fronts forms a side of the piazzetta so
+often mentioned, and another lines the quay next the port. The
+architecture of these two exterior faces of the palace renders the
+structure remarkable. A low portico, which forms the Broglio, sustains
+a row of massive oriental windows, and above these again lies a pile of
+masonry, slightly relieved by apertures, which reverses the ordinary
+uses of the art. A third front is nearly concealed by the cathedral of
+St. Mark, and the fourth is washed by its canal. The public prison of
+the city forms the other side of this canal, eloquently proclaiming the
+nature of the government by the close approximation of the powers of
+legislation and of punishment. The famous Bridge of Sighs is the
+material, and we might add the metaphorical, link between the two. The
+latter edifice stands on the quay, also, and though less lofty and
+spacious, in point of architectural beauty it is the superior structure,
+though the quaintness and unusual style of the palace are most apt to
+attract attention.
+
+The masked gondolier soon reappeared beneath the arch of the water-gate,
+and with a hurried step he sought his boat. It required but a minute to
+cross the canal, to land on the opposite quay, and to enter the public
+door of the prison. It would seem that he had some secret means of
+satisfying the vigilance of the different keepers, for bolts were drawn,
+and doors unlocked, with little question, wherever he presented himself.
+In this manner he quickly passed all the outer barriers of the place,
+and reached a part of the building which had the appearance of being
+fitted for the accommodation of a family. Judging from the air of all
+around him, those who dwelt there took the luxury of their abode but
+little into the account, though neither the furniture nor the rooms were
+wanting in most of the necessaries suited to people of their class and
+the climate, and in that age.
+
+The gondolier had ascended a private stairway, and he was now before a
+door which had none of those signs of a prison that so freely abounded
+in other parts of the building. He paused to listen, and then tapped
+with singular caution.
+
+"Who is without?" asked a gentle female voice, at the same instant that
+the latch moved and fell again, as if she within waited to be assured
+of the character of her visitor before she opened the door.
+
+"A friend to thee, Gelsomina," was the answer.
+
+"Nay, here all are friends to the keepers, if words can be believed. You
+must name yourself, or go elsewhere for your answer."
+
+The gondolier removed the mask a little, which had altered his voice as
+well as concealed his face.
+
+"It is I, Gessina," he said, using the diminutive of her name.
+
+The bolts grated, and the door was hurriedly opened.
+
+"It is wonderful that I did not know thee, Carlo!" said the female, with
+eager simplicity; "but thou takest so many disguises of late, and so
+counterfeitest strange voices, that thine own mother might have
+distrusted her ear."
+
+The gondolier paused to make certain they were alone; then laying aside
+the mask altogether, he exposed the features of the Bravo.
+
+"Thou knowest the need of caution," he added, "and wilt not judge me
+harshly."
+
+"I said not that, Carlo--but thy voice is so familiar, that I thought it
+wonderful thou could'st speak as a stranger."
+
+"Hast thou aught for me?"
+
+The gentle girl--for she was both young and gentle--hesitated.
+
+"Hast thou aught new, Gelsomina?" repeated the Bravo, reading her
+innocent face with his searching gaze.
+
+"Thou art fortunate in not being sooner in the prison. I have just had a
+visitor. Thou would'st not have liked to be seen, Carlo!"
+
+"Thou knowest I have good reasons for coming masked. I might, or I might
+not have disliked thy acquaintance, as he should have proved."
+
+"Nay, now thou judgest wrong," returned the female, hastily--"I had no
+other here but my cousin Annina."
+
+"Dost thou think me jealous?" said the Bravo, smiling in kindness, as
+he took her hand. "Had it been thy cousin Pietro, or Michele, or
+Roberto, or any other youth of Venice, I should have no other dread than
+that of being known."
+
+"But it was only Annina--my cousin Annina, whom thou hast never
+seen--and I have no cousins Pietro, and Michele, and Roberto. We are not
+many, Carlo. Annina has a brother, but he never comes hither. Indeed it
+is long since she has found it convenient to quit her trade to come to
+this dreary place. Few children of sisters see each other so seldom as
+Annina and I!"
+
+"Thou art a good girl, Gessina, and art always to be found near thy
+mother. Hast thou naught in particular for my ear?"
+
+Again the soft eyes of Gelsomina, or Gessina, as she was familiarly
+called, dropped to the floor; but raising them ere he could note the
+circumstance, she hurriedly continued the discourse.
+
+"I fear Annina will return, or I would go with thee at once."
+
+"Is this cousin of thine still here, then?" asked the Bravo, with
+uneasiness. "Thou knowest I would not be seen."
+
+"Fear not. She cannot enter without touching that bell; for she is above
+with my poor bed-ridden mother. Thou can'st go into the inner room as
+usual, when she comes, and listen to her idle discourse, if thou wilt;
+or--but we have not time--for Annina comes seldom, and I know not why,
+but she seems to love a sick room little, as she never stays many
+minutes with her aunt."
+
+"Thou would'st have said, or I might go on my errand, Gessina?"
+
+"I would, Carlo, but I am certain we should be recalled by my impatient
+cousin."
+
+"I can wait. I am patient when with thee, dearest Gessina."
+
+"Hist!--'Tis my cousin's step. Thou canst go in."
+
+While she spoke, a small bell rang, and the Bravo withdrew into the
+inner room, like one accustomed to that place of retreat. He left the
+door ajar--for the darkness of the closet sufficiently concealed his
+person. In the meantime Gelsomina opened the outer door for the
+admission of her visitor. At the first sound of the latter's voice,
+Jacopo, who had little suspected the fact from a name which was so
+common, recognised the artful daughter of the wine-seller.
+
+"Thou art at thy ease, here, Gelsomina," cried the latter, entering and
+throwing herself into a seat, like one fatigued. "Thy mother is better,
+and thou art truly mistress of the house."
+
+"I would I were not, Annina; for I am young to have this trust, with
+this affliction."
+
+"It is not so insupportable, Gessina, to be mistress within doors, at
+seventeen! Authority is sweet, and obedience is odious."
+
+"I have found neither so, and I will give up the first with joy,
+whenever my poor mother shall be able to take command of her own family
+again."
+
+"This is well, Gessina, and does credit to the good father confessor.
+But authority is dear to woman, and so is liberty. Thou wast not with
+the maskers yesterday, in the square?"
+
+"I seldom wear a disguise, and I could not quit my mother."
+
+"Which means that thou would'st have been glad to do it. Thou hast a
+good reason for thy regrets, since a gayer marriage of the sea, or a
+braver regatta, has not been witnessed in Venice since thou wast born.
+But the first was to be seen from thy window?"
+
+"I saw the galley of state sweeping towards the Lido, and the train of
+patricians on its deck; but little else."
+
+"No matter. Thou shalt have as good an idea of the pageant as if thou
+had'st played the part of the Doge himself. First came the men of the
+guard with their ancient dresses--"
+
+"Nay, this I remember to have often seen; for the same show is kept from
+year to year."
+
+"Thou art right; but Venice never witnessed such a brave regatta! Thou
+knowest that the first trial is always between gondolas of many oars,
+steered by the best esteemed of the canals. Luigi was there, and though
+he did not win, he more than merited success, by the manner in which he
+directed his boat. Thou knowest Luigi?"
+
+"I scarce know any in Venice, Annina; for the long illness of my mother,
+and this unhappy office of my father, keep me within when others are on
+the canals."
+
+"True. Thou art not well placed to make acquaintances. But Luigi is
+second to no gondolier in skill or reputation, and he is much the
+merriest rogue of them all, that put foot on the Lido."
+
+"He was foremost, then, in the grand race?"
+
+"He should have been, but the awkwardness of his fellows, and some
+unfairness in the crossing, threw him back to be second. 'Twas a sight
+to behold, that of many noble watermen struggling to maintain or to get
+a name on the canals. Santa Maria! I would thou could'st have seen it,
+girl!"
+
+"I should not have been glad to see a friend defeated."
+
+"We must take fortune as it offers. But the most wonderful sight of the
+day, after all, though Luigi and his fellows did so well, was to see a
+poor fisherman, named Antonio, in his bare head and naked legs, a man of
+seventy years, and with a boat no better than that I use to carry
+liquors to the Lido, entering on the second race, and carrying off the
+prize!"
+
+"He could not have met with powerful rivals?"
+
+"The best of Venice; though Luigi, having strived for the first, could
+not enter for the second trial. 'Tis said, too," continued Annina,
+looking about her with habitual caution, "that one, who may scarce be
+named in Venice, had the boldness to appear in that regatta masked; and
+yet the fisherman won! Thou hast heard of Jacopo?"
+
+"The name is common."
+
+"There is but one who bears it now in Venice. All mean the same when
+they say Jacopo."
+
+"I have heard of a monster of that name. Surely he hath not dared to
+show himself among the nobles, on such a festa!"
+
+"Gessina, we live in an unaccountable country! The man walks the piazza
+with a step as lordly as the Doge, at his pleasure, and yet none say
+aught to him! I have seen him, at noonday, leaning against the triumphal
+mast, or the column of San Theodoro, with as proud an air as if he were
+put there to celebrate a victory of the Republic!"
+
+"Perhaps he is master of some terrible secret, which they fear he will
+reveal?"
+
+"Thou knowest little of Venice, child! Holy Maria! a secret of that kind
+is a death-warrant of itself. It is as dangerous to know too much as it
+is to know too little, when one deals with St. Mark. But they say Jacopo
+was there, standing eye to eye with the Doge, and scaring the Senators
+as if he had been an uncalled spectre from the vaults of their fathers.
+Nor is this all; as I crossed the Lagunes this morning, I saw the body
+of a young cavalier drawn from the water, and those who were near it
+said it had the mark of his fatal hand!"
+
+The timid Gelsomina shuddered.
+
+"They who rule," she said, "will have to answer for this negligence to
+God, if they let the wretch longer go at large."
+
+"Blessed St. Mark protect his children! They say there is much of this
+sort of sin to answer for--but see the body I did, with my own eyes, in
+entering the canals this morning."
+
+"And didst thou sleep on the Lido, that thou wert abroad so early?"
+
+"The Lido--yes--nay--I slept not, but thou knowest my father had a busy
+day during the revels, and I am not like thee, Gessina, mistress of the
+household, to do as I would. But I tarry here to chat with thee, when
+there is great need of industry at home. Hast thou the package, child,
+which I trusted to thy keeping at my last visit?"
+
+"It is here," answered Gelsomina, opening a drawer, and handing to her
+cousin a small but closely enveloped package, which, unknown to herself,
+contained some articles of forbidden commerce, and which the other, in
+her indefatigable activity, had been obliged to secrete for a time. "I
+had begun to think that thou hadst forgotten it, and was about to send
+it to thee."
+
+"Gelsomina, if thou lovest me, never do so rash an act! My brother
+Giuseppe--thou scarce knowest Giuseppe?"
+
+"We have little acquaintance, for cousins."
+
+"Thou art fortunate in thy ignorance. I cannot say what I might of the
+child of the same parents, but had Giuseppe seen this package by any
+accident, it might have brought thee into great trouble!"
+
+"Nay, I fear not thy brother, nor any else," said the daughter of the
+prison-keeper, with the firmness of innocence; "he could do me no harm
+for dealing kindly by a relative."
+
+"Thou art right; but he might have caused me great vexation. Sainted
+Maria! if thou knewest the pain that unthinking and misguided boy gives
+his family! He is my brother, after all, and you will fancy the rest.
+Addio, good Gessina; I hope thy father will permit thee to come and
+visit, at last, those who so much love thee."
+
+"Addio, Annina; thou knowest I would come gladly, but that I scarce
+quit the side of my poor mother."
+
+The wily daughter of the wine-seller gave her guileless and unsuspecting
+friend a kiss, and then she was let out and departed.
+
+"Carlo," said the soft voice of Gessina; "thou can'st come forth, for we
+have no further fear of visits."
+
+The Bravo appeared, but with a paleness deeper than common on his cheek.
+He looked mournfully at the gentle and affectionate being who awaited
+his return, and when he struggled to answer her ingenuous smile, the
+abortive effort gave his features an expression of ghastliness.
+
+"Annina has wearied thee with her idle discourse of the regatta, and of
+murders on the canals. Thou wilt not judge her harshly, for the manner
+in which she spoke of Giuseppe, who may deserve this, and more. But I
+know thy impatience, and I will not increase thy weariness."
+
+"Hold, Gessina--this girl is thy cousin?"
+
+"Have I not told thee so? Our mothers are sisters."
+
+"And she is here often?"
+
+"Not as often as she could wish, I am certain, for her aunt has not
+quitted her room for many, many months."
+
+"Thou art an excellent daughter, kind Gessina, and would make all others
+as virtuous as thyself. And thou hast been to return these visits?"
+
+"Never. My father forbids it, for they are dealers in wines, and
+entertain the gondoliers in revelry. But Annina is blameless for the
+trade of her parents."
+
+"No doubt--and that package? it hath been long in thy keeping."
+
+"A month; Annina left it at her last visit, for she was hurried to cross
+to the Lido. But why these questions? You do not like my cousin, who is
+giddy, and given to idle conversation, but who, I think, must have a
+good heart. Thou heard'st the manner in which she spoke of the wretched
+bravo, Jacopo, and of this late murder?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Thou could'st not have shown more horror at the monster's crime
+thyself, Carlo. Nay, Annina is thoughtless, and she might be less
+worldly; but she hath, like all of us, a holy aversion to sin. Shall I
+lead thee to the cell?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Thy honest nature, Carlo, revolts at the cold villany of the assassin.
+I have heard much of his murders, and of the manner in which those up
+above bear with him. They say, in common, that his art surpasseth
+theirs, and that the officers wait for proof, that they may not do
+injustice."
+
+"Is the Senate so tender, think you?" asked the Bravo, huskily, but
+motioning for his companion to proceed.
+
+The girl looked sad, like one who felt the force of this question; and
+she turned away to open a private door, whence she brought forth a
+little box.
+
+"This is the key, Carlo," she said, showing him one of a massive bunch,
+"and I am now the sole warder. This much, at least, we have effected;
+the day may still come when we shall do more."
+
+The Bravo endeavored to smile, as if he appreciated her kindness; but he
+only succeeded in making her understand his desire to go on. The eye of
+the gentle-hearted girl lost its gleam of hope in an expression of
+sorrow, and she obeyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  "But let us to the roof,
+  And, when thou hast surveyed the sea, the land,
+  Visit the narrow cells that cluster there,
+  As in a place of tombs."
+                           ST. MARK'S PLACE.
+
+
+We shall not attempt to thread the vaulted galleries, the gloomy
+corridors, and all the apartments, through which the keeper's daughter
+led her companion. Those who have ever entered an extensive prison, will
+require no description to revive the feeling of pain which it excited,
+by barred windows, creaking hinges, grating bolts, and all those other
+signs, which are alike the means and evidence of incarceration. The
+building, unhappily like most other edifices intended to repress the
+vices of society, was vast, strong, and intricate within, although, as
+has been already intimated, of a chaste and simple beauty externally,
+that might seem to have been adopted in mockery of its destination.
+
+Gelsomina entered a low, narrow, and glazed gallery, when she stopped.
+
+"Thou soughtest me, as wont, beneath the water-gate, Carlo," she asked,
+"at the usual hour?"
+
+"I should not have entered the prison had I found thee there, for thou
+knowest I would be little seen. But I bethought me of thy mother, and
+crossed the canal."
+
+"Thou wast wrong. My mother rests much as she has done for many
+months--thou must have seen that we are not taking the usual route to
+the cell?"
+
+"I have; but as we are not accustomed to meet in thy father's rooms, on
+this errand, I thought this the necessary direction."
+
+"Hast thou much knowledge of the palace and the prison, Carlo?"
+
+"More than I could wish, good Gelsomina; but why am I thus questioned,
+at a moment when I would be otherwise employed?"
+
+The timid and conscious girl did not answer. Her cheek was never bright,
+for, like a flower reared in the shade, it had the delicate hue of her
+secluded life; but at this question it became pale. Accustomed to the
+ingenuous habits of the sensitive being at his side, the Bravo studied
+her speaking features intently. He moved swiftly to a window, and
+looking out, his eye fell upon a narrow and gloomy canal. Crossing the
+gallery, he cast a glance beneath him, and saw the same dark watery
+passage, leading between the masonry of two massive piles to the quay
+and the port.
+
+"Gelsomina!" he cried, recoiling from the sight, "this is the Bridge of
+Sighs!"
+
+"It is, Carlo; hast thou ever crossed it before?"
+
+"Never: nor do I understand why I cross it now. I have long thought that
+it might one day be my fortune to walk this fatal passage, but I could
+not dream of such a keeper!"
+
+The eye of Gelsomina brightened, and her smile was cheerful.
+
+"Thou wilt never cross it to thy harm with me."
+
+"Of that I am certain, kind Gessina," he answered, taking her hand. "But
+this is a riddle that I cannot explain. Art thou in the habit of
+entering the palace by this gallery?"
+
+"It is little used, except by the keepers and the condemned, as
+doubtless thou hast often heard; but yet they have given me the keys,
+and taught me the windings of the place, in order that I might serve, as
+usual, for thy guide."
+
+"Gelsomina, I fear I have been too happy in thy company to note, as
+prudence would have told me, the rare kindness of the council in
+permitting me to enjoy it!"
+
+"Dost thou repent, Carlo, that thou hast known me?"
+
+The reproachful melancholy of her voice touched the Bravo, who kissed
+the hand he held with Italian fervor.
+
+"I should then repent me of the only hours of happiness I have known for
+years," he said. "Thou hast been to me, Gelsomina, like a flower in a
+desert--a pure spring to a feverish man--a gleam of hope to one
+suffering under malediction. No, no, not for a moment have I repented
+knowing thee, my Gelsomina!"
+
+"'Twould not have made my life more happy, Carlo, to have thought I had
+added to thy sorrows. I am young, and ignorant of the world, but I know
+we should cause joy, and not pain, to those we esteem."
+
+"Thy nature would teach thee this gentle lesson. But is it not strange
+that one like me should be suffered to visit the prison unattended by
+any other keeper?"
+
+"I had not thought it so, Carlo; but surely, it is not common!"
+
+"We have found so much pleasure in each other, dear Gessina, that we
+have overlooked what ought to have caused alarm."
+
+"Alarm, Carlo!"
+
+"Or, at least, distrust; for these wily senators do no act of mercy
+without a motive. But it is now too late to recall the past if we would;
+and in that which relates to thee I would not lose the memory of a
+moment. Let us proceed."
+
+The slight cloud vanished from the face of the mild auditor of the
+Bravo; but still she did not move.
+
+"Few pass this bridge, they say," she added tremulously, "and enter the
+world again; and yet thou dost not even ask why we are here, Carlo!"
+
+There was a transient gleam of distrust in the hasty glance of the
+Bravo, as he shot a look at the undisturbed eye of the innocent being
+who put this question. But it scarcely remained long enough to change
+the expression of manly interest she was accustomed to meet in his look.
+
+"Since thou wilt have me curious," he said, "why hast thou come hither,
+and more than all, being here, why dost thou linger?"
+
+"The season is advanced, Carlo," she answered, speaking scarcely above
+her breath, "and we should look in vain among the cells."
+
+"I understand thee," he said; "we will proceed."
+
+Gelsomina lingered to gaze wistfully into the face of her companion, but
+finding no visible sign of the agony he endured she went on. Jacopo
+spoke hoarsely, but he was too long accustomed to disguise to permit the
+weakness to escape, when he knew how much it would pain the sensitive
+and faithful being who had yielded her affections to him with a
+singleness and devotion which arose nearly as much from her manner of
+life as from natural ingenuousness.
+
+In order that the reader may be enabled to understand the allusions,
+which seem to be so plain to our lovers, it may be necessary to explain
+another odious feature in the policy of the Republic of Venice.
+
+Whatever may be the pretension of a state, in its acknowledged theories,
+an unerring clue to its true character is ever to be found in the
+machinery of its practice. In those governments which are created for
+the good of the people, force is applied with caution and reluctance,
+since the protection and not the injury of the weak is their object:
+whereas the more selfish and exclusive the system becomes, the more
+severe and ruthless are the coercive means employed by those in power.
+Thus in Venice, whose whole political fabric reposed on the narrow
+foundation of an oligarchy, the jealousy of the Senate brought the
+engines of despotism in absolute contact with even the pageantry of
+their titular prince, and the palace of the Doge himself was polluted by
+the presence of the dungeons. The princely edifice had its summer and
+winter cells. The reader may be ready to believe that mercy had dictated
+some slight solace for the miserable in this arrangement. But this would
+be ascribing pity to a body which, to its latest moment, had no tie to
+subject it to the weakness of humanity. So far from consulting the
+sufferings of the captive, his winter cell was below the level of the
+canals, while his summers were to be passed beneath the leads exposed to
+the action of the burning sun of that climate. As the reader has
+probably anticipated already, that Jacopo was in the prison on an errand
+connected with some captive, this short explanation will enable him to
+understand the secret allusion of his companion. He they sought had, in
+truth, been recently conveyed from the damp cells where he had passed
+the winter and spring, to the heated chambers beneath the roof.
+
+Gelsomina continued to lead the way with a sadness of eye and feature
+that betrayed her strong sympathy with the sufferings of her companion,
+but without appearing to think further delay necessary. She had
+communicated a circumstance which weighed heavily on her own mind, and,
+like most of her mild temperament, who had dreaded such a duty, now that
+it was discharged she experienced a sensible relief. They ascended many
+flights of steps, opened and shut numberless doors, and threaded several
+narrow corridors in silence, before reaching the place of destination.
+While Gelsomina sought the key of the door before which they stopped, in
+the large bunch she carried, the Bravo breathed the hot air of the attic
+like one who was suffocating.
+
+"They promised me that this should not be done again!" he said. "But
+they forget their pledges, fiends as they are!"
+
+"Carlo! thou forgettest that this is the palace of the Doge!" whispered
+the girl, while she threw a timid glance behind her.
+
+"I forget nothing that is connected with the Republic! It is all here,"
+striking his flushed brow--"what is not there, is in my heart!"
+
+"Poor Carlo! this cannot last for ever--there will be an end!"
+
+"Thou art right," answered the Bravo hoarsely. "The end is nearer than
+thou thinkest. No matter; turn the key, that we may go in."
+
+The hand of Gelsomina lingered on the lock, but admonished by his
+impatient eye, she complied, and they entered the cell.
+
+"Father!" exclaimed the Bravo, hastening to the side of a pallet that
+lay on the floor.
+
+The attenuated and feeble form of an old man rose at the word, and an
+eye which, while it spoke mental feebleness, was at that moment even
+brighter than that of his son, glared on the faces of Gelsomina and her
+companion.
+
+"Thou hast not suffered, as I had feared, by this sudden change,
+father!" continued the latter, kneeling by the side of the straw. "Thine
+eye, and cheek, and countenance are better, than in the damp caves
+below!"
+
+"I am happy here," returned the prisoner; "there is light, and though
+they have given me too much of it, thou canst never know, my boy, the
+joy of looking at the day, after so long a night."
+
+"He is better, Gelsomina. They have not yet destroyed him. See! his eye
+is bright even, and his cheek has a glow!"
+
+"They are ever so, after passing the winter in the lower dungeons,"
+whispered the gentle girl.
+
+"Hast thou news for me, boy? What tidings from thy mother?"
+
+Jacopo bowed his head to conceal the anguish occasioned by this
+question, which he now heard for the hundredth time.
+
+"She is happy, father--happy as one can be, who so well loves thee, when
+away from thy side."
+
+"Does she speak of me often?"
+
+"The last word that I heard from her lips, was thy name."
+
+"Holy Maria bless her! I trust she remembers me in her prayers?"
+
+"Doubt it not, father, they are the prayers of an angel!"
+
+"And thy patient sister? thou hast not named her, son."
+
+"She, too, is well, father."
+
+"Has she ceased to blame herself for being the innocent cause of my
+sufferings?"
+
+"She has."
+
+"Then she pines no longer over a blow that cannot be helped."
+
+The Bravo seemed to search for relief in the sympathizing eye of the
+pale and speechless Gelsomina.
+
+"She has ceased to pine, father," he uttered with compelled calmness.
+
+"Thou hast ever loved thy sister, boy, with manly tenderness. Thy heart
+is kind, as I have reason to know. If God has given me grief, he has
+blessed me in my children!"
+
+A long pause followed, during which the parent seemed to muse on the
+past, while the child rejoiced in the suspension of questions which
+harrowed his soul, since those of whom the other spoke had long been the
+victims of family misfortune. The old man, for the prisoner was aged as
+well as feeble, turned his look on the still kneeling Bravo,
+thoughtfully, and continued.
+
+"There is little hope of thy sister marrying, for none are fond of tying
+themselves to the proscribed."
+
+"She wishes it not--she wishes it not--she is happy, with my mother!"
+
+"It is a happiness the Republic will not begrudge. Is there no hope of
+our being able to meet soon?"
+
+"Thou wilt meet my mother--yes, that pleasure will come at last!"
+
+"It is a weary time since any of my blood, but thee, have stood in my
+sight. Kneel, that I may bless thee."
+
+Jacopo, who had risen under his mental torture, obeyed, and bowed his
+head in reverence to receive the paternal benediction. The lips of the
+old man moved, and his eyes were turned to Heaven, but his language was
+of the heart, rather than that of the tongue. Gelsomina bent her head to
+her bosom, and seemed to unite her prayers to those of the prisoner.
+When the silent but solemn ceremony was ended, each made the customary
+sign of the cross, and Jacopo kissed the wrinkled hand of the captive.
+
+"Hast thou hope for me?" the old man asked, this pious and grateful duty
+done. "Do they still promise to let me look upon the sun again?"
+
+"They do. They promise fair."
+
+"Would that their words were true! I have lived on hope for a weary
+time--I have now been within these walls more than four years,
+methinks."
+
+Jacopo did not answer, for he knew that his father named the period only
+that he himself had been permitted to see him.
+
+"I built upon the expectation that the Doge would remember his ancient
+servant, and open my prison-doors."
+
+Still Jacopo was silent, for the Doge, of whom the other spoke, had long
+been dead.
+
+"And yet I should be grateful, for Maria and the saints have not
+forgotten me. I am not without my pleasures in captivity."
+
+"God be praised!" returned the Bravo. "In what manner dost thou ease thy
+sorrows, father?"
+
+"Look hither, boy," exclaimed the old man, whose eye betrayed a mixture
+of feverish excitement, caused by the recent change in his prison, and
+the growing imbecility of a mind that was gradually losing its powers
+for want of use; "dost thou see the rent in that bit of wood? It opens
+with the heat, from time to time, and since I have been an inhabitant
+here, that fissure has doubled in length--I sometimes fancy, that when
+it reaches the knot, the hearts of the senators will soften, and that my
+doors will open. There is a satisfaction in watching its increase, as it
+lengthens, inch by inch, year after year!"
+
+"Is this all?"
+
+"Nay, I have other pleasures. There was a spider the past year, that
+wove his web from yonder beam, and he was a companion, too, that I loved
+to see; wilt thou look, boy, if there is hope of his coming back?"
+
+"I see him not," whispered the Bravo.
+
+"Well, there is always the hope of his return. The flies will enter
+soon, and then he will be looking for his prey. They may shut me up on a
+false charge, and keep me weary years from my wife and daughter, but
+they cannot rob me of all my happiness!"
+
+The aged captive was mute and thoughtful. A childish impatience glowed
+in his eye, and he gazed from the rent, the companion of so many
+solitary summers, to the face of his son, like one who began to distrust
+his enjoyments.
+
+"Well, let them take it away," he said, burying his head beneath the
+covering of his bed: "I will not curse them!"
+
+"Father!"
+
+The prisoner made no reply.
+
+"Father!"
+
+"Jacopo!"
+
+In his turn the Bravo was speechless. He did not venture, even, to steal
+a glance towards the breathless and attentive Gelsomina, though his
+bosom heaved with longing to examine her guileless features.
+
+"Dost thou hear me, son?" continued the prisoner, uncovering his head:
+"dost thou really think they will have the heart to chase the spider
+from my cell?"
+
+"They will leave thee this pleasure, father, for it touches neither
+their power nor their fame. So long as the Senate can keep its foot on
+the neck of the people, and so long as it can keep the seemliness of a
+good name, it will not envy thee this."
+
+"Blessed Maria make me thankful!--I had my fears, child; for it is not
+pleasant to lose any friend in a cell!"
+
+Jacopo then proceeded to soothe the mind of the prisoner, and he
+gradually led his thoughts to other subjects. He laid by the bed-side a
+few articles of food, that he was allowed to bring with him, and again
+holding out the hope of eventual liberation, he proposed to take his
+leave.
+
+"I will try to believe thee, son," said the old man, who had good reason
+to distrust assurances so often made. "I will do all I can to believe
+it. Thou wilt tell thy mother, that I never cease to think of her, and
+to pray for her; and thou wilt bless thy sister, in the name of her poor
+imprisoned parent."
+
+The Bravo bowed in acquiescence, glad of any means to escape speech. At
+a sign from the old man he again bent his knee, and received the parting
+benediction. After busying himself in arranging the scanty furniture of
+the cell, and in trying to open one or two small fissures, with a view
+to admit more light and air, he quitted the place.
+
+Neither Gelsomina nor Jacopo spoke, as they returned by the intricate
+passages through which they had ascended to the attic, until they were
+again on the Bridge of Sighs. It was seldom that human foot trod this
+gallery, and the former, with female quickness, selected it as a place
+suited to their further conference.
+
+"Dost thou find him changed?" she asked, lingering on the arch.
+
+"Much."
+
+"Thou speakest with a frightful meaning!"
+
+"I have not taught my countenance to lie to thee, Gelsomina."
+
+"But there is hope.--- Thou told'st him there was hope, thyself."
+
+"Blessed Maria forgive the fraud! I could not rob the little life he has
+of its only comfort."
+
+"Carlo!--Carlo!--Why art thou so calm? I have never heard thee speak so
+calmly of thy father's wrongs and imprisonment."
+
+"It is because his liberation is near."
+
+"But this moment he was without hope, and thou speakest now of
+liberation!"
+
+"The liberation of death. Even the anger of the Senate will respect the
+grave."
+
+"Dost thou think his end near? I had not seen this change."
+
+"Thou art kind, good Gelsomina, and true to thy friends, and without
+suspicion of those crimes of which thou art so innocent: but to one who
+has seen as much evil as I, a jealous thought comes at every new event.
+The sufferings of my poor father are near their end, for nature is worn
+out; but were it not, I can foresee that means would be found to bring
+them to a close."
+
+"Thou can'st not suspect that any here would do him harm!"
+
+"I suspect none that belong to thee. Both thy father and thyself,
+Gelsomina, are placed here by the interposition of the saints, that the
+fiends should not have too much power on earth."
+
+"I do not understand thee, Carlo--but thou art often so.--Thy father
+used a word to-day that I could wish he had not, in speaking to thee."
+
+The eye of the Bravo threw a quick, uneasy, suspicious glance at his
+companion, and then averted its look with haste.
+
+"He called thee Jacopo!" continued the girl.
+
+"Men often have glimpses of their fate, by the kindness of their
+patrons."
+
+"Would'st thou say, Carlo, that thy father suspects the senate will
+employ the monster he named?"
+
+"Why not?--they have employed worse men. If report says true, he is not
+unknown to them."
+
+"Can this be so!--Thou art bitter against the Republic, because it has
+done injury to thy family; but thou canst not believe it has ever dealt
+with the hired stiletto."
+
+"I said no more than is whispered daily on the canals."
+
+"I would thy father had not called thee by this terrible name, Carlo!"
+
+"Thou art too wise to be moved by a word, Gelsomina. But what thinkest
+thou of my unhappy father?"
+
+"This visit has not been like the others thou hast made him in my
+company. I know not the reason, but to me thou hast ever seemed to feel
+the hope with which thou hast cheered the prisoner; while now, thou
+seemest to have even a frightful pleasure in despair."
+
+"Thy fears deceive thee," returned the Bravo, scarce speaking above his
+breath. "Thy fears deceive thee, and we will say no more. The senate
+mean to do us justice, at last. They are honorable Signori, of
+illustrious birth, and renowned names! 'Twould be madness to distrust
+the patricians! Dost thou not know, girl, that he who is born of gentle
+blood is above the weaknesses and temptations that beset us of base
+origin! They are men placed by birth above the weaknesses of mortals,
+and owing their account to none, they will be sure to do justice. This
+is reasonable, and who can doubt it!"
+
+As he ended, the Bravo laughed bitterly.
+
+"Nay, now thou triflest with me, Carlo; none are above the danger of
+doing wrong, but those whom the saints and kind Maria favor."
+
+"This comes of living in a prison, and of saying thy prayers night and
+morning! No--no--silly girl, there are men in the world born wise, from
+generation to generation; born honest, virtuous, brave, incorruptible,
+and fit in all things to shut up and imprison those who are born base
+and ignoble. Where hast thou passed thy days, foolish Gelsomina, not to
+have felt this truth in the very air thou breathest? 'Tis clear as the
+sun's light, and palpable--aye--palpable as these prison walls!"
+
+The timid girl recoiled from his side, and there was a moment when she
+meditated flight; for never before, during their numberless and
+confidential interviews, had she ever heard so bitter a laugh, or seen
+so wild a gleam in the eye of her companion.
+
+"I could almost fancy, Carlo, that my father was right in using the name
+he did," she said, as, recovering herself, she turned a reproachful look
+on his still excited features.
+
+"It is the business of parents to name their children;--but enough. I
+must leave thee, good Gelsomina, and I leave thee with a heavy heart."
+
+The unsuspecting Gelsomina forgot her alarm. She knew not why, but,
+though the imaginary Carlo seldom quitted her that she was not sad, she
+felt a weight heavier than common on her spirits at this declaration.
+
+"Thou hast thy affairs, and they must not be forgotten. Art fortunate
+with the gondola of late, Carlo?"
+
+"Gold and I are nearly strangers. The Republic throws the whole charge
+of the venerable prisoner on my toil."
+
+"I have little, as thou knowest, Carlo," said Gelsomina in a
+half-audible voice; "but it is thine. My father is not rich, as thou
+can'st feel, or he would not live on the sufferings of others, by
+holding the keys of the prison."
+
+"He is better employed than those who set the duty. Were the choice
+given me, girl, to wear the horned bonnet, to feast in their halls, to
+rest in their palaces, to be the gayest bauble in such a pageant as that
+of yesterday, to plot in their secret councils, and to be the heartless
+judge to condemn my fellows to this misery--or to be merely the keeper
+of the keys and turner of the bolts--I should seize on the latter
+office, as not only the most innocent, but by far the most honorable!"
+
+"Thou dost not judge as the world judges, Carlo. I had feared thou
+might'st feel shame at being the husband of a jailor's daughter; nay, I
+will not hide the secret longer, since thou speakest so calmly, I have
+wept that it should be so."
+
+"Then thou hast neither understood the world nor me. Were thy father of
+the Senate, or of the Council of Three, could the grievous fact be
+known, thou would'st have cause to sorrow. But, Gelsomina, the canals
+are getting dusky, and I must leave thee."
+
+The reluctant girl saw the truth of what he said, and applying a key,
+she opened the door of the covered bridge. A few turnings and a short
+descent brought the Bravo and his companion to the level of the quays.
+Here the former took a hurried leave and quitted the prison.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+  "But they who blunder thus are raw beginners."
+                              DON JUAN.
+
+
+The hour had come for the revels of the Piazza, and for the movement of
+the gondolas. Maskers glided along the porticoes as usual; the song and
+cry were heard anew, and Venice was again absorbed in delusive gaiety.
+
+When Jacopo issued from the prison on the quay, he mingled with the
+stream of human beings that was setting towards the squares, protected
+from observation by the privileged mask. While crossing the lower bridge
+of the canal of St. Mark, he lingered an instant, to throw a look at the
+glazed gallery he had just quitted, and then moved forward with the
+crowd--the image of the artless and confiding Gelsomina uppermost in his
+thoughts. As he passed slowly along the gloomy arches of the Broglio,
+his eye sought the person of Don Camillo Monforte. They met at the angle
+of the little square, and exchanging secret signs, the Bravo moved on
+unnoticed.
+
+Hundreds of boats lay at the foot of the Piazzetta. Among these Jacopo
+sought his own gondola, which he extricated from the floating mass, and
+urged into the stream. A few sweeps of the oar, and he lay at the side
+of La Bella Sorrentina. The padrone paced the deck, enjoying the cool of
+the evening with Italian indolence, while his people, grouped on the
+forecastle, sang, or rather chanted, a song of those seas. The greetings
+were blunt and brief, as is usual among men of that class. But the
+padrone appeared to expect the visit, for he led his guest far from the
+ears of his crew, to the other extremity of the felucca.
+
+"Hast thou aught in particular, good Roderigo?" demanded the mariner,
+who knew the Bravo by a sign, and yet who only knew him by that
+fictitious name. "Thou seest we have not passed the time idly, though
+yesterday was a festa."
+
+"Art thou ready for the gulf?"
+
+"For the Levant, or the pillars of Hercules, as shall please the Senate.
+We have got our yard aloft since the sun went behind the mountains, and
+though we may seem careless of delay, an hour's notice will fit us for
+the outside of the Lido."
+
+"Then take the notice."
+
+"Master Roderigo, you bring your news to an overstocked market. I have
+already been informed that we shall be wanted to-night."
+
+The quick movement of suspicion made by the Bravo escaped the
+observation of the padrone, whose eye was running over the felucca's
+gear, with a sailor's habitual attention to that part of his vessel,
+when there was question of its service.
+
+"Thou art right, Stefano. But there is little harm in repeated caution.
+Preparation is the first duty in a delicate commission."'
+
+"Will you look for yourself, Signor Roderigo?" said the mariner, in a
+lower tone. "La Bella Sorrentina is not the Bucentaur, nor a galley of
+the Grand Master of Malta; but, for her size, better rooms are not to be
+had in the palace of the Doge. When they told me there was a lady in the
+freight, the honor of Calabria was stirred in her behalf."
+
+"'Tis well. If they have named to thee all the particulars, thou wilt
+not fail to do thyself credit."
+
+"I do not say that they have shown me half of them, good Signore,"
+interrupted Stefano. "The secresy of your Venetian shipments is my
+greatest objection to the trade. It has more than once happened to me,
+that I have lain weeks in the canals, with my hold as clean as a
+friar's conscience, when orders have come to weigh, with some such cargo
+as a messenger, who has got into his berth as we cleared the port, to
+get out of it on the coast of Dalmatia, or among the Greek islands."
+
+"In such cases thou hast earned thy money easily."
+
+"Diamine! Master Roderigo, if I had a friend in Venice to give timely
+advice, the felucca might be ballasted with articles that would bring a
+profit on the other shore. Of what concern is it to the Senate, when I
+do my duty to the nobles faithfully, that I do my duty at the same time
+to the good woman and her little brown children left at home in
+Calabria?"
+
+"There is much reason in what thou sayest, Stefano; but thou knowest the
+Republic is a hard master. An affair of this nature must be touched with
+a gentle hand."
+
+"None know it better than I, for when they sent the trader with all his
+movables out of the city, I was obliged to throw certain casks into the
+sea, to make room for his worthless stuffs. The Senate owes me just
+compensation for that loss, worthy Signor Roderigo!"
+
+"Which thou would'st be glad to repair to-night?"
+
+"Santissima Maria! You may be the Doge himself, Signore, for anything I
+know of your countenance; but I could swear at the altar you ought to be
+of the Senate for your sagacity! If this lady will not be burdened with
+many effects, and there is yet time, I might humor the tastes of the
+Dalmatians with certain of the articles that come from the countries
+beyond the pillars of Hercules!"
+
+"Thou art the judge of the probability thyself, since they told thee of
+the nature of thy errand."
+
+"San Gennaro of Napoli open my eyes!--They said not a word beyond this
+little fact, that a youthful lady, in whom the Senate had great
+interest, would quit the city this night for the eastern coast. If it is
+at all agreeable to your conscience, Master Roderigo, I should be happy
+to hear who are to be her companions?"
+
+"Of that thou shalt hear more in proper season. In the meantime, I would
+recommend to thee a cautious tongue, for St. Mark makes no idle jokes
+with those who offend him. I am glad to see thee in this state of
+preparation, worthy padrone, and wishing thee a happy night, and a
+prosperous voyage, I commit thee to thy patron. But hold--ere I quit
+thee, I would know the hour that the land-breeze will serve?"
+
+"You are exact as a compass in your own matters, Signore, but of little
+charity to thy friends! With the burning sun of to-day we should have
+the air of the Alps about the turn of the night."
+
+"'Tis well. My eye shall be on thee. Once more, addio!"
+
+"Cospetto! and thou hast said nothing of the cargo?"
+
+"'Twill not be so weighty in bulk as in value," carelessly answered
+Jacopo, shoving his gondola from the side of the felucca. The fall of
+his oar into the water succeeded, and as Stefano stood, meditating the
+chances of his speculation on his deck, the boat glided away towards the
+quay with a swift but easy movement.
+
+Deceit, like the windings of that subtle animal the fox, often crosses
+its own path. It consequently throws out those by whom it is practised,
+as well as those who art meant to be its victims. When Jacopo parted
+from Don Camillo, it was with an understanding that he should adopt all
+the means that his native sagacity or his experience might suggest, to
+ascertain in what manner the council intended to dispose of the person
+of Donna Yioletta. They had separated on the Lido, and as none knew of
+their interview but him, and none would probably suspect their recent
+alliance, the Bravo entered on his new duty with some chances of
+success, that might otherwise have been lost. A change of its agents, in
+affairs of peculiar delicacy, was one of the ordinary means taken by the
+Republic to avoid investigation. Jacopo had often been its instrument
+in negotiating with the mariner, who, as has been so plainly intimated,
+had frequently been engaged in carrying into effect its secret, and
+perhaps justifiable measures of police; but in no instance had it ever
+been found necessary to interpose a second agent between the
+commencement and the consummation of its bargains, except in this. He
+had been ordered to see the padrone, and to keep him in preparation for
+immediate service; but since the examination of Antonio before the
+council, his employers had neglected to give him any further
+instructions. The danger of leaving the bride within reach of the agents
+of Don Camillo was so obvious, that this unusual caution had been
+considered necessary. It was under this disadvantage, therefore, that
+Jacopo entered on the discharge of his new and important duties.
+
+That cunning, as has just been observed, is apt to overreach itself, has
+passed into a proverb; and the case of Jacopo and his employers was one
+in point to prove its truth. The unusual silence of those who ordinarily
+sought him on similar occasions, had not been lost on the agent; and the
+sight of the felucca, as he strayed along the quays, gave an accidental
+direction to his inquiries. The manner in which they were aided by the
+cupidity of the Calabrian, has just been related.
+
+Jacopo had no sooner touched the quay and secured his boat, than he
+hastened again to the Broglio. It was now filled by maskers and the
+idlers of the Piazzetta. The patricians had withdrawn to the scenes of
+their own pleasures, or, in furtherance of that system of mysterious
+sway which it was their policy to maintain, they did not choose to
+remain exposed to the common eye, during the hours of license which were
+about to follow.
+
+It would seem that Jacopo had his instructions, for no sooner did he
+make sure that Don Camillo had retired, than he threaded the throng with
+the air of a man whose course was decided. By this time, both the
+squares were full, and at least half of those who spent the night in
+those places of amusement, were masked. The step of the Bravo, though so
+unhesitating, was leisurely, and he found time, in passing up the
+Piazzetta, to examine the forms, and, when circumstances permitted, the
+features of all he met. He proceeded, in this manner, to the point of
+junction between the two squares, when his elbow was touched by a light
+hand.
+
+Jacopo was not accustomed, unnecessarily, to trust his voice in the
+square of St. Mark, and at that hour. But his look of inquiry was
+returned by a sign to follow. He had been stopped by one whose figure
+was so completely concealed by a domino, as to baffle all conjecture
+concerning his true character. Perceiving, however, that the other
+wished to lead him to a part of the square that was vacant, and which
+was directly on the course he was about to pursue, the Bravo made a
+gesture of compliance and followed. No sooner were the two apart from
+the pressure of the crowd, and in a place where no eaves-dropper could
+overhear their discourse without detection, than the stranger stopped.
+He appeared to examine the person, stature, and dress of Jacopo, from
+beneath his mask, with singular caution, closing the whole with a sign
+that meant recognition. Jacopo returned his dumb show, but maintained a
+rigid silence.
+
+"Just Daniel!" muttered the stranger, when he found that his companion
+was not disposed to speak; "one would think, illustrious Signore, that
+your confessor had imposed a penance of silence, by the manner in which
+you refuse to speak to your servant."
+
+"What would'st thou?"
+
+"Here am I, sent into the piazza, among knights of industry, valets,
+gondoliers, and all other manner of revellers that adorn this Christian
+land, in search of the heir of one of the most ancient and honorable
+houses of Venice."
+
+"How knowest thou I am he thou seekest?"
+
+"Signore, there are many signs seen by a wise man, that escape the
+unobservant. When young cavaliers have a taste for mingling with the
+people in honorable disguise, as in the case of a certain patrician of
+this Republic, they are to be known by their air, if not by their
+voices."
+
+"Thou art a cunning agent, Hosea; but the shrewdness of thy race is its
+livelihood!"
+
+"It is its sole defence against the wrongs of the oppressor, young
+noble. We are hunted like wolves, and it is not surprising that we
+sometimes show the ferocity of the beasts yon take us for. But why
+should I tell the wrongs of my people to one who believes life is a
+masquerade!"
+
+"And who would not be sorry, ingenious Hosea, were it composed only of
+Hebrews! But thy errand; I have no gage unredeemed, nor do I know that I
+owe thee gold."
+
+"Righteous Samuel! your cavaliers of the Senate are not always mindful
+of the past, Signore, or these are words that might have been spared. If
+your excellency is inclined to forget pledges, the fault is not of my
+seeking; but as for the account that has been so long growing between
+us, there is not a dealer on the Rialto that will dispute the proofs."
+
+"Well, be it so--would'st thou dun my father's son in the face of the
+revellers in St. Mark?"
+
+"I would do no discredit to any come of that illustrious race, Signore,
+and therefore we will say no more of the matter; always relying that, at
+the proper moment, you will not question your own hand and seal."
+
+"I like thy prudence, Hebrew. It is a pledge thou comest on some errand
+less ungracious than common. As I am pressed for time, 'twill be a favor
+wert thou to name it."
+
+Hosea examined, in a covert but very thorough manner, the vacant spot
+around them, and drawing nearer to the supposed noble, he continued:
+
+"Signore, your family is in danger of meeting with a great loss! It is
+known to you that the Senate has altogether and suddenly removed Donna
+Violetta from the keeping of the faithful and illustrious senator your
+father."
+
+Though Jacopo started slightly, the movement was so natural for a
+disappointed lover, that it rather aided than endangered his disguise.
+
+"Compose yourself, young Signore," continued Hosea; "these
+disappointments attend us all in youth, as I know by severe trials. Leah
+was not gained without trouble, and next to success in barter, success
+in love is perhaps the most uncertain. Gold is a great make-weight in
+both, and it commonly prevails. But you are nearer to losing the lady of
+your love and her possessions than you may imagine, for I am sent
+expressly to say that she is about to be removed from the city."
+
+"Whither?" demanded Jacopo, so quickly as to do credit to his assumed
+character.
+
+"That is the point to learn, Signore. Thy father is a sagacious senator,
+and is deep at times in the secrets of the State. But judging from his
+uncertainty on this occasion, I think he is guided more by his
+calculations than by any assurance of his own knowledge. Just Daniel! I
+have seen the moments when I have suspected that the venerable patrician
+himself was a member of the Council of Three!"
+
+"His house is ancient and his privileges well established--why should he
+not?"
+
+"I say naught against it, Signore. It is a wise body, that doeth much
+good, and preventeth much harm. None speak evil of the secret councils
+on the Rialto, where men are more given to gainful industry that to wild
+discussions of their rulers' acts. But, Signore, be he of this or that
+council, or merely of the Senate, a heedful hint has fallen from his
+lips of the danger we are in of losing--"
+
+"We!--Hast thou thoughts of Donna Violetta, Hosea?"
+
+"Leah and the law forbid!--If the comely queen of Sheba herself were to
+tempt me, and a frail nature showed signs of weakness, I doubt that our
+rabbis would find reasons for teaching self-denial! Besides, the
+daughter of Levi is no favorer of polygamy, nor any other of our sex's
+privileges. I spoke in pluralities, Signore, because the Rialto has some
+stake in this marriage as well as the house of Gradenigo."
+
+"I understand thee. Thou hast fears for thy gold?"
+
+"Had I been easily alarmed, Signor Giacomo, in that particular, I might
+not have parted with it so readily. But, though the succession of thy
+illustrious father will be ample to meet any loan within my humble
+means, that of the late Signor Tiepolo will not weaken the security."
+
+"I admit thy sagacity, and feel the importance of thy warning. But it
+seems to have no other object or warranty than thy own fears."
+
+"With certain obscure hints from your honored father, Signore?"
+
+"Did he say more to the point?"
+
+"He spoke in parables, young noble, but having an oriental ear his words
+were not uttered to the wind. That the rich damsel is about to be
+conveyed from Venice am I certain, and for the benefit of the little
+stake I have myself in her movements, I would give the best turquoise in
+my shop to know whither."
+
+"Canst thou say with certainty, 'twill be this night?"
+
+"Giving no pledge for redemption in the event of mistake, I am so sure,
+young cavalier, as to have many unquiet thoughts."
+
+"Enough--I will look to my own interests and to thine."
+
+Jacopo waved his hand in adieu, and pursued his walk up the piazza.
+
+"Had I looked more sharply to the latter, as became one accustomed to
+deal with the accursed race," muttered the Hebrew, "it would be a
+matter of no concern to me if the girl married a Turk!"
+
+"Hosea," said a mask at his ear; "a word with thee in secret."
+
+The jeweller started, and found that in his zeal he had suffered one to
+approach within sound of his voice unseen. The other was in a domino
+also, and so well enveloped as to be effectually concealed.
+
+"What would'st thou, Signor Mask?" demanded the wary Jew.
+
+"A word in friendship and in confidence.--Thou hast moneys to lend at
+usury?"
+
+"The question had better be put to the Republic's treasury! I have many
+stones valued much below their weight, and would be glad to put them
+with some one more lucky than myself who will be able to keep them."
+
+"Nay, this will not suffice--thou art known to be abounding in sequins;
+one of thy race and riches will never refuse a sure loan with securities
+as certain as the laws of Venice. A thousand ducats in thy willing hand
+is no novelty"
+
+"They who call me rich, Signor Mask, are pleased to joke with the
+unhappy child of a luckless race. That I might have been above
+want--nay, that I am not downright needy, may be true; but when they
+speak of a thousand ducats, they speak of affairs too weighty for my
+burdened shoulders. Were it your pleasure to purchase an amethyst or a
+ruby, gallant Signore, there might possibly be dealings between us?"
+
+"I have need of gold, old man, and can spare thee jewels myself at need.
+My wants are urgent at this moment, and I have little time to lose in
+words--name thy conditions."
+
+"One should have good securities, Signore, to be so peremptory in a
+matter of money."
+
+"Thou hast heard that the laws of Venice are not more certain. A
+thousand sequins, and that quickly. Thou shalt settle the usury with
+thine own conscience."
+
+Hosea thought that this was giving ample room to the treaty, and he
+began to listen more seriously.
+
+"Signore," he said, "a thousand ducats are not picked up at pleasure
+from the pavement of the great square. He who would lend them must first
+earn them with long and patient toil; and he who would borrow----"
+
+"Waits at thy elbow."
+
+"Should have a name and countenance well known on the Rialto."
+
+"Thou lendest on sufficient pledges to masks, careful Hosea, or fame
+belies thy generosity."
+
+"A sufficient pledge gives me power to see the way clearly, though the
+borrower should be as much hidden as those up above. But here is none
+forthcoming. Come to me to-morrow, masked or not, as may suit your own
+pleasure, for I have no impertinent desire to pry into any man's secrets
+beyond what a regard to my own interests requires, and I will look into
+my coffers; though those of no heir-apparent in Venice can be emptier."
+
+"My necessities are too urgent to brook delay. Hast thou the gold, on
+condition of naming thine own usury?"
+
+"With sufficient pledges, in stones of price, I might rake together the
+sum among our dispersed people, Signore. But he who goes on the island
+to borrow, as I shall be obliged to do, should be able to satisfy all
+doubts concerning the payment."
+
+"The gold can then be had--on that point I may be easy?"
+
+Hosea hesitated, for he had in vain endeavored to penetrate the other's
+disguise, and while he thought his assurance a favorable omen, with a
+lender's instinct he disliked his impatience.
+
+"I have said, by the friendly aid of our people," he answered, with
+caution.
+
+"This uncertainty will not answer my need. Addio, Hosea--I must seek
+elsewhere."
+
+"Signore, you could not be more hurried were the money to pay the cost
+of your nuptials. Could I find Isaac and Aaron within, at this late
+hour, I think I might be safe in saying, that part of the money might be
+had."
+
+"I cannot trust to this chance."
+
+"Nay, Signore, the chance is but small, since Aaron is bed-ridden, and
+Isaac never fails to look into his affairs after the toil of the day is
+ended. The honest Hebrew finds sufficient recreation in the employment,
+though I marvel at his satisfaction, since nothing but losses have come
+over our people the year past!"
+
+"I tell thee, Jew, no doubt must hang over the negotiation. The money,
+with pledges, and thine own conscience for arbiter between us; but no
+equivocal dealings, to be followed by a disappointment, under the
+pretence that second parties are not satisfied."
+
+"Just Daniel! to oblige you, Signore, I think I may venture. The well
+known Hebrew, Levi of Livorno, has left with me a sack, containing the
+very sum of which there is question, and, under the conditions named, I
+will convert it to my uses, arid repay the good jeweller his gold, with
+moneys of my own, at a later day."
+
+"I thank thee for the fact, Hosea," said the other, partially removing
+his mask, but as instantly replacing it. "It will greatly shorten our
+negotiations. Thou hast not that sack of the Jew of Livorno beneath thy
+domino?"
+
+Hosea was speechless. The removal of the mask had taught him two
+material facts. He had been communicating his distrust of the Senate's
+intentions, concerning Donna Violetta, to an unknown person, and,
+possibly, to an agent of the police; and he had just deprived himself of
+the only argument he had ever found available, in refusing the attempts
+of Giacomo Gradenigo to borrow, by admitting to that very individual
+that he had in his power the precise sum required.
+
+"I trust the face of an old customer is not likely to defeat our
+bargain, Hosea?" demanded the profligate heir of the senator, scarce
+concealing the irony in which the question was put.
+
+"Father Abraham! Had I known it had been you, Signor Giacomo, we might
+have greatly shortened the treaty."
+
+"By denying that thou hadst the money, as thou hast so often done of
+late!"
+
+"Nay, nay, I am not a swallower of my own words, young Signore; but my
+duty to Levi must not be forgotten. The careful Hebrew made me take a
+vow, by the name of our tribe, that I would not part with his gold to
+any that had not the means of placing its return beyond all chances."
+
+"This assurance is not wanting, since thou art the borrower, thyself, to
+lend to me."
+
+"Signore, you place my conscience in an awkward position. You are now my
+debtor some six thousand sequins, and were I to make this loan of money
+in trust, and were you to return it--two propositions I make on
+supposition--a natural love for my own might cause me to pass the
+payment to account, whereby I should put the assets of Levi in
+jeopardy."
+
+"Settle that as thou wilt with thy conscience, Hosea--thou hast
+confessed to the money, and here are jewels for the pledge--I ask only
+the sequins."
+
+It is probable that the appeal of Giacomo Gradenigo would not have
+produced much effect on the flinty nature of the Hebrew, who had all the
+failings of a man proscribed by opinion; but having recovered from his
+surprise, he began to explain to his companion his apprehensions on
+account of Donna Violetta, whose marriage, it will be remembered, was a
+secret to all but the witnesses and the Council of Three, when to his
+great joy he found that the gold was wanting to advance his own design
+of removing her to some secret place. This immediately changed the whole
+face of the bargain. As the pledges offered were really worth the sum to
+be received, Hosea thought, taking the chances of recovering back his
+ancient loans, from the foreign estates of the heiress, into the
+account, the loan would be no bad investment of the pretended sequins of
+his friend Levi.
+
+As soon as the parties had come to a clear understanding, they left the
+square together, to consummate their bargain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  "We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade."
+                             HENRY VI.
+
+
+The night wore on. The strains of music again began to break through the
+ordinary stillness of the town, and the boats of the great were once
+more in motion on every canal. Hands waved timidly in recognition, from
+the windows of the little dark canopies, as the gondolas glided by, but
+few paused to greet each other in that city of mystery and suspicion.
+Even the refreshing air of the evening was inhaled under an appearance
+of restraint, which, though it might not be at the moment felt, was too
+much interwoven with the habits of the people, ever to be entirely
+thrown aside.
+
+Among the lighter and gayer barges of the patricians, a gondola of more
+than usual size, but of an exterior so plain as to denote vulgar uses,
+came sweeping down the great canal. Its movement was leisurely, and the
+action of the gondoliers that of men either fatigued or little pressed
+for time. He who steered, guided the boat with consummate skill, but
+with a single hand, while his three fellows, from time to time, suffered
+their oars to trail on the water in very idleness. In short, it had the
+ordinary listless appearance of a boat returning to the city from an
+excursion on the Brenta, or to some of the more distant isles.
+
+Suddenly the gondola diverged from the centre of the passage, down which
+it rather floated than pulled, and shot into one of the least frequented
+canals of the city. From this moment its movement became more rapid and
+regular, until it reached a quarter of the town inhabited by the lowest
+order of the Venetians. Here it stopped by the side of a warehouse, and
+one of its crew ascended to a bridge. The others threw themselves on the
+thwarts and seemed to repose.
+
+He who quitted the boat threaded a few narrow but public alleys, such as
+are to be found in every part of that confined town, and knocked lightly
+at a window. It was not long before the casement opened, and a female
+voice demanded the name of him without.
+
+"It is I, Annina," returned Gino, who was not an unfrequent applicant
+for admission at that private portal. "Open the door, girl, for I have
+come on a matter of pressing haste."
+
+Annina complied, though not without making sure that her suitor was
+alone.
+
+"Thou art come unseasonably, Gino," said the wine-seller's daughter; "I
+was about to go to St. Mark's to breathe the evening air. My father and
+brothers are already departed, and I only stay to make sure of the
+bolts."
+
+"Their gondola will hold a fourth?"
+
+"They have gone by the footways."
+
+"And thou walkest the streets alone at this hour, Annina?"
+
+"I know not thy right to question it, if I do," returned the girl with
+spirit. "San Theodore be praised, I am not yet the slave of a
+Neapolitan's servitor!"
+
+"The Neapolitan is a powerful noble, Annina, able and willing to keep
+his servitors in respect."
+
+"He will have need of all his interest--but why hast thou come at this
+unseasonable hour? Thy visits are never too welcome, Gino, and when I
+have other affairs they are disagreeable."
+
+Had the passion of the gondolier been very deep or very sensitive, this
+plain dealing might have given him a shock; but Gino appeared to take
+the repulse as coolly as it was given.
+
+"I am used to thy caprices, Annina," he said, throwing himself upon a
+bench like one determined to remain where he was. "Some young patrician
+has kissed his hand to thee as thou hast crossed San Marco, or thy
+father has made a better day of it than common on the Lido; thy pride
+always mounts with thy father's purse."
+
+"Diamine! to hear the fellow one would think he had my troth, and that
+he only waited in the sacristy for the candles to be lighted to receive
+my vows! What art thou to me, Gino Tullini, that thou takest on thee
+these sudden airs?"
+
+"And what art thou to me, Annina, that thou playest off these worn-out
+caprices on Don Camillo's confidant?"
+
+"Out upon thee, insolent! I have no time to waste in idleness."
+
+"Thou art in much haste to-night, Annina."
+
+"To be rid of thee. Now listen to what I say, Gino, and let every word
+go to thy heart, for they are the last thou wilt ever hear from me. Thou
+servest a decayed noble, one who will shortly be chased in disgrace from
+the city, and with him will go all his idle servitors. I choose to
+remain in the city of my birth."
+
+The gondolier laughed in real indifference at her affected scorn. But
+remembering his errand, he quickly assumed a graver air, and endeavored
+to still the resentment of his fickle mistress by a more respectful
+manner.
+
+"St. Mark protect me, Annina!" he said. "If we are not to kneel before
+the good priore together, it is no reason we should not bargain in
+wines. Here have I come into the dark canals, within stone's throw of
+thy very door, with a gondola of mellow Lachryma Christi, such as honest
+'Maso, thy father, has rarely dealt in, and thou treatest me as a dog
+that is chased from a church!"
+
+"I have little time for thee or thy wines to-night, Gino. Hadst thou not
+stayed me, I should already have been abroad and happy."
+
+"Close thy door, girl, and make little ceremony with an old friend,"
+said the gondolier, officiously offering to aid her in securing the
+dwelling. Annina took him at his word, and as both appeared to work with
+good will, the house was locked, and the wilful girl and her suitor were
+soon in the street. Their route lay across the bridge already named.
+Gino pointed to the gondola as he said, "Thou art not to be tempted,
+Annina?"
+
+"Thy rashness in leading the smugglers to my father's door will bring us
+to harm some day, silly fellow!"
+
+"The boldness of the act will prevent suspicion."
+
+"Of what vineyard is the liquor?"
+
+"It came from the foot of Vesuvius, and is ripened by the heat of the
+volcano. Should my friends part with it to thy enemy, old Beppo, thy
+father will rue the hour!"
+
+Annina, who was much addicted to consulting her interests on all
+occasions, cast a longing glance at the boat. The canopy was closed, but
+it was large, and her willing imagination readily induced her to fancy
+it well filled with skins from Naples.
+
+"This will be the last of thy visits to our door, Gino?"
+
+"As thou shalt please. But go down and taste."
+
+Annina hesitated, and, as a woman is said always to do when she
+hesitates, she complied. They reached the boat with quick steps, and
+without regarding the men who were still lounging on the thwarts, Annina
+glided immediately beneath the canopy. A fifth gondolier was lying at
+length on the cushions, for, unlike a boat devoted to the contraband,
+the canopy had the usual arrangement of a barque of the canals.
+
+"I see nothing to turn me aside!" exclaimed the disappointed girl. "Wilt
+thou aught with me, Signore?"
+
+"Thou art welcome. We shall not part so readily as before."
+
+The stranger had arisen while speaking, and as he ended, he laid a hand
+on the shoulder of his visitor, who found herself confronted with Don
+Camillo Monforte.
+
+Annina was too much practised in deception to indulge in any of the
+ordinary female symptoms, either of real or of affected alarm.
+Commanding her features, though in truth her limbs shook, she said with
+assumed pleasantry--
+
+"The secret trade is honored in the services of the noble Duke of St.
+Agata!"
+
+"I am not here to trifle, girl, as thou wilt see in the end. Thou hast
+thy choice before thee, frank confession or my just anger."
+
+Don Camillo spoke calmly, but in a manner that plainly showed Annina she
+had to deal with a resolute man.
+
+"What confession would your eccellenza have from the daughter of a poor
+wine-seller?" she asked, her voice trembling in spite of herself.
+
+"The truth--and remember that this time we do not part until I am
+satisfied. The Venetian police and I are now fairly at issue, and thou
+art the first fruits of my plan."
+
+"Signor Duca, this is a bold step to take in the heart of the canals!"
+
+"The consequences be mine. Thy interest will teach thee to confess."
+
+"I shall make no great merit, Signore, of doing that which is forced
+upon me. As it is your pleasure to know the little I can tell you, I am
+happy to be permitted to relate it."
+
+"Speak then; for time presses."
+
+"Signore, I shall not pretend to deny you have been ill-treated.
+Capperi! how ill has the council treated you! A noble cavalier, of a
+strange country, who, the meanest gossip in Venice knows, has a just
+right to the honors of the Senate, to be so treated is a disgrace to the
+Republic! I do not wonder that your eccellenza is out of humor with
+them. Blessed St. Mark himself would lose his patience to be thus
+treated!"
+
+"A truce with this, girl, and to your facts."
+
+"My facts, Signor Duca, are a thousand times clearer than the sun, and
+they are all at your eccellenza's service. I am sure I wish I had more
+of them, since they give you pleasure."
+
+"Enough of this profession. Speak to the facts themselves."
+
+Annina, who in the manner of most of her class in Italy, that had been
+exposed to the intrigues of the towns, had been lavish of her words, now
+found means to cast a glance at the water, when she saw that the boat
+had already quitted the canals, and was rowing easily out upon the
+Lagunes. Perceiving how completely she was in the power of Don Camillo,
+she began to feel the necessity of being more explicit.
+
+"Your eccellenza has probably suspected that the council found means to
+be acquainted with your intention to fly from the city with Donna
+Violetta?"
+
+"All that is known to me."
+
+"Why they chose me to be the servitor of the noble lady is beyond my
+powers to discover. Our Lady of Loretto! I am not the person to be sent
+for, when the state wishes to part two lovers!"
+
+"I have borne with thee, Annina, because I would let the gondola get
+beyond the limits of the city; but now thou must throw aside thy
+subterfuge, and speak plainly. Where didst thou leave my wife?"
+
+"Does your eccellenza then think the state will admit the marriage to be
+legal?"
+
+"Girl, answer, or I will find means to make thee. Where didst thou leave
+my wife?"
+
+"Blessed St. Theodore! Signore, the agents of the Republic had little
+need of me, and I was put on the first bridge that the gondola passed."
+
+"Thou strivest to deceive me in vain. Thou wast on the Lagunes till a
+late hour in the day, and I have notice of thy having visited the prison
+of St. Mark as the sun was setting; and this on thy return from the boat
+of Donna Violetta."
+
+There was no acting in the wonder of Annina.
+
+"Santissima Maria! You are better served, Signore, than the council
+thinks!"
+
+"As thou wilt find to thy cost, unless the truth be spoken. From what
+convent did'st thou come?"
+
+"Signore, from none. If your eccellenza has discovered that the Senate
+has shut up the Signora Tiepolo in the prison of St. Mark, for
+safe-keeping, it is no fault of mine."
+
+"Thy artifice is useless, Annina," observed Don Camillo, calmly. "Thou
+wast in the prison, in quest of forbidden articles that thou hadst long
+left with thy cousin Gelsomina, the keeper's daughter, who little
+suspected thy errand, and on whose innocence and ignorance of the world
+thou hast long successfully practised. Donna Violetta is no vulgar
+prisoner, to be immured in a jail."
+
+"Santissima Madre di Dio!"
+
+Amazement confined the answer of the girl to this single, but strong
+exclamation.
+
+"Thou seest the impossibility of deception. I am acquainted with so much
+of thy movements as to render it impossible that thou should'st lead me
+far astray. Thou art not wont to visit thy cousin; but as thou entered
+the canals this evening----"
+
+A shout on the water caused Don Camillo to pause. On looking out he saw
+a dense body of boats sweeping towards the town as if they were all
+impelled by a single set of oars. A thousand voices were speaking at
+once, and occasionally a general and doleful cry proclaimed that the
+floating multitude, which came on, was moved by a common feeling. The
+singularity of the spectacle, and the fact that his own gondola lay
+directly in the route of the fleet, which was composed of several
+hundred boats, drove the examination of the girl, momentarily, from the
+thoughts of the noble.
+
+"What have we here, Jacopo?" he demanded, in an under-tone, of the
+gondolier who steered his own barge.
+
+"They are fishermen, Signore, and by the manner in which they come down
+towards the canals, I doubt they are bent on some disturbance. There has
+been discontent among them since the refusal of the Doge to liberate the
+boy of their companion from the galleys."
+
+Curiosity induced the people of Don Camillo to linger a minute, and then
+they perceived the necessity of pulling out of the course of the
+floating mass, which came on like a torrent, the men sweeping their
+boats with that desperate stroke which is so often seen among the
+Italian oarsmen. A menacing hail, with a command to remain, admonished
+Don Camillo of the necessity of downright flight, or of obedience. He
+chose the latter, as the least likely to interfere with his own plans.
+
+"Who art thou?" demanded one, who had assumed the character of a leader.
+"If men of the Lagunes and Christians, join your friends, and away with
+us to St. Mark for justice!"
+
+"What means this tumult?" asked Don Camillo, whose dress effectually
+concealed his rank, a disguise that he completed by adopting the
+Venetian dialect. "Why are you here in these numbers, friends?"
+
+"Behold!"
+
+Don Camillo turned, and he beheld the withered features and glaring eyes
+of old Antonio, fixed in death. The explanation was made by a hundred
+voices, accompanied by oaths so bitter, and denunciations so deep, that
+had not Don Camillo been prepared by the tale of Jacopo, he would have
+found great difficulty in understanding what he heard.
+
+In dragging the Lagunes for fish, the body of Antonio had been found,
+and the result was, first, a consultation on the probable means of his
+death, and then a collection of the men of his calling, and finally the
+scene described.
+
+"Giustizia!" exclaimed fifty excited voices, as the grim visage of the
+fisherman was held towards the light of the moon; "Giustizia in Palazzo
+e paue in Piazza!"
+
+"Ask it of the Senate!" returned Jacopo, not attempting to conceal the
+derision of his tones.
+
+"Thinkest thou our fellow has suffered for his boldness yesterday?"
+
+"Stranger things have happened in Venice!"
+
+"They forbid us to cast our nets in the Canale Orfano, lest the secrets
+of justice should be known, and yet they have grown bold enough to drown
+one of our own people in the midst of our gondolas!"
+
+"Justice, justice!" shouted numberless hoarse throats.
+
+"Away to St. Mark's! Lay the body at the feet of the Doge! Away,
+brethren, Antonio's blood is on their souls!"
+
+Bent on a wild and undigested scheme of asserting their wrongs, the
+fishermen again plied their oars, and the whole fleet swept away, as if
+it was composed of a single mass.
+
+The meeting, though so short, was accompanied by cries, menaces, and all
+those accustomed signs of rage which mark a popular tumult among those
+excitable people, and it had produced a sensible effect on the nerves of
+Annina. Don Camillo profited by her evident terror to press his
+questions, for the hour no longer admitted of trifling.
+
+The result was, that while the agitated mob swept into the mouth of the
+Great Canal, raising hoarse shouts, the gondola of Don Camillo Monforte
+glided away across the wide and tranquil surface of the Lagunes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  "A Clifford, a Clifford! we'll follow the king and Clifford."
+                                        HENRY VI.
+
+
+The tranquillity of the best ordered society may be disturbed, at any
+time, by a sudden outbreaking of the malcontents. Against such a
+disaster there is no more guarding than against the commission of more
+vulgar crimes; but when a government trembles for its existence, before
+the turbulence of popular commotion, it is reasonable to infer some
+radical defect in its organization. Men will rally around their
+institutions, as freely as they rally around any other cherished
+interest, when they merit their care, and there can be no surer sign of
+their hollowness than when the rulers seriously apprehend the breath of
+the mob. No nation ever exhibited more of this symptomatic terror, on
+all occasions of internal disturbance, than the pretending Republic of
+Venice. There was a never-ceasing and a natural tendency to dissolution,
+in her factious system, which was only resisted by the alertness of her
+aristocracy, and the political buttresses which their ingenuity had
+reared. Much was said of the venerable character of her polity, and of
+its consequent security, but it is in vain that selfishness contends
+with truth. Of all the fallacies with which man has attempted to gloss
+his expedients, there is none more evidently false than that which
+infers the duration of a social system, from the length of time it has
+already lasted. It would be quite as reasonable to affirm that the man
+of seventy has the same chances for life as the youth of fifteen, or
+that the inevitable fate of all things of mortal origin was not
+destruction. There is a period in human existence when the principle of
+vitality has to contend with the feebleness of infancy, but this
+probationary state passed, the child attains the age when it has the
+most reasonable prospect of living. Thus the social, like any other
+machine, which has run just long enough to prove its fitness, is at the
+precise period when it is least likely to fail, and although he that is
+young may not live to become old, it is certain that he who is old was
+once young. The empire of China was, in its time, as youthful as our own
+republic, nor can we see any reason for believing that it is to outlast
+us, from the decrepitude which is a natural companion of its years.
+
+At the period of our tale, Venice boasted much of her antiquity, and
+dreaded, in an equal degree, her end. She was still strong in her
+combinations, but they were combinations that had the vicious error of
+being formed for the benefit of the minority, and which, like the mimic
+fortresses and moats of a scenic representation, needed only a strong
+light to destroy the illusion. The alarm with which the patricians heard
+the shouts of the fishermen, as they swept by the different palaces, on
+their way to the great square, can be readily imagined. Some feared that
+the final consummation of their artificial condition, which had so long
+been anticipated by a secret political instinct, was at length arrived,
+and began to bethink them of the savest means of providing for their own
+security. Some listened in admiration, for habit had so far mastered
+dulness, as to have created a species of identity between the state and
+far more durable things, and they believed that St. Mark had gained a
+victory, in that decline, which was never exactly intelligible to their
+apathetic capacities. But a few, and these were the spirits that
+accumulated all the national good which was vulgarly and falsely
+ascribed to the system itself, intuitively comprehended the danger,
+with a just appreciation of its magnitude, as well as of the means to
+avoid it.
+
+But the rioters were unequal to any estimate of their own force, and had
+little aptitude in measuring their accidental advantages. They acted
+merely on impulse. The manner in which their aged companion had
+triumphed on the preceding day, his cold repulse by the Doge, and the
+scene of the Lido, which in truth led to the death of Antonio, had
+prepared their minds for the tumult. When the body was found, therefore,
+after the time necessary to collect their forces on the Lagunes, they
+yielded to passion, and moved away towards the palace of St. Mark, as
+described, without any other definite object than a simple indulgence of
+feeling.
+
+On entering the canal, the narrowness of the passage compressed the
+boats into a mass so dense, as, in a measure, to impede the use of oars,
+and the progress of the crowd was necessarily slow. All were anxious to
+get as near as possible to the body of Antonio, and, like all mobs, they
+in some degree frustrated their own objects by ill-regulated zeal. Once
+or twice the names of offensive senators were shouted, as if the
+fishermen intended to visit the crimes of the state on its agents; but
+these cries passed away in the violent breath that was expended. On
+reaching the bridge of the Rialto, more than half of the multitude
+landed, and took the shorter course of the streets to the point of
+destination, while those in front got on the faster, for being
+disembarrassed of the pressure in the rear. As they drew nearer to the
+port, the boats began to loosen, and to take something of the form of a
+funeral procession.
+
+It was during this moment of change that a powerfully manned gondola
+swept, with strong strokes, out of a lateral passage into the Great
+Canal. Accident brought it directly in front of the moving phalanx of
+boats that was coming down the same channel. Its crew seemed staggered
+by the extraordinary appearance which met their view, and for an
+instant its course was undecided.
+
+"A gondola of the Republic!" shouted fifty fishermen. A single voice
+added--"Canale Orfano!"
+
+The bare suspicion of such an errand, as was implied by the latter
+words, and at that moment, was sufficient to excite the mob. They raised
+a cry of denunciation, and some twenty boats made a furious
+demonstration of pursuit. The menace, however, was sufficient; for
+quicker far than the movements of the pursuers, the gondoliers of the
+Republic dashed towards the shore, and leaping on one of those passages
+of planks which encircle so many of the palaces of Venice, they
+disappeared by an alley.
+
+Encouraged by this success, the fishermen seized the boat as a waif, and
+towed it into their own fleet, filling the air with cries of triumph.
+Curiosity led a few to enter the hearse-like canopy, whence they
+immediately reissued dragging forth a priest.
+
+"Who art thou?" hoarsely demanded he who took upon himself the authority
+of a leader.
+
+"A Carmelite, and a servant of God!"
+
+"Dost thou serve St. Mark? Hast thou been to the Canale Orfano to shrive
+a wretch?"
+
+"I am here in attendance on a young and noble lady, who has need of my
+counsel and prayers. The happy and the miserable, the free and the
+captive, are equally my care!"
+
+"Ha! Thou art not above thy office? Thou wilt say the prayers for the
+dead in behalf of a poor man's soul?"
+
+"My son, I know no difference, in this respect, between the Doge and the
+poorest fisherman. Still I would not willingly desert the females."
+
+"The ladies shall receive no harm. Come into my boat, for there is need
+of thy holy office."
+
+Father Anselmo--the reader will readily anticipate that it was
+he--entered the canopy, said a few words in explanation to his
+trembling companions, and complied. He was rowed to the leading gondola,
+and, by a sign, directed to the dead body.
+
+"Thou see'st that corpse, father?" continued his conductor. "It is the
+face of one who was an upright and pious Christian!"
+
+"He was."
+
+"We all knew him as the oldest and the most skilful fisherman of the
+Lagunes, and one ever ready to assist an unlucky companion."
+
+"I can believe thee!"
+
+"Thou mayest, for the holy books are not more true than my words:
+yesterday he came down this very canal in triumph, for he bore away the
+honors of the regatta from the stoutest oars in Venice."
+
+"I have heard of his success."
+
+"They say that Jacopo, the Bravo--he who once held the best oar in the
+canals--was of the party! Santa Madonna! such a man was too precious to
+die!"
+
+"It is the fate of all--rich and poor, strong and feeble, happy and
+miserable, must alike come to this end."
+
+"Not to this end, reverend Carmelite, for Antonio having given offence
+to the Republic, in the matter of a grandson that is pressed for the
+galleys, has been sent to purgatory without a Christian hope for his
+soul."
+
+"There is an eye that watcheth on the meanest of us, son; we will
+believe he was not forgotten."
+
+"Cospetto! They say that those the Senate look black upon get but little
+aid from the church! Wilt thou pray for him, Carmelite, and make good
+thy words?"
+
+"I will," said Father Anselmo, firmly. "Make room, son, that no decency
+of my duty be overlooked."
+
+The swarthy, expressive faces of the fishermen gleamed with
+satisfaction, for, in the midst of the rude turmoil, they all retained a
+deep and rooted respect for the offices of the church in which they had
+been educated. Silence was quickly obtained, and the boats moved on with
+greater order than before.
+
+The spectacle was now striking. In front rowed the gondola which
+contained the remains of the dead. The widening of the canal, as it
+approached the port, permitted the rays of the moon to fall upon the
+rigid features of old Antonio, which were set in such a look as might be
+supposed to characterize the dying thoughts of a man so suddenly and so
+fearfully destroyed. The Carmelite, bare-headed, with clasped hands, and
+a devout heart, bowed his head at the feet of the body, with his white
+robes flowing in the light of the moon. A single gondolier guided the
+boat, and no other noise was audible but the plash of the water, as the
+oars slowly fell and rose together. This silent procession lasted a few
+minutes, and then the tremulous voice of the monk was heard chanting the
+prayers for the dead. The practised fishermen, for few in that
+disciplined church, and that obedient age, were ignorant of those solemn
+rites, took up the responses in a manner that must be familiar to every
+ear that has ever listened to the sounds of Italy, the gentle washing of
+the element, on which they glided, forming a soft accompaniment.
+Casement after casement opened while they passed, and a thousand curious
+and anxious faces crowded the balconies as the funeral cortége swept
+slowly on.
+
+The gondola of the Republic was towed in the centre of the moving mass
+by fifty lighter boats, for the fishermen still clung to their prize. In
+this manner the solemn procession entered the port, and touched the quay
+at the foot of the Piazzetta. While numberless eager hands were aiding
+in bringing the body of Antonio to land, there arose a shout from the
+centre of the ducal palace, which proclaimed the presence already of the
+other part of their body in its court.
+
+The squares of St. Mark now presented a novel picture. The quaint and
+oriental church, the rows of massive and rich architecture, the giddy
+pile of the Campanile, the columns of granite, the masts of triumph, and
+all those peculiar and remarkable fixtures, which had witnessed so many
+scenes of violence, of rejoicing, of mourning, and of gaiety, were
+there, like landmarks of the earth, defying time; beautiful and
+venerable in despite of all those varying exhibitions of human passions
+that were daily acted around them.
+
+"But the song, the laugh, and the jest, had ceased. The lights of the
+coffee-houses had disappeared, the revellers had fled to their homes,
+fearful of being confounded with those who braved the anger of the
+Senate, while the grotesque, the ballad-singers, and the buffoon, had
+abandoned their assumed gaiety for an appearance more in unison with the
+true feelings of their hearts.
+
+"Giustizia!--" cried a thousand deep voices, as the body of Antonio was
+borne into the court--"Illustrious Doge! Giustizia. in palazzo, e pane
+in piazza! Give us justice! We are beggars for justice!"
+
+The gloomy but vast court was paved with the swarthy faces and
+glittering eyes of the fishermen. The corpse was laid at the foot of the
+Giant's Stairs, while the trembling halberdier at the head of the
+flight, scarce commanded himself sufficiently to maintain that air of
+firmness which was exacted by discipline and professional pride. But
+there was no other show of military force, for the politic power which
+ruled in Venice, knew too well its momentary impotency, to irritate when
+it could not quell. The mob beneath was composed of nameless rioters,
+whose punishment could carry no other consequences than the suppression
+of immediate danger, and for that, those who ruled were not prepared.
+
+The Council of Three had been apprised of the arrival of the excited
+fishermen. When the mob entered the court, it was consulting in secret
+conclave, on the probabilities of the tumult having a graver and more
+determined object, than was apparent in the visible symptoms. The
+routine of office had not yet dispossessed the men already presented to
+the reader, of their dangerous and despotic power.
+
+"Are the Dalmatians apprised of this movement?" asked one of the secret
+tribunal, whose nerves were scarcely equal to the high functions he
+discharged. "We may have occasion for their volleys, ere this riot is
+appeased."
+
+"Confide in the ordinary authorities for that, Signore," answered the
+Senator Gradenigo. "I have only concern, lest some conspiracy, which may
+touch the fidelity of the troops, lies concealed beneath the outcry."
+
+"The evil passions of man know no limits! What would the wretches have?
+For a state in the decline, Venice is to the last degree prosperous. Our
+ships are thriving; the bank flourishes with goodly dividends; and I do
+assure you, Signore, that, for many years, I have not known so ample
+revenues for most of our interests, as at this hour. All cannot thrive
+alike!"
+
+"You are happily connected with flourishing affairs, Signore, but there
+are many that are less lucky. Our form of government is somewhat
+exclusive, and it is a penalty that we have ever paid for its
+advantages, to be liable to sudden and malevolent accusations, for any
+evil turn of fortune that besets the Republic."
+
+"Can nothing satisfy these exacting spirits? Are they not free--are they
+not happy?"
+
+"It would seem that they want better assurance of these facts, than our
+own feelings, or our words."
+
+"Man is the creature of envy! The poor desire to be rich--the weak,
+powerful."
+
+"There is an exception to your rule, at least, Signore, since the rich
+rarely wish to be poor, or the powerful, weak."
+
+"You deride my sentiments to-night, Signor Gradenigo. I speak, I hope,
+as becomes a Senator of Venice, and in a manner that you are not
+unaccustomed to hear!"
+
+"Nay, the language is not unusual. But I fear me there is something
+unsuited to a falling fortune, in the exacting and narrow spirit of our
+laws. When a state is eminently flourishing, its subjects overlook
+general defects in private prosperity, but there is no more fastidious
+commentator on measures than your merchant of a failing trade."
+
+"This is their gratitude! Have we not converted these muddy isles into a
+mart for half Christendom, and now they are dissatisfied that they
+cannot retain all the monopolies that the wisdom of our ancestors has
+accumulated."
+
+"They complain much in your own spirit, Signore,--but you are right in
+saying the present riot must be looked to. Let us seek his highness, who
+will go out to the people, with such patricians as may be present, and
+one of our number as a witness: more than that might expose our
+character."
+
+The Secret Council withdrew to carry this resolution into effect, just
+as the fishermen in the court received the accession of those who
+arrived by water.
+
+There is no body so sensible of an increase of its members as a mob.
+Without discipline, and dependent solely on animal force for its
+ascendency, the sentiment of physical power is blended with its very
+existence. When they saw the mass of living beings which had assembled
+within the wall of the ducal palace, the most audacious of that throng
+became more hardy, and even the wavering grew strong. This is the
+reverse of the feeling which prevails among those who are called on to
+repress this species of violence, who generally gain courage as its
+exhibition is least required.
+
+The throng in the court was raising one of its loudest and most menacing
+cries as the train of the Doge appeared, approaching by one of the long
+open galleries of the principal floor of the edifice.
+
+The presence of the venerable man who nominally presided over that
+factitious state, and the long training of the fishermen in habits of
+deference to authority, notwithstanding their present tone of
+insubordination, caused a sudden and deep silence. A feeling of awe
+gradually stole over the thousand dark faces that were gazing upwards,
+as the little cortége drew near. So profound, indeed, was the stillness
+caused by this sentiment, that the rustling of the ducal robes was
+audible, as the prince, impeded by his infirmities, and consulting the
+state usual to his rank, slowly advanced. The previous violence of the
+untutored fishermen, and their present deference to the external state
+that met their eyes, had its origin in the same causes;--ignorance and
+habit were the parents of both.
+
+"Why are ye assembled here, my children?" asked the Doge, when he had
+reached the summit of the Giant's Stairs, "and most of all, why have ye
+come into the palace of your prince with these unbefitting cries?"
+
+The tremulous voice of the old man was clearly audible, for the lowest
+of its tones were scarcely interrupted by a breath. The fishermen gazed
+at each other, and all appeared to search for him who might be bold
+enough to answer. At length one in the centre of the crowded mass, and
+effectually concealed from observation, cried, "Justice!"
+
+"Such is our object," mildly continued the prince; "and such, I will
+add, is our practice. Why are ye assembled here, in a manner so
+offensive to the state, and so disrespectful to your prince?"
+
+Still none answered. The only spirit of their body, which had been
+capable of freeing itself from the trammels of usage and prejudice, had
+deserted the shell which lay on the lower step of the Giant's Stairs.
+
+"Will none speak! are ye so bold with your voices when unquestioned, and
+so silent when confronted?"
+
+"Speak them fair, your highness," whispered he of the council, who was
+commissioned to be a secret witness of the interview; "the Dalmatians
+are scarce yet apparelled."
+
+The prince bowed to advice which he well knew must be respected, and he
+assumed his former tone.
+
+"If none will acquaint me with your wants, I must command you to retire,
+and while my parental heart grieves----"
+
+"Giustizia!" repeated the hidden member of the crowd.
+
+"Name thy wants, that we may know them."
+
+"Highness! deign to look at this!"
+
+One bolder than the rest had turned the body of Antonio to the moon, in
+a manner to expose the ghastly features, and, as he spoke, he pointed
+towards the spectacle he had prepared. The prince started at the
+unexpected sight, and, slowly descending the steps, closely accompanied
+by his companions and his guards, he paused over the body.
+
+"Has the assassin done this?" he asked, after looking at the dead
+fisherman, and crossing himself. "What could the end of one like this
+profit a Bravo? Haply the unfortunate man hath fallen in a broil of his
+class?"
+
+"Neither, illustrious Doge! we fear that Antonio has suffered for the
+displeasure of St. Mark!"
+
+"Antonio! Is this the hardy fisherman who would have taught us how to
+rule in the state regatta!"
+
+"Eccellenza, it is," returned the simple laborer of the Lagunes, "and a
+better hand with a net, or a truer friend in need, never rowed a gondola
+to or from the Lido. Diavolo! It would have done your highness pleasure
+to have seen the poor old Christian among us, on a saint's day, taking
+the lead in our little ceremonies, and teaching us the manner in which
+our fathers used to do credit to the craft!"
+
+"Or to have been with us, illustrious Doge," cried another, for, the ice
+once broken, the tongues of a mob soon grow bold, "in a merry-making on
+the Lido, when old Antonio was always the foremost in the laugh, and the
+discreetest in knowing when to be grave."
+
+The Doge began to have a dawning of the truth, and he cast a glance
+aside to examine the countenance of the unknown inquisitor.
+
+"It is far easier to understand the merits of the unfortunate man, than
+the manner of his death," he said, finding no explanation in the drilled
+members of the face he had scrutinized. "Will any of your party explain
+the facts?"
+
+The principal speaker among the fishermen willingly took on himself the
+office, and, in the desultory manner of one of his habits, he acquainted
+the Doge with the circumstances connected with the finding of the body.
+When he had done, the prince again asked explanations, with his eye,
+from the senator at his side, for he was ignorant whether the policy of
+the state required an example, or simply a death."
+
+"I see nothing in this, your highness," observed he of the council, "but
+the chances of a fisherman. The unhappy old man has come to his end by
+accident, and it would be charity to have a few masses said for his
+soul."
+
+"Noble senator!" exclaimed the fisherman, doubtingly, "St. Mark was
+offended!"
+
+"Rumor tells many idle tales of the pleasure and displeasure of St.
+Mark, If we are to believe all that the wit of men can devise, in
+affairs of this nature, the criminals are not drowned in the Lagunes,
+but in the Canale Orfano."
+
+"True, eccellenza, and we are forbidden to cast our nets there, on pain
+of sleeping with the eels at its bottom."
+
+"So much greater reason for believing that this old man hath died by
+accident. Is there mark of violence on his body? for though the state
+could scarcely occupy itself with such as he, some other might. Hath the
+condition of the body been looked to?"
+
+"Eccellenza, it was enough to cast one of his years into the centre of
+the Lagunes. The stoutest arm in Venice could not save him."
+
+"There may have been violence in some quarrel, and the proper authority
+should be vigilant. Here is a Carmelite! Father, do you know aught of
+this?"
+
+The monk endeavored to answer, but his voice failed. He stared wildly
+about him, for the whole scene resembled some frightful picture of the
+imagination, and then folding his arms on his bosom, he appeared to
+resume his prayers.
+
+"Thou dost not answer, Friar?" observed the Doge, who had been as
+effectually deceived, by the natural and indifferent manner of the
+inquisitor, as any other of his auditors. "Where didst thou find this
+body?"
+
+Father Anselmo briefly explained the manner in which he had been pressed
+into the service of the fishermen.
+
+At the elbow of the prince there stood a young patrician, who, at the
+moment, filled no other office in the state than such as belonged to his
+birth. Deceived, like the others, by the manner of the only one who knew
+the real cause of Antonio's death, he felt a humane and praiseworthy
+desire to make sure that no foul play had been exercised towards the
+victim.
+
+"I have heard of this Antonio," said this person, who was called the
+Senator Soranzo, and who was gifted by nature with feelings that, in any
+other form of government, would have made him a philanthropist, "and of
+his success in the regatta. Was it not said that Jacopo, the Bravo, was
+his competitor?"
+
+A low, meaning, and common murmur ran through the throng.
+
+"A man of his reputed passions and ferocity may well have sought to
+revenge defeat by violence!"
+
+A second and a louder murmur denoted the effect this suggestion had
+produced.
+
+"Eccellenza, Jacopo deals in the stiletto!" observed the half-credulous
+but still doubting fisherman.
+
+"That is as may be necessary. A man of his art and character may have
+recourse to other means to gratify his malice. Do you not agree with me,
+Signore?"
+
+The Senator Soranzo put this question, in perfect good faith, to the
+unknown member of the secret council. The latter appeared struck with
+the probability of the truth of his companion's conjecture, but
+contented himself with a simple acknowledgment to that effect, by
+bowing.
+
+"Jacopo! Jacopo!" hoarsely repeated voice after voice in the
+crowd--"Jacopo has done this! The best gondolier in Venice has been
+beaten by an old fisherman, and nothing but blood could wipe out the
+disgrace!"
+
+"It shall be inquired into, my children, and strict justice done," said
+the Doge, preparing to depart. "Officers, give money for masses, that
+the soul of the unhappy man be not the sufferer. Reverend Carmelite, I
+commend the body to thy care, and thou canst do no better service than
+to pass the night in prayer by its side."
+
+A thousand caps were waved in commendation of this gracious command, and
+the whole throng stood in silent respect, as the prince, followed by his
+retinue, retired as he had approached, through the long, vaulted gallery
+above.
+
+A secret order of the Inquisition prevented the appearance of the
+Dalmatians.
+
+A few minutes later and all was prepared. A bier and canopy were brought
+out of the adjoining cathedral, and the corpse was placed upon the
+former. Father Anselmo then headed the procession, which passed through
+the principal gate of the palace into the square, chanting the usual
+service. The Piazzetta and the piazza were still empty. Here and there,
+indeed, a curious face, belonging to some agent of the police, or to
+some observer more firm than common, looked out from beneath the arches
+of the porticoes on the movements of the mob, though none ventured to
+come within its influence.
+
+But the fishermen were no longer bent on violence. With the fickleness
+of men little influenced by reflection, and subject to sudden and
+violent emotions, a temperament which, the effect of a selfish system,
+is commonly tortured into the reason why it should never be improved,
+they had abandoned all idea of revenge on the agents of the police, and
+had turned their thoughts to the religious services, which, being
+commanded by the prince himself, were so flattering to their class.
+
+It is true that a few of the sterner natures among them mingled menaces
+against the Bravo with their prayers for the dead, but these had no
+other effect on the matter in hand, than is commonly produced by the
+by-players on the principal action of the piece.
+
+The great portal of the venerable church was thrown open, and the solemn
+chant was heard issuing, in responses, from among the quaint columns and
+vaulted roofs within. The body of the lowly and sacrificed Antonio was
+borne beneath that arch which sustains the precious relics of Grecian
+art, and deposited in the nave. Candles glimmered before the altar and
+around the ghastly person of the dead, throughout the night; and the
+cathedral of St. Mark was pregnant with all the imposing ceremonials of
+the Catholic ritual, until the day once more appeared.
+
+Priest succeeded priest, in repeating the masses, while the attentive
+throng listened, as if each of its members felt that his own honor and
+importance were elevated by this concession to one of their number. In
+the square the maskers gradually reappeared, though the alarm had been
+too sudden and violent, to admit a speedy return to the levity which
+ordinarily was witnessed in that spot, between the setting and the
+rising of the sun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  "'Tis of a lady in her earliest youth,
+  The very last of that illustrious race."
+                              ROGERS.
+
+
+When the fishermen landed on the quay, they deserted the gondola of the
+state to a man. Donna Violetta and her governess heard the tumultuous
+departure of their singular captors with alarm, for they were nearly in
+entire ignorance of the motive which had deprived them of the protection
+of Father Anselmo, and which had so unexpectedly made them actors in the
+extraordinary scene. The monk had simply explained that his offices were
+required in behalf of the dead, but the apprehension of exciting
+unnecessary terror prevented him from adding that they were in the power
+of a mob. Donna Florinda, however, had ascertained sufficient, by
+looking from the windows of the canopy and from the cries of those
+around her, to get a glimmering of the truth. Under the circumstances,
+she saw that the most prudent course was to keep themselves as much as
+possible from observation. But when the profound stillness that
+succeeded the landing of the rioters announced that they were alone,
+both she and her charge had an intuitive perception of the favorable
+chance which fortune had so strangely thrown in their way.
+
+"They are gone!" whispered Donna Florinda, holding her breath in
+attention, as soon as she had spoken.
+
+"And the police will be soon here to seek us!"
+
+No further explanation passed, for Venice was a town in which even the
+young and innocent were taught caution. Donna Florinda stole another
+look without.
+
+"They have disappeared, Heaven knows where! Let us go!"
+
+In an instant the trembling fugitives were on the quay. The Piazzetta
+was without a human form, except their own. A low, murmuring sound arose
+from the court palace, which resembled the hum of a disturbed hive; but
+nothing was distinct or intelligible.
+
+"There is violence meditated," again whispered the governess; "would to
+God that Father Anselmo were here!"
+
+A shuffling footstep caught their ears, and both turned towards a boy,
+in the dress of one of the Lagunes, who approached from the direction of
+the Broglio.
+
+"A reverend Carmelite bid me give you this," said the youth, stealing a
+glance behind him, like one who dreaded detection. Then putting a small
+piece of paper in the hand of Donna Florinda, he turned his own swarthy
+palm, in which a small silver coin glittered, to the moon, and vanished.
+
+By the aid of the same light the governess succeeded in tracing
+pencil-marks, in a hand that had been well known to her younger days.
+
+"Save thyself, Florinda--There is not an instant to lose. Avoid public
+places, and seek a shelter quickly."
+
+"But whither?" asked the bewildered woman, when she had read aloud the
+scroll.
+
+"Anywhere but here," rejoined Donna Violetta; "follow me."
+
+Nature frequently more than supplies the advantages of training and
+experience, by her own gifts. Had Donna Florinda been possessed of the
+natural decision and firmness of her pupil, she would not now have been
+existing in the isolated condition which is so little congenial to
+female habits, nor would Father Anselmo have been a monk. Both had
+sacrificed inclination to what they considered to be duty, and if the
+ungenial life of the governess was owing to the tranquil course of her
+ordinary feelings, it is probable that its impunity was to be ascribed
+to the same respectable cause. Not so with Violetta. She was ever more
+ready to act than to reflect, and though, in general, the advantage
+might possibly be with those of a more regulated temperament, there are
+occasions that form exceptions to the rule. The present moment was one
+of those turns in the chances of life, when it is always better to do
+anything than to do nothing.
+
+Donna Violetta had scarcely spoken, before her person was shadowed
+beneath the arches of the Broglio. Her governess clung to her side, more
+in affection than in compliance with the warnings of the monk, or with
+the dictates of her own reason. A vague and romantic intention of
+throwing herself at the feet of the Doge, who was a collateral
+descendant of her own ancient house, had flashed across the mind of the
+youthful bride, when she first fled; but no sooner had they reached the
+palace, than a cry from the court acquainted them with its situation,
+and consequently with the impossibility of penetrating to the interior.
+
+"Let us retire, by the streets, to thy dwelling, my child," said Donna
+Florinda, drawing her mantle about her in womanly dignity. "None will
+offend females of our condition; even the Senate must, in the end,
+respect our sex."
+
+"This from thee, Florinda! Thou, who hast so often trembled for their
+anger! But go, if thou wilt--I am no longer the Senate's. Don Camillo
+Monforte has my duty."
+
+Donna Florinda had no intention of disputing this point, and as the
+moment had now arrived when the most energetic was likely to lead, she
+quietly submitted herself to the superior decision of her pupil. The
+latter took the way along the portico, keeping always within its
+shadows. In passing the gateway which opened towards the sea, the
+fugitives had a glimpse of what was going on in the court. The sight
+quickened their steps, and they now flew, rather than ran, along the
+arched passage. In a minute they were on the bridge which crosses the
+canal of St. Mark, still flying with all their force. A few mariners
+were looking from their feluccas and gazing in curiosity, but the sight
+of two terrified females, seeking refuge from a mob, had nothing in
+itself likely to attract notice.
+
+At this moment, a dark mass of human bodies appeared advancing along the
+quay in the opposite direction. Arms glittered in the moon-beams, and
+the measured tread of trained men became audible. The Dalmatians were
+moving down from the arsenal in a body. Advance and retreat now seemed
+equally impossible to the breathless fugitives. As decision and
+self-possession are very different qualities, Donna Violetta did not
+understand so readily as the circumstances required, that it was more
+than probable the hirelings of the Republic would consider the flight
+perfectly natural, as it had appeared to the curious gazers of the port.
+
+Terror made them blind, and as shelter was now the sole object of the
+fugitives, they would probably have sought it in the chamber of doom
+itself, had there been an opportunity. As it was, they turned and
+entered the first, and indeed the only gate which offered. They were met
+by a girl, whose anxious face betrayed that singular compound of
+self-devotion and terror, which probably has its rise in the instinct of
+feminine sympathies.
+
+"Here is safety, noble ladies," said the youthful Venetian, in the soft
+accent of her native islands; "none will dare do you harm within these
+walls."
+
+"Into whose palace have I entered?" demanded the half-breathless
+Violetta. "If its owner has a name in Venice, he will not refuse
+hospitality to a daughter of Tiepolo."
+
+"Signora, you are welcome," returned the gentle girl, curtsying low, and
+still leading the way deeper within the vast edifice. "You bear the name
+of an illustrious house!"
+
+"There are few in the Republic of note, from whom I may not claim,
+either the kindness of ancient and near services, or that of kindred.
+Dost thou serve a noble master?"
+
+"The first in Venice, lady."
+
+"Name him, that we may demand his hospitality as befits us."
+
+"Saint Mark."
+
+Donna Violetta and her governess stopped short.
+
+"Have we unconsciously entered a portal of the palace?"
+
+"That were impossible, lady, since the canal lies between you and the
+residence of the Doge. Still is St. Mark master here. I hope you will
+not esteem your safety less, because it has been obtained in the public
+prison, and by the aid of its keeper's daughter."
+
+The moment for headlong decision was passed, and that of reflection had
+returned.
+
+"How art thou called, child?" asked Donna Florinda, moving ahead of her
+pupil and taking the discourse up, where in wonder the other had
+permitted it to pause. "We are truly grateful for the readiness with
+which thou threw open the gate for our admission, in a moment of such
+alarm--How art thou called?"
+
+"Gelsomina," answered the modest girl. "I am the keeper's only
+child--and when I saw ladies of your honorable condition fleeing on the
+quay, with the Dalmatians marching on one side, and a mob shouting on
+the other, I bethought me that even a prison might be welcome."
+
+"Thy goodness of heart did not mislead thee."
+
+"Had I known it was a lady of the Tiepolo, I should have been even more
+ready; for there are few of that great name now left to do us honor."
+
+Violetta curtsied to the compliment, but she seemed uneasy that haste
+and pride of rank had led her so indiscreetly to betray herself.
+
+"Canst thou not lead us to some place less public?" she asked,
+observing that her conductor had stopped in a public corridor to make
+this explanation.
+
+"Here you will be retired as in your own palaces, great ladies,"
+answered Gelsomina, turning into a private passage, and leading the way
+towards the rooms of her family, from a window of which she had first
+witnessed the embarrassment of her guests. "None enter here, without
+cause, but my father and myself; and my father is much occupied with his
+charge."
+
+"Hast thou no domestic?"
+
+"None, lady. A prison-keeper's daughter should not be too proud to serve
+herself."
+
+"Thou sayest well. One of thy discretion, good Gelsomina, must know it
+is not seemly for females of condition to be thrown within walls like
+these, even by accident, and thou wilt do us much favor, by taking more
+than common means to be certain that we are unseen. We give thee much
+trouble, but it shall not go unrequited. Here is gold."
+
+Gelsomina did not answer, but as she stood with her eyes cast to the
+floor, the color stole to her cheeks, until her usually bloodless face
+was in a soft glow.
+
+"Nay, I have mistaken thy character!" said Donna Florinda, secreting the
+sequins, and taking the unresisting hand of the silent girl. "If I have
+pained thee by my indiscretion, attribute the offer to our dread of the
+disgrace of being seen in this place."
+
+The glow deepened, and the lips of the girl quivered.
+
+"Is it then a disgrace to be innocently within these walls, lady?" she
+asked, still with an averted eye. "I have long suspected this, but none
+has ever before said it, in my hearing!"
+
+"Holy Maria pardon me! If I have uttered a syllable to pain thee,
+excellent girl, it has been unwittingly and without intention!"
+
+"We are poor, lady, and the needy must submit to do that which their
+wishes might lead them to avoid. I understand your feelings, and will
+make sure of your being secret, and Blessed Maria will pardon a greater
+sin than any you have committed here."
+
+While the ladies were wondering, at witnessing such proofs of delicacy
+and feeling in so singular a place, the girl withdrew.
+
+"I had not expected this in a prison!" exclaimed Violetta.
+
+"As all is not noble or just in a palace, neither is all to be condemned
+unheard, that we find in a prison. But this is, in sooth, an
+extraordinary girl for her condition, and we are indebted to blessed St.
+Theodore (crossing herself) for putting her in our way."
+
+"Can we do better than by making her a confidante and a friend?"
+
+The governess was older, and less disposed than her pupil to confide in
+appearances. But the more ardent mind and superior rank of the latter
+had given her an influence that the former did not always successfully
+resist. Gelsomina returned before there was time to discuss the prudence
+of what Violetta had proposed.
+
+"Thou hast a father, Gelsomina?" asked the Venetian heiress, taking the
+hand of the gentle girl, as she put her question.
+
+"Holy Maria be praised! I have still that happiness."
+
+"It is a happiness--for surely a father would not have the heart to sell
+his own child to ambition and mercenary hopes! And thy mother?"
+
+"Has long been bed-ridden, lady. I believe we should not have been here,
+but we have no other place so suitable for her sufferings as this jail."
+
+"Gelsomina, thou art happier than I, even in thy prison. I am
+fatherless--motherless--I could almost say, friendless."
+
+"And this from a lady of the Tiepolo!"
+
+"All is not as it seems in this evil world, kind Gelsomina. We have had
+many Doges, but we have had much suffering. Thou mayest have heard that
+the house of which I come is reduced to a single, youthful girl like
+thyself, who has been left in the Senate's charge?"
+
+"They speak little of these matters, lady, in Venice; and, of all here,
+none go so seldom into the square as I. Still have I heard of the beauty
+and riches of Donna Violetta. The last I hope is true; the first I now
+see is so."
+
+The daughter of Tiepolo colored, in turn, but it was not in resentment.
+
+"They have spoken in too much kindness for an orphan," she answered;
+"though that fatal wealth is perhaps not over-estimated. Thou knowest
+that the state charges itself with the care and establishment of all
+noble females, whom Providence has left fatherless?"
+
+"Lady, I did not. It is kind of St. Mark to do it!"
+
+"Thou wilt think differently, anon. Thou art young, Gelsomina, and hast
+passed thy time in privacy?"
+
+"True, lady. It is seldom I go further than my mother's room, or the
+cell of some suffering prisoner."
+
+Violetta looked towards her governess, with an expression which seemed
+to say, that she anticipated her appeal would be made in vain, to one so
+little exposed to the feelings of the world.
+
+"Thou wilt not understand, then, that a noble female may have little
+inclination to comply with all the Senate's wishes, in disposing of her
+duties and affections?"
+
+Gelsomina gazed at the fair speaker, but it was evident that she did not
+clearly comprehend the question. Again Violetta looked at the governess
+as if asking aid.
+
+"The duties of our sex are often painful," said Donna Florinda,
+understanding the appeal with female instinct. "Our attachments may not
+always follow the wishes of our friends. We may not choose, but we
+cannot always obey."
+
+"I have heard that noble ladies are not suffered to see those to whom
+they are to be wedded, Signora, if that is what your eccellenza means,
+and, to me, the custom has always seemed unjust, if not cruel."
+
+"And are females of thy class permitted to make friends among those who
+may become dearer at any other day?" asked Violetta.
+
+"Lady, we have that much freedom even in the prisons."
+
+"Then art thou happier than those of the palaces! I will trust thee,
+generous girl, for thou canst not be unfaithful to the weakness and
+wrongs of thy sex."
+
+Gelsomina raised a hand, as if to stop the impetuous confidence of her
+guest, and then she listened intently.
+
+"Few enter here," she said; "but there are many ways of learning secrets
+within these walls which are still unknown to me. Come deeper into the
+rooms, noble ladies, for here is a place that I have reason to think is
+safe, even from listeners."
+
+The keeper's daughter led the way into the little room in which she was
+accustomed to converse with Jacopo.
+
+"You were saying, lady, that I had a feeling for the weakness and
+helplessness of our sex, and surely you did me justice."
+
+Violetta had leisure to reflect an instant, in passing from one room to
+the other, and she began her communications with more reserve. But the
+sensitive interest that a being of the gentle nature and secluded habits
+of Gelsomina took in her narrative, won upon her own natural frankness,
+and, in a manner nearly imperceptible to herself, she made the keeper's
+daughter mistress of most of the circumstances under which she had
+entered the prison.
+
+The cheek of Gelsomina became colorless as she listened and when Donna
+Violetta ceased, every limb of her slight frame trembled with interest.
+
+"The Senate is a fearful power to resist!" she said, speaking so low as
+hardly to be audible. "Have you reflected, lady, on the chances of what
+you do?"
+
+"If I have not, it is now too late to change my intentions, I am the
+wife of the Duke of Sant' Agata, and can never wed another."
+
+"Gesu! This is true. And yet, methinks, I would choose to die a nun
+rather than offend the council!"
+
+"Thou knowest not, good girl, to what courage the heart of even a young
+wife is equal. Thou art still bound to thy father, in the instruction
+and habits of childhood, but thou mayest live to know that all thy hopes
+will centre in another."
+
+Gelsomina ceased to tremble, and her mild eye brightened.
+
+"The council is terrible," she answered, "but it must be more terrible
+to desert one to whom you have vowed duty and love at the altar!"
+
+"Hast thou the means of concealing us, kind girl," interrupted Donna
+Florinda, "and canst thou, when this tumult shall be quieted, in any
+manner help us to further secresy or flight?"
+
+"Lady, I have none. Even the streets and squares of Venice are nearly
+strangers to me. Santissima Maria! what would I give to know the ways of
+the town as well as my cousin Annina, who passes at will from her
+father's shop to the Lido, and from St. Mark's to the Rialto, as her
+pleasure suits. I will send for my cousin, who will counsel us in this
+fearful strait!"
+
+"Thy cousin! Hast thou a cousin named Annina?"
+
+"Lady, Annina. My mother's sister's child."
+
+"The daughter of a wine-seller called Tomaso Torti?"
+
+"Do the noble dames of the city take such heed of their inferiors! This
+will charm my cousin, for she has great desires to be noted by the
+great."
+
+"And does thy cousin come hither?"
+
+"Rarely, lady--we are not of much intimacy. I suppose Annina finds a
+girl, simple and uninstructed as I, unworthy of her company. But she
+will not refuse to aid us in a danger like this. I know she little loves
+the Republic, for we have had words on its acts, and my cousin has been
+bolder of speech about them, than befits one of her years, in this
+prison."
+
+"Gelsomina, thy cousin is a secret agent of the police, and unworthy of
+thy confidence--"
+
+"Lady!"
+
+"I do not speak without reason. Trust me, she is employed in duties that
+are unbecoming her sex, and unworthy of thy confidence."
+
+"Noble dames, I will not say anything to do displeasure to your high
+rank and present distress, but you should not urge me to think thus of
+my mother's niece. You have been unhappy, and you may have cause to
+dislike the Republic, and you are safe here--but I do not desire to hear
+Annina censured."
+
+Both Donna Florinda and her less experienced pupil knew enough of human
+nature, to consider this generous incredulity as a favorable sign of the
+integrity of her who manifested it, and they wisely contented themselves
+with stipulating that Annina should on no account be made acquainted
+with their situation. After this understanding, the three discussed more
+leisurely the prospect of the fugitives being able to quit the place,
+when ready, without detection.
+
+At the suggestion of the governess, a servitor of the prison was sent
+out by Gelsomina, to observe the state of the square. He was
+particularly charged, though in a manner to avoid suspicion, to search
+for a Carmelite of the order of the bare-footed friars. On his return,
+the menial reported that the mob had quitted the court of the palace,
+and was gone to the cathedral, with the body of the fisherman who had so
+unexpectedly gained the prize in the regatta of the preceding day.
+
+"Repeat your aves and go to sleep, Bella Gelsomina," concluded the
+sub-keeper, "for the fishermen have left off shouting to say their
+prayers. Per Diana! The bare-headed and bare-legged rascals are as
+impudent as if St. Mark were their inheritance! The noble patricians
+should give them a lesson in modesty, by sending every tenth knave among
+them to the galleys. Miscreants! to disturb the quiet of an orderly town
+with their vulgar complaints!"
+
+"But thou hast said nothing of the friar; is he with the rioters?"
+
+"There is a Carmelite at the altar--but my blood boiled at seeing such
+vagabonds disturb the peace of respectable persons, and I took little
+note of his air or years."
+
+"Then thou failedst to do the errand on which I sent thee. It is now too
+late to repair thy fault. Thou canst return to thy charge."
+
+"A million pardons, Bellissima Gelsomina, but indignation is the
+uppermost feeling, when one in office sees his rights attacked by the
+multitude. Send me to Corfu, or to Candia, if you please, and I will
+bring back the color of every stone in their prisons, but do not send me
+among rebels. My gorge rises at the sight of villany!"
+
+As the keeper's daughter withdrew, while her father's assistant was
+making this protestation of loyalty, the latter was compelled to give
+vent to the rest of his indignation in a soliloquy.
+
+One of the tendencies of oppression is to create a scale of tyranny,
+descending from those who rule a state, to those who domineer over a
+single individual. He, who has been much accustomed to view men, need
+not be told that none are so arrogant with their inferiors, as those who
+are oppressed by their superiors; for poor human nature has a secret
+longing to revenge itself on the weak for all the injuries it receives
+from the strong. On the other hand, no class is so willing to render
+that deference, when unexacted, which is the proper meed of virtue, and
+experience, and intelligence, as he who knows that he is fortified on
+every side against innovations on his natural rights. Thus it is, that
+there is more security against popular violence and popular insults in
+these free states, than in any other country on earth, for there is
+scarcely a citizen so debased as not to feel that, in assuming the
+appearance of a wish to revenge the chances of fortune, he is making an
+undue admission of inferiority.
+
+Though the torrent may be pent up and dammed by art, it is with the
+constant hazard of breaking down the unnatural barriers; but left to its
+own course, it will become the tranquil and the deep stream, until it
+finally throws off its superfluous waters into the common receptacle of
+the ocean.
+
+When Gelsomina returned to her visitors, it was with a report favorable
+to their tranquillity. The riot in the court of the palace, and the
+movement of the Dalmatians, had drawn all eyes in another direction; and
+although some errant gaze might have witnessed their entrance into the
+gate of the prison, it was so natural a circumstance, that no one would
+suspect females of their appearance of remaining there an instant longer
+than was necessary. The momentary absence of the few servants of the
+prison, who took little heed of those who entered the open parts of the
+building, and who had been drawn away by curiosity, completed their
+security. The humble room they were in was exclusively devoted to the
+use of their gentle protector, and there was scarcely a possibility of
+interruption, until the council had obtained the leisure and the means
+of making use of those terrible means, which rarely left anything it
+wished to know concealed.
+
+With this explanation Donna Violetta and her companion were greatly
+satisfied. It left them leisure to devise means for their flight, and
+kindled a hope, in the former, of being speedily restored to Don
+Camillo. Still there existed the cruel embarrassment of not possessing
+the means of acquainting the latter with their situation. As the tumult
+ceased, they resolved to seek a boat, avored by such disguises as the
+means of Gelsomina could supply, and to row to his palace; but
+reflection convinced Donna Florinda of the danger of such a step, since
+the Neapolitan was known to be surrounded by the agents of the police.
+Accident, which is more effectual than stratagem in defeating intrigues,
+had thrown them into a place of momentary security, and it would be to
+lose the vantage-ground of their situation to cast themselves, without
+the utmost caution, into the hazards of the public canals.
+
+At length the governess bethought her of turning the services of the
+gentle creature, who had already shown so much sympathy in their behalf,
+to account. During the revelations of her pupil, the feminine instinct
+of Donna Florinda had enabled her to discover the secret springs which
+moved the unpractised feelings of their auditor. Gelsomina had listened
+to the manner in which Don Camillo had thrown himself into the canal to
+save the life of Violetta, with breathless admiration; her countenance
+was a pure reflection of her thoughts, when the daughter of Tiepolo
+spoke of the risks he had run to gain her love, and woman glowed in
+every lineament of her mild face, when the youthful bride touched on the
+nature of the engrossing tie which had united them, and which was far
+too holy to be severed by the Senate's policy.
+
+"If we had the means of getting our situation to the ears of Don
+Camillo," said the governess, "all might yet be saved; else will this
+happy refuge in the prison avail us nothing."
+
+"Is the cavalier of too stout a heart to shrink before those up above?"
+demanded Gelsomina.
+
+"He would summon the people of his confidence, and ere the dawn of day
+we might still be beyond their power. Those calculating senators will
+deal with the vows of my pupil as if they were childish oaths, and set
+the anger of the Holy See itself at defiance, when there is question of
+their interest."
+
+"But the sacrament of marriage is not of man; that, at least, they will
+respect!"
+
+"Believe it not. There is no obligation so solemn as to be respected,
+when their policy is concerned. What are the wishes of a girl, or what
+the happiness of a solitary and helpless female, to their fortunes? That
+my charge is young, is a reason why their wisdom should interfere,
+though it is none to touch their hearts with the reflection that the
+misery to which they would condemn her, is to last the longer. They take
+no account of the solemn obligations of gratitude; the ties of affection
+are so many means of working upon the fears of those they rule, but none
+for forbearance; and they laugh at the devotedness of woman's love, as a
+folly to amuse their leisure, or to take off the edge of disappointment
+in graver concerns."
+
+"Can anything be more grave than wedlock, lady?"
+
+"To them it is important, as it furnishes the means of perpetuating
+their honors and their proud names. Beyond this, the council looks
+little at domestic interests."
+
+"They are fathers and husbands!"
+
+"True, for to be legally the first, they must become the last. Marriage
+to them is not a tie of sacred and dear affinity, but the means of
+increasing their riches and of sustaining their names," continued the
+governess, watching the effect of her words on the countenance of the
+guileless girl. "They call marriages of affection children's games, and
+they deal with the wishes of their own daughters, as they would traffic
+with their commodities of commerce. When a state sets up an idol of gold
+as its god, few will refuse to sacrifice at its altar!"
+
+"I would I might serve the noble Donna Violetta!"
+
+"Thou art too young, good Gelsomina, and I fear too little practised in
+the cunning of Venice."
+
+"Doubt me not, lady; for I can do my duty like another, in a good
+cause."
+
+"If it were possible to convey to Don Camillo Monforte a knowledge of
+our situation--but thou art too inexperienced for the service!"
+
+"Believe it not, Signora," interrupted the generous Gelsomina, whose
+pride began to stimulate her natural sympathies with one so near her own
+age, and one too, like herself, subject to that passion which engrosses
+a female heart. "I may be apter than my appearance would give reason to
+think."
+
+"I will trust thee, kind girl, and if the Sainted Virgin protects us,
+thy fortunes shall not be forgotten!"
+
+The pious Gelsomina crossed herself, and, first acquainting her
+companions with her intentions, she went within to prepare herself,
+while Donna Florinda penned a note, in terms so guarded as to defy
+detection in the event of accident, but which might suffice to let the
+lord of St. Agata understand their present situation.
+
+In a few minutes the keeper's daughter reappeared. Her ordinary attire,
+which was that of a modest Venetian maiden of humble condition, needed
+no concealment; and the mask, an article of dress which none in that
+city were without, effectually disguised her features. She then received
+the note, with the name of the street, and the palace she was to seek, a
+description of the person of the Neapolitan, with often-repeated
+cautions to be wary, and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  "Which is the wiser here?--Justice or iniquity?"
+                              MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
+
+
+In the constant struggle between the innocent and the artful, the latter
+have the advantage, so long as they confine themselves to familiar
+interests. But the moment the former conquer their disgust for the study
+of vice, and throw themselves upon the protection of their own high
+principles, they are far more effectually concealed from the
+calculations of their adversaries than if they practised the most
+refined of their subtle expedients. Nature has given to every man enough
+of frailty to enable him to estimate the workings of selfishness and
+fraud, but her truly privileged are those who can shroud their motives
+and intentions in a degree of justice and disinterestedness, which
+surpass the calculations of the designing. Millions may bow to the
+commands of a conventional right, but few, indeed, are they who know how
+to choose in novel and difficult cases. There is often a mystery in
+virtue. While the cunning of vice is no more than a pitiful imitation of
+that art which endeavors to cloak its workings in the thin veil of
+deception, the other, in some degree, resembles the sublimity of
+infallible truth.
+
+Thus men too much practised in the interests of life, constantly
+overreach themselves when brought in contact with the simple and
+intelligent; and the experience of every day proves that, as there is no
+fame permanent which is not founded on virtue, so there is no policy
+secure which is not bottomed on the good of the whole. Vulgar minds may
+control the concerns of a community so long as they arc limited to
+vulgar views; but woe to the people who confide on great emergencies in
+any but the honest, the noble, the wise, and the philanthropic; for
+there is no security for success when the meanly artful control the
+occasional and providential events which regenerate a nation. More than
+half the misery which has defeated as well as disgraced civilization,
+proceeds from neglecting to use those great men that are always created
+by great occasions.
+
+Treating, as we are, of the vices of the Venetian system, our pen has
+run truant with its subject, since the application of the moral must be
+made on the familiar scale suited to the incidents of our story. It has
+already been seen that Gelsomina was intrusted with certain important
+keys of the prison. For this trust there had been sufficient motive with
+the wily guardians of the jail, who had made their calculations on her
+serving their particular orders, without ever suspecting that she was
+capable of so far listening to the promptings of a generous temper, as
+might induce her to use them in any manner prejudicial to their own
+views. The service to which they were now to be applied proved that the
+keepers, one of whom was her own father, had not fully known how to
+estimate the powers of the innocent and simple.
+
+Provided with the keys in question, Gelsomina took a lamp and passed
+upwards from the mezzinino in which she dwelt, to the first floor of the
+edifice, instead of descending to its court. Door was opened after door,
+and many a gloomy corridor was passed by the gentle girl, with the
+confidence of one who knew her motive to be good. She soon crossed the
+Bridge of Sighs, fearless of interruption in that unfrequented gallery,
+and entered the palace. Here she made her way to a door that opened on
+the common and public vomitories of the structure. Moving with
+sufficient care to make impunity from detection sure, she extinguished
+the light and applied the key. At the next instant she was on the vast
+and gloomy stairway. It required but a moment to descend it, and to
+reach the covered gallery which surrounded the court. A halberdier was
+within a few feet of her. He looked at the unknown female with interest;
+but as it was not his business to question those who issued from the
+building, nothing was said. Gelsomina walked on. A half-repenting but
+vindictive being was dropping an accusation in the lion's mouth.
+Gelsomina stopped involuntarily until the secret accuser had done his
+treacherous work and departed. Then, when she was about to proceed, she
+saw that the halberdier at the head of the Giant's stairway was smiling
+at her indecision, like one accustomed to such scenes.
+
+"Is there danger in quitting the palace?" she asked of the rough
+mountaineer.
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! There might have been an hour since, Bella Donna; but
+the rioters are muzzled and at their prayers."
+
+Gelsomina hesitated no longer. She descended the well known flight, down
+which the head of Faliero had rolled, and was soon beneath the arch of
+the gate. Here the timid and unpractised maid again stopped, for she
+could not venture into the square without assuring herself, like a deer
+about to quit its cover, of the tranquillity of the place into which she
+was to enter.
+
+The agents of the police had been too much alarmed by the rising of the
+fishermen not to call their usual ingenuity and finesse into play, the
+moment the disturbance was appeased. Money had been given to the
+mountebanks and ballad singers to induce them to reappear, and groups of
+hirelings, some in masks and others without concealment, were
+ostentatiously assembled in different parts of the piazza. In short,
+those usual expedients were resorted to which are constantly used to
+restore the confidence of a people, in those countries in which
+civilization is so new, that they are not yet considered sufficiently
+advanced to be the guardians of their own security. There are few
+artifices so shallow that many will not be their dupes. The idler, the
+curious, the really discontented, the factious, the designing, with a
+suitable mixture of the unthinking, and of those who only live for the
+pleasure of the passing hour, a class not the least insignificant for
+numbers, had lent themselves to the views of the police; and when
+Gelsomina was ready to enter the Piazzetta, she found both the squares
+partly filled. A few excited fishermen clustered about the doors of the
+cathedral, like bees swarming before their hive; but, on that side,
+there was no very visible cause of alarm. Unaccustomed as she was to
+scenes like that before her, the first glance assured the gentle girl of
+the real privacy which so singularly distinguishes the solitude of a
+crowd. Gathering her simple mantle more closely about her form, and
+settling her mask with care, she moved with a swift step into the centre
+of the piazza.
+
+We shall not detail the progress of our heroine, as, avoiding the
+commonplace gallantry that assailed and offended her ear, she went her
+way on her errand of kindness. Young, active, and impelled by her
+intentions, the square was soon passed, and she reached the place of San
+Nico. Here was one of the landings of the public gondolas. But at the
+moment there was no boat in waiting, for curiosity or fear had induced
+the men to quit their usual stand. Gelsomina had ascended the bridge,
+and was on the crown of its arch, when a gondolier came sweeping lazily
+in from the direction of the Grand Canal. Her hesitation and doubting
+manner attracted his attention, and the man made the customary sign
+which conveyed the offer of his services. As she was nearly a stranger
+in the streets of Venice, labyrinths that offer greater embarrassment to
+the uninitiated than perhaps the passages of any other town of its size,
+she gladly availed herself of the offer. To descend to the steps, to
+leap into the boat, to utter the word "Rialto," and to conceal herself
+in the pavilion, was the business of a minute. The boat was instantly in
+motion.
+
+Gelsomina now believed herself secure of effecting her purpose, since
+there was little to apprehend from the knowledge or the designs of a
+common boatman. He could not know her object, and it was his interest to
+carry her in safety to the place she had commanded. But so important was
+success, that she could not feel secure of attaining it while it was
+still unaccomplished. She soon summoned sufficient resolution to look
+out at the palaces and boats they were passing, and she felt the
+refreshing air of the canal revive her courage. Then turning with a
+sensitive distrust to examine the countenance of the gondolier, she saw
+that his features were concealed beneath a mask that was so well
+designed, as not to be perceptible to a casual observer by moonlight.
+
+Though it was common on occasions for the servants of the great, it was
+not usual for the public gondoliers to be disguised. The circumstance
+itself was one justly to excite slight apprehension, though, on second
+thoughts, Gelsomina saw no more in it than a return from some expedition
+of pleasure, or some serenade perhaps, in which the caution of a lover
+had compelled his followers to resort to this species of concealment.
+
+"Shall I put you on the public quay, Signora," demanded the gondolier,"
+or shall I see you to the gate of your own palace?"
+
+The heart of Gelsomina beat high. She liked the tone of the voice,
+though it was necessarily smothered by the mask, but she was so little
+accustomed to act in the affairs of others, and less still in any of so
+great interest, that the sounds caused her to tremble like one less
+worthily employed.
+
+"Dost thou know the palace of a certain Don Camillo Monforte, a lord of
+Calabria, who dwells here in Venice?" she asked, after a moment's pause.
+The gondolier sensibly betrayed surprise, by the manner in which he
+started at the question.
+
+"Would you be rowed there, lady?"
+
+"If thou art certain of knowing the palazzo."
+
+The water stirred, and the gondola glided between high walls. Gelsomina
+knew by the sound that they were in one of the smaller canals, and she
+augured well of the boatman's knowledge of the town. They soon stopped
+by the side of a water-gate, and the man appeared on the step, holding
+an arm to aid her in ascending, after the manner of people of his craft.
+Gelsomina bade him wait her return, and proceeded.
+
+There was a marked derangement in the household of Don Camillo, that one
+more practised than our heroine would have noted. The servants seemed
+undecided in the manner of performing the most ordinary duties; their
+looks wandered distrustfully from one to another, and when their
+half-frightened visitor entered the vestibule, though all arose, none
+advanced to meet her. A female masked was not a rare sight in Venice,
+for few of that sex went upon the canals without using the customary
+means of concealment; but it would seem by their hesitating manner that
+the menials of Don Camillo did not view the entrance of her who now
+appeared with the usual indifference.
+
+"I am in the dwelling of the Duke of St. Agata, a Signore of Calabria?"
+demanded Gelsomina, who saw the necessity of being firm.
+
+"Signora, si----"
+
+"Is your lord in the palace?"
+
+"Signora, he is--and he is not. What beautiful lady shall I tell him
+does him this honor?"
+
+"If he be not at home it will not be necessary to tell him anything. If
+he is, I could wish to see him."
+
+The domestics, of whom there were several, put their heads together,
+and seemed to dispute on the propriety of receiving the visit. At this
+instant a gondolier in a flowered jacket entered the vestibule.
+Gelsomina took courage at his good-natured eye and frank manner.
+
+"Do you serve Don Camillo Monforte?" she asked, as he passed her, on his
+way to the canal.
+
+"With the oar, Bellissima Donna," answered Gino, touching his cap,
+though scarce looking aside at the question.
+
+"And could he be told that a female wishes earnestly to speak to him in
+private?--A female."
+
+"Santa Maria! Bella Donna, there is no end to females who come on these
+errands in Venice. You might better pay a visit to the statue of San
+Teodore, in the piazza, than see my master at this moment; the stone
+will give you the better reception."
+
+"And this he commands you to tell all of my sex who come!"
+
+"Diavolo! Lady, you are particular in your questions. Perhaps my master
+might, on a strait, receive one of the sex I could name, but on the
+honor of a gondolier he is not the most gallant cavalier of Venice, just
+at this moment."
+
+"If there is one to whom he would pay this deference, you are bold for a
+servitor. How know you I am not that one?"
+
+Gino started. He examined the figure of the applicant, and lifting his
+cap, he bowed.
+
+"Lady, I do not know anything about it," he said; "you may be his
+Highness the Doge, or the ambassador of the emperor. I pretend to know
+nothing in Venice of late----"
+
+The words of Gino were cut short by a tap on the shoulder from the
+public gondolier, who had hastily entered the vestibule. The man
+whispered in the ear of Don Camillo's servitor.
+
+"This is not a moment to refuse any," he said. "Let the stranger go up."
+
+Gino hesitated no longer. With the decision of a favored menial he
+pushed the groom of the chambers aside, and offered to conduct Gelsomina
+himself to the presence of his master. As they ascended the stairs,
+three of the inferior servants disappeared.
+
+The palace of Don Camillo had an air of more than Venetian gloom. The
+rooms were dimly lighted, many of the walls had been stripped of the
+most precious of their pictures, and in other respects a jealous eye
+might have detected evidence of a secret intention, on the part of its
+owner, not to make a permanent residence of the dwelling. But these were
+particulars that Gelsomina did not note, as she followed Gino through
+the apartments, into the more private parts of the building. Here the
+gondolier unlocked a door, and regarding his companion with an air,
+half-doubting, half-respectful, he made a sign for her to enter.
+
+"My master commonly receives the ladies here," he said. "Enter,
+eccellenza, while I run to tell him of his happiness."
+
+Gelsomina did not hesitate, though she felt a violent throb at the heart
+when she heard the key turning in the lock behind her. She was in an
+ante-chamber, and inferring from the light which shone through the door
+of an adjoining room that she was to proceed, she went on. No sooner had
+she entered the little closet than she found herself alone, with one of
+her own sex.
+
+"Annina!" burst from the lips of the unpractised prison-girl, under the
+impulse of surprise.
+
+"Gelsomina! The simple, quiet, whispering, modest Gelsomina!" returned
+the other.
+
+The words of Annina admitted but of one construction. Wounded, like the
+bruised sensitive plant, Gelsomina withdrew her mask for air, actually
+gasping for breath, between offended pride and wonder.
+
+"Thou here!" she added, scarce knowing-what she uttered.
+
+"Thou here!" repeated Annina, with such a laugh as escapes the degraded
+when they believe the innocent reduced to their own level.
+
+"Nay, I come on an errand of pity."
+
+"Santa Maria! we are both here with the same end!"
+
+"Annina! I know not what thou would'st say! This is surely the palace of
+Don Camillo Monforte! a noble Neapolitan, who urges claims to the honors
+of the Senate?"
+
+"The gayest, the handsomest, the richest, and the most inconstant
+cavalier in Venice! Hadst thou been here a thousand times thou could'st
+not be better informed!"
+
+Gelsomina listened in horror. Her artful cousin, who knew her character
+to the full extent that vice can comprehend innocence, watched her
+colorless cheek and contracting eye with secret triumph. At the first
+moment she had believed all that she insinuated, but second thoughts and
+a view of the visible distress of the frightened girl gave a new
+direction to her suspicions.
+
+"But I tell thee nothing new," she quickly added. "I only regret thou
+should'st find me, where, no doubt, you expected to meet the Duca di
+Sant' Agata himself."
+
+"Annina!--This from thee!"
+
+"Thou surely didst not come to his palace to seek thy cousin!"
+
+Gelsomina had long been familiar with grief, but until this moment she
+had never felt the deep humiliation of shame. Tears started from her
+eyes, and she sank back into a seat, in utter inability to stand.
+
+"I would not distress thee out of bearing," added the artful daughter of
+the wine-seller. "But that we are both in the closet of the gayest
+cavalier of Venice, is beyond dispute."
+
+"I have told thee that pity for another brought me hither."
+
+"Pity for Don Camillo."
+
+"For a noble lady--a young, a virtuous, and a beautiful wife--a daughter
+of the Tiepolo--of the Tiepolo, Annina!"
+
+"Why should a lady of the Tiepolo employ a girl of the public prisons!"
+
+"Why!--because there has been injustice by those up above. There has
+been a tumult among the fishermen--and the lady and her governess were
+liberated by the rioters--and his Highness spoke to them in the great
+court--and the Dalmatians were on the quay--and the prison was a refuge
+for ladies of their quality, in a moment of so great terror--and the
+Holy Church itself has blessed their love--"
+
+Gelsomina could utter no more, but breathless with the wish to vindicate
+herself, and wounded to the soul by the strange embarrassment of her
+situation, she sobbed aloud. Incoherent as had been her language, she
+had said enough to remove every doubt from the mind of Annina. Privy to
+the secret marriage, to the rising of the fishermen, and to the
+departure of the ladies from the convent on a distant island, where they
+had been carried on quitting their own palace, the preceding night, and
+whither she had been compelled to conduct Don Camillo, who had
+ascertained the departure of those he sought without discovering their
+destination, the daughter of the wine-seller readily comprehended, not
+only the errand of her cousin, but the precise situation of the
+fugitives.
+
+"And thou believest this fiction, Gelsomina?" she said, affecting pity
+for her cousin's credulity. "The characters of thy pretended daughter of
+Tiepolo and her governess are no secrets to those who frequent the
+piazza of San Marco."
+
+"Hadst thou seen the beauty and innocence of the lady, Annina, thou
+would'st not say this!"
+
+"Blessed San Teodoro! What is more beautiful than vice! 'Tis the
+cheapest artifice of the devil to deceive frail sinners. This thou hast
+heard of thy confessor, Gelsomina, or he is of much lighter discourse
+than mine."
+
+"But why should a woman of this life enter the prisons?"
+
+"They had good reasons to dread the Dalmatians, no doubt. But it is in
+my power to tell thee more, of these thou hast entertained, with such
+peril to thine own reputation. There are women in Venice who discredit
+their sex in various ways, and of these more particularly she who calls
+herself Florinda, is notorious for her agency in robbing St. Mark of his
+revenue. She has received a largess from the Neapolitan, of wines grown
+on his Calabrian mountains, and wishing to tamper with my honesty, she
+offered the liquor to me, expecting one like me to forget my duty, and
+to aid her in deceiving the Republic."
+
+"Can this be true, Annina!"
+
+"Why should I deceive thee! Are we not sisters' children, and though
+affairs on the Lido keep me much from thy company, is not the love
+between us natural! I complained to the authorities, and the liquors
+were seized, and the pretended noble ladies were obliged to hide
+themselves this very day. 'Tis thought they wish to flee the city with
+their profligate Neapolitan. Driven to take shelter, they have sent thee
+to acquaint him with their hiding-place, in order that he may come to
+their aid."
+
+"And why art thou here, Annina?"
+
+"I marvel that thou didst not put the question sooner. Gino, the
+gondolier of Don Camillo, has long been an unfavored suitor of mine, and
+when this Florinda complained of my having, what every honest girl in
+Venice should do, exposed her fraud to the authorities, she advised his
+master to seize me, partly in revenge, and partly with the vain hope of
+making me retract the complaint I have made. Thou hast heard of the
+bold violence of these cavaliers when thwarted in their wills."
+
+Annina then related the manner of her seizure, with sufficient
+exactitude, merely concealing those facts that it was not her interest
+to reveal.
+
+"But there is a lady of the Tiepolo, Annina!"
+
+"As sure as there are cousins like ourselves. Santa Madre di Dio! that
+woman so treacherous and so bold should have met one of thy innocence!
+It would have been better had they fallen in with me, who am too
+ignorant for their cunning, blessed St. Anna knows!--but who have not to
+learn their true characters."
+
+"They did speak of thee, Annina!"
+
+The glance which the wine-seller's daughter threw at her cousin, was
+such as the treacherous serpent casts at the bird; but preserving her
+self-possession she added--
+
+"Not to my favor; it would sicken me to hear words of favor from such as
+they!"
+
+"They are not thy friends, Annina."
+
+"Perhaps they told thee, child, that I was in the employment of the
+council?"
+
+"Indeed they did."
+
+"No wonder. Your dishonest people can never believe one can do an act of
+pure conscience. But here comes the Neapolitan.--Note the libertine,
+Gelsomina, and thou wilt feel for him the same disgust as I!"
+
+The door opened, and Don Camillo Monforte entered. There was an
+appearance of distrust in his manner, which proved that he did not
+expect to meet his bride. Gelsomina arose, and, though bewildered by the
+tale of her cousin, and her own previous impressions, she stood
+resembling a meek statue of modesty, awaiting his approach. The
+Neapolitan was evidently struck by her beauty, and the simplicity of her
+air, but his brow was fixed, like that of a man who had steeled his
+feelings against deceit.
+
+"Thou would'st see me?" he said.
+
+"I had that wish, noble Signore, but--Annina--"
+
+"Seeing another, thy mind hath changed."
+
+"Signore, it has."
+
+Don Camillo looked at her earnestly, and with manly regret.
+
+"Thou art young for thy vocation--here is gold. Retire as thou
+earnest.--But hold--dost thou know this Annina?"
+
+"She is my mother's sister's daughter, noble Duca.
+
+"Per Diana! a worthy sisterhood! Depart together, for I have no need of
+either. But mark me," and as he spoke, Don Camillo took Annina by the
+arm, and led her aside, when he continued with a low but menacing
+voice--"Thou seest I am to be feared, as well as thy Councils. Thou
+canst not cross the threshold of thy father without my knowledge. If
+prudent, thou wilt teach thy tongue discretion. Do as thou wilt, I fear
+thee not; but remember, prudence."
+
+Annina made an humble reverence, as if in acknowledgment of the wisdom
+of his advice, and taking the arm of her half-unconscious cousin, she
+again curtsied, and hurried from the room. As the presence of their
+master in his closet was known to them, none of the menials presumed to
+stop those who issued from the privileged room. Gelsomina, who was even
+more impatient than her wily companion to escape from a place she
+believed polluted, was nearly breathless when she reached the gondola.
+Its owner was in waiting on the steps, and in a moment the boat whirled
+away from a spot which both of those it contained were, though for
+reasons so very different, glad to quit.
+
+Gelsomina had forgotten her mask in her hurry, and the gondola was no
+sooner in the great canal than she put her face at the window of the
+pavilion in quest of the evening air. The rays of the moon fell upon her
+guileless eye, and a cheek that was now glowing, partly with offended
+pride, and partly with joy at her escape from a situation she felt to
+be so degrading. Her forehead was touched with a finger, and turning she
+saw the gondolier making a sign of caution. He then slowly lifted his
+mask.
+
+"Carlo!" had half burst from her lips, but another sign suppressed the
+cry.
+
+Gelsomina withdrew her head, and, after her beating heart had ceased to
+throb, she bowed her face and murmured thanksgivings at finding herself,
+at such a moment, under the protection of one who possessed all her
+confidence.
+
+The gondolier asked no orders for his direction. The boat moved on,
+taking the direction of the port, which appeared perfectly natural to
+the two females.
+
+Annina supposed it was returning to the square, the place she would have
+sought had she been alone, and Gelsomina, who believed that he whom she
+called Carlo, toiled regularly as a gondolier for support, fancied, of
+course, that he was taking her to her ordinary residence.
+
+But though the innocent can endure the scorn of the world, it is hard
+indeed to be suspected by those they love. All that Annina had told her
+of the character of Don Camillo and his associates came gradually across
+the mind of the gentle Gelsomina, and she felt the blood creeping to her
+temples, as she saw the construction her lover might put on her conduct.
+A dozen times did the artless girl satisfy herself with saying inwardly,
+"he knows me and will believe the best," and as often did her feelings
+prompt her to tell the truth. Suspense is far more painful, at such
+moments, than even vindication, which, in itself, is a humiliating duty
+to the virtuous. Pretending a desire to breathe the air, she left her
+cousin in the canopy. Annina was not sorry to be alone, for she had need
+to reflect on all the windings of the sinuous path on which she had
+entered.
+
+Gelsomina succeeded in passing the pavilion, and in gaining the side of
+the gondolier.
+
+"Carlo!"--she said, observing that he continued to row in silence.
+
+"Gelsomina!"
+
+"Thou hast not questioned me!"
+
+"I know thy treacherous cousin, and can believe thou art her dupe. The
+moment to learn the truth will come."
+
+"Thou didst not know me, Carlo, when I called thee from the bridge?"
+
+"I did not. Any fare that would occupy my time was welcome."
+
+"Why dost thou call Annina treacherous?"
+
+"Because Venice does not hold a more wily heart, or a falser tongue."
+
+Gelsomina remembered the warning of Donna Florinda. Possessed of the
+advantage of blood, and that reliance which the inexperienced always
+place in the integrity of their friends, until exposure comes to destroy
+the illusion, Annina had found it easy to persuade her cousin of the
+unworthiness of her guests. But here was one who had all her sympathies,
+who openly denounced Annina herself. In such a dilemma the bewildered
+girl did what nature and her feelings suggested. She recounted, in a low
+but rapid voice, the incidents of the evening, and Annina's construction
+of the conduct of the females whom she had left behind in the prison.
+
+Jacopo listened so intently that his oar dragged in the water.
+
+"Enough," he said, when Gelsomina, blushing with her own earnestness to
+stand exculpated in his eyes, had done; "I understand it all. Distrust
+thy cousin, for the Senate itself is not more false."
+
+The pretended Carlo spoke cautiously, but in a firm voice. Gelsomina
+took his meaning, though wondering at what she heard, and returned to
+Annina within. The gondola proceeded, as if nothing had occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  "Enough.
+  I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee;
+  Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee:
+  Remember."
+                                 KING JOHN.
+
+
+Jacopo was deeply practised in the windings of Venetian deceit. He knew
+how unceasingly the eyes of the Councils, through their agents, were on
+the movements of those in whom they took an interest, and he was far
+from feeling all the advantage circumstances had seemingly thrown in his
+way. Annina was certainly in his power, and it was not possible that she
+had yet communicated the intelligence, derived from Gelsomina, to any of
+her employers. But a gesture, a look in passing the prison-gates, the
+appearance of duresse, or an exclamation, might give the alarm to some
+one of the thousand spies of the police. The disposal of Annina's person
+in some place of safety, therefore, became the first and the most
+material act. To return to the palace of Don Camillo, would be to go
+into the midst of the hirelings of the Senate; and although the
+Neapolitan, relying on his rank and influence, had preferred this step,
+when little importance was attached to the detention of the girl, and
+when all she knew had been revealed, the case was altered, now that she
+might become the connecting link in the information necessary to enable
+the officers to find the fugitives.
+
+The gondola moved on. Palace after palace was passed, and the impatient
+Annina thrust her head from a window to note its progress. They came
+among the shipping of the port, and her uneasiness sensibly increased.
+Making? pretext similar to that of Gelsomina, the wine-seller's daughter
+quitted the pavilion, to steal to the side of the gondolier.
+
+"I would be landed quickly at the water-gate of the Doge's palace," she
+said, slipping a piece of silver into the hand of the boatman.
+
+"You shall be served, Bella Donna. But--Diamine! I marvel that a girl of
+thy wit should not scent the treasures in yonder felucca!"
+
+"Dost thou mean the Sorrentine?"
+
+"What other padrone brings as well flavored liquors within the Lido!
+Quiet thy impatience to land, daughter of honest old Maso, and traffic
+with the padrone, for the comfort of us of the canals."
+
+"How! Thou knowest me, then?"
+
+"To be the pretty wine-seller of the Lido. Corpo di Bacco! Thou art as
+well known as the sea-wall itself to us gondoliers."
+
+"Why art thou masked? Thou canst not be Luigi!"
+
+"It is little matter whether I am called Luigi, or Enrico, or Giorgio; I
+am thy customer, and honor the shortest hair of thy eyebrows. Thou
+knowest, Annina, that the young patricians have their frolics, and they
+swear us gondoliers to keep secret till all danger of detection is over;
+were any impertinent eyes following me, I might be questioned as to the
+manner of having passed the earlier hours."
+
+"Methinks it would be better to have given thee gold, and to have sent
+thee at once to thy home."
+
+"To be followed like a denounced Hebrew to my door. When I have
+confounded my boat with a thousand others it will be time to uncover.
+Wilt thou to the Bella Sorrentina?"
+
+"Nay, 'tis not necessary to ask, since thou takest the direction of
+thine own will?"
+
+The gondolier laughed and nodded his head, as if he would give his
+companion to understand that he was master of her secret wishes. Annina
+was hesitating in what manner she should make him change his purpose,
+when the gondola touched the felucca's side.
+
+"We will go up and speak to the padrone," whispered Jacopo.
+
+"It is of no avail; he is without liquors."
+
+"Trust him not; I know the man and his pretences,"
+
+"Thou forgettest my cousin."
+
+"She is an innocent and unsuspecting child."
+
+Jacopo lifted Annina, as he spoke, on the deck of the Bella Sorrentina,
+in a manner between gallantry and force, and leaped after her. Without
+pausing, or suffering her to rally her thoughts, he led her to the cabin
+stairs, which she descended, wondering at his conduct, but determined
+not to betray her own secret wrongs on the customs to a stranger.
+
+Stefano Milano was asleep in a sail on deck. A touch aroused him, and a
+sign gave him to understand that the imaginary Roderigo stood before
+him.
+
+"A thousand pardons, Signore," said the gaping mariner; "is the freight
+come?"
+
+"In part only. I have brought thee a certain Annina Torti, the daughter
+of old Tommaso Torti, a wine-seller of the Lido."
+
+"Santa Madre! does the Senate think it necessary to send one like her
+from the city in secret?"
+
+"It does; and it lays great stress on her detention. I have come hither
+with her, without suspicion of my object, and she has been prevailed on
+to enter thy cabin, under a pretence of some secret dealings in wines.
+According to our former understanding, it will be thy business to make
+sure of her presence."
+
+"That is easily done," returned Stefano, stepping forward and closing
+the cabin-door, which he secured by a bolt.
+
+"She is alone, now, with the image of our Lady, and a better occasion
+to repeat her aves cannot offer."
+
+"This is well, if thou canst keep her so. It is now time to lift thy
+anchors, and to go beyond the tiers of the vessels with the felucca."
+
+"Signore, there wants but five minutes for that duty, since we are
+ready."
+
+"Then perform it, in all speed, for much depends on the management of
+this delicate duty. I will be with thee anon. Harkee, Master Stefano;
+take heed of thy prisoner, for the Senate makes great account of her
+security."
+
+The Calabrian made such a gesture, as one initiated uses, when he would
+express a confidence in his own shrewdness. While the pretended Roderigo
+re-entered his gondola, Stefano began to awaken his people. As the
+gondola entered the canal of San Marco, the sails of the felucca fell,
+and the low Calabrian vessel stole along the tiers towards the clear
+water beyond.
+
+The boat quickly touched the steps of the water-gate of the palace.
+Gelsomina entered the arch, and glided up the Giant's Stairway, the
+route by which she had quitted the palace. The halberdier was the same
+that watched as she went out. He spoke to her, in gallantry, but offered
+no impediment to her entrance.
+
+"Haste, noble ladies, hasten for the love of the Holy Virgin!" exclaimed
+Gelsomina, as she burst into the room in which Donna Violetta and her
+companion awaited her appearance. "I have endangered your liberty by my
+weakness, and there is not a moment to lose. Follow while you may, nor
+stop to whisper even a prayer."
+
+"Thou art hurried and breathless," returned Donna Florinda; "hast thou
+seen the Duca di Sant' Agata?"
+
+"Nay, question me not, but follow, noble dames." Gelsomina seized the
+lamp, and casting a glance that appealed strongly to her visitors for
+tacit compliance, she led the way into the corridors. It is scarcely
+necessary to say that she was followed.
+
+The prison was left in safety, the Bridge of Sighs was passed, for it
+will be remembered that Gelsomina was still mistress of the keys, and
+the party went swiftly by the great stairs of the palace into the open
+gallery. No obstruction was offered to their progress, and they all
+descended to the court, with the quiet demeanor of females who went out
+on their ordinary affairs.
+
+Jacopo awaited at the water-gate. In less than a minute he was driving
+his gondola across the port, following the course of the felucca, whose
+white sail was visible in the moonlight, now bellying in the breeze, and
+now flapping as the mariners checked her speed. Gelsomina watched their
+progress for a moment in breathless interest, and then she crossed the
+bridge of the quay, and entered the prison by its public gate.
+
+"Hast thou made sure of the old 'Maso's daughter?" demanded Jacopo, on
+reaching the deck of the Bella Sorrentina again.
+
+"She is like shifting ballast, Master Roderigo; first on one side of the
+cabin, and then on the other; but you see the bolt is undrawn."
+
+"'Tis well: here is more of thy freight; thou hast the proper passes for
+the galley of the guard?"
+
+"All is in excellent order, Signore; when was Stefano Milano out of rule
+in a matter of haste? Diamine! let the breeze come, and though the
+Senate should wish us back again, it might send all its sbirri after us
+in vain."
+
+"Excellent, Stefano! fill thy sails, then, for our masters watch your
+movements, and set a value on your diligence."
+
+While the Calabrian complied, Jacopo assisted the females to come up out
+of the gondola. In a moment the heavy yards swung off, wing and wing,
+and the bubbles that appeared to glance past the side of the Bella
+Sorrentina, denoted her speed.
+
+"Thou hast noble ladies in thy passengers," said Jacopo to the padrone,
+when the latter was released from the active duties of getting his
+vessel in motion; "and though policy requires that they should quit the
+city for a time, thou wilt gain favor by consulting their pleasures."
+
+"Doubt me not, Master Roderigo; but thou forgettest that I have not yet
+received my sailing instructions; a felucca without a course is as badly
+off as an owl in the sun."
+
+"That in good time; there will come an officer of the Republic to settle
+this matter with thee. I would not have these noble ladies know, that
+one like Annina is to be their fellow-passenger, while they are near the
+port; for they might complain of disrespect. Thou understandest,
+Stefano?"
+
+"Cospetto! am I a fool? a blunderer? if so, why does the Senate employ
+me? the girl is out of hearing, and there let her stay. As long as the
+noble dames are willing to breathe the night air, they shall have none
+of her company."
+
+"No fear of them. The dwellers of the land little relish the pent air of
+thy cabin. Thou wilt go without the Lido, Stefano, and await my coming.
+If thou should'st not see me before the hour of one, bear away for the
+port of Ancona, where thou wilt get further tidings."
+
+Stefano, who had often previously received his instructions from the
+imaginary Roderigo, nodded assent, and they parted. It is scarcely
+necessary to add, that the fugitives had been fully instructed in the
+conduct they were to maintain.
+
+The gondola of Jacopo never flew faster, than he now urged it towards
+the land. In the constant passage of the boats, the movements of one
+were not likely to be remarked; and he found, when he reached the quay
+of the square, that his passing and repassing had not been observed. He
+boldly unmasked and landed. It was near the hour when he had given Don
+Camillo a rendezvous in the piazza, and he walked slowly up the smaller
+square, towards the appointed place of meeting.
+
+Jacopo, as has been seen in an earlier chapter, had a practice of
+walking near the columns of granite in the first hours of the night. It
+was the vulgar impression that he waited there for custom in his bloody
+calling, as men of more innocent lives take their stands in places of
+mark. When seen on his customary stand, he was avoided by all who were
+chary of their character, or scrupulous of appearances.
+
+The persecuted and yet singularly tolerated Bravo, was slowly pacing the
+flags on his way to the appointed place, unwilling to anticipate the
+moment, when a laquais thrust a paper into his hand, and disappeared as
+fast as legs would carry him. It has been seen that Jacopo could not
+read, for that was an age when men of his class were studiously kept in
+ignorance. He turned to the first passenger who had the appearance of
+being likely to satisfy his wishes, and desired him to do the office of
+interpreter.
+
+He had addressed an honest shop-keeper of a distant quarter. The man
+took the scroll, and good-naturedly commenced reading its contents
+aloud. "I am called away, and cannot meet thee, Jacopo!" At the name of
+Jacopo, the tradesman dropped the paper and fled.
+
+The Bravo walked slowly back again towards the quay, ruminating on the
+awkward accident which had crossed his plans; his elbow was touched, and
+a masker confronted him when he turned.
+
+"Thou art Jacopo Frontoni?" said the stranger.
+
+"None else."
+
+"Thou hast a hand to serve an employer faithfully?"
+
+"I keep my faith."
+
+"'Tis well, thou wilt find a hundred sequins in this sack."
+
+"Whose life is set against this gold?" asked Jacopo, in an under tone.
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte."
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte!"
+
+"The same; dost thou know the rich noble!"
+
+"You have well described him, Signore. He would pay his barber this for
+letting blood."
+
+"Do thy job thoroughly, and the price shall be doubled."
+
+"I want the security of a name. I know you not, Signore."
+
+The stranger looked cautiously around him, and raising his mask for an
+instant, he showed the countenance of Giacomo Gradenigo.
+
+"Is the pledge sufficient?"
+
+"Signore, it is. When must this deed be done?"
+
+"This night. Nay, this hour, even."
+
+"Shall I strike a noble of his rank in his palace--in his very
+pleasures?"
+
+"Come hither, Jacopo, and thou shalt know more. Hast thou a mask?"
+
+The Bravo signified his assent.
+
+"Then keep thy face behind a cloud, for it is not in favor here, and
+seek thy boat. I will join thee."
+
+The young patrician, whose form was effectually concealed by his attire,
+quitted his companion, with a view of rejoining him anew, where his
+person should not be known. Jacopo forced his boat from among the crowd
+at the quay, and having entered the open space between the tiers, he lay
+on his oar, well knowing that he was watched, and that he would soon be
+followed. His conjecture was right, for in a few moments a gondola
+pulled swiftly to the side of his own, and two men in masks passed from
+the strange boat into that of the Bravo, without speaking.
+
+"To the Lido," said a voice, which Jacopo knew to be that of his new
+employer.
+
+He was obeyed, the boat of Giacomo Gradenigo following at a little
+distance. When they were without the tiers, and consequently beyond the
+danger of being overheard, the two passengers came out of the pavilion,
+and made a sign to the Bravo to cease rowing.
+
+"Thou wilt accept the service, Jacopo Frontoni?" demanded the profligate
+heir of the old senator.
+
+"Shall I strike the noble in his pleasures, Signore?"
+
+"It is not necessary. We have found means to lure him from his palace,
+and he is now in thy power, with no other hope than that which may come
+from his single arm and courage. Wilt thou take the service?"
+
+"Gladly, Signore--It is my humor to encounter the brave."
+
+"Thou wilt be gratified. The Neapolitan has thwarted me in my--shall I
+call it love, Hosea; or hast thou a better name?"
+
+"Just Daniel! Signor Giacomo, you have no respect for reputations and
+surety! I see no necessity for a home thrust, Master Jacopo; but a smart
+wound, that may put matrimony out of the head of the Duca for a time at
+least, and penitence into its place, would be better--"
+
+"Strike to the heart!" interrupted Giacomo. "It is the certainty of thy
+blow which has caused me to seek thee."
+
+"This is usurious vengeance, Signor Giacomo," returned the less resolute
+Jew. "'Twill be more than sufficient for our purposes, if we cause the
+Neapolitan to keep house for a month."
+
+"Send him to his grave. Harkee, Jacopo, a hundred for thy blow--a second
+for insurance of its depth--a third if the body shall be buried in the
+Orfano, so that the water will never give back the secret."
+
+"If the two first must be performed, the last will be prudent caution,"
+muttered the Jew, who was a wary villain, and who greatly preferred such
+secondary expedients as might lighten the load on his conscience. "You
+will not trust, young Signore, to a smart wound?"
+
+"Not a sequin. 'Twill be heating the fancy of the girl with hopes and
+pity. Dost thou accept the terms, Jacopo?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then row to the Lido. Among the graves of Hosea's people--why dost thou
+pull at my skirts, Jew! would'st thou hope to deceive a man of this
+character with a flimsy lie--among the graves of Hosea's people thou
+wilt meet Don Camillo within the hour. He is deluded by a pretended
+letter from the lady of our common pursuit, and will be alone, in the
+hopes of flight; I trust to thee to hasten the latter, so far as the
+Neapolitan is concerned. Dost take my meaning?"
+
+"Signore, it is plain."
+
+"'Tis enough. Thou knowest me, and can take the steps necessary for thy
+reward as thou shalt serve me. Hosea, our affair is ended."
+
+Giacomo Gradenigo made a sign for his gondola to approach, and dropping
+a sack which contained the retainer in this bloody business, he passed
+into it with the indifference of one who had been accustomed to consider
+such means of attaining his object lawful. Not so Hosea: he was a rogue
+rather than a villain. The preservation of his money, with the
+temptation of a large sum which had been promised him by both father and
+son in the event of the latter's success with Violetta, were
+irresistible temptations to one who had lived contemned by those around
+him, and he found his solace for the ruthless attempt in the acquisition
+of those means of enjoyment which are sought equally by Christian and
+Jew. Still his blood curdled at the extremity to which Giacomo would
+push the affair, and he lingered to utter a parting word to the Bravo.
+
+"Thou art said to carry a sure stiletto, honest Jacopo," he whispered.
+"A hand of thy practice must know how to maim as well as to slay.
+Strike the Neapolitan smartly, but spare his life. Even the bearer of a
+public dagger like thine may not fare the worse, at the coming of
+Shiloh, for having been tender of his strength on occasion."
+
+"Thou forgettest the gold, Hosea!"
+
+"Father Abraham! what a memory am I getting in my years! Thou sayest
+truth, mindful Jacopo; the gold shall be forthcoming in any
+event--always provided that the affair is so managed as to leave my
+young friend a successful adventurer with the heiress."
+
+Jacopo made an impatient gesture, for at that moment he saw a gondolier
+pulling rapidly towards a private part of the Lido. The Hebrew joined
+his companion, and the boat of the Bravo darted ahead. It was not long
+ere it lay on the strand of the Lido. The steps of Jacopo were rapid, as
+he moved towards those proscribed graves among which he had made his
+confession to the very man he was now sent to slay.
+
+"Art thou sent to meet me?" demanded one who started from behind a
+rising in the sands, but who took the precaution to bare his rapier as
+he appeared.
+
+"Signor Duca, I am," returned the Bravo, unmasking.
+
+"Jacopo! This is even better than I had hoped. Hast thou tidings from my
+bride?"
+
+"Follow, Don Camillo, and you shall quickly meet her."
+
+Words were unnecessary to persuade, when there was such a promise. They
+were both in the gondola of Jacopo, and on their way to one of the
+passages through the Lido which conducts to the gulf, before the Bravo
+commenced his explanation. This, however, was quickly made, not
+forgetting the design of Giacomo Gradenigo on the life of his auditor.
+
+The felucca, which had been previously provided with the necessary pass
+by the agents of the police itself, had quitted the port under easy sail
+by the very inlet through which the gondola made its way into the
+Adriatic. The water was smooth, the breeze fresh from the land, and in
+short all things were favorable to the fugitives. Donna Violetta and her
+governess were leaning against a mast, watching with impatient eyes the
+distant domes and the midnight beauty of Venice. Occasionally strains of
+music came to their ears from the canals, and then a touch of natural
+melancholy crossed the feelings of the former as she feared they might
+be the last sounds of that nature she should ever hear from her native
+town. But unalloyed pleasure drove every regret from her mind when Don
+Camillo leaped from the gondola and folded her in triumph to his heart.
+
+There was little difficulty in persuading Stefano Milano to abandon for
+ever the service of the Senate for that of his feudal lord. The promises
+and commands of the latter were sufficient of themselves to reconcile
+him to the change, and all were convinced there was no time to lose. The
+felucca soon spread her canvas to the wind and slid away from the beach.
+Jacopo permitted his gondola to be towed a league to sea before he
+prepared to re-enter it.
+
+"You will steer for Ancona, Signor Don Camillo," said the Bravo, leaning
+on the felucca's side, still unwilling to depart, "and throw yourself at
+once under the protection of the Cardinal Secretary. If Stefano keep the
+sea he may chance to meet the galleys of the Senate."
+
+"Distrust us not--but thou, my excellent Jacopo--what wilt thou become
+in their hands?"
+
+"Fear not for me, Signore. God disposes of all as he sees fit. I have
+told your eccellenza that I cannot yet quit Venice. If fortune favor me,
+I may still see your stout castle of Sant' Agata."
+
+"And none will be more welcome within its secure walls; I have much fear
+for thee, Jacopo!"
+
+"Signore, think not of it. I am used to danger--and to misery--and to
+hopelessness. I have known a pleasure this night, in witnessing the
+happiness of two young hearts, that God, in his anger, has long denied
+me. Lady, the Saints keep you, and God, who is above all, shield you
+from harm!"
+
+He kissed the hand of Donna Violetta, who, half ignorant still of his
+services, listened to his words in wonder.
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte," he continued, "distrust Venice to your dying
+day. Let no promises--no hopes--no desire of increasing your honors or
+your riches, ever tempt you to put yourself in her power. None know the
+falsehood of the state better than I, and with my parting words I warn
+you to be wary!"
+
+"Thou speakest as if we were to meet no more, worthy Jacopo!"
+
+The Bravo turned, and the action brought his features to the moon. There
+was a melancholy smile, in which deep satisfaction at the success of the
+lovers was mingled with serious forebodings for himself.
+
+"We are certain only of the past," he said in a low voice.
+
+Touching the hand of Don Camillo, he kissed his own and leaped hastily
+into his gondola. The fast was thrown loose, and the felucca glided
+away, leaving this extraordinary being alone on the waters. The
+Neapolitan ran to the taffrail, and the last he saw of Jacopo, the
+Bravo, was rowing leisurely back towards that scene of violence and
+deception from which he himself was so glad to have escaped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  "My limbs are bowed, though not with toil,
+    But rusted with a vile repose,
+  For they have been a dungeon's spoil,
+    And mine hath been the fate of those
+  To whom the goodly earth and air
+    Are banned, and barred--forbidden fare."
+                          PRISONER OF CHILLON.
+
+
+When the day dawned on the following morning the square of St. Mark was
+empty. The priests still chanted their prayers for the dead near the
+body of old Antonio, and a few fishermen still lingered in and near the
+cathedral, but half persuaded of the manner in which their companion had
+come to his end. But as was usual at that hour of the day the city
+appeared tranquil, for though a slight alarm had passed through the
+canals at the movement of the rioters, it had subsided in that specious
+and distrustful quiet, which is more or less the unavoidable consequence
+of a system that is not substantially based on the willing support of
+the mass.
+
+Jacopo was again in the attic of the Doge's palace, accompanied by the
+gentle Gelsomina. As they threaded the windings of the building, he
+recounted to the eager ear of his companion all the details connected
+with the escape of the lovers; omitting, as a matter of prudence, the
+attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo on the life of Don Camillo. The unpractised
+and single-hearted girl heard him in breathless attention, the color of
+her cheek and the changeful eye betraying the force of her sympathies at
+each turn in their hazardous adventure.
+
+"And dost thou think they can yet escape from those up above?" murmured
+Gelsomina, for few in Venice would trust their voices, by putting such a
+question aloud. "Thou knowest the Republic hath at all times its galleys
+in the Adriatic!"
+
+"We have had thought of that, and the Calabrian is advised to steer for
+the mole of Ancona. Once within the States of the Church the influence
+of Don Camillo and the rights of his noble wife will protect them. Is
+there a place here whence we can look out upon the sea?"
+
+Gelsomina led the Bravo into an empty room of the attic which commanded
+a view of the port, the Lido, and the waste of water beyond. The breeze
+came in strong currents over the roofs of the town, and causing the
+masts of the port to rock, it lighted on the Lagunes, without the tiers
+of the shipping. From this point to the barrier of sand, it was apparent
+by the stooping sails and the struggles of the gondoliers who pulled
+towards the quay, that the air was swift. Without the Lido itself, the
+element was shadowed and fitful, while further in the distance the
+troubled waters, with their crests of foam, sufficiently proved its
+power.
+
+"Santa Maria be praised!" exclaimed Jacopo, when his understanding eye
+had run over the near and distant view--"they are already far down the
+coast, and with a wind like this they cannot fail to reach their haven
+in a few hours. Let us go to the cell."
+
+Gelsomina smiled when he assured her of the safety of the fugitives, but
+her look saddened when he changed the discourse. Without reply, however,
+she did as he desired, and in a very few moments they were standing by
+the side of the prisoner's pallet. The latter did not appear to observe
+their entrance, and Jacopo was obliged to announce himself.
+
+"Father!" he said, with that melancholy pathos which always crept into
+his voice when he addressed the old man, "it is I."
+
+The prisoner turned, and though, evidently much enfeebled since the
+last visit, a wan smile gleamed on his wasted features.
+
+"And thy mother, boy?" he asked, so eagerly as to cause Gelsomina to
+turn hastily aside.
+
+"Happy, father--happy."
+
+"Happy without me?"
+
+"She is ever with thee in spirit, father. She thinks of thee in her
+prayers. Thou hast a saint for an intercessor in my mother--father."
+
+"And thy good sister?"
+
+"Happy too--doubt it not, father. They are both patient and resigned."
+
+"The Senate, boy?"
+
+"Is the same: soulless, selfish, and pretending!" answered Jacopo
+sternly; then turning away his face, in bitterness of heart, though
+without permitting the words to be audible, he cursed them.
+
+"The noble Signori were deceived in believing me concerned in the
+attempt to rob their revenues," returned the patient old man; "one day
+they will see and acknowledge their error."
+
+Jacopo made no answer, for unlettered as he was, and curtailed of that
+knowledge which should be, and is bestowed on all by every paternal
+government, the natural strength of his mind had enabled him to
+understand that a system, which on its face professed to be founded on
+the superior acquirements of a privileged few, would be the least likely
+to admit the fallacy of its theories, by confessing it could err.
+
+"Thou dost the nobles injustice, son; they are illustrious patricians,
+and have no motive in oppressing one like me."
+
+"None, father, but the necessity of maintaining the severity of the
+laws, which make them senators and you a prisoner."
+
+"Nay, boy, I have known worthy gentlemen of the Senate! There was the
+late Signor Tiepolo, who did me much favor in my youth. But for this
+false accusation, I might now have been one of the most thriving of my
+craft in Venice."
+
+"Father, we will pray for the soul of the Tiepolo."
+
+"Is the senator dead?"
+
+"So says a gorgeous tomb in the church of the Redentore."
+
+"We must all die at last," whispered the old man, crossing himself.
+"Doge as well as patrician--patrician as well as gondolier,--Jaco--"
+
+"Father!" exclaimed the Bravo, so suddenly as to interrupt the coming
+word; then kneeling by the pallet of the prisoner, he whispered in his
+ear, "thou forgettest there is reason why thou should'st not call me by
+that name. I have told thee often if thus called my visits must stop."
+
+The prisoner looked bewildered, for the failing of nature rendered that
+obscure which was once so evident to his mind. After gazing long at his
+son, his eye wandered between him and the wall, and he smiled
+childishly.
+
+"Wilt thou look, good boy, if the spider is come back?"
+
+Jacopo groaned, but he rose to comply.
+
+"I do not see it, father; the season is not yet warm."
+
+"Not warm! my veins feel heated to bursting. Thou forgettest this is the
+attic, and that these are the leads, and then the sun--oh! the sun! The
+illustrious senators do not bethink them of the pain of passing the
+bleak winter below the canals, and the burning summers beneath hot
+metal."
+
+"They think of nothing but their power," murmured Jacopo--"that which is
+wrongfully obtained, must be maintained by merciless injustice--but why
+should we speak of this, father; hast thou all thy body needs?"
+
+"Air--son, air!--give me of that air, which God has made for the meanest
+living thing."
+
+The Bravo rushed towards those fissures in the venerable but polluted
+pile he had already striven to open, and with frantic force he
+endeavored to widen them with his hands. The material resisted, though
+blood flowed from the ends of his fingers in the desperate effort.
+
+"The door, Gelsomina, open wide the door!" he cried, turning away from
+the spot, exhausted with his fruitless exertions.
+
+"Nay, I do not suffer now, my child--it is when thou hast left me, and
+when I am alone with my own thoughts, when I see thy weeping mother and
+neglected sister, that I most feel the want of air--are we not in the
+fervid month of August, son?"
+
+"Father, it is not yet June."
+
+"I shall then have more heat to bear! God's will be done, and blessed
+Santa Maria, his mother undefiled!--give me strength to endure it."
+
+The eye of Jacopo gleamed with a wildness scarcely less frightful than
+the ghastly look of the old man, his chest heaved, his fingers were
+clenched, and his breathing was audible.
+
+"No," he said, in a low, but in so determined a voice, as to prove how
+fiercely his resolution was set, "thou shalt not await their torments:
+arise, father, and go with me. The doors are open, the ways of the
+palace are known to me in the darkest night, and the keys are at hand. I
+will find means to conceal thee until dark, and we will quit the
+accursed Republic for ever."
+
+Hope gleamed in the eye of the old captive, as he listened to this
+frantic proposal, but distrust of the means immediately altered its
+expression.
+
+"Thou forgettest those up above, son."
+
+"I think only of One truly above, father."
+
+"And this girl--how canst thou hope to deceive her?"
+
+"She will take thy place--she is with us in heart, and will lend
+herself to a seeming violence. I do not promise for thee idly, kindest
+Gelsomina?"
+
+The frightened girl, who had never before witnessed so plain evidence of
+desperation in her companion, had sunk upon an article of furniture,
+speechless. The look of the prisoner changed from one to the other, and
+he made an effort to rise, but debility caused him to fall backwards,
+and not till then did Jacopo perceive the impracticability, on many
+accounts, of what, in a moment of excitement, he had proposed. A long
+silence followed. The hard breathing of Jacopo gradually subsided, and
+the expression of his face changed to its customary settled and
+collected look.
+
+"Father," he said, "I must quit thee; our misery draws near a close."
+
+"Thou wilt come to me soon again?"
+
+"If the saints permit--thy blessing, father."
+
+The old man folded his hands above the head of Jacopo, and murmured a
+prayer. When this pious duty was performed, both the Bravo and Gelsomina
+busied themselves a little time in contributing to the bodily comforts
+of the prisoner, and then they departed in company.
+
+Jacopo appeared unwilling to quit the vicinity of the cell. A melancholy
+presentiment seemed to possess his mind, that these stolen visits were
+soon to cease. After a little delay, however, they descended to the
+apartments below, and as Jacopo desired to quit the palace without
+re-entering the prisons, Gelsomina prepared to let him out by the
+principal corridor.
+
+"Thou art sadder than common, Carlo," she observed, watching with
+feminine assiduity his averted eye. "Methinks thou should'st rejoice in
+the fortunes of the Neapolitan, and of the lady of the Tiepolo."
+
+"That escape is like a gleam of sunshine in a wintry day. Good girl--but
+we are observed! who is yon spy on our movements?"
+
+"'Tis a menial of the palace; they constantly cross us in this part of
+the building: come hither, if thou art weary. The room is little used,
+and we may again look out upon the sea."
+
+Jacopo followed his mild conductor into one of the neglected closets of
+the second floor, where, in truth, he was glad to catch a glimpse of the
+state of things in the piazza, before he left the palace. His first look
+was at the water, which was still rolling southward, before the gale
+from the Alps. Satisfied with this prospect, he bent his eye beneath. At
+the instant, an officer of the Republic issued from the palace gate,
+preceded by a trumpeter, as was usual, when there was occasion to make
+public proclamation of the Senate's will. Gelsomina opened the casement,
+and both leaned forward to listen. When the little procession had
+reached the front of the cathedral, the trumpet sounded, and the voice
+of the officer was heard.
+
+"Whereas many wicked and ruthless assassinations have of late been
+committed on the persons of divers good citizens of Venice,"--he
+proclaimed--"the Senate, in its fatherly care of all whom it is charged
+to protect, has found reason to resort to extraordinary means of
+preventing the repetition of crimes so contrary to the laws of God and
+the security of society. The illustrious Ten therefore offer, thus
+publicly, a reward of one hundred sequins to him who shall discover the
+perpetrator of any of these most horrible assassinations; and, whereas,
+during the past night, the body of a certain Antonio, a well known
+fisherman, and a worthy citizen, much esteemed by the patricians, has
+been found in the Lagunes, and, whereas, there is but too much reason to
+believe that he has come to his death by the hands of a certain Jacopo
+Frontoni, who has the reputation of a common Bravo, but who has been
+long watched in rain by the authorities, with the hope of detecting him
+in the commission of some one of the aforesaid horrible assassinations;
+now, all good and honest citizens of the Republic are enjoined to assist
+the authorities in seizing the person of the said Jacopo Frontoni, even
+though he should take sanctuary: for Venice can no longer endure the
+presence of one of his sanguinary habits, and for the encouragement of
+the same, the Senate, in its paternal care, offers the reward of three
+hundred sequins." The usual words of prayer and sovereignty closed the
+proclamation.
+
+As it was not usual for those who ruled so much in the dark to make
+their intentions public, all near listened with wonder and awe to the
+novel procedure. Some trembled, lest the mysterious and much-dreaded
+power was about to exhibit itself; while most found means of making
+their admiration of the fatherly interest of their rulers audible.
+
+None heard the words of the officer with more feeling than Gelsomina.
+She bent her body far from the window, in order that not a syllable
+should escape her.
+
+"Did'st thou hear, Carlo?" demanded the eager girl, as she drew back her
+head; "they proclaim, at last, money for the monster who has committed
+so many murders!"
+
+Jacopo laughed; but to the ears of his startled companion the sounds
+were unnatural.
+
+"The patricians are just, and what they do is right," he said. "They are
+of illustrious birth, and cannot err! They will do their duty."
+
+"But here is no other duty than that they owe to God, and to the
+people."
+
+"I have heard of the duty of the people, but little is said of the
+Senate's."
+
+"Nay, Carlo, we will not refuse them credit when in truth they seek to
+keep the citizens from harm. This Jacopo is a monster, detested by all,
+and his bloody deeds have too long been a reproach to Venice. Thou
+hearest that the patricians are not niggard of their gold, when there is
+hope of his being taken. Listen! they proclaim again!"
+
+The trumpet sounded, and the proclamation was repeated between the
+granite columns of the Piazzetta, and quite near to the window occupied
+by Gelsomina and her unmoved companion.
+
+"Why dost thou mask, Carlo?" she asked, when the officer had done; "it
+is not usual to be disguised in the palace at this hour."
+
+"They will believe it the Doge, blushing to be an auditor of his own
+liberal justice, or they may mistake me for one of the Three itself."
+
+"They go by the quay to the arsenal; thence they will take boat, as is
+customary, for the Rialto."
+
+"Thereby giving this redoubtable Jacopo timely notice to secrete
+himself! Your judges up above are mysterious when they should be open;
+and open when they should be secret. I must quit thee, Gelsomina; go,
+then, back to the room of thy father, and leave me to pass out by the
+court of the palace."
+
+"It may not be, Carlo--thou knowest the permission of the authorities--I
+have exceeded--why should I wish to conceal it from thee--but it was not
+permitted to thee to enter at this hour."
+
+"And thou hast had the courage to transgress the leave for my sake,
+Gelsomina?"
+
+The abashed girl hung her head, and the color which glowed about her
+temples was like the rosy light of her own Italy.
+
+"Thou would'st have it so," she said.
+
+"A thousand thanks, dearest, kindest, truest Gelsomina; but doubt not my
+being able to leave the palace unseen. The danger was in entering. They
+who go forth do it with the air of having authority."
+
+"None pass the halberdiers masked by day, Carlo, but they who have the
+secret word."
+
+The Bravo appeared struck with this truth, and there was great
+embarrassment expressed in his manner. The terms of his admittance were
+so well understood to himself, that he distrusted the expediency of
+attempting to get upon the quays by the prison, the way he had entered,
+since he had little doubt that his retreat would be intercepted by those
+who kept the outer gate, and who were probably, by this time, in the
+secret of his true character. It now appeared that egress by the other
+route was equally hazardous. He had not been surprised so much by the
+substance of the proclamation, as by the publicity the Senate had seen
+fit to give to its policy, and he had heard himself denounced, with a
+severe pang, it is true, but without terror. Still he had so many means
+of disguise, and the practice of personal concealment was so general in
+Venice, that he had entertained no great distrust of the result until he
+now found himself in this awkward dilemma. Gelsomina read his indecision
+in his eye, and regretted that she should have caused him so much
+uneasiness.
+
+"It is not so bad as thou seemest to think, Carlo," she observed; "they
+have permitted thee to visit thy father at stated hours, and the
+permission is a proof that the Senate is not without pity. Now that I,
+to oblige thy wishes, have forgotten one of their injunctions, they will
+not be so hard of heart as to visit the fault as a crime."
+
+Jacopo gazed at her with pity, for well did he understand how little she
+knew of the real nature and wily policy of the state.
+
+"It is time that we should part," he said, "lest thy innocence should be
+made to pay the price of my mistake. I am now near the public corridor,
+and must trust to my fortune to gain the quay."
+
+Gelsomina hung upon his arm, unwilling to trust him to his own guidance
+in that fearful building.
+
+"It will not do, Carlo; thou wilt stumble on a soldier, and thy fault
+will be known; perhaps they will refuse to let thee come again; perhaps
+altogether shut the door of thy poor father's cell."
+
+Jacopo made a gesture for her to lead the way, and followed. With a
+beating, but still lightened heart, Gelsomina glided along the passages,
+carefully locking each door, as of wont, behind her, when she had passed
+through it. At length they reached the well known Bridge of Sighs. The
+anxious girl went on with a lighter step, when she found herself
+approaching her own abode, for she was busy in planning the means of
+concealing her companion in her father's rooms, should there be hazard
+in his passing out of the prison during the day.
+
+"But a single minute, Carlo," she whispered, applying the key to the
+door which opened into the latter building--the lock yielded, but the
+hinges refused to turn. Gelsomina paled as she added--"They have drawn
+the bolts within!"
+
+"No matter; I will go down by the court of the palace, and boldly pass
+the halberdier unmasked."
+
+Gelsomina, after all, saw but little risk of his being known by the
+mercenaries who served the Doge, and, anxious to relieve him from so
+awkward a position, she flew back to the other end of the gallery.
+Another key was applied to the door by which they had just entered, with
+the same result. Gelsomina staggered back, and sought support against
+the waft.
+
+"We can neither return nor proceed!" she exclaimed, frightened she knew
+not why.
+
+"I see it all," answered Jacopo, "we are prisoners on the fatal bridge."
+
+As he spoke, the Bravo calmly removed his mask, and showed the
+countenance of a man whose resolution was at its height.
+
+"Santa Madre di Dio! what can it mean?"
+
+"That we have passed here once too often, love. The council is tender of
+these visits."
+
+The bolts of both doors grated, and the hinges creaked at the same
+instant. An officer of the inquisition entered armed, and bearing
+manacles. Gelsomina shrieked, but Jacopo moved not limb or muscle, while
+he was fettered and chained.
+
+"I too!" cried his frantic companion. "I am the most guilty--bind
+me--cast me into a cell, but let poor Carlo go."
+
+"Carlo!" echoed an officer, laughing unfeelingly.
+
+"Is it such a crime to seek a father in his prison! They knew of his
+visits--they permitted them--he has only mistaken the hour."
+
+"Girl, dost thou know for whom thou pleadest?"
+
+"For the kindest heart--the most faithful son in Venice! Oh! if ye had
+seen him weep as I have done, over the sufferings of the old captive--if
+ye had seen his very form shivering in agony, ye would have pity on
+him!"
+
+"Listen," returned the officer, raising a finger for attention.
+
+The trumpeter sounded on the bridge of St. Mark, immediately beneath
+them, and proclamation was again made, offering gold for the arrest of
+the Bravo.
+
+"'Tis the officer of the Republic, bidding for the head of one who
+carries a common stiletto," cried the half-breathless Gelsomina, who
+little heeded the ceremony at that instant; "he merits his fate."
+
+"Then why resist it?"
+
+"Ye speak without meaning!"
+
+"Doting girl, this is Jacopo Frontoni!"
+
+Gelsomina would have disbelieved her ears, but for the anguished
+expression of Jacopo's eye. The horrible truth burst upon her mind, and
+she fell lifeless. At that moment the Bravo was hurried from the bridge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+  "Let us lift up the curtain, and observe
+  What passes in that chamber."
+                                 ROGERS.
+
+
+There were many rumors uttered in the fearful and secret manner which
+characterized the manner of the town, in the streets of Venice that day.
+Hundreds passed near the granite columns, as if they expected to see the
+Bravo occupying his accustomed stand, in audacious defiance of the
+proclamation, for so long and so mysteriously had he been permitted to
+appear in public, that men had difficulty in persuading themselves he
+would quit his habits so easily. It is needless to say that the vague
+expectation was disappointed. Much was also said, vauntingly, in behalf
+of the Republic's justice, for the humbled are bold enough in praising
+their superiors; and he, who had been dumb for years on subjects of a
+public nature, now found his voice like a fearless freeman.
+
+But the day passed away without any new occurrence to call the citizens
+from their pursuits. The prayers for the dead were continued with little
+intermission, and masses were said before the altars of half the
+churches for the repose of the fisherman's soul. His comrades, a little
+distrustful, but greatly gratified, watched the ceremonies with jealousy
+and exultation singularly blended. Ere the night set in again, they were
+among the most obedient of those the oligarchy habitually trod upon; for
+such is the effect of this species of domination, that it acquires a
+power to appease, by its flattery, the very discontents created by its
+injustice. Such is the human mind: a factitious but deeply-seated
+sentiment of respect is created by the habit of submission, which gives
+the subject of its influence a feeling of atonement, when he who has
+long played the superior comes down from his stilts, and confesses the
+community of human frailties!
+
+The square of St. Mark filled at the usual hour, the patricians deserted
+the Broglio as of wont, and the gaieties of the place were again
+uppermost, before the clock had struck the second hour of the night.
+Gondolas, filled with noble dames, appeared on the canals; the blinds of
+the palaces were raised for the admission of the sea-breeze;--and music
+began to be heard in the port, on the bridges, and under the balconies
+of the fair. The course of society was not to be arrested, merely
+because the wronged were unavenged, or the innocent suffered.
+
+There stood, then, on the grand canal, as there stand now, many palaces
+of scarcely less than royal magnificence. The reader has had occasion to
+become acquainted with one or two of these splendid edifices, and it is
+now our duty to convey him, in imagination, to another.
+
+The peculiarity of construction, which is a consequence of the watery
+site of Venice, gives the same general character to all the superior
+dwellings of that remarkable town. The house to which the thread of the
+narrative now leads us, had its water-gate, its vestibule, its massive
+marble stairs, its inner court, its magnificent suites of rooms above,
+its pictures, its lustres, and its floors of precious stones embedded in
+composition, like all those which we have already found it necessary to
+describe.
+
+The hour was ten, according to our own manner of computing time. A small
+but lovely family picture presented itself, deep within the walls of the
+patrician abode to which we have alluded. There was a father, a
+gentleman who had scarcely attained the middle age, with an eye in which
+spirit, intelligence, philanthropy, and, at that moment, paternal
+fondness were equally glowing. He tossed in his arms, with paternal
+pride, a laughing urchin of some three or four years, who rioted in the
+amusement which brought him, and the author of his being, for a time
+seemingly on a level. A fair Venetian dame, with golden locks and
+glowing cheeks, such as Titian loved to paint her sex, reclined on a
+couch nigh by, following the movements of both, with the joint feelings
+of mother and wife, and laughing in pure sympathy with the noisy
+merriment of her young hope. A girl, who was the youthful image of
+herself, with tresses that fell to her waist, romped with a crowing
+infant, whose age was so tender as scarcely to admit the uncertain
+evidence of its intelligence. Such was the scene as the clock of the
+piazza told the hour. Struck with the sound, the father set down the boy
+and consulted his watch.
+
+"Dost thou use thy gondola to-night, love?" he demanded.
+
+"With thee, Paolo?"
+
+"Not with me, dearest; I have affairs which will employ me until
+twelve."
+
+"Nay, thou art given to cast me off, when thy caprices are wayward."
+
+"Say not so. I have named to-night for an interview with my agent, and I
+know thy maternal heart too well, to doubt thy being willing to spare me
+for that time, while I look to the interests of these dear ones."
+
+The Donna Giulietta rang for her mantle and attendants. The crowing
+infant and the noisy boy were dismissed to their beds, while the lady
+and the eldest child descended to the gondola. Donna Giulietta was not
+permitted to go unattended to her boat, for this was a family in which
+the inclinations had fortunately seconded the ordinary calculations of
+interest when the nuptial knot was tied. Her husband kissed her hand
+fondly, as he assisted her into the gondola, and the boat had glided
+some distance from the palace ere he quitted the moist stones of the
+water-gate.
+
+"Hast thou prepared the cabinet for my friends?" demanded the Signor
+Soranzo, for it was the same Senator who had been in company with the
+Doge when the latter went to meet the fishermen.
+
+"Signore, si."
+
+"And the quiet, and the lights--as ordered?"
+
+"Eccellenza, all will be done."
+
+"Thou hast placed seats for six--we shall be six."
+
+"Signore, there are six arm-chairs."
+
+"'Tis well: when the first of my friends arrive, I will join them."
+
+"Eccellenza, there are already two cavaliers in masks within."
+
+The Signor Soranzo started, again consulted his watch, and went hastily
+towards a distant and very silent part of the palace. He reached a small
+door unattended, and closing it, found himself at once in the presence
+of those who evidently awaited his appearance.
+
+"A thousand pardons, Signori," cried the master of the house; "this is
+novel duty to me, at least--I know not what may be your honorable
+experience--and the time stole upon me unmarked. I pray for grace,
+Messires; future diligence shall repair the present neglect."
+
+Both the visitors were older men than their host, and it was quite
+evident by their hardened visages they were of much longer practice in
+the world. His excuses were received with courtesy, and, for a little
+time, the discourse was entirely of usage and convention.
+
+"We are in secret here, Signore?" asked one of the guests, after some
+little time had been wasted in this manner.
+
+"As the tomb. None enter here unbidden but my wife, and she has this
+moment taken boat for better enjoyment of the evening."
+
+"The world gives you credit, Signor Soranzo, for a happy ménage. I hope
+you have duly considered the necessity of shutting the door even against
+the Donna Giulietta to-night?"
+
+"Doubt me not, Signore; the affairs of St. Mark are paramount."
+
+"I feel myself thrice happy, Signori, that in drawing a lot for the
+secret council, my good fortune hath given me so excellent colleagues.
+Believe me, I have discharged this awful trust, in my day, in less
+agreeable company."
+
+This flattering speech, which the wily old senator had made regularly to
+all whom chance had associated with him in the inquisition, during a
+long life, was well received, and it was returned with equal
+compliments.
+
+"It would appear that the worthy Signor Alessandro Gradenigo was one of
+our predecessors," he continued, looking at some papers; for though the
+actual three were unknown, at the time being, to all but a few
+secretaries and officers of the state, Venetian policy transmitted their
+names to their successors, as a matter of course,--"a noble gentleman,
+and one of great devotion to the state!"
+
+The others assented, like men accustomed to speak with caution.
+
+"We were about to have entered on our duties at a troublesome moment,
+Signori," observed another. "But it would seem that this tumult of the
+fishermen has already subsided. I understand the knaves had some reason
+for their distrust of the state."
+
+"It is an affair happily settled," answered the senior of the three, who
+was long practised in the expediency of forgetting all that policy
+required should cease to be remembered after the object was attained.
+"The galleys must be manned, else would St. Mark quickly hang his head
+in shame."
+
+The Signor Soranzo, who had received some previous instruction in his
+new duties, looked melancholy; but he, too, was merely the creature of a
+system.
+
+"Is there matter of pressing import for our reflection?" he demanded.
+
+"Signori, there is every reason to believe that the state has just
+sustained a grievous loss. Ye both well know the heiress of Tiepolo, by
+reputation at least, though her retired manner of life may have kept you
+from her company."
+
+"Donna Giulietta is eloquent in praise of her beauty," said the young
+husband.
+
+"We had not a better fortune in Venice," rejoined the third inquisitor.
+
+"Excellent in qualities, and better in riches, as she is, I fear we have
+lost her, Signori! Don Camillo Monforte, whom God protect until we have
+no future use for his influence! had come near to prevail against us;
+but just as the state baffled his well laid schemes, the lady has been
+thrown by hazard into the hands of the rioters, since which time there
+is no account of her movements!"
+
+Paolo Soranzo secretly hoped she was in the arms of the Neapolitan.
+
+"A secretary has communicated to me the disappearance of the Duca di
+Sant' Agata also," observed the third; "nor is the felucca, usually
+employed in distant and delicate missions, any longer at her anchors."
+
+The two old men regarded each other as if the truth was beginning to
+dawn upon their suspicions. They saw that the case was hopeless, and as
+theirs was altogether a practical duty, no time was lost in useless
+regrets.
+
+"We have two affairs which press," observed the elder. "The body of the
+old fisherman must be laid quietly in the earth with as little risk of
+future tumult as may be; and we have this notorious Jacopo to dispose
+of."
+
+"The latter must first be taken," said the Signor Soranzo.
+
+"That has been done already. Would you think it, Sirs he was seized in
+the very palace of the Doge!"
+
+"To the block with him without delay!"
+
+The old men again looked at each other, and it was quite apparent that,
+as both of them had been in previous councils, they had a secret
+intelligence, to which their companion was yet a stranger. There was
+also visible in their glances something like a design to manage his
+feelings before they came more openly to the graver practices of their
+duties.
+
+"For the sake of blessed St. Mark, Signori, let justice be done openly
+in this instance!" continued the unsuspecting member of the Three. "What
+pity can the bearer of a common stiletto claim? and what more lovely
+exercise of our authority than to make public an act of severe and
+much-required justice?"
+
+The old senators bowed to this sentiment of their colleague, which was
+uttered with the fervor of young experience, and the frankness of an
+upright mind; for there is a conventional acquiescence in received
+morals which is permitted, in semblance at least, to adorn the most
+tortuous.
+
+"It may be well, Signore Soranzo, to do this homage to the right,"
+returned the elder. "Here have been sundry charges found in different
+lions' mouths against the Neapolitan, Signor Don Camillo Monforte. I
+leave it to your wisdom, my illustrious colleagues, to decide on their
+character."
+
+"An excess of malice betrays its own origin," exclaimed the least
+practised member of the Inquisition. "My life on it, Signori, these
+accusations come of private spleen, and are unworthy of the state's
+attention. I have consorted much with the young lord of Sant' Agata, and
+a more worthy gentleman does not dwell among us."
+
+"Still hath he designs on the hand of old Tiepolo's daughter!"
+
+"Is it a crime in youth to seek beauty? He did great service to the
+lady in her need, and that youth should feel these sympathies is nothing
+strange."
+
+"Venice hath her sympathies, as well as the youngest of us all,
+Signore."
+
+"But Venice cannot wed the heiress!"
+
+"True. St. Mark must be satisfied with playing the prudent father's
+part. You are yet young, Signore Soranzo, and the Donna Giulietta is of
+rare beauty! As life wears upon ye both, ye will see the fortunes of
+kingdoms, as well as of families, differently. But we waste our breath
+uselessly in this matter, since our agents have not yet reported their
+success in the pursuit. The most pressing affair, just now, is the
+disposition of the Bravo. Hath his Highness shown you the letter of the
+sovereign pontiff, in the question of the intercepted dispatches,
+Signore?"
+
+"He hath. A fair answer was returned by our predecessors, and it must
+rest there."
+
+"We will then look freely into the matter of Jacopo Frontoni. There will
+be necessity of our assembling in the chamber of the Inquisition, that
+we may have the prisoner confronted to his accusers. 'Tis a grave trial,
+Signori, and Venice would lose in men's estimation, were not the highest
+tribunal to take an interest in its decision."
+
+"To the block with the villain!" again exclaimed the Signor Soranzo.
+
+"He may haply meet with that fate, or even with the punishment of the
+wheel. A mature examination will enlighten us much on the course which
+policy may dictate."
+
+"There can be but one policy when the protection of the lives of our
+citizens is in question. I have never before felt impatience to shorten
+the life of man, but in this trial I can scarce brook delay."
+
+"Your honorable impatience shall be gratified, Signor Soranzo: for,
+foreseeing the urgency of the case, my colleague, the worthy senator who
+is joined with us in this high duty, and myself, have already issued
+the commands necessary to that object. The hour is near, and we will
+repair to the chamber of the Inquisition in time to our duty."
+
+The discourse then turned on subjects of a more general concern. This
+secret and extraordinary tribunal, which was obliged to confine its
+meetings to no particular place, which could decide on its decrees
+equally in the Piazza or the palace, amidst the revelries of the
+masquerade or before the altar, in the assemblies of the gay or in their
+own closets, had of necessity much ordinary matter submitted to its
+inspection. As the chances of birth entered into its original
+composition, and God hath not made all alike fit for so heartless a
+duty, it sometimes happened, as in the present instance, that the more
+worldly of its members had to overcome the generous disposition of a
+colleague, before the action of the terrible machine could go on.
+
+It is worthy of remark, that communities always establish a higher
+standard of justice and truth, than is exercised by their individual
+members. The reason is not to be sought for, since nature hath left to
+all a perception of that right, which is abandoned only under the
+stronger impulses of personal temptation. We commend the virtue we
+cannot imitate. Thus it is that those countries, in which public opinion
+has most influence, are always of the purest public practice. It follows
+as a corollary from this proposition, that a representation should be as
+real as possible, for its tendency will be inevitably to elevate
+national morals. Miserable, indeed, is the condition of that people,
+whose maxims and measures of public policy are below the standard of its
+private integrity, for the fact not only proves it is not the master of
+its own destinies, but the still more dangerous truth, that the
+collective power is employed in the fatal service of undermining those
+very qualities which are necessary to virtue, and which have enough to
+do, at all times, in resisting the attacks of immediate selfishness. A
+strict legal representation of all its interests is far more necessary
+to a worldly than to a simple people, since responsibility, which is the
+essence of a free government, is more likely to keep the agents of a
+nation near to its own standard of virtue than any other means. The
+common opinion that a Republic cannot exist without an extraordinary
+degree of virtue in its citizens, is so flattering to our own actual
+condition, that we seldom take the trouble to inquire into its truth;
+but, to us, it seems quite apparent that the effect is here mistaken for
+the cause. It is said, as the people are virtually masters in a
+Republic, that the people ought to be virtuous to rule well. So far as
+this proposition is confined to degrees, it is just as true of a
+Republic as of any other form of government. But kings do rule, and
+surely all have not been virtuous; and that aristocracies have ruled
+with the very minimum of that quality, the subject of our tale
+sufficiently shows. That, other things being equal, the citizens of a
+Republic will have a higher standard of private virtue than the subjects
+of any other form of government, is true as an effect, we can readily
+believe; for responsibility to public opinion existing in all the
+branches of its administration, that conventional morality which
+characterizes the common sentiment, will be left to act on the mass, and
+will not be perverted into a terrible engine of corruption, as is the
+case when factitious institutions give a false direction to its
+influence.
+
+The case before us was in proof of the truth of what has here been said.
+The Signor Soranzo was a man of great natural excellence of character,
+and the charities of his domestic circle had assisted in confirming his
+original dispositions. Like others of his rank and expectations, he had,
+from time to time, made the history and polity of the self-styled
+Republic his study, and the power of collective interests and specious
+necessities had made him admit sundry theories, which, presented in
+another form, he would have repulsed with indignation. Still the Signor
+Soranzo was far from understanding the full effects of that system
+which he was born to uphold. Even Venice paid that homage to public
+opinion, of which there has just been question, and held forth to the
+world but a false picture of her true state maxims. Still, many of those
+which were too apparent to be concealed were difficult of acceptance,
+with one whose mind was yet untainted with practice; and the young
+senator rather shut his eyes on their tendency, or, as he felt their
+influence in every interest which environed him, but that of poor,
+neglected, abstract virtue, whose rewards were so remote, he was fain to
+seek out some palliative, or some specious and indirect good as the
+excuse for his acquiescence.
+
+In this state of mind the Signor Soranzo was unexpectedly admitted a
+member of the Council of Three. Often, in the day-dreams of his youth,
+had he contemplated the possession of this very irresponsible power as
+the consummation of his wishes. A thousand pictures of the good he would
+perform had crossed his brain, and it was only as he advanced in life,
+and came to have a near view of the wiles which beset the
+best-intentioned, that he could bring himself to believe most of that
+which he meditated was impracticable. As it was, he entered into the
+council with doubts and misgivings. Had he lived in a later age, under
+his own system modified by the knowledge which has been a consequence of
+the art of printing, it is probable that the Signor Soranzo would have
+been a noble in opposition, now supporting with ardor some measure of
+public benevolence, and now yielding gracefully to the suggestions of a
+sterner policy, and always influenced by the positive advantages he was
+born to possess, though scarcely conscious himself he was not all he
+professed to be. The fault, however, was not so much that of the
+patrician as that of circumstances, which, by placing interest in
+opposition to duty, lures many a benevolent mind into still greater
+weaknesses.
+
+The companions of the Signor Soranzo, however, had a more difficult
+task to prepare him for the duties of the statesman, which were so very
+different from those he was accustomed to perform as a man, than they
+had anticipated. They were like two trained elephants of the east,
+possessing themselves all the finer instincts and generous qualities of
+the noble animal, but disciplined by a force quite foreign to their
+natural condition into creatures of mere convention, placed one on each
+side of a younger brother, fresh from the plains, and whom it was their
+duty to teach new services for the trunk, new affections, and haply the
+manner in which to carry with dignity the howdah of a Rajah.
+
+With many allusions to their policy, but with no direct intimation of
+their own intention, the seniors of the council continued the
+conversation until the hour for the meeting in the Doge's palace drew
+nigh. They then separated as privately as they had come together, in
+order that no vulgar eye might penetrate the mystery of their official
+character.
+
+The most practised of the three appeared in an assembly of the
+patricians, which noble and beautiful dames graced with their presence,
+from which he disappeared in a manner to leave no clue to his motions.
+The other visited the death-bed of a friend, where he discoursed long
+and well with a friar, of the immortality of the soul and the hopes of a
+Christian: when he departed, the godly man bestowing his blessing, and
+the family he left being loud and eloquent in his praise.
+
+The Signor Soranzo clung to the enjoyments of his own family circle
+until the last moment. The Donna Giulietta had returned, fresher and
+more lovely than ever, from the invigorating sea-breeze, and her soft
+voice, with the melodious laugh of his first-born, the blooming,
+ringlet-covered girl described, still rang in his ears, when his
+gondolier landed him beneath the bridge of the Rialto. Here he masked,
+and drawing his cloak about him, he moved with the current towards the
+square of St. Mark, by means of the narrow streets. Once in the crowd
+there was little danger of impertinent observation. Disguise was as
+often useful to the oligarchy of Venice as it was absolutely necessary
+to elude its despotism, and to render the town tolerable to the citizen.
+Paolo saw swarthy, bare-legged men of the Lagunes, entering occasionally
+into the cathedral. He followed, and found himself standing near the
+dimly lighted altar at which masses were still saying for the soul of
+Antonio.
+
+"This is one of thy fellows?" he asked of a fisherman, whose dark eye
+glittered in that light, like the organ of a basilisk.
+
+"Signore, he was--a more honest or a more just man did not cast his net
+in the gulf."
+
+"He has fallen a victim to his craft?"
+
+"Cospetto di Bacco! none know in what manner he came by his end. Some
+say St. Mark was impatient to see him in paradise, and some pretend he
+has fallen by the hand of a common Bravo, named Jacopo Frontoni."
+
+"Why should a Bravo take the life of one like this?"
+
+"By having the goodness to answer your own question, Signore, you will
+spare me some trouble. Why should he, sure enough? They say Jacopo is
+revengeful, and that shame and anger at his defeat in the late regatta,
+by one old as this, was the reason."
+
+"Is he so jealous of his honor with the oar?"
+
+"Diamine! I have seen the time when Jacopo would sooner die than lose a
+race; but that was before he carried a stiletto. Had he kept to his oar
+the thing might have happened, but once known for the hired blow, it
+seems unreasonable he should set his heart so strongly on the prizes of
+the canals."
+
+"May not the man have fallen into the Lagunes by accident?"
+
+"No doubt, Signore. This happens to some of us daily; but then we think
+it wiser to swim to the boat than to sink. Old Antonio had an arm in
+youth to carry him from the quay to the Lido."
+
+"But he may have been struck in falling, and rendered unable to do
+himself this good office."
+
+"There would be marks to show this, were it true, Signore!"
+
+"Would not Jacopo have used the stiletto?"
+
+"Perhaps not on one like Antonio. The gondola of the old man was found
+in the mouth of the Grand Canal, half a league from the body and against
+the wind! We note these things, Signore, for they are within our
+knowledge."
+
+"A happy night to thee, fisherman."
+
+"A most happy night, eccellenza," said the laborer of the Lagunes,
+gratified with having so long occupied the attention of one he rightly
+believed so much his superior. The disguised senator passed on. He had
+no difficulty in quitting the cathedral unobserved, and he had his
+private means of entering the palace, without attracting any impertinent
+eye to his movements. Here he quickly joined his colleagues of the
+fearful tribunal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+  "_There_ the prisoners rest together;
+  they hear not the voice of the oppressor."
+                                     JOB.
+
+
+The manner in which the Council of Three held its more public meetings,
+if aught connected with that mysterious body could be called public, has
+already been seen. On the present occasion there were the same robes,
+the same disguises, and the same officers of the inquisition, as in the
+scene related in a previous chapter. The only change was in the
+character of the judges, and in that of the accused. By a peculiar
+arrangement of the lamp, too, most of the light was thrown upon the spot
+it was intended the prisoner should occupy, while the side of the
+apartment on which the inquisitors sat, was left in a dimness that well
+accorded with their gloomy and secret duties. Previously to the opening
+of the door by which the person to be examined was to appear, there was
+audible the clanking of chains, the certain evidence that the affair in
+hand was considered serious. The hinges turned, and the Bravo stood in
+presence of those unknown men who were to decide on his fate.
+
+As Jacopo had often been before the council, though not as a prisoner,
+he betrayed neither surprise nor alarm at the black aspect of all his
+eye beheld. His features were composed, though pale, his limbs
+immovable, and his mien decent. When the little bustle of his entrance
+had subsided, there reigned a stillness in the room.
+
+"Thou art called Jacopo Frontoni?" said the secretary, who acted as the
+mouth-piece of the Three, on this occasion.
+
+"I am."
+
+"Thou art the son of a certain Ricardo Frontoni, a man well known as
+having been concerned in robbing the Republic's customs, and who is
+thought to have been banished to the distant islands, or to be otherwise
+punished?"
+
+"Signore--or otherwise punished."
+
+"Thou wert a gondolier in thy youth?"
+
+"I was a gondolier."
+
+"Thy mother is----"
+
+"Dead," said Jacopo, perceiving the other paused to examine his notes.
+
+The depth of the tone in which this word was uttered, caused a silence,
+that the secretary did not interrupt, until he had thrown a glance
+backwards at the judges.
+
+"She was not accused of thy father's crime?"
+
+"Had she been, Signore, she is long since beyond the power of the
+Republic."
+
+"Shortly after thy father fell under the displeasure of the state, thou
+quittedst thy business of a gondolier?"
+
+"Signore, I did."
+
+"Thou art accused, Jacopo, of having laid aside the oar for the
+stiletto?"
+
+"Signore, I am."
+
+"For several years, the rumors of thy bloody deeds have been growing in
+Venice, until, of late, none have met with an untimely fate that the
+blow has not been attributed to thy hand?"
+
+"This is too true, Signor Segretario--I would it were not!"
+
+"The ears of his highness, and of the Councils, have not been closed to
+these reports, but they have long attended to the rumors with the
+earnestness which becomes a paternal and careful government. If they
+have suffered thee to go at large, it hath only been that there might
+be no hazard of sullying the ermine of justice, by a premature and not
+sufficiently supported judgment."
+
+Jacopo bent his head, but without speaking. A smile so wild and meaning,
+however, gleamed on his face at this declaration, that the permanent
+officer of the secret tribunal, he who served as its organ of
+communication, bowed nearly to the paper he held, as it might be to look
+deeper into his documents. Let not the reader turn back to this page in
+surprise, when he shall have reached the explanation of the tale, for
+mysticisms quite as palpable, if not of so ruthless a character, have
+been publicly acted by political bodies in his own times.
+
+"There is now a specific and a frightful charge brought against thee,
+Jacopo Frontoni," continued the secretary; "and, in tenderness of the
+citizen's life, the dreaded Council itself hath taken the matter in
+hand. Didst thou know a certain Antonio Vecchio, a fisherman here in our
+Lagunes?"
+
+"Signore, I knew him well of late, and much regret that it was only of
+late."
+
+"Thou knowest, too, that his body hath been found, drowned in the bay?"
+
+Jacopo shuddered, signifying his assent merely by a sign. The effect of
+this tacit acknowledgment on the youngest of the three was apparent, for
+he turned to his companions, like one struck by the confession it
+implied. His colleagues made dignified inclinations in return, and the
+silent communication ceased.
+
+"His death has excited discontent among his fellows, and its cause has
+become a serious subject of inquiry for the illustrious Council."
+
+"The death of the meanest man in Venice should call forth the care of
+the patricians, Signore."
+
+"Dost thou know, Jacopo, that thou art accused of being his murderer?"
+
+"Signore, I do."
+
+"It is said that thou earnest among the gondoliers in the late regatta,
+and that, but for this aged fisherman, thou would'st have been winner of
+the prize?"
+
+"In that, rumor hath not lied, Signore."
+
+"Thou dost not, then, deny the charge!" said the examiner, in evident
+surprise.
+
+"It is certain that, but for the fisherman, I should have been the
+winner."
+
+"And thou wished it, Jacopo?"
+
+"Signore, greatly," returned the accused, with a show of emotion, that
+had not hitherto escaped him. "I was a man condemned of his fellows, and
+the oar had been my pride, from childhood to that hour."
+
+Another movement of the third inquisitor betrayed equally his interest
+and his surprise.
+
+"Dost thou confess the crime?"
+
+Jacopo smiled, but more in derision than with any other feeling.
+
+"If the illustrious senators here present will unmask, I may answer that
+question, haply, with greater confidence," he said.
+
+"Thy request is bold and out of rule. None know the persons of the
+patricians who preside over the destinies of the state. Dost thou
+confess the crime?"
+
+The entrance of an officer, in some haste, prevented a reply. The man
+placed a written report in the hands of the inquisitor in red, and
+withdrew. After a short pause, the guards were ordered to retire with
+their prisoner.
+
+"Great senators!" said Jacopo, advancing earnestly towards the table, as
+if he would seize the moment to urge what he was about to say;--"Mercy!
+grant me your authority to visit one in the prisons, beneath the
+leads!--I have weighty reasons for the wish, and I pray you, as men and
+fathers, to grant it!"
+
+The interest of the two, who were consulting apart on the new
+intelligence, prevented them from listening to what he urged. The other
+inquisitor, who was the Signer Soranzo, had drawn near the lamp, anxious
+to read the lineaments of one so notorious, and was gazing at his
+striking countenance. Touched by the pathos of his voice, and agreeably
+disappointed in the lineaments he studied, he took upon himself the
+power to grant the request.
+
+"Humor his wish," he said to the halberdiers; "but have him in
+readiness to reappear."
+
+Jacopo looked his gratitude, but fearful that the others might still
+interfere to prevent his wish, he hurried from the room.
+
+The march of the little procession, which proceeded from the chamber of
+the inquisition to the summer cells of its victims, was sadly
+characteristic of the place and the government.
+
+It went through gloomy and secret corridors, that were hid from the
+vulgar eye, while thin partitions only separated them from the
+apartments of the Doge, which, like the specious aspect of the state,
+concealed the nakedness and misery within, by their gorgeousness and
+splendor! On reaching the attic, Jacopo stopped, and turned to his
+conductors.
+
+"If you are beings of God's forming," he said, "take off these clanking
+chains, though it be but for a moment."
+
+The keepers regarded each other in surprise, neither offering to do the
+charitable office.
+
+"I go to visit, probably for the last time," continued the prisoner, "a
+bed-ridden--I may say--a dying father, who knows nothing of my
+situation,--will ye that he should see me thus?"
+
+The appeal which was made, more with the voice and manner, than in the
+words, had its effect. A keeper removed the chains, and bade him
+proceed. With a cautious tread, Jacopo advanced, and when the door was
+opened he entered the room alone, for none there had sufficient
+interest in an interview between a common Bravo and his father, to
+endure the glowing warmth of the place, the while. The door was closed
+after him, and the room became dark.
+
+Notwithstanding his assumed firmness, Jacopo hesitated when he found
+himself so suddenly introduced to the silent misery of the forlorn
+captive. A hard breathing told him the situation of the pallet, but the
+walls, which were solid on the side of the corridor, effectually
+prevented the admission of light.
+
+"Father!" said Jacopo with gentleness.
+
+He got no answer.
+
+"Father!" he repeated in a stronger voice.
+
+The breathing became more audible, and then the captive spoke.
+
+"Holy Maria hear my prayers!" he said feebly. "God hath sent thee, son,
+to close my eyes!"
+
+"Doth thy strength fail thee, father?"
+
+"Greatly--my time is come--I had hoped to see the light of the day again
+to bless thy dear mother and sister--God's will be done!"
+
+"They pray for us both, father. They are beyond the power of the
+Senate."
+
+"Jacopo, I do not understand thee!"
+
+"My mother and sister are dead; they are saints in Heaven, father."
+
+The old man groaned, for the tie of earth had not yet been entirely
+severed. Jacopo heard him murmuring a prayer, and he knelt by the side
+of his pallet.
+
+"This is a sudden blow!" whispered the old man. "We depart together."
+
+"They are long dead, father."
+
+"Why hast thou not told me this before, Jacopo?"
+
+"Hadst thou not sorrows enough without this? Now that thou art about to
+join them, it will be pleasant to know that they have so long been
+happy."
+
+"And thou?--thou wilt be alone--give me thy hand--poor Jacopo!"
+
+The Bravo reached forth and took the feeble member of his parent; it was
+clammy and cold.
+
+"Jacopo," continued the captive, whose mind still sustained the body, "I
+have prayed thrice within the hour: once for my own soul--once for the
+peace of thy mother--lastly, for thee!"
+
+"Bless thee, father!--bless thee! I have need of prayer!"
+
+"I have asked of God favor in thy behalf. I have bethought me of all thy
+love and care--of all thy devotion to my age and sufferings. When thou
+wert a child, Jacopo, tenderness for thee tempted me to acts of
+weakness: I trembled lest thy manhood might bring upon me pain and
+repentance. Thou hast not known the yearnings of a parent for his
+offspring, but thou hast well requited them. Kneel, Jacopo, that I may
+ask of God, once more, to remember thee."
+
+"I am at thy side, father."
+
+The old man raised his feeble arms, and with a voice whose force
+appeared reviving, he pronounced a fervent and solemn benediction.
+
+"The blessing of a dying parent will sweeten thy life, Jacopo," he added
+after a pause, "and give peace to thy last moments."
+
+"It will do the latter, father."
+
+A rude summons at the door interrupted them.
+
+"Come forth, Jacopo," said a keeper, "the Council seeks thee!"
+
+Jacopo felt the convulsive start of his father, but he did not answer.
+
+"Will they not leave thee--a few minutes longer?" whispered the old
+man--"I shall not keep thee long!"
+
+The door opened, and a gleam from the lamp fell on the group in the
+cell. The keeper had the humanity to shut it again, leaving all in
+obscurity. The glimpse which Jacopo obtained, by that passing light, was
+the last look he had of his father's countenance. Death was fearfully on
+it, but the eyes were turned in unutterable affection on his own.
+
+"The man is merciful--he will not shut thee out!" murmured the parent.
+
+"They cannot leave thee to die alone, father!"
+
+"Son, I am with my God--yet I would gladly have thee by my side!--Didst
+thou say--thy mother and thy sister were dead!"
+
+"Dead!"
+
+"Thy young sister, too?"
+
+"Father, both. They are saints in Heaven."
+
+The old man breathed thick, and there was silence. Jacopo felt a hand
+moving in the darkness, as if in quest of him. He aided the effort, and
+laid the member in reverence on his own head.
+
+"Maria undefiled, and her Son, who is God!--bless thee, Jacopo!"
+whispered a voice, that to the excited imagination of the kneeling Bravo
+appeared to hover in the air. The solemn words were followed by a
+quivering sigh. Jacopo hid his face in the blanket, and prayed. After
+which there was deep quiet.
+
+"Father!" he added, trembling at his own smothered voice.
+
+He was unanswered; stretching out a hand, it touched the features of a
+corpse. With a firmness that had the quality of desperation, he again
+bowed his head and uttered fervently a prayer for the dead.
+
+When the door of the cell opened, Jacopo appeared to the keepers, with a
+dignity of air that belongs only to character, and which was heightened
+by the scene in which he had just been an actor. He raised his hands,
+and stood immovable while the manacles were replaced. This office done,
+they walked away together in the direction of the secret chamber. It was
+not long ere all were again in their places, before the Council of
+Three.
+
+"Jacopo Frontoni," resumed the secretary, "thou art suspected of being
+privy to another dark deed that hath had place of late within our city.
+Hast thou any knowledge of a noble Calabrian, who hath high claim to the
+senate's honors, and who hath long had his abode in Venice?"
+
+"Signore, I have."
+
+"Hast thou had aught of concern with him?"
+
+"Signore, yes."
+
+A movement of common interest made itself apparent among the auditors.
+
+"Dost thou know where the Don Camillo Monforte is at present."
+
+Jacopo hesitated. He so well understood the means of intelligence
+possessed by the Council, that he doubted how far it might be prudent to
+deny his connexion with the flight of the lovers. Besides, at that
+moment, his mind was deeply impressed with a holy sentiment of truth.
+
+"Canst thou say, why the young duca is not to be found in his palace?"
+repeated the secretary.
+
+"Illustrissimo, he hath quitted Venice for ever."
+
+"How canst thou know this?--Would he make a confidant of a common
+Bravo?"
+
+The smile which crossed the features of Jacopo was full of superiority;
+it caused the conscious agent of the Secret Tribunal to look closely at
+his papers, like one who felt its power.
+
+"Art thou his confidant--I ask again?"
+
+"Signore, in this, I am--I have the assurance from the mouth of Don
+Camillo Monforte himself, that he will not return."
+
+"This is impossible, since it would involve a loss of all his fair
+hopes and illustrious fortunes."
+
+"He consoled himself, Signore, with the possession of the heiress of
+Tiepolo's love, and with her riches."
+
+Again there was a movement among the Three, which all their practised
+restraint, and the conventional dignity of their mysterious functions,
+could not prevent.
+
+"Let the keepers withdraw," said the inquisitor of the scarlet robe. So
+soon as the prisoner was alone with the Three, and their permanent
+officer, the examination continued; the Senators themselves, trusting to
+the effect produced by their masks, and some feints, speaking as
+occasion offered.
+
+"This is important intelligence that thou hast communicated, Jacopo,"
+continued he of the robe of flame. "It may yet redeem thy life, wert
+thou wise enough to turn it to account."
+
+"What would your eccellenza at my hands? It is plain that the Council
+know of the flight of Don Camillo, nor will I believe that eyes, which
+so seldom are closed, have not yet missed the daughter of the Tiepolo."
+
+"Both are true, Jacopo; but what hast thou to say of the means?
+Remember, that as thou findest favor with the council, thine own fate
+will be decided."
+
+The prisoner suffered another of those freezing gleams to cross his
+face, which invariably caused his examiners to bend their looks aside.
+
+"The means of escape cannot be wanting to a bold lover, Signore," he
+replied. "Don Camillo is rich, and might employ a thousand agents, had
+he need of them."
+
+"Thou art equivocating; 'twill be the worse for thee, that thou triflest
+with the Council--who are these agents?"
+
+"He had a generous household, Eccellenza;--many hardy gondoliers, and
+servitors of all conditions."
+
+"Of these we have nothing to learn. He hath escaped by other means--or
+art thou sure he hath escaped at all?"
+
+"Signore, is he in Venice?"
+
+"Nay, that we ask of thee. Here is an accusation, found in the lion's
+mouth, which charges thee with his assassination."
+
+"And the Donna Violetta's, too, eccellenza?"
+
+"Of her, we have heard nothing. What answer dost make to the charge?"
+
+"Signore, why should I betray my own secrets?"
+
+"Ha! art thou equivocating and faithless? Remember that we have a
+prisoner beneath the leads, who can extract the truth from thee."
+
+Jacopo raised his form to such an altitude as one might fancy to express
+the mounting of a liberated spirit. Still his eye was sad, and, spite of
+an effort to the contrary, his voice melancholy.
+
+"Senators," he said, "your prisoner beneath the leads is free."
+
+"How! thou art trifling, in thy despair!"
+
+"I speak truth. The liberation, so long delayed, hath come at last."
+
+"Thy father----"
+
+"Is dead," interrupted Jacopo, solemnly.
+
+The two elder members of the Council looked at each other in surprise,
+while their junior colleague listened with the interest of one who was
+just entering on a noviciate of secret and embarrassing duties. The
+former consulted together, and then they communicated as much of their
+opinions to the Signor Soranzo, as they deemed necessary to the
+occasion.
+
+"Wilt thou consult thine own safety, Jacopo, and reveal all thou knowest
+of this affair of the Neapolitan?" continued the inquisitor, when this
+by-play was ended.
+
+Jacopo betrayed no weakness at the menace implied by the words of the
+senator; but, after a moment's reflection, he answered writh as much
+frankness as he could have used at the confessional.
+
+"It is known to you, illustrious senator," he said, "that the state had
+a desire to match the heiress of Tiepolo, to its own advantage; that she
+was beloved of the Neapolitan noble; and that, as is wont between young
+and virtuous hearts, she returned his love as became a maiden of her
+high condition and tender years. Is there anything extraordinary in the
+circumstance that two of so illustrious hopes should struggle to prevent
+their own misery? Signori, the night that old Antonio died, I was alone,
+among the graves of the Lido, with many melancholy and bitter thoughts,
+and life had become a burden to me. Had the evil spirit which was then
+uppermost, maintained its mastery, I might have died the death of a
+hopeless suicide. God sent Don Camillo Monforte to my succor. Praised be
+the immaculate Maria, and her blessed Son, for the mercy! It was there I
+learned the wishes of the Neapolitan, and enlisted myself in his
+service. I swore to him, senators of Venice, to be true--to die in his
+cause, should it be necessary, and to help him to his bride. This pledge
+have I redeemed. The happy lovers are now in the States of the Church,
+and under the puissant protection of the cardinal secretary, Don
+Camillo's mother's brother."
+
+"Fool! why did'st thou this? Had'st thou no thought for thyself?"
+
+"Eccellenza, but little. I thought more of finding a human bosom to pour
+out my sufferings to, than of your high displeasure. I have not known so
+sweet a moment in years, as that in which I saw the lord of Sant' Agata
+fold his beautiful and weeping bride to his heart!"
+
+The inquisitors were struck with the quiet enthusiasm of the Bravo, and
+surprise once more held them in suspense. At length the elder of the
+three resumed the examination.
+
+"Wilt thou impart the manner of this escape, Jacopo?" he demanded.
+"Remember, thou hast still a life to redeem!"
+
+"Signore, it is scarce worth the trouble. But to do your pleasure,
+nothing shall be concealed."
+
+Jacopo then recounted in simple and undisguised terms, the entire means
+employed by Don Camillo in effecting his escape--his hopes, his
+disappointments, and his final success. In this narrative nothing was
+concealed but the place in which the ladies had temporarily taken
+refuge, and the name of Gelsomina. Even the attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo
+on the life of the Neapolitan, and the agency of the Hebrew, were fully
+exposed. None listened to this explanation so intently as the young
+husband. Notwithstanding his public duties, his pulses quickened as the
+prisoner dwelt on the different chances of the lovers, and when their
+final union was proclaimed, he felt his heart bound with delight. On the
+other hand, his more practised colleagues heard the detail of the Bravo
+with politic coolness. The effect of all factitious systems is to render
+the feelings subservient to expediency. Convention and fiction take
+place of passion and truth, and like the Mussulman with his doctrine of
+predestination, there is no one more acquiescent in defeat, than he who
+has obtained an advantage in the face of nature and justice; his
+resignation being, in common, as perfect as his previous arrogance was
+insupportable. The two old senators perceived at once that Don Camillo
+and his fair companion were completely beyond the reach of their power,
+and they instantly admitted the wisdom of making a merit of necessity.
+Having no farther occasion for Jacopo, they summoned the keepers, and
+dismissed him to his cell.
+
+"It will be seemly to send letters of congratulation to the cardinal
+secretary, on the union of his nephew with so rich an heiress of our
+city," said the Inquisitor of the Ten, as the door closed on the
+retiring group. "So great an interest as that of the Neapolitan should
+be propitiated."
+
+"But should he urge the state's resistance to his hopes?" returned the
+Signor Soranzo, in feeble objection to so bold a scheme.
+
+"We will excuse it as the act of a former council. These misconceptions
+are the unavoidable consequences of the caprices of liberty, Signore.
+The steed that ranges the plains in the freedom of nature, cannot be
+held to perfect command, like the dull beast that draws the car. This is
+the first of your sittings in the Three; but experience will show you
+that excellent as we are in system, we are not quite perfect in
+practice. This is grave matter of the young Gradenigo, Signori!"
+
+"I have long known his unworthiness," returned his more aged colleague.
+"It is a thousand pities that so honorable and so noble a patrician
+should have produced so ignoble a child. But neither the state nor the
+city can tolerate assassination."
+
+"Would it were less, frequent!" exclaimed the Signore Soranzo, in
+perfect sincerity.
+
+"Would it were, indeed! There are hints in our secret information, which
+tend to confirm the charge of Jacopo, though long experience has taught
+us to put full faith in his reports."
+
+"How! Is Jacopo, then, an agent of the police!"
+
+"Of that more at our leisure, Signor Soranzo. At present we must look to
+this attempt on the life of one protected by our laws."
+
+The Three then entered into a serious discussion of the case of the two
+delinquents. Venice, like all despotic governments, had the merit of
+great efficiency in its criminal police, when it was disposed to exert
+it. Justice was sure enough in those instances in which the interests of
+the government itself were not involved, or in which bribery could not
+well be used. As to the latter, through the jealousy of the state, and
+the constant agency of those who were removed from temptation, by being
+already in possession of a monopoly of benefits, it was by no means as
+frequent as in some other communities in which the affluent were less
+interested. The Signor Soranzo had now a fair occasion for the exercise
+of his generous feelings. Though related to the house of Gradenigo, he
+was not backward in decrying the conduct of its heir. His first impulses
+were to make a terrible example of the accused, and to show the world
+that no station brought with it, in Venice, impunity for crime. From
+this view of the case, however, he was gradually enticed by his
+companions, who reminded him that the law commonly made a distinction
+between the intention and the execution of an offence. Driven from his
+first determination by the cooler heads of his colleagues, the young
+inquisitor next proposed that the case should be sent to the ordinary
+tribunals for judgment. Instances had not been wanting in which the
+aristocracy of Venice sacrificed one of its body to the seemliness of
+justice; for when such cases were managed with discretion, they rather
+strengthened than weakened their ascendency. But the present crime was
+known to be too common, to permit so lavish an expenditure of their
+immunities, and the old inquisitors opposed the wish of their younger
+colleague with great plausibility, and with some show of reason. It was
+finally resolved that they should themselves decide on the case.
+
+The next question was the degree of punishment. The wily senior of the
+council began by proposing a banishment for a few months, for Giacomo
+Gradenigo was already obnoxious to the anger of the state on more
+accounts than one. But this punishment was resisted by the Signor
+Soranzo with the ardor of an uncorrupted and generous mind. The latter
+gradually prevailed, his companions taking care that their compliance
+should have the air of a concession to his arguments. The result of all
+this management was, that the heir of Gradenigo was condemned to ten
+years' retirement in the provinces, and Hosea to banishment for life.
+Should the reader be of opinion that strict justice was not meted out to
+the offenders, he should remember, that the Hebrew ought to be glad to
+have escaped as he did.
+
+"We must not conceal this judgment, nor its motive," observed the
+Inquisitor of the Ten, when the affair was concluded. "The state is
+never a loser for letting its justice be known."
+
+"Nor for its exercise, I should hope," returned the Signor Soranzo. "As
+our affairs are ended for the night, is it your pleasures, Signori, that
+we return to our palaces?"
+
+"Nay, we have this matter of Jacopo."
+
+"Him may we now, surely, turn over to the ordinary tribunals!"
+
+"As you may decide, Signori; is this your pleasure?"
+
+Both the others bowed assent, and the usual preparations were made for
+departure.
+
+Ere the two seniors of the Council left the palace, however, they held a
+long and secret conference together. The result was a private order to
+the criminal judge, and then they returned, each to his own abode, like
+men who had the approbation of their own consciences.
+
+On the other hand, the Signor Soranzo hastened to his own luxurious and
+happy dwelling. For the first time in his life he entered it with a
+distrust of himself. Without being conscious of the reason, he felt sad,
+for he had taken the first step in that tortuous and corrupting path,
+which eventually leads to the destruction of all those generous and
+noble sentiments, which can only flourish apart from the sophistry and
+fictions of selfishness. He would have rejoiced to have been as light of
+heart as at the moment he handed his fair-haired partner into the
+gondola that night; but his head had pressed the pillow for many hours,
+before sleep drew a veil over the solemn trifling with the most serious
+of your duties, in which he had been an actor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+  "Art thou not guilty! No, indeed, I am not."
+                                     ROGERS.
+
+
+The following morning brought the funeral of Antonio. The agents of the
+police took the precaution to circulate in the city, that the Senate
+permitted this honor to the memory of the old fisherman, on account of
+his success in the regatta, and as some atonement for his unmerited and
+mysterious death. All the men of the Lagunes were assembled in the
+square at the appointed hour, in decent guise, flattered with the notice
+that their craft received, and more than half disposed to forget their
+former anger in the present favor. Thus easy is it for those who are
+elevated above their fellow-creatures by the accident of birth, or by
+the opinions of a factitious social organization, to repair the wrongs
+they do in deeds, by small concessions of their conventional
+superiority.
+
+Masses were still chanted for the soul of old Antonio before the altar
+of St. Mark. Foremost among the priests was the good Carmelite, who had
+scarce known hunger or fatigue, in his pious desire to do the offices of
+the church in behalf of one whose fate he might be said to have
+witnessed. His zeal, however, in that moment of excitement passed
+unnoticed by all, but those whose business it was to suffer no unusual
+display of character, nor any unwonted circumstance to have place,
+without attracting their suspicion. As the Carmelite finally withdrew
+from the altar, previously to the removal of the body, he felt the
+sleeve of his robe slightly drawn aside, and yielding to the impulse,
+he quickly found himself among the columns of that gloomy church, alone
+with a stranger.
+
+"Father, thou hast shrived many a parting soul!" observed, rather than
+asked, the other.
+
+"It is the duty of my holy office, son."
+
+"The state will note thy services; there will be need of thee when the
+body of this fisherman is committed to the earth."
+
+The monk shuddered, but making the sign of the cross, he bowed his pale
+face, in signification of his readiness to discharge the duty. At that
+moment the bearers lifted the body, and the procession issued upon the
+great square. First marched the usual lay underlings of the cathedral,
+who were followed by those who chanted the offices of the occasion.
+Among the latter the Carmelite hastened to take his station. Next came
+the corpse, without a coffin, for that is a luxury of the grave even now
+unknown to the Italians of old Antonio's degree. The body was clad in
+the holiday vestments of a fisherman, the hands and feet being naked. A
+cross lay on the breast; the grey hairs were blowing about in the air,
+and, in frightful adornment of the ghastliness of death, a bouquet of
+flowers was placed upon the mouth. The bier was rich in gilding and
+carving, another melancholy evidence of the lingering wishes and false
+direction of human vanity.
+
+Next to this characteristic equipage of the dead walked a lad, whose
+brown cheek, half-naked body, and dark, roving eye, announced the
+grandson of the fisherman. Venice knew when to yield gracefully, and the
+boy was liberated unconditionally from the galleys, in pity, as it was
+whispered, for the untimely fate of his parent. There was the aspiring
+look, the dauntless spirit, and the rigid honesty of Antonio, in the
+bearing of the lad; but these qualities were now smothered by a natural
+grief; and, as in the case of him whose funeral escort he followed,
+something obscured by the rude chances of his lot. From time to time
+the bosom of the generous boy heaved, as they marched along the quay,
+taking the route of the arsenal; and there were moments in which his
+lips quivered, grief threatening to overcome his manhood.
+
+Still not a tear wetted his cheek, until the body disappeared from his
+view. Then nature triumphed, and straying from out the circle, he took a
+seat apart and wept, as one of his years and simplicity would be apt to
+weep, at finding himself a solitary wanderer in the wilderness of the
+world.
+
+Thus terminated the incident of Antonio Vecchio, the fisherman, whose
+name soon ceased to be mentioned in that city of mysteries, except on
+the Lagunes, where the men of his craft long vaunted his merit with the
+net, and the manner in which he bore away the prize from the best oars
+of Venice. His descendant lived and toiled, like others of his
+condition, and we will here dismiss him, by saying, that he so far
+inherited the native qualities of his ancestor, that he forbore to
+appear, a few hours later, in the crowd, which curiosity and vengeance
+drew into the Piazzetta.
+
+Father Anselmo took boat to return to the canals, and when he landed at
+the quay of the smaller square it was with the hope that he would now be
+permitted to seek those of whose fate he was still ignorant, but in whom
+he felt so deep an interest. Not so, however. The individual who had
+addressed him in the cathedral was, apparently, in waiting, and knowing
+the uselessness as well as the danger of remonstrance, where the state
+was concerned, the Carmelite permitted himself to be conducted whither
+his guide pleased. They took a devious route, but it led them to the
+public prisons. Here the priest was shown into the keeper's apartment,
+where he was desired to wait a summons from his companion.
+
+Our business now leads us to the cell of Jacopo. On quitting the
+presence of the Three, he had been remanded to his gloomy room, where he
+passed the night like others similarly situated. With the appearance of
+the dawn the Bravo had been led before those who ostensibly discharged
+the duties of his judges. We say ostensibly, for justice never yet was
+pure under a system in which the governors have an interest in the least
+separated from that of the governed; for in all cases which involve the
+ascendency of the existing authorities, the instinct of
+self-preservation is as certain to bias their decision as that of life
+is to cause man to shun danger. If such is the fact in countries of
+milder sway, the reader will easily believe in its existence in a state
+like that of Venice. As may have been anticipated, those who sat in
+judgment on Jacopo had their instructions, and the trial that he
+sustained was rather a concession to appearances than a homage to the
+laws. All the records were duly made, witnesses were examined, or said
+to be examined, and care was had to spread the rumor in the city that
+the tribunals were at length occupied in deciding on the case of the
+extraordinary man who had so long been permitted to exercise his bloody
+profession with impunity even in the centre of the canals. During the
+morning the credulous tradesmen were much engaged in recounting to each
+other the different flagrant deeds that, in the course of the last three
+or four years, had been imputed to his hand. One spoke of the body of a
+stranger that had been found near the gaming-houses frequented by those
+who visited Venice. Another recalled the fate of the young noble who had
+fallen by the assassin's blow even on the Rialto, and another went into
+the details of a murder which had deprived a mother of her only son, and
+the daughter of a patrician of her love. In this manner, as one after
+another contributed to the list, a little group, assembled on the quay,
+enumerated no less than five-and-twenty lives which were believed to
+have been taken by the hand of Jacopo, without including the vindictive
+and useless assassination of him whose funeral rites had just been
+celebrated. Happily, perhaps, for his peace of mind, the subject of all
+these rumors and of the maledictions which they drew upon his head, knew
+nothing of either. Before his judges he had made no defence whatever,
+firmly refusing to answer their interrogatories.
+
+"Ye know what I have done, Messires," he said haughtily. "And what I
+have not done, ye know. As for yourselves, look to your own interests."
+
+When again in his cell he demanded food, and ate tranquilly, though with
+moderation. Every instrument which could possibly be used against his
+life was then removed, his irons were finally and carefully examined,
+and he was left to his thoughts. It was in this situation that the
+prisoner heard the approach of footsteps to his cell. The bolts turned,
+and the door opened. The form of a priest appeared between him and the
+day. The latter, however, held a lamp, which, as the cell was again shut
+and secured, he placed on the low shelf that held the jug and loaf of
+the prisoner.
+
+Jacopo received his visitor calmly, but with the deep respect of one who
+reverenced his body office. He arose, crossed himself, and advanced as
+far as the chains permitted, to do him honor.
+
+"Thou art welcome, father," he said; "in cutting me off from earth, the
+Council, I see, does not wish to cut me off from God."
+
+"That would exceed their power, son. He who died for them, shed his
+blood for thee, if thou wilt not reject his grace. But--Heaven knows I
+say it with reluctance! thou art not to think that one of thy sins,
+Jacopo, can have hope without deep and heartfelt repentance!"
+
+"Father, have any?"
+
+The Carmelite started, for the point of the question, and the tranquil
+tones of the speaker, had a strange effect in such an interview.
+
+"Thou art not what I had supposed thee, Jacopo!" he answered. "Thy mind
+is not altogether obscured in darkness, and thy crimes have been
+committed against the consciousness of their enormity."
+
+"I fear this is true, reverend monk."
+
+"Thou must feel their weight in the poignancy of grief--in the--" Father
+Anselmo stopped, for a sob at that moment apprised them that they were
+not alone. Moving aside, in a little alarm, the action discovered the
+figure of the shrinking Gelsomina, who had entered the cell, favored by
+the keepers, and concealed by the robes of the Carmelite. Jacopo groaned
+when he beheld her form, and turning away, he leaned against the wall.
+
+"Daughter, why art thou here--and who art thou?" demanded the monk.
+
+"'Tis the child of the principal keeper," said Jacopo, perceiving that
+she was unable to answer, "one known to me, in my frequent adventures in
+this prison."
+
+The eye of Father Anselmo wandered from one to the other. At first its
+expression was severe, and then, as it saw each countenance in turn, it
+became less unkind, until it softened at the exhibition of their mutual
+agony.
+
+"This comes of human passions!" he said, in a tone between consolation
+and reproof. "Such are ever the fruits of crime."
+
+"Father," said Jacopo, with earnestness, "I may deserve the word; but
+the angels in Heaven are scarce purer than this weeping girl!"
+
+"I rejoice to hear it. I will believe thee, unfortunate man, and glad am
+I that thy soul is relieved from the sin of having corrupted one so
+youthful."
+
+The bosom of the prisoner heaved, while Gelsomina shuddered.
+
+"Why hast thou yielded to the weakness of nature, and entered the cell?"
+asked the good Carmelite, endeavoring to throw into his eye a reproof,
+that the pathos and kindness of his tones contradicted. "Didst thou know
+the character of the man thou loved?"
+
+"Immaculate Maria!" exclaimed the girl--"no--no--no--no!"
+
+"And now that thou hast learned the truth, surely thou art no longer the
+victim of wayward fancies!"
+
+The gaze of Gelsomina was bewildered, but anguish prevailed over all
+other expression. She bowed her head, partly in shame, but more in
+sorrow, without answering.
+
+"I know not, children, what end this interview can answer," continued
+the monk. "I am sent hither to receive the last confession of a Bravo,
+and surely, one who has so much cause to condemn the deception he has
+practised, would not wish to hear the details of such a life?"
+
+"No--no--no--" murmured Gelsomina again, enforcing her words with a wild
+gesture of the hand.
+
+"It is better, father, that she should believe me all that her fancy can
+imagine as monstrous," said Jacopo, in a thick voice: "she will then
+learn to hate my memory."
+
+Gelsomina did not speak, but the negative gesture was repeated
+franticly.
+
+"The heart of the poor child hath been sorely touched," said the
+Carmelite, with concern. "We must not treat so tender a flower rudely.
+Hearken to me, daughter, and consult thy reason, more than thy
+weakness."
+
+"Question her not, father; let her curse me, and depart."
+
+"Carlo!" shrieked Gelsomina.
+
+A long pause succeeded. The monk perceived that human passion was
+superior to his art, and that the case must be left to time; while the
+prisoner maintained within himself a struggle more fierce than any which
+it had yet been his fate to endure. The lingering desires of the world
+conquered, and he broke silence.
+
+"Father," he said, advancing to the length of his chain, and speaking
+both solemnly and with dignity, "I had hoped--I had prayed that this
+unhappy but innocent creature might have turned from her own weakness
+with loathing, when she came to know that the man she loved was a Bravo.
+But I did injustice to the heart of woman! Tell me, Gelsomina, and as
+thou valuest thy salvation deceive me not--canst thou look at me without
+horror?"
+
+Gelsomina trembled, but she raised her eyes, and smiled on him as the
+weeping infant returns the earnest and tender regard of its mother. The
+effect of that glance on Jacopo was so powerful that his sinewy frame
+shook, until the wondering Carmelite heard the clanking of his chains.
+
+"'Tis enough," he said, struggling to command himself, "Gelsomina, thou
+shalt hear my confession. Thou hast long been mistress of one great
+secret, none other shall be hid from thee."
+
+"Antonio!" gasped the girl. "Carlo! Carlo! what had that aged fisherman
+done that thy hand should seek his life?"
+
+"Antonio!" echoed the monk; "dost thou stand charged with his death, my
+son?"
+
+"It is the crime for which I am condemned to die."
+
+The Carmelite sank upon the stool of the prisoner, and sat motionless,
+looking with an eye of horror from the countenance of the unmoved Jacopo
+to that of his trembling companion. The truth began to dawn upon him,
+though his mind was still enveloped in the web of Venetian mystery.
+
+"Here is some horrible mistake!" he whispered. "I will hasten to thy
+judges and undeceive them."
+
+The prisoner smiled calmly, as he reached out a hand to arrest the
+zealous movement of the simple Carmelite.
+
+"'Twill be useless," he said; "it is the pleasure of the Three that I
+should suffer for old Antonio's death."
+
+"Then wilt thou die unjustly! I am a witness that he fell by other
+hands."
+
+"Father!" shrieked Gelsomina, "oh! repeat the words; say that Carlo
+could not do the cruel deed!"
+
+"Of that murder, at least, he is innocent."
+
+"Gelsomina!" said Jacopo, struggling to stretch forth his arms towards
+her, and yielding to a full heart, "and of every other!"
+
+A cry of wild delight burst from the lips of the girl, who in the next
+instant lay senseless on his bosom.
+
+We draw the veil before the scene that followed. Near an hour must pass
+before we can again remove it. The cell then exhibited a group in its
+centre, over which the lamp shed its feeble light, marking the
+countenances of the different personages with strong tints and deep
+shadows, in a manner to bring forth all the force of Italian expression.
+The Carmelite was seated on the stool, while Jacopo and Gelsomina knelt
+beside him. The former of the two last was speaking earnestly, while his
+auditors caught each syllable that issued from his lips, as if interest
+in his innocence were still stronger than curiosity.
+
+"I have told you, father," he continued, "that a false accusation of
+having wronged the customs brought my unhappy parent under the Senate's
+displeasure, and that he was many years an innocent inhabitant of one of
+these accursed cells, while we believed him in exile among the islands.
+At length we succeeded in getting such proof before the Council, as
+ought to have satisfied the patricians of their own injustice. I am
+afraid that when men pretend that the chosen of the earth exercise
+authority, they are not ready to admit their errors, for it would be
+proof against the merit of their system. The Council delayed a weary
+time to do us justice--so long, that my poor mother sank under her
+sufferings. My sister, a girl of Gelsomina's years, followed her
+soon--for the only reason given by the state, when pressed for proof,
+was the suspicion that one who sought her love was guilty of the crime
+for which my unhappy father perished."
+
+"And did they refuse to repair their injustice?" exclaimed the
+Carmelite.
+
+"They could not do it, father, without publishing their fallibility. The
+credit of certain great patricians was concerned, and I fear there is a
+morality in these Councils which separates the deed of the man from
+those of the senators, putting policy before justice."
+
+"This may be true, son; for when a community is grounded on false
+principles, its interests must, of necessity, be maintained by sophisms.
+God will view this act with a different eye!"
+
+"Else would the world be hopeless, father! After years of prayers and
+interest, I was, under a solemn oath of secresy, admitted to my father's
+cell. There was happiness in being able to administer to his wants--in
+hearing his voice--in kneeling for his blessing. Gelsomina was then a
+child approaching womanhood. I knew not their motive, though after
+thoughts left it no secret, and I was permitted to see my father through
+her means. When they believed that I was sufficiently caught in their
+toils, I was led into that fatal error which has destroyed my hopes, and
+brought me to this condition."
+
+"Thou hast affirmed thy innocence, my son!"
+
+"Innocent of shedding blood, father, but not of lending myself to their
+artifices. I will not weary you, holy monk, with the history of the
+means by which they worked upon my nature. I was sworn to serve the
+state, as its secret agent, for a certain time. The reward was to be my
+father's freedom. Had they taken me in the world, and in my senses,
+their arts would not have triumphed; but a daily witness of the
+sufferings of him who had given me life, and who was now all that was
+left me in the world, they were too strong for my weakness, They
+whispered to me of racks and wheels, and I was shown paintings of dying
+martyrs, that I might understand the agony they could inflict.
+Assassinations were frequent, and called for the care of the police; in
+short, father"--Jacopo hid his face in the dress of Gelsomina--"I
+consented to let them circulate such tales as might draw the eye of the
+public on me. I need not add, that he who lends himself to his own
+infamy will soon attain his object."
+
+"With what end was this miserable falsehood invented?"
+
+"Father, I was applied to as a public Bravo, and my reports, in more
+ways than one, answered their designs, That I saved some lives is at
+least a consolation for the error or crime into which I fell!"
+
+"I understand thee, Jacopo. I have heard that Venice did not hesitate to
+use the ardent and brave in this manner. Holy St. Mark! can deceit like
+this be practised under the sanction of thy blessed name!"
+
+"Father, it is, and more. I had other duties connected with the
+interests of the Republic, and of course I was practised in their
+discharge. The citizens marvelled that one like me should go at large,
+while the vindictive and revengeful took the circumstance as a proof of
+address. When rumor grew too strong for appearances, the Three took
+measures to direct it to other things; and when it grew too faint for
+their wishes it was fanned. In short, for three long and bitter years
+did I pass the life of the damned--sustained only by the hope of
+liberating my father, and cheered by the love of this innocent!"
+
+"Poor Jacopo, thou art to be pitied! I will remember thee in my
+prayers."
+
+"And thou, Gelsomina?"
+
+The keeper's daughter did not answer. Her ears had drunk in each
+syllable that fell from his lips, and now that the whole truth began to
+dawn on her mind, there was a bright radiance in her eye that appeared
+almost supernatural to those who witnessed it.
+
+"If I have failed in convincing thee, Gelsomina," continued Jacopo,
+"that I am not the wretch I seemed, would that I had been dumb!"
+
+She stretched a hand towards him, and dropping her head on his bosom,
+wept.
+
+"I see all thy temptations, poor Carlo," she said, softly; "I know how
+strong was thy love for thy father."
+
+"Dost thou forgive me, dearest Gelsomina, for the deception on thy
+innocence?"
+
+"There was no deception; I believed thee a son ready to die for his
+father, and I find thee what I thought thee."
+
+The good Carmelite regarded this scene with eyes of interest and
+indulgence; tears wetted his cheeks.
+
+"Thy affection for each other, children," he said, "is such as angels
+might indulge. Has thy intercourse been of long date?"
+
+"It has lasted years, father."
+
+"And thou, daughter, hast been with Jacopo in the cell of his parent?"
+
+"I was his constant guide on these holy errands, father."
+
+The monk mused deeply. After a silence of several minutes he proceeded
+to the duties of his holy office. Receiving the spiritual confession of
+the prisoner he gave the absolution with a fervor which proved how
+deeply his sympathies were enlisted in behalf of the youthful pair. This
+duty done, he gave Gelsomina his hand, and there was a mild confidence
+in his countenance as he took leave of Jacopo.
+
+"We quit thee," he said; "but be of heart, son. I cannot think that even
+Venice will be deaf to a tale like thine! Trust first to thy God, and
+believe that neither this faithful girl nor I will abandon thee without
+an effort."
+
+Jacopo received this assurance like one accustomed to exist in extreme
+jeopardy. The smile which accompanied his own adieux had in it as much
+of incredulity as of melancholy. It was, however, full of the joy of a
+lightened heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                    "Your heart
+  is free, and quick with virtuous wrath to accuse
+  Appearances; and views a criminal
+  In innocence's shadow."
+                                     WERNER.
+
+
+The Carmelite and Gelsomina found the keepers in waiting, and when they
+quitted the cell its door was secured for the night. As they had no
+further concerns with the jailors they passed on unquestioned. But when
+the end of the corridor which led towards the apartments of the keeper
+was reached, the monk stopped.
+
+"Art thou equal to a great effort, in order that the innocent shall not
+die?" he suddenly asked, though with a solemnity that denoted the
+influence of a high and absorbing motive.
+
+"Father!"
+
+"I would know if thy love for the youth can sustain thee in a trying
+scene; for without this effort he will surely perish!"
+
+"I would die to save Jacopo a pang!"
+
+"Deceive not thyself, daughter! Canst thou forget thy habits; overstep
+the diffidence of thy years and condition; stand and speak fearlessly in
+the presence of the great and dreaded?"
+
+"Reverend Carmelite, I speak daily without fear, though not without awe,
+to one more to be dreaded than any in Venice."
+
+The monk looked in admiration at the gentle being, whose countenance
+was glowing with the mild resolution of innocence and affection, and he
+motioned for her to follow.
+
+"We will go, then, before the proudest and the most fearful of earth,
+should there be occasion," he resumed. "We will do our duty to both
+parties, to the oppressor and the oppressed, that the sin of omission
+lie not on our souls."
+
+Father Anselmo, without further explanation, led the obedient girl into
+that part of the palace which was known to be appropriated to the
+private uses of the titular head of the Republic.
+
+The jealousy of the Venetian patricians on the subject of their Doge is
+matter of history. He was, by situation, a puppet in the hands of the
+nobles, who only tolerated his existence, because the theory of their
+government required a seeming agent in the imposing ceremonies that
+formed part of their specious system, and in their intercourse with
+other states. He dwelt in his palace like the queen-bee in the hive,
+pampered and honored to the eye, but in truth devoted to the objects of
+those who alone possess the power to injure, and perhaps we might add,
+like the insect named, known for consuming more than a usual portion of
+the fruits of the common industry.
+
+Father Anselmo was indebted to his own decision, and to the confidence
+of his manner, for reaching the private apartments of a prince, thus
+secluded and watched. He was permitted to pass by various sentinels, who
+imagined, from his holy calling and calm step, that he was some friar
+employed in his usual and privileged office. By this easy, quiet method
+did the Carmelite and his companion penetrate to the very ante-chamber
+of the sovereign, a spot that thousands had been defeated in attempting
+to reach, by means more elaborate.
+
+There were merely two or three drowsy inferior officers of the household
+in waiting. One arose quickly at the unexpected appearance of these
+unknown visitors, expressing, by the surprise and the confusion of his
+eye, the wonder into which he was thrown by so unlooked-for guests.
+
+"His Highness waits for us, I fear?" simply observed Father Anselmo, who
+had known how to quiet his concern, in a look of passive courtesy.
+
+"Santa Maria! holy father, you should know best, but----"
+
+"We will not lose more time in idle words, son, when there has already
+been this delay--show us to the closet of his Highness."
+
+"It is forbidden to usher any, unannounced, into the presence----"
+
+"Thou seest this is not an ordinary visit. Go, inform the Doge that the
+Carmelite he expects, and the youthful maiden, in whom his princely
+bosom feels so parental an interest, await his pleasure."
+
+"His Highness has then commanded----"
+
+"Tell him, moreover, that time presses; for the hour is near when
+innocence is condemned to suffer."
+
+The usher was deceived by the gravity and assurance of the monk. He
+hesitated, and then throwing open a door, he showed the visitors into an
+inner room, where he requested them to await his return. After this, he
+went on the desired commission to the closet of his master.
+
+It has already been shown that the reigning Doge, if such a title can be
+used of a prince who was merely a tool of the aristocracy, was a man
+advanced in years. He had thrown aside the cares of the day, and, in the
+retirement of his privacy, was endeavoring to indulge those human
+sympathies that had so little play in the ordinary duties of his
+factitious condition, by holding intercourse with the mind of one of the
+classics of his country. His state was laid aside for lighter ease and
+personal freedom. The monk could not have chosen a happier moment for
+his object, since the man was undefended by the usual appliances of his
+rank, and he was softened by communion with one who had known how to
+mould and temper the feelings of his readers at will. So entire was the
+abstraction of the Doge, at the moment, that the usher entered unheeded,
+and had stood in respectful attention to his sovereign's pleasure, near
+a minute before he was seen.
+
+"What would'st thou, Marco?" demanded the prince, when his eye rose from
+the page.
+
+"Signore," returned the officer, using the familiar manner in which
+those nearest to the persons of princes are permitted to indulge--"here
+are the reverend Carmelite, and the young girl, in waiting."
+
+"How sayest thou? a Carmelite, and a girl!"
+
+"Signore, the same. Those whom your Highness expects."
+
+"What bold pretence is this!"
+
+"Signore, I do but repeat the words of the monk. 'Tell his Highness,'
+said the father, 'that the Carmelite he wishes to see, and the young
+girl in whose happiness his princely bosom feels so parental an
+interest, await his pleasure.'"
+
+There passed a glow, in which indignation was brighter than shame, over
+the wasted cheek of the old prince, and his eye kindled.
+
+"And this to me--even in my palace!"
+
+"Pardon, Signore. This is no shameless priest, like so many that
+disgrace the tonsure. Both monk and girl have innocent and harmless
+looks, and I do suspect your Highness may have forgotten."
+
+The bright spots disappeared from the prince's cheeks and his eye
+regained its paternal expression. But age, and experience in his
+delicate duties, had taught the Doge of Venice caution. He well knew
+that memory had not failed him, and he at once saw that a hidden meaning
+lay concealed beneath an application so unusual. There might be a device
+of his enemies, who were numerous and active, or, in truth, there might
+be some justifiable motive to warrant the applicant in resorting to a
+measure so hardy.
+
+"Did the Carmelite say more, good Marco?" he asked, after deep
+reflection.
+
+"Signore, he said there was great urgency, as the hour was near when the
+innocent might suffer. I doubt not that he comes with a petition in
+behalf of some young indiscreet, for there are said to be several young
+nobles arrested for their follies in the carnival. The female may be a
+sister disguised."
+
+"Bid one of thy companions come hither; and when I touch my bell, do
+thou usher these visitors to my presence."
+
+The attendant withdrew, taking care to pass into the antechamber by
+doors that rendered it unnecessary to show himself too soon to those who
+expected his return. The second usher quickly made his appearance, and
+was immediately dispatched in quest of one of the Three, who was
+occupied with important papers in an adjoining closet. The senator was
+not slow to obey the summons, for he appeared there as a friend of the
+prince, having been admitted publicly, and with the customary honors.
+
+"Here are visitors of an unusual character, Signore," said the Doge,
+rising to receive him whom he had summoned in precaution to himself,
+"and I would have a witness of their requests."
+
+"Your Highness does well to make us of the Senate share your labors;
+though if any mistaken opinion of the necessity has led you to conceive
+it important to call a councillor each time a guest enters the
+palace----"
+
+"It is well, Signore," mildly interrupted the prince, touching the bell.
+"I hope my importunity has not deranged you. But here come those I
+expect."
+
+Father Anselmo and Gelsomina entered the closet together. The first
+glance convinced the Doge that he received strangers. He exchanged looks
+with the member of the secret council, and each saw in the other's eye
+that the surprise was mutual.
+
+When fairly in the presence, the Carmelite threw back his cowl, entirely
+exposing the whole of his ascetic features; while Gelsomina, awed by the
+rank of him who received them, shrank abashed, partly concealed by his
+robes.
+
+"What means this visit?" demanded the prince, whose finger pointed to
+the shrinking form of the girl, while his eye rested steadily on that of
+the monk, "and that unusual companion? Neither the hour, nor the mode,
+is customary."
+
+Father Anselmo stood before the Venetian sovereign for the first time.
+Accustomed, like all of that region, and more especially in that age, to
+calculate his chances of success warily, before venturing to disburden
+his mind, the monk fastened a penetrating look on his interrogator.
+
+"Illustrious prince," he said, "we come petitioners for justice. They
+who are thus commissioned had need be bold, lest they do their own
+character, and their righteous office, discredit."
+
+"Justice is the glory of St. Mark, and the happiness of his subjects.
+Thy course, father, is not according to established rules and wholesome
+restraints, but it may have its apology--name thy errand."
+
+"There is one in the cells, condemned of the public tribunals, and he
+must die with the return of day, unless your princely authority
+interfere to save him."
+
+"One condemned of the tribunals may merit his fate."
+
+"I am the ghostly adviser of the unhappy youth, and in the execution of
+my sacred office I have learned that he is innocent."
+
+"Didst thou say, condemned of the common judges-father?"
+
+"Sentenced to die, highness, by a decree of the criminal tribunals."
+
+The prince appeared relieved. So long as the affair had been public,
+there was at least reason to believe he might indulge his love of the
+species, by listening further, without offence to the tortuous policy of
+the state. Glancing his eye at the motionless inquisitor, as if to seek
+approbation, he advanced a step nearer to the Carmelite, with increasing
+interest in the application.
+
+"By what authority, reverend priest, dost thou impeach the decision of
+the judges?" he demanded.
+
+"Signore, as I have just said, in virtue of knowledge gained in the
+exercise of my holy office. He has laid bare his soul to me, as one
+whose feet were in the grave; and, though offending, like all born of
+woman, towards his God, he is guiltless as respects the state."
+
+"Thinkest thou, father, that the law would ever reach its victim, were
+we to listen only to self-accusations? I am old, monk, and have long
+worn that troublesome cap," pointing to the horned bonnet, which lay
+near his hand, the symbol of his state, "and in my day, I do not recall
+the criminal that has not fancied himself the victim of untoward
+circumstances."
+
+"That men apply this treacherous solace to their consciences, one of my
+vocation has not to learn. Our chief task is to show the delusion of
+those, who, while condemning their own sins by words of confession and
+self-abasement, make a merit of humility; but, Doge of Venice, there is
+still a virtue in the sacred rite I have this evening been required to
+perform, which can overcome the mounting of the most exalted spirit.
+Many attempt to deceive themselves at the confessional, while, by the
+power of God, few succeed."
+
+"Praised be the blessed mother and the incarnate son, that it is so!"
+returned the prince, struck by the mild faith of the monk, and crossing
+himself reverently. "Father, thou hast forgotten to name the condemned?"
+
+"It is a certain Jacopo Frontoni;--a reputed bravo," The start, the
+changing color, and the glance of the prince of Venice, were full of
+natural surprise.
+
+"Callest thou the bloodiest stiletto that ever disgraced the city, the
+weapon of a reputed bravo? The arts of the monster have prevailed over
+thy experience, monk!--the true confession of such a wretch would be but
+a history of bloody and revolting crimes."
+
+"I entered his cell with this opinion, but I left it convinced that the
+public sentiment has done him wrong. If your Highness will deign hear
+his tale, you will think him a fit subject for your pity, rather than
+for punishment."
+
+"Of all the criminals of my reign, this is the last in whose favor I
+could have imagined there was aught to be said!--Speak freely,
+Carmelite; for curiosity is as strong as wonder."
+
+So truly did the Doge give utterance to his feelings, that he
+momentarily forgot the presence of the inquisitor, whose countenance
+might have shown him that the subject was getting to be grave.
+
+The monk ejaculated a thanksgiving, for it was not always easy, in that
+city of mystery, to bring truth to the ears of the great. When men live
+under a system of duplicity, more or less of the quality gets interwoven
+with the habits of the most ingenuous, although they may remain
+themselves unconscious of the taint. Thus Father Anselmo, as he
+proceeded with the desired explanation, touched more tenderly on the
+practices of the state, and used more of reserve in alluding to those
+usages and opinions, which one of his holy calling and honest nature,
+under other circumstances, would have fearlessly condemned.
+
+"It may not be known to one of your high condition, sovereign prince,"
+resumed the Carmelite, "that an humble but laborious mechanic of this
+city, a certain Francesco Frontoni, was long since condemned for frauds
+against the Republic's revenue. This is a crime St. Mark never fails to
+visit with his heavy displeasure, for when men place the goods of the
+world before all other considerations, they mistake the objects which
+have brought them together in social union."
+
+"Father, thou wert speaking of a certain Francesco Frontoni?"
+
+"Highness, such was his name. The unhappy man had taken into his
+confidence and friendship, one who, pretending to his daughter's love,
+might appear to be the master of his secrets. When this false suitor
+stood on the verge of detection, for offences against the customs, he
+laid a snare of deception, which, while he was permitted to escape, drew
+the anger of the state on his too confiding friend. Francesco was
+condemned to the cells, until he might reveal facts which never had an
+existence."
+
+"This is a hard fate, reverend friar, could it be but proved!"
+
+"'Tis the evil of secresy and intrigue, great Doge, in managing the
+common interests!--"
+
+"Hast thou more of this Francesco, monk?"
+
+"His history is short, Signore; for at the age when most men are active
+in looking to their welfare, he was pining in a prison."
+
+"I remember to have heard of some such accusation; but it occurred in
+the reign of the last Doge, did it not, father?"
+
+"And he has endured to near the close of the reign of this, Highness!"
+
+"How? The Senate, when apprised of the error of its judgment, was not
+slow to repair the wrong!"
+
+The monk regarded the prince earnestly, as if he would make certain
+whether the surprise he witnessed was not a piece of consummate acting.
+He felt convinced that the affair was one of that class of acts, which,
+however oppressive, unjust, and destructive of personal happiness, had
+not sufficient importance to come before them, who govern under systems
+which care more for their own preservation than for the good of the
+ruled. "Signor Doge," he said, "the state is discreet in matters that
+touch its own reputation. There are reasons that I shall not presume to
+examine, why the cell of poor Francesco was kept closed, long after the
+death and confession of his accuser left his innocence beyond dispute."
+
+The prince mused, and then he bethought him to consult the countenance
+of his companion. The marble of the pilaster, against which he leaned,
+was not more cold and unmoved than the face of the inquisitor. The man
+had learned to smother every natural impulse in the assumed and
+factitious duties of his office.
+
+"And what has this case of Francesco to do with the execution of the
+Bravo?" demanded the Doge, after a pause, in which he had in vain
+struggled to assume the indifference of his counsellor.
+
+"That I shall leave this prison-keeper's daughter to explain. Stand
+forth, child, and relate what you know, remembering, if you speak before
+the Prince of Venice, that you also speak before the King of Heaven!"
+
+Gelsomina trembled, for one of her habits, however supported by her
+motives, could not overcome a nature so retiring without a struggle. But
+faithful to her promise, and sustained by her affection for the
+condemned, she advanced a step, and stood no longer concealed by the
+robes of the Carmelite.
+
+"Thou art the daughter of the prison-keeper?" asked the prince mildly,
+though surprise was strongly painted in his eye.
+
+"Highness, we are poor, and we are unfortunate: we serve the state for
+bread."
+
+"Ye serve a noble master, child. Dost thou know aught of this Bravo?"
+
+"Dread sovereign, they that call him thus know not his heart! One more
+true to his friends, more faithful to his word, or more suppliant with
+the saints, than Jacopo Frontoni, is not in Venice!"
+
+"This is a character which art might appropriate, even to a bravo. But
+we waste the moments. What have these Frontoni in common?"
+
+"Highness, they are father and son. When Jacopo came to be of an age to
+understand the misfortunes of his family, he wearied the senators with
+applications in his father's behalf, until they commanded the door of
+the cell to be secretly opened to a child so pious. I well know, great
+prince, that they who rule cannot have all-seeing eyes, else could this
+wrong never have happened. But Francesco wasted years in cells, chill
+and damp in winter, and scorching in summer, before the falsehood of the
+accusation was known. Then, as some relief to sufferings so little
+merited, Jacopo was admitted."
+
+"With what object, girl?"
+
+"Highness, was it not in pity? They promised too, that in good time the
+service of the son should buy the father's liberty. The patricians were
+slow to be convinced, and they made terms with poor Jacopo, who agreed
+to undergo a hard service that his father might breathe free air before
+he died."
+
+"Thou dealest in enigmas."
+
+"I am little used, great Doge, to speak in such a presence, or on such
+subjects. But this I know, that for three weary years hath Jacopo been
+admitted to his father's cell, and that those up above consented to the
+visits, else would my father have denied them. I was his companion in
+the holy act, and will call the blessed Maria and the saints------"
+
+"Girl, didst thou know him for a bravo?"
+
+"Oh! Highness, no. To me he seemed a dutiful child, fearing God and
+honoring his parent. I hope never to feel another pang, like that which
+chilled my heart when they said, he I had known as the kind Carlo was
+hunted in Venice as the abhorred Jacopo! But it is passed, the Mother of
+God be praised!"
+
+"Thou art betrothed to this condemned man?"
+
+The color did not deepen on the cheek of Gelsomina at this abrupt
+question, for the tie between her and Jacopo had become too sacred for
+the ordinary weaknesses of her sex.
+
+"Highness, yes; we were to be married, should it have pleased God, and
+those great senators who have so much influence over the happiness of
+the poor, to permit it."
+
+"And thou art still willing, knowing the man, to pledge thy vows to one
+like Jacopo?"
+
+"It is because I do know him to be as he is, that I most reverence him,
+great Doge. He has sold his time and his good name to the state, in
+order to save his imprisoned father, and in that I see nothing to
+frighten one he loves."
+
+"This affair needs explanation, Carmelite. The girl has a heated fancy,
+and she renders that obscure she should explain."
+
+"Illustrious prince, she would say that the Republic was content to
+grant the son the indulgence of visiting the captive, with some
+encouragement of his release, on condition that the youth might serve
+the police by bearing a bravo's reputation."
+
+"And for this incredible tale, father, you have the word of a condemned,
+criminal!"
+
+"With the near view of death before his eyes. There are means of
+rendering truth evident, familiar to those who are often near the dying
+penitents, that are unknown to those of the world. In any case, Signore,
+the matter is worthy of investigation."
+
+"In that thou art right. Is the hour named for the execution?"
+
+"With the morning light, prince."
+
+"And the father?"
+
+"Is dead."
+
+"A prisoner, Carmelite!"
+
+"A prisoner, Prince of Venice."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"Hast thou heard of the death of one named Antonio?"
+
+"Signore, yes. By the sacred nature of my holy office, do I affirm that
+of this crime is Jacopo innocent! I shrived the fisherman."
+
+The Doge turned away, for the truth began to dawn upon him, and the
+flush which glowed on his aged cheek contained a confession that might
+not be observed by every eye. He sought the glance of his companion, but
+his own expression of human feeling was met by the disciplined features
+of the other, as light is coldly repelled from polished stone.
+
+"Highness!" added a tremulous voice.
+
+"What would'st thou, child?"
+
+"There is a God for the Republic, as well as for the gondolier! Your
+Highness will turn this great crime from Venice?"
+
+"Thou art of plain speech, girl!"
+
+"The danger of Carlo has made me bold. You are much beloved by the
+people, and none speak of you, that they do not speak of your goodness,
+and of your desire to serve the poor. You are the root of a rich and
+happy family, and you will not--nay, you cannot if you would, think it a
+crime for a son to devote all to a father. You are our father, and we
+have a right to come to you, even for mercy--but, Highness, I ask only
+for justice."
+
+"Justice is the motto of Venice."
+
+"They who live in the high favor of Providence do not always know what
+the unhappy undergo. It has pleased God to afflict my own poor mother,
+who has griefs that, but for her patience and Christian faith, would
+have been hard to bear. The little care I had it in my power to show,
+first caught Jacopo's eye, for his heart was then full of the duty of
+the child. Would your Highness consent to see poor Carlo, or to command
+him to be brought hither, his simple tale would give the lie to every
+foul slander they have dared to say against him."
+
+"It is unnecessary--it is unnecessary. Thy faith in his innocence, girl,
+is more eloquent than any words of his can prove."
+
+A gleam of joy irradiated the face of Gelsomina, who turned eagerly to
+the listening monk, as she continued--
+
+"His Highness listens," she said, "and we shall prevail! Father, they
+menace in Venice, and alarm the timid, but they will never do the deed
+we feared. Is not the God of Jacopo my God, and your God?--the God of
+the senate and of the Doge?--of the Council and of the Republic? I would
+the secret members of the Three could have seen poor Jacopo, as I have
+seen him, coming from his toil, weary with labor and heart-broken with
+delay, enter the winter or the summer cell--chilling or scorching as the
+season might be--struggling to be cheerful, that the falsely accused
+might not feel a greater weight of misery. Oh! venerable and kind
+prince, you little know the burden that the feeble are often made to
+carry, for to you life has been sunshine; but there are millions who are
+condemned to do that they loathe, that they may not do that they dread."
+
+"Child, thou tell'st me nothing new."
+
+"Except in convincing you, Highness, that Jacopo is not the monster they
+would have him. I do not know the secret reasons of the councils for
+wishing the youth to lend himself to a deception that had nigh proved so
+fatal; but all is explained, we have naught now to fear. Come, father;
+we will leave the good and just Doge to go to rest, as suits his years,
+and we will return to gladden the heart of Jacopo with our success, and
+thank the blessed Maria for her favor."
+
+"Stay!" exclaimed the half-stifled old man. "Is this true that thou
+tellest me, girl:--Father, can it be so!"
+
+"Signore, I have said all that truth and my conscience have prompted."
+
+The prince seemed bewildered, turning his look from the motionless girl
+to the equally immovable member of the Three.
+
+"Come hither, child," he said, his voice trembling as he spoke. "Come
+hither, that I may bless thee." Gelsomina sprang forward, and knelt at
+the feet of her sovereign. Father Anselmo never uttered a clearer or
+more fervent benediction than that which fell from the lips of the
+Prince of Venice. He raised the daughter of the prison-keeper, and
+motioned for both his visitors to withdraw. Gelsomina willingly
+complied, for her heart was already in the cell of Jacopo, in the
+eagerness to communicate her success; but the Carmelite lingered to cast
+a look behind, like one better acquainted with the effects of worldly
+policy, when connected with the interests of those who pervert
+governments to the advantage of the privileged. As he passed through the
+door, however, he felt his hopes revive, for he saw the aged prince,
+unable any longer to suppress his feelings, hastening towards his still
+silent companion, with both hands extended, eyes moistening with tears,
+and a look that betrayed the emotions of one anxious to find relief in
+human sympathies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+      "On--on--
+  It Is our knell, or that of Venice.--On."
+                              MARINO FALIERO.
+
+
+Another morning called the Venetians to their affairs. Agents of the
+police had been active in preparing the public mind, and as the sun rose
+above the narrow sea, the squares began to fill. There were present the
+curious citizen in his, cloak and cap, bare-legged laborers in wondering
+awe, the circumspect Hebrew in his gaberdine and beard, masked
+gentlemen, and many an attentive stranger from among the thousands who
+still frequented that declining mart. It was rumored that an act of
+retributive justice was about to take place, for the peace of the town
+and the protection of the citizen. In short, curiosity, idleness, and
+revenge, with all the usual train of human feelings, had drawn together
+a multitude eager to witness the agonies of a fellow-creature.
+
+The Dalmatians were drawn up near the sea, in a manner to inclose the
+two granite columns of the Piazzetta. Their grave and disciplined faces
+fronted inwards towards the African pillars, those well known landmarks
+of death. A few grim warriors of higher rank paced the flags before the
+troops, while a dense crowd filled the exterior space. By special favor
+more than a hundred fishermen were grouped within the armed men,
+witnesses that their class had revenge. Between the lofty pedestals of
+St. Theodore and the winged lion lay the block and the axe, the basket
+and the saw-dust; the usual accompaniments of justice in that day. By
+their side stood the executioner.
+
+At length a movement in the living mass drew every eye towards the gate
+of the palace. A murmur arose, the multitude wavered, and a small body
+of the Sbirri came into view. Their steps were swift like the march of
+destiny. The Dalmatians opened to receive these ministers of fate into
+their bosom, and closing their ranks again, appeared to preclude the
+world with its hopes from the condemned. On reaching the block between
+the columns the Sbirri fell off in files, waiting at a little distance,
+while Jacopo was left before the engines of death attended by his
+ghostly counsellor, the Carmelite. The action left them open to the gaze
+of the throng.
+
+Father Anselmo was in the usual attire of a bare-footed friar of his
+order. The cowl of the holy man was thrown back, exposing his mortified
+lineaments and his self-examining eye to those around. The expression of
+his countenance was that of bewildered uncertainty, relieved by frequent
+but fitful glimmerings of hope. Though his lips were constant in prayer,
+his looks wandered, by an irrepressible impulse, from one window of the
+Doge's palace to another. He took his station near the condemned,
+however, and thrice crossed himself fervently.
+
+Jacopo had tranquilly placed his person before the block. His head was
+bare, his cheek colorless, his throat and neck uncovered from the
+shoulders, his body in its linen, and the rest of his form was clad in
+the ordinary dress of a gondolier. He kneeled with his face bowed to the
+block, repeated a prayer, and rising he faced the multitude with dignity
+and composure. As his eye moved slowly over the array of human
+countenances by which he was environed, a hectic glowed on his features,
+for not one of them all betrayed sympathy in his sufferings. His breast
+heaved, and those nearest to his person thought the self-command of the
+miserable man was about to fail him. The result disappointed
+expectation. There was a shudder, and the limbs settled into repose.
+
+"Thou hast looked in vain among the multitude for a friendly eye?" said
+the Carmelite, whose attention had been drawn to the convulsive
+movement.
+
+"None here have pity for an assassin."
+
+"Remember thy Redeemer, son. He suffered ignominy and death for a race
+that denied his Godhead, and derided his sorrows."
+
+Jacopo crossed himself, and bowed his head in reverence.
+
+"Hast thou more prayers to repeat, father?" demanded the chief of the
+Sbirri; he who was particularly charged with the duty of the hour."
+Though the illustrious councils are so sure in justice, they are
+merciful to the souls of sinners."
+
+"Are thy orders peremptory?" asked the monk, unconsciously fixing his
+eye again on the windows of the palace. "Is it certain that the prisoner
+is to die?"
+
+The officer smiled at the simplicity of the question, but with the
+apathy of one too much familiarized with human suffering to admit of
+compassion.
+
+"Do any doubt it?" he rejoined. "It is the lot of man, reverend monk;
+and more especially is it the lot of those on whom the judgment of St.
+Mark has alighted. It were better that your penitent looked to his
+soul."
+
+"Surely thou hast thy private and express commands! They have named a
+minute when this bloody work is to be performed?"
+
+"Holy Carmelite, I have. The time will not be weary, and you will do
+well to make the most of it, unless you have faith already in the
+prisoner's condition."
+
+As he spoke, the officer threw a glance at the dial of the square, and
+walked coolly away. The action left the priest and the prisoner again
+alone between the columns. It was evident that the former could not yet
+believe in the reality of the execution.
+
+"Hast thou no hope, Jacopo?" he asked.
+
+"Carmelite, in my God.
+
+"They cannot commit this wrong! I shrived Antonio--I witnessed his fate,
+and the Prince knows it!"
+
+"What is a Prince and his justice, where the selfishness of a few rules!
+Father, thou art new in the Senate's service."
+
+"I shall not presume to say that God will blast those who do this deed,
+for we cannot trace the mysteries of his wisdom. This life and all this
+world can offer, are but specks in his omniscient eye, and what to us
+seems evil may be pregnant with good.--Hast thou faith in thy Redeemer,
+Jacopo?"
+
+The prisoner laid his hand upon his heart and smiled, with the calm
+assurance that none but those who are thus sustained can feel.
+
+"We will again pray, my son."
+
+The Carmelite and Jacopo kneeled side by side, the latter bowing his
+head to the block, while the monk uttered a final appeal to the mercy of
+the Deity. The former arose, but the latter continued in the suppliant
+attitude. The monk was so full of holy thoughts that, forgetting his
+former wishes, he was nearly content the prisoner should pass into the
+fruition of that hope which elevated his own mind. The officer and
+executioner drew near, the former touching the arm of Father Anselmo,
+and pointing towards the distant dial.
+
+"The moment is near," he whispered, more from habit than in any
+tenderness to the prisoner.
+
+The Carmelite turned instinctively towards the palace, forgetting in the
+sudden impulse all but his sense of earthly justice. There were forms at
+the windows, and he fancied a signal to stay the impending blow was
+about to be given.
+
+"Hold!" he exclaimed. "For the love of Maria of most pure memory, be not
+too hasty!"
+
+The exclamation was repeated by a shrill female voice, and then
+Gelsomina, eluding every effort to arrest her, rushed through the
+Dalmatians, and reached the group between the granite columns. Wonder
+and curiosity agitated the multitude, and a deep murmur ran through the
+square.
+
+"'Tis a maniac!" cried one.
+
+"'Tis a victim of his arts!" said another, for when men have a
+reputation for any particular vice, the world seldom fails to attribute
+all the rest.
+
+Gelsomina seized the bonds of Jacopo, and endeavored frantically to
+release his arms.
+
+"I had hoped thou would'st have been spared this sight, poor Gessina!"
+said the condemned.
+
+"Be not alarmed!" she answered, gasping for breath. "They do it in
+mockery; 't is one of their wiles to mislead--but they cannot--no, they
+dare not harm a hair of thy head, Carlo!"
+
+"Dearest Gelsomina!"
+
+"Nay, do not hold me; I will speak to the citizens, and tell them all.
+They are angry now, but when they know the truth they will love thee,
+Carlo, as I do."
+
+"Bless thee--bless thee!--I would thou hadst not come."
+
+"Fear not for me! I am little used to such a crowd, but thou wilt see
+that I shall dare to speak them fair, and to make known the truth
+boldly. I want but breath."
+
+"Dearest! Thou hast a mother--a father to share thy tenderness. Duty to
+them will make thee happy!"
+
+"Now I can speak, and thou shalt see how I will vindicate thy name."
+
+She arose from the arms of her lover, who, notwithstanding his bonds,
+released his hold of her slight form with a reluctance greater than that
+with which he parted with life. The struggle in the mind of Jacopo
+seemed over. He bowed his head passively to the block, before which he
+was kneeling; and it is probable, by the manner in which his hands were
+clasped, that he prayed for her who left him. Not so Gelsomina. Parting
+her hair over her spotless forehead with both hands, she advanced
+towards the fishermen, who were familiar to her eye by their red caps
+and bare limbs. Her smile was like that which the imagination would
+bestow on the blessed, in their intercourse of love.
+
+"Venetians!" she said, "I cannot blame you; ye are here to witness the
+death of one whom ye believe unfit to live----"
+
+"The murderer of old Antonio!" muttered several of the group.
+
+"Aye, even the murderer of that aged and excellent man. But when you
+hear the truth, when you come to know that he whom you have believed an
+assassin, was a pious child, a faithful servant of the Republic, a
+gentle gondolier, and a true heart, you will change your bloody purpose
+for a wish for justice."
+
+A common murmur drowned her voice, which was so trembling and low as to
+need deep stillness to render the words audible. The Carmelite had
+advanced to her side, and he motioned earnestly for silence.
+
+"Hear her, men of the Lagunes!" he said; "she utters holy truth."
+
+"This reverend and pious monk, with Heaven, is my witness. When you
+shall know Carlo better, and have heard his tale, ye will be the first
+to cry out for his release. I tell you this, that when the Doge shall
+appear at yon window and make the signal of mercy, you need not be
+angry, and believe that your class has been wronged. Poor Carlo----"
+
+"The girl raves!" interrupted the moody fishermen. "Here is no Carlo,
+but Jacopo Frontoni, a common bravo."
+
+Gelsomina smiled, in the security of the innocent, and regaining her
+breath, which nervous agitation still disturbed, she resumed--
+
+"Carlo or Jacopo--Jacopo or Carlo--it matters little."
+
+"Ha! There is a sign from the palace!" shouted the Carmelite,
+stretching both his arms in that direction, as if to grasp a boon. The
+clarions sounded, and another wave stirred the multitude. Gelsomina
+uttered a cry of delight, and turned to throw herself upon the bosom of
+the reprieved. The axe glittered before her eyes, and the head of Jacopo
+rolled upon the stones, as if to meet her. A general movement in the
+living mass denoted the end.
+
+The Dalmatians wheeled into column, the Sbirri pushed aside the throng
+on their way to their haunts; the water of the bay was dashed upon the
+flags; the clotted saw-dust was gathered; the head and trunk, block,
+basket, axe, and executioner disappeared, and the crowd circulated
+around the fatal spot.
+
+During this horrible and brief moment neither Father Anselmo nor
+Gelsomina moved. All was over, and still the entire scene appeared to be
+delusion.
+
+"Take away this maniac!" said an officer of the police, pointing to
+Gelsomina as he spoke.
+
+He was obeyed with Venetian readiness, but his words proved prophetic
+before his servitors had quitted the square. The Carmelite scarce
+breathed. He gazed at the moving multitude, at the windows of the
+palace, and at the sun which shone so gloriously in the heavens.
+
+"Thou art lost in this crowd!" whispered one at his elbow. "Reverend
+Carmelite, you will do well to follow me."
+
+The monk was too much subdued to hesitate. His conductor led him by many
+secret ways to a quay, where he instantly embarked in a gondola for the
+main. Before the sun reached the meridian the thoughtful and trembling
+monk was on his journey towards the States of the Church, and ere long
+he became established in the castle of Sant' Agata.
+
+At the usual hour the sun fell behind the mountains of the Tyrol, and
+the moon reappeared above the Lido. The narrow streets of Venice again
+poured out their thousands upon the squares. The mild light fell athwart
+the quaint architecture and the giddy tower, throwing a deceptive glory
+on the city of islands.
+
+The porticoes became brilliant with lamps, the gay laughed, the reckless
+trifled, the masker pursued his hidden purpose, the cantatrice and the
+grotesque acted their parts, and the million existed in that vacant
+enjoyment which distinguishes the pleasures of the thoughtless and the
+idle. Each lived for himself, while the state of Venice held its vicious
+sway, corrupting alike the ruler and the ruled, by its mockery of those
+sacred principles which are alone founded in truth and natural justice.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bravo, by J. Fenimore Cooper
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Bravo, by J. Fenimore Cooper
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bravo, by J. Fenimore Cooper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bravo
+
+Author: J. Fenimore Cooper
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2003 [EBook #10363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRAVO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p align="center"><img src="001.jpg" alt="[Illustration: &quot;Stretching his arms toward the stars he pronounced the
+absolution in a voice that was touched with pious fervor.&quot;]" /></p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="002.jpg" alt="[Illustration: &quot;'Maria undefiled, and her Son, who is God!&mdash;bless thee,
+Jacopo!' whispered a voice, that to the excited imagination of the
+kneeling Bravo appeared to hover in the air.&quot;]" /></p>
+
+
+
+<h1>The Bravo</h1>
+
+<h3>A Tale</h3>
+
+<h2>By J. Fenimore Cooper</h2>
+
+<p align="center">&quot;Giustizia in palazzo, e pane in piazza.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="center">Illustrated from Drawings by F.O.C. Darley</p>
+
+<p align="center">1872.</p>
+
+
+
+<p align="center"><img src="003.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+<h2>Preface</h2>
+
+<p>It is to be regretted the world does not discriminate more justly in its
+use of political terms. Governments are usually called either monarchies
+or republics. The former class embraces equally those institutions in
+which the sovereign is worshipped as a god, and those in which he
+performs the humble office of a manikin. In the latter we find
+aristocracies and democracies blended in the same generic appellation.
+The consequence of a generalization so wide is an utter confusion on the
+subject of the polity of states.</p>
+
+<p>The author has endeavored to give his countrymen, in this book, a
+picture of the social system of one of the <i>soi-disant</i> republics of the
+other hemisphere. There has been no attempt to portray historical
+characters, only too fictitious in their graver dress, but simply to set
+forth the familiar operations of Venetian policy. For the justification
+of his likeness, after allowing for the defects of execution, he refers
+to the well-known work of M. Daru.</p>
+
+<p>A history of the progress of political liberty, written purely in the
+interests of humanity, is still a desideratum in literature. In nations
+which have made a false commencement, it would be found that the
+citizen, or rather the subject, has extorted immunity after immunity, as
+his growing intelligence and importance have both instructed and
+required him to defend those particular rights which were necessary to
+his well-being. A certain accumulation of these immunities constitutes,
+with a solitary and recent exception in Switzerland, the essence of
+European liberty, even at this hour. It is scarcely necessary to tell
+the reader, that this freedom, be it more or less, depends on a
+principle entirely different from our own. Here the immunities do not
+proceed from, but they are granted to, the government, being, in other
+words, concessions of natural rights made by the people to the state,
+for the benefits of social protection. So long as this vital difference
+exists between ourselves and other nations, it will be vain to think of
+finding analogies in their institutions. It is true that, in an age like
+this, public opinion is itself a charter, and that the most despotic
+government which exists within the pale of Christendom, must, in some
+degree, respect its influence. The mildest and justest governments in
+Europe are, at this moment, theoretically despotisms. The characters of
+both prince and people enter largely into the consideration of so
+extraordinary results; and it should never be forgotten that, though the
+character of the latter be sufficiently secure, that of the former is
+liable to change. But, admitting every benefit which possibly can flow
+from a just administration, with wise and humane princes, a government
+which is not properly based on the people, possesses an unavoidable and
+oppressive evil of the first magnitude, in the necessity of supporting
+itself by physical force and onerous impositions, against the natural
+action of the majority.</p>
+
+<p>Were we to characterize a republic, we should say it was a state in
+which power, both theoretically and practically, is derived from the
+nation, with a constant responsibility of the agents of the public to
+the people&mdash;a responsibility that is neither to be evaded nor denied.
+That such a system is better on a large than on a small scale, though
+contrary to brilliant theories which have been written to uphold
+different institutions, must be evident on the smallest reflection,
+since the danger of all popular governments is from popular mistakes;
+and a people of diversified interests and extended territorial
+possessions, are much less likely to be the subjects of sinister
+passions than the inhabitants of a single town or county. If to this
+definition we should add, as an infallible test of the genus, that a
+true republic is a government of which all others are jealous and
+vituperative, on the instinct of self-preservation, we believe there
+would be no mistaking the class. How far Venice would have been
+obnoxious to this proof, the reader is left to judge for himself.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="004.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter I.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,<br />
+  A palace and a prison on each hand;<br />
+  I saw from out the wave her structures rise,<br />
+  As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand;<br />
+  A thousand years their cloudy wings expand<br />
+  Around me, and a dying glory smiles<br />
+  O'er the far times, when many a subject land<br />
+  Looked to the winged lions' marble piles,<br />
+  Where Venice sat in state, throned on her hundred isles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">BYRON.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The sun had disappeared behind the summits of the Tyrolean Alps, and the
+moon was already risen above the low barrier of the Lido. Hundreds of
+pedestrians were pouring out of the narrow streets of Venice into the
+square of St. Mark, like water gushing through some strait aqueduct,
+into a broad and bubbling basin. Gallant cavalieri and grave cittadini;
+soldiers of Dalmatia, and seamen of the galleys; dames of the city, and
+females of lighter manners; jewellers of the Rialto, and traders from
+the Levant; Jew, Turk, and Christian; traveller, adventurer, podest&agrave;,
+valet, avvocato, and gondolier, held their way alike to the common
+centre of amusement. The hurried air and careless eye; the measured step
+and jealous glance; the jest and laugh; the song of the cantatrice, and
+the melody of the flute; the grimace of the buffoon, and the tragic
+frown of the improvisatore; the pyramid of the grotesque, the compelled
+and melancholy smile of the harpist, cries of water-sellers, cowls of
+monks, plumage of warriors, hum of voices, and the universal movement
+and bustle, added to the more permanent objects of the place, rendered
+the scene the most remarkable of Christendom.</p>
+
+<p>On the very confines of that line which separates western from eastern
+Europe, and in constant communication with the latter, Venice possessed
+a greater admixture of character and costume, than any other of the
+numerous ports of that region. A portion of this peculiarity is still to
+be observed, under the fallen fortunes of the place; but at the period
+of our tale, the city of the isles, though no longer mistress of the
+Mediterranean, nor even of the Adriatic, was still rich and powerful.
+Her influence was felt in the councils of the civilized world, and her
+commerce, though waning, was yet sufficient to uphold the vast
+possessions of those families, whose ancestors had become rich in the
+day of her prosperity. Men lived among her islands in that state of
+incipient lethargy, which marks the progress of a downward course,
+whether the decline be of a moral or of a physical decay.</p>
+
+<p>At the hour we have named, the vast parallelogram of the piazza was
+filling fast, the caf&eacute;s and casinos within the porticoes, which surround
+three of its sides, being already thronged with company. While all
+beneath the arches was gay and brilliant with the flare of torch and
+lamp, the noble range of edifices called the Procuratories, the massive
+pile of the Ducal Palace, the most ancient Christian church, the granite
+columns of the piazzetta, the triumphal masts of the great square, and
+the giddy tower of the campanile, were slumbering in the more mellow
+glow of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>Facing the wide area of the great square stood the quaint and venerable
+cathedral of San Marco. A temple of trophies, and one equally
+proclaiming the prowess and the piety of its founders, this remarkable
+structure presided over the other fixtures of the place, like a monument
+of the republic's antiquity and greatness. Its Saracenic architecture,
+the rows of precious but useless little columns that load its front, the
+low Asiatic domes which rest upon its walls in the repose of a thousand
+years, the rude and gaudy mosaics, and above all the captured horses of
+Corinth which start from out the sombre mass in the glory of Grecian
+art, received from the solemn and appropriate light, a character of
+melancholy and mystery, that well comported with the thick recollections
+which crowd the mind as the eye gazes at this rare relic of the past.</p>
+
+<p>As fit companions to this edifice, the other peculiar ornaments of the
+place stood at hand. The base of the campanile lay in shadow, but a
+hundred feet of its grey summit received the full rays of the moon along
+its eastern face. The masts destined to bear the conquered ensigns of
+Candia, Constantinople, and the Morea, cut the air by its side, in dark
+and fairy lines; while at the extremity of the smaller square, and near
+the margin of the sea, the forms of the winged lion and the patron saint
+of the city, each on his column of African granite, were distinctly
+traced against the back-ground of the azure sky.</p>
+
+<p>It was near the base of the former of these massive blocks of stone,
+that one stood who seemed to gaze at the animated and striking scene,
+with the listlessness and indifference of satiety. A multitude, some in
+masques and others careless of being known, had poured along the quay
+into the piazzetta, on their way to the principal square, while this
+individual had scarce turned a glance aside, or changed a limb in
+weariness. His attitude was that of patient, practised, and obedient
+waiting on another's pleasure. With folded arms, a body poised on one
+leg, and a vacant though good-humored eye, he appeared to attend some
+beck of authority ere he quitted the spot. A silken jacket, in whose
+tissue flowers of the gayest colors were interwoven, the falling collar
+of scarlet, the bright velvet cap with armorial bearings embroidered on
+its front, proclaimed him to be a gondolier in private service.</p>
+
+<p>Wearied at length with the antics of a distant group of tumblers, whose
+pile of human bodies had for a time arrested his look, this individual
+turned away, and faced the light air from the water. Recognition and
+pleasure shot into his countenance, and in a moment his arms were
+interlocked with those of a swarthy mariner, who wore the loose attire
+and Phrygian cap of men of his calling. The gondolier was the first to
+speak, the words flowing from him in the soft accents of his native
+islands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it thou, Stefano? They said thou hadst fallen into the gripe of the
+devils of Barbary, and that thou wast planting flowers for an infidel
+with thy hands, and watering them with thy tears!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The answer was in the harsher dialect of Calabria, and it was given with
+the rough familiarity of a seaman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;La Bella Sorrentina is no housekeeper of a curato! She is not a damsel
+to take a siesta with a Tunisian rover prowling about in her
+neighborhood. Hadst ever been beyond the Lido, thou wouldst have known
+the difference between chasing the felucca and catching her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kneel down and thank San Teodoro for his care. There was much praying
+on thy decks that hour, caro Stefano, though none is bolder among the
+mountains of Calabria when thy felucca is once safely drawn up on the
+beach!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The mariner cast a half-comic, half-serious glance upward at the image
+of the patron saint, ere he replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was more need of the wings of thy lion than of the favor of thy
+saint. I never come further north for aid than San Gennaro, even when it
+blows a hurricane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So much the worse for thee, caro, since the good bishop is better at
+stopping the lava than at quieting the winds. But there was danger,
+then, of losing the felucca and her brave people among the Turks?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was, in truth, a Tunis-man prowling about, between Stromboli and
+Sicily; but, Ali di San Michele! he might better have chased the cloud
+above the volcano than run after the felucca in a sirocco!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wast chicken-hearted, Stefano!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I!&mdash;I was more like thy lion here, with some small additions of chains
+and muzzles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As was seen by thy felucca's speed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! I wished myself a knight of San Giovanni a thousand times
+during the chase, and La Bella Sorrentina a brave Maltese galley, if it
+were only for the cause of Christian honor! The miscreant hung upon my
+quarter for the better part of three glasses; so near, that I could tell
+which of the knaves wore dirty cloth in his turban, and which clean. It
+was a sore sight to a Christian, Stefano, to see the right thus borne
+upon by an infidel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thy feet warmed with the thought of the bastinado, caro mio?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have run too often barefoot over our Calabrian mountains, to tingle
+at the sole with every fancy of that sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every man has his weak spot, and I know thine to be dread of a Turk's
+arm. Thy native hills have their soft as well as their hard ground, but
+it is said the Tunisian chooses a board knotty as his own heart, when he
+amuses himself with the wailings of a Christian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, the happiest of us all must take such as fortune brings. If my
+soles are to be shod with blows, the honest priest of Sant' Agata will
+be cheated by a penitent. I have bargained with the good curato, that
+all such accidental calamities shall go in the general account of
+penance. But how fares the world of Venice?&mdash;and what dost thou among
+the canals at this season, to keep the flowers of thy jacket from
+wilting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-day, as yesterday, and to-morrow will be as to-day I row the
+gondola from the Rialto to the Giudecca; from San Giorgio to San Marco;
+from San Marco to the Lido, and from the Lido home. There are no
+Tunis-men by the way, to chill the heart or warm the feet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enough of friendship. And is there nothing stirring in the
+republic?&mdash;no young noble drowned, nor any Jew hanged?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing of that much interest&mdash;except the calamity which befell Pietro.
+Thou rememberest Pietrello? he who crossed into Dalmatia with thee once,
+as a supernumerary, the time he was suspected of having aided the young
+Frenchman in running away with a senator's daughter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do I remember the last famine? The rogue did nothing but eat maccaroni,
+and swallow the lachryma christi, which the Dalmatian count had on
+freight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poverino! His gondola has been run down by an Ancona-man, who passed
+over the boat as if it were a senator stepping on a fly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So much for little fish coming into deep water.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The honest fellow was crossing the Giudecca, with a stranger, who had
+occasion to say his prayers at the Redentore, when the brig hit him in
+the canopy, and broke up the gondola, as if it had been a bubble left by
+the Bucentaur.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The padrone should have been too generous to complain of Pietro's
+clumsiness, since it met with its own punishment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Madre di Dio! He went to sea that hour, or he might be feeding the
+fishes of the Lagunes! There is not a gondolier in Venice who did not
+feel the wrong at his heart; and we know how to obtain justice for an
+insult, as well as our masters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, a gondola is mortal, as well as a felucca, and both have their
+time; better die by the prow of a brig than fall into the gripe of a
+Turk. How is thy young master, Gino; and is he likely to obtain his
+claims of the senate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He cools himself in the Giudecca in the morning; and if thou would'st
+know what he does at evening, thou hast only to look among the nobles in
+the Broglio.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As the gondolier spoke he glanced an eye aside at a group of patrician
+rank, who paced the gloomy arcades which supported the superior walls of
+the doge's palace, a spot sacred, at times, to the uses of the
+privileged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am no stranger to the habit thy Venetian nobles have of coming to
+that low colonnade at this hour, but I never before heard of their
+preferring the waters of the Giudecca for their baths.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Were even the doge to throw himself out of a gondola, he must sink or
+swim, like a meaner Christian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Acqua dell' Adriatico! Was the young duca going to the Redentore, too,
+to say his prayers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was coming back after having; but what matters it in what canal a
+young noble sighs away the night! We happened to be near when the
+Ancona-man performed his feat; while Giorgio and I were boiling with
+rage at the awkwardness of the stranger, my master, who never had much
+taste or knowledge in gondolas, went into the water to save the young
+lady from sharing the fate of her uncle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diavolo! This is the first syllable thou hast uttered concerning any
+young lady, or of the death of her uncle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wert thinking of thy Tunis-man, and hast forgotten. I must have
+told thee how near the beautiful signora was to sharing the fate of the
+gondola, and how the loss of the Roman marchese weighs, in addition, on
+the soul of the padrone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santo Padre! That a Christian should die the death of a hunted dog by
+the carelessness of a gondolier!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may have been lucky for the Ancona-man that it so fell out; for they
+say the Roman was one of influence enough to make a senator cross the
+Bridge of Sighs, at need.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil take all careless watermen, say I! And what became of the
+awkward rogue?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee he went outside the Lido that very hour, or----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pietrello?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was brought up by the oar of Giorgio, for both of us were active in
+saving the cushions and other valuables.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Could'st thou do nothing for the poor Roman? Ill-luck may follow that
+brig on account of his death!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ill-luck follow her, say I, till she lays her bones on some rock that
+is harder than the heart of her padrone. As for the stranger, we could
+do no more than offer up a prayer to San Teodoro, since he never rose
+after the blow. But what has brought thee to Venice, caro mio? for thy
+ill-fortune with the oranges, in the last voyage, caused thee to
+denounce the place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Calabrian laid a finger on one cheek, and drew the skin down in a
+manner to give a droll expression to his dark, comic eye, while the
+whole of his really fine Grecian face was charged with an expression of
+coarse humor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look you, Gino&mdash;thy master sometimes calls for his gondola between
+sunset and morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An owl is not more wakeful than he has been of late. This head of mine
+has not been on a pillow before the sun has come above the Lido, since
+the snows melted from Monselice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And when the sun of thy master's countenance sets in his own palazzo,
+thou hastenest off to the bridge of the Rialto, among the jewellers and
+butchers, to proclaim the manner in which he passed the night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diamine! 'Twould be the last night I served the Duca di Sant' Agata,
+were my tongue so limber! The gondolier and the confessor are the two
+privy-councillors of a noble, Master Stefano, with this small
+difference&mdash;that the last only knows what the sinner wishes to reveal,
+while the first sometimes knows more. I can find a safer, if not a more
+honest employment, than to be running about with my master's secrets in
+the air.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I am wiser than to let every Jew broker in San Marco, here, have a
+peep into my charter-party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, old acquaintance, there is some difference between our
+occupations, after all. A padrone of a felucca cannot, in justice, be
+compared to the most confidential gondolier of a Neapolitan duke, who
+has an unsettled right to be admitted to the Council of Three Hundred.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just the difference between smooth water and rough&mdash;you ruffle the
+surface of a canal with a lazy oar, while I run the channel of Piombino
+in a mistral, shoot the Faro of Messina in a white squall, double Santa
+Maria di Leuca in a breathing Levanter, and come skimming up the
+Adriatic before a sirocco that is hot enough to cook my maccaroni, and
+which sets the whole sea boiling worse than the caldrons of Scylla.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hist!&quot; eagerly interrupted the gondolier, who had indulged, with
+Italian humor, in the controversy for preeminence, though without any
+real feeling, &quot;here comes one who may think, else, we shall have need of
+his hand to settle the dispute&mdash;Eccolo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Calabrian recoiled apace, in silence, and stood regarding the
+individual who had caused this hurried remark, with a gloomy but steady
+air. The stranger moved slowly past. His years were under thirty, though
+the calm gravity of his countenance imparted to it a character of more
+mature age. The cheeks were bloodless, but they betrayed rather the
+pallid hue of mental than of bodily disease. The perfect condition of
+the physical man was sufficiently exhibited in the muscular fulness of a
+body which, though light and active, gave every indication of strength.
+His step was firm, assured, and even; his carriage erect and easy, and
+his whole mien was strongly characterized by a self-possession that
+could scarcely escape observation; and yet his attire was that of an
+inferior class. A doublet of common velvet, a dark Montero cap, such as
+was then much used in the southern countries of Europe, with other
+vestments of a similar fashion, composed his dress. The face was
+melancholy rather than sombre, and its perfect repose accorded well with
+the striking calmness of the body. The lineaments of the former,
+however, were bold and even noble, exhibiting that strong and manly
+outline which is so characteristic of the finer class of the Italian
+countenance. Out of this striking array of features gleamed an eye that
+was full of brilliancy, meaning, and passion.</p>
+
+<p>As the stranger passed, his glittering organs rolled over the persons of
+the gondolier and his companion, but the look, though searching, was
+entirely without interest. 'Twas the wandering but wary glance, which
+men who have much reason to distrust, habitually cast on a multitude. It
+turned with the same jealous keenness on the face of the next it
+encountered, and by the time the steady and well balanced form was lost
+in the crowd, that quick and glowing eye had gleamed, in the same rapid
+and uneasy manner, on twenty others.</p>
+
+<p>Neither the gondolier nor the mariner of Calabria spoke until their
+riveted gaze after the retiring figure became useless. Then the former
+simply ejaculated, with a strong respiration&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His companion raised three of his fingers, with an occult meaning,
+towards the palace of the doges.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do they let him take the air, even in San Marco?&quot; he asked, in
+unfeigned surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not easy, caro amico, to make water run up stream, or to stop the
+downward current. It is said that most of the senators would sooner lose
+their hopes of the horned bonnet, than lose him. Jacopo! He knows more
+family secrets than the good Priore of San Marco himself, and he, poor
+man, is half his time in the confessional.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, they are afraid to put him in an iron jacket, lest awkward secrets
+should be squeezed out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Corpo di Bacco! there would be little peace in Venice, if the Council
+of Three should take it into their heads to loosen the tongue of yonder
+man in that rude manner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But they say, Gino, that thy Council of Three has a fashion of feeding
+the fishes of the Lagunes, which might throw the suspicion of his death
+on some unhappy Ancona-man, were the body ever to come up again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, no need of bawling it aloud, as if thou wert hailing a Sicilian
+through thy trumpet, though the fact should be so. To say the truth,
+there are few men in business who are thought to have more custom than
+he who has just gone up the piazzetta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two sequins!&quot; rejoined the Calabrian, enforcing his meaning by a
+significant grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santa Madonna! Thou forgettest, Stefano, that not even the confessor
+has any trouble with a job in which he has been employed. Not a caratano
+less than a hundred will buy a stroke of his art. Your blows, for two
+sequins, leave a man leisure to tell tales, or even to say his prayers
+half the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo!&quot; ejaculated the other, with an emphasis which seemed to be a
+sort of summing up of all his aversion and horror.</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier shrugged his shoulders with quite as much meaning as a man
+born on the shores of the Baltic could have conveyed by words; but he
+too appeared to think the matter exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stefano Milano,&quot; he added, after a moment of pause, 'there are things
+in Venice which he who would eat his maccaroni in peace, would do well
+to forget. Let thy errand in port be what it may, thou art in good
+season to witness the regatta which will be given by the state itself
+to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou an oar for that race?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giorgio's, or mine, under the patronage of San Teodoro. The prize will
+be a silver gondola to him who is lucky or skilful enough to win; and
+then we shall have the nuptials with the Adriatic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy nobles had best woo the bride well; for there are heretics who lay
+claim to her good will. I met a rover of strange rig and miraculous
+fleetness, in rounding the headlands of Otranto, who seemed to have half
+a mind to follow the felucca in her path towards the Lagunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did the sight warm thee at the soles of thy feet, Gino dear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was not a turbaned head on his deck, but every sea-cap sat upon a
+well covered poll and a shorn chin. Thy Bucentaur is no longer the
+bravest craft that floats between Dalmatia and the islands, though her
+gilding may glitter brightest. There are men beyond the pillars of
+Hercules who are not satisfied with doing all that can be done on their
+own coasts, but who are pretending to do much of that which can be done
+on ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The republic is a little aged, caro, and years need rest. The joints of
+the Bucentaur are racked by time and many voyages to the Lido. I have
+heard my master say that the leap of the winged lion is not as far as it
+was, even in his young days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo has the reputation of talking boldly of the foundation of
+this city of piles, when he has the roof of old Sant' Agata safely over
+his head. Were he to speak more reverently of the horned bonnet, and of
+the Council of Three, his pretensions to succeed to the rights of his
+forefathers might seem juster in the eyes of his judges. But distance is
+a great mellower of colors and softener of fears. My own opinion of the
+speed of the felucca, and of the merits of a Turk, undergo changes of
+this sort between port and the open sea; and I have known thee, good
+Gino, forget San Teodoro, and bawl as lustily to San Gennaro, when at
+Naples, as if thou really fancied thyself in danger from the mountain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One must speak to those at hand, in order to be quickest heard,&quot;
+rejoined the gondolier, casting a glance that was partly humorous, and
+not without superstition, upwards at the image which crowned the granite
+column against whose pedestal he still leaned. &quot;A truth which warns us
+to be prudent, for yonder Jew cast a look this way, as if he felt a
+conscientious scruple in letting any irreverent remark of ours go
+without reporting. The bearded old rogue is said to have other dealings
+with the Three Hundred besides asking for the moneys he has lent to
+their sons. And so, Stefano, thou thinkest the republic will never plant
+another mast of triumph in San Marco, or bring more trophies to the
+venerable church?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Napoli herself, with her constant change of masters, is as likely to do
+a great act on the sea as thy winged beast just now! Thou art well
+enough to row a gondola in the canals, Gino, or to follow thy master to
+his Calabrian castle; but if thou would'st know what passes in the wide
+world, thou must be content to listen to mariners of the long course.
+The day of San Marco has gone by, and that of the heretics more north
+has come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast been much of late among the lying Genoese, Stefano, that thou
+comest hither with these idle tales of what a heretic can do. Genova la
+Superba! What has a city of walls to compare with one of canals and
+islands like this?&mdash;and what has that Apennine republic performed, to be
+put in comparison with the great deeds of the Queen of the Adriatic?
+Thou forgettest that Venezia has been&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Zitto, zitto! that <i>has</i> been, caro mio, is a great word with all
+Italy. Thou art as proud of the past as a Roman of the Trastevere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the Roman of the Trastevere is right. Is it nothing, Stefano
+Milano, to be descended from a great and victorious people?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is better, Gino Monaldi, to be one of a people which is great and
+victorious just now. The enjoyment of the past is like the pleasure of
+the fool who dreams of the wine he drank yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is well for a Neapolitan, whose country never was a nation,&quot;
+returned the gondolier, angrily. &quot;I have heard Don Camillo, who is one
+educated as well as born in the land, often say that half of the people
+of Europe have ridden the horse of Sicily, and used the legs of thy
+Napoli, except those who had the best right to the services of both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even so; and yet the figs are as sweet as ever, and the beccafichi as
+tender! The ashes of the volcano cover all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gino,&quot; said a voice of authority, near the gondolier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He who interrupted the dialogue pointed to the boat without saying more.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A rivederli,&quot; hastily muttered the gondolier. His friend squeezed his
+hand in perfect amity&mdash;for, in truth, they were countrymen by birth,
+though chance had trained the former on the canals&mdash;and, at the next
+instant, Gino was arranging the cushions for his master, having first
+aroused his subordinate brother of the oar from a profound sleep.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter II.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Hast ever swam in a gondola at Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>When Don Camillo Monforte entered the gondola, he did not take his seat
+in the pavilion. With an arm leaning on the top of the canopy, and his
+cloak thrown loosely over one shoulder, the young noble stood, in a
+musing attitude, until his dexterous servitors had extricated the boat
+from the little fleet which crowded the quay, and had urged it into open
+water. This duty performed, Gino touched his scarlet cap, and looked at
+his master as if to inquire the direction in which they were to proceed.
+He was answered by a silent gesture that indicated the route of the
+great canal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast an ambition, Gino, to show thy skill in the regatta?&quot; Don
+Camillo observed, when they had made a little progress. &quot;The motive
+merits success. Thou wast speaking to a stranger when I summoned thee to
+the gondola?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was asking the news of our Calabrian hills from one who has come into
+port with his felucca, though the man took the name of San Gennaro to
+witness that his former luckless voyage should be the last.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How does he call his felucca, and what is the name of the padrone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;La Bella Sorrentina, commanded by a certain Stefano Milano, son of an
+ancient servant of Sant' Agata. The bark is none of the worst for speed,
+and it has some reputation for beauty. It ought to be of happy fortune,
+too, for the good curato recommended it, with many a devout prayer, to
+the Virgin and to San Francesco.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The noble appeared to lend more attention to the discourse, which, until
+now, on his part, had been commenced in the listless manner with which a
+superior encourages an indulged dependant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;La Bella Sorrentina! Have I not reason to know the bark?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing more true, Signore. Her padrone has relations at Sant' Agata,
+as I have told your eccellenza, and his vessel has lain on the beach
+near the castle many a bleak winter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What brings him to Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is what I would give my newest jacket of your eccellenza's colors
+to know, Signore. I have as little wish to inquire into other people's
+affairs as any one, and I very well know that discretion is the chief
+virtue of a gondolier. I ventured, however, a deadly hint concerning his
+errand, such as ancient neighborhood would warrant, but he was as
+cautious of his answers as if he were freighted with the confessions of
+fifty Christians. Now, if your eccellenza should see fit to give me
+authority to question him in your name, the deuce is in't if between
+respect for his lord, and good management, we could not draw something
+more than a false bill of lading from him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt take thy choice of my gondolas for the regatta, Gino,&quot;
+observed the Duke of Sant' Agata, entering the pavilion, and throwing
+himself on the glossy black leathern cushions, without adverting to the
+suggestion of his servant.</p>
+
+<p>The gondola continued its noiseless course, with the sprite-like
+movement peculiar to that description of boat. Gino, who, as superior
+over his fellow, stood perched on the little arched deck in the stern,
+pushed his oar with accustomed readiness and skill, now causing the
+light vessel to sheer to the right, and now to the left, as it glided
+among the multitude of craft, of all sizes and uses, which it met in
+its passage. Palace after palace had been passed, and more than one of
+the principal canals, which diverged towards the different spectacles,
+or the other places of resort frequented by his master, was left behind,
+without Don Camillo giving any new direction. At length the boat arrived
+opposite to a building which seemed to excite more than common
+expectation. Giorgio worked his oar with a single hand, looking over his
+shoulder at Gino, and Gino permitted his blade fairly to trail on the
+water. Both seemed to await new orders, manifesting something like that
+species of instinctive sympathy with him they served, which a long
+practised horse is apt to show when he draws near a gate that is seldom
+passed unvisited by his driver.</p>
+
+<p>The edifice which caused this hesitation in the two gondoliers was one
+of those residences at Venice, which are quite as remarkable for their
+external riches and ornaments as for their singular situation amid the
+waters. A massive rustic basement of marble was seated as solidly in the
+element as if it grew from a living rock, while story was seemingly
+raised on story, in the wanton observance of the most capricious rules
+of meretricious architecture, until the pile reached an altitude that is
+little known, except in the dwellings of princes. Colonnades,
+medallions, and massive cornices overhung the canal, as if the art of
+man had taken pride in loading the superstructure in a manner to mock
+the unstable element which concealed its base. A flight of steps, on
+which each gentle undulation produced by the passage of the barge washed
+a wave, conducted to a vast vestibule, that answered many of the
+purposes of a court. Two or three gondolas were moored near, but the
+absence of their people showed they were for the use of those who dwelt
+within. The boats were protected from rough collision with the passing
+craft by piles driven obliquely into the bottom. Similar spars, with
+painted and ornamented heads, that sometimes bore the colors and arms
+of the proprietor, formed a sort of little haven for the gondolas of the
+household, before the door of every dwelling of mark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is it the pleasure of your eccellenza to be rowed?&quot; asked Gino,
+when he found his sympathetic delay had produced no order.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the Palazzo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Giorgio threw a glance of surprise back at his comrade, but the obedient
+gondola shot by the gloomy, though rich abode, as if the little bark had
+suddenly obeyed an inward impulse. In a moment more it whirled aside,
+and the hollow sound, caused by the plash of water between high walls,
+announced its entrance into a narrower canal. With shortened oars the
+men still urged the boat ahead, now turning short into some new channel,
+now glancing beneath a low bridge, and now uttering, in the sweet shrill
+tones of the country and their craft, the well known warning to those
+who were darting in an opposite direction. A backstroke of Gino's oar,
+however, soon brought the side of the arrested boat to a flight of
+steps.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt follow me,&quot; said Don Camillo, as he placed his foot, with the
+customary caution, on the moist stone, and laid a hand on the shoulder
+of Gino; &quot;I have need of thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Neither the vestibule, nor the entrance, nor the other visible
+accessories of the dwelling were so indicative of luxury and wealth as
+that of the palace on the great canal. Still they were all such as
+denoted the residence of a noble of consideration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt do wisely, Gino, to trust thy fortunes to the new gondola,&quot;
+said the master, as he mounted the heavy stone stairs to an upper floor,
+pointing, as he spoke, to a new and beautiful boat, which lay in a
+corner of the large vestibule, as carriages are seen standing in the
+courts of houses built on more solid ground. &quot;He who would find favor
+with Jupiter must put his own shoulder to the wheel, thou knowest, my
+friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eye of Gino brightened, and he was voluble in his expression of
+thanks. They had ascended to the first floor, and were already deep in a
+suite of gloomy apartments, before the gratitude and professional pride
+of the gondolier were exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aided by a powerful arm and a fleet gondola, thy chance will be as good
+as another's, Gino,&quot; said Don Camillo, closing the door of his cabinet
+on his servant; &quot;at present thou mayest give some proof of zeal in my
+service, in another manner. Is the face of a man called Jacopo Frontoni
+known to thee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza!&quot; exclaimed the gondolier, gasping for breath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I ask thee if thou knowest the countenance of one named Frontoni?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His countenance, Signore!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By what else would'st thou distinguish a man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man, Signor' Don Camillo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou mocking thy master, Gino? I have asked thee if thou art
+acquainted with the person of a certain Jacopo Frontoni, a dweller here
+in Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He I mean has been long remarked by the misfortunes of his family; the
+father being now in exile on the Dalmatian coast, or elsewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are many of the name of Frontoni, and it is important that thou
+should'st not mistake the man. Jacopo, of that family, is a youth of
+some five-and-twenty, of an active frame and melancholy visage, and of
+less vivacity of temperament than is wont, at his years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One who consorts but little with his fellows, and who is rather noted
+for the silence and industry with which he attends to his concerns, than
+for any of the usual pleasantries and trifling of men of his cast. A
+certain Jacopo Frontoni, that hath his abode somewhere near the
+arsenal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! Signor' Duca, the man is as well known to us gondoliers as
+the bridge of the Rialto! Your eccellenza has no need to trouble
+yourself to describe him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo Monforte was searching among the papers of a secretaire. He
+raised his eyes in some little amazement at the sally of his dependant,
+and then he quietly resumed his occupation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thou knowest the man, it is enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, yes. And what is your pleasure with this accursed Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Sant' Agata seemed to recollect himself. He replaced the
+papers which had been deranged, and he closed the secretaire.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gino,&quot; he said, in a tone of confidence and amity, &quot;thou wert born on
+my estates, though so long trained here to the oar in Venice, and thou
+hast passed thy life in my service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my desire that thou should'st end thy days where they began. I
+have had much confidence in thy discretion hitherto, and I have
+satisfaction in saying it has never failed thee, notwithstanding thou
+hast necessarily been a witness of some exploits of youth which might
+have drawn embarrassment on thy master were thy tongue less disposed to
+silence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo smiled; but the gleam of humor gave way to a look of grave
+and anxious thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As thou knowest the person of him I have named, our affair is simple.
+Take this packet,&quot; he continued, placing a sealed letter of more than
+usual size into the hand of the gondolier, and drawing from his finger a
+signet ring, &quot;with this token of thy authority. Within that arch of the
+Doge's palace which leads to the canal of San Marco, beneath the Bridge
+of Sighs, thou wilt find Jacopo. Give him the packet; and, should he
+demand it, withhold not the ring. Wait his bidding, and return with the
+answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino received this commission with profound respect, but with an awe he
+could not conceal. Habitual deference to his master appeared to struggle
+with deep distaste for the office he was required to perform; and there
+was even some manifestation of a more principled reluctance, in his
+hesitating yet humble manner. If Don Camillo noted the air and
+countenance of his menial at all, he effectually concealed it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At the arched passage of the palace, beneath the Bridge of Sighs,&quot; he
+coolly added; &quot;and let thy arrival there be timed, as near as may be, to
+the first hour of the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would, Signore, that you had been pleased to command Giorgio and me
+to row you to Padua!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The way is long. Why this sudden wish to weary thyself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because there is no Doge's palace, nor any Bridge of Sighs, nor any dog
+of Jacopo Frontoni among the meadows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast little relish for this duty; but thou must know that what the
+master commands it is the duty of a faithful follower to perform. Thou
+wert born my vassal, Gino Monaldi; and though trained from boyhood in
+this occupation of a gondolier, thou art properly a being of my fiefs in
+Napoli.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St. Gennaro make me grateful for the honor, Signore! But there is not a
+water-seller in the streets of Venice, nor a mariner on her canals, who
+does not wish this Jacopo anywhere but in the bosom of Abraham. He is
+the terror of every young lover, and of all the urgent creditors on the
+islands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou seest, silly babbler, there is one of the former, at least, who
+does not hold him in dread. Thou wilt seek him beneath the Bridge of
+Sighs, and, showing the signet, deliver the package according to my
+instructions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is certain loss of character to be seen speaking with the miscreant!
+So lately as yesterday, I heard Annina, the pretty daughter of the old
+wine-seller on the Lido, declare, that to be seen once in company with
+Jacopo Frontoni was as bad as to be caught twice bringing old rope from
+the arsenal, as befell Roderigo, her mother's cousin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy distinctions savor of the morals of the Lido. Remember to exhibit
+the ring, lest he distrust thy errand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Could not your eccellenza set me about clipping the wings of the lion,
+or painting a better picture than Tiziano di Vecelli? I have a mortal
+dislike even to pass the mere compliments of the day with one of your
+cut-throats. Were any of our gondoliers to see me in discourse with the
+man, it might exceed your eccellenza's influence to get me a place in
+the regatta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he detain thee, Gino, thou wilt wait his pleasure; and if he dismiss
+thee at once, return hither with all expedition, that I may know the
+result.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I very well know, Signor Don Camillo, that the honor of a noble is more
+tender of reproach than that of his followers, and that the stain upon
+the silken robe of a senator is seen farther than the spot upon a velvet
+jacket. If any one unworthy of your eccellenza's notice has dared to
+offend, here are Giorgio and I, ready, at any time, to show how deeply
+we can feel an indignity which touches our master's credit; but a
+hireling of two, or ten, or even of a hundred sequins!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank thee for the hint, Gino. Go thou and sleep in thy gondola, and
+bid Giorgio come into my cabinet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou resolute to do none of my biddings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it your eccellenza's pleasure that I go to the Bridge of Sighs by
+the footways of the streets, or by the canals?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There may be need of a gondola&mdash;thou wilt go with the oar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A tumbler shall not have time to turn round before the answer of Jacopo
+shall be here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With this sudden change of purpose the gondolier quitted the room, for
+the reluctance of Gino disappeared the moment he found the confidential
+duty assigned him by his master was likely to be performed by another.
+Descending rapidly by a secret stair instead of entering the vestibule
+where half a dozen menials of different employments were in waiting, he
+passed by one of the narrow corridors of the palace into an inner court,
+and thence by a low and unimportant gate into an obscure alley which
+communicated with the nearest street.</p>
+
+<p>Though the age is one of so great activity and intelligence, and the
+Atlantic is no longer a barrier even to the ordinary amusements of life,
+a great majority of Americans have never had an opportunity of
+personally examining the remarkable features of a region, of which the
+town that Gino now threaded with so much diligence is not the least
+worthy of observation. Those who have been so fortunate as to have
+visited Italy, therefore, will excuse us if we make a brief, but what we
+believe useful digression, for the benefit of those who have not had
+that advantage.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Venice stands on a cluster of low sandy islands. It is
+probable that the country which lies nearest to the gulf, if not the
+whole of the immense plain of Lombardy itself, is of alluvial formation.
+Whatever may have been the origin of that wide and fertile kingdom, the
+causes which have given to the Lagunes their existence, and to Venice
+its unique and picturesque foundation, are too apparent to be mistaken.
+Several torrents which flow from the valleys of the Alps pour their
+tribute into the Adriatic at this point. Their waters come charged with
+the d&eacute;bris of the mountains, pulverized nearly to their original
+elements. Released from the violence of the stream, these particles have
+necessarily been deposited in the gulf, at the spot where they have
+first become subjected to the power of the sea. Under the influence of
+counteracting currents, eddies, and waves, the sands have been thrown
+into submarine piles, until some of the banks have arisen above the
+surface, forming islands, whose elevation has been gradually augmented
+by the decay of vegetation. A glance at the map will show that, while
+the Gulf of Venice is not literally, it is practically, considered with
+reference to the effect produced by the south-east wind called the
+Sirocco, at the head of the Adriatic. This accidental circumstance is
+probably the reason why the Lagunes have a more determined character at
+the mouths of the minor streams that empty themselves here than at the
+mouths of most of the other rivers, which equally flow from the Alps or
+the Apennines into the same shallow sea.</p>
+
+<p>The natural consequence of a current of a river meeting the waters of
+any broad basin, and where there is no base of rock, is the formation,
+at or near the spot where the opposing actions are neutralized, of a
+bank, which is technically called a bar. The coast of the Union
+furnishes constant evidence of the truth of this theory, every river
+having its bar, with channels that are often shifted, or cleared, by the
+freshets, the gales, or the tides. The constant and powerful operation
+of the south-eastern winds on one side, with the periodical increase of
+the Alpine streams on the other, have converted this bar at the entrance
+of the Venetian Lagunes, into a succession of long, low, sandy islands,
+which extend in a direct line nearly across the mouth of the gulf. The
+waters of the rivers have necessarily cut a few channels for their
+passage, or, what is now a lagune, would long since have become a lake.
+Another thousand years may so far change the character of this
+extraordinary estuary as to convert the channels of the bay into rivers,
+and the muddy banks into marshes and meadows, resembling those that are
+now seen for so many leagues inland.</p>
+
+<p>The low margin of sand that, in truth, gives all its maritime security
+to the port of Venice and the Lagunes, is called the Lido di Palestrino.
+It has been artificially connected and secured, in many places, and the
+wall of the Lido (literally the beach), though incomplete, like most of
+the great and vaunted works of the other hemisphere, and more
+particularly of Italy, ranks with the mole of Ancona, and the sea-wall
+of Cherbourg. The hundred little islands which now contain the ruins of
+what, during the middle ages, was the mart of the Mediterranean, are
+grouped together within cannon-shot of the natural barrier. Art has
+united with nature to turn the whole to good account; and, apart from
+the influence of moral causes, the rivalry of a neighboring town, which
+has been fostered by political care, and the gradual filling up of the
+waters, by the constant deposit of the streams, it would be difficult to
+imagine a more commodious, or a safer haven when entered, than that
+which Venice affords, even to this hour.</p>
+
+<p>As all the deeper channels of the Lagunes have been preserved, the city
+is intersected in every direction by passages, which from their
+appearance are called canals, but which, in truth, are no more than so
+many small natural branches of the sea. On the margin of these passages,
+the walls of the dwellings arise literally from out of the water, since
+economy of room has caused their owners to extend their possessions to
+the very verge of the channel, in the manner that quays and wharfs are
+pushed into the streams in our own country. In many instances the
+islands themselves were no more than banks, which were periodically
+bare, and on all, the use of piles has been necessary to support the
+superincumbent loads of palaces, churches, and public monuments, under
+which, in the course of ages, the humble spits of sand have been made
+to groan.</p>
+
+<p>The great frequency of the canals, and perhaps some attention to economy
+of labor, has given to by far the greater part of the buildings the
+facility of an approach by water. But, while nearly every dwelling has
+one of its fronts on a canal, there are always communications by the
+rear with the interior passages of the town. It is a fault in most
+descriptions, that while the stranger hears so much of the canals of
+Venice, but little is said of her streets: still, narrow, paved,
+commodious, and noiseless passages of this description, intersect all
+the islands, which communicate with each other by means of a countless
+number of bridges. Though the hoof of a horse or the rumbling of a wheel
+is never heard in these strait avenues, they are of great resort for all
+the purposes of ordinary intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>Gino issued into one of these thoroughfares when he quitted the private
+passage which communicated with the palace of his master. He threaded
+the throng by which it was crowded, with a dexterity that resembled the
+windings of an eel among the weeds of the Lagunes. To the numerous
+greetings of his fellows, he replied only by nods; nor did he once
+arrest his footsteps, until they had led him through the door of a low
+and dark dwelling that stood in a quarter of the place which was
+inhabited by people of an inferior condition. Groping his way among
+casks, cordage, and rubbish of all descriptions, the gondolier succeeded
+in finding an inner and retired door that opened into a small room,
+whose only light came from a species of well that descended between the
+walls of the adjacent houses and that in which he was.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed St. Anne! Is it thou, Gino Monaldi!&quot; exclaimed a smart Venetian
+grisette, whose tone and manner betrayed as much of coquetry as of
+surprise. &quot;On foot, and by the secret door! Is this an hour to come on
+any of thy errands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Truly, Annina, it is not the season for affairs with thy father, and
+it is something early for a visit to thee. But there is less time for
+words than for action, just now. For the sake of San Teodoro, and that
+of a constant and silly young man, who, if not thy slave, is at least
+thy dog, bring forth the jacket I wore when we went together to see the
+merry-making at Fusina.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know nothing of thy errand, Gino, nor of thy reason for wishing to
+change thy master's livery for the dress of a common boatman. Thou art
+far more comely with those silken flowers than in this faded velveteen;
+and if I have ever said aught in commendation of its appearance, it was
+because we were bent on merry-making, and being one of the party, it
+would have been churlish to have withheld a word of praise to a
+companion, who, as thou knowest, does not dislike a civil speech in his
+own praise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Zitto, zitto! here is no merry-making and companions, but a matter of
+gravity, and one that must be performed offhand. The jacket, if thou
+lovest me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina, who had not neglected essentials while she moralized on motives,
+threw the garment on a stool that stood within reach of the gondolier's
+hand, as he made this strong appeal in a way to show that she was not to
+be surprised out of a confession of this sort, even in the most
+unguarded moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I love thee, truly! Thou hast the jacket, Gino, and thou mayest
+search in its pockets for an answer to thy letter, which I do not thank
+thee for having got the duca's secretary to indite. A maiden should be
+discreet in affairs of this sort; for one never knows but he may make a
+confidant of a rival.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every work of it is as true as if the devil himself had done the office
+for me, girl,&quot; muttered Gino, uncasing himself from his flowery
+vestment, and as rapidly assuming the plainer garment he had
+sought&mdash;&quot;The cap, Annina, and the mask!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One who wears so false a face, in common, has little need of a bit of
+silk to conceal his countenance,&quot; she answered, throwing him,
+notwithstanding, both the articles he required.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is well. Father Battista himself, who boasts he can tell a sinner
+from a penitent merely by the savor of his presence, would never suspect
+a servitor of Don Camillo Monforte in this dress. Cospetto! but I have
+half a mind to visit that knave of a Jew, who has got thy golden chain
+in pledge, and give him a hint of what may be the consequences, should
+he insist on demanding double the rate of interest we agreed on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twould be Christian justice! but what would become of thy matter of
+gravity the while, Gino, and of thy haste to enter on its performance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou sayest truly, girl. Duty above all other things; though to
+frighten a grasping Hebrew may be as much of a duty as other matters.
+Are all thy father's gondolas in the water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How else could he be gone to the Lido, and my brother Luigi to Fusini,
+and the two serving-men on the usual business to the islands, or how
+else should I be alone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diavolo! is there no boat in the canal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art in unwonted haste, Gino, now thou hast a mask and jacket of
+velvet. I know not that I should suffer one to enter my father's house
+when I am in it alone, and take such disguises to go abroad, at this
+hour. Thou wilt tell me thy errand, that I may judge of the propriety of
+what I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Better ask the Three Hundred to open the leaves of their book of doom!
+Give me the key of the outer door, girl, that I may go my way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not till I know whether this business is likely to draw down upon my
+father the displeasure of the Senate. Thou knowest, Gino, that I am----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diamine! There goes the clock of San Marco, and I tarry past my hour.
+If I am too late, the fault will rest with thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twill not be the first of thy oversights which it has been my business
+to excuse. Here thou art, and here shalt thou remain, until I know the
+errand which calls for a mask and jacket, and all about this matter of
+gravity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is talking like a jealous wife instead of a reasonable girl,
+Annina. I have told thee that I am on business of the last importance,
+and that delay may bring heavy calamities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On whom? What is thy business? Why art thou, whom in general it is
+necessary to warn from this house by words many times repeated, now in
+such a haste to leave it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have I not told thee, girl, 'tis an errand of great concern to six
+noble families, and if I fail to be in season there may be a
+strife&mdash;aye, between the Florentine and the Republic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast said nothing of the sort, nor do I put faith in thy being an
+ambassador of San Marco. Speak truth for once, Gino Monaldi, or lay
+aside the mask and jacket, and take up thy flowers of Sant' Agata.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, then, as we are friends, and I have faith in thy discretion,
+Annina, thou shalt know the truth to the extremity, for I find the bell
+has only tolled the quarters, which leaves me yet a moment for
+confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou lookest at the wall, Gino, and art consulting thy wits for some
+plausible lie!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I look at the wall because conscience tells me that too much weakness
+for thee is about to draw me astray from duty. What thou takest for
+deceit is only shame and modesty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of that we shall judge, when the tale is told.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then listen. Thou hast heard of the affair between my master and the
+niece of the Roman Marchese, who was drowned in the Giudecca by the
+carelessness of an Ancona-man, who passed over the gondola of Pietro as
+if his felucca had been a galley of state?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who has been upon the Lido the month past without hearing the tale
+repeated, with every variation of a gondolier's anger?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, the matter is likely to come to a conclusion this night; my
+master is about to do, as I fear, a very foolish thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will be married!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or worse! I am sent in all haste and secresy in search of a priest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina manifested strong interest in the fiction of the gondolier.
+Either from a distrustful temperament, long habit, or great familiarity
+with the character of her companion, however, she did not listen to his
+explanation without betraying some doubts of its truth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This will be a sudden bridal feast!&quot; she said, after a moment of pause.
+&quot;'Tis well that few are invited, or its savor might be spoiled by the
+Three Hundred! To what convent art thou sent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My errand is not particular. The first that may be found, provided he
+be a Franciscan, and a priest likely to have bowels for lovers in
+haste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo Monforte, the heir of an ancient and great line, does not
+wive with so little caution. Thy false tongue has been trying to deceive
+me, Gino; but long use should have taught thee the folly of the effort.
+Unless thou sayest truth, not only shalt thou not go to thy errand, but
+here art thou prisoner at my pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I may have told thee what I expect will shortly happen, rather than
+what has happened. But Don Camillo keeps me so much upon the water of
+late, that I do little besides dream, when not at the oar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is vain to attempt deceiving me, Gino, for thine eye speaketh
+truth, let thy tongue and brains wander where they will. Drink of this
+cup, and disburden thy conscience, like a man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would that thy father would make the acquaintance of Stefano Milano,&quot;
+resumed the gondolier, taking a long breath, after a still longer
+draught. &quot;'Tis a padrone of Calabria, who oftentimes brings into the
+port excellent liquors of his country, and who would pass a cask of the
+red lachryma christi through the Broglio itself, and not a noble of them
+all should see it. The man is here at present, and, if thou wilt, he
+shall not be long without coming into terms with thee for a few skins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I doubt if he have better liquors than this which hath ripened upon the
+sands of the Lido. Take another draught, for the second taste is thought
+to be better than the first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the wine improve in this manner, thy father should be heavy-hearted
+at the sight of the lees. 'Twould be no more than charity to bring him
+and Stefano acquainted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not do it immediately? His felucca is in the port, thou sayest, and
+thou canst lead him hither by the secret door and the lanes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou forgettest my errand. Don Camillo is not used to be served the
+second. Cospetto! 'T were a pity that any other got the liquor which I
+am certain the Calabrian has in secret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This errand can be no matter of a moment, like that of being sure of
+wine of the quality thou namest; or, if it be, thou canst first dispatch
+thy master's business, and then to the port, in quest of Stefano. That
+the purchase may not fail, I will take a mask and be thy companion, to
+see the Calabrian. Thou knowest my father hath much confidence in my
+judgment in matters like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While Gino stood half stupified and half delighted at this proposition,
+the ready and wily Annina made some slight change in her outer
+garments, placed a silken mask before her face, applied a key to the
+door, and beckoned to the gondolier to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The canal with which the dwelling of the wine-dealer communicated, was
+narrow, gloomy, and little frequented. A gondola of the plainest
+description was fastened near, and the girl entered it, without
+appearing to think any further arrangement necessary. The servant of Don
+Camillo hesitated a single instant, but having seen that his
+half-meditated project of escaping by the use of another boat could not
+be accomplished for want of means, he took his worried place in the
+stern, and began to ply the oar with mechanical readiness.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="005.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter III.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;What well appointed leader fronts us here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">KING HENRY VI.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The presence of Annina was a grave embarrassment to Gino. He had his
+secret wishes and limited ambition, like other men, and among the
+strongest of the former, was the desire to stand well in the favor of
+the wine-seller's daughter. But the artful girl, in catering to his
+palate with a liquor that was scarcely less celebrated among people of
+his class for its strength than its flavor, had caused a momentary
+confusion in the brain of Gino, that required time to disperse. The boat
+was in the Grand Canal, and far on its way to the place of its
+destination, before this happy purification of the intellects of the
+gondolier had been sufficiently effected. By that time, however, the
+exercise of rowing, the fresh air of the evening, and the sight of so
+many accustomed objects, restored his faculties to the necessary degree
+of coolness and forethought. As the boat approached the end of the canal
+he began to cast his eyes about him in quest of the well known felucca
+of the Calabrian.</p>
+
+<p>Though the glory of Venice had departed, the trade of the city was not
+then at its present low ebb. The port was still crowded with vessels
+from many distant havens, and the flags of most of the maritime states
+of Europe were seen, at intervals, within the barrier of the Lido. The
+moon was now sufficiently high to cast its soft light on the whole of
+the glittering basin, and a forest composed of lateen yards, of the
+slender masts of polaccas, and of the more massive and heavy hamper of
+regularly rigged ships, was to be seen rising above the tranquil
+element.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art no judge of a vessel's beauty, Annina,&quot; said the gondolier to
+his companion, who was deeply housed in the pavilion of the boat, &quot;else
+should I tell thee to look at this stranger from Candia. 'Tis said that
+a fairer model has never entered within the Lido than that same Greek!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our errand is not with the Candian trader, Gino; therefore ply thy oar,
+for time passes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's plenty of rough Greek wine in his hold; but, as thou sayest, we
+have naught with him. Yon tall ship, which is moored without the smaller
+craft of our seas, is the vessel of a Lutheran from the islands of
+Inghilterra. 'Twas a sad day for the Republic, girl, when it first
+permitted the stranger to come into the waters of the Adriatic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it certain, Gino, that the arm of St. Mark was strong enough to keep
+him out?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mother of Diana! I would rather thou didst not ask that question in a
+place where so many gondoliers are in motion! Here are Ragusans,
+Maltese, Sicilians, and Tuscans without number; and a little fleet of
+French lie near each other there, at the entrance of the Giudecca. They
+are a people who get together, afloat or ashore, for the benefit of the
+tongue. Here we are, at the end of our journey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The oar of Gino gave a backward sweep, and the gondola was at rest by
+the side of a felucca.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A happy night to the Bella Sorrentina and her worthy padrone!&quot; was the
+greeting of the gondolier, as he put his foot on the deck of the vessel.
+&quot;Is the honest Stefano Milano on board the swift felucca?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Calabrian was not slow to answer; and in a few moments the padrone
+and his two visitors were in close and secret conference.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have brought one here who will be likely to put good Venetian
+sequins into thy pocket, caro,&quot; observed the gondolier, when the
+preliminaries of discourse had been properly observed. &quot;She is the
+daughter of a most conscientious wine-dealer, who is quite as ready at
+transplanting your Sicilian grapes into the islands as he is willing and
+able to pay for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And one, no doubt, as handsome as she is ready,&quot; said the mariner, with
+blunt gallantry, &quot;were the black cloud but fairly driven from before her
+face.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A mask is of little consequence in a bargain provided the money be
+forthcoming. We are always in the Carnival at Venice; and he who would
+buy, or he who would sell, has the same right to hide his face as to
+hide his thoughts. What hast thou in the way of forbidden liquors,
+Stefano, that my companion may not lose the night in idle words?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Per Diana! Master Gino, thou puttest thy questions with little
+ceremony. The hold of the felucca is empty, as thou mayest see by
+stepping to the hatches; and as for any liquor, we are perishing for a
+drop to warm the blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so far from coming to seek it here,&quot; said Annina, &quot;we should have
+done better to have gone into the cathedral, and said an Ave for thy
+safe voyage home. And now that our wit is spent, we will quit thee,
+friend Stefano, for some other less skilful in answers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! thou knowest not what thou sayest,&quot; whispered Gino, when he
+found that the wary Annina was not disposed to remain. &quot;The man never
+enters the meanest creek in Italy, without having something useful
+secreted in the felucca on his own account. One purchase of him would
+settle the question between the quality of thy father's wines and those
+of Battista. There is not a gondolier in Venice but will resort to thy
+shop if the intercourse with this fellow can be fairly settled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina hesitated; long practised in the small, but secret exceedingly
+hazardous commerce which her father, notwithstanding the vigilance and
+severity of the Venetian police, had thus far successfully driven, she
+neither liked to risk an exposure of her views to an utter stranger, nor
+to abandon a bargain that promised to be lucrative. That Gino trifled
+with her as to his true errand needed no confirmation, since a servant
+of the Duke of Sant' Agata was not likely to need a disguise to search a
+priest; but she knew his zeal for her personal welfare too well to
+distrust his faith in a matter that concerned her own safety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thou distrust that any here are the spies of the authorities,&quot; she
+observed to the padrone, with a manner that readily betrayed her wishes,
+&quot;it will be in Gino's power to undeceive thee. Thou wilt testify, Gino,
+that I am not to be suspected of treachery in an affair like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave me to put a word into the private ear of the Calabrian,&quot; said the
+gondolier, significantly.&mdash;&quot;Stefano Milano, if thou love me,&quot; he
+continued, when they were a little apart, &quot;keep the girl in parley, and
+treat with her fairly for thy adventure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I sell the vintage of Don Camillo, or that of the Viceroy of
+Sicily, caro? There is as much wine of each on board the Bella
+Sorrentina, as would float the fleet of the Republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If, in truth, thou art dry, then feign that thou hast it, and differ in
+thy prices. Entertain her but a minute with fair words, while I can get
+unseen into my gondola; and then, for the sake of an old and tried
+friend, put her tenderly on the quay, in the best manner thou art able.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begin to see into the nature of the trade,&quot; returned the pliant
+padrone, placing a finger on the side of his nose. &quot;I will discourse the
+woman by the hour about the flavor of the liquor, or, if thou wilt, of
+her own beauty; but to squeeze a drop of anything better than the water
+of the Lagunes out of the ribs of the felucca, would be a miracle worthy
+of San Teodoro.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is but little need to touch on aught but the quality of thy
+wine. The girl is not like most of her sex, and she takes sudden offence
+when there is question of her appearance. Indeed, the mask she wears is
+as much to hide a face that has little to tempt the eye, as from any
+wish at concealment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since Gino has entered frankly into the matter,&quot; resumed the
+quick-witted Calabrian, cheerfully, and with an air of sudden confidence
+to the expectant Annina, &quot;I begin to see more probability of our
+understanding each other's meaning. Deign, bella donna, to go into my
+poor cabin, where we will speak more at our ease, and something more to
+our mutual profit and mutual security.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina was not without secret doubts, but she suffered the padrone to
+lead her to the stairs of the cabin, as if she were disposed to descend.
+Her back was no sooner turned, than Gino slid into the gondola, which
+one shove of his vigorous arm sent far beyond the leap of man. The
+action was sudden, rapid, and noiseless; but the jealous eye of Annina
+detected the escape of the gondolier, though not in time to prevent it.
+Without betraying uneasiness, she submitted to be led below, as if the
+whole were done by previous concert.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gino has said that you have a boat which will do the friendly office to
+put me on the quay when our conference is over,&quot; she remarked, with a
+presence of mind that luckily met the expedient of her late companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The felucca itself should do that much, were there want of other
+means,&quot; gallantly returned the manner when they disappeared in the
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Free to discharge his duty, Gino now plied his task with redoubled zeal.
+The light boat glided among the vessels, inclining, by the skilful
+management of his single oar, in a manner to avoid all collision, until
+it entered the narrow canal which separates the palace of the Doge from
+the more beautiful and classic structure that contains the prisons of
+the Republic. The bridge which continues the communication of the quays,
+was first passed, and then he was stealing beneath that far-famed arch
+which supports a covered gallery leading from the upper story of the
+palace into that of the prisons, and which, from its being appropriated
+to the passage of the accused from their cells to the presence of their
+judges, has been so poetically, and it may be added so pathetically,
+called the Bridge of Sighs.</p>
+
+<p>The oar of Gino now relaxed its efforts, and the gondola approached a
+flight of steps over which, as usual, the water cast its little waves.
+Stepping on the lowest flag, he thrust a small iron spike to which a
+cord was attached, into a crevice between two of the stones, and left
+his boat to the security of this characteristic fastening. When this
+little precaution was observed, the gondolier passed up lightly beneath
+the massive arch of the water-gate of the palace, and entered its large
+but gloomy court.</p>
+
+<p>At that hour, and with the temptation of the gay scene which offered in
+the adjoining square, the place was nearly deserted. A single female
+water-carrier was at the well, waiting for the element to filter into
+its basin, in order to fill her buckets, while her ear listened in dull
+attention to the hum of the moving crowd without. A halberdier paced the
+open gallery at the head of the Giant's Stairs, and, here and there, the
+footfall of other sentinels might be heard among the hollow and
+ponderous arches of the long corridors. No light was shed from the
+windows; but the entire building presented a fit emblem of that
+mysterious power which was known to preside over the fortunes of Venice
+and her citizens. Ere Gino trusted himself without the shadow of the
+passage by which he had entered, two or three curious faces had appeared
+at the opposite entrance of the court, where they paused a moment to
+gaze at the melancholy and imposing air of the dreaded palace, before
+they vanished in the throng which trifled in the immediate proximity of
+that secret and ruthless tribunal, as man riots in security even on the
+verge of an endless and unforeseen future.</p>
+
+<p>Disappointed in his expectation of meeting him he sought, on the
+instant, the gondolier advanced, and taking courage by the possibility
+of his escaping altogether from the interview, he ventured to furnish
+audible evidence of his presence by a loud hem. At that instant a figure
+glided into the court from the side of the quay, and walked swiftly
+towards its centre. The heart of Gino beat violently, but he mustered
+resolution to meet the stranger. As they drew near each other, it became
+evident, by the light of the moon, which penetrated even to that gloomy
+spot, that the latter was also masked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;San Teodoro and San Marco have you in mind!&quot; commenced the gondolier.
+&quot;If I mistake not, you are the man I am sent to meet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger started, and first manifesting an intention to pass on
+quickly, he suddenly arrested the movement to reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This may be so or not. Unmask, that I may judge by thy countenance if
+what thou sayest be true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By your good leave, most worthy and honorable Signore, and if it be
+equally agreeable to you and my master, I would choose to keep off the
+evening air by this bit of pasteboard and silk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here are none to betray thee, wert thou naked as at thy birth. Unless
+certain of thy character, in what manner may I confide in thy honesty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have no distrust of the virtues of an undisguised face, Signore, and
+therefore do I invite you, yourself, to exhibit what nature has done for
+you in the way of features, that I, who am to make the confidence, be
+sure it be to the right person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is well, and gives assurance of thy prudence. I may not unmask,
+however; and as there seemeth little probability of our coming to an
+understanding, I will go my way. A most happy night to thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto!&mdash;Signore, you are far too quick in your ideas and movements
+for one little used to negotiations of this sort. Here is a ring whose
+signet may help us to understand each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger took the jewel, and holding the stone in a manner to
+receive the light of the moon, he started in a manner to betray both
+surprise and pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the falcon crest of the Neapolitan&mdash;he that is the lord of
+Sant' Agata!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And of many other fiefs, good Signore, to say nothing of the honors he
+claims in Venice. Am I right in supposing my errand with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast found one whose present business has no other object than Don
+Camillo Monforte. But thy errand was not solely to exhibit the signet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So little so, that I have a packet here which waits only for a
+certainty of the person with whom I speak, to be placed into his hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger mused a moment; then glancing a look about him, he answered
+hurriedly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is no place to unmask, friend, even though we only wear our
+disguises in pleasantry. Tarry here, and at my return I will conduct
+thee to a more fitting spot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The words were scarcely uttered when Gino found himself standing in the
+middle of the court alone. The masked stranger had passed swiftly on,
+and was at the bottom of the Giant's Stairs ere the gondolier had time
+for reflection. He ascended with a light and rapid step, and without
+regarding the halberdier, he approached the first of three or four
+orifices which opened into the wall of the palace, and which, from the
+heads of the animal being carved in relief around them, had become
+famous as the receptacles of secret accusations under the name of the
+Lion's Mouths. Something he dropped into the grinning aperture of the
+marble, though what, the distance and the obscurity of the gallery
+prevented Gino from perceiving; and then his form was seen gliding like
+a phantom down the flight of massive steps.</p>
+
+<p>Gino had retired towards the arch of the water-gate, in expectation that
+the stranger would rejoin him within its shadows; but, to his great
+alarm, he saw the form darting through the outer portal of the palace
+into the square of St. Mark. It was not a moment ere Gino, breathless
+with haste, was in chase. On reaching the bright and gay scene of the
+piazza, which contrasted with the gloomy court he had just quitted like
+morning with night, he saw the utter fruitlessness of further pursuit.
+Frightened at the loss of his master's signet, however, the indiscreet
+but well intentioned gondolier rushed into the crowd, and tried in vain
+to select the delinquent from among a thousand masks.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Harkee, Signore,&quot; uttered the half-distracted gondolier to one, who,
+having first examined his person with distrust, evidently betrayed a
+wish to avoid him, &quot;if thou hast sufficiently pleased thy finger with my
+master's signet, the occasion offers to return it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know thee not,&quot; returned a voice, in which Gino's ear could detect no
+familiar sound.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may not be well to trifle with the displeasure of a noble as
+powerful as him, you know,&quot; he whispered at the elbow of another, who
+had come under his suspicions. &quot;The signet, if thou pleasest, and the
+affair need go no further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He who would meddle in it, with or without that gage, would do well to
+pause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier again turned away disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The ring is not suited to thy masquerade, friend of mine,&quot; he essayed
+with a third; &quot;and it would be wise not to trouble the podest&agrave; about
+such a trifle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then name it not, lest he hear thee.&quot; The answer proved, like all the
+others, unsatisfactory and bootless.</p>
+
+<p>Gino now ceased to question any; but he threaded the throng with an
+active and eager eye. Fifty times was he tempted to speak, but as often
+did some difference in stature or dress, some laugh, or trifle uttered
+in levity, warn him of his mistake. He penetrated to the very head of
+the piazza, and, returning by the opposite side, he found his way
+through the throng of the porticoes, looking into every coffee-house,
+and examining each figure that floated by, until he again issued into
+the piazzetta, without success. A slight jerk at the elbow of his jacket
+arrested his steps, and he turned to look at the person who had detained
+him. A female, attired like a contadina, addressed him in the feigned
+voice common to all.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whither so fast, and what hast thou lost in this merry crowd? If a
+heart, 'twill be wise to use diligence, for many here may be willing to
+wear the jewel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Corpo di Bacco!&quot; exclaimed the disappointed gondolier; &quot;any who find
+such a bauble of mine under foot, are welcome to their luck! Hast thou
+seen a domino of a size like that of any other man, with a gait that
+might pass for the step of a senator, padre, or Jew, and a mask that
+looks as much like a thousand of these in the square as one side of the
+campanile is like the other?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy picture is so well drawn that one cannot fail to know the original.
+He stands beside thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino wheeled suddenly, and saw that a grinning harlequin was playing his
+antics in the place where he had expected to find the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thy eyes, bella contadina, are as dull as a mole's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He ceased speaking; for, deceived in his person, she who had saluted him
+was no longer visible. In this manner did the disappointed gondolier
+thread his way towards the water, now answering to the boisterous salute
+of some clown, and now repelling the advances of females less disguised
+than the pretended contadina, until he gained a space near the quays,
+where there was more room for observation. Here he paused, undetermined
+whether to return and confess his indiscretion to his master, or whether
+he should make still another effort to regain the ring which had been so
+sillily lost. The vacant space between the two granite columns was left
+to the quiet possession of himself and one other, who stood near the
+base of that which sustained the lion of St. Mark, as motionless as if
+he too were merely a form of stone. Two or three stragglers, either led
+by idle curiosity or expecting to meet one appointed to await their
+coming, drew near this immovable man, but all glided away, as if there
+were repulsion in his marble-like countenance. Gino had witnessed
+several instances of this evident dislike to remain near the unknown
+figure, ere he felt induced to cross the space between them, in order to
+inquire into its cause. A slow movement at the sound of his footsteps,
+brought the rays of the moon full upon the calm countenance and
+searching eye of the very man he sought.</p>
+
+<p>The first impulse of the gondolier, like that of all the others he had
+seen approach the spot, was to retreat; but the recollection of his
+errand and his loss came in season to prevent such an exhibition of his
+disgust and alarm. Still he did not speak; but he met the riveted gaze
+of the Bravo with a look that denoted, equally, confusion of intellect
+and a half-settled purpose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would'st thou aught with me?&quot; demanded Jacopo, when the gaze of each
+had continued beyond the term of accidental glances.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My master's signet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know thee not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That image of San Teodoro could testify that this is holy truth, if it
+would but speak! I have not the honor of your friendship, Signor Jacopo;
+but one may have affairs even with a stranger. If you met a peaceable
+and innocent gondolier in the court of the palace since the clock of the
+piazza told the last quarter, and got from him a ring, which can be of
+but little use to any but its rightful owner, one so generous will not
+hesitate to return it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou take me for a jeweller of the Rialto that thou speakest to me
+of rings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I take you for one well known and much valued by many of name and
+quality, here in Venice, as witness my errand from my own master.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remove thy mask. Men of fair dealing need not hide the features which
+nature has given them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You speak nothing but truths, Signor Frontoni, which is little
+remarkable considering thy opportunities of looking into the motives of
+men. There is little in my face to pay you for the trouble of casting a
+glance at it. I would as lief do as others in this gay season, if it be
+equally agreeable to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do as thou wilt; but I pray thee to give me the same permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are few so bold as to dispute thy pleasure, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is, to be alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! There is not a man in Venice who would more gladly consult
+it, if my master's errand were fairly done!&quot; muttered Gino, between his
+teeth. &quot;I have here a packet, which it is my duty to put into your
+hands, Signore, and into those of no other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know thee not&mdash;thou hast a name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not in the sense in which you speak, Signore. As to that sort of
+reputation I am as nameless as a foundling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thy master is of no more note than thyself the packet may be
+returned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are few within the dominions of St. Mark of better lineage or of
+fairer hopes than the Duke of Sant' Agata.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The cold expression of the Bravo's countenance changed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thou comest from Don Camillo Monforte, why dost thou hesitate to
+proclaim it? Where are his requests?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not whether it is his pleasure or that of another which this
+paper contains, but such as it is, Signor Jacopo, my duty commands me to
+deliver it to thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The packet was received calmly, though the organ which glanced at its
+seal and its superscription, gleamed with an expression which the
+credulous gondolier fancied to resemble that of the tiger at the sight
+of blood.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou said'st something of a ring. Dost thou bear thy master's signet? I
+am much accustomed to see pledges ere I give faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed San Teodore grant that I did! Were it as heavy as a skin of
+wine, I would willingly bear the load; but one that I mistook for you,
+Master Jacopo, has it on his own light finger, I fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is an affair that thou wilt settle with thy master,&quot; returned the
+Bravo, coldly, again examining the impression of the seal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are acquainted with the writing of my master,&quot; hurriedly
+remarked Gino, who trembled for the fate of the packet, &quot;you will see
+his skill in the turn of those letters. There are few nobles in Venice,
+or indeed in the Sicilies, who have a more scholarly hand, with a quill,
+than Don Camillo Monforte; I could not do the thing half so well
+myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am no clerk,&quot; observed the Bravo, without betraying shame at the
+confession. &quot;The art of deciphering a scroll, like this, was never
+taught me; if thou art so expert in the skill of a penman, tell me the
+name the packet bears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twould little become me to breathe a syllable concerning any of my
+master's secrets,&quot; returned the gondolier, drawing himself up in sudden
+reserve. &quot;It is enough that he bid me deliver the letter; after which I
+should think it presumption even to whisper more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dark eye of the Bravo was seen rolling over the person of his
+companion, by the light of the moon, in a manner that caused the blood
+of the latter to steal towards his heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I bid thee read to me aloud the name the paper bears,&quot; said Jacopo,
+sternly. &quot;Here is none but the lion and the saint above our heads to
+listen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just San Marco! who can tell what ear is open or what ear is shut in
+Venice? If you please, Signor Frontoni, we will postpone the examination
+to a more suitable occasion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Friend, I do not play the fool! The name, or show me some gage that
+thou art sent by him thou hast named, else take back the packet; 'tis no
+affair for my hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reflect a single moment on the consequences, Signor Jacopo, before you
+come to a determination so hasty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know no consequences which can befall a man who refuses to receive a
+message like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Per Diana! Signore, the Duca will not be likely to leave me an ear to
+hear the good advice of Father Battista.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then will the Duca save the public executioner some trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the Bravo cast the packet at the feet of the gondolier, and
+began to walk calmly up the piazzetta. Gino seized the letter, and, with
+his brain in a whirl, with the effort to recall some one of his master's
+acquaintances to whom he would be likely to address an epistle on such
+an occasion, he followed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder, Signor Jacopo, that a man of your sagacity has not remembered
+that a packet to be delivered to himself should bear his own name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo took the paper, and held the superscription again to the
+light.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is not so. Though unlearned, necessity has taught me to know when
+I am meant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diamine! That is just my own case, Signore. Were the letter for me,
+now the old should not know its young quicker than I would come at the
+truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then thou canst not read?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never pretended to the art. The little said was merely about writing.
+Learning, as you well understand, Master Jacopo, is divided into
+reading, writing, and figures; and a man may well understand one,
+without knowing a word of the others. It is not absolutely necessary to
+be a bishop to have a shaved head, or a Jew to wear a beard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou would'st have done better to have said this at once; go, I will
+think of the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino gladly turned away, but he had not left the other many paces before
+he saw a female form gliding behind the pedestal of one of the granite
+columns. Moving swiftly in a direction to uncover this seeming spy, he
+saw at once that Annina had been a witness of his interview with the
+Bravo.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="006.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter IV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  &quot;'T will make me think<br />
+The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune<br />
+Runs 'gainst the bias.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">RICHARD THE SECOND.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Though Venice at that hour was so gay in her squares, the rest of the
+town was silent as the grave. A city in which the hoof of horse or the
+rolling of wheels is never heard, necessarily possesses a character of
+its own; but the peculiar form of the government, and the long training
+of the people in habits of caution, weighed on the spirits of the gay.
+There were times and places, it is true, when the buoyancy of youthful
+blood, and the levity of the thoughtless, found occasion for their
+display&mdash;nor were they rare; but when men found themselves removed from
+the temptation, and perhaps from the support of society, they appeared
+to imbibe the character of their sombre city.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of most of the town, while the scene described in the
+previous chapter was exhibited in the lively piazza of San Marco. The
+moon had risen so high that its light fell between the range of walls,
+here and there touching the surface of the water, to which it imparted a
+quivering brightness, while the domes and towers rested beneath its
+light in a solemn but grand repose. Occasionally the front of a palace
+received the rays on its heavy cornices and labored columns, the gloomy
+stillness of the interior of the edifice furnishing, in every such
+instance, a striking contrast to the richness and architectural beauty
+without. Our narrative now leads us to one of these patrician abodes of
+the first class.</p>
+
+<p>A heavy magnificence pervaded the style of the dwelling. The vestibule
+was vast, vaulted, and massive. The stairs, rich in marbles, heavy and
+grand. The apartments were imposing in their gildings and sculpture,
+while the walls sustained countless works on which the highest geniuses
+of Italy had lavishly diffused their power. Among these relics of an age
+more happy in this respect than that of which we write, the connoisseur
+would readily have known the pencils of Titian, Paul Veronese, and
+Tintoretto&mdash;the three great names in which the subjects of St. Mark so
+justly prided themselves. Among these works of the higher masters were
+mingled others by the pencils of Bellino, and Montegna, and Palma
+Vecchio&mdash;artists who were secondary only to the more renowned colorists
+of the Venetian school. Vast sheets of mirrors lined the walls, wherever
+the still more precious paintings had no place; while the ordinary
+hangings of velvet and silk became objects of secondary admiration, in a
+scene of nearly royal magnificence. The cool and beautiful floors, made
+of a composition in which all the prized marbles of Italy and of the
+East polished to the last degree of art, were curiously embedded, formed
+a suitable finish to a style so gorgeous, and in which luxury and taste
+were blended in equal profusion.</p>
+
+<p>The building, which, on two of its sides, literally rose from out the
+water, was, as usual, erected around a dark court. Following its
+different faces, the eye might penetrate, by many a door, open at that
+hour for the passage of the air from off the sea, through long suites of
+rooms, furnished and fitted in the manner described, all lighted by
+shaded lamps that spread a soft and gentle glow around. Passing without
+notice ranges of reception and sleeping rooms&mdash;the latter of a
+magnificence to mock the ordinary wants of the body&mdash;we shall at once
+introduce the reader into the part of the palace where the business of
+the tale conducts us.</p>
+
+<p>At the angle of the dwelling on the side of the smaller of the two
+canals, and most remote from the principal water-avenue of the city on
+which the edifice fronted, there was a suite of apartments, which, while
+it exhibited the same style of luxury and magnificence as those first
+mentioned in its general character, discovered greater attention in its
+details to the wants of ordinary life. The hangings were of the richest
+velvets or of glossy silks, the mirrors were large and of exquisite
+truth, the floors of the same gay and pleasing colors, and the walls
+were adorned with their appropriate works of art. But the whole was
+softened down to a picture of domestic comfort. The tapestries and
+curtains hung in careless folds, the beds admitted of sleep, and the
+pictures were delicate copies by the pencil of some youthful amateur,
+whose leisure had been exercised in this gentle and feminine employment.</p>
+
+<p>The fair being herself, whose early instruction had given birth to so
+many skilful imitations of the divine expression of Raphael, or to the
+vivid tints of Titian, was at that hour in her privacy, discoursing with
+her ghostly adviser, and one of her own sex, who had long discharged the
+joint trusts of instructor and parent. The years of the lady of the
+palace were so tender that, in a more northern region, she would
+scarcely have been deemed past the period of childhood, though in her
+native land, the justness and maturity of her form, and the expression
+of a dark, eloquent eye, indicated both the growth and the intelligence
+of womanhood.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For this good counsel I thank you, my father, and my excellent Donna
+Florinda will thank you still more, for your opinions are so like her
+own, that I sometimes admire the secret means by which experience
+enables the wise and the good to think so much alike, on a matter of so
+little personal interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A slight but furtive smile struggled around the mortified mouth of the
+Carmelite, as he listened to the naive observation of his ingenuous
+pupil.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt learn, my child,&quot; he answered, &quot;as time heaps wisdom on thy
+head, that it is in concerns which touch our passions and interests
+least, we are most apt to decide with discretion and impartiality.
+Though Donna Florinda is not yet past the age when the heart is finally
+subdued, and there is still so much to bind her to the world, she will
+assure thee of this truth, or I greatly mistake the excellence of that
+mind, which hath hitherto led her so far blameless, in this erring
+pilgrimage to which we are all doomed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though the cowl was over the head of the speaker, who was evidently
+preparing to depart, and his deeply-seated eye never varied from its
+friendly look at the fair face of her he instructed, the blood stole
+into the pale cheeks of the maternal companion, and her whole
+countenance betrayed some such reflection of feeling at his praise, as a
+wintry sky exhibits at a sudden gleam from the setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trust that Violetta does not now hear this for the first time,&quot;
+observed Donna Florinda, in a voice so meek and tremulous as to be
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Little that can be profitably told one of my inexperience has been left
+untaught,&quot; quickly answered the pupil, unconscious herself that she
+reached her hand towards that of her constant monitor, though too intent
+on her object to change her look from the features of the Carmelite.
+&quot;But why this desire in the Senate to dispose of a girl who would be
+satisfied to live for ever, as she is now, happy in her youth, and
+contented with the privacy which becomes her sex?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The relentless years will not stay their advance, that even one
+innocent as thou may never know the unhappiness and trials of a more
+mature age. This life is one of imperious and, oftentimes, of tyrannical
+duties. Thou art not ignorant of the policy that rules a state which
+hath made its name so illustrious by high deeds in arms, its riches, and
+its widely-spread influence. There is a law in Venice which commandeth
+that none claiming an interest in its affairs shall so bind himself to
+the stranger as to endanger the devotion all owe to the Republic. Thus
+may not the patrician of St. Mark be a lord in other lands, nor may the
+heiress of a name, great and valued as thine, be given in marriage to
+any of note, in a foreign state, without counsel and consent from those
+who are appointed to watch over the interests of all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had Providence cast my lot in an humbler class, this would not have
+been. Methinks it ill comports with the happiness of woman to be the
+especial care of the Council of Ten!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is indiscretion, and I lament to say, impiety in thy words. Our
+duty bids us submit to earthly laws, and more than duty, reverence
+teaches us not to repine at the will of Providence. But I do not see the
+weight of this grievance against which thou murmurest, daughter. Thou
+art youthful, wealthy beyond the indulgence of all healthful desires, of
+a lineage to excite an unwholesome worldly pride, and fair enough to
+render thee the most dangerous of thine own enemies&mdash;and thou repinest
+at a lot to which all of thy sex and station are, of necessity,
+subject!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the offence against Providence I am already a penitent,&quot; returned
+the Donna Violetta. &quot;But surely it would be less embarrassing to a girl
+of sixteen, were the fathers of the state so much occupied with more
+weighty affairs as to forget her birth and years, and haply her wealth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There would be little merit in being content with a world fashioned
+after our own caprices, though it may be questioned if we should be
+happier by having all things as we desire than by being compelled to
+submit to them as they are. The interest taken by the Republic in thy
+particular welfare, daughter, is the price thou payest for the ease and
+magnificence with which thou art encircled. One more obscure, and less
+endowed by fortune, might have greater freedom of will, but it would be
+accompanied by none of the pomp which adorns the dwelling of thy
+fathers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would there were less of luxury and more of liberty within its
+walls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Time will enable thee to see differently. At thy age all is viewed in
+colors of gold, or life is rendered bootless, because we are thwarted in
+our ill-digested wishes. I deny not, however, that thy fortune is
+tempered by some peculiar passages. Venice is ruled by a policy that is
+often calculating, and haply some deem it remorseless.&quot; Though the voice
+of the Carmelite had fallen, he paused and glanced an uneasy look from
+beneath his cowl ere he continued. &quot;The caution of the senate teaches it
+to preclude, as far as in it lies, the union of interests that may not
+only oppose each other, but which may endanger those of the state. Thus,
+as I have said, none of senatorial rank may hold lands without the
+limits of the Republic, nor may any of account connect themselves, by
+the ties of marriage, with strangers of dangerous influence, without the
+consent and supervision of the Republic. The latter is thy situation,
+for of the several foreign lords who seek thy hand the council see none
+to whom the favor may be extended without the apprehension of creating
+an influence here, in the centre of the canals, which ought not to be
+given to a stranger. Don Camillo Monforte, the cavalier to whom thou art
+indebted for thy life, and of whom thou hast so lately spoken with
+gratitude, has far more cause to complain of these hard decrees, than
+thou mayest have, in any reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twould make my griefs still heavier, did I know that one who has shown
+so much courage in my behalf, has equal reason to feel their justice,&quot;
+returned Violetta, quickly. &quot;What is the affair that, so fortunately for
+me, hath brought the Lord of Sant' Agata to Venice, if a grateful girl
+may, without indiscretion, inquire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy interest in his behalf is both natural and commendable,&quot; answered
+the Carmelite, with a simplicity which did more credit to his cowl than
+to his observation. &quot;He is young, and doubtless he is tempted by the
+gifts of fortune and the passions of his years to divers acts of
+weakness. Remember him, daughter, in thy prayers, that part of the debt
+of gratitude may be repaid. His worldly interest here is one of general
+notoriety, and I can ascribe thy ignorance of it only to a retired
+manner of life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My charge hath other matters to occupy her thoughts than the concerns
+of a young stranger, who cometh to Venice for affairs,&quot; mildly observed
+Donna Florinda,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But if I am to remember him in my prayers, Father, it might enlighten
+my petition to know in what the young noble is most wanting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would have thee remember his spiritual necessities only. He wanteth,
+of a truth, little in temporalities that the world can offer, though the
+desires of life often lead him who hath most in quest of more. It would
+seem that an ancestor of Don Camillo was anciently a senator of Venice,
+when the death of a relation brought many Calabrian signories into his
+possession. The younger of his sons, by an especial decree, which
+favored a family that had well served the state, took these estates,
+while the elder transmitted the senatorial rank and the Venetian
+fortunes to his posterity. Time hath extinguished the elder branch; and
+Don Camillo hath for years besieged the council to be restored to those
+rights which his predecessor renounced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can they refuse him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His demand involves a departure from established laws. Were he to
+renounce the Calabrian lordships, the Neapolitan might lose more than he
+would gain; and to keep both is to infringe a law that is rarely
+suffered to be dormant. I know little, daughter, of the interests of
+life; but there are enemies of the Republic who say that its servitude
+is not easy, and that it seldom bestows favors of this sort without
+seeking an ample equivalent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this as it should be? If Don Camillo Monforte has claims in Venice,
+whether it be to palaces on the canals, or to lands on the main; to
+honors in the state, or voice in the senate; justice should be rendered
+without delay, lest it be said the Republic vaunts more of the sacred
+quality than it practises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest as a guileless nature prompts. It is the frailty of man,
+my daughter, to separate his public acts from the fearful responsibility
+of his private deeds; as if God, in endowing his being with reason and
+the glorious hopes of Christianity, had also endowed him with two souls,
+of which only one was to be cared for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are there not those, Father, who believe that, while the evil we commit
+as individuals is visited on our own persons, that which is done by
+states, falls on the nation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The pride of human reason has invented diverse subtleties to satisfy
+its own longings, but it can never feed itself on a delusion more fatal
+than this! The crime which involves others in its guilt or consequences,
+is doubly a crime, and though it be a property of sin to entail its own
+punishment, even in our present life, he trusts to a vain hope who
+thinks the magnitude of the offence will ever be its apology. The chief
+security of our nature is to remove it beyond temptation, and he is
+safest from the allurements of the world who is farthest removed from
+its vices. Though I would wish justice done to the noble Neapolitan, it
+may be for his everlasting peace that the additional wealth he seeks
+should be withheld.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am unwilling to believe, Father, that a cavalier, who has shown
+himself so ready to assist the distressed, will easily abuse the gifts
+of fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite fastened an uneasy look on the bright features of the
+young Venetian. Parental solicitude and prophetic foresight were in his
+glance, but the expression was relieved by the charity of a chastened
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gratitude to the preserver of thy life becomes thy station and sex; it
+is a duty. Cherish the feeling, for it is akin to the holy obligation of
+man to his Creator.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it enough to feel grateful!&quot; demanded Violetta. &quot;One of my name and
+alliances might do more. We can move the patricians of my family in
+behalf of the stranger, that his protracted suit may come to a more
+speedy end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Daughter, beware; the intercession of one in whom St. Mark feels so
+lively an interest, may raise up enemies to Don Camillo, instead of
+friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Violetta was silent, while the monk and Donna Florinda both
+regarded her with affectionate concern. The former then adjusted his
+cowl, and prepared to depart. The noble maiden approached the Carmelite,
+and looking into his face with ingenuous confidence and habitual
+reverence, she besought his blessing. When the solemn and customary
+office was performed, the monk turned towards the companion of his
+spiritual charge. Donna Florinda permitted the silk, on which her needle
+had been busy, to fall into her lap, and she sat in meek silence, while
+the Carmelite raised his open palms towards her bended head. His lips
+moved, but the words of benediction were inaudible. Had the ardent being
+intrusted to their joint care been less occupied with her own feelings,
+or more practised in the interests of that world into which she was
+about to enter, it is probable she would have detected some evidence of
+that deep but smothered sympathy, which so often betrayed itself in the
+silent intelligence of her ghostly father and her female Mentor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt not forget us, Father?&quot; said Violetta, with winning
+earnestness. &quot;An orphan girl, in whose fate the sages of the Republic so
+seriously busy themselves, has need of every friend in whom she can
+confide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed be thy intercessor,&quot; said the monk, &quot;and the peace of the
+innocent be with thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more he waved his hand, and turning, he slowly quitted the room.
+The eye of Donna Florinda followed the white robes of the Carmelite,
+while they were visible; and when it fell again upon the silk, it was
+for a moment closed, as if looking at the movements of the rebuked
+spirit within. The young mistress of the palace summoned a menial, and
+bade him do honor to her confessor, by seeing him to his gondola. She
+then moved to the open balcony. A long pause succeeded; it was such a
+silence, breathing, thoughtful, and luxurious with the repose of Italy,
+as suited the city and the hour. Suddenly Violetta receded from the open
+window, and withdrew a step, in alarm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there a boat beneath?&quot; demanded her companion, whose glance was
+unavoidably attracted to the movement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The water was never more quiet. But thou hearest those strains of the
+hautboys?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are they so rare on the canals, that they drive thee from the balcony?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are cavaliers beneath the windows of the Mentoni palace;
+doubtless they compliment our friend Olivia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even that gallantry is common. Thou knowest that Olivia is shortly to
+be united to her kinsman, and he takes the usual means to show his
+admiration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou not find this public announcement of a passion painful? Were
+I to be wooed, I could wish it might only be to my own ear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is an unhappy sentiment for one whose hand is in the gift of the
+Senate! I fear that a maiden of thy rank must be content to hear her
+beauty extolled and her merits sung, if not exaggerated, even by
+hirelings beneath a balcony.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would that they were done!&quot; exclaimed Violetta, stopping her ears.
+&quot;None know the excellence of our friend better than I; but this open
+exposure of thoughts that ought to be so private, must wound her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest go again into the balcony; the music ceases.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are gondoliers singing near the Rialto&mdash;these are sounds I love!
+Sweet in themselves, they do no violence to our sacred feelings. Art
+thou for the water to-night, my Florinda?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whither would'st thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not; but the evening is brilliant, and I pine to mingle with the
+splendor and pleasure without.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;While thousands on the canals pine to mingle with the splendor and
+pleasure within! Thus is it ever with life: that which is possessed is
+little valued, and that which we have not is without price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I owe my duty to my guardian,&quot; said Violetta; &quot;we will row to his
+palace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though Donna Florinda had uttered so grave a moral, she spoke without
+severity. Casting aside her work, she prepared to gratify the desire of
+her charge. It was the usual hour for the high in rank and the secluded
+to go abroad; and neither Venice with its gay throng, nor Italy with its
+soft climate, ever offered greater temptation to seek the open air.</p>
+
+<p>The groom of the chambers was called, the gondoliers were summoned, and
+the ladies, cloaking and taking their masks, were quickly in the boat.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter V.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;If your master<br />
+Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him<br />
+That majesty, to keep decorum, must<br />
+No less beg than a kingdom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The silent movement of the hearse-like gondola soon brought the fair
+Venetian and her female Mentor to the water-gate of the noble, who had
+been intrusted by the Senate with the especial guardianship of the
+person of the heiress. It was a residence of more than common gloom,
+possessing all the solemn but stately magnificence which then
+characterized the private dwellings of the patricians in that city of
+riches and pride. Its magnitude and architecture, though rather less
+imposing than those which distinguished the palace of the Donna
+Violetta, placed it among the private edifices of the first order, and
+all its external decorations showed it to be the habitation of one of
+high importance. Within, the noiseless steps and the air of silent
+distrust among the domestics, added to the gloomy grandeur of the
+apartments, rendered the abode no bad type of the Republic itself.</p>
+
+<p>As neither of his present visitors was a stranger beneath the roof of
+the Signor Gradenigo&mdash;for so the proprietor of the palace was
+called&mdash;they ascended its massive stairs, without pausing to consider
+any of those novelties of construction that would attract the eye of one
+unaccustomed to such a dwelling. The rank and the known consequence of
+the Donna Violetta assured her of a ready reception; and while she was
+ushered to the suite of rooms above, by a crowd of bowing menials, one
+had gone, with becoming speed, to announce her approach to his master.
+When in the ante-chamber, however, the ward stopped, declining to
+proceed any further, in deference to the convenience and privacy of her
+guardian. The delay was short; for no sooner was the old senator
+apprised of her presence, than he hastened from his closet to do her
+honor, with a zeal that did credit to his fitness for the trust he
+filled. The countenance of the old patrician&mdash;a face in which thought
+and care had drawn as many lines as time&mdash;lighted with unequivocal
+satisfaction as he pressed forward to receive his beautiful ward. To her
+half-uttered apologies for the intrusion, he would not listen; but as he
+led her within, he gallantly professed his pleasure at being honored
+with her visits even at moments that, to her scrupulous delicacy, might
+appear the most ill-timed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou canst never come amiss, child as thou art of my ancient friend,
+and the especial care of the state!&quot; he added. &quot;The gates of the
+Gradenigo palace would open of themselves, at the latest period of the
+night, to receive such a guest. Besides, the hour is most suited to the
+convenience of one of thy quality who would breathe the fresh evening
+air on the canals. Were I to limit thee to hours and minutes, some
+truant wish of the moment&mdash;some innocent caprice of thy sex and years,
+might go ungratified. Ah! Donna Florinda, we may well pray that all our
+affection&mdash;not to call it weakness&mdash;for this persuasive girl, shall not
+in the end lead to her own disadvantage!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the indulgence of both, I am grateful,&quot; returned Violetta; &quot;I only
+fear to urge my little requests at moments when your precious time is
+more worthily occupied in behalf of the state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou overratest my consequence. I sometimes visit the Council of Three
+Hundred; but my years and infirmities preclude me now from serving the
+Republic as I could wish Praise be to St. Mark, our patron! its affairs
+are not unprosperous for our declining fortunes. We have dealt bravely
+with the infidel of late; the treaty with the Emperor is not to our
+wrong; and the anger of the church, for the late seeming breach of
+confidence on our part, has been diverted. We owe something in the
+latter affair to a young Neapolitan, who sojourns here at Venice, and
+who is not without interest at the Holy See, by reason of his uncle, the
+Cardinal Secretary. Much good is done by the influence of friends
+properly employed. 'Tis the secret of our success in the actual
+condition of Venice; for that which power cannot achieve must be trusted
+to favor and a wise moderation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your declarations encourage me to become, once more, a suitor; for I
+will confess that, in addition to the desire of doing you honor, I have
+come equally with the wish to urge your great influence in behalf of an
+earnest suit I have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What now! Our young charge, Donna Florinda, has inherited, with the
+fortunes of her family, its ancient habits of patronage and protection!
+But we will not discourage the feeling, for it has a worthy origin, and,
+used with discretion, it fortifies the noble and powerful in their
+stations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And may we not say,&quot; mildly observed Donna Florinda, &quot;that when the
+affluent and happy employ themselves with the cares of the less
+fortunate, they not only discharge a duty, but they cultivate a
+wholesome and useful state of mind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt it not. Nothing can be more useful than to give to each class in
+society, a proper sense of its obligations, and a just sentiment of its
+duties. These are opinions I greatly approve, and which I desire my ward
+may thoroughly understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is happy in possessing instructors so able and so willing to teach
+all she should know,&quot; rejoined Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With this admission, may I ask the Signor Gradenigo to give ear to my
+petition?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy little requests are ever welcome. I would merely observe, that
+generous and ardent temperaments sometimes regard a distant object so
+steadily, as to overlook others that are not only nearer, and perhaps of
+still more urgent importance, but more attainable. In doing a benefit to
+one, we should be wary not to do injury to many. The relative of some
+one of thy household may have thoughtlessly enlisted for the wars?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Should it be so, I trust the recruit will have the manhood not to quit
+his colors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy nurse, who is one little likely to forget the service she did thy
+infancy, urges the claim of some kinsman to an employment in the
+customs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe all of that family are long since placed,&quot; said Violetta,
+laughing, &quot;unless we might establish the good mother herself in some
+station of honor. I have naught to ask in their behalf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She who hath reared thee to this goodly and healthful beauty, would
+prefer a well-supported suit, but still is she better as she is,
+indolent, and, I fear, pampered by thy liberality. Thy private purse is
+drained by demands on thy charity;&mdash;or, perhaps, the waywardness of a
+female taste hath cost thee dear, of late?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Neither. I have little need of gold, for one of my years cannot
+properly maintain the magnificence of her condition. I come, guardian,
+with a far graver solicitation than any of these.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope none in thy favor have been indiscreet of speech!&quot; exclaimed the
+Signor Gradenigo, casting a hasty and suspicious look at his ward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If any have been so thoughtless, let them abide the punishment of their
+fault.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I commend thy justice. In this age of novel opinions, innovations of
+all descriptions cannot be too severely checked. Were the senate to shut
+its ears to all the wild theories that are uttered by the unthinking and
+vain, their language would soon penetrate to the ill-regulated minds of
+the ignorant and idle. Ask me, if thou wilt, for purses in scores, but
+do not move me to forgetfulness of the guilt of the disturber of the
+public peace!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a sequin. My errand is of nobler quality.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak without riddle, that I may know its object.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now that nothing stood between her wish to speak, and her own manner of
+making known the request, Donna Violetta appeared to shrink from
+expressing it. Her color went and came, and she sought support from the
+eye of her attentive and wondering companion. As the latter was ignorant
+of her intention, however, she could do no more than encourage the
+supplicant by such an expression of sympathy as woman rarely refuses to
+her sex, in any trial that involves their peculiar and distinctive
+feelings. Violetta struggled with her diffidence, and then laughing at
+her own want of self-possession, she continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know, Signor Gradenigo,&quot; she said, with a loftiness that was not
+less puzzling, though far more intelligible than the agitation which a
+moment before had embarrassed her manner, &quot;that I am the last of a line
+eminent for centuries in the state of Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So sayeth our history.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I bear a name long known, and which it becomes me to shield from
+all imputation of discredit in my own person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is so true, that it scarce needed so clear an exposure,&quot; drily
+returned the senator.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that, though thus gifted by the accidents of fortune and birth, I
+have received a boon that remains still unrequited, in a manner to do no
+honor to the house of Thiepolo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This becometh serious! Donna Florinda, our ward is more earnest than
+intelligible, and I must ask an explanation at your hands. It becometh
+her not to receive boons of this nature from any.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Though unprepared for this request,&quot; mildly replied the companion, &quot;I
+think she speaks of the boon of life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Signor Gradenigo's countenance assumed a dark expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand you,&quot; he said, coldly. &quot;It is true that the Neapolitan was
+ready to rescue thee, when the calamity befell thy uncle of Florence,
+but Don Camillo Monforte is not a common diver of the Lido, to be
+rewarded like him who finds a bauble dropped from a gondola. Thou hast
+thanked the cavalier; I trust that a noble maiden can do no more in a
+case like this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I have thanked him, and thanked him from my soul, is true!&quot;
+fervently exclaimed Violetta. &quot;When I forget the service, Maria
+Santissima and the good saints forget me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I doubt, Signora Florinda, that your charge hath spent more hours among
+the light works of her late father's library, and less time with her
+missal, than becomes her birth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eye of Violetta kindled, and she folded an arm around the form of
+her shrinking companion, who drew down her veil at this reproof, though
+she forbore to answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Gradenigo,&quot; said the young heiress, &quot;I may have done discredit
+to my instructors, but if the pupil has been idle the fault should not
+be visited on the innocent. It is some evidence that the commands of
+holy church have not been neglected, that I now come to entreat favor in
+behalf of one to whom I owe my life. Don Camillo Monforte has long
+pursued, without success, a claim so just, that were there no other
+motive to concede it, the character of Venice should teach the senators
+the danger of delay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My ward has spent lier leisure with the doctors of Padua! The Republic
+hath its laws, and none who have right on their side appeal to them in
+vain. Thy gratitude is not to be censured; it is rather worthy of thy
+origin and hopes; still, Donna Violetta, we should remember how
+difficult it is to winnow the truth from the chaff of imposition and
+legal subtlety, and, most of all, should a judge be certain before he
+gives his decree, that, in confirming the claims of one applicant, he
+does not defeat those of another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They tamper with his rights! Being born in a foreign realm, he is
+required to renounce more in the land of the stranger than he will gain
+within the limits of the Republic! He wastes life and youth in pursuing
+a phantom! You are of weight in the senate, my guardian, and were you to
+lend him the support of your powerful voice and great instruction, a
+wronged noble would have justice, and Venice, though she might lose a
+trifle from her stores, would better deserve the character of which she
+is so jealous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a persuasive advocate, and I will think of what thou urgest,&quot;
+said the Signor Gradenigo, changing the frown which had been gathering
+about his brow, to a look of indulgence, with a facility that betrayed
+much practice in adapting the expression of his features to his policy.
+&quot;I ought only to hearken to the Neapolitan in my public character of a
+judge; but his service to thee, and my weakness in thy behalf, extorts
+that thou would'st have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Violetta received the promise with a bright and guileless smile.
+She kissed the hand he extended as the pledge of his faith, with a
+fervor that gave her attentive guardian serious uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art too winning even to be resisted by one wearied with rebutting
+plausible pretensions,&quot; he added. &quot;The young and the generous, Donna
+Florinda, believe all to be as their own wishes and simplicity would
+have them. As for this right of Don Camillo&mdash;but no matter&mdash;thou wilt
+have it so, and it shall be examined with that blindness which is said
+to be the failing of justice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have understood the metaphor to mean blind to favor, but not
+insensible to the right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear that is a sense which might defeat our hopes&mdash;but we will look
+into it. My son has been mindful of his duty and respect of late, Donna
+Violetta, as I would have him? The boy wants little urging, I know, to
+do honor to my ward and the fairest of Venice. Thou wilt receive him
+with friendship, for the love thou bearest his father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Violetta curtsied, but it was with womanly reserve.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The door of my palace is never shut on the Signor Giacomo on all proper
+occasions,&quot; she said, coldly. &quot;Signore, the son of my guardian could
+hardly be other than an honored visitor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would have the boy attentive&mdash;and even more, I would have him prove
+some little of that great esteem,&mdash;but we live in a jealous city, Donna
+Florinda, and one in which prudence is a virtue of the highest price. If
+the youth is less urgent than I could wish, believe me, it is from the
+apprehension of giving premature alarm to those who interest themselves
+in the fortunes of our charge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Both the ladies bowed, and by the manner in which they drew their cloaks
+about them, they made evident their wish to retire. Donna Violetta
+craved a blessing, and after the usual compliments, and a short dialogue
+of courtesy, she and her companion withdrew to their boat.</p>
+
+<p>The Signor Gradenigo paced the room in which he had received his ward
+for several minutes in silence. Not a sound of any sort was audible
+throughout the whole of that vast abode, the stillness and cautious
+tread of those within, answering to the quiet town without; but a young
+man, in whose countenance and air were to be seen most of the usual
+signs of a well-bred profligacy, sauntering along the suite of
+chambers, at length caught the eye of the senator, who beckoned him to
+approach.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art unhappy, as of wont, Giacomo,&quot; he said, in a tone between
+paternal indulgence and reproach. &quot;The Donna Violetta has, but a minute
+since, departed, and thou wert absent. Some unworthy intrigue with the
+daughter of a jeweller, or some injurious bargain of thy hopes with the
+father, hath occupied the time that might have been devoted more
+honorably, and to far better profit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You do me little justice,&quot; returned the youth. &quot;Neither Jew nor Jewess
+hath this day greeted my eye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The calendar should mark the time for its singularity! I would know,
+Giacomo, if thou turnest to a right advantage the occasion of my
+guardianship, and if thou thinkest with sufficient gravity of the
+importance of what I urge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt it not, father. He who hath so much suffered for the want of that
+which the Donna Violetta possesses in so great a profusion, needeth
+little prompting on such a subject. By refusing to supply my wants, you
+have made certain of my consent. There is not a fool in Venice who sighs
+more loudly beneath his mistress's window, than I utter my pathetic
+wishes to the lady&mdash;when there is opportunity, and I am in the humor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest the danger of alarming the senate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear me not. My progress is by secret and gradual means. Neither my
+countenance nor my mind is unused to a mask&mdash;thanks to necessity! My
+spirits have been too buoyant not to have made me acquainted with
+duplicity!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest, ungrateful boy, as if I denied thy youth the usual
+indulgences of thy years and rank. It is thy excesses, and not thy
+spirits, I would check. But I would not now harden thee with reproof.
+Giacomo, thou hast a rival in the stranger. His act in the Giudecca has
+won upon the fancy of the girl; and like all of generous and ardent
+natures, ignorant as she is of his merits, she supplies his character
+with all necessary qualities by her own ingenuity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would she did the same by me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With thee, Sirrah, my ward might be required to forget, rather than
+invent. Hast thou bethought thee of turning the eyes of the council on
+the danger which besets their heiress?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the means?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The plainest and the most certain&mdash;the lion's mouth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! that, indeed, is a bold adventure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And, like all bold adventures, it is the more likely to succeed. For
+once, fortune hath not been a niggard with me. I have given them the
+Neapolitan's signet by way of proof.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giacomo! dost thou know the hazard of thy temerity? I hope there is no
+clue left in the handwriting, or by any other means taken to obtain the
+ring?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, though I may have overlooked thy instruction in less weighty
+matters, not an admonition which touches the policy of Venice hath been
+forgotten. The Neapolitan stands accused, and if thy council is
+faithful, he will be a suspected, if not a banished man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That the Council of Three will perform its trust is beyond dispute. I
+would I were as certain that thy indiscreet zeal may not lead to some
+unpleasant exposure!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The shameless son stared at the father a moment in doubt, and then he
+passed into the more private parts of the palace, like one too much
+accustomed to double-dealing, to lend it a second, or a serious thought.
+The senator remained. His silent walk was now manifestly disturbed by
+great uneasiness; and he frequently passed a hand across his brow, as if
+he mused in pain. While thus occupied, a figure stole through the long
+suite of ante-chambers, and stopped near the door of the room he
+occupied. The intruder was aged; his face was tawny by exposure, and
+his hair thinned and whitened by time. His dress was that of a
+fisherman, being both scanty and of the meanest materials. Still there
+was a naturally noble and frank intelligence in his bold eye and
+prominent features, while the bare arms and naked legs exhibited a
+muscle and proportion which proved that nature was rather at a stand
+than in the decline. He had been many moments dangling his cap, in
+habitual but unembarrassed respect, before his presence was observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! thou here, Antonio!&quot; exclaimed the senator, when their eyes met.
+&quot;Why this visit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, my heart is heavy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hath the calendar no saint&mdash;the fisherman no patron? I suppose the
+sirocco hath been tossing the waters of the bay, and thy nets are empty.
+Hold! thou art my foster-brother, and thou must not want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman drew back with dignity, refusing the gift, simply, but
+decidedly, by the act.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, we have lived from childhood to old age since we drew our milk
+from the same breast; in all that time have you ever known me a beggar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art not wont to ask these boons, Antonio, it is true; but age
+conquers our pride with our strength. If it be not sequins that thou
+seekest, what would'st thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are other wants than those of the body, Signore, and other
+sufferings besides hunger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The countenance of the senator lowered. He cast a sharp glance at his
+foster-brother, and ere he answered he closed the door which
+communicated with the outer chamber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy words forebode disaffection, as of wont. Thou art accustomed to
+comment on measures and interests that are beyond thy limited reason,
+and thou knowest that thy opinions have already drawn displeasure on
+thee. The ignorant and the low are, to the state, as children, whose
+duty it is to obey, and not to cavil. Thy errand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not the man you think me, Signore. I am used to poverty and want,
+and little satisfies my wishes. The senate is my master, and as such I
+honor it; but a fisherman hath his feelings as well as the Doge!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Again! These feelings of thine, Antonio, are most exacting. Thou namest
+them on all occasions, as if they were the engrossing concerns of life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, are they not to me? Though I think mostly of my own concerns,
+still I can have a thought for the distress of those I honor. When the
+beautiful and youthful lady, your eccellenza's daughter, was called away
+to the company of the saints, I felt the blow as if it had been the
+death of my own child; and it has pleased God, as you very well know,
+Signore, not to leave me unacquainted with the anguish of such a loss.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a good fellow, Antonio,&quot; returned the senator, covertly
+removing the moisture from his eyes; &quot;an honest and a proud man, for thy
+condition!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She from whom we both drew our first nourishment, Signore, often told
+me, that next to my own kin, it was my duty to love the noble race she
+had helped to support. I make no merit of natural feeling, which is a
+gift from Heaven, and the greater is the reason that the state should
+not deal lightly with such affections.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Once more the state! Name thy errand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your eccellenza knows the history of my humble life. I need not tell
+you, Signore, of the sons which God, by the intercession of the Virgin
+and blessed St. Anthony, was pleased to bestow on me, or of the manner
+in which he hath seen proper to take them one by one away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast known sorrow, poor Antonio; I well remember thou hast
+suffered, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I have. The deaths of five manly and honest sons is a blow to
+bring a groan from a rock. But I have known how to bless God, and be
+thankful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Worthy fisherman, the Doge himself might envy this resignation. It is
+often easier to endure the loss than the life of a child, Antonio!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, no boy of mine ever caused me grief, but the hour in which he
+died. And even then&quot;&mdash;the old man turned aside to conceal the working of
+his features&mdash;&quot;I struggled to remember from how much pain, and toil, and
+suffering they were removed to enjoy a more blessed state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lip of the Signer Gradenigo quivered, and he moved to and fro with a
+quicker step.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think, Antonio,&quot; he said, &quot;I think, honest Antonio, I had masses said
+for the souls of them all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, you had; St. Anthony remember the kindness in your own
+extremity! I was wrong in saying that the youths never gave me sorrow
+but in dying, for there is a pain the rich cannot know, in being too
+poor to buy a prayer for a dead child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou have more masses? Son of thine shall never want a voice with
+the saints, for the ease of his soul!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank you, eccellenza, but I have faith in what has been done, and,
+more than all, in the mercy of God. My errand now is in behalf of the
+living.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The sympathy of the senator was suddenly checked, and he already
+listened with a doubting and suspicious air.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy errand?&quot; he simply repeated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is to beg your interest, Signore, to obtain the release of my grandson
+from the galleys. They have seized the lad in his fourteenth year, and
+condemned him to the wars with the Infidels, without thought of his
+tender years, without thought of evil example, without thought of my age
+and loneliness, and without justice; for his father died in the last
+battle given to the Turk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he ceased, the fisherman riveted his look on the marble countenance
+of his auditor, wistfully endeavoring to trace the effect of his words.
+But all there was cold, unanswering, and void of human sympathy. The
+soulless, practised, and specious reasoning of the state, had long since
+deadened all feeling in the senator on any subject that touched an
+interest so vital as the maritime power of the Republic. He saw the
+hazard of innovation in the slightest approach to interests so delicate,
+and his mind was drilled by policy into an apathy that no charity could
+disturb, when there was question of the right of St. Mark to the
+services of his people.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would thou hadst come to beg masses, or gold, or aught but this,
+Antonio!&quot; he answered, after a moment of delay. &quot;Thou hast had the
+company of the boy, if I remember, from his birth, already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I have had that satisfaction, for he was an orphan born; and I
+would wish to have it until the child is fit to go into the world armed
+with an honesty and faith that shall keep him from harm. Were my own
+brave son here, he would ask no other fortune for the lad than such
+counsel and aid as a poor man has a right to bestow on his own flesh and
+blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He fareth no worse than others; and thou knowest that the Republic hath
+need of every arm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, I saw the Signor Giacomo land from his gondola, as I
+entered the palace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Out upon thee, fellow! dost thou make no distinction between the son of
+a fisherman, one trained to the oar and toil, and the heir of an ancient
+house? Go to, presuming man, and remember thy condition, and the
+difference that God hath made between our children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mine never gave me sorrow but the hour in which they died,&quot; said the
+fisherman, uttering a severe but mild reproof.</p>
+
+<p>The Signor Gradenigo felt the sting of this retort, which in no degree
+aided the cause of his indiscreet foster-brother. After pacing the room
+in agitation for some time, he so far conquered his resentment as to
+answer more mildly, as became his rank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio,&quot; he said, &quot;thy disposition and boldness are not strangers to
+me; if thou would'st have masses for the dead, or gold for the living,
+they are thine; but in asking for my interest with the general of the
+galleys, thou askest that which, at a moment so critical, could not be
+yielded to the son of the Doge, were the Doge&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fisherman,&quot; continued Antonio, observing that he hesitated&mdash;&quot;Signore,
+adieu; I would not part in anger with my foster-brother, and I pray the
+saints to bless you and your house. May you never know the grief of
+losing a child by a fate far worse than death&mdash;that of destruction by
+vice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As Antonio ceased, he made his reverence and departed by the way he had
+entered. He retired unnoticed, for the senator averted his eyes with a
+secret consciousness of the force of what the other in his simplicity
+had uttered; and it was some time before the latter knew he was alone.
+Another step, however, soon diverted his attention. The door re-opened,
+and a menial appeared. He announced that one without sought a private
+audience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let him enter,&quot; answered the ready senator, smoothing his features to
+the customary cautious and distrustful expression.</p>
+
+<p>The servant withdrew, when one masked and wearing a cloak quickly
+entered the room. When the latter instrument of disguise was thrown upon
+an arm, and the visor was removed, the form and face of the dreaded
+Jacopo became visible.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Caesar himself has work, and our oppression<br />
+Exceeds what we expected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>&quot;Didst thou note him that left me?&quot; eagerly demanded the Signer
+Gradenigo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enough so to recognise form and countenance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twas a fisherman of the Lagunes, named Antonio.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The senator dropped the extended limb, and regarded the Bravo with a
+look in which surprise and admiration were equally blended. He resumed
+his course up and down the room, while his companion stood waiting his
+pleasure in an attitude so calm as to be dignified. A few minutes were
+wasted in this abstraction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art quick of sight, Jacopo!&quot; continued the patrician, breaking the
+pause&mdash;&quot;Hast thou had dealings with the man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art certain it is&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your eccellenza's foster-brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not inquire into thy knowledge of his infancy and origin, but of
+his present state,&quot; returned the Signor Gradenigo, turning away to
+conceal his countenance from the glowing eye of Jacopo&mdash;&quot;Has he been
+named to thee by any in authority?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has not&mdash;my mission does not lie with fishermen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Duty may lead us into still humbler society, young man. They who are
+charged with the grievous burden of the state, must not consider the
+quality of the load they carry. In what manner hath this Antonio come to
+thy knowledge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have known him as one esteemed by his fellows&mdash;a man skilful in his
+craft, and long practised in the mystery of the Lagunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is a defrauder of the revenue, thou would'st be understood to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would not. He toils too late and early to have other means of support
+than labor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest, Jacopo, the severity of our laws in matters that concern
+the public moneys?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that the judgment of St. Mark, Signore, is never light when its
+own interest is touched.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art not required to utter opinions beyond the present question.
+This man hath a habit of courting the goodwill of his associates, and of
+making his voice heard concerning affairs of which none but his
+superiors may discreetly judge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he is old, and the tongue grows loose with years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is not the character of Antonio. Nature hath not treated him
+unkindly; had his birth and education been equal to his mind, the senate
+might have been glad to listen&mdash;at it is, I fear he speaks in a sense to
+endanger his own interests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely, if he speaks to offend the ear of St. Mark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a quick suspicious glance from the senator to the Bravo, as if
+to read the true meaning of the latter's words. Finding, however, the
+same expression of self-possession in the quiet features he scrutinized,
+the latter continued as if distrust had not been awakened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If, as thou sayest, he so speaks as to injure the Republic, his years
+have not brought discretion. I love the man, Jacopo, for it is usual to
+regard, with some partiality, those who have drawn nourishment from the
+same breast with ourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And feeling this weakness in his favor, I would have him admonished to
+be prudent. Thou art acquainted, doubtless, with his opinions concerning
+the recent necessity of the state, to command the services of all the
+youths on the Lagunes in her fleets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know that the press has taken from him the boy who toiled in his
+company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To toil honorably, and perhaps gainfully, in behalf of the Republic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, perhaps!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art brief in thy speech to-night, Jacopo! But if thou knowest the
+fisherman, give him counsel of discretion. St. Mark will not tolerate
+such free opinions of his wisdom. This is the third occasion in which
+there has been need to repress that fisherman's speech; for the paternal
+care of the senate cannot see discontent planted in the bosom of a
+class, it is their duty and pleasure to render happy. Seek opportunities
+to let him hear this wholesome truth, for in good sooth, I would not
+willingly see a misfortune light upon the head of a son of my ancient
+nurse, and that, too, in the decline of his days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo bent his body in acquiescence, while the Signor Gradenigo
+paced the room, in a manner to show that he really felt concern.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast had advice of the judgment in the matter of the Genoese?&quot;
+resumed the latter, when another pause had given time to change the
+current of his thoughts. &quot;The sentence of the tribunals has been prompt,
+and, though there is much assumption of a dislike between the two
+republics, the world can now see how sternly justice is con sulted on
+our isles. I hear the Genoese will have ample amends, and that certain
+of our own citizens will be mulcted of much money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard the same since the sun set, in the Piazzetta, Signore!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And do men converse of our impartiality, and more than all of our
+promptitude? Bethink thee, Jacopo, 'tis but a se'nnight since the claim
+was preferred to the senate's equity!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None dispute the promptitude with which the Republic visits offences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor the justice, I trust also, good Jacopo. There is a beauty and a
+harmony in the manner in which the social machine rolls on its course,
+under such a system, that should secure men's applause! Justice
+administers to the wants of society, and checks the passions with a
+force as silent and dignified, as if her decrees came from a higher
+volition. I often compare the quiet march of the state, contrasted with
+the troubled movements of some other of our Italian sisters, to the
+difference between the clatter of a clamorous town, and the stillness of
+our own noiseless canals. Then the uprightness of the late decree is in
+the mouths of the masquers to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, the Venetians are bold when there is an opportunity to praise
+their masters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou think thus, Jacopo? To me, they have ever seemed more prone
+to vent their seditious discontent. But 'tis the nature of man to be
+niggardly of praise and lavish of censure. This decree of the tribunal
+must not be suffered to die, with the mere justice of the case. Our
+friends should dwell on it, openly, in the caf&eacute;s, and at the Lido. They
+will have no cause to fear, should they give their tongues a little
+latitude. A just government hath no jealousy of comment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I look to thee and thy fellows to see that the affair be not too
+quickly forgotten. The contemplation of acts such as this, will quicken
+the dormant seeds of virtue in the public mind. He who has examples of
+equity incessantly before his eyes, will come at last to love the
+quality. The Genoese, I trust, will depart satisfied?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt it not, Signore; he has all that can content a sufferer; his own
+with usury, and revenge of him who did the wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such is the decree&mdash;ample restoration and the chastening hand of
+punishment. Few states would thus render a judgment against themselves,
+Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the state answerable for the deed of the merchant, Signore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Through its citizen. He who inflicts punishment on his own members, is
+a sufferer, surely. No one can part with his own flesh without pain; is
+not this true, fellow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are nerves that are delicate to the touch, Signore, and an eye or
+a tooth is precious; but the paring of a nail, or the fall of the beard,
+is little heeded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One who did not know thee, Jacopo, would imagine thee in the interest
+of the emperor! The sparrow does not fall in Venice, without the loss
+touching the parental feelings of the senate. Well, is there further
+rumor among the Jews, of a decrease of gold? Sequins are not so abundant
+as of wont, and the chicanery of that race lends itself to the scarcity,
+in the hope of larger profits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have seen faces on the Rialto, of late, Signore, that look empty
+purses. The Christian seems anxious, and in want, while the unbelievers
+wear their gaberdines with a looser air than is usual.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This hath been expected. Doth report openly name any of the Israelites
+who are in the custom of lending, on usury, to the young nobles?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All, who have to lend, may be accounted of the class; the whole
+synagogue, rabbis, and all, are of a mind, when there is question of a
+Christian's purse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou likest not the Hebrew, Jacopo; but he is of good service in the
+Republic's straits. We count all friends, who are ready with their gold
+at need. Still the young hopes of Venice must not be left to waste their
+substance in unwary bargains with the gainful race, and should'st thou
+hear of any of mark, who are thought to be too deeply in their clutches,
+thou wilt do wisely to let the same be known, with little delay, to the
+guardians of the public weal. We must deal tenderly with those who prop
+the state, but we must also deal discreetly with those who will shortly
+compose it. Hast thou aught to say in the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard men speak of Signor Giacomo as paying dearest for their
+favors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gesu Maria! my son and heir! Dost thou not deceive me, man, to gratify
+thine own displeasure against the Hebrews?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have no other malice against the race, Signore, than the wholesome
+disrelish of a Christian. Thus much I hope may be permitted to a
+believer, but beyond that, in reason, I carry hatred to no man. It is
+well known that your heir is disposing freely of his hopes, and at
+prices that lower expectations might command.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is a weighty concern! The boy must be speedily admonished of the
+consequences, and care must be had for his future discretion. The Hebrew
+shall be punished, and as a solemn warning to the whole tribe, the debt
+confiscated to the benefit of the borrower. With such an example before
+their eyes, the knaves will be less ready with their sequins. Holy St.
+Theodore! 'twere self-destruction to suffer one of such promise to be
+lost for the want of prudent forethought. I will charge myself with the
+matter, as an especial duty, and the senate shall have no cause to say
+that its interests have been neglected. Hast thou had applications of
+late, in thy character of avenger of private wrongs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None of note&mdash;there is one that seeks me earnestly, though I am not yet
+wholly the master of his wishes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy office is of much delicacy and trust, and, as thou art well aware,
+the reward is weighty and sure.&quot; The eyes of the Bravo kindled with an
+expression which caused his companion to pause. But observing that the
+repose, for which the features of Jacopo were so remarkable, again
+presided over his pallid face, he continued, as if there had been no
+interruption, &quot;I repeat, the bounty and clemency of the state will not
+be forgotten. If its justice is stern and infallible, its forgiveness is
+cordial, and its favors ample. Of these facts I have taken much pains to
+assure thee, Jacopo. Blessed St. Mark! that one of the scions of thy
+great stock should waste his substance for the benefit of a race of
+unbelievers! But thou hast not named him who seeks thee with this
+earnestness?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As I have yet to learn his errand, before I go further, Signore, it may
+be well to know more of his wishes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This reserve is uncalled for. Thou art not to distrust the prudence of
+the Republic's ministers, and I should be sorry were the Inquisitors to
+get an unfavorable opinion of thy zeal. The individual must be
+denounced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I denounce him not. The most that I can say is, that he hath a desire
+to deal privately with one, with whom it is almost criminal to deal at
+all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The prevention of crime is better than its punishment, and such is the
+true object of all government. Thou wilt not withhold the name of thy
+correspondent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a noble Neapolitan, who hath long sojourned in Venice, on matters
+touching a great succession, and some right even to the senate's
+dignity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! Don Camillo Monforte! Am I right, sirrah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, the same!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The pause which followed was only broken by the clock of the great
+square striking eleven, or the fourth hour of the night, as it is
+termed, by the usage of Italy. The senator started, consulted a
+time-piece in his own apartment, and again addressed his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is well,&quot; he said; &quot;thy faith and punctuality shall be remembered.
+Look to the fisherman Antonio; the murmurs of the old man must not be
+permitted to awaken discontent, for a cause so trifling as this transfer
+of his descendant from a gondola to a galley; and most of all, keep thy
+ears attentive to any rumors on the Rialto. The glory and credit of a
+patrician name must not be weakened by the errors of boyhood. As to this
+stranger&mdash;quickly, thy mask and cloak&mdash;depart as if thou wert merely a
+friend bent on some of the idle pleasantries of the hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo resumed his disguise with the readiness of one long practised
+in its use, but with a composure that was not so easily disconcerted as
+that of the more sensitive senator. The latter did not speak again,
+though he hurried Jacopo from his presence by an impatient movement of
+the hand.</p>
+
+<p>When the door was closed and the Signor Gradenigo was again alone, he
+once more consulted the time-piece, passed his hand slowly and
+thoughtfully across his brow, and resumed his walk. For nearly an hour
+this exercise, or nervous sympathy of the body with a mind that was
+possibly overworked, continued without any interruption from without.
+Then came a gentle tap at the door, and, at the usual bidding, one
+entered, closely masked like him who had departed, as was so much the
+usage of that city in the age of which we write. A glance at the figure
+of his guest seemed to apprise the senator of his character, for the
+reception, while it was distinguished by the quaint courtesy of the age,
+was that of one expected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am honored in the visit of Don Camillo Monforte,&quot; said the host,
+while the individual named laid aside his cloak and silken visor;
+&quot;though the lateness of the hour had given me reason to apprehend that
+some casualty had interfered between me and the pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand excuses, noble senator, but the coolness of the canals, and
+the gaiety of the square, together with some apprehension of intruding
+prematurely on time so precious, has, I fear, kept me out of season. But
+I trust to the known goodness of the Signor Gradenigo for my apology.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The punctuality of the great lords of Lower Italy is not their greatest
+merit,&quot; the Signor Gradenigo drily answered. &quot;The young esteem life so
+endless, that they take little heed of the minutes that escape them;
+while we, whom age begins to menace, think chiefly of repairing the
+omissions of youth. In this manner, Signor Duca, does man sin and repent
+daily, until the opportunities of doing either are imperceptibly lost.
+But we will not be more prodigal of the moments than there is need&mdash;are
+we to hope for better views of the Spaniard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have neglected little that can move the mind of a reasonable man, and
+I have, in particular, laid before him the advantage of conciliating the
+senate's esteem.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Therein have you done wisely, Signore, both as respects his interests
+and your own. The senate is a liberal paymaster to him who serves it
+well, and a fearful enemy to those who do harm to the state. I hope the
+matter of the succession draws near a conclusion?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish it were possible to say it did. I urge the tribunal in all
+proper assiduity, omitting no duty of personal respect nor of private
+solicitation. Padua has not a doctor more learned than he who presents
+my right to their wisdom, and yet the affair lingers like life in the
+hectic. If I have not shown myself a worthy son of St. Mark, in this
+affair with the Spaniard, it is more from the want of a habit of
+managing political interests than from any want of zeal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The scales of justice must be nicely balanced to hang so long, without
+determining to one side or the other! You will have need of further
+assiduity, Don Camillo, and of great discretion in disposing the minds
+of the patricians in your favor. It will be well to make your attachment
+to the state be observed by further service near the ambassador. You are
+known to have his esteem, and counsel coming from such a quarter will
+enter deeply into his mind. It should also quicken the exertions of so
+benevolent and generous a young spirit, to know that in serving his
+country, he also aids the cause of humanity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo did not appear to be strongly impressed with the justice of
+the latter remark. He bowed, however, in courtesy to his companion's
+opinion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is pleasant, Signore, to be thus persuaded,&quot; he answered; &quot;my
+kinsman of Castile is a man to hear reason, let it come from what
+quarter it may. Though he meets my arguments with some allusions to the
+declining power of the Republic, I do not see less of deep respect for
+the influence of a state, that hath long made itself remarkable by its
+energy and will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Venice is no longer what the City of the Isles hath been, Signer Duca;
+still she is not powerless. The wings of our lion are a little clipped,
+but his leap is still far, and his teeth dangerous. If the new-made
+prince would have his ducal coronet sit easily on his brow, he would do
+well to secure the esteem of his nearest neighbors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is obviously true, and little that my influence can do towards
+effecting the object, shall be wanting. And now, may I entreat of your
+friendship, advice as to the manner of further urging my own
+long-neglected claims?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will do well, Don Camillo, to remind the senators of your presence,
+by frequent observance of the courtesies due to their rank and yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This do I never neglect, as seemly both in my station and my object.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The judges should not be forgotten, young man, for it is wise to
+remember that justice hath ever an ear for solicitation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None can be more assiduous in the duty, nor is it common to see a
+suppliant so mindful of those whom he troubleth, by more substantial
+proofs of respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But chiefly should we be particular to earn the senate's esteem. No act
+of service to the state is overlooked by that body, and the smallest
+good deed finds its way into the recesses of the two councils.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would I could have communication with those reverend fathers! I think
+the justice of my claim would speedily work out its own right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That were impossible!&quot; gravely returned the senator. &quot;Those august
+bodies are secret, that their majesty may not be tarnished by
+communication with vulgar interests. They rule like the unseen influence
+of mind over matter, and form, as it were, the soul of the state, whose
+seat, like that of reason, remains a problem exceeding human
+penetration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I express the desire rather as a wish than with any hope of its being
+granted,&quot; returned the Duke of St. Agata, resuming his cloak and mask,
+neither of which had been entirely laid aside. &quot;Adieu, noble Signore; I
+shall not cease to move the Castilian with frequent advice, and, in
+return, I commit my affair to the justice of the patricians, and your
+own good friendship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Signor Gradenigo bowed his guest through all the rooms of the long suite
+but the last, where he committed him to the care of the groom of his
+chambers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The youth must be stirred to greater industry in this matter, by
+clogging the wheels of the law. He that would ask favors of St. Mark
+must first earn them, by showing zealous dispositions in his behalf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such were the reflections of the Signor Gradenigo, as he slowly
+returned towards his closet, after a ceremonious leave-taking with his
+guest, in the outer apartment. Closing the door, he commenced pacing the
+small apartment with the step and eye of a man who again mused with some
+anxiety. After a minute of profound stillness, a door, concealed by the
+hangings of the room, was cautiously opened, and the face of still
+another visitor appeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enter!&quot; said the senator, betraying no surprise at the apparition; &quot;the
+hour is past, and I wait for thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The flowing dress, the grey and venerable beard, the noble outline of
+features, the quick, greedy, and suspicious eye, with an expression of
+countenance that was, perhaps, equally marked by worldly sagacity, and
+feelings often rudely rebuked, proclaimed a Hebrew of the Rialto.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enter, Hosea, and unburden thyself,&quot; continued the senator, like one
+prepared for some habitual communication. &quot;Is there aught new that
+touches the public weal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed is the people over whom there is so fatherly a care! Can there
+be good or evil to the citizen of the Republic, noble Signore, without
+the bowels of the senate moving, as the parent yearneth over his young?
+Happy is the country in which men of reverend years and whitened heads
+watch, until night draws towards the day, and weariness is forgotten in
+the desire to do good, and to honor the state!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy mind partaketh of the eastern imagery of the country of thy
+fathers, good Hosea, and thou art apt to forget that thou art not yet
+watching on the steps of the Temple. What of interest hath the day
+brought forth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say rather the night, Signore, for little worthy of your ear hath
+happened, save a matter of some trifling import, which hath grown out of
+the movements of the evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have there been stilettoes busy on the bridge?&mdash;ha!&mdash;or do the people
+joy less than common in their levities?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None have died wrongfully, and the square is gay as the fragrant
+vineyards of Engedi. Holy Abraham! what a place is Venice for its
+pleasures, and how the hearts of old and young revel in their merriment!
+It is almost sufficient to fix the font in the synagogue, to witness so
+joyous a dispensation in behalf of the people of these islands! I had
+not hoped for the honor of an interview to-night, Signore, and I had
+prayed, before laying my head upon the pillow, when one charged by the
+council brought to me a jewel, with an order to decipher the arms and
+other symbols of its owner. 'Tis a ring, with the usual marks which
+accompany private confidences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast the signet?&quot; said the noble, stretching out an arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is here, and a goodly stone it is; a turquoise of price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whence came it&mdash;and why is it sent to thee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It came, Signore, as I gather more through hints and intimations of the
+messenger than by his words, from a place resembling that which the
+righteous Daniel escaped in virtue of his godliness and birth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou meanest the Lion's Mouth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So say our ancient books, Signore, in reference to the prophet, and so
+would the council's agent seem to intimate in reference to the ring?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is naught but a crest with the equestrian helmet&mdash;comes it of any
+in Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The upright Solomon guided the judgment of his servant in a matter of
+this delicacy! The jewel is of rare beauty, such as few possess but
+those who have gold in store for other purposes. Do but regard the soft
+lustre in this light, noble Signore, and remark the pleasing colors that
+rise by the change of view!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay&mdash;'tis well&mdash;but who claimeth the bearings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is wonderful to contemplate how great a value may lie concealed in
+so small a compass! I have known sequins of full weight and heavy amount
+given for baubles less precious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou never forget thy stall and the wayfarers of the Rialto? I
+bid thee name him who beareth these symbols as marks of his family and
+rank.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Noble Signore, I obey. The crest is of the family of Monforte, the last
+senator of which died some fifteen years since.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And his jewels?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They have passed with other movables of which the state taketh no
+account, into the keeping of his kinsman and successor&mdash;if it be the
+senate's pleasure that there shall be a successor to that ancient
+name&mdash;Don Camillo of St. Agata. The wealthy Neapolitan who now urges his
+rights here in Venice, is the present owner of this precious stone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me the ring; this must be looked to&mdash;hast thou more to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing, Signore&mdash;unless to petition, if there is to be any
+condemnation and sale of the jewel, that it may first be offered to an
+ancient servitor of the Republic, who hath much reason to regret that
+his age hath been less prosperous than his youth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shalt not be forgotten. I hear it said, Hosea, that divers of our
+young nobles frequent thy Hebrew shops with intent to borrow gold,
+which, lavished in present prodigality, is to be bitterly repaid at a
+later day by self-denial, and such embarrassments as suit not the heirs
+of noble names. Take heed of this matter&mdash;for if the displeasure of the
+council should alight on any of thy race, there would be long and
+serious accounts to settle! Hast thou had employment of late with other
+signets besides this of the Neapolitan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unless in the vulgar way of our daily occupation, none of note,
+illustrious Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Regard this,&quot; continued the Signor Gradenigo, first searching in a
+secret drawer, whence he drew a small bit of paper, to which a morsel of
+wax adhered; &quot;canst thou form any conjecture, by the impression,
+concerning him who used that seal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The jeweller took the paper and held it towards the light, while his
+glittering eyes intently examined the conceit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This would surpass the wisdom of the son of David!&quot; he said, after a
+long and seemingly fruitless examination; &quot;here is naught but some
+fanciful device of gallantry, such as the light-hearted cavaliers of the
+city are fond of using, when they tempt the weaker sex with fair words
+and seductive vanities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a heart pierced with the dart of love, and the motto of <i>'pensa
+al cuore trafitto d'amore?'</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naught else, as my eyes do their duty. I should think there was but
+very little meant by those words, Signore!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That as may be. Thou hast never sold a jewel with that conceit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just Samuel! We dispose of them daily to Christians of both sexes and
+all ages. I know no device of greater frequency, whereby I conceive
+there is much commerce in this light fidelity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He who used it did well in concealing his thoughts beneath so general a
+dress! There will be a reward of a hundred sequins to him who traces the
+owner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hosea was about to return the seal as beyond his knowledge, when this
+remark fell casually from the lips of the Signor Gradenigo. In a moment
+his eyes were fortified with a glass of microscopic power, and the paper
+was again before the lamp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I disposed of a cornelian of no great price, which bore this conceit,
+to the wife of the emperor's ambassador, but conceiving there was no
+more in the purchase than some waywardness of fancy, I took no
+precaution to note the stone. A gentleman in the family of the Legate of
+Ravenna, also trafficked with me for an amethyst of the same design, but
+with him neither did I hold it important to be particular. Ha! here is
+a private mark, that in truth seemeth to be of my own hand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou find a clue? What is the sign of which thou speakest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naught, noble senator, but a slur in a letter, which would not be apt
+to catch the eye of an over-credulous maiden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou parted with the seal to----?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hosea hesitated, for he foresaw some danger of losing his reward by a
+too hasty communication of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it be important that the fact be known, Signore,&quot; he said, &quot;I will
+consult my books. In a matter of this gravity, the senate should not be
+misled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou sayest well. The affair is grave, and the reward a sufficient
+pledge that we so esteem it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something was said, illustrious Signore, of a hundred sequins; but my
+mind taketh little heed of such particulars when the good of Venice is
+in question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A hundred is the sum I promised.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I parted with a signet-ring, bearing some such design, to a female in
+the service of the Nuncio's first gentleman. But this seal cannot come
+of that, since a woman of her station----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art sure?&quot; eagerly interrupted the Signor Gradenigo.</p>
+
+<p>Hosea looked earnestly at his companion; and reading in his eye and
+countenance that the clue was agreeable, he answered promptly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As that I live under the law of Moses! The bauble had been long on hand
+without an offer, and I abandoned it to the uses of my money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The sequins are thine, excellent Jew! This clears the mystery of every
+doubt. Go; thou shalt have thy reward; and if thou hast any particulars
+in thy secret register, let me be quickly possessed of them. Go to, good
+Hosea, and be punctual as of wont. I tire of these constant exercises
+of the spirit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hebrew, exulting in his success, now took his leave, with a manner
+in which habitual cupidity and subdued policy completely mastered every
+other feeling. He disappeared by the passage through which he had
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed, by the manner of the Signor Gradenigo, that the receptions
+for that evening had now ended. He carefully examined the locks of
+several secret drawers in his cabinet, extinguished the lights, closed
+and secured the doors, and quitted the place. For some time longer,
+however, he paced one of the principal rooms of the outer suite, until
+the usual hour having arrived, he sought his rest, and the palace was
+closed for the night.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will have gained some insight into the character of the
+individual who was the chief actor in the foregoing scenes. The Signor
+Gradenigo was born with all the sympathies and natural kindliness of
+other men, but accident, and an education which had received a strong
+bias from the institutions of the self-styled Republic, had made him the
+creature of a conventional policy. To him Venice seemed a free state,
+because he partook so largely of the benefits of her social system; and,
+though shrewd and practised in most of the affairs of the world, his
+faculties, on the subject of the political ethics of his country, were
+possessed of a rare and accommodating dulness. A senator, he stood in
+relation to the state as a director of a moneyed institution is
+proverbially placed in respect to his corporation; an agent of its
+collective measures, removed from the responsibilities of the man. He
+could reason warmly, if not acutely, concerning the principles of
+government, and it would be difficult, even in this money-getting age,
+to find a more zealous convert to the opinion that property was not a
+subordinate, but the absorbing interest of civilized life. He would talk
+ably of character, and honor, and virtue, and religion, and the rights
+of persons, but when called upon to act in their behalf, there was in
+his mind a tendency to blend them all with worldly policy, that proved
+as unerring as the gravitation of matter to the earth's centre. As a
+Venetian he was equally opposed to the domination of one, or of the
+whole; being, as respects the first, a furious republican, and, in
+reference to the last, leaning to that singular sophism which calls the
+dominion of the majority the rule of many tyrants! In short, he was an
+aristocrat; and no man had more industriously or more successfully
+persuaded himself into the belief of all the dogmas that were favorable
+to his caste. He was a powerful advocate of vested rights, for their
+possession was advantageous to himself; he was sensitively alive to
+innovations on usages and to vicissitudes in the histories of families,
+for calculation had substituted taste for principles; nor was he
+backward, on occasion, in defending his opinions by analogies drawn from
+the decrees of Providence. With a philosophy that seemed to satisfy
+himself, he contended that, as God had established orders throughout his
+own creation, in a descending chain from angels to men, it was safe to
+follow an example which emanated from a wisdom that was infinite.
+Nothing could be more sound than the basis of his theory, though its
+application had the capital error of believing there was any imitation
+of nature in an endeavor to supplant it.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  &quot;The moon went down; and nothing now was seen<br />
+  Save where the lamp of a Madonna shone<br />
+  Faintly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ROGERS.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Just as the secret audiences of the Palazzo Gradenigo were ended, the
+great square of St. Mark began to lose a portion of its gaiety. The
+caf&eacute;s were now occupied by parties who had the means, and were in the
+humor, to put their indulgences to more substantial proof than the
+passing gibe or idle laugh; while those who were reluctantly compelled
+to turn their thoughts from the levities of the moment to the cares of
+the morrow, were departing in crowds to humble roofs and hard pillows.
+There remained one of the latter class, however, who continued to occupy
+a spot near the junction of the two squares, as motionless as if his
+naked feet grew to the stone on which he stood. It was Antonio.</p>
+
+<p>The position of the fisherman brought the whole of his muscular form and
+bronzed features beneath the rays of the moon. The dark, anxious, and
+stern eyes were fixed upon the mild orb, as if their owner sought to
+penetrate into another world, in quest of that peace which he had never
+known in this. There was suffering in the expression of the weather-worn
+face; but it was the suffering of one whose native sensibilities had
+been a little deadened by too much familiarity with the lot of the
+feeble. To one who considered life and humanity in any other than their
+familiar and vulgar aspects, he would have presented a touching picture
+of a noble nature, enduring with pride, blunted by habit; while to him,
+who regards the accidental dispositions of society as paramount laws, he
+might have presented the image of dogged turbulence and discontent,
+healthfully repressed by the hand of power. A heavy sigh struggled from
+the chest of the old man, and, stroking down the few hairs which time
+had left him, he lifted his cap from the pavement, and prepared to move.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art late from thy bed, Antonio,&quot; said a voice at his elbow. &quot;The
+triglie must be of good price, or of great plenty, that one of thy trade
+can spare time to air himself in the Piazza at this hour. Thou hearest,
+the clock is telling the fifth hour of the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman bent his head aside, and regarded the figure of his masked
+companion, for a moment, with indifference, betraying neither curiosity
+nor feeling at his address.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since thou knowest me,&quot; he answered, &quot;it is probable thou knowest that
+in quitting this place I shall go to an empty dwelling. Since thou
+knowest me so well, thou should'st also know my wrongs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who hath injured thee, worthy fisherman, that thou speakest so boldly
+beneath the very windows of the Doge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is hardy language for the ear of St. Mark! Were it too loudly
+spoken, yonder lion might growl. Of what dost thou accuse the Republic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lead me to them that sent thee, and I will spare the trouble of a
+go-between. I am ready to tell my wrongs to the Doge, on his throne; for
+what can one, poor and old as I, dread from their anger?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou believest me sent to betray thee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest thine own errand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The other removed his mask, and turned his face towards the moon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo!&quot; exclaimed the fisherman, gazing at the expressive Italian
+features; &quot;one of thy character can have no errand with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A flush, that was visible even in that light, passed athwart the
+countenance of the Bravo; but he stilled every other exhibition of
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art wrong. My errand is with thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does the senate think a fisherman of the Lagunes of sufficient
+importance to be struck by a stiletto? Do thy work, then!&quot; he added,
+glancing at his brown and naked bosom; &quot;there is nothing to prevent
+thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio, thou dost me wrong. The senate has no such purpose. But I have
+heard that thou hast reason for discontent, and that thou speakest
+openly, on the Lido and among the islands, of affairs that the
+patricians like not to be stirred among men of your class. I come, as a
+friend, to warn thee of the consequences of such indiscretion, rather
+than as one to harm thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art sent to say this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Old man, age should teach thy tongue moderation. What will avail vain
+complaints against the Republic, or what canst thou hope for, as their
+fruits, but evil to thyself, and evil to the child that thou lovest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not; but when the heart is sore the tongue will speak. They have
+taken away my boy, and they have left little behind that I value. The
+life they threaten is too short to be cared for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou should'st temper thy regrets with wisdom. The Signor Gradenigo has
+long been friendly to thee, and I have heard that thy mother nursed him.
+Try his ears with prayers, but cease to anger the Republic with
+complaints.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio looked wistfully at his companion, but when he had ceased he
+shook his head mournfully, as if to express the hopelessness of relief
+from that quarter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have told him all that a man, born and nursed on the Lagunes, can
+find words to say. He is a senator, Jacopo; and he thinks not of
+suffering he does not feel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou not wrong, old man, to accuse him who hath been born in
+affluence of hardness of heart, merely that he doth not feel the misery
+thou would'st avoid, too, were it in thy power? Thou hast thy gondola
+and nets, with health and the cunning of thy art, and in that art thou
+happier than he who hath neither; would'st thou forget thy skill, and
+share thy little stock with the beggar of San Marco, that your fortunes
+might be equal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There may be truth in what thou sayest of our labor and our means, but
+when it comes to our young, nature is the same in both. I see no reason
+why the son of the patrician should go free and the child of the
+fisherman be sold to blood. Have not the senators enough of happiness in
+their riches and greatness, that they rob me of my son?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest, Antonio, the state must be served, and were its officers
+to go into the palaces in quest of hardy mariners for the fleet, would
+they, think you, find them that would honor the winged lion in the hour
+of his need? Thy old arm is muscular, and thy leg steady on the water,
+and they seek those who, like thee, have been trained to the seas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou should'st have said, also, and thy old breast is scarred. Before
+thy birth, Jacopo, I went against the infidel, and my blood was shed,
+like water, for the state. But they have forgotten it, while there are
+rich marbles raised in the churches, which speak of what the nobles did,
+who came unharmed from the same wars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard my father say as much,&quot; returned the Bravo, gloomily, and
+speaking in an altered voice. &quot;He, too, bled in that war; but that is
+forgotten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman glanced a look around, and perceiving that several groups
+were conversing near, in the square, he signed to his companion to
+follow him, and walked towards the quays.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy father,&quot; he said, as they moved slowly on together, &quot;was my comrade
+and my friend. I am old, Jacopo, and poor; my days are passed in toil,
+on the Lagunes, and my nights in gaining strength to meet the labor of
+the morrow; but it hath grieved me to hear that the son of one I much
+loved, and with whom I have so often shared good and evil, fair and
+foul, hath taken to a life like that which men say is thine. The gold
+that is the price of blood was never yet blessed to him that gave or him
+that received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo listened in silence, though his companion, who, at another
+moment, and under other emotions, would have avoided him as one shrinks
+from contagion, saw, on looking mournfully up into his face, that the
+muscles were slightly agitated, and that a paleness crossed his cheeks,
+which the light of the moon rendered ghastly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast suffered poverty to tempt thee into grievous sin, Jacopo; but
+it is never too late to call on the saints for aid, and to lay aside the
+stiletto. It is not profitable for a man to be known in Venice as thy
+fellow, but the friend of thy father will not abandon one who shows a
+penitent spirit. Lay aside thy stiletto, and come with me to the
+Lagunes. Thou wilt find labor less burdensome than guilt, and though
+thou never canst be to me like the boy they have taken, for he was
+innocent as the lamb! thou wilt still be the son of an ancient comrade,
+and a stricken spirit. Come with me then to the Lagunes, for poverty and
+misery like mine cannot meet with more contempt, even for being thy
+companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it men say, that thou treatest me thus?&quot; demanded Jacopo, in a
+low, struggling voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would they said untruth! But few die by violence, in Venice, that thy
+name is not uttered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And would they suffer one thus marked to go openly on the canals, or
+to be at large in the great square of San Marco?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We never know the reasons of the senate. Some say thy time is not yet
+come, while others think thou art too powerful for judgment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou dost equal credit to the justice and the activity of the
+inquisition. But should I go with thee to-night, wilt thou be more
+discreet in speech among thy fellows of the Lido, and the islands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When the heart hath its load, the tongue will strive to lighten it. I
+would do anything to turn the child of my friend from his evil ways, but
+forget my own. Thou art used to deal with the patricians, Jacopo; would
+there be possibility for one, clad in this dress, and with a face
+blackened by the sun, to come to speak with the Doge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no lack of seeming justice in Venice, Antonio; the want is in
+the substance. I doubt not thou would'st be heard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then will I wait, here, upon the stones of the square, until he comes
+forth for the pomp of to-morrow, and try to move his heart to justice.
+He is old, like myself, and he hath bled, too, for the state, and what
+is more he is a father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So is the Signor Gradenigo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou doubtest his pity&mdash;ha?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou canst but try. The Doge of Venice will hearken to a petition from
+the meanest citizen. I think,&quot; added Jacopo, speaking so low as to be
+scarcely audible, &quot;he would listen even to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Though I am not able to put my prayer in such speech as becometh the
+ear of a great prince, he shall hear the truth from a wronged man. They
+call him the chosen of the state, and such a one should gladly listen to
+justice. This is a hard bed, Jacopo,&quot; continued the fisherman, seating
+himself at the foot of the column of St. Theodore, &quot;but I have slept on
+colder and as hard, when there was less reason to do it&mdash;a happy night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bravo lingered a minute near the old man, who folded his arms on his
+naked breast, which was fanned by the sea-breeze, and disposed of his
+person to take his rest in the square, a practice not unusual among men
+of his class; but when he found that Antonio was inclined to be alone,
+he moved on, leaving the fisherman to himself.</p>
+
+<p>The night was now getting to be advanced, and few of the revellers
+remained in the areas of the two squares. Jacopo cast a glance around,
+and noting the hour and the situation of the place, he proceeded to the
+edge of the quay. The public gondoliers had left their boats moored, as
+usual, at this spot, and a profound stillness reigned over the whole
+bay. The water was scarce darkened by the air, which rather breathed
+upon than ruffled its surface, and no sound of oar was audible amid the
+forest of picturesque and classical spars, which crowded the view
+between the Piazzetta and the Giudecca. The Bravo hesitated, cast
+another wary glance around him, settled his mask, undid the slight
+fastenings of a boat, and presently he was gliding away into the centre
+of the basin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who cometh?&quot; demanded one, who seemingly stood at watch, in a felucca,
+anchored a little apart from all others.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One expected,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Roderigo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art late,&quot; said the mariner of Calabria, as Jacopo stepped upon
+the low deck of the Bella Sorrentina. &quot;My people have long been below,
+and I have dreamt thrice of shipwreck, and twice of a heavy sirocco,
+since thou hast been expected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast had more time to wrong the customs. Is the felucca ready for
+her work?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As for the customs, there is little chance of gain in this greedy
+city. The senators secure all profits to themselves and their friends,
+while we of the barks are tied down to low freights and hard bargains. I
+have sent a dozen casks of lachryma christi up the canals since the
+masquers came abroad, and beyond that I have not occasion. There is
+enough left for thy comfort, at need. Wilt drink?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sworn to sobriety. Is thy vessel ready, as wont, for the errand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the senate as ready with its money? This is the fourth of my voyages
+in their service; and they have only to look into their own secrets to
+know the manner in which the work hath been done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are content, and thou hast been well rewarded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say it not. I have gained more gold by one lucky shipment of fruits
+from the isles than by all their night-work. Would those who employ me
+give a little especial traffic on the entrance of the felucca, there
+might be advantage in the trade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is nothing which St. Mark visits with a heavier punishment than
+frauds on his receipts. Have a care with thy wines, or thou wilt lose
+not only thy bark and thy voyage, but thy liberty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is just the ground of my complaint, Signor Roderigo. Rogue and no
+rogue, is the Republic's motto. Here they are as close in justice as a
+father amid his children; and there it is better that what is done
+should be done at midnight. I like not the contradiction, for just as my
+hopes are a little raised by what I have witnessed, perhaps a little too
+near, they are all blown to the winds by such a frown as San Gennero
+himself might cast upon a sinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remember thou art not in thy wide Mediterranean, but on a canal of
+Venice. This language might be unsafe, were it heard by less friendly
+ears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank thee for thy care, though the sight of yonder old palace is as
+good a hint to the loose tongue as the sight of a gibbet on the
+sea-shore to a pirate. I met an ancient fellow in the Piazzetta about
+the time the masquers came in, and we had some words on this matter. By
+his tally every second man in Venice is well paid for reporting what the
+others say and do. 'Tis a pity, with all their seeming love of justice,
+good Roderigo, that the senate should let divers knaves go at large;
+men, whose very faces cause the stones to redden with anger and shame!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not know that any such were openly seen in Venice; what is
+secretly done may be favored for a time, through difficulty of proof,
+but&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! They tell me the councils have a short manner of making a
+sinner give up his misdeeds. Now, here is the miscreant Jacopo. What
+aileth thee, man? The anchor on which thou leanest is not heated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor is it of feathers; one's bones may ache from its touch, without
+offence, I hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The iron is of Elba, and was forged in a volcano. This Jacopo is one
+that should not go at large in an honest city, and yet is he seen pacing
+the square with as much ease as a noble in the Broglio!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know him not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not to know the boldest hand and surest stiletto in Venice, honest
+Roderigo, is to thy praise. But he is well marked among us of the port,
+and we never see the man but we begin to think of our sins, and of
+penances forgotten. I marvel much that the inquisitors do not give him
+to the devil on some public ceremony, for the benefit of small
+offenders!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are his deeds so notorious that they might pronounce on his fate
+without proof?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go, ask that question in the streets! Not a Christian loses his life in
+Venice without warning; and the number is not few, to say nothing of
+those who die with state fevers, but men see the work of his sure hand
+in the blow. Signor Roderigo, your canals are convenient graves for
+sudden deaths!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Methinks there is contradiction in this. Thou speakest of proofs of the
+hand that gave it, in the manner of the blow, and then thou callest in
+the aid of the canals to cover the whole deed. Truly, there is some
+wrong done this Jacopo, who is, haply, a man slandered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard of slandering a priest, for they are Christians, bound to
+keep good names for the church's honor, but to utter an injury against a
+bravo would a little exceed the tongue of an avocato. What mattereth it
+whether the hand be a shade deeper in color or not, when blood is on
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou sayest truly,&quot; answered the pretended Roderigo, drawing a heavy
+breath. &quot;It mattereth little indeed to him condemned, whether the
+sentence cometh of one or of many crimes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost know, friend Roderigo, that this very argument hath made me less
+scrupulous concerning the freight I am called on to carry, in this
+secret trade of ours. Thou art fairly in the senate's business, worthy
+Stefano, I say to myself, and therefore the less reason that thou
+should'st be particular in the quality of the merchandise. That Jacopo
+hath an eye and a scowl that would betray him, were he chosen to the
+chair of St. Peter! But doff thy mask, Signor Roderigo, that the sea-air
+may cool thy cheek; 'tis time there should no longer be this suspicion
+between old and tried friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My duty to those that send me forbid the liberty, else would I gladly
+stand face to face with thee, Master Stefano.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, notwithstanding thy caution, cunning Signore, I would hazard ten
+of the sequins thou art to pay to me, that I will go on the morrow into
+the crowd of San Marco, and challenge thee openly, by name, among a
+thousand. Thou mayest as well unmask, for I tell thee thou art as well
+known to me as the lateen yards of my felucca.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The less need to uncover. There are certain signs, no doubt, by which
+men who meet so often should be known to each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast a goodly countenance, Signore, and the less need to hide it.
+I have noted thee among the revellers, when thou hast thought thyself
+unseen; and I will say of thee this much, without wish to gain aught in
+our bargain, one of appearance fair as thine, Signor Roderigo, had
+better be seen openly than go thus for ever behind a cloud.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My answer hath been made. What the state wills cannot be overlooked;
+but since I see thou knowest me, take heed not to betray thy knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou would'st not be more safe with thy confessor. Diamine! I am not a
+man to gad about among the water-sellers, with a secret at the top of my
+voice; but thou didst leer aside when I winked at thee dancing among the
+masquers on the quay. Is it not so, Roderigo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is more cleverness in thee, Master Stefano, than I had thought;
+though thy readiness with the felucca is no secret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are two things, Signor Roderigo, on which I value myself, but
+always, I hope, with Christian moderation. As a mariner of the coast, in
+mistral or sirocco, levanter or zephyr, few can claim more practice; and
+for knowing an acquaintance in a carnival, I believe the father of evil
+himself could not be so disguised that eye of mine should not see his
+foot! For anticipating a gale, or looking behind a mask, Signor
+Roderigo, I know not my own equal among men of small learning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These faculties are great gifts in one who liveth by the sea and a
+critical trade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here came one Gino, a gondolier of Don Camillo Monforte, and an ancient
+fellow of mine, aboard the felucca, attended by a woman in mask. He
+threw off the girl dexterously enough, and, as he thought, among
+strangers; but I knew her at a glance for the daughter of a wine-seller,
+who had already tasted lachryma christi of mine. The woman was angered
+at the trick, but making the best of luck, we drove a bargain for the
+few casks which lay beneath the ballast, while Gino did his master's
+business in San Marco.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what that business was thou didst not learn, good Stefano?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How should I, Master Roderigo, when the gondolier scarce left time for
+greeting; but Annina&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Annina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same. Thou knowest Annina, old Tomaso's daughter; for she danced in
+the very set in which I detected thy countenance! I would not speak thus
+of the girl, but that I know thou art not backward to receive liquors
+that do not visit the custom-house, thyself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For that, fear nothing. I have sworn to thee that no secret of this
+nature shall pass my lips. But this Annina is a girl of quick wit and
+much boldness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between ourselves, Signor Roderigo, it is not easy to tell who is in
+the senate's pay here in Venice, or who is not. I have sometimes
+fancied, by thy manner of starting, and the tones of thy voice, that
+thou wert thyself no less than the lieutenant-general of the galleys, a
+little disguised.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this with thy knowledge of men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If faith were always equal, where would be its merit? Thou hast never
+been hotly chased by an infidel, Master Roderigo, or thou would'st know
+how the mind of man can change from hope to fear, from the big voice to
+the humble prayer! I remember once, in the confusion and hurry of
+baffling winds and whistling shot, having always turbans before the eye,
+and the bastinado in mind, to have beseeched St. Stefano in some such
+voice as one would use to a dog, and to have bullied the men with the
+whine of a young kitten. Corpo di Bacco! One hath need of experience in
+these affairs, Signor Roderigo, to know even his own merits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe thee. But who is this Gino of whom thou hast spoken, and what
+has his occupation, as a gondolier, to do with one known in thy youth in
+Calabria?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Therein lie matters exceeding my knowledge. His master, and I may say
+my master, for I was born on his estates, is the young Duca di Sant'
+Agata&mdash;the same that pushes his fortunes with the senate in a claim to
+the riches and honors of the last Monforte that sat in thy councils. The
+debate hath so long endured, that the lad hath made himself a gondolier
+by sheer shoving an oar between his master's palace and those of the
+nobles he moves with interest&mdash;at least such is Gino's own history of
+his education.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know the man. He wears the colors of him he serves. Is he of quick
+wit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Roderigo, all who come of Calabria cannot boast that advantage.
+We are no more than our neighbors, and there are exceptions, in all
+communities as in all families. Gino is ready enough with his oar, and
+as good a youth in his way as need be. But as to looking into things
+beyond their surface, why we should not expect the delicacy of a
+beccafica in a goose. Nature makes men, though kings make nobles. Gino
+is a gondolier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And of good skill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I say nothing of his arm or his leg, both of which are well enough in
+their places; but when it comes to knowing men and things&mdash;poor Gino is
+but a gondolier! The lad hath a most excellent heart, and is never
+backward to serve a friend. I love him, but thou would'st not have me
+say more than the truth will warrant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, keep thy felucca in readiness, for we know not the moment it may
+be needed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast only to bring thy freight, Signore, to have the bargain
+fulfilled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adieu. I would recommend to thee to keep apart from all other trades,
+and to see that the revelries of to-morrow do not debauch thy people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God speed thee, Signor Roderigo. Naught shall be wanting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo stepped into his gondola, which glided from the felucca's side
+with a facility which showed that an arm skilled in its use held the
+oar. He waved his hand in adieu to Stefano, and then the boat
+disappeared among the hulls that crowded the port.</p>
+
+<p>For a few minutes the padrone of the Bella Sorrentina continued to pace
+her decks, snuffing the fresh breeze that came in over the Lido, and
+then he sought his rest. By this time the dark, silent gondolas, which
+had been floating by hundreds through the basin, were all gone. The
+sound of music was heard no longer on the canals, and Venice, at all
+times noiseless and peculiar, seemed to sleep the sleep of the dead.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="007.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter VIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;The fisher came<br />
+From his green islet, bringing o'er the waves<br />
+His wife and little one; the husbandman<br />
+From the firm land, with many a friar and nun.<br />
+And village maiden, her first flight from home,<br />
+Crowding the common ferry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ROGERS.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>A brighter day than that which succeeded the night last mentioned never
+dawned upon the massive domes, the gorgeous palaces, and the glittering
+canals of Venice. The sun had not been long above the level of the Lido
+before the strains of horns and trumpets arose from the square of St.
+Mark. They were answered in full echoes from the distant arsenal. A
+thousand gondolas glided from the canals, stealing in every direction
+across the port, the Giudecca, and the various outer channels of the
+place; while the well known routes from Fusina and the neighboring isles
+were dotted with endless lines of boats urging their way towards the
+capital.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens began to assemble early, in their holiday attire, while
+thousands of contadini landed at the different bridges, clad in the gay
+costumes of the main. Before the day had far advanced, all the avenues
+of the great square were again thronged, and by the time the bells of
+the venerable cathedral had finished a peal of high rejoicing, St.
+Mark's again teemed with its gay multitude. Few appeared in masks, but
+pleasure seemed to lighten every eye, while the frank and unconcealed
+countenance willingly courted the observation and sympathy of its
+neighbors. In short, Venice and her people were seen, in all the gaiety
+and carelessness of a favorite Italian festa. The banners of the
+conquered nations flapped heavily on the triumphal masts, each
+church-tower hung out its image of the winged lion, and every palace was
+rich in its hangings of tapestry and silk, floating from balcony and
+window.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of this exhilarating and bright spectacle was heard the din
+of a hundred thousand voices. Above the constant hum, there arose, from
+time to time, the blasts of trumpets and the symphonies of rich music.
+Here the improvisatore, secretly employed by a politic and mysterious
+government, recounted, with a rapid utterance, and in language suited to
+the popular ear, at the foot of the spars which upheld the conquered
+banners of Candia, Crete, and the Morea, the ancient triumphs of the
+Republic; while there, a ballad-singer chanted, to the greedy crowd, the
+glory and justice of San Marco. Shouts of approbation succeeded each
+happy allusion to the national renown, and bravos, loud and
+oft-repeated, were the reward of the agents of the police, whenever they
+most administered to the self-delusion and vanity of their audience.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, gondolas rich in carvings and gildings, and containing
+females renowned for grace and beauty, began to cluster in hundreds
+around the port. A general movement had already taken place among the
+shipping, and a wide and clear channel was opened from the quay at the
+foot of the Piazzetta, to the distant bank, which shut out the waves of
+the Adriatic. Near this watery path, boats of all sizes and
+descriptions, filled with the curious and observant, were fast
+collecting.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd thickened as the day drew in, all the vast plains of the
+Padovano appearing to have given up their people to swell the numbers of
+those that rejoiced. A few timid and irresolute masquers now began to
+appear in the throng, stealing a momentary pleasure under the favor of
+that privileged disguise, from out of the seclusion and monotony of
+their cloisters. Next came the rich marine equipages of the accredited
+agents of foreign states, and then, amid the sound of clarions and the
+cries of the populace, the Bucentaur rowed out of the channel of the
+arsenal, and came sweeping to her station at the quay of St. Mark.</p>
+
+<p>These preliminaries, which occupied some hours, being observed, the
+javelin-men, and others employed about the person of the head of the
+Republic, were seen opening an avenue through the throng. After which,
+the rich strains of a hundred instruments proclaimed the approach of the
+Doge.</p>
+
+<p>We shall not detain the narrative, to describe the pomp in which a
+luxurious and affluent aristocracy, that in general held itself aloof
+from familiar intercourse with those it ruled, displayed its
+magnificence to the eyes of the multitude, on an occasion of popular
+rejoicing. Long lines of senators, dressed in their robes of office, and
+attended by crowds of liveried followers, came from under the galleries
+of the palace, and descended by the Giant's Stairway into the sombre
+court. Thence, the whole issued into the Piazzetta in order, and
+proceeded to their several stations on the canopied deck of the well
+known bark. Each patrician had his allotted place, and before the rear
+of the cort&egrave;ge had yet quitted the quay, there was a long and imposing
+row of grave legislators seated in the established order of their
+precedency. The ambassadors, the high dignitaries of the state, and the
+aged man who had been chosen to bear the empty honors of sovereignty,
+still remained on the land, waiting, with the quiet of trained docility,
+the moment to embark. At this moment, a man of an embrowned visage, legs
+bare to the knee, and breast open to the breeze, rushed through the
+guards, and knelt on the stones of the quay at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Justice!&mdash;great prince!&quot; cried the bold stranger; &quot;justice and mercy!
+Listen to one who has bled for St. Mark, and who hath his scars for his
+witnesses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Justice and mercy are not always companions,&quot; calmly observed he who
+wore the horned bonnet, motioning to his officious attendants to let the
+intruder stay.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mighty prince! I come for the last.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who and what art thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A fisherman of the Lagunes. One named Antonio, who seeketh the liberty
+of the prop of his years&mdash;a glorious boy, that force and the policy of
+the state have torn from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This should not be! Violence is not the attribute of justice&mdash;but the
+youth hath offended the laws, and he suffereth for his crimes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is guilty, Excellent and most Serene Highness, of youth, and health,
+and strength, with some skill in the craft of the mariner. They have
+taken him, without warning or consent, for the service of the galleys,
+and have left me in my age, alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The expression of pity, which had taken possession of the venerable
+features of the prince, changed instantly to a look of uneasiness and
+distrust. The eye, which just before had melted with compassion, became
+cold and set in its meaning, and signing to his guards, he bowed with
+dignity to the attentive and curious auditors, among the foreign agents,
+to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bear him away,&quot; said an officer, who took his master's meaning from the
+glance; &quot;the ceremonies may not be retarded for a prayer so idle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio offered no resistance, but yielding to the pressure of those
+around him, he sank back meekly among the crowd, disappointment and
+sorrow giving place, for an instant, to an awe and an admiration of the
+gorgeous spectacle, that were perhaps in some degree inseparable from
+his condition and habits. In a few moments, the slight interruption
+produced by this short scene, was forgotten in the higher interest of
+the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>When the ducal party had taken their places, and an admiral of
+reputation was in possession of the helm, the vast and gorgeous bark,
+with its gilded galleries thronged with attendants, swept away from the
+quay with a grand and stately movement. Its departure was the signal for
+a new burst of trumpets and clarions, and for fresh acclamations from
+the people. The latter rushed to the edge of the water, and by the time
+the Bucentaur had reached the middle of the port, the stream was black
+with the gondolas that followed in her train. In this manner did the gay
+and shouting cort&egrave;ge sweep on, some darting ahead of the principal bark,
+and some clinging, like smaller fish swimming around the leviathan, as
+near to her sides as the fall of the ponderous oars would allow. As each
+effort of the crew sent the galley further from the land, the living
+train seemed to extend itself, by some secret principle of expansion;
+nor was the chain of its apparent connexion entirely broken, until the
+Bucentaur had passed the island, long famous for its convent of
+religious Arminians. Here the movement became slower, in order to permit
+the thousand gondolas to approach, and then the whole moved forward, in
+nearly one solid phalanx, to the landing of the Lido.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage of the Adriatic, as the ceremony was quaintly termed, has
+been too often described to need a repetition here. Our business is
+rather with incidents of a private and personal nature than with
+descriptions of public events, and we shall pass over all that has no
+immediate connexion with the interest of the tale.</p>
+
+<p>When the Bucentaur became stationary, a space around her stern was
+cleared, and the Doge appeared in a rich gallery, so constructed as to
+exhibit the action to all in sight. He held a ring, glittering with
+precious stones, on high, and, pronouncing the words of betrothal, he
+dropped it upon the bosom of his fancied spouse. Shouts arose, trumpets
+blew their blasts, and each lady waved her handkerchief, in felicitation
+of the happy union. In the midst of the fracas&mdash;which was greatly
+heightened by the roar of cannon on board the cruisers in the channel,
+and from the guns in the arsenal&mdash;a boat glided into the open space
+beneath the gallery of the Bucentaur. The movement of the arm which
+directed the light gondola was dexterous and still strong, though the
+hairs of him who held the oar were thin and white. A suppliant eye was
+cast up at the happy faces that adorned the state of the prince, and
+then the look was changed intently to the water. A small fisherman's
+buoy fell from the boat, which glided away so soon, that, amid the
+animation and uproar of that moment, the action was scarce heeded by the
+excited throng.</p>
+
+<p>The aquatic procession now returned towards the city, the multitude
+rending the air with shouts at the happy termination of a ceremony, to
+which time and the sanction of the sovereign pontiff had given a species
+of sanctity that was somewhat increased by superstition. It is true that
+a few among the Venetians themselves regarded these famous nuptials of
+the Adriatic with indifference; and that several of the ministers of the
+northern and more maritime states, who were witnesses on the occasion,
+had scarcely concealed, as they cast glances of intelligence and pride
+among themselves, their smiles. Still, such was the influence of
+habit&mdash;for so much does even arrogant assumption, when long and
+perseveringly maintained, count among men&mdash;that neither the increasing
+feebleness of the Republic, nor the known superiority of other powers on
+the very element which this pageant was intended to represent as the
+peculiar property of St. Mark, could yet cover the lofty pretension with
+the ridicule it merited. Time has since taught the world that Venice
+continued this idle deception for ages after both reason and modesty
+should have dictated its discontinuance; but, at the period of which we
+write, that ambitious, crapulous, and factitious state was rather
+beginning to feel the symptomatic evidence of its fading circumstances,
+than to be fully conscious of the swift progress of a downward course.
+In this manner do communities, like individuals, draw near their
+dissolution, inattentive to the symptoms of decay, until they are
+overtaken with that fate which finally overwhelms empires and their
+power in the common lot of man.</p>
+
+<p>The Bucentaur did not return directly to the quay, to disburden itself
+of its grave and dignified load. The gaudy galley anchored in the centre
+of the port, and opposite to the wide mouth of the great canal. Officers
+had been busy, throughout the morning, in causing all the shipping and
+heavy boats, of which hundreds lay in that principal artery of the city,
+to remove from the centre of the passage, and heralds now summoned the
+citizens to witness the regatta, with which the public ceremonies of the
+day were to terminate.</p>
+
+<p>Venice, from her peculiar formation and the vast number of her watermen,
+had long been celebrated for this species of amusement. Families were
+known and celebrated in her traditions for dexterous skill with the oar,
+as they were known in Rome for feats of a far less useful and of a more
+barbarous nature. It was usual to select from these races of watermen
+the most vigorous and skilful; and after invoking the aid of
+patron-saints, and arousing their pride and recollections by songs that
+recounted the feats of their ancestors, to start them for the goal, with
+every incitement that pride and the love of victory could awaken.</p>
+
+<p>Most of these ancient usages were still observed. As soon as the
+Bucentaur was in its station, some thirty or forty gondoliers were
+brought forth, clad in their gayest habiliments, and surrounded and
+supported by crowds of anxious friends and relatives. The intended
+competitors were expected to sustain the long-established reputations of
+their several names, and they were admonished of the disgrace of
+defeat. They were cheered by the men, and stimulated by the smiles and
+tears of the other sex. The rewards were recalled to their minds; they
+were fortified by prayers to the saints; and then they were dismissed,
+amid the cries and the wishes of the multitude, to seek their allotted
+places beneath the stern of the galley of state.</p>
+
+<p>It has already been mentioned in these pages, that the city of Venice is
+divided into two nearly equal parts by a channel much broader than that
+of the ordinary passages of the town. This dividing artery, from its
+superior size and depth, and its greater importance, is called the Grand
+Canal. Its course is not unlike that of an undulating line, which
+greatly increases its length. As it is much used by the larger boats of
+the bay&mdash;being, in fact, a sort of secondary port&mdash;and its width is so
+considerable, it has throughout the whole distance but one bridge, the
+celebrated Rialto. The regatta was to be held on this canal, which
+offered the requisites of length and space, and which, as it was lined
+with most of the palaces of the principal senators, afforded all the
+facilities necessary for viewing the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>In passing from one end of this long course to the other, the men
+destined for the race were not permitted to make any exertion. Their
+eyes roamed over the gorgeous hangings, which, as is still wont
+throughout Italy on all days of festa, floated from every window, and on
+groups of females in rich attire, brilliant with the peculiar charms of
+the famed Venetian beauty, that clustered in the balconies. Those who
+were domestics, rose and answered to the encouraging signals thrown from
+above, as they passed the palaces of their masters; while those who were
+watermen of the public, endeavored to gather hope among the sympathizing
+faces of the multitude.</p>
+
+<p>At length every formality had been duly observed, and the competitors
+assumed their places. The gondolas were much larger than those commonly
+used, and each was manned by three watermen in the centre, directed by a
+fourth, who, standing on the little deck in the stern, steered, while he
+aided to impel the boat. There were light, low staffs in the bows, with
+flags, that bore the distinguishing colors of several noble families of
+the Republic, or which had such other simple devices as had been
+suggested by the fancies of those to whom they belonged. A few
+flourishes of the oars, resembling the preparatory movements which the
+master of fence makes ere he begins to push and parry, were given; a
+whirling of the boats, like the prancing of curbed racers, succeeded;
+and then, at the report of a gun, the whole darted away as if the
+gondolas were impelled by volition. The start was followed by a shout,
+which passed swiftly along the canal, and an eager agitation of heads
+that went from balcony to balcony, till the sympathetic movement was
+communicated to the grave load under which the Bucentaur labored.</p>
+
+<p>For a few minutes the difference in force and skill was not very
+obvious. Each gondola glided along the element apparently with that ease
+with which a light-winged swallow skims the lake, and with no visible
+advantage to any one of the ten. Then, as more art in him who steered,
+or greater powers of endurance in those who rowed, or some of the latent
+properties of the boat itself came into service, the cluster of little
+barks which had come off like a closely-united flock of birds taking
+flight together in alarm, began to open, till they formed a long and
+vacillating line in the centre of the passage. The whole train shot
+beneath the bridge so near each other as to render it still doubtful
+which was to conquer, and the exciting strife came more in view of the
+principal personages of the city.</p>
+
+<p>But here those radical qualities which insure success in efforts of this
+nature manifested themselves. The weaker began to yield, the train to
+lengthen, and hopes and fears to increase, until those in front
+presented the exhilarating spectacle of success, while those behind
+offered the still more noble sight of men struggling without hope.
+Gradually the distances between the boats increased, while that between
+them and the goal grew rapidly less, until three of those in advance
+came in, like glancing arrows, beneath the stern of the Bucentaur, with
+scarce a length between them. The prize was won, the conquerors were
+rewarded, and the artillery gave forth the usual signals of rejoicing.
+Music answered to the roar of cannon and the peals of bells, while
+sympathy with success, that predominant and so often dangerous principle
+of our nature, drew shouts even from the disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>The clamor ceased, and a herald proclaimed aloud the commencement of a
+new and different struggle. The last, and what might be termed the
+national race, had been limited by an ancient usage to the known and
+recognised gondoliers of Venice. The prize had been awarded by the
+state, and the whole affair had somewhat of an official and political
+character. It was now announced, however, that a race was to be run, in
+which the reward was open to all competitors, without question as to
+their origin, or as to their ordinary occupations. An oar of gold, to
+which was attached a chain of the same precious metal, was exhibited as
+the boon of the Doge to him who showed most dexterity and strength in
+this new struggle; while a similar ornament of silver was to be the
+portion of him who showed the second-best dexterity and bottom. A mimic
+boat of less precious metal was the third prize. The gondolas were to be
+the usual light vehicles of the canals, and as the object was to display
+the peculiar skill of that city of islands, but one oarsman was allowed
+to each, on whom would necessarily fall the whole duty of guiding, while
+he impelled his little bark. Any of those who had been engaged in the
+previous trial were admitted to this; and all desirous of taking part in
+the new struggle were commanded to come beneath the stern of the
+Bucentaur within a prescribed number of minutes, that note might be had
+of their wishes. As notice of this arrangement had been previously
+given, the interval between the two races was not long.</p>
+
+<p>The first who came out of the crowd of boats which environed the vacant
+place that had been left for the competitors, was a gondolier of the
+public landing, well known for his skill with the oar, and his song on
+the canal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How art thou called, and in whose name dost thou put thy chance?&quot;
+demanded the herald of this aquatic course.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All know me for Bartolomeo, one who lives between the Piazzetta and the
+Lido, and, like a loyal Venetian, I trust in San Teodoro.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art well protected; take thy place and await thy fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The conscious waterman swept the water with a back stroke of his blade,
+and the light gondola whirled away into the centre of the vacant spot,
+like a swan giving a sudden glance aside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who art thou?&quot; demanded the official of the next that came.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enrico, a gondolier of Fusina. I come to try my oar with the braggarts
+of the canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In whom is thy trust?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sant' Antonio di Padua?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt need his aid, though we commend thy spirit. Enter, and take
+place.&quot;&mdash;&quot;And who art thou?&quot; he continued, to another, when the second
+had imitated the easy skill of the first.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am called Gino of Calabria, a gondolier in private service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What noble retaineth thee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The illustrious and most excellent Don Camillo Monforte, Duca and Lord
+of Sant' Agata in Napoli, and of right a senator in Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou should'st have come of Padua, friend, by thy knowledge of the
+laws! Dost thou trust in him thou servest for the victory?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a movement among the senators at the answer of Gino; and the
+half-terrified varlet thought he perceived frowns gathering on more than
+one brow. He looked around in quest of him whose greatness he had
+vaunted, as if he sought succor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou name thy support in this great trial of force?&quot; resumed the
+herald.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My master,&quot; uttered the terrified Gino, &quot;St. Januarius, and St. Mark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art well defended. Should the two latter fail thee, thou mayest
+surely count on the first!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Monforte has an illustrious name, and he is welcome to our
+Venetian sports,&quot; observed the Doge, slightly bending his head towards
+the young Calabrian noble, who stood at no great distance in a gondola
+of state, regarding the scene with a deeply-interested countenance. This
+cautious interruption of the pleasantries of the official was
+acknowledged by a low reverence, and the matter proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take thy station, Gino of Calabria, and a happy fortune be thine,&quot; said
+the latter; then turning to another, he asked in surprise&mdash;&quot;Why art thou
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I come to try my gondola's swiftness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art old, and unequal to this struggle; husband thy strength for
+daily toil. An ill-advised ambition hath put thee on this useless
+trial.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The new aspirant had forced a common fisherman's gondola, of no bad
+shape, and of sufficient lightness, but which bore about it all the
+vulgar signs of its daily uses, beneath the gallery of the Bucentaur. He
+received the reproof meekly, and was about to turn his boat aside,
+though with a sorrowing and mortified eye, when a sign from the Doge
+arrested his arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Question him, as of wont,&quot; said the prince.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How art thou named?&quot; continued the reluctant official, who, like all of
+subordinate condition, had far more jealousy of the dignity of the
+sports he directed, than his superior.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am known as Antonio, a fisherman of the Lagunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art old!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, none know it better than I. It is sixty summers since I first
+threw net or line into the water.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor art thou clad as befitteth one who cometh before the state of
+Venice in a regatta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am here in the best that I have. Let them who would do the nobles
+greater honor, come in better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy limbs are uncovered&mdash;thy bosom bare&mdash;thy sinews feeble&mdash;go to; thou
+art ill advised to interrupt the pleasures of the nobles by this
+levity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again Antonio would have shrunk from the ten thousand eyes that shone
+upon him, when the calm voice of the Doge once more came to his aid.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The struggle is open to all,&quot; said the sovereign; &quot;still I would advise
+the poor and aged man to take counsel; give him silver, for want urges
+him to this hopeless trial.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hearest; alms are offered thee; but give place to those who are
+stronger and more seemly for the sport.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will obey, as is the duty of one born and accustomed to poverty. They
+said the race was open to all, and I crave the pardon of the nobles,
+since I meant to do them no dishonor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Justice in the palace, and justice on the canals,&quot; hastily observed the
+prince. &quot;If he will continue, it is his right. It is the pride of St.
+Mark that his balances are held with an even hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A murmur of applause succeeded the specious sentiment, for the powerful
+rarely affect the noble attribute of justice, however limited may be its
+exercise, without their words finding an echo in the tongues of the
+selfish.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hearest&mdash;His Highness, who is the voice of a mighty state, says
+thou mayest remain;&mdash;though thou art still advised to withdraw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will then see what virtue is left in this naked arm,&quot; returned
+Antonio, casting a mournful glance, and one that was not entirely free
+from the latent vanity of man, at his meagre and threadbare attire. &quot;The
+limb hath its scars, but the infidels may have spared enough, for the
+little I ask.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In whom is thy faith?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed St. Anthony, of the Miraculous Draught.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take thy place.&mdash;Ha! here cometh one unwilling to be known! How now!
+who appears with so false a face?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Call me, Mask.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So neat and just a leg and arm need not have hid their follow, the
+countenance. Is it your Highness's pleasure that one disguised should be
+entered for the sports?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt it not. A mask is sacred in Venice. It is the glory of our
+excellent and wise laws, that he who seeketh to dwell within the privacy
+of his own thoughts, and to keep aloof from curiosity by shadowing his
+features, rangeth our streets and canals as if he dwelt in the security
+of his own abode. Such are the high privileges of liberty, and such it
+is to be a citizen of a generous, a magnanimous, and a free state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A thousand bowed in approbation of the sentiment, and a rumor passed
+from mouth to mouth that a young noble was about to try his strength in
+the regatta, in compliment to some wayward beauty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such is justice!&quot; exclaimed the herald, in a loud voice, admiration
+apparently overcoming respect, in the ardor of the moment. &quot;Happy is he
+that is born in Venice, and envied are the people in whose councils
+wisdom and mercy preside, like lovely and benignant sisters! On whom
+dost thou rely?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mine own arm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! this is impious! None so presuming may enter into these privileged
+sports.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hurried exclamation of the herald was accompanied by a general stir,
+such as denotes sudden and strong emotion in a multitude.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The children of the Republic are protected by an even hand,&quot; observed
+the venerable prince. &quot;It formeth our just pride, and blessed St. Mark
+forbid that aught resembling vain-glory should be uttered! but it is
+truly our boast that we know no difference between our subjects of the
+islands or those of the Dalmatian coast; between Padua or Candia; Corfu
+or St. Giorgio. Still it is not permitted for any to refuse the
+intervention of the saints.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name thy patron, or quit the place,&quot; continued the observant herald,
+anew.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger paused, as if he looked into his mind, and then he
+answered&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;San Giovanni of the Wilderness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou namest one of blessed memory!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I name him who may have pity on me, in this living desert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The temper of thy soul is best known to thyself, but this reverend rank
+of patricians, yonder brilliant show of beauty, and that goodly
+multitude, may claim another name.&mdash;Take thy place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While the herald proceeded to take the names of three or four more
+applicants, all gondoliers in private service, a murmur ran through the
+spectators, which proved how much their interest and curiosity had been
+awakened by the replies and appearance of the two last competitors. In
+the meantime, the young nobles who entertained those who came last,
+began to move among the throng of boats, with the intention of making
+such manifestations of their gallant desires and personal devotion, as
+suited the customs and opinions of the age. The list was now proclaimed
+to be full, and the gondolas were towed off, as before, towards the
+starting point, leaving the place beneath the stern of the Bucentaur,
+vacant. The scene that followed, consequently passed directly before the
+eyes of those grave men, who charged themselves with most of the private
+interests, as well as with the public concerns of Venice.</p>
+
+<p>There were many unmasked and high-born dames, whirling about in their
+boats, attended by cavaliers in rich attire, and here and there appeared
+a pair of dark lustrous eyes, peeping through the silk of a visor, that
+concealed some countenance too youthful for exposure in so gay a scene.
+One gondola, in particular, was remarked for the singular grace and
+beauty of the form it held, qualities which made themselves apparent,
+even through the half-disguise of the simple habiliments she wore. The
+boat, the servants, and the ladies, for there were two, were alike
+distinguished for that air of severe but finished simplicity, which
+oftener denotes the presence of high quality and true taste, than a more
+lavish expenditure of vulgar ornament. A Carmelite, whose features were
+concealed by his cowl, testified that their condition was high, and lent
+a dignity to their presence by his reverend and grave protection. A
+hundred gondolas approached this party, and after as many fruitless
+efforts to penetrate the disguises, glided away, while whispers and
+interrogatories passed from one to another, to learn the name and
+station of the youthful beauty. At length, a gay bark, with watermen in
+gorgeous liveries, and in whose equipment there was a studied display of
+magnificence, came into the little circle that curiosity had drawn
+together. The single cavalier who occupied the seat, arose, for few
+gondolas appeared that day with their gloomy-looking and mysterious
+pavilions, and saluted the masked females with the ease of one
+accustomed to all presences, but with the reserve of deep respect.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have a favorite follower in this race,&quot; he said gallantly, &quot;and one
+in whose skill and force I put great trust. Until now I have uselessly
+sought a lady of a beauty and merit so rare, as to warrant that I should
+place his fortune on her smiles. But I seek no further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are gifted with a keen sight, Signore, that you discover all you
+seek beneath these masks,&quot; returned one of the two females, while their
+companion, the Carmelite, bowed graciously to the compliment, which
+seemed little more than was warranted by the usage of such scenes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are other means of recognition than the eyes, and other sources
+of admiration than the senses, lady. Conceal yourselves as you will,
+here do I know that I am near the fairest face, the warmest heart, and
+the purest mind of Venice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is bold augury, Signore,&quot; returned she who was evidently the
+oldest of the two, glancing a look at her companion as if to note the
+effect of this gallant speech. &quot;Venice has a name for the beauty of its
+dames, and the sun of Italy warms many a generous heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Better that such noble gifts should be directed to the worship of the
+Creator than of the creature,&quot; murmured the monk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some there are, holy father, who have admiration for both. Such I would
+fain hope is the happy lot of her who is favored with the spiritual
+counsel of one so virtuous and wise as yourself. Here I place my
+fortune, let what may follow; and here would I gladly place a heavier
+stake, were it permitted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As the cavalier spoke, he tendered to the silent fair a bouquet of the
+sweetest and most fragrant flowers; and among them were those to which
+poets and custom have ascribed the emblematic qualities of constancy and
+love. She, to whom this offering of gallantry was made, hesitated to
+accept it. It much exceeded the reserve imposed on one of her station
+and years to allow of such homage from the other sex, though the
+occasion was generally deemed one that admitted of more than usual
+gallantry; and she evidently shrank, with the sensitiveness of one whose
+feelings were unpractised, from a homage so public.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Receive the flowers, my love,&quot; mildly whispered her companion&mdash;&quot;the
+cavalier who offers them simply intends to show the quality of his
+breeding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will be seen in the end,&quot; hastily returned Don Camillo&mdash;for it was
+he. &quot;Signora, adieu; we have met on this water when there was less
+restraint between us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He bowed, and, signing to his gondolier, was quickly lost in the crowd
+of boats. Ere the barks, however, were separated, the mask of the silent
+fair was slightly moved as if she sought relief from the air; and the
+Neapolitan was rewarded for his gallantry by a momentary glance at the
+glowing countenance of Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy guardian hath a displeased eye,&quot; hurriedly observed Donna Florinda.
+&quot;I wonder that we should be known!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should more wonder that we were not. I could recall the noble
+Neapolitan cavalier amid a million. Thou dost not remember all that I
+owe to him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Florinda did not answer; but in secret she offered up a fervent
+prayer that the obligation might be blessed to the future happiness of
+her who had received it. There was a furtive and uneasy glance between
+her and the Carmelite; but as neither spoke, a long and thoughtful
+silence succeeded the rencontre.</p>
+
+<p>From this musing the party, in common with all the gay and laughing
+multitude by which they were surrounded, were reminded of the business
+on which they were assembled by the signal-gun, the agitation on the
+great canal nearest the scene of strife, and a clear blast of the
+trumpets. But in order that the narrative may proceed regularly, it is
+fit that we should return a little in the order of time.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter IX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Here art thou in appointment fresh and fair,<br />
+Anticipating time with starting courage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>It has been seen that the gondolas, which were to contend in the race,
+had been towed towards the place of starting, in order that the men
+might enter on the struggle with undiminished vigor. In this precaution,
+even the humble and half-clad fisherman had not been neglected, but his
+boat, like the others, was attached to the larger barges to which this
+duty had been assigned. Still, as he passed along the canal, before the
+crowded balconies and groaning vessels which lined its sides, there
+arose that scornful and deriding laugh, which seems ever to grow more
+strong and bold, as misfortune weighs most heavily on its subject.</p>
+
+<p>The old man was not unconscious of the remarks of which he was the
+subject; and, as it is rare indeed that our sensibilities do not survive
+our better fortunes, even he was so far conscious of a fall as not to be
+callous to contempt thus openly expressed. He looked wistfully on every
+side of him, and seemed to seek in every eye he encountered, some
+portion of the sympathy which his meek and humble feelings still craved.
+But even the men of his caste and profession threw jibes upon his ear;
+and though, of all the competitors, perhaps the one whose motive most
+hallowed his ambition, he was held to be the only proper subject of
+mirth. For the solution of this revolting trait of human character we
+are not to look to Venice and her institutions, since it is known that
+none are so arrogant, on occasions, as the ridden, and that the abject
+and insolent spirits are usually tenants of the same bosom.</p>
+
+<p>The movement of the boats brought those of the masked waterman, and the
+subjects of those taunts, side by side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art not the favorite in this strife,&quot; observed the former, when a
+fresh burst of jibes was showered on the head of his unresisting
+associate. &quot;Thou hast not been sufficiently heedful of thy attire, for
+this is a town of luxury, and he who would meet applause must appear on
+the canals in the guise of one less borne upon by fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know them! I know them!&quot; returned the fisherman; &quot;they are led away
+by their pride, and they think ill of one who cannot share in their
+vanities. But, friend unknown, I have brought with me a face, which, old
+though it be, and wrinkled, and worn by the weather like the stones of
+the sea-shore, is uncovered to the eye, and without shame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There may be reasons which thou knowest not, why I wear a mask. But if
+my face be hid the limbs are bare, and thou seest there is no lack of
+sinews to make good that which I have undertaken. Thou should'st have
+thought better of the matter ere thou puttest thyself in the way of so
+much mortification. Defeat will not cause the people to treat thee more
+tenderly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If my sinews are old and stiffened, Signor Mask, they are long used to
+toil. As to shame, if it is a shame to be below the rest of mankind in
+fortune, it will not now come for the first time. A heavy sorrow hath
+befallen me, and this race may lighten the burden of grief. I shall not
+pretend that I hear this laughter, and all these scornful speeches, as
+one listens to the evening breeze on the Lagunes&mdash;for a man is still a
+man, though he lives with the humblest, and eats of the coarsest. But
+let it pass, Sant' Antonio will give me heart to bear it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast a stout mind, fisherman, and I would gladly pray my patron
+to grant thee a stronger arm, but that I have much need of this victory
+myself. Wilt thou be content with the second prize, if, by any manner of
+skill, I might aid thy efforts? for, I suppose, the metal of the third
+is as little to thy taste as it is to my own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I count not on gold or silver.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can the honor of such a struggle awaken the pride of one like thee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old man looked earnestly at his companion, but he shook his head
+without answer. Fresh merriment, at his expense, caused him to bend his
+face towards the scoffers, and he perceived they were just then passing
+a numerous group of his fellows of the Lagunes, who seemed to feel that
+his unjustifiable ambition reflected, in some degree, on the honor of
+their whole body.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now, old Antonio!&quot; shouted the boldest of the band, &quot;is it not
+enough that thou hast won the honors of the net, but thou would'st have
+a golden oar at thy neck?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall yet see him of the senate!&quot; cried a second.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He standeth in need of the horned bonnet for his naked head,&quot; continued
+a third. &quot;We shall see the brave Admiral Antonio sailing in the
+Bucentaur, with the nobles of the land!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Their sallies were succeeded by coarse laughter. Even the fair in the
+balconies were not uninfluenced by these constant jibes, and the
+apparent discrepancy between the condition and the means of so unusual a
+pretender to the honors of the regatta. The purpose of the old man
+wavered, but he seemed goaded by some inward incentive that still
+enabled him to maintain his ground. His companion closely watched the
+varying expression of a countenance that was far too little trained in
+deception to conceal the feelings within; and, as they approached the
+place of starting, he again spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest yet withdraw,&quot; he said; &quot;why should one of thy years make
+the little time he has to stay bitter, by bearing the ridicule of his
+associates for the rest of his life?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St. Anthony did a greater wonder when he caused the fishes to come up
+on the waters to hear his preaching, and I will not show a cowardly
+heart at a moment when there is most need of resolution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The masked waterman crossed himself devoutly; and, relinquishing all
+further design to persuade the other to abandon the fruitless contest,
+he gave all his thoughts to his own interest in the coming struggle.</p>
+
+<p>The narrowness of most of the canals of Venice, with the innumerable
+angles and the constant passing, have given rise to a fashion of
+construction and of rowing that are so peculiar to that city and its
+immediate dependencies as to require some explanation. The reader has
+doubtless already understood that a gondola is a long, narrow, and light
+boat, adapted to the uses of the place, and distinct from the wherries
+of all other towns. The distance between the dwellings on most of the
+canals is so small, that the width of the latter does not admit of the
+use of oars on both sides, at the same time. The necessity of constantly
+turning aside to give room for others, and the frequency of the bridges
+and the corners, have suggested the expediency of placing the face of
+the waterman in the direction in which the boat is steering, and, of
+course, of keeping him on his feet. As every gondola, when fully
+equipped, has its pavilion in the centre, the height of the latter
+renders it necessary to place him who steers on such an elevation as
+will enable him to overlook it. From these several causes a one-oared
+boat in Venice is propelled by a gondolier, who stands on a little
+angular deck in its stern, formed like the low roof of a house, and the
+stroke of the oar is given by a push, instead of a pull, as is common
+elsewhere. This habit of rowing erect, however, which is usually done
+by a forward, instead of a backward movement of the body, is not
+unfrequent in all the ports of the Mediterranean, though in no other is
+there a boat which resembles the gondola in all its properties or uses.
+The upright position of the gondolier requires that the pivot on which
+the oar rests should have a corresponding elevation; and there is,
+consequently, a species of bumkin raised from the side of the boat to
+the desired height, and which, being formed of a crooked and very
+irregular knee of wood, has two or three row-locks, one above the other,
+to suit the stature of different individuals, or to give a broader or a
+narrower sweep of the blade as the movement shall require. As there is
+frequent occasion to cast the oar from one of these row-locks to the
+other, and not unfrequently to change its side, it rests in a very open
+bed; and the instrument is kept in its place by great dexterity alone,
+and by a perfect knowledge of the means of accommodating the force and
+the rapidity of the effort to the forward movement of the boat and the
+resistance of the water. All these difficulties united render skill in a
+gondolier one of the most delicate branches of a waterman's art, as it
+is clear that muscular strength alone, though of great aid, can avail
+but little in such a practice.</p>
+
+<p>The great canal of Venice, following its windings, being more than a
+league in length, the distance in the present race was reduced nearly
+half, by causing the boats to start from the Rialto. At this point,
+then, the gondolas were all assembled, attended by those who were to
+place them. As the whole of the population which before had been
+extended along the entire course of the water, was now crowded between
+the bridge and the Bucentaur, the long and graceful avenue resembled a
+vista of human heads. It was an imposing sight to look along that bright
+and living lane, and the hearts of each competitor beat high, as hope,
+or pride, or apprehension, became the feeling of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gino of Calabria,&quot; cried the marshal who placed the gondolas, &quot;thy
+station is on the right. Take it, and St. Januarius speed thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The servitor of Don Camillo assumed his oar, and the boat glided
+gracefully into its berth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou comest next, Enrico of Fusina. Call stoutly on thy Paduan patron,
+and husband thy strength; for none of the main have ever yet borne away
+a prize in Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He then summoned, in succession, those whose names have not been
+mentioned, and placed them side by side, in the centre of the canal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is place for thee, Signore,&quot; continued the officer, inclining his
+head to the unknown gondolier; for he had imbibed the general impression
+that the face of some young patrician was concealed beneath the mask, to
+humor the fancy of some capricious fair.&mdash;&quot;Chance hath given thee the
+extreme left.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast forgotten to call the fisherman,&quot; observed the masker, as he
+drove his own gondola into its station.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does the hoary fool persist in exposing his vanity and his rags to the
+best of Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can take place in the rear,&quot; meekly observed Antonio. &quot;There may be
+those in the line it doth not become one like me to crowd, and a few
+strokes of the oar, more or less, can differ but little in so long; a
+strife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hadst better push modesty to discretion, and remain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it be your pleasure, Signore, I would rather see what St. Anthony
+may do for an old fisherman, who has prayed to him, night and morning,
+these sixty years?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is thy right; and, as thou seemest content with it, Keep the place
+thou hast in the rear. It is only occupying it a little earlier than
+thou would'st otherwise. Now, recall the rules of the games, hardy
+gondoliers, and make your last appeal to your patrons. There is to be no
+crossing, or other foul expedients; naught except ready oars, and
+nimble wrists. He who varies needlessly from his line until he leadeth,
+shall be recalled by name; and whoever is guilty of any act to spoil the
+sports, or otherwise to offend the patricians, shall be both checked and
+punished. Be ready for the signal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The assistant, who was in a strongly manned boat, fell back a little,
+while runners, similarly equipped, went ahead to order the curious from
+the water. These preparations were scarcely made, when a signal floated
+on the nearest dome. It was repeated on the campanile, and a gun was
+fired at the arsenal. A deep but suppressed murmur arose in the throng,
+which was as quickly succeeded by suspense.</p>
+
+<p>Each gondolier had suffered the bows of his boat to incline slightly
+towards the left shore of the canal, as the jockey is seen, at the
+starting-post, to turn his courser aside, in order to repress its ardor,
+or divert its attention. But the first long and broad sweep of the oar
+brought them all in a line again, and away they glided in a body.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few minutes there was no difference in speed, nor any sign
+by which the instructed might detect the probable evidence of defeat or
+success. The whole ten, which formed the front line, skimmed the water
+with an equal velocity, beak to beak, as if some secret attraction held
+each in its place, while the humble, though equally light bark of the
+fisherman steadily kept its position in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>The boats were soon held in command. The oars got their justest poise
+and widest sweep, and the wrists of the men accustomed to their play.
+The line began to waver, It undulated, the glittering prow of one
+protruding beyond the others; and then it changed its form. Enrico of
+Fusina shot ahead, and, privileged by success, he insensibly sheered
+more into the centre of the canal, avoiding by the change the eddies,
+and the other obstructions of the shore. This manoeuvre which, in the
+language of the course, would have been called &quot;taking the track,&quot; had
+the additional advantage of throwing upon those who followed some
+trifling impediment from the back-water. The sturdy and practised
+Bartolomeo of the Lido, as his companions usually called him, came next,
+occupying the space on his leader's quarter, where he suffered least
+from the reaction caused by the stroke of his oar. The gondolier of Don
+Camillo, also, soon shot out of the crowd, and was seen plying his arms
+vigorously still farther to the right, and a little in the rear of
+Bartolomeo. Then came in the centre of the canal, and near as might be
+in the rear of the triumphant waterman of the main, a dense body, with
+little order and varying positions, compelling each other to give way,
+and otherwise increasing the difficulties of their struggle. More to the
+left, and so near to the palaces as barely to allow room for the sweep
+of his oar, was the masked competitor, whose progress seemed retarded by
+some unseen cause, for he gradually fell behind all the others, until
+several boats' lengths of open water lay between him and even the group
+of his nameless opponents. Still he plied his arms steadily, and with
+sufficient skill. As the interest of mystery had been excited in his
+favor, a rumor passed up the canal, that the young cavalier had been
+little favored by fortune in the choice of a boat. Others, who reflected
+more deeply on causes, whispered of the folly of one of his habits
+taking the risk of mortification by a competition with men whose daily
+labor had hardened their sinews, and whose practice enabled them to
+judge closely of every chance of the race. But when the eyes of the
+multitude turned from the cluster of passing boats to the solitary barge
+of the fisherman, who came singly on in the rear, admiration was again
+turned to derision.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio had cast aside the cap he wore of wont, and the few straggling
+hairs that were left streamed about his hollow temples, leaving the
+whole of his swarthy features exposed to view. More than once, as the
+gondola came on, his eyes turned aside reproachfully, as if he keenly
+felt the stings of so many unlicensed tongues applied to feelings which,
+though blunted by his habits and condition, were far from extinguished.
+Laugh arose above laugh, however, and taunt succeeded taunt more
+bitterly, as the boats came among the gorgeous palaces which lined the
+canal nearer to the goal. It was not that the owners of these lordly
+piles indulged in the unfeeling triumph, but their dependants,
+constantly subject themselves to the degrading influence of a superior
+presence, let loose the long-pent torrents of their arrogance on the
+head of the first unresisting subject which offered.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio bore all these jibes manfully, if not in tranquillity, and
+always without retort, until he again approached the spot occupied by
+his companions of the Lagunes. Here his eye sank under the reproaches,
+and his oar faltered. The taunts and denunciations increased as he lost
+ground, and there was a moment when the rebuked and humbled spirit of
+the old man seemed about to relinquish the contest. But dashing a hand
+across his brow, as if to clear a sight which had become dimmed and
+confused, he continued to ply the oar, and, happily, he was soon past
+the point most trying to his resolution. From this moment the cries
+against the fisherman diminished, and as the Bucentaur, though still
+distant, was now in sight, interest in the issue of the race absorbed
+all other feelings.</p>
+
+<p>Enrico still kept the lead; but the judges of the gondolier's skill
+began to detect signs of exhaustion in his faltering stroke. The
+waterman of the Lido pressed him hard, and the Calabrian was drawing
+more into a line with them both. At this moment, too, the masked
+competitor exhibited a force and skill that none had expected to see in
+one of his supposed rank. His body was thrown more upon the effort of
+the oar, and as his leg was stretched behind to aid the stroke, it
+discovered a volume of muscle, and an excellence of proportion, that
+excited murmurs of applause. The consequence was soon apparent. His
+gondola glided past the crowd in the centre of the canal, and by a
+change that was nearly insensible, he became the fourth in the race. The
+shouts which rewarded his success had scarcely parted from the
+multitude, ere their admiration was called to a new and an entirely
+unexpected aspect in the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Left to his own exertions, and less annoyed by that derision and
+contempt which often defeat even more generous efforts, Antonio had
+drawn nearer to the crowd of nameless competitors. Though
+undistinguished in this narrative, there were seen, in that group of
+gondoliers, faces well known on the canals of Venice, as belonging to
+watermen in whose dexterity and force the city took pride. Either
+favored by his isolated position, or availing himself of the
+embarrassment these men gave to each other, the despised fisherman was
+seen a little on their left, coining up abreast, with a stroke and
+velocity that promised further success. The expectation was quickly
+realized. He passed them all, amid a dead and wondering silence, and
+took his station as fifth in the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>From this moment all interest in those who formed the vulgar mass was
+lost. Every eye was turned towards the front, where the strife increased
+at each stroke of the oar, and where the issue began to assume a new and
+doubtful character. The exertions of the waterman of Fusina were
+seemingly redoubled, though his boat went no faster. The gondola of
+Bartolomeo shot past him; it was followed by those of Gino and the
+masked gondolier, while not a cry betrayed the breathless interest of
+the multitude. But when the boat of Antonio also swept ahead, there
+arose such a hum of voices as escapes a throng when a sudden and violent
+change of feeling is produced in their wayward sentiments. Enrico was
+frantic with the disgrace. He urged every power of his frame to avert
+the dishonor, with the desperate energy of an Italian, and then he cast
+himself into the bottom of the gondola, tearing his hair and weeping in
+agony. His example was followed by those in the rear, though with more
+governed feelings, for they shot aside among the boats which lined the
+canal, and were lost to view.</p>
+
+<p>From this open and unexpected abandonment of the struggle, the
+spectators got the surest evidence of its desperate character. But as a
+man has little sympathy for the unfortunate when his feelings are
+excited by competition, the defeated were quickly forgotten. The name of
+Bartolomeo was borne high upon the winds by a thousand voices, and his
+fellows of the Piazzetta and the Lido called upon him, aloud, to die for
+the honor of their craft. Well did the sturdy gondolier answer to their
+wishes, for palace after palace was left behind, and no further change
+was made in the relative positions of the boats. But, like his
+predecessor, the leader redoubled his efforts with a diminished effect,
+and Venice had the mortification of seeing a stranger leading one of the
+most brilliant of her regattas. Bartolomeo no sooner lost place, than
+Gino, the masker, and the despised Antonio, in turn, shot by, leaving
+him who had so lately been first in the race, the last. He did not,
+however, relinquish the strife, but continued to struggle with the
+energy of one who merited a better fortune.</p>
+
+<p>When this unexpected and entirely new character was given to the
+contest, there still remained a broad sheet of water between the
+advancing gondolas and the goal. Gino led, and with many favorable
+symptoms of his being able to maintain his advantage. He was encouraged
+by the shouts of the multitude, who now forgot his Calabrian origin in
+his success, while many of the serving-men of his master cheered him on
+by name. All would not do. The masked waterman, for the first time,
+threw the grandeur of his skill and force into the oar. The ashen
+instrument bent to the power of an arm whose strength appeared to
+increase at will, and the movements of his body became rapid as the
+leaps of the greyhound. The pliant gondola obeyed, and amid a shout
+which passed from the Piazzetta to the Rialto, it glided ahead.</p>
+
+<p>If success gives force and increases the physical and moral energies,
+there is a fearful and certain reaction in defeat. The follower of Don
+Camillo was no exception to the general law, and when the masked
+competitor passed him the boat of Antonio followed as if it were
+impelled by the same strokes. The distance between the two leading
+gondolas even now seemed to lessen, and there was a moment of breathless
+interest when all there expected to see the fisherman, in despite of his
+years and boat, shooting past his rival.</p>
+
+<p>But expectation was deceived. He of the mask, notwithstanding his
+previous efforts, seemed to sport with the toil, so ready was the sweep
+of his oar, so sure its stroke, and so vigorous the arm by which it was
+impelled. Nor was Antonio an antagonist to despise. If there was less of
+the grace of a practised gondolier of the canals in his attitudes than
+in those of his companion, there was no relaxation in the force of his
+sinews. They sustained him to the last with that enduring power which
+had been begotten by threescore years of unremitting labor, and while
+his still athletic form was exerted to the utmost there appeared no
+failing of its energies.</p>
+
+<p>A few moments sent the leading gondolas several lengths ahead of their
+nearest followers. The dark beak of the fisherman's boat hung upon the
+quarter of the more showy bark of his antagonist, but it could do no
+more. The port was open before them, and they glanced by church, palace,
+barge, mystick, and felucca, without the slightest inequality in their
+relative speed. The masked waterman glanced a look behind as if to
+calculate his advantage, and then bending again to his pliant oar he
+spoke, loud enough to be heard only by him who pressed so hard upon his
+track.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast deceived me, fisherman!&quot; he said&mdash;&quot;there is more of manhood
+in thee yet than I had thought.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If there is manhood in my arms there is childlessness and sorrow at the
+heart,&quot; was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou so prize a golden bauble? Thou art second; be content with
+thy lot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will not do; I must be foremost or I have wearied my old limbs in
+vain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This brief dialogue was uttered with an ease that showed how far use had
+accustomed both to powerful bodily efforts, and with a firmness of tones
+that few could have equalled in a moment of so great physical effort.
+The masker was silent, but his purpose seemed to waver. Twenty strokes
+of his powerful oar-blade and the goal was attained: but his sinews were
+not so much extended, and that limb which had shown so fine a
+development of muscle, was less swollen and rigid. The gondola of old
+Antonio glided abeam.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Push thy soul into the blade,&quot; muttered he of the mask, &quot;or thou wilt
+yet be beaten!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman threw every effort of his body on the coming effort, and
+he gained a fathom. Another stroke caused the boat to quiver to its
+centre, and the water curled from its bows like the ripple of a rapid.
+Then the gondola darted between the two goal-barges, and the little
+flags that marked the point of victory fell into the water. The action
+was scarce noted ere the glittering beak of the masquer shot past the
+eyes of the judges, who doubted for an instant on whom success had
+fallen. Gino was not long behind, and after him came Bartolomeo, fourth
+and last in the best contested race which had ever been seen on the
+waters of Venice.</p>
+
+<p>When the flags fell, men held their breaths in suspense. Few knew the
+victor, so close had been the struggle. But a flourish of the trumpets
+soon commanded attention, and then a herald proclaimed that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio, a fisherman of the Lagunes, favored by his holy patron of the
+Miraculous Draught, had borne away the prize of gold&mdash;while a waterman
+who wore his face concealed, but who hath trusted to the care of the
+blessed San Giovanni of the Wilderness, is worthy of the silver prize,
+and that the third had fallen to the fortunes of Gino of Calabria, a
+servitor of the illustrious Don Camillo Monforte, Duca di Sant' Agata,
+and lord of many Neapolitan Seignories.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When this formal announcement was made, there succeeded a silence like
+that of the tomb. Then there arose a general shout among the living
+mass, which bore on high the name of Antonio as if they celebrated the
+success of some conqueror. All feeling of contempt was lost in the
+influence of his triumph. The fishermen of the Lagunes, who so lately
+had loaded their aged companion with contumely, shouted for his glory
+with a zeal that manifested the violence of the transition from
+mortification to pride; and, as has ever been and ever will be the meed
+of success, he who was thought least likely to obtain it was most
+greeted with praise and adulation when it was found that the end had
+disappointed expectation. Ten thousand voices were lifted in proclaiming
+his skill and victory, and young and old, the fair, the gay, the noble,
+the winner of sequins and he who lost, struggled alike to catch a
+glimpse of the humble old man, who had so unexpectedly wrought this
+change of sentiment in the feelings of a multitude.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio bore his triumph meekly. When his gondola had reached the goal
+he checked its course, and, without discovering any of the usual signs
+of exhaustion, he remained standing, though the deep heaving of his
+broad and tawny chest proved that his powers had been taxed to their
+utmost. He smiled as the shouts arose on his ear, for praise is grateful
+even to the meek; still he seemed oppressed with an emotion of a
+character deeper than pride. Age had somewhat dimmed his eye, but it was
+now full of hope. His features worked, and a single burning drop fell
+on each rugged cheek. The fisherman then breathed more freely.</p>
+
+<p>Like his successful antagonist, the waterman of the mask betrayed none
+of the debility which usually succeeds great bodily exertion. His knees
+were motionless, his hands still grasped the oar firmly, and he too
+kept his feet with a steadiness that showed the physical perfection of
+his frame. On the other hand, both Gino and Bartolomeo sank in their
+respective boats as they gained the goal in succession; and so exhausted
+was each of these renowned gondoliers, that several moments elapsed
+before either had breath for speech. It was during this momentary pause
+that the multitude proclaimed its sympathy with the victor by their
+longest and loudest shouts. The noise had scarcely died away, however,
+before a herald summoned Antonio of the Lagunes, the masked waterman of
+the Blessed St. John of the Wilderness, and Gino the Calabrian, to the
+presence of the Doge, whose princely hand was to bestow the promised
+prizes of the regatta.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter X.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;We shall not spend a large expense of time,<br />
+Before we reckon with your several loves,<br />
+And make us even with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">MACBETH.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>When the three gondolas reached the side of the Bucentaur, the fisherman
+hung back, as if he distrusted his right to intrude himself into the
+presence of the senate. He was, however, commanded to ascend, and signs
+were made for his two companions to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The nobles, clad in their attire of office, formed a long and imposing
+lane from the gangway to the stern, where the titular sovereign of that
+still more titular Republic was placed, in the centre of the high
+officers of state, gorgeous and grave in borrowed guise and natural
+qualities.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Approach,&quot; said the Prince, mildly, observing that the old and
+half-naked man that led the victors hesitated to advance. &quot;Thou art the
+conqueror, fisherman, and to thy hands must I consign the prize.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio bent his knee to the deck, and bowed his head lowly ere he
+obeyed. Then taking courage, he drew nearer to the person of the Doge,
+where he stood with a bewildered eye and rebuked mien, waiting the
+further pleasure of his superiors. The aged Prince paused for stillness
+to succeed the slight movements created by curiosity. When he spoke, it
+was amid a perfect calm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the boast of our glorious Republic,&quot; he said, &quot;that the rights of
+none are disregarded; that the lowly receive their merited rewards as
+surely as the great; that St. Mark holds the balance with an even hand,
+and that this obscure fisherman, having deserved the honors of this
+regatta, will receive them with the same readiness on the part of him
+who bestows, as if he were the most favored follower of our own house.
+Nobles and burghers of Venice, learn to prize your excellent and equable
+laws in this occasion, for it is most in acts of familiar and common
+usage that the paternal character of a government is seen, since in
+matters of higher moment the eyes of a world impel a compliance with its
+own opinions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doge delivered these preliminary remarks in a firm tone, like one
+confident of his auditors' applause. He was not deceived. No sooner had
+he done, than a murmur of approbation passed through the assembly, and
+extended itself to thousands who were beyond the sound of his voice, and
+to more who were beyond the reach of his meaning. The senators bent
+their heads in acknowledgment of the justice of what their chief had
+uttered, and the latter, having waited to gather these signs of an
+approving loyalty, proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my duty, Antonio, and, being a duty, it hath become a pleasure to
+place around thy neck this golden chain. The oar which it bears is an
+emblem of thy skill; and among thy associates it will be a mark of the
+Republic's favor and impartiality, and of thy merit. Take it, then,
+vigorous old man, for though age hath thinned thy temples and furrowed
+thy cheek, it hath scarcely affected thy wonderful sinews and hardy
+courage!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness!&quot; observed Antonio, recoiling apace, when he found that he was
+expected to stoop, in order that the bauble might be bestowed, &quot;I am not
+fit to bear about me such a sign of greatness and good fortune. The
+glitter of the gold would mock my poverty, and a jewel which comes from
+so princely a hand would be ill placed on a naked bosom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This unexpected refusal caused a general surprise, and a momentary
+pause.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast not entered on the struggle, fisherman, without a view to its
+prize? But thou sayest truly, the golden ornament would, indeed, but ill
+befit thy condition and daily wants. Wear it for the moment, since it is
+meet that all should know the justice and impartiality of our decisions,
+and bring it to my treasurer when the sports are done; he will make such
+an exchange as better suits thy wishes. There is precedent for this
+practice, and it shall be followed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Illustrious Highness! I did not trust my old limbs in so hard a strife
+without hopes of a reward. But it was not gold, nor any vanity to be
+seen among my equals with that glittering jewel, that led me to meet the
+scorn of the gondoliers, and the displeasure of the great.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art deceived, honest fisherman, if thou supposest that we regard
+thy just ambition with displeasure. We love to see a generous emulation
+among our people, and take all proper means to encourage those aspiring
+spirits who bring honor to a state, and fortune to our shores.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I pretend not to place my poor thoughts against those of my Prince,&quot;
+answered the fisherman; &quot;my fears and shame have led me to believe that
+it would give more pleasure to the noble and gay had a younger and
+happier borne away this honor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou must not think this. Bend then thy knee, that I may bestow the
+prize. When the sun sets thou wilt find those in my palace who will
+relieve thee of the ornament at a just remuneration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness!&quot; said Antonio, looking earnestly at the Doge, who again
+arrested his movement in surprise, &quot;I am old, and little wont to be
+spoilt by fortune. For my wants, the Lagunes, with the favor of the Holy
+St. Anthony, are sufficient; but it is in thy power to make the last
+days of an old man happy, and to have thy name remembered in many an
+honest and well meant prayer. Grant me back my child, forget the
+boldness of a heart-broken father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is not this he who urged us with importunity concerning a youth that is
+gone into the service of the state?&quot; exclaimed the Prince, across whose
+countenance passed that expression of habitual reserve which so often
+concealed the feelings of the man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same,&quot; returned a cold voice, which the ear of Antonio well knew
+came from the Signor Gradenigo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pity for thy ignorance, fisherman, represses our anger. Receive thy
+chain, and depart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio's eye did not waver. He kneeled with an air of profound respect,
+and folding his hands on his bosom, he said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Misery has made me bold, dread Prince! What I say comes from a heavy
+heart rather than from a licentious tongue, and I pray your royal ear to
+listen with indulgence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak briefly, for the sports are delayed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mighty Doge! riches and poverty have caused a difference in our
+fortunes, which knowledge and ignorance have made wider. I am rude in my
+discourse, and little suited to this illustrious company. But, Signore,
+God hath given to the fisherman the same feelings, and the same love for
+his offspring, as he has given to a prince. Did I place dependence only
+on the aid of my poor learning, I should now be dumb, but there is a
+strength within that gives me courage to speak to the first and noblest
+in Venice in behalf of my child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou canst not impeach the senate's justice, old man, or utter aught in
+truth against the known impartiality of the laws?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sovrano mio! deign to listen, and you shall hear. I am what your eyes
+behold&mdash;a man, poor, laborious, and drawing near to the hour when he
+shall be called to the side of the blessed St. Anthony of Rimini, and
+stand in a presence even greater than this. I am not vain enough to
+think that my humble name is to be found among those of the patricians
+who have served the Republic in her wars&mdash;that is an honor which none
+but the great, and the noble, and the happy, can claim; but if the
+little I have done for my country is not in the Golden Book, it is
+written here,&quot; as Antonio spoke, he pointed to the scars on his
+half-naked form; &quot;these are signs of the enmity of the Turk, and I now
+offer them as so many petitions to the bounty of the senate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest vaguely. What is thy will?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Justice, mighty Prince. They have forced the only vigorous branch from
+the dying trunk&mdash;they have lopped the withering stem of its most
+promising shoot&mdash;they have exposed the sole companion of my labors and
+pleasures, the child to whom I have looked to close my eyes, when it
+shall please God to call me away, untaught, and young in lessons of
+honesty and virtue, a boy in principle as in years, to all the
+temptation, and sin, and dangerous companionship of the galleys!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this all? I had thought thy gondola in the decay, or thy right to
+use the Lagunes in question!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this all?&quot; repeated Antonio, looking around him in bitter
+melancholy. &quot;Doge of Venice, it is more than one, old, heart-stricken,
+and bereaved, can bear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go to; take thy golden chain and oar, and depart among thy fellows in
+triumph. Gladden thy heart at a victory, on which thou could'st not, in
+reason, have counted, and leave the interests of the state to those that
+are wiser than thee, and more fitted to sustain its cares.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman arose with an air of rebuked submission, the result of a
+long life passed in the habit of political deference; but he did not
+approach to receive the proffered reward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bend thy head, fisherman, that his Highness may bestow the prize,&quot;
+commanded an officer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I ask not for gold, nor any oar, but that which carries me to the
+Lagunes in the morning, and brings me back into the canals at night.
+Give me my child, or give me nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Away with him!&quot; muttered a dozen voices; &quot;he utters sedition! let him
+quit the galley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio was hurried from the presence, and forced into his gondola with
+very unequivocal signs of disgrace. This unwonted interruption of the
+ceremonies clouded many a brow, for the sensibilities of a Venetian
+noble were quick, indeed, to reprehend the immorality of political
+discontent, though the conventional dignity of the class suppressed all
+other ill-timed exhibition of dissatisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let the next competitor draw near,&quot; continued the sovereign, with a
+composure that constant practice in dissimulation rendered easy.</p>
+
+<p>The unknown waterman to whose secret favor Antonio owed his success,
+approached, still concealed by the licensed mask.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art the gainer of the second prize,&quot; said the Prince, &quot;and were
+rigid justice done, thou should'st receive the first also, since our
+favor is not to be rejected with impunity. Kneel, that I may bestow the
+favor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, pardon!&quot; observed the masker, bowing with great respect, but
+withdrawing a single step from the offered reward; &quot;if it be your
+gracious will to grant a boon for the success of the regatta, I too have
+to pray that it may be given in another form.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is unusual! It is not wont that prizes, offered by the hand of a
+Venetian Doge, should go a-begging.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would not seem to press more than is respectful, in this great
+presence. I ask but little, and, in the end, it may cost the Republic
+less, than that which is now offered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I, too, and on my knee, in dutiful homage to the chief of the state,
+beg that the prayer of the old fisherman be heard, and that the father
+and son may be restored to each other, for the service will corrupt the
+tender years of the boy, and make the age of his parent miserable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This touches on importunity! Who art thou, that comest in this hidden
+manner, to support a petition once refused?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness&mdash;the second victor in the ducal regatta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost trifle in thy answers? The protection of a mask, in all that does
+not tend to unsettle the peace of the city, is sacred. But here seemeth
+matter to be looked into. Remove thy disguise, that we see thee eye to
+eye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard that he who kept civil speech, and in naught offended
+against the laws, might be seen at will, disguised in Venice, without
+question of his affairs or name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Most true, in all that does not offend St. Mark. But here is a concert
+worthy of inquiry: I command thee, unmask.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The waterman, reading in every face around him the necessity of
+obedience, slowly withdrew the means of concealment, and discovered the
+pallid countenance and glittering eyes of Jacopo. An involuntary
+movement of all near, left this dreaded person standing singly,
+confronted with the Prince of Venice, in a wide circle of wondering and
+curious listeners.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know thee not!&quot; exclaimed the Doge, with an open amazement that
+proved his sincerity, after regarding the other earnestly for a moment.
+&quot;Thy reasons for the disguise should be better than thy reasons for
+refusing the prize.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Signor Gradenigo drew near to the sovereign, and whispered in his
+ear. When he had done, the latter cast one look, in which curiosity and
+aversion were in singular union, at the marked countenance of the Bravo,
+and then he silently motioned to him to depart. The throng drew about
+the royal person with instinctive readiness, closing the space in his
+front.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall look into this at our leisure,&quot; said the Doge. &quot;Let the
+festivities proceed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo bowed low, and withdrew. As he moved along the deck of the
+Bucentaur, the senators made way, as if pestilence was in his path,
+though it was quite apparent, by the expression of their faces, that it
+was in obedience to a feeling of a mixed character. The avoided, but
+still tolerated Bravo descended to his gondola, and the usual signals
+were given to the multitude beneath, who believed the customary
+ceremonies were ended.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let the gondolier of Don Camillo Monforte stand forth,&quot; cried a herald,
+obedient to the beck of a superior.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, here,&quot; answered Gino, troubled and hurried.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art of Calabria?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But of long practice on our Venetian canals or thy gondola could never
+have outstripped those of the readiest oarsmen. Thou servest a noble
+master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And it would seem that the Duke of St. Agata is happy in the possession
+of an honest and faithful follower?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, too happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kneel, and receive the reward of thy resolution and skill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino, unlike those who had preceded him, bent a willing knee to the
+deck, and took the prize with a low and humble inclination of the body.
+At this moment the attention of the spectators was drawn from the short
+and simple ceremony by a loud shout, which arose from the water at no
+great distance from the privileged bark of the senate. A common movement
+drew all to the side of the galley, and the successful gondolier was
+quickly forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>A hundred boats were moving in a body towards the Lido, while the space
+they covered on the water presented one compact mass of the red caps of
+fishermen. In the midst of this marine picture was seen the bare head of
+Antonio, borne along in the floating multitude, without any effort of
+his own. The general impulsion was received from the vigorous arms of
+some thirty or forty of their number, who towed those in the rear by
+applying their force to three or four large gondolas in advance.</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistaking the object of this singular and characteristic
+procession. The tenants of the Lagunes, with the fickleness with which
+extreme ignorance acts on human passions, had suddenly experienced a
+violent revolution in their feelings towards their ancient comrade. He
+who, an hour before, had been derided as a vain and ridiculous
+pretender, and on whose head bitter imprecations had been so lavishly
+poured, was now lauded with cries of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>The gondoliers of the canals were laughed to scorn, and the ears of even
+the haughty nobles were not respected, as the exulting band taunted
+their pampered menials.</p>
+
+<p>In short, by a process which is common enough with man in all the
+divisions and subdivisions of society, the merit of one was at once
+intimately and inseparably connected with the glory and exultation of
+all.</p>
+
+<p>Had the triumph of the fishermen confined itself to this natural and
+commonplace exhibition, it would not have given grave offence to the
+vigilant and jealous power that watched over the peace of Venice. But
+amid the shouts of approbation were mingled cries of censure. Words of
+grave import were even heard, denouncing those who refused to restore to
+Antonio his child; and it was whispered on the deck of the Bucentaur,
+that, filled with the imaginary importance of their passing victory, the
+hardy band of rioters had dared to menace a forcible appeal, to obtain
+what they audaciously termed the justice of the case.</p>
+
+<p>This ebullition of popular feeling was witnessed by the assembled
+senate in ominous and brooding silence. One unaccustomed to reflection
+on such a subject, or unpractised in the world, might have fancied alarm
+and uneasiness were painted on the grave countenances of the patricians,
+and that the signs of the times were little favorable to the continuance
+of an ascendency that was dependent more on the force of convention than
+on the possession of any physical superiority. But, on the other hand,
+one who was capable of judging between the power of political
+ascendency, strengthened by its combinations and order, and the mere
+ebullitions of passion, however loud and clamorous, might readily have
+seen that the latter was not yet displayed in sufficient energy to break
+down the barriers which the first had erected.</p>
+
+<p>The fishermen were permitted to go their way unmolested, though here and
+there a gondola was seen stealing towards the Lido, bearing certain of
+those secret agents of the police whose duty it was to forewarn the
+existing powers of the presence of danger. Among the latter was the boat
+of the wine-seller, which departed from the Piazzetta, containing a
+stock of his merchandise, with Annina, under the pretence of making his
+profit out of the present turbulent temper of their ordinary customers.
+In the meantime, the sports proceeded, and the momentary interruption
+was forgotten; or, if remembered, it was in a manner suited to the
+secret and fearful power which directed the destinies of that remarkable
+republic.</p>
+
+<p>There as another regatta, in which men of inferior powers contended, but
+we deem it unworthy to detain the narrative by a description.</p>
+
+<p>Though the grave tenants of the Bucentaur seemed to take an interest in
+what was passing immediately before their eyes, they had ears for every
+shout that was borne on the evening breeze from the distant Lido; and
+more than once the Doge himself was seen to bend his looks in that
+direction, in a manner which betrayed the concern that was uppermost in
+his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Still the day passed on as usual. The conquerors triumphed, the crowd
+applauded, and the collected senate appeared to sympathize with the
+pleasures of a people, over whom they ruled with a certainty of power
+that resembled the fearful and mysterious march of destiny.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The evening of such a day, in a city with the habits of Venice, was not
+likely to be spent in the dulness of retirement. The great square of St.
+Mark was again filled with its active and motley crowd, and the scenes
+already described in the opening chapters of this work were resumed, if
+possible, with more apparent devotion to the levities of the hour, than
+on the occasion mentioned. The tumblers and jugglers renewed their
+antics, the cries of the fruit-sellers and other venders of light
+luxuries were again mingled with the tones of the flute and the notes of
+the guitar and harp; while the idle and the busy, the thoughtless and
+the designing, the conspirator and the agent of the police, once more
+met in privileged security.</p>
+
+<p>The night had advanced, beyond its turn, when a gondola came gliding
+through the shipping of the port with that easy and swan-like motion
+which is peculiar to its slow movement, and touched the quay with its
+beak, at the point where the canal of St. Mark forms its junction with
+the bay.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art welcome, Antonio,&quot; said one, who approached the solitary
+individual that had directed the gondola, when the latter had thrust the
+iron spike of his painter between the crevices of the stones, as
+gondoliers are accustomed to secure their barges; &quot;thou art welcome,
+Antonio, though late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begin to know the sounds of that voice, though they come from a
+masked face,&quot; said the fisherman. &quot;Friend, I owe my success to-day to
+thy kindness, and though it has not had the end for which I had both
+hoped and prayed, I ought not to thank thee less. Thou hast thyself been
+borne hard upon by the world, or thou would'st not have bethought thee
+of an old and despised man, when the shouts of triumph were ringing in
+thy ear, and when thy own young blood was stirred with the feelings of
+pride and victory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nature gives thee strong language, fisherman. I have not passed the
+hours, truly, in the games and levities of my years. Life has been no
+festa to me&mdash;but no matter. The senate was not pleased to hear of
+lessening the number of the galleys' crew, and thou wilt bethink thee of
+some other reward. I have here the chain and golden oar in the hope that
+it will still be welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio looked amazed, but, yielding to a natural curiosity, he gazed a
+moment with a longing at the prize. Then recoiling with a shudder, he
+uttered moodily, and with the tones of one whose determination was made:
+&quot;I should think the bauble coined of my grandchild's blood! Keep it;
+they have trusted it to thee, for it is thine of right, and now that
+they refuse to hear my prayer, it will be useless to all but to him who
+fairly earned it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou makest no allowance, fisherman, for difference of years and for
+sinews that are in their vigor. Methinks that in adjudging such a prize,
+thought should be had to these matters, and then wouldest thou be found
+outstripping us all. Holy St. Theodore! I passed my childhood with the
+oar in hand, and never before have I met one in Venice who has driven my
+gondola so hard! Thou touchest the water with the delicacy of a lady
+fingering her harp, and yet with the force of the wave rolling on the
+Lido!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have seen the hour, Jacopo, when even thy young arm would have tired
+in such a strife between us. That was before the birth of my eldest son,
+who died in battle with the Ottoman, when the dear boy he left me was
+but an infant in arms. Thou never sawest the comely lad, good Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was not so happy, old man; but if he resembled thee, well mayest thou
+mourn his loss. Body of Diana! I have little cause to boast of the small
+advantage youth and strength gave me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was a force within that bore me and the boat on, but of what use
+hath it been? Thy kindness and the pain given to an old frame, that hath
+been long racked by hardship and poverty, are both thrown away on the
+rocky hearts of the nobles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We know not yet, Antonio. The good saints will hear our prayers, when
+we least think they are listening. Come with me, for I am sent to seek
+thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman regarded his new acquaintance with surprise, and then
+turning to bestow an instant of habitual care on his boat, he cheerfully
+professed himself ready to proceed. The place where they stood was a
+little apart from the thoroughfare of the quays, and though there was a
+brilliant moon, the circumstance of two men in their garbs being there,
+was not likely to attract observation; but Jacopo did not appear to be
+satisfied with this security from remark. He waited until Antonio had
+left the gondola, and then unfolding a cloak, which had lain on his arm,
+he threw it, without asking permission, over the shoulders of the other.
+A cap, like that he wore himself, was next produced, and being placed on
+the grey hairs of the fisherman, effectually completed his
+metamorphosis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no need of a mask,&quot; he said, examining his companion
+attentively, when his task was accomplished. &quot;None would know thee,
+Antonio, in this garb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And is there need of what thou hast done, Jacopo? I owe thee thanks for
+a well meant, and, but for the hardness of heart of the rich and
+powerful, for what would have proved a great kindness. Still I must
+tell thee that a mask was never yet put before my face; for what reason
+can there be why one who rises with the sun to go to his toil, who
+trusteth to the favor of the blessed St. Anthony for the little he hath,
+should go abroad like a gallant, ready to steal the good name of a
+virgin, or a robber at night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest our Venetian custom, and it may be well to use some
+caution in the business we are on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou forgettest that thy intention is yet a secret to me. I say it
+again, and I say it with truth and gratitude, that I owe thee many
+thanks, though the end is defeated, and the boy is still a prisoner in
+the floating-school of wickedness; but thou hast a name, Jacopo, that I
+could wish did not belong to thee. I find it hard to believe all that
+they have this day said on the Lido, of one who has so much feeling for
+the weak and wronged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo ceased to adjust the disguise of his companion, and the
+profound stillness which succeeded his remark proved so painful to
+Antonio, that he felt like one reprieved from suffocation, when he heard
+the deep respiration that announced the relief of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would not willingly say&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter,&quot; interrupted Jacopo, in a hollow voice. &quot;No matter,
+fisherman; we will speak of these things on some other occasion. At
+present, follow, and be silent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he ceased, the self-appointed guide of Antonio beckoned for the
+latter to come on, when he led the way from the water side. The
+fisherman obeyed; for little did it matter to one poor and
+heart-stricken as he, whither he was conducted. Jacopo took the first
+entrance into the court of the Doge's palace. His footstep was
+leisurely, and to the passing multitude they appeared like any others of
+the thousands who were abroad to breathe the soft air of the night, or
+to enter into the pleasures of the piazza.</p>
+
+<p>When within the dimmer and broken light of the court, Jacopo paused,
+evidently to scan the persons of those it contained. It is to be
+presumed he saw no reason to delay, for with a secret sign to his
+companion to follow, he crossed the area, and mounted the well known
+steps, down which the head of the Faliero had rolled, and which, from
+the statues on the summit, is called the Giant's Stairs. The celebrated
+mouths of the lions were passed, and they were walking swiftly along the
+open gallery when they encountered a halberdier of the ducal guard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who comes?&quot; demanded the mercenary, throwing forward his long and
+dangerous weapon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Friends to the state and to St. Mark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None pass at this hour without the word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo motioned to Antonio to stand fast, while he drew nearer to the
+halberdier and whispered. The weapon was instantly thrown up, and the
+sentinel again paced the long gallery with practised indifference. The
+way was no sooner cleared than they proceeded. Antonio, not a little
+amazed at what he had already seen, eagerly followed his guide, for his
+heart began to beat high with an exciting but undefined hope. He was not
+so ignorant of human affairs as to require to be told that those who
+ruled would sometimes concede that in secret which policy forbade them
+to yield openly. Full, therefore, of the expectation of being ushered
+into the presence of the Doge himself, and of having his child restored
+to his arms, the old man stepped lightly along the gloomy gallery, and
+darting through an entrance, at the heels of Jacopo, he found himself at
+the foot of another flight of massive steps. The route now became
+confused to the fisherman, for, quitting the more public vomitories of
+the palace, his companion held his way by a secret door, through many
+dimly lighted and obscure passages. They ascended and descended
+frequently, as often quitting or entering rooms of but ordinary
+dimensions and decorations, until the head of Antonio was completely
+turned, and he no longer knew the general direction of their course. At
+length they stopped in an apartment of inferior ornaments, and of a
+dusky color, which the feeble light rendered still more gloomy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art well acquainted with the dwelling of our prince,&quot; said the
+fisherman, when his companion enabled him to speak, by checking his
+swift movements. &quot;The oldest gondolier of Venice is not more ready on
+the canals, than thou appearest to be among these galleries and
+corridors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis my business to bring thee hither, and what I am to do, I endeavor
+to do well. Antonio, thou art a man that feareth not to stand in the
+presence of the great, as this day hath shown. Summon thy courage, for a
+moment of trial is before thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have spoken boldly to the Doge. Except the Holy Father himself, what
+power is there on earth besides to fear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest have spoken, fisherman, too boldly. Temper thy language,
+for the great love not words of disrespect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is truth unpleasant to them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is as may be. They love to hear their own acts praised, when their
+acts have merited praise, but they do not like to hear them condemned,
+even though they know what is said to be just.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear me,&quot; said the old man, looking with simplicity at the other,
+&quot;there is little difference between the powerful and the weak, when the
+garments are stripped from both, and the man stands naked to the eye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That truth may not be spoken here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! Do they deny that they are Christians, and mortals, and sinners?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They make a merit of the first, Antonio&mdash;they forget the second, and
+they never like to be called the last by any but themselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I doubt, Jacopo, after all, if I get from them the freedom of the
+boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak them fair, and say naught to wound their self-esteem, or to
+menace their authority&mdash;they will pardon much, if the last, in
+particular, be respected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But it is that authority which has taken away my child! Can I speak in
+favor of the power which I know to be unjust?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou must feign it, or thy suit will fail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will go back to the Lagunes, good Jacopo, for this tongue of mine
+hath ever moved at the bidding of the heart. I fear I am too old to say
+that a son may righteously be torn from the father by violence. Tell
+them, thou, from me, that I came thus far, in order to do them respect,
+but that, seeing the hopelessness of beseeching further, I have gone to
+my nets, and to my prayers to blessed St. Anthony.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he ceased speaking, Antonio wrung the hand of his motionless
+companion, and turned away, as if to retire. Two halberds fell to the
+level of his breast ere his foot had quitted the marble floor, and he
+now saw, for the first time, that armed men crossed his passage, and
+that, in truth, he was a prisoner. Nature had endowed the fisherman with
+a quick and just perception, and long habit had given great steadiness
+to his nerves. When he perceived his real situation, instead of entering
+into useless remonstrance, or in any manner betraying alarm, he again
+turned to Jacopo with an air of patience and resignation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It must be that the illustrious Signore wish to do me justice,&quot; he
+said, smoothing the remnant of his hair, as men of his class prepare
+themselves for the presence of their superiors, &quot;and it would not be
+decent in an humble fisherman to refuse them the opportunity. It would
+be better, however, if there were less force used here in Venice, in a
+matter of simple right and wrong. But the great love to show their
+power, and the weak must submit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall see!&quot; answered Jacopo, who had manifested no emotion during
+the abortive attempt of the other to retire.</p>
+
+<p>A profound stillness succeeded. The halberdiers maintained their rigid
+attitudes within the shadow of the wall, looking like two insensible
+statues in the attire and armor of the age, while Jacopo and his
+companion occupied the centre of the room with scarcely more of the
+appearance of consciousness and animation. It may be well to explain
+here to the reader some of the peculiar machinery of the State, in the
+country of which we write, and which is connected with the scene that is
+about to follow: for the name of a Republic, a word which, if it mean
+anything, strictly implies the representation and supremacy of the
+general interests, but which has so frequently been prostituted to the
+protection and monopolies of privileged classes, may have induced him to
+believe that there was at least a resemblance between the outlines of
+that government, and the more just, because more popular, institutions
+of his own country.</p>
+
+<p>In an age when rulers were profane enough to assert, and the ruled weak
+enough to allow, that the right of a man to govern his fellows was a
+direct gift from God, a departure from the bold and selfish principle,
+though it were only in profession, was thought sufficient to give a
+character of freedom and common sense to the polity of a nation. This
+belief is not without some justification, since it establishes in
+theory, at least, the foundations of government on a base sufficiently
+different from that which supposes all power to be the property of one,
+and that one to be the representative of the faultless and omnipotent
+Ruler of the Universe. With the first of these principles we have
+nothing to do, except it be to add that there are propositions so
+inherently false that they only require to be fairly stated to produce
+their own refutation; but our subject necessarily draws us into a short
+digression on the errors of the second as they existed in Venice.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that when the patricians of St. Mark created a community
+of political rights in their own body, they believed their State had
+done all that was necessary to merit the high and generous title it
+assumed. They had innovated on a generally received principle, and they
+cannot claim the distinction of being either the first or the last who
+have imagined that to take the incipient steps in political improvement
+is at once to reach the goal of perfection. Venice had no doctrine of
+divine right, and as her prince was little more than a pageant, she
+boldly laid claim to be called a Republic. She believed that a
+representation of the most prominent and brilliant interests in society
+was the paramount object of government, and faithful to the seductive
+but dangerous error, she mistook to the last, collective power for
+social happiness.</p>
+
+<p>It may be taken as a governing principle, in all civil relations, that
+the strong will grow stronger and the feeble more weak, until the first
+become unfit to rule or the last unable to endure. In this important
+truth is contained the secret of the downfall of all those states which
+have crumbled beneath the weight of their own abuses. It teaches the
+necessity of widening the foundations of society until the base shall
+have a breadth capable of securing the just representation of every
+interest, without which the social machine is liable to interruption
+from its own movement, and eventually to destruction from its own
+excesses.</p>
+
+<p>Venice, though ambitious and tenacious of the name of a republic, was,
+in truth, a narrow, a vulgar, and an exceedingly heartless oligarchy. To
+the former title she had no other claim than her denial of the naked
+principle already mentioned, while her practice is liable to the
+reproach of the two latter, in the unmanly and narrow character of its
+exclusion, in every act of her foreign policy, and in every measure of
+her internal police. An aristocracy must ever want the high personal
+feeling which often tempers despotism by the qualities of the chief or
+the generous and human impulses of a popular rule. It has the merit of
+substituting things for men, it is true, but unhappily it substitutes
+the things of a few men for those of the whole. It partakes, and it
+always has partaken, though necessarily tempered by circumstances and
+the opinions of different ages, of the selfishness of all corporations
+in which the responsibility of the individual, while his acts are
+professedly submitted to the temporizing expedients of a collective
+interest, is lost in the subdivision of numbers. At the period of which
+we write, Italy had several of these self-styled commonwealths, in not
+one of which, however, was there ever a fair and just confiding of power
+to the body of the people, though perhaps there is not one that has not
+been cited sooner or later in proof of the inability of man to govern
+himself! In order to demonstrate the fallacy of a reasoning which is so
+fond of predicting the downfall of our own liberal system, supported by
+examples drawn from transatlantic states of the middle ages, it is
+necessary only to recount here a little in detail the forms in which
+power was obtained and exercised in the most important of them all.</p>
+
+<p>Distinctions in rank, as separated entirely from the will of the nation,
+formed the basis of Venetian polity. Authority, though divided, was not
+less a birthright than in those governments in which it was openly
+avowed to be a dispensation of Providence. The patrician order had its
+high and exclusive privileges, which were guarded and maintained with a
+most selfish and engrossing spirit. He who was not born to govern, had
+little hope of ever entering into the possession of his natural rights:
+while he who was, by the intervention of chance, might wield a power of
+the most fearful and despotic character. At a certain age all of
+senatorial rank (for, by a specious fallacy, nobility did not take its
+usual appellations) were admitted into the councils of the nation. The
+names of the leading families were inscribed in a register, which was
+well entitled the &quot;Golden Book,&quot; and he who enjoyed the envied
+distinction of having an ancestor thus enrolled could, with a few
+exceptions (such as that named in the case of Don Camillo), present
+himself in the senate and lay claim to the honors of the &quot;Horned
+Bonnet.&quot; Neither our limits nor our object will permit a digression of
+sufficient length to point out the whole of the leading features of a
+system so vicious, and which was, perhaps, only rendered tolerable to
+those it governed by the extraneous contributions of captured and
+subsidiary provinces, of which in truth, as in all cases of metropolitan
+rule, the oppression weighed most grievously. The reader will at once
+see that the very reason why the despotism of the self-styled Republic
+was tolerable to its own citizens was but another cause of its eventual
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>As the senate became too numerous to conduct with sufficient secresy and
+dispatch the affairs of a state that pursued a policy alike tortuous and
+complicated, the most general of its important interests were intrusted
+to a council composed of three hundred of its members. In order to avoid
+the publicity and delay of a body large even as this, a second selection
+was made, which was known as the Council of Ten, and to which much of
+the executive power that aristocratical jealousy withheld from the
+titular chief of the state, was confided. To this point the political
+economy of the Venetian Republic, however faulty, had at least some
+merit for simplicity and frankness. The ostensible agents of the
+administration were known, and though all real responsibility to the
+nation was lost in the superior influence and narrow policy of the
+patricians, the rulers could not entirely escape from the odium that
+public opinion might attach to their unjust or illegal proceedings. But
+a state whose prosperity was chiefly founded on the contribution and
+support of dependants, and whose existence was equally menaced by its
+own false principles, and by the growth of other and neighboring
+powers, had need of a still more efficient body in the absence of that
+executive which its own Republican pretensions denied to Venice. A
+political inquisition, which came in time to be one of the most fearful
+engines of police ever known, was the consequence. An authority as
+irresponsible as it was absolute, was periodically confided to another
+and still smaller body, which met and exercised its despotic and secret
+functions under the name of the Council of Three. The choice of these
+temporary rulers was decided by lot, and in a manner that prevented the
+result from being known to any but to their own number and to a few of
+the most confidential of the more permanent officers of the government.
+Thus there existed at all times in the heart of Venice a mysterious and
+despotic power that was wielded by men who moved in society unknown, and
+apparently surrounded by all the ordinary charities of life; but which,
+in truth, was influenced by a set of political maxims that were perhaps
+as ruthless, as tyrannic, and as selfish, as ever were invented by the
+evil ingenuity of man. It was, in short, a power that could only be
+intrusted, without abuse, to infallible virtue and infinite
+intelligence, using the terms in a sense limited by human means; and yet
+it was here confided to men whose title was founded on the double
+accident of birth, and the colors of balls, and by whom it was wielded
+without even the check of publicity.</p>
+
+<p>The Council of Three met in secret, ordinarily issued its decrees
+without communicating with any other body, and had them enforced with a
+fearfulness of mystery, and a suddenness of execution, that resembled
+the blows of fate. The Doge himself was not superior to its authority,
+nor protected from its decisions, while it has been known that one of
+the privileged three has been denounced by his companions. There is
+still in existence a long list of the state maxims which this secret
+tribunal recognised as its rule of conduct, and it is not saying too
+much to affirm, that they set at defiance every other consideration but
+expediency,&mdash;all the recognised laws of God, and every principle of
+justice, which is esteemed among men. The advances of the human
+intellect, supported by the means of publicity, may temper the exercise
+of a similar irresponsible power, in our own age; but in no country has
+this substitution of a soulless corporation for an elective
+representation, been made, in which a system of rule has not been
+established, that sets at naught the laws of natural justice and the
+rights of the citizen. Any pretension to the contrary, by placing
+profession in opposition to practice, is only adding hypocrisy to
+usurpation.</p>
+
+<p>It appears to be an unavoidable general consequence that abuses should
+follow, when power is exercised by a permanent and irresponsible body,
+from whom there is no appeal. When this power is secretly exercised, the
+abuses become still more grave. It is also worthy of remark, that in the
+nations which submit, or have submitted, to these undue and dangerous
+influences, the pretensions to justice and generosity are of the most
+exaggerated character; for while the fearless democrat vents his
+personal complaints aloud, and the voice of the subject of professed
+despotism is smothered entirely, necessity itself dictates to the
+oligarchist the policy of seemliness, as one of the conditions of his
+own safety. Thus Venice prided herself on the justice of St. Mark, and
+few states maintained a greater show or put forth a more lofty claim to
+the possession of the sacred quality, than that whose real maxims of
+government were veiled in a mystery that even the loose morality of the
+age exacted.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;A power that if but named<br />
+In casual converse, be it where it might,<br />
+The speaker lowered at once his voice, his eyes,<br />
+And pointed upward as at God in heaven.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ROGERS</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The reader has probably anticipated, that Antonio was now standing in an
+antechamber of the secret and stern tribunal described in the preceding
+chapter. In common with all of his class, the fisherman had a vague idea
+of the existence, and of the attributes, of the council before which he
+was to appear; but his simple apprehension was far from comprehending
+the extent or the nature of functions that equally took cognizance of
+the most important interests of the Republic, and of the more trifling
+concerns of a patrician family. While conjectures on the probable result
+of the expected interview were passing through his mind, an inner door
+opened, and an attendant signed for Jacopo to advance.</p>
+
+<p>The deep and imposing silence which instantly succeeded the entrance of
+the summoned into the presence of the Council of Three, gave time for a
+slight examination of the apartment and of those it contained. The room
+was not large for that country and climate, but rather of a size suited
+to the closeness of the councils that had place within its walls. The
+floor was tessellated with alternate pieces of black and white marble;
+the walls were draped in one common and sombre dress of black cloth; a
+single lamp of dark bronze was suspended over a solitary table in its
+centre, which, like every other article of the scanty furniture, had
+the same melancholy covering as the walls. In the angles of the room
+there were projecting closets, which might have been what they seemed,
+or merely passages into the other apartments of the palace. All the
+doors were concealed from casual observation by the hangings, which gave
+one general and chilling aspect of gloom to the whole scene. On the side
+of the room opposite to that on which Antonio stood, three men were
+seated in curule chairs; but their masks, and the drapery which
+concealed their forms, prevented all recognition of their persons. One
+of this powerful body wore a robe of crimson, as the representative that
+fortune had given to the select council of the Doge, and the others
+robes of black, being those which had drawn the lucky, or rather the
+unlucky balls, in the Council of Ten, itself a temporary and
+chance-created body of the senate. There were one or two subordinates
+near the table, but these, as well as the still more humble officials of
+the place, were hidden from all ordinary knowledge, by disguises similar
+to those of the chiefs. Jacopo regarded the scene like one accustomed to
+its effect, though with evident reverence and awe; but the impression on
+Antonio was too manifest to be lost. It is probable that the long pause
+which followed his introduction was intended to produce, and to note
+this effect, for keen eyes were intently watching his countenance during
+its continuance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art called Antonio of the Lagunes?&quot; demanded one of the
+secretaries near the table, when a sign had been secretly made from the
+crimson member of that fearful tribunal to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A poor fisherman, eccellenza, who owes much to blessed Saint Antonio of
+the Miraculous Draught.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou hast a son who bears thine own name, and who follows the same
+pursuit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the duty of a Christian to submit to the will of God! My boy has
+been dead twelve years, come the day when the Republic's galleys chased
+the infidel from Corfu to Candia. He was slain, noble Signore, with
+many others of his calling, in that bloody fight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a movement of surprise among the clerks, who whispered
+together, and appeared to examine the papers in their hands with some
+haste and confusion. Glances were sent back at the judges, who sate
+motionless, wrapped in the impenetrable mystery of their functions. A
+secret sign, however, soon caused the armed attendants of the place to
+lead Antonio and his companion from the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is some inadvertency!&quot; said a stern voice, from one of the masked
+Three, so soon as the fall of the footsteps of those who retired was no
+longer audible. &quot;It is not seemly that the inquisition of St. Mark
+should show this ignorance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It touches merely the family of an obscure fisherman, illustrious
+Signore,&quot; returned the trembling dependant; &quot;and it may be that his art
+would wish to deceive us in the opening interrogatories.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art in error,&quot; interrupted another of the Three. &quot;The man is named
+Antonio Vecchio, and, as he sayeth, his only child died in the hot
+affair with the Ottoman. He of whom there is question is a grandson, and
+still a boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The noble Signore is right!&quot; returned the clerk&mdash;&quot;In the hurry of
+affairs, we have misconceived a fact, which the wisdom of the council
+has been quick to rectify. St. Mark is happy in having among his
+proudest and oldest names, senators who enter thus familiarly into the
+interests of his meanest children!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let the man be again introduced,&quot; resumed the judge, slightly bending
+his head to the compliment. &quot;These accidents are unavoidable in the
+press of affairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The necessary order was given, and Antonio, with his companion
+constantly at his elbow, was brought once more into the presence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy son died in the service of the Republic, Antonio?&quot; demanded the
+secretary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he did. Holy Maria have pity on his early fate, and listen to
+my prayers! So good a child and so brave a man can have no great need of
+masses for his soul, or his death would have been doubly grievous to me,
+since I am too poor to buy them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast a grandson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had one, noble senator; I hope he still lives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is not with thee in thy labors on the Lagunes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;San Teodoro grant that he were! he is taken, Signore, with many more of
+tender years, into the galleys, whence may our Lady give him a save
+deliverance! If your eccellenza has an opportunity to speak with the
+general of the galleys, or with any other who may have authority in such
+a matter, on my knees I pray you to speak in behalf of the child, who is
+a good and pious lad, that seldom casts a line into the water without an
+ave or a prayer to St. Anthony, and who has never given me uneasiness,
+until he fell into the grip of St. Mark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rise&mdash;this is not the affair in which I have to question thee. Thou
+hast this day spoken of thy prayer to our most illustrious prince, the
+Doge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have prayed his highness to give the boy liberty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this thou hast done openly, and with little deference to the high
+dignity and sacred character of the chief of the Republic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did it like a father and a man. If but half what they say of the
+justice and kindness of the state were true, his highness would have
+heard me as a father and a man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A slight movement among the fearful Three caused the secretary to pause;
+when he saw, however, that his superiors chose to maintain their
+silence, he continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This didst thou once in public and among the senators, but when
+repulsed, as urging a petition both out of place and out of reason, thou
+soughtest other to prefer thy request?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, illustrious Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou camest among the gondoliers of the regatta in an unseemly garb,
+and placed thyself foremost with those who contended for the favor of
+the senate and its prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came in the garb which I wear before the Virgin and St. Antonio, and
+if I was foremost in the race, it was more owing to the goodness and
+favor of the man at my side, than any virtue which is still left in
+these withered sinews and dried bones. San Marco remember him in his
+need, for the kind wish, and soften the hearts of the great to hear the
+prayer of a childless parent!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was another slight expression of surprise or curiosity among the
+inquisitors, and once more the secretary suspended his examination.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hearest, Jacopo,&quot; said one of the Three. &quot;What answer dost thou
+make the fisherman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he speaketh truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou hast dared to trifle with the pleasures of the city, and to
+set at naught the wishes of the Doge!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it be a crime, illustrious senator, to have pitied an old man who
+mourned for his offspring, and to have given up my own solitary triumph
+to his love for the boy, I am guilty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was along and silent pause after his reply. Jacopo had spoken with
+habitual reverence, but with the grave composure that appeared to enter
+deeply into the composition of his character. The paleness of the cheek
+was the same, and the glowing eye which so singularly lighted and
+animated a countenance that possessed a hue not unlike that of death,
+scarce varied its gaze while he answered. A secret sign caused the
+secretary to proceed with his duty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou owest thy success in the regatta, Antonio, to the favor of thy
+competitor&mdash;he who is now with thee in the presence of the council?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Under San Teodoro and St. Antonio, the city's patron and my own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thy whole desire was to urge again thy rejected petition in behalf
+of the young sailor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I had no other. What is the vanity of a triumph among the
+gondoliers, or the bauble of a mimic oar and chain, to one of my years
+and condition?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou forgettest that the oar and chain are gold?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excellent gentlemen, gold cannot heal the wounds which misery has left
+on a heavy heart. Give me back the child, that my eyes may not be closed
+by strangers, and that I may speak good counsel into his young ears,
+while there is hope my words may be remembered, and I care not for all
+the metals of the Rialto! Thou mayest see that I utter no vain vaunt, by
+this jewel, which I offer to the nobles with the reverence due to their
+greatness and wisdom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When the fisherman had done speaking, he advanced with the timid step of
+a man unaccustomed to move in superior presences, and laid upon the dark
+cloth of the table a ring that sparkled with what at least seemed to be
+very precious stones. The astonished secretary raised the jewel, and
+held it in suspense before the eyes of the judges.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How is this?&quot; exclaimed he of the Three, who had oftenest interfered in
+the examination; &quot;that seemeth the pledge of our nuptials!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is no other, illustrious senator: with this ring did the Doge wed
+the Adriatic, in the presence of the ambassadors and the people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hadst thou aught to do with this, also, Jacopo?&quot; sternly demanded the
+judge.</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo turned his eye on the jewel with a look of interest, but his
+voice maintained its usual depth and steadiness as he answered&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, no&mdash;until now, I knew not the fortune of the fisherman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A sign to the secretary caused him to resume his questions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou must account and clearly account, Antonio,&quot; he said, &quot;for the
+manner in which the sacred ring came into thy possession; hadst thou any
+one to aid thee in obtaining it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I had.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name him at once, that we take measures for his security.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twill be useless, Signore; he is far above the power of Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What meanest thou, fellow? None are superior to the right and the force
+of the Republic that dwell within her limits. Answer without evasion, as
+thou valuest thy person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should prize that which is of little value, Signore, and be guilty of
+a great folly as well as of a great sin, were I to deceive you to save a
+body old and worthless as mine from stripes. If your excellencies are
+willing to hear, you will find that I am no less willing to tell the
+manner in which I got the ring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak, then, and trifle not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not, Signori, whether you are used to hearing untruths, that you
+caution me so much not to deal with them; but we of the Lagunes are not
+afraid to say what we have seen and done, for most of our business is
+with the winds and waves, which take their orders from God himself.
+There is a tradition, Signori, among us fishermen, that in times past,
+one of our body brought up from the bay the ring with which the Doge is
+accustomed to marry the Adriatic. A jewel of that value was of little
+use to one who casts his nets daily for bread and oil, and he brought it
+to the Doge, as became a fisherman into whose hands the saints had
+thrown a prize to which he had no title, as it were to prove his
+honesty. This act of our companion is much spoken of on the Lagunes and
+at the Lido, and it is said there is a noble painting done by some of
+our Venetian masters, in the halls of the palace, which tells the story
+as it happened, showing the prince on his throne, and the lucky
+fisherman with his naked legs rendering back to his highness that which
+had been lost. I hope there is foundation for this belief, Signore,
+which greatly flatters our pride, and is not without use in keeping some
+among us truer to the right, and better favored in the eyes of St.
+Anthony than might otherwise be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The fact was so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the painting, excellent Signore? I hope our vanity has not deceived
+us concerning the picture, neither?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The picture you mention is to be seen within the palace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Corpo di Bacco! I have had my misgivings on that point, for it is not
+common that the rich and happy should take such note of what the humble
+and the poor have done. Is the work from the hands of the great Tiziana
+himself, eccellenza?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not; one of little name hath put his pencil to the canvas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They say that Tiziano had the art of giving to his work the look and
+richness of flesh, and one would think that a just man might find, in
+the honesty of the poor fisherman, a color bright enough to have
+satisfied even his eye. But it may be that the senate saw danger in thus
+flattering us of the Lagunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Proceed with the account of thine own fortune with the ring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Illustrious nobles, I have often dreamed of the luck of my fellow of
+the old times; and more than once have I drawn the nets with an eager
+hand in my sleep, thinking to find that very jewel entangled in its
+meshes, or embowelled by some fish. What I have so often fancied has at
+last happened. I am an old man, Signore, and there are few pools or
+banks between Fusina and Giorgio, that my lines of my nets have not
+fathomed or covered. The spot to which the Bucentoro is wont to steer in
+these ceremonies is well known to me, and I had a care to cover the
+bottom round about with all my nets in the hope of drawing up the ring.
+When his highness cast the jewel, I dropped a buoy to mark the
+spot&mdash;Signore, this is all&mdash;my accomplice was St. Anthony.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For doing this you had a motive?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Mother of God! Was it not sufficient to get back my boy from the
+gripe of the galleys?&quot; exclaimed Antonio, with an energy and a
+simplicity that are often found to be in the same character. &quot;I thought
+that if the Doge and the senate were willing to cause pictures to be
+painted, and honors to be given to one poor fisherman for the ring, they
+might be glad to reward another, by releasing a lad who can be of no
+great service to the Republic, but who is all to his parent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy petition to his Highness, thy strife in the regatta, and thy search
+for the ring, had the same object?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To me, Signore, life has but one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a slight but suppressed movement among the council.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When thy request was refused by his Highness as ill-timed&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! eccellenza, when one has a white head and a failing arm, he cannot
+stop to look for the proper moment in such a cause!&quot; interrupted the
+fisherman, with a gleam of that impetuosity which forms the true base of
+Italian character.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When thy request was denied, and thou hadst refused the reward of the
+victor, thou went among thy fellows and fed their ears with complaints
+of the injustice of St. Mark, and of the senate's tyranny?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, no. I went away sad and heart-broken, for I had not thought
+the Doge and nobles would have refused a successful gondolier so light a
+boon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this thou didst not hesitate to proclaim among the fishermen and
+idlers of the Lido?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, it was not needed&mdash;my fellows knew my unhappiness, and
+tongues were not wanting to tell the worst.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was a tumult, with thee at its head, and sedition was uttered,
+with much vain-boasting of what the fleet of the Lagunes could perform
+against the fleet of the Republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is little difference, Signore, between the two, except that the
+men of the one go in gondolas with nets, and the men of the other are in
+the galleys of the state. Why should brothers seek each other's blood?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The movement among the judges was more manifest than ever. They
+whispered together, and a paper containing a few lines rapidly written
+in pencil, was put into the hands of the examining secretary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou didst address thy fellows, and spoke openly of thy fancied wrongs;
+thou didst comment on the laws which require the services of the
+citizens, when the Republic is compelled to send forth a fleet against
+its enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not easy to be silent, Signore, when the heart is full.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And there was a consultation among thee of coming to the palace in a
+body, and of asking the discharge of thy grandson from the Doge, in the
+name of the rabble of the Lido.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, there were some generous enough to make the offer, but others
+were of advice it would be well to reflect before they took so bold a
+measure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou&mdash;what was thine own counsel on that point?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, I am old, and though unused to be thus questioned by
+illustrious senators, I had seen enough of the manner in which St. Mark
+governs, to believe a few unarmed fishermen and gondoliers would not be
+listened to with&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! Did the gondoliers become of thy party? I should have believed
+them jealous, and displeased with the triumph of one who was not of
+their body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A gondolier is a man, and though they had the feelings of human nature
+on being beaten, they had also the feelings of human nature when they
+heard that a father was robbed of his son&mdash;Signore,&quot; continued Antonio,
+with great earnestness and a singular simplicity, &quot;there will be great
+discontent on the canals, if the galleys sail with the boy aboard them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such is thy opinion; were the gondoliers on the Lido numerous?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When the sports ended, eccellenza, they came over by hundreds, and I
+will do the generous fellows the justice to say, that they had forgotten
+their want of luck in the love of justice. Diamine! these gondoliers are
+not so bad a class as some pretend, but they are men like ourselves, and
+can feel for a Christian as well as another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The secretary paused, for his task was done; and a deep silence pervaded
+the gloomy apartment. After a short pause one of the three resumed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio Vecchio,&quot; he said, &quot;thou hast served thyself in these said
+galleys, to which thou now seemest so averse&mdash;and served bravely, as I
+learn?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I have done my duty by St. Mark. I played my part against the
+infidel, but it was after my beard was grown, and at an age when I had
+learnt to know good from evil. There is no duty more cheerfully
+performed by us all, than to defend the islands and the Lagunes against
+the enemy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And all the Republic's dominions.&mdash;Thou canst make no distinctions
+between any of the rights of the state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is wisdom granted to the great, which God has denied the poor and
+the weak, Signore. To me it does not seem clear that Venice, a city
+built on a few islands, hath any more right to carry her rule into Crete
+or Candia, than the Turk hath to come here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! Dost thou dare on the Lido to question the claim of the Republic
+to her conquests? or do the irreverent fishermen dare thus to speak
+lightly of her glory?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, I know little of rights that come by violence. God hath
+given us the Lagunes, but I know not that he has given us more. This
+glory of which you speak may sit lightly on the shoulder of a senator,
+but it weighs heavily on a fisherman's heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest, bold man, of that which thou dost not comprehend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is unfortunate, Signore, that the power to understand hath not been
+given to those who have so much power to suffer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An anxious pause succeeded this reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest withdraw, Antonio,&quot; said he, who apparently presided in the
+dread councils of the Three. &quot;Thou wilt not speak of what has happened,
+and thou wilt await the inevitable justice of St. Mark in full
+confidence of its execution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thanks, illustrious senator; I will obey your excellency; but my heart
+is full, and I would fain say a few words concerning the child, before I
+quit this noble company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest speak&mdash;and here thou mayest give free vent to all thy
+wishes, or to all thy griefs, if any thou hast. St. Mark has no greater
+pleasure than to listen to the wishes of his children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe they have reviled the Republic in calling its chiefs
+heartless, and sold to ambition!&quot; said the old man, with generous
+warmth, disregarding the stern rebuke which gleamed in the eye of
+Jacopo. &quot;A senator is but a man, and there are fathers and children
+among them, as among us of the Lagunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak, but refrain from seditious or discreditable discourse,&quot; uttered
+a secretary, in a half-whisper. &quot;Proceed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have little now to offer, Signori; I am not used to boast of my
+services to the state, excellent gentlemen, but there is a time when
+human modesty must give way to human nature. These scars were got in one
+of the proudest days of St. Mark, and in the foremost of all the galleys
+that fought among the Greek Islands. The father of my boy wept over me
+then, as I have since wept over his own son&mdash;yes&mdash;I might be ashamed to
+own it among men, but if the truth must be spoken, the loss of the boy
+has drawn bitter tears from me in the darkness of night, and in the
+solitude of the Lagunes. I lay many weeks, Signori, less a man than a
+corpse, and when I got back again to my nets and my toil, I did not
+withhold my son from the call of the Republic. He went in my place to
+meet the infidel&mdash;a service from which he never came back. This was the
+duty of men who had grown in experience, and who were not to be deluded
+into wickedness by the evil company of the galleys. But this calling of
+children into the snares of the devil grieves a father, and&mdash;I will own
+the weakness, if such it be&mdash;I am not of a courage and pride to send
+forth my own flesh and blood into the danger and corruption of war and
+evil society, as in days when the stoutness of the heart was like the
+stoutness of the limbs. Give me back, then, my boy, till he has seen my
+old head laid beneath the sands, and until, by the aid of blessed St.
+Anthony, and such counsels as a poor man can offer, I may give him more
+steadiness in his love of the right, and until I may have so shaped his
+life, that he will not be driven about by every pleasant or treacherous
+wind that may happen to blow upon his bark. Signori, you are rich, and
+powerful, and honored, and though you may be placed in the way of
+temptations to do wrongs that are suited to your high names and
+illustrious fortunes, ye know little of the trials of the poor. What are
+the temptations of the blessed St. Anthony himself, to those of the evil
+company of the galleys! And now, Signori, though you may be angry to
+hear it, I will say, that when an aged man has no other kin on earth,
+or none so near as to feel the glow of the thin blood of the poor, than
+one poor boy, St. Mark would do well to remember that even a fisherman
+of the Lagunes can feel as well as the Doge on his throne. This much I
+say, illustrious senators, in sorrow, and not in anger; for I would get
+back the child, and die in peace with my superiors, as with my equals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest depart,&quot; said one of the Three.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not yet, Signore, I have still more to say of the men of the Lagunes,
+who speak with loud voices concerning this dragging of boys into the
+service of the galleys.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will hear their opinions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Noble gentlemen, if I were to utter all they have said, word for word,
+I might do some disfavor to your ears! Man is man, though the Virgin and
+the saints listen to his aves and prayers from beneath a jacket of serge
+and a fisherman's cap. But I know too well my duty to the senate to
+speak so plainly. But, Signori, they say, saving the bluntness of their
+language, that St. Mark should have ears for the meanest of his people
+as well as for the richest noble; and that not a hair should fall from
+the head of a fisherman, without its being counted as if it were a lock
+from beneath the horned bonnet; and that where God hath not made marks
+of his displeasure, man should not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do they dare to reason thus?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not if it be reason, illustrious Signore, but it is what they
+say, and, eccellenza, it is holy truth. We are poor workmen of the
+Lagunes, who rise with the day to cast our nets, and return at night to
+hard beds and harder fare; but with this we might be content, did the
+senate count us as Christians and men. That God hath not given to all
+the same chances in life, I well know, for it often happens that I draw
+an empty net, when my comrades are groaning with the weight of their
+draughts; but this is done to punish my sins, or to humble my heart,
+whereas it exceeds the power of man to look into the secrets of the
+soul, or to foretell the evil of the still innocent child. Blessed St.
+Anthony knows how many years of suffering this visit to the galleys may
+cause to the child in the end. Think of these things, I pray you,
+Signori, and send men of tried principles to the wars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest retire,&quot; rejoined the judge.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should be sorry that any who cometh of my blood,&quot; continued the
+inattentive Antonio, &quot;should be the cause of ill-will between them that
+rule and them that are born to obey. But nature is stronger even than
+the law, and I should discredit her feelings were I to go without
+speaking as becomes a father. Ye have taken my child and sent him to
+serve the state at the hazard of body and soul, without giving
+opportunity for a parting kiss, or a parting blessing&mdash;ye have used my
+flesh and blood as ye would use the wood of the arsenal, and sent it
+forth upon the sea as if it were the insensible metal of the balls ye
+throw against the infidel. Ye have shut your ears to my prayers, as if
+they were words uttered by the wicked, and when I have exhorted you on
+my knees, wearied my stiffened limbs to do ye pleasure, rendered ye the
+jewel which St. Anthony gave to my net, that it might soften your
+hearts, and reasoned with you calmly on the nature of your acts, you
+turn from me coldly, as if I were unfit to stand forth in defence of the
+offspring that God hath left my age! This is not the boasted justice of
+St. Mark, Venetian senators, but hardness of heart and a wasting of the
+means of the poor, that would ill become the most grasping Hebrew of the
+Rialto!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou aught more to urge, Antonio?&quot; asked the judge, with the wily
+design of unmasking the fisherman's entire soul.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it not enough, Signore, that I urge my years, my poverty, my scars,
+and my love for the boy? I know ye not, but though ye are hid behind the
+folds of your robes and masks, still must ye be men. There may be among
+ye a father, or perhaps some one who hath a still more sacred charge,
+the child of a dead son. To him I speak. In vain ye talk of justice when
+the weight of your power falls on them least able to bear it; and though
+ye may delude yourselves, the meanest gondolier of the canal knows&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was stopped from uttering more by his companion, who rudely placed a
+hand on his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why hast thou presumed to stop the complaints of Antonio?&quot; sternly
+demanded the judge.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was not decent, illustrious senators, to listen to such disrespect
+in so noble a presence,&quot; Jacopo answered, bending reverently as he
+spoke. &quot;This old fisherman, dread Signori, is warmed by love for his
+offspring, and he will utter that which, in his cooler moments, he will
+repent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St. Mark fears not the truth! If he has more to say, let him declare
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the excited Antonio began to reflect. The flush which had ascended
+to his weather-beaten cheek disappeared, and his naked breast ceased to
+heave. He stood like one rebuked, more by his discretion than his
+conscience, with a calmer eye, and a face that exhibited the composure
+of his years, and the respect of his condition.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I have offended, great patricians,&quot; he said, more mildly, &quot;I pray
+you to forget the zeal of an ignorant old man, whose feelings are master
+of his breeding, and who knows less how to render the truth agreeable to
+noble ears, than to utter it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest depart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The armed attendants advanced, and obedient to a sign from the
+secretary, they led Antonio and his companion through the door by which
+they had entered. The other officials of the place followed, and the
+secret judges were left by themselves in the chamber of doom.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Oh! the days that we have seen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">SHELTON.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>A pause like that which accompanies self-contemplation, and perhaps
+conscious distrust of purpose, succeeded. Then the Three arose together,
+and began to lay aside the instruments of their disguise. When the masks
+were removed, they exposed the grave visages of men in the decline of
+life, athwart which worldly cares and worldly passions had drawn those
+deep lines, which no subsequent ease or resignation can erase. During
+the process of unrobing neither spoke, for the affair on which they had
+just been employed, caused novel and disagreeable sensations to them
+all. When they were delivered from their superfluous garments and their
+masks, however, they drew near the table, and each sought that relief
+for his limbs and person which was natural to the long restraint he had
+undergone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are letters from the French king intercepted,&quot; said one, after
+time had permitted them to rally their thoughts;&mdash;&quot;it would appear they
+treat of the new intentions of the emperor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have they been restored to the ambassador? or are the originals to go
+before the senate?&quot; demanded another.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On that we must take counsel at our leisure. I have naught else to
+communicate, except that the order given to intercept the messenger of
+the Holy See hath failed of its object.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of this the secretaries advertised me. We must look into the negligence
+of the agents, for there is good reason to believe much useful
+knowledge would have come from that seizure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As the attempt is already known and much spoken of, care must be had to
+issue orders for the arrest of the robbers, else may the Republic fall
+into disrepute with its friends. There are names on our list which might
+be readily marked for punishment, for that quarter of our patrimony is
+never in want of proscribed to conceal an accident of this nature.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good heed will be had to this, since, as you say, the affair is
+weighty. The government or the individual that is negligent of
+reputation, cannot expect long to retain the respect of its equals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The ambition of the House of Hapsburgh robs me of my sleep!&quot; exclaimed
+the other, throwing aside some papers, over which his eye had glanced in
+disgust. &quot;Holy St. Theodore! what a scourge to the race is the desire to
+augment territories and to extend an unjust rule, beyond the bounds of
+reason and nature! Here have we, in Venice, been in undisputed
+possession of provinces that are adapted to our institutions, convenient
+to our wants, and agreeable to our desires, for ages; provinces that
+were gallantly won by our ancestors, and which cling to us as habits
+linger in our age: and yet are they become objects of a covetous
+ambition to our neighbor, under a vain pretext of a policy that I fear
+is strengthened by our increasing weakness. I sicken, Signori, of my
+esteem for men, as I dive deeper into their tempers and desires, and
+often wish myself a dog, as I study their propensities. In his appetite
+for power, is not the Austrian the most rapacious of all the princes of
+the earth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More so, think you, worthy Signore, than the Castilian? You overlook
+the unsatiated desire of the Spanish king to extend his sway in Italy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hapsburgh or Bourbon; Turk or Englishman, they all seem actuated by the
+same fell appetite for dominion; and now that Venice hath no more to
+hope, than to preserve her present advantages, the least of all our
+enjoyments becomes a subject of covetous envy to our enemies. There are
+passions to weary one of an interference with governments, and to send
+him to his cord of penitence and the cloisters!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never listen to your observations, Signore, without quitting the
+chamber an edified man! Truly, this desire in the strangers to trespass
+on our privileges, and it may be well said, privileges which have been
+gained by our treasures and our blood, becomes more manifest daily.
+Should it not be checked, St. Mark will be stripped, in the end, of even
+a landing-place for a gondola on the main.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The leap of the winged lion is much curtailed, excellent Sir, or these
+things might not be! It is no longer in our power to persuade, or to
+command, as of old; and our canals begin to be encumbered with slimy
+weeds, instead of well freighted argosies and swift-sailing feluccas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Portuguese hath done us irretrievable harm, for without his African
+discoveries we might yet have retained the traffic in Indian
+commodities. I cordially dislike the mongrel race, being, as it is, half
+Gothic and half Moorish!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trust not myself to think of their origin or of their deeds, my
+friends, lest prejudice should kindle feelings unbecoming a man and a
+Christian. How now, Signor Gradenigo; thou art thoughtful?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The third member of the secret council, who had not spoken since the
+disappearance of the accused, and who was no other than the reader's old
+acquaintance of the name just mentioned, slowly lifted his head from a
+meditative position at this address.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The examination of the fisherman hath recalled scenes of my boyhood,&quot;
+he answered, with a touch of nature that seldom found place in that
+chamber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard thee say he was thy foster-brother,&quot; returned the other,
+struggling to conceal a gape.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We drank of the same milk, and, for the first years of life, we spoiled
+at the same games.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These imaginary kindred often give great uneasiness. I am glad your
+trouble hath no other source, for I had heard that the young heir of
+your house hath shown a prodigal disposition of late, and I feared that
+matter might have come to your knowledge, as one of the council, that a
+father might not wish to learn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The selfish features of the Signor Gradenigo instantly underwent a
+change. He glanced curiously, and with a strong distrust, but in a
+covert manner, at the fallen eyes of his two companions, anxious to
+penetrate their secret thoughts ere he ventured to expose his own.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there aught of complaint against the youth?&quot; he demanded in a voice
+of hesitation. &quot;You understand a father's interest, and will not conceal
+the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, you know that the agents of the police are active, and little
+that comes to their knowledge fails to reach the ears of the council.
+But, at the worst, the matter is not of life or death. It can only cost
+the inconsiderate young man a visit to Dalmatia, or an order to waste
+the summer at the foot of the Alps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Youth is the season of indiscretion, as ye know, Signori,&quot; returned the
+father, breathing more freely&mdash;&quot;and as none become old that have not
+been young, I have little need to awaken your recollection of its
+weaknesses. I trust my son is incapable of designing aught against the
+Republic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of that he is not suspected.&quot; A slight expression of irony crossed the
+features of the old senator as he spoke. &quot;But he is represented as
+aiming too freely at the person and wealth of your ward; and that she
+who is the especial care of St. Mark is not to be solicited without the
+consent of the Senate, is an usage well known to one of its most
+ancient and most honorable members.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such is the law, and none coming of me shall show it disrespect. I have
+preferred my claims to that connexion openly, but with diffidence; and I
+await the decision of the state in respectful confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His associates bowed in courteous acknowledgment of the justice of what
+he said, and of the loyalty of his conduct, but it was in the manner of
+men too long accustomed to duplicity to be easily duped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None doubt it, worthy Signor Gradenigo, for thy faith to the state is
+ever quoted as a model for the young, and as a subject for the
+approbation of the more experienced. Hast thou any communications to
+make on the interest of the young heiress, thyself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am pained to say that the deep obligation conferred by Don Camillo
+Monforte, seems to have wrought upon her youthful imagination, and I
+apprehend that, in disposing of my ward, the state will have to contend
+with the caprice of a female mind. The waywardness of that age will give
+more trouble than the conduct of far graver matters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the lady attended by suitable companions in her daily life?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her companions are known to the Senate. In so grave an interest, I
+would not act without their authority and sanction. But the affair hath
+great need of delicacy in its government. The circumstance that so much
+of my ward's fortune lies in the states of the church, renders it
+necessary to await the proper moment for disposing of her rights, and of
+transferring their substance within the limits of the Republic, before
+we proceed to any act of decision. Once assured of her wealth, she may
+be disposed of as seemeth best to the welfare of the state, without
+further delay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The lady hath a lineage and riches, and an excellence of person, that
+might render her of great account in some of these knotty negotiations
+which so much fetter our movements of late. The time hath been when a
+daughter of Venice, not more fair, was wooed to the bed of a sovereign.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, those days of glory and greatness exist no longer. Should it
+be thought expedient to overlook the natural claims of my son, and to
+bestow my ward to the advantage of the Republic, the most that can be
+expected through her means, is a favorable concession in some future
+treaty, or a new prop to some of the many decaying interests of the
+city. In this particular, she maybe rendered of as much, or even more
+use, than the oldest and wisest of our body. But that her will may be
+free and the child may have no obstacles to her happiness, it will be
+necessary to make a speedy determination of the claim preferred by Don
+Camillo. Can we do better than to recommend a compromise, that he may
+return without delay to his own Calabria?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The concern is weighty, and it demands deliberation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He complains of our tardiness already, and not without show of reason.
+It is five years since the claim was first preferred.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Gradenigo, it is for the vigorous and healthful to display their
+activity&mdash;the aged and the tottering must move with caution. Were we in
+Venice to betray precipitation in so weighty a concern, without seeing
+an immediate interest in the judgment, we should trifle with a gale of
+fortune that every sirocco will not blow into the canals. We must have
+terms with the lord of Sant' Agata, or we greatly slight our own
+advantage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hinted of the matter to your excellencies, as a consideration for
+your wisdom; methinks it will be something gained to remove one so
+dangerous from the recollection and from before the eyes of a love-sick
+maiden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the damsel so amorous?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is of Italy, Signore, and our sun bestows warm fancies and fervent
+minds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let her to the confessional and her prayers! The godly prior of St.
+Mark will discipline her imagination till she shall conceit the
+Neapolitan a Moor and an infidel. Just San Teodoro, forgive me! But thou
+canst remember the time, my friends, when the penance of the church was
+not without service on thine own fickle tastes and truant practices.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Signore Gradenigo was a gallant in his time,&quot; observed the third,
+&quot;as all well know who travelled in his company. Thou wert much spoken of
+at Versailles and at Vienna; nay, thou canst not deny thy vogue to one
+who, if he hath no other merit, hath a memory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I protest against these false recollections,&quot; rejoined the accused, a
+withered smile lighting his faded countenance; &quot;we have been young,
+Signori, but among us all, I never knew a Venetian of more general
+fashion and of better report, especially with the dames of France, than
+he who has just spoken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Account it not&mdash;account it not&mdash;'twas the weakness of youth and the use
+of the times!&mdash;I remember to have seen thee, Enrico, at Madrid, and a
+gayer or more accomplished gentleman was not known at the Spanish
+court.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy friendship blinded thee. I was a boy and full of spirits; no more,
+I may assure thee. Didst hear of my affair with the mousquetaire when at
+Paris?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did I hear of the general war? Thou art too modest to raise this doubt
+of a meeting that occupied the coteries for a month, as it had been a
+victory of the powers! Signor Gradenigo, it was a pleasure to call him
+countryman at that time; for I do assure thee, a sprightlier or more
+gallant gentleman did not walk the terrace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou tellest me of what my own eyes have been a witness. Did I not
+arrive when men's voices spoke of nothing else? A beautiful court and a
+pleasant capital were those of France in our day, Signori.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None pleasanter or of greater freedom of intercourse. St. Mark aid me
+with his prayers! The many pleasant hours that I have passed between the
+Marais and the Chateau! Didst ever meet La Comtesse de Mignon in the
+gardens?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Zitto, thou growest loquacious, caro; nay, she wanted not for grace and
+affability, that I will say. In what a manner they played in the houses
+of resort at that time!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it to my cost. Will you lend me your belief, dear friends? I
+arose from the table of La Belle Duchesse de------, the loser of a
+thousand sequins, and to this hour it seemeth but a moment that I was
+occupied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember the evening. Thou wert seated between the wife of the
+Spanish ambassador and a miladi of England. Thou wert playing at
+rouge-et-noir in more ways than one; for thy eyes were on thy neighbors,
+instead of thy cards. Giulio, I would have paid half the loss, to have
+read the next epistle of the worthy senator thy father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He never knew it&mdash;he never knew it. We had our friends on the Rialto,
+and the account was settled a few years later. Thou wast well with
+Ninon, Enrico?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A companion of her leisure, and one who basked in the sunshine of her
+wit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, they said thou wert of more favor&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mere gossip of the saloons. I do protest, gentlemen&mdash;not that others
+were better received&mdash;but idle tongues will have their discourse!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wert thou of the party, Alessandro, that went in a fit of gaiety from
+country to country till it numbered ten courts at which it appeared in
+as many weeks?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Was I not its mover? What a memory art thou getting! 'Twas for a
+hundred golden louis, and it was bravely won by an hour. A postponement
+of the reception by the elector of Bavaria went near to defeat us; but
+we bribed the groom of the chambers, as thou mayest remember, and got
+into the presence as it were by accident.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Was that held to be sufficient?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That was it&mdash;for our terms mentioned the condition of holding discourse
+with ten sovereigns in as many weeks, in their own palaces. Oh! it was
+fairly won, and I believe I may say that it was as gaily expended!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the latter will I vouch, since I never quitted thee while a piece
+of it all remained. There are divers means of dispensing gold in those
+northern capitals, and the task was quickly accomplished. They are
+pleasant countries for a few years of youth and idleness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a pity that their climates are so rude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A slight and general shudder expressed their Italian sympathy, but the
+discourse did not the less proceed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They might have a better sun and a clearer sky, but there is excellent
+cheer, and no want of hospitality,&quot; observed the Signor Gradenigo, who
+maintained his full share of the dialogue, though we have not found it
+necessary to separate sentiments that were so common among the different
+speakers. &quot;I have seen pleasant hours even with the Genoese, though
+their town hath a cast of reflection and sobriety that is not always
+suited to the dispositions of youth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Stockholm and Copenhagen have their pleasures too, I do assure
+thee. I passed a season between them. Your Dane is a good joker and a
+hearty bottle companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that the Englishman surpasseth all! If I were to relate their powers
+of living in this manner, dear friends, ye would discredit me. That
+which I have seen often, seemeth impossible even to myself. 'Tis a
+gloomy abode, and one that we of Italy little like, in common.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name it not in comparison with Holland&mdash;wert ever in Holland, friends?
+didst ever enjoy the fashion of Amsterdam and the Hague? I remember to
+have heard a young Roman urge a friend to pass a winter there; for the
+witty rogue termed it the beau-ideal of the land of petticoats!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The three old Italians, in whom this sally excited a multitude of absurd
+recollections and pleasant fancies, broke out into a general and hearty
+fit of laughter. The sound of their cracked merriment, echoing in that
+gloomy and solemn room, suddenly recalled them to the recollection of
+their duties. Each listened an instant, as if in expectation that some
+extraordinary consequence was to follow so extraordinary an interruption
+of the usual silence of the place, like a child whose truant
+propensities were about to draw detection on his offence, and then the
+principal of the council furtively wiped the tears from his eyes, and
+resumed his gravity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signori,&quot; he said, fumbling in a bundle of papers, &quot;we must take up the
+matter of the fisherman&mdash;but we will first inquire into the circumstance
+of the signet left the past night in the lion's mouth. Signor Gradenigo,
+you were charged with the examination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The duty hath been executed, noble Sirs, and with a success I had not
+hoped to meet with. Haste at our last meeting prevented a perusal of the
+paper to which it was attached, but it will now be seen that the two
+have a connexion. Here is an accusation which charges Don Camillo
+Monforte with a design to bear away, beyond the power of the Senate, the
+Donna Violetta, my ward, in order to possess her person and riches. It
+speaketh of proofs in possession of the accuser, as if he were an agent
+intrusted by the Neapolitan. As a pledge of his truth, I suppose, for
+there is no mention made of any other use, he sends the signet of Don
+Camillo himself, which cannot have been obtained without that noble's
+confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it certain that he owns the ring?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of that I am well assured. You know I am especially charged with
+conducting his personal demand with the Senate, and frequent interviews
+have given me opportunity to note that he was wont to wear a signet,
+which is now wanting. My jeweller of the Rialto hath sufficiently
+identified this, as the missing ring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thus far it is clear, though there is an obscurity in the circumstance
+that the signet of the accused should be found with the accusation,
+which, being unexplained, renders the charge vague and uncertain. Have
+you any clue to the writing, or any means of knowing whence it comes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a small but nearly imperceptible red spot on the cheek of the
+Signor Gradenigo, that did not escape the keen distrust of his
+companions; but he concealed his alarm, answering distinctly that he had
+none.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must then defer a decision for further proof. The justice of St.
+Mark hath been too much vaunted to endanger its reputation by a hasty
+decree, in a question which so closely touches the interest of a
+powerful noble of Italy. Don Camillo Monforte hath a name of
+distinction, and counteth too many of note among his kindred, to be
+dealt with as we might dispose of a gondolier, or the messenger of some
+foreign state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As respects him, Signore, you are undoubtedly right. But may we not
+endanger our heiress by too much tenderness?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are many convents in Venice, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The monastic life is ill suited to the temper of my ward,&quot; the Signor
+Gradenigo drily observed, &quot;and I fear to hazard the experiment; gold is
+a key to unlock the strongest cell; besides, we cannot, with due
+observance of propriety, place a child of the state in durance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Gradenigo, we have had this matter under long and grave
+consideration, and agreeably to our laws, when one of our number hath a
+palpable interest in the affair, we have taken counsel of his highness,
+who is of accord with as in sentiment. Your personal interest in the
+lady might have warped your usually excellent judgment, else, be
+assured, we should have summoned you to the conference.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old senator, who thus unexpectedly found himself excluded from
+consultation on the very matter that of all others made him most value
+his temporary authority, stood abashed and silent; reading in his
+countenance, however, a desire to know more, his associates proceeded to
+communicate all it was their intention he should hear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It hath been determined to remove the lady to a suitable retirement,
+and for this purpose care hath been already had to provide the means.
+Thou wilt be temporarily relieved of a most grievous charge, which
+cannot but have weighed heavily on thy spirits, and in other particulars
+have lessened thy much-valued usefulness to the Republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This unexpected communication was made with marked courtesy of manner,
+but with an emphasis and tone that sufficiently acquainted the Signor
+Gradenigo with the nature of the suspicions that beset him. He had too
+long been familiar with the sinuous policy of the council, in which, at
+intervals, he had so often sat, not to understand that he would run the
+risk of a more serious accusation were he to hesitate in acknowledging
+its justice. Teaching his features, therefore, to wear a smile as
+treacherous as that of his wily companion, he answered with seeming
+gratitude:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His highness and you, my excellent colleagues, have taken counsel of
+your good wishes and kindness of heart, rather than of the duty of a
+poor subject of St. Mark, to toil on in his service while he hath
+strength and reason for the task,&quot; he said. &quot;The management of a
+capricious female mind is a concern of no light moment; and while I
+thank you for this consideration of my case, you will permit me to
+express my readiness to resume the charge whenever it shall please the
+state again to confer it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of this none are more persuaded than we, nor are any better satisfied
+of your ability to discharge the trust faithfully. But you enter,
+Signore, into all our motives, and will join us in the opinion that it
+is equally unbecoming the Republic, and one of its most illustrious
+citizens, to leave a ward of the former in a position that shall subject
+the latter to unmerited censure. Believe me, we have thought less of
+Venice in this matter than of the honor and the interests of the house
+of Gradenigo; for, should this Neapolitan thwart our views, you of us
+all would be most liable to be disapproved of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand thanks, excellent Sir,&quot; returned the deposed guardian. &quot;You
+have taken a load from my mind, and restored some of the freshness and
+elasticity of youth! The claim of Don Camillo now is no longer urgent,
+since it is your pleasure to remove the lady for a season from the
+city.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twere better to hold it in deeper suspense, if it were only to occupy
+his mind. Keep up thy communications as of wont, and withhold not hope,
+which is a powerful exciter in minds that are not deadened by
+experience. We shall not conceal from one of our number, that a
+negotiation is already near a termination, which will relieve the state
+from the care of the damsel, and at some benefit to the Republic. Her
+estates lying without our limits greatly facilitate the treaty, which
+hath only been withheld from your knowledge by the consideration, that
+of late we have rather too much overloaded thee with affairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again the Signor Gradenigo bowed submissively, and with apparent joy. He
+saw that his secret designs had been penetrated, notwithstanding all his
+practised duplicity and specious candor; and he submitted with that
+species of desperate resignation, which becomes a habit, if not a
+virtue, in men long accustomed to be governed despotically. When this
+delicate subject, which required the utmost finesse of Venetian policy,
+since it involved the interests of one who happened, at that moment, to
+be in the dreaded council itself, was disposed of, the three turned
+their attention to other matters, with that semblance of indifference to
+personal feeling, which practice in tortuous paths of state-intrigue
+enabled men to assume.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since we are so happily of opinion concerning the disposition of the
+Donna Violetta,&quot; coolly observed the oldest senator, a rare specimen of
+hackneyed and worldly morality, &quot;we may look into our list of daily
+duties&mdash;what say the lions' mouths to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A few of the ordinary and unmeaning accusations that spring from
+personal hatred,&quot; returned another. &quot;One chargeth his neighbor with
+oversight in religious duties, and with some carelessness of the fasts
+of Holy Church&mdash;a. foolish scandal, fitted for the ears of a curate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there naught else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another complaineth of neglect in a husband. The scrawl is in a woman's
+hand, and beareth on its face the evidence of woman's resentment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sudden to rise and easy to be appeased. Let the neighborhood quiet the
+household by its sneers.&mdash;What next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A suitor in the courts maketh complaint of the tardiness of the
+judges.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This toucheth the reputation of St. Mark; it must be looked to!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold!&quot; interrupted the Signor Gradenigo. &quot;The tribunal acted
+advisedly&mdash;'tis in the matter of a Hebrew, who is thought to have
+secrets of importance. The affair hath need of deliberation, I do assure
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Destroy the charge.&mdash;Have we more?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing of note. The usual number of pleasantries and hobbling verses
+which tend to nothing. If we get some useful gleanings by these secret
+accusations, we gain much nonsense. I would whip a youngster of ten who
+could not mould our soft Italian into better rhyme than this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis the wantonness of security. Let it pass, for all that serveth to
+amuse suppresseth turbulent thoughts. Shall we now see his highness,
+Signori?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You forget the fisherman,&quot; gravely observed the Signor Gradenigo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your honor sayeth true. What a head for business hath he! Nothing that
+is useful escapeth his ready mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old senator, while he was too experienced to be cajoled by such
+language, saw the necessity of appearing flattered. Again he bowed, and
+protested aloud and frequently against the justice of compliments that
+he so little merited. When this little byplay was over, they proceeded
+gravely to consider the matter before them.</p>
+
+<p>As the decision of the Council of Three will be made apparent in the
+course of the narrative, we shall not continue to detail the
+conversation that accompanied their deliberations. The sitting was long,
+so long indeed that when they arose, having completed their business,
+the heavy clock of the square tolled the hour of midnight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Doge will be impatient,&quot; said one of the two nameless members, as
+they threw on their cloaks, before leaving the chamber. &quot;I thought his
+highness wore a more fatigued and feeble air to-day, than he is wont to
+exhibit at the festivities of the city.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His highness is no longer young, Signore. If I remember right, he
+greatly outnumbers either of us in years. Our Lady of Loretto lend him
+strength long to wear the ducal bonnet, and wisdom to wear it well!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He hath lately sent offerings to her shrine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he hath. His confessor hath gone in person with the offering,
+as I know of certainty. 'Tis not a serious gift, but a mere remembrance
+to keep himself in the odor of sanctity. I doubt that his reign will not
+be long!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are, truly, signs of decay in his system. He is a worthy prince,
+and we shall lose a father when called to weep for his loss!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Most true, Signore: but the horned bonnet is not an invulnerable
+shield against the arrows of death. Age and infirmities are more potent
+than our wishes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art moody to-night, Signor Gradenigo. Thou art not used to be so
+silent with thy friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not the less grateful, Signore, for their favors. If I have a
+loaded countenance, I bear a lightened heart. One who hath a daughter of
+his own so happily bestowed in wedlock as thine, may judge of the relief
+I feel by this disposition of my ward. Joy affects the exterior,
+frequently, like sorrow; aye, even to tears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His two companions looked at the speaker with much obvious sympathy in
+their manners. They then left the chamber of doom together. The menials
+entered and extinguished the lights, leaving all behind them in an
+obscurity that was no bad type of the gloomy mysteries of the place.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="008.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XIV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  &quot;Then methought,<br />
+  A serenade broke silence, breathing hope<br />
+  Through walls of stone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ITALY.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, the melody of music was rife
+on the water. Gondolas continued to glide along the shadowed canals,
+while the laugh or the song was echoed among the arches of the palaces.
+The piazza and piazzetta were yet brilliant with lights, and gay with
+their multitudes of unwearied revellers.</p>
+
+<p>The habitation of Donna Violetta was far from the scene of general
+amusement. Though so remote, the hum of the moving throng, and the
+higher strains of the wind-instruments, came, from time to time, to the
+ears of its inmates, mellowed and thrilling by distance.</p>
+
+<p>The position of the moon cast the whole of the narrow passage which
+flowed beneath the windows of her private apartments into shadow. In a
+balcony which overhung the water, stood the youthful and ardent girl,
+listening with a charmed ear and a tearful eye to one of those soft
+strains, in which Venetian voices answered to each other from different
+points on the canals, in the songs of the gondoliers. Her constant
+companion and Mentor was near, while the ghostly father of them both
+stood deeper in the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There may be pleasanter towns on the main, and capitals of more
+revelry,&quot; said the charmed Violetta, withdrawing her person from its
+leaning attitude, as the voices ceased; &quot;but in such a night and at this
+witching hour, what city may compare with Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Providence has been less partial in the distribution of its earthly
+favors than is apparent to a vulgar eye,&quot; returned the attentive
+Carmelite. &quot;If we have our peculiar enjoyments and our moments of divine
+contemplation, other towns have advantages of their own; Genoa and Pisa,
+Firenze, Ancona, Roma, Palermo, and, chiefest of all, Napoli&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Napoli, father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Daughter, Napoli. Of all the towns of sunny Italy, 'tis the fairest and
+the most blessed in natural gifts. Of every region I have visited,
+during a life of wandering and penitence, that is the country on which
+the touch of the Creator hath been the most God-like!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art imaginative to-night, good Father Anselmo. The land must be
+fair indeed, that can thus warm the fancy of a Carmelite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The rebuke is just. I have spoken more under the influence of
+recollections that came from days of idleness and levity, than with the
+chastened spirit of one who should see the hand of the Maker in the most
+simple and least lovely of all his wondrous works.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You reproach yourself causelessly, holy father,&quot; observed the mild
+Donna Florinda, raising her eyes towards the pale countenance of the
+monk; &quot;to admire the beauties of nature, is to worship Him who gave them
+being.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a burst of music rose on the air, proceeding from the
+water beneath the balcony. Donna Violetta started back, abashed; and as
+she held her breath in wonder, and haply with that delight which open
+admiration is apt to excite in a youthful female bosom, the color
+mounted to her temples.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There passeth a band,&quot; calmly observed the Donna Florinda.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, it is a cavalier! There are gondoliers, servitors in his colors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is as hardy as it may be gallant,&quot; returned the monk, who
+listened to the air with an evident and grave displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>There was no longer any doubt but that a serenade was meant. Though the
+custom was of much use, it was the first time that a similar honor had
+been paid beneath the window of Donna Violetta. The studied privacy of
+her life, her known destiny, and the jealousy of the despotic state, and
+perhaps the deep respect which encircled a maiden of her tender years
+and high condition, had, until that moment, kept the aspiring, the vain,
+and the interested, equally in awe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is for me!&quot; whispered the trembling, the distressed, the delighted
+Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is for one of us, indeed,&quot; answered the cautious friend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be it for whom it may, it is bold,&quot; rejoined the monk.</p>
+
+<p>Donna Violetta shrank from observation behind the drapery of the window,
+but she raised a hand in pleasure as the rich strains rolled through the
+wide apartments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a taste rules the band!&quot; she half-whispered, afraid to trust her
+voice lest a sound should escape her ears. &quot;They touch an air of
+Petrarch's sonatas! How indiscreet, and yet how noble!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More noble than wise,&quot; said the Donna Florinda, who entered the balcony
+and looked intently on the water beneath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here are musicians in the color of a noble in one gondola,&quot; she
+continued, &quot;and a single cavalier in another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hath he no servitor? Doth he ply the oar himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Truly that decency hath not been overlooked; one in a flowered jacket
+guides the boat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak, then, dearest Florinda, I pray thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would it be seemly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed I think it. Speak them fair. Say that I am the Senate's&mdash;that it
+is not discreet to urge a daughter of the state thus&mdash;say what thou
+wilt&mdash;but speak them fair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! it is Don Camillo Monforte! I know him by his noble stature and
+the gallant wave of his hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This temerity will undo him! His claim will be refused&mdash;himself
+banished. Is it not near the hour when the gondola of the police passes?
+Admonish him to depart, good Florinda&mdash;and yet can we use this rudeness
+to a Signor of his rank!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, counsel us; you know the hazards of this rash gallantry in the
+Neapolitan&mdash;aid us with thy wisdom, for there is not a moment to lose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite had been an attentive and an indulgent observer of the
+emotion which sensations so novel had awakened in the ardent but
+unpractised breast of the fair Venetian. Pity, sorrow, and sympathy,
+were painted on his mortified face, as he witnessed the mastery of
+feeling over a mind so guileless, and a heart so warm; but the look was
+rather that of one who knew the dangers of the passions, than of one who
+condemned them without thought of their origin or power. At the appeal
+of the governess he turned away and silently quitted the room. Donna
+Florinda left the balcony and drew near her charge. There was no
+explanation, nor any audible or visible means of making their sentiments
+known to each other. Violetta threw herself into the arms of her more
+experienced friend, and struggled to conceal her face in her bosom. At
+this moment the music suddenly ceased, and the plash of oars falling
+into the water succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is gone!&quot; exclaimed the young creature who had been the object of
+the serenade, and whose faculties, spite of her confusion, had lost none
+of their acuteness. &quot;The gondolas are moving away, and we have not made
+even the customary acknowledgments for their civility!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not needed&mdash;or rather it might increase a hazard that is already
+too weighty. Remember thy high destiny, my child, and let them depart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet methinks one of my station should not fail in courtesy. The
+compliment may mean no more than any other idle usage, and they should
+not quit us unthanked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rest you within. I will watch the movement of the boats, for it
+surpasseth female endurance not to note their aspect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thanks, dearest Florinda! hasten, lest they enter the other canal ere
+thou seest them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The governess was quickly in the balcony. Active as was her movement,
+her eyes were scarcely cast upon the shadow beneath, before a hurried
+question demanded what she beheld.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Both gondolas are gone,&quot; was the answer; &quot;that with the musicians is
+already entering the great canal, but that of the cavalier hath
+unaccountably disappeared!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, look again; he cannot be in such haste to quit us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had not sought him in the right direction. Here is his gondola, by
+the bridge of our own canal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the cavalier? He waits for some sign of courtesy; it is meet that
+we should not withhold it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see him not. His servitor is seated on the steps of the landing,
+while the gondola appeareth to be empty. The man hath an air of waiting,
+but I nowhere see the master!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed Maria! can aught have befallen the gallant Duca di Sant'
+Agata?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Naught but the happiness of casting himself here!&quot; exclaimed a voice
+near the person of the heiress. The Donna Violetta turned her gaze from
+the balcony, and beheld him who filled all her thoughts at her feet.</p>
+
+<p>The cry of the girl, the exclamation of her friend, and a rapid and
+eager movement of the monk, brought the whole party into a group.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This may not be,&quot; said the latter in a reproving voice. &quot;Arise, Don
+Camillo, lest I repent listening to your prayer; you exceed our
+conditions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As much as this emotion exceedeth my hopes,&quot; answered the noble. &quot;Holy
+father, it is a sin to oppose Providence! Providence brought me to the
+rescue of this lovely being when accident threw her into the Giudecca,
+and once more Providence is my friend, by permitting me to be a witness
+of this feeling. Speak, fair Violetta, thou wilt not be an instrument of
+the Senate's selfishness&mdash;thou wilt not hearken to their wish of
+disposing of thy hand on the mercenary who would trifle with the most
+sacred of all vows to possess thy wealth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For whom am I destined?&quot; demanded Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter, since it be not for me. Some trafficker in happiness, some
+worthless abuser of the gifts of fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest, Camillo, our Venetian custom, and must see that I am
+hopelessly in their hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Arise, Duke of St. Agata,&quot; said the monk, with authority&mdash;&quot;when I
+suffered you to enter this palace, it was to remove a scandal from its
+gates, and to save you from your own rash disregard of the state's
+displeasure. It is idle to encourage hopes that the policy of the
+Republic opposes. Arise then, and respect your pledges.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That shall be as this lady may decide. Encourage me with but an
+approving look, fairest Violetta, and not Venice, with its Doge and
+inquisition, shall stir me an inch from thy feet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Camillo!&quot; answered the trembling girl, &quot;thou, the preserver of my life,
+hast little need to kneel to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Duke of St. Agata&mdash;daughter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, heed him not, generous Violetta. He utters words of convention&mdash;he
+speaks as all speak in age, when men's tongues deny the feelings of
+their youth. He is a Carmelite, and must feign this prudence. He never
+knew the tyranny of the passions. The dampness of his cell has chilled
+the ardor of the heart. Had he been human, he would have loved; had he
+loved, he would never have worn a cowl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo receded a pace, like one pricked in conscience, and the
+paleness of his ascetic features took a deadly hue. His lips moved as if
+he would have spoken, but the sounds were smothered by an oppression
+that denied him utterance. The gentle Florinda saw his distress, and she
+endeavored to interpose between the impetuous youth and her charge.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be as you say, Signor Monforte,&quot; she said&mdash;&quot;and that the Senate,
+in its fatherly care, searches a partner worthy of an heiress of a house
+so illustrious and so endowed as that of Tiepolo. But in this, what is
+there more than of wont? Do not the nobles of all Italy seek their
+equals in condition and in the gifts of fortune, in order that their
+union may be fittingly assorted. How know we that the estates of my
+young friend have not a value in the eye of the Duke of St. Agata as
+well as in those of him that the Senate may elect for thy husband?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can this be true?&quot; exclaimed Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Believe it not; my errand in Venice is no secret. I seek the
+restitution of lands and houses long withheld from my family, with the
+honors of the Senate that are justly mine. All these do I joyfully
+abandon for the hope of thy favor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou nearest, Florinda: Don Camillo is not to be distrusted!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are the Senate and the power of St. Mark that they should cross
+our lives with misery? Be mine, lovely Violetta, and in the fastnesses
+of my own good Calabrian castle we will defy their vengeance and policy.
+Their disappointment shall furnish merriment for my vassals, and our
+felicity shall make the happiness of thousands. I affect no disrespect
+for the dignity of the councils, nor any indifference to that I lose,
+but to me art thou far more precious than the horned bonnet itself, with
+all its fancied influence and glory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Generous Camillo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be mine, and spare the cold calculators of the Senate another crime.
+They think to dispose of thee, as if thou wert worthless merchandise, to
+their own advantage. But thou wilt defeat their design. I read the
+generous resolution in thine eye, Violetta; thou wilt manifest a will
+superior to their arts and egotism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would not be trafficked for, Don Camillo Monforte, but wooed and won
+as befitteth a maiden of my condition. They may still leave me liberty
+of choice. The Signor Gradenigo hath much encouraged me of late with
+this hope, when speaking of the establishment suited to my years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Believe him not; a colder heart, a spirit more removed from charity,
+exists not in Venice. He courts thy favor for his own prodigal son; a
+cavalier without honor, the companion of profligates, and the victim of
+the Hebrews. Believe him not, for he is stricken in deceit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is the victim of his own designs, if this be true. Of all the youths
+of Venice I esteem Giacomo Gradenigo least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This interview must have an end,&quot; said the monk, imposing effectually,
+and compelling the lover to rise. &quot;It would be easier to escape the
+toils of sin than to elude the agents of the police. I tremble lest this
+visit should be known, for we are encircled with the ministers of the
+state, and not a palace in Venice is more narrowly watched than this.
+Were thy presence here detected, indiscreet young man, thy youth might
+pine in a prison, while thou would'st be the cause of persecution and
+unmerited sorrow to this innocent and inexperienced maiden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A prison, sayest thou, father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No less, daughter. Lighter offences are often expiated by heavier
+judgments, when the pleasure of the Senate is thwarted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou must not be condemned to a prison, Camillo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear it not. The years and peaceful calling of the father make him
+timid. I have long been prepared for this happy moment, and I ask but a
+single hour to put Venice and all her toils at defiance. Give me the
+blessed assurance of thy truth, and confide in my means for the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou nearest, Florinda!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This bearing is suited to the sex of Don Camillo, dearest, but it ill
+becometh thee. A maiden of high quality must await the decision of her
+natural guardians.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But should that choice be Giacomo Gradenigo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Senate will not hear of it. The arts of his father have long been
+known to thee; and thou must have seen, by the secresy of his own
+advances, that he distrusts their decision. The state will have a care
+to dispose of thee as befitteth thy hopes. Thou art sought of many, and
+those who guard thy fortune only await the proposals which best become
+thy birth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Proposals that become my birth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suitable in years, condition, expectations, and character.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I to regard Don Camillo Monforte as one beneath me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk again interposed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This interview must end,&quot; he said. &quot;The eyes drawn upon us by your
+indiscreet music, are now turned on other objects, Signore, and you must
+break your faith, or depart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alone, father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the Donna Violetta to quit the roof of her father with as little
+warning as an unfavored dependant?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Signor Monforte, you could not, in reason, have expected more, in
+this interview, than the hope of some future termination to your suit---
+some pledge&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that pledge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eye of Violetta turned from her governess to her lover, from her
+lover to the monk, and from the latter to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is thine, Camillo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A common cry escaped the Carmelite and the governess.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy mercy, excellent friends,&quot; continued the blushing but decided
+Violetta. &quot;If I have encouraged Don Camillo, in a manner that thy
+counsels and maiden modesty would reprove, reflect that had he hesitated
+to cast himself into the Giudecca, I should have wanted the power to
+confer this trifling grace. Why should I be less generous than my
+preserver? No, Camillo, when the senate condemns me to wed another than
+thee, it pronounces the doom of celibacy; I will hide my griefs in a
+convent till I die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a solemn and fearful interruption to a discourse which was so
+rapidly becoming explicit, by the sound of the bell, that the groom of
+the chambers, a long-tried and confidential domestic, had been commanded
+to ring before he entered. As this injunction had been accompanied by
+another not to appear, unless summoned, or urged by some grave motive,
+the signal caused a sudden pause, even at that interesting moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now!&quot; exclaimed the Carmelite to the servant, who abruptly entered.
+&quot;What means this disregard of my injunctions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, the Republic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is St. Mark in jeopardy, that females and priests are summoned to aid
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are officials of the state below, who demand admission in the
+name of the Republic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This grows serious,&quot; said Don Camillo, who alone retained his
+self-possession. &quot;My visit is known, and the active jealousy of the
+state anticipates its object. Summon your resolution, Donna Violetta,
+and you, father, be of heart! I will assume the responsibility of the
+offence, if offence it be, and exonerate all others from censure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Forbid it, Father Anselmo. Dearest Florinda, we will share his
+punishment!&quot; exclaimed the terrified Violetta, losing all self-command
+in the fear of such a moment. &quot;He has not been guilty of this
+indiscretion without participation of mine; he has not presumed beyond
+his encouragement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk and Donna Florinda regarded each other in mute amazement, and
+haply there was some admixture of feeling in the look that denoted the
+uselessness of caution when the passions were intent to elude the
+vigilance of those who were merely prompted by prudence. The former
+simply motioned for silence, while he turned to the domestic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what character are these ministers of the state?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, they are its known officers, and wear the badges of their
+condition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And their request?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is to be admitted to the presence of the Donna Violetta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is still hope!&quot; rejoined the monk, breathing more freely. Moving
+across the room, he opened a door which communicated with the private
+oratory of the palace. &quot;Retire within this sacred chapel, Don Camillo,
+while we await the explanation of so extraordinary a visit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As the time pressed, the suggestion was obeyed on the instant. The lover
+entered the oratory, and when the door was closed upon his person, the
+domestic, one known to be worthy of all confidence, was directed to
+usher in those who waited without.</p>
+
+<p>But a single individual appeared. He was known, at a glance, for a
+public and responsible agent of the government, who was often charged
+with the execution of secret and delicate duties. Donna Violetta
+advanced to meet him, in respect to his employers, and with the return
+of that self-possession which long practice interweaves with the habits
+of the great.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am honored by this care of my dreaded and illustrious guardians,&quot; she
+said, making an acknowledgment for the low reverence with which the
+official saluted the richest ward of Venice. &quot;To what circumstance do I
+owe this visit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer gazed an instant about him, with an habitual and suspicious
+caution, and then repeating his salutations, he answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady,&quot; he said, &quot;I am commanded to seek an interview with the daughter
+of the state, the heiress of the illustrious house of Tiepolo, with the
+Donna Florinda Mercato, her female companion, with the Father Anselmo,
+her commissioned confessor, and with any other who enjoy the pleasure of
+her society and the honor of her confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Those you seek are here; I am Violetta Tiepolo; to this lady am I
+indebted for a mother's care, and this reverend Carmelite is my
+spiritual counsellor. Shall I summon my household?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is unnecessary. My errand is rather of private than of public
+concern. At the decease of your late most honored and much lamented
+parent, the illustrious senator Tiepolo, the care of your person, lady,
+was committed by the Republic, your natural and careful protector, to
+the especial guardianship and wisdom of Signore Alessandro Gradenigo, of
+illustrious birth and estimable qualities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, you say true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Though the parental love of the councils may have seemed to be dormant,
+it has ever been wakeful and vigilant. Now that the years, instruction,
+beauty, and other excellences of their daughter, have come to so rare
+perfection, they wish to draw the ties that unite them nearer, by
+assuming their own immediate duties about her person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By this I am to understand that I am no longer a ward of the Signor
+Gradenigo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady, a ready wit has helped you to the explanation. That illustrious
+patrician is released from his cherished and well acquitted duties.
+To-morrow new guardians will be charged with the care of your prized
+person, and will continue their honorable trust, until the wisdom of the
+Senate shall have formed for you such an alliance, as shall not
+disparage a noble name and qualities that might adorn a throne.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I to be separated from those I love?&quot; demanded Violetta impetuously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust to the Senate's wisdom. I know not its determination concerning
+those who have long dwelt with you, but there can be no reason to doubt
+its tenderness or discretion. I have now only to add, that until those
+charged anew with the honorable office of your protectors shall arrive,
+it will be well to maintain the same modest reserve in the reception of
+visitors as of wont, and that your door, lady, must in propriety be
+closed against the Signor Gradenigo as against all others of his sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I not even thank him for his care?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is tenfold rewarded in the Senate's gratitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would have been gracious to have expressed my feelings towards the
+Signor Gradenigo in words; but that which is refused to the tongue will
+be permitted to the pen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reserve that becomes the state of one so favored is absolute. St.
+Mark is jealous where he loves. And, now my commission is discharged, I
+humbly take my leave, flattered in having been selected to stand in such
+a presence, and to have been thought worthy of so honorable a duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As the officer ceased speaking and Violetta returned his bows, she fixed
+her eyes, filled with apprehension, on the sorrowful features of her
+companions. The ambiguous language of those employed in such missions
+was too well known to leave much hope for the future. They all
+anticipated their separation on the morrow, though neither could
+penetrate the reason of this sudden change in the policy of the state.
+Interrogation was useless, for the blow evidently came from the secret
+council, whose motives could no more be fathomed than its decrees
+foreseen. The monk raised his hands in silent benediction towards his
+spiritual charge, and unable, even in the presence of the stranger, to
+repress their grief, Donna Florinda and Violetta sank into each other's
+arms, and wept.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time the minister of this cruel blow had delayed his
+departure, like one who had a half-formed resolution. He regarded the
+countenance of the unconscious Carmelite intently, and in a manner that
+denoted the habit of thinking much before he decided.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reverend Father,&quot; he said, &quot;may I crave a moment of your time, for an
+affair that concerns the soul of a sinner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though amazed, the monk could not hesitate about answering such an
+appeal. Obedient to a gesture of the officer, he followed him from the
+apartment, and continued at his side while the other threaded the
+magnificent rooms and descended to his gondola.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must be much honored of the Senate, holy monk,&quot; observed the latter
+while they proceeded, &quot;to hold so near a trust about the person of one
+in whom the state takes so great an interest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel it as such, my son. A life of peace and prayer should have made
+me friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Men like you, father, merit the esteem they crave. Are you long of
+Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since the last conclave. I came into the Republic as confessor to the
+late minister from Florence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An honorable trust. You have been with us then long enough to know that
+the Republic never forgets a servitor, nor forgives an affront.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis an ancient state, and one whose influence still reaches far and
+near.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have a care of the step. These marbles are treacherous to an uncertain
+foot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mine is too practised in the descent to be unsteady. I hope I do not
+now descend these stairs for the last time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The minister of the council affected not to understand the question,
+but he answered as if replying only to the previous observation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis truly a venerable state,&quot; he said, &quot;but a little tottering with
+its years. All who love liberty, father, must mourn to see so glorious a
+sway on the decline. <i>Sic transit gloria mundi!</i> You bare-footed
+Carmelites do well to mortify the flesh in youth, by which you escape
+the pains of a decreasing power. One like you can have few wrongs of his
+younger days to repair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are none of us without sin,&quot; returned the monk, crossing himself.
+&quot;He who would flatter his soul with being perfect lays the additional
+weight of vanity on his life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Men of my occupation, holy Carmelite, have few opportunities of looking
+into themselves, and I bless the hour that hath brought me into company
+so godly. My gondola waits&mdash;will you enter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk regarded his companion in distrust, but knowing the uselessness
+of resistance, he murmured a short prayer and complied. A strong dash of
+the oars announced their departure from the steps of the palace.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>O pescator! dell' onda<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;  Fi da lin;<br />
+O pescator! dell' onda,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp;  Fi da lin;<br />
+Vien pescar in qua;<br />
+Colla bella tua barca,<br />
+Colla bella se ne va,<br />
+Fi da lin, lin, la&mdash;</p>
+
+<p align="right">VENETIAN BOAT SONG.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The moon was at the height. Its rays fell in a flood on the swelling
+domes and massive roofs of Venice, while the margin of the town was
+brilliantly defined by the glittering bay. The natural and gorgeous
+setting was more than worthy of that picture of human magnificence; for
+at that moment, rich as was the Queen of the Adriatic in her works of
+art, the grandeur of her public monuments, the number and splendor of
+her palaces, and most else that the ingenuity and ambition of man could
+attempt, she was but secondary in the glories of the hour.</p>
+
+<p>Above was the firmament, gemmed with worlds, and sublime in immensity.
+Beneath lay the broad expanse of the Adriatic, endless to the eye,
+tranquil as the vault it reflected, and luminous with its borrowed
+light. Here and there a low island, reclaimed from the sea by the
+patient toil of a thousand years, dotted the Lagunes, burdened with the
+group of some conventual dwellings, or picturesque with the modest roofs
+of a hamlet of the fisherman. Neither oar, nor song, nor laugh, nor flap
+of sail, nor jest of mariner, disturbed the stillness. All in the near
+view was clothed in midnight loveliness, and all in the distance bespoke
+the solemnity of nature at peace. The city and the Lagunes, the gulf
+and the dreamy Alps, the interminable plain of Lombardy, and the blue
+void of heaven, lay alike in a common and grand repose.</p>
+
+<p>There suddenly appeared a gondola. It issued from among the watery
+channels of the town, and glided upon the vast bosom of the bay,
+noiseless as the fancied progress of a spirit. A practised and nervous
+arm guided its movement, which was unceasing and rapid. So swift indeed
+was the passage of the boat, as to denote pressing haste on the part of
+the solitary individual it contained. It held the direction of the
+Adriatic, steering between one of the more southern outlets of the bay
+and the well known island of St. Giorgio. For half an hour the exertions
+of the gondolier were unrelaxed, though his eye was often cast behind
+him, as if he distrusted pursuit; and as often did he gaze ahead,
+betraying an anxious desire to reach some object that was yet invisible.
+When a wide reach of water lay between him and the town, however, he
+permitted his oar to rest, and he lent all his faculties to a keen and
+anxious search.</p>
+
+<p>A small dark spot was discovered on the water still nearer to the sea.
+The oar of the gondolier dashed the element behind him, and his boat
+again glided away, so far altering its course as to show that all
+indecision was now ended. The darker spot was shortly beheld quivering
+in the rays of the moon, and it soon assumed the form and dimensions of
+a boat at anchor. Again the gondolier ceased his efforts, and he leaned
+forward, gazing intently at this undefined object, as if he would aid
+his powers of sight by the sympathy of his other faculties. Just then
+the notes of music came softly across the Lagunes. The voice was feeble
+even to trembling, but it had the sweetness of tone and the accuracy of
+execution which belong so peculiarly to Venice. It was the solitary man,
+in the distant boat, indulging in the song of a fisherman. The strains
+were sweet, and the intonations plaintive to melancholy. The air was
+common to all who plied the oar in the canals, and familiar to the ear
+of the listener. He waited until the close of a verse had died away, and
+then he answered with a strain of his own. The alternate parts were thus
+maintained until the music ceased, by the two singing a final verse in
+chorus.</p>
+
+<p>When the song was ended, the oar of the gondolier stirred the water
+again, and he was quickly by the other's side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art busy with thy hook betimes, Antonio,&quot; said he who had just
+arrived, as he stepped into the boat of the old fisherman already so
+well known to the reader. &quot;There are men, that an interview with the
+Council of Three would have sent to their prayers and a sleepless bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is not a chapel in Venice, Jacopo, in which a sinner may so well
+lay bare his soul as in this. I have been here on the empty Lagunes,
+alone with God, having the gates of Paradise open before my eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One like thee hath no need of images to quicken his devotion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see the image of my Saviour, Jacopo, in those bright stars, that
+moon, the blue heavens, the misty bank of mountain, the waters on which
+we float, aye, even in my own sinking form, as in all which has come
+from his wisdom and power. I have prayed much since the moon has risen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And is habit so strong in thee that thou thinkest of God and thy sins
+while thou anglest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The poor must toil and the sinful must pray. My thoughts have dwelt so
+much of late on the boy, that I have forgotten to provide myself with
+food. If I fish later or earlier than common, 'tis because a man cannot
+live on grief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have bethought me of thy situation, honest Antonio; here is that
+which will support life and raise thy courage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See,&quot; added the Bravo, stretching forth an arm Into his own gondola,
+from which he drew a basket, &quot;here is bread from Dalmatia, wine of Lower
+Italy, and figs from the Levant&mdash;eat, then, and be of cheer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman threw a wistful glance at the viands, for hunger was
+making powerful appeals to the weakness of nature, but his hand did not
+relinquish its hold of the line, with which he still continued to angle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And these are thy gifts, Jacopo?&quot; he asked, in a voice that, spite of
+his resignation, betrayed the longings of appetite.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio, they are the offerings of one who respects thy courage and
+honors thy nature.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bought with his earnings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can it be otherwise? I am no beggar for the love of the saints, and few
+in Venice give unasked. Eat, then, without fear; seldom wilt thou be
+more welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take them away, Jacopo, if thou lovest me. Do not tempt me beyond what
+I can bear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! art thou commanded to a penance?&quot; hastily exclaimed the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not so&mdash;not so. It is long since I have found leisure or heart for the
+confessional.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why refuse the gift of a friend? Remember thy years and
+necessities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot feed on the price of blood!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hand of the Bravo was withdrawn as if repelled by an electric touch.
+The action caused the rays of the moon to fall athwart his kindling eye,
+and firm as Antonio was in honesty and principle, he felt the blood
+creep to his heart as he encountered the fierce and sudden glance of his
+companion. A long pause succeeded, during which the fisherman diligently
+plied his line, though utterly regardless of the object for which it had
+been cast.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have said it, Jacopo,&quot; he added at length, &quot;and tongue of mine shall
+not belie the thought of my heart. Take away thy food then, and forget
+all that is past; for what I have said hath not been said in scorn, but
+out of regard to my own soul. Thou knowest how I have sorrowed for the
+boy, but next to his loss I could mourn over thee&mdash;aye, more bitterly
+than over any other of the fallen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hard breathing of the Bravo was audible, but still he spoke not.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo,&quot; continued the anxious fisherman, &quot;do not mistake me. The pity
+of the suffering and poor is not like the scorn of the rich and worldly.
+If I touch a sore, I do not bruise it with my heel. Thy present pain is
+better than the greatest of all thy former joys.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enough, old man,&quot; said the other in a smothered voice, &quot;thy words are
+forgotten. Eat without fear, for the offering is bought with earnings as
+pure as the gleanings of a mendicant friar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will trust to the kindness of St. Anthony and the fortune of my
+hook,&quot; simply returned Antonio. &quot;'Tis common for us of the Lagunes to go
+to a supperless bed: take away the basket, good Jacopo, and let us speak
+of other things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo ceased to press his food upon the fisherman. Laying aside his
+basket, he sat brooding over what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou come thus far for naught else, good Jacopo?&quot; demanded the old
+man, willing to weaken the shock of his refusal.</p>
+
+<p>The question appeared to restore Jacopo to a recollection of his errand.
+He stood erect, and looked about him, for more than a minute, with a
+keen eye and an entire intentness of purpose. The look in the direction
+of the city was longer and more earnest than those thrown towards the
+sea and the main, nor was it withdrawn, until an involuntary start
+betrayed equally surprise and alarm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there not a boat, here, in a line with the tower of the campanile?&quot;
+he asked quickly, pointing towards the city.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It so seems. It is early for my comrades to be abroad, but the draughts
+have not been heavy of late, and the revelry of yesterday drew many of
+our people from their toil. The patricians must eat, and the poor must
+labor, or both would die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo slowly seated himself, and he looked with concern into the
+countenance of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou long here, Antonio?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But an hour. When they turned us away from the palace, thou knowest
+that I told thee of my necessities. There is not, in common, a more
+certain spot on the Lagunes than this, and yet have I long played the
+line in vain. The trial of hunger is hard, but, like all other trials,
+it must be borne. I have prayed to my patron thrice, and sooner or later
+he will listen to my wants. Thou art used to the manners of these masked
+nobles, Jacopo; dost thou think them likely to hearken to reason? I hope
+I did the cause no wrong for want of breeding, but I spoke them fair and
+plainly as fathers and men with hearts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As senators they have none. Thou little understandest, Antonio, the
+distinctions of these patricians. In the gaiety of their palaces, and
+among the companions of their pleasures, none will speak you fairer of
+humanity and justice&mdash;aye&mdash;even of God! but when met to discuss what
+they call the interests of St. Mark, there is not a rock on the coldest
+peak of yonder Alp with less humanity, or a wolf among their valleys
+more heartless!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy words are strong, Jacopo&mdash;I would not do injustice even to those
+who have done me this wrong. The Senators are men, and God has given all
+feelings and nature alike.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gift is then abused. Thou hast felt the want of thy daily
+assistant, fisherman, and thou hast sorrowed for thy child; for thee it
+is easy to enter into another's griefs; but the Senators know nothing
+of suffering. Their children are not dragged to the galleys, their hopes
+are never destroyed by laws coming from hard task-masters, nor are their
+tears shed for sons ruined by being made companions of the dregs of the
+Republic. They will talk of public virtue and services to the state, but
+in their own cases they mean the virtue of renown, and services that
+bring with them honors and rewards. The wants of the state is their
+conscience, though they take heed those wants shall do themselves no
+harm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo, Providence itself hath made a difference in men. One is large,
+another small; one weak, another strong; one wise, another foolish. At
+what Providence hath done, we should not murmur?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Providence did not make the Senate; 't is an invention of man. Mark me,
+Antonio, thy language hath given offence, and thou art not safe in
+Venice. They will pardon all but complaints against their justice. That
+is too true to be forgiven.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can they wish to harm one who seeks his own child?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thou wert great and respected, they would undermine thy fortune and
+character, ere thou should'st put their system in danger&mdash;as thou art
+weak and poor, they will do thee some direct injury, unless thou art
+moderate. Before all, I warn thee that their system must stand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will God suffer this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We may not enter into his secrets,&quot; returned the Bravo, devoutly
+crossing himself. &quot;Did his reign end with this world, there might be
+injustice in suffering the wicked to triumph, but, as it is, we------
+Yon boat approaches fast! I little like its air and movements.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are not fishermen, truly, for there are many oars and a canopy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a gondola of the state!&quot; exclaimed Jacopo, rising and stepping
+into his own boat, which he cast loose from that of his companion, when
+he stood in evident doubt as to his future proceedings. &quot;Antonio, we
+should do well to row away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy fears are natural,&quot; said the unmoved fisherman, &quot;and 'tis a
+thousand pities that there is cause for them. There is yet time for one
+skilful as thou to outstrip the fleetest gondola on the canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quick, lift thy anchor, old man, and depart, my eye is sure. I know the
+boat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor Jacopo! what a curse is a tender conscience! Thou hast been kind
+to me in my need, and if prayers from a sincere heart can do thee
+service, thou shalt not want them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio!&quot; cried the other, causing his boat to whirl away, and then
+pausing an instant like a man undecided&mdash;&quot;I can stay no longer&mdash;trust
+them not&mdash;they are false as fiends&mdash;there is no time to lose&mdash;I must
+away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman murmured an ejaculation of pity, as he waved a hand in
+adieu.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy St. Anthony, watch over my own child, lest he come to some such
+miserable life!&quot; he added, in an audible prayer&mdash;&quot;There hath been good
+seed cast on a rock, in that youth, for a warmer or kinder heart is not
+in man. That one like Jacopo should live by striking the assassin's
+blow!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The near approach of the strange gondola now attracted the whole
+attention of the old man. It came swiftly towards him, impelled by six
+strong oars, and his eye turned feverishly in the direction of the
+fugitive. Jacopo, with a readiness that necessity and long practice
+rendered nearly instinctive, had taken a direction which blended his
+wake in a line with one of those bright streaks that the moon drew on
+the water, and which, by dazzling the eye, effectually concealed the
+objects within its width. When the fisherman saw that the Bravo had
+disappeared, he smiled and seemed at ease.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, let them come here,&quot; he said; &quot;it will give Jacopo more time. I
+doubt not the poor fellow hath struck a blow, since quitting the palace,
+that the council will not forgive! The sight of gold hath been too
+strong, and he hath offended those who have so long borne with him. God
+forgive me, that I have had communion with such a man! but when the
+heart is heavy, the pity of even a dog will warm our feelings. Few care
+for me now, or the friendship of such as he could never have been
+welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio ceased, for the gondola of the state came with a rushing noise
+to the side of his own boat, where it was suddenly stopped by a backward
+sweep of the oars. The water was still in ebullition, when a form passed
+into the gondola of the fisherman, the larger boat shot away again to
+the distance of a few hundred feet, and remained at rest.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio witnessed this movement in silent curiosity; but when he saw the
+gondoliers of the state lying on their oars, he glanced his eye again
+furtively in the direction of Jacopo, saw that all was safe, and faced
+his companion with confidence. The brightness of the moon enabled him to
+distinguish the dress and aspect of a bare-footed Carmelite. The latter
+seemed more confounded than his companion, by the rapidity of the
+movement, and the novelty of his situation. Notwithstanding his
+confusion, however, an evident look of wonder crossed his mortified
+features when he first beheld the humble condition, the thin and
+whitened locks, and the general air and bearing of the old man with whom
+he now found himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot; escaped him, in the impulse of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio of the Lamines! A fisherman that owes much to St. Anthony, for
+favors little deserved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why hath one like thee fallen beneath the Senate's displeasure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am honest and ready to do justice to others. If that offend the
+great, they are men more to be pitied than envied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The convicted are always more disposed to believe themselves
+unfortunate than guilty. The error is fatal, and it should be eradicated
+from the mind, lest it lead to death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go tell this to the patricians. They have need of plain counsel, and a
+warning from the church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My son, there is pride and anger, and a perverse heart in thy replies.
+The sins of the senators&mdash;and as they are men, they are not without
+spot&mdash;can in no manner whiten thine own. Though an unjust sentence
+should condemn one to punishment, it leaves the offences against God in
+their native deformity. Men may pity him who hath wrongfully undergone
+the anger of the world, but the church will only pronounce pardon on him
+who confesseth his errors, with a sincere admission of their magnitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you come, father, to shrive a penitent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such is my errand. I lament the occasion, and if what I fear be true,
+still more must I regret that one so aged should have brought his
+devoted head beneath the arm of justice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio smiled, and again he bent his eyes along that dazzling streak of
+light which had swallowed up the gondola and the person of the Bravo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; he said, when a long and earnest look was ended, &quot;there can be
+little harm in speaking truth to one of thy holy office. They have told
+thee there was a criminal here in the Lagunes, who hath provoked the
+anger of St. Mark?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not easy to know when St. Mark is pleased, or when he is not,&quot;
+continued Antonio, plying his line with indifference, &quot;for the very man
+he now seeks has he long tolerated; aye, even in presence of the Doge.
+The Senate hath its reasons which lie beyond the reach of the ignorant,
+but it would have been better for the soul of the poor youth, and more
+seemly for the Republic, had it turned a discouraging countenance on his
+deeds from the first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest of another! thou art not then the criminal they seek!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a sinner, like all born of woman, reverend Carmelite, but my hand
+hath never held any other weapon than the good sword with which I struck
+the infidel. There was one lately here, that, I grieve to add, cannot
+say this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And he is gone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, you have your eyes, and you can answer that question for
+yourself. He is gone; though he is not far; still is he beyond the reach
+of the swiftest gondola in Venice, praised be St. Mark!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite bowed his head, where he was seated, and his lips moved,
+either in prayer or in thanksgiving.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you sorry, monk, that a sinner has escaped?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Son, I rejoice that this bitter office hath passed from me, while I
+mourn that there should be a spirit so depraved as to require it. Let us
+summon the servants of the Republic, and inform them that their errand
+is useless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be not of haste, good father. The night is gentle, and these hirelings
+sleep on their oars, like gulls in the Lagunes. The youth will have more
+time for repentance, should he be undisturbed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite, who had risen, instantly reseated himself, like one
+actuated by a strong impulse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought he had already been far beyond pursuit,&quot; he muttered,
+unconsciously apologizing for his apparent haste.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is over bold, and I fear he will row back to the canals, in which
+case you might meet nearer to the city&mdash;or there may be more gondolas
+of the state out&mdash;in short, father, thou wilt be more certain to escape
+hearing the confession of a Bravo, by listening to that of a fisherman,
+who has long wanted an occasion to acknowledge his sins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Men who ardently wish the same result, require few words to understand
+each other. The Carmelite took, intuitively, the meaning of his
+companion, and throwing back his cowl, a movement that exposed the
+countenance of Father Anselmo, he prepared to listen to the confession
+of the old man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a Christian, and one of thy years hath not to learn the state
+of mind that becometh a penitent,&quot; said the monk, when each was ready.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a sinner, father; give me counsel and absolution, that I may have
+hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy will be done&mdash;thy prayer is heard&mdash;approach and kneel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio, who had fastened his line to his seat, and disposed of his net
+with habitual care, now crossed himself devoutly, and took his station
+before the Carmelite. His acknowledgments of error then began. Much
+mental misery clothed the language and ideas of the fisherman with a
+dignity that his auditor had not been accustomed to find in men of his
+class. A spirit so long chastened by suffering had become elevated and
+noble. He related his hopes for the boy, the manner in which they had
+been blasted by the unjust and selfish policy of the state, his
+different efforts to procure the release of his grandson, and his bold
+expedients at the regatta, and the fancied nuptials with the Adriatic.
+When he had thus prepared the Carmelite to understand the origin of his
+sinful passions, which it was now his duty to expose, he spoke of those
+passions themselves, and of their influence on a mind that was
+ordinarily at peace with mankind. The tale was told simply and without
+reserve, but in a manner to inspire respect, and to awaken powerful
+sympathy in him who heard it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And these feelings thou didst indulge against the honored and powerful
+of Venice!&quot; demanded the monk, affecting a severity he could not feel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Before my God do I confess the sin! In bitterness of heart I cursed
+them; for to me they seemed men without feeling for the poor, and
+heartless as the marbles of their own palaces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest that to be forgiven, thou must forgive. Dost thou, at
+peace with all of earth, forget this wrong, and can'st thou, in charity
+with thy fellows, pray to Him who died for the race, in behalf of those
+who have injured thee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio bowed his head on his naked breast, and he seemed to commune
+with his soul.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; he said, in a rebuked tone, &quot;I hope I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou must not trifle with thyself to thine own perdition. There is an
+eye in yon vault above us which pervades space, and which looks into the
+inmost secrets of the heart. Can'st thou pardon the error of the
+patricians in a contrite spirit for thine own sins?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Maria pray for them, as I now ask mercy in their behalf! Father,
+they are forgiven.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Amen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite arose and stood over the kneeling Antonio with the whole
+of his benevolent countenance illuminated by the moon. Stretching his
+arms towards the stars, he pronounced the absolution in a voice that was
+touched with pious fervor. The upward expectant eye, with the withered
+lineaments of the fisherman, and the holy calm of the monk, formed a
+picture of resignation and hope that angels would have loved to witness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Amen! amen!&quot; exclaimed Antonio, as he arose crossing himself; &quot;St.
+Anthony and the Virgin aid me to keep these resolutions!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will not forget thee, my son, in the offices of holy church. Receive
+my benediction, that I may depart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Antonio again bowed his knee while the Carmelite firmly pronounced the
+words of peace. When this last office was performed, and a decent
+interval of mutual but silent prayer had passed, a signal was given to
+summon the gondola of the state. It came rowing down with great force,
+and was instantly at their side. Two men passed into the boat of
+Antonio, and with officious zeal assisted the monk to resume his place
+in that of the Republic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the penitent shrived?&quot; half whispered one, seemingly the superior of
+the two.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is an error. He thou seek'st has escaped. This aged man is a
+fisherman named Antonio, and one who cannot have gravely offended St.
+Mark. The Bravo hath passed towards the island of San Giorgio, and must
+be sought elsewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer released the person of the monk, who passed quickly beneath
+the canopy, and he turned to cast a hasty glance at the features of the
+fisherman. The rubbing of a rope was audible, and the anchor of Antonio
+was lifted by a sudden jerk. A heavy plashing of the water followed, and
+the two boats shot away together, obedient to a violent effort of the
+crew. The gondola of the state exhibited its usual number of gondoliers,
+bending to their toil, with its dark and hearse-like canopy, but that of
+the fisherman was empty!</p>
+
+<p>The sweep of the oars and the plunge of the body of Antonio had been
+blended in a common wash of the surge. When the fisherman came to the
+surface after his fall, he was alone in the centre of the vast but
+tranquil sheet of water. There might have been a glimmering of hope as
+he arose from the darkness of the sea to the bright beauty of that
+moonlit night. But the sleeping domes were too far for human strength,
+and the gondolas were sweeping madly towards the town. He turned, and
+swimming feebly, for hunger and previous exertion had undermined his
+strength, he bent his eye on the dark spot which he had constantly
+recognised as the boat of the Bravo.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo had not ceased to watch the interview with the utmost intentness
+of his faculties. Favored by position, he could see without being
+distinctly visible. He saw the Carmelite pronouncing the absolution, and
+he witnessed the approach of the larger boat. He heard a plunge heavier
+than that of falling oars, and he saw the gondola of Antonio towing away
+empty. The crew of the Republic had scarcely swept the Lagunes with
+their oar-blades before his own stirred the water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo!&mdash;Jacopo!&quot; came fearfully and faintly to his ears.</p>
+
+<p>The voice was known, and the occasion thoroughly understood. The cry of
+distress was succeeded by the rush of the water, as it piled before the
+beak of the Bravo's gondola. The sound of the parted element was like
+the sighing of a breeze. Ripples and bubbles were left behind, as the
+driven scud floats past the stars, and all those muscles which had once
+before that day been so finely developed in the race of the gondoliers,
+were now expanded, seemingly in twofold volumes. Energy and skill were
+in every stroke, and the dark spot came down the streak of light, like
+the swallow touching the water with its wing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hither, Jacopo&mdash;thou steerest wide!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The beak of the gondola turned, and the glaring eye of the Bravo caught
+a glimpse of the fisherman's head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quickly, good Jacopo,&mdash;I fail!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The murmuring of the water again drowned the stifled words. The efforts
+of the oar were frenzied, and at each stroke the light gondola appeared
+to rise from its element.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo&mdash;hither&mdash;dear Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The mother of God aid thee, fisherman!&mdash;I come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo&mdash;the boy!&mdash;the boy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The water gurgled; an arm was visible in the air, and it disappeared.
+The gondola drove upon the spot where the limb had just been visible,
+and a backward stroke, that caused the ashen blade to bend like a reed,
+laid the trembling boat motionless. The furious action threw the Lagune
+into ebullition, but, when the foam subsided, it lay calm as the blue
+and peaceful vault it reflected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio!&quot;&mdash;burst from the lips of the Bravo.</p>
+
+<p>A frightful silence succeeded the call. There was neither answer nor
+human form. Jacopo compressed the handle of his oar with fingers of
+iron, and his own breathing caused him to start. On every side he bent a
+frenzied eye, and on every side he beheld the profound repose of that
+treacherous element which is so terrible in its wrath. Like the human
+heart, it seemed to sympathize with the tranquil beauty of the midnight
+view; but, like the human heart, it kept its own fearful secrets.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="009.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XVI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Yet a few days and dream-perturbed nights,<br />
+And I shall slumber well&mdash;but where?&mdash;no matter.<br />
+Adieu, my Angiolina.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">MARINO FALIERO</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>When the Carmelite re-entered the apartment of Donna Violetta his face
+was covered with the hue of death, and his limbs with difficulty
+supported him to a chair. He scarcely observed that Don Camillo Monforte
+was still present, nor did he note the brightness and joy which glowed
+in the eyes of the ardent Violetta. Indeed his appearance was at first
+unseen by the happy lovers, for the Lord of St. Agata had succeeded in
+wresting the secret from the breast of his mistress, if that may be
+called a secret which Italian character had scarcely struggled to
+retain, and he had crossed the room before even the more tranquil look
+of the Donna Florinda rested on his person.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art ill!&quot; exclaimed the governess. &quot;Father Anselmo hath not been
+absent without grave cause!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk threw back his cowl for air, and the act discovered the deadly
+paleness of his features. But his eye, charged with a meaning of horror,
+rolled over the faces of those who drew around him, as if he struggled
+with memory to recall their persons.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ferdinando! Father Anselmo!&quot; cried the Donna Florinda, correcting the
+unbidden familiarity, though she could not command the anxiety of her
+rebel features; &quot;Speak to us&mdash;thou art suffering!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ill at heart, Florinda.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Deceive us not&mdash;haply thou hast more evil tidings&mdash;Venice&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is a fearful state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why hast thou quitted us?&mdash;why in a moment of so much importance to our
+pupil&mdash;a moment that may prove of the last influence on her
+happiness&mdash;hast thou been absent for a long hour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Violetta turned a surprised and unconscious glance towards the clock,
+but she spoke not.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The servants of the state had need of me,&quot; returned the monk, easing
+the pain of his spirit by a groan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand thee, father;&mdash;thou hast shrived a penitent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Daughter, I have: and few depart more at peace with God and their
+fellows!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Florinda murmured a short prayer for the soul of the dead, piously
+crossing herself as she concluded. Her example was imitated by her
+pupil, and even the lips of Don Camillo moved, while his head was bowed
+by the side of his fair companion in seeming reverence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twas a just end, father?&quot; demanded Donna Florinda.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was an unmerited one!&quot; cried the monk, with fervor, &quot;or there is no
+faith in man. I have witnessed the death of one who was better fitted to
+live, as happily he was better fitted to die, than those who pronounced
+his doom. What a fearful state is Venice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And such are they who are masters of thy person, Violetta,&quot; said Don
+Camillo: &quot;to these midnight murderers will thy happiness be consigned!
+Tell us, father, does thy sad tragedy touch in any manner on the
+interests of this fair being? for we are encircled here by mysteries
+that are as incomprehensible, while they are nearly as fearful as fate
+itself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk looked from one to the other, and a more human expression began
+to appear in his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art right,&quot; he said; &quot;such are the men who mean to dispose of the
+person of our pupil. Holy St. Mark pardon the prostitution of his
+revered name, and shield her with the virtue of his prayers!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, are we worthy to know more of that thou hast witnessed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The secrets of the confessional are sacred, my son; but this hath been
+a disclosure to cover the living, not the dead, with shame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see the hand of those up above in this!&quot; for so most spoke of the
+Council of Three. &quot;They have tampered with my right for years to suit
+their selfish purposes, and to my shame must I own it, they have driven
+me to a submission, in order to obtain justice, that as ill accords with
+my feelings as with my character.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Camillo, thou art incapable of this injustice to thyself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a fearful government, dearest, and its fruits are equally
+pernicious to the ruler and the subject. It hath, of all other dangers
+the greatest, the curse of secresy on its intentions, its acts, and its
+responsibilities!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou sayest true, my son; there is no security against oppression and
+wrong in a state but the fear of God or the fear of man. Of the first,
+Venice hath none, for too many souls share the odium of her sins; and as
+for the last, her deeds are hid from their knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We speak boldly, for those who live beneath her laws,&quot; observed Donna
+Florinda, glancing a look timidly around her. &quot;As we can neither change
+nor mend the practices of the state, better that we should be silent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we cannot alter the power of the council, we may elude it,&quot; hastily
+answered Don Camillo, though he too dropped his voice, and assured
+himself of their security by closing the casement, and casting his eyes
+towards the different doors of the room. &quot;Are you assured of the
+fidelity of the menials, Donna Florinda?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Far from it, Signore; we have those who are of ancient service and of
+tried character; but we have those who are named by the Senator
+Gradenigo, and who are doubtless no other than the agents of the State.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In this manner do they pry into the privacy of all! I am compelled to
+entertain in my palace varlets that I know to be their hirelings; and
+yet do I find it better to seem unconscious of their views, lest they
+environ me in a manner that I cannot even suspect. Think you, father,
+that my presence here hath escaped the spies?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be to hazard much were we to rely on such security. None saw
+us enter, as I think, for we used the secret gate and the more private
+entrance; but who is certain of being unobserved when every fifth eye is
+that of a mercenary?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The terrified Violetta laid her hand on the arm of her lover.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even now, Camillo,&quot; she said, &quot;thou mayest be observed, and secretly
+devoted to punishment!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If seen, doubt it not: St. Mark will never pardon so bold an
+interference with his pleasure. And yet, sweetest Violetta, to gain thy
+favor this risk is nothing; nor will a far greater hazard turn me from
+my purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These inexperienced and confiding spirits have taken advantage of my
+absence to communicate more freely than was discreet,&quot; said the
+Carmelite, in the manner of one who foresaw the answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, nature is too strong for the weak preventives of prudence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brow of the monk became clouded. His companions watched the workings
+of his mind, as they appeared in a countenance that in common was so
+benevolent, though always sad. For a few moments none broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite at length demanded, raising his troubled look to the
+countenance of Don Camillo,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou duly reflected on the consequences of this rashness, son?
+What dost thou purpose in thus braving the anger of the Republic, and in
+setting at defiance her arts, her secret means of intelligence, and her
+terrors?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, I have reflected as all of my years reflect, when in heart and
+soul they love. I have brought myself to feel that any misery would be
+happiness compared to the loss of Violetta, and that no risk can exceed
+the reward of gaining her favor. Thus much for the first of thy
+questions; for the last I can only say that I am too much accustomed to
+the wiles of the Senate to be a novice in the means of counteracting
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is but one language for youth, when seduced by that pleasing
+delusion which paints the future with hues of gold. Age and experience
+may condemn it, but the weakness will continue to prevail in all until
+life shall appear in its true colors. Duke of Sant' Agata, though a
+noble of high lineage and illustrious name, and though lord of many
+vassals, thou art not a power&mdash;thou can'st not declare thy palace in
+Venice a fortress, nor send a herald to the Doge with defiance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, reverend monk; I cannot do this&mdash;nor would it be well for him who
+could, to trust his fortune on so reckless a risk. But the states of St.
+Mark do not cover the earth&mdash;we can fly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Senate hath a long arm, and it hath a thousand secret hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None know it better than I. Still it does no violence without motive;
+the faith of their ward irretrievably mine, the evil, as respects them,
+becomes irreparable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Think'st thou so! Means would quickly be found to separate you. Believe
+not that Venice would be thwarted of its design so easily; the wealth of
+a house like this would purchase many an unworthy suitor, and thy right
+would be disregarded, or haply denied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, father, the ceremony of the church may not be despised!&quot;
+exclaimed Violetta; &quot;it comes from heaven and is sacred.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Daughter, I say it with sorrow, but the great and the powerful find
+means even to set aside that venerable and holy sacrament. Thine own
+gold would serve to seal thy misery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This might arrive, father, were we to continue within the grasp of St.
+Mark,&quot; interrupted the Neapolitan; &quot;but once beyond his borders, 'twould
+be a bold interference with the right of a foreign state to lay hands on
+our persons. More than this, I have a castle in St. Agata, that will
+defy their most secret means, until events might happen which should
+render it more prudent for them to desist than to persevere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This reason hath force wert thou within the walls of St. Agata, instead
+of being, as thou art, among the canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is one of Calabria, a vassal born of mine, a certain Stefano
+Milano, the padrone of a Sorrentine felucca, now lying in the port. The
+man is in strict amity with my own gondolier, he who was third in this
+day's race. Art thou ill, father, that thou appearest troubled?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Proceed with thy expedient,&quot; answered the monk, motioning that he
+wished not to be observed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My faithful Gino reports that this Stefano is on the canals, on some
+errand of the Republic, as he thinks; for though the mariner is less
+disposed to familiarity than is wont, he hath let drop hints that lead
+to such a conclusion; the felucca is ready from hour to hour to put to
+sea, and doubt not that the padrone would rather serve his natural lord
+than these double-dealing miscreants of the Senate. I can pay as well as
+they, if served to my pleasure, and I can punish too, when offended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is reason in this, Signore, wert thou beyond the wiles of this
+mysterious city. But in what manner thou embark, without drawing the
+notice of those who doubtless watch our movements, on thy person?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are maskers on the canals at all hours, and if Venice be so
+impertinent in her system of watchfulness, thou knowest, father, that,
+without extraordinary motive, that disguise is sacred. Without this
+narrow privilege, the town would not be habitable a day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear the result,&quot; observed the hesitating monk, while it was evident
+from the thoughtfulness of his countenance, that he calculated the
+chances of the adventure. &quot;If known and arrested, we are all lost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust me, father, that thy fortune shall not be forgotten, even in that
+unhappy issue. I have an uncle, as you know, high in the favor of the
+pontiff, and who wears the scarlet hat. I pledge to you the honor of a
+cavalier, all my interest with this relative, to gain such intercession
+from the church as shall weaken the blow to her servant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The features of the Carmelite flushed, and for the first time the ardent
+young noble observed around his ascetic mouth an expression of worldly
+pride.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast unjustly rated my apprehensions, Lord of St. Agata,&quot; he said;
+&quot;I fear not for myself, but for others. This tender and lovely child
+hath not been confided to my care, without creating a parental
+solicitude in her behalf, and&quot;&mdash;he paused, and seemed to struggle with
+himself&mdash;&quot;I have too long known the mild and womanly virtues of Donna
+Florinda, to witness with indifference her exposure to a near and
+fearful danger. Abandon our charge we cannot; nor do I see in what
+manner, as prudent and watchful guardians, we may in any manner consent
+to this risk. Let us hope that they who govern, will yet consult the
+honor and happiness of Donna Violetta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That were to hope the winged lion would become a lamb, or the dark and
+soulless senate a community of self-mortifying and godly Carthusians!
+No, reverend monk, we must seize the happy moment, and none is likely
+to be more fortunate than this, or trust our hopes to a cold and
+calculating policy that disregards all motives but its own object. An
+hour&mdash;nay, half the time&mdash;would suffice to apprise the mariner, and ere
+the morning light, we might see the domes of Venice sinking into their
+own hated Lagunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These are the plans of confident youth, quickened by passion. Believe
+me, son, it is not easy as thou imaginest, to mislead the agents of the
+police. This palace could not be quitted, the felucca entered, or any
+one of the many necessary steps hazarded, without drawing upon us their
+eyes. Hark!&mdash;I hear the wash of oars&mdash;a gondola is even now at the
+water-gate!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Florinda went hastily to the balcony, and as quickly returned to
+report that she had seen an officer of the Republic enter the palace.
+There was no time to lose, and Don Camillo was again urged to conceal
+himself in the little oratory. This necessary caution had hardly been
+observed before the door of the room opened, and the privileged
+messenger of the senate announced his own appearance. It was the very
+individual who had presided at the fearful execution of the fisherman,
+and who had already announced the cessation of the Signor Gradenigo's
+powers. His eye glanced suspiciously around the room as he entered, and
+the Carmelite trembled in every limb at the look which encountered his
+own. But all immediate apprehensions vanished when the usual artful
+smile with which he was wont to soften his disagreeable communications,
+took place of the momentary expression of a vague and habitual
+suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Noble lady,&quot; he said, bowing with deference to the rank of her he
+addressed, &quot;you may learn by this assiduity on the part of their
+servant, the interest which the Senate takes in your welfare. Anxious to
+do you pleasure, and ever attentive to the wishes of one so young, it
+hath been decided to give you the amusement and variety of another
+scene, at a season when the canals of our city become disagreeable, from
+their warmth and the crowds which live in the air. I am sent to request
+you will make such preparations as may befit your convenience during a
+few months' residence in a purer atmosphere, and that this may be done
+speedily, as your journey, always to prevent discomfort to yourself,
+will commence before the rising of the sun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is short notice, Signore, for a female about to quit the dwelling
+of her ancestors!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St. Mark suffers his love and parental care to overlook the vain
+ceremonies of form. It is thus the parent dealeth with the child. There
+is little need of unusual notice, since it will be the business of the
+government to see all that is necessary dispatched to the residence
+which is to be honored with the presence of so illustrious a lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For myself, Signore, little preparation is needed. But I fear the train
+of servitors, that befit my condition, will require more leisure for
+their arrangements.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady, that embarrassment hath been foreseen, and to remove it, the
+council hath decided to supply you with the only attendant you will
+require, during an absence from the city which will be so short.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How, Signore! am I to be separated from my people?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From the hired menials of your palace, lady, to be confided to those
+who will serve your person from a nobler motive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And my maternal friend&mdash;my ghostly adviser?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will be permitted to repose from their trusts, during your
+absence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An exclamation from Donna Florinda, and an involuntary movement of the
+monk, betrayed their mutual concern. Donna Violetta suppressed the
+exhibition of her own resentment, and of her wounded affections, by a
+powerful effort, in which she was greatly sustained by her pride; but
+she could not entirely conceal the anguish of another sort, that was
+seated in her eye.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do I understand that this prohibition extends to her who in common
+serves my person?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signora, such are my instructions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it expected that Violetta Tiepolo will do these menial offices for
+herself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signora, no. A most excellent and agreeable attendant has been provided
+for that duty. Annina,&quot; he continued, approaching the door, &quot;thy noble
+mistress is impatient to see thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the daughter of the wine-seller appeared. She wore an air
+of assumed humility, but it was accompanied by a secret mien, that
+betrayed independence of the pleasure of her new mistress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this damsel is to be my nearest confidante!&quot; exclaimed Donna
+Yioletta, after studying the artful and demure countenance of the girl,
+a moment, with a dislike she did not care to conceal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such hath been the solicitude of your illustrious guardians, lady. As
+the damsel is instructed in all that is necessary, I will intrude no
+longer, but take my leave, recommending that you improve the hours,
+which are now few, between this and the rising sun, that you may profit
+by the morning breeze in quitting the city.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer glanced another look around the room, more, however, through
+habitual caution than any other reason, bowed, and departed.</p>
+
+<p>A profound and sorrowful silence succeeded. Then the apprehension that
+Don Camillo might mistake their situation and appear, flashed upon the
+mind of Violetta, and she hastened to apprise him of the danger, by
+speaking to the new attendant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast served before this, Annina?&quot; she asked, so loud as to permit
+the words to be heard in the oratory.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never a lady so beautiful and illustrious, Signora. But I hope to make
+myself agreeable to one that I hear is kind to all around her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art not new to the flattery of thy class; go then, and acquaint my
+ancient attendants with this sudden resolution, that I may not
+disappoint the council by tardiness. I commit all to thy care, Annina,
+since thou knowest the pleasure of my guardians&mdash;those without will
+furnish the means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl lingered, and her watchful observers noted suspicion and
+hesitation in her reluctant manner of compliance. She obeyed, however,
+leaving the room with the domestic Donna Violetta summoned from the
+antechamber. The instant the door was closed behind her, Don Camillo was
+in the group, and the whole four stood regarding each other in a common
+panic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Canst thou still hesitate, father?&quot; demanded the lover.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a moment, my son, did I see the means of accomplishing flight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! Thou wilt not then desert me!&quot; exclaimed Violetta, kissing his
+hands in joy. &quot;Nor thou, my second mother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Neither,&quot; answered the governess, who possessed intuitive means of
+comprehending the resolutions of the monk; &quot;we will go with thee, love,
+to the Castle of St. Agata, or to the dungeon of St. Mark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Virtuous and sainted Florinda, receive my thanks!&quot; cried the reprieved
+Violetta, clasping her hands on her bosom, with an emotion in which
+piety and gratitude were mingled. &quot;Camillo, we await thy guidance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Refrain,&quot; observed the monk; &quot;a footstep&mdash;thy concealment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo was scarce hid from view when Annina reappeared. She had the
+same suspicious manner of glancing her eye around, as the official, and
+it would seem, by the idle question she put, that her entrance had some
+other object than the mere pretence which she made of consulting her new
+mistress's humor in the color of a robe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do as thou wilt, girl,&quot; said Violetta, with impatience; &quot;thou knowest
+the place of my intended retirement, and can'st judge of the fitness of
+my attire. Hasten thy preparations, that I be not the cause of delay.
+Enrico, attend my new maid to the wardrobe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina reluctantly withdrew, for she was far too much practised in wiles
+not to distrust this unexpected compliance with the will of the council,
+or not to perceive that she was admitted with displeasure to the
+discharge of her new duties. As the faithful domestic of Donna Violetta
+kept at her side, she was fain, however, to submit, and suffered herself
+to be led a few steps from the door. Suddenly pretending to recollect a
+new question, she returned with so much rapidity as to be again in the
+room before Enrico could anticipate the intention.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Daughter, complete thy errands, and forbear to interrupt our privacy,&quot;
+said the monk, sternly. &quot;I am about to confess this penitent, who may
+pine long for the consolations of the holy office ere we meet again. If
+thou hast not aught urgent, withdraw, ere thou seriously givest offence
+to the church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The severity of the Carmelite's tone, and the commanding, though subdued
+gleaming of his eye, had the effect to awe the girl. Quailing before his
+look, and in truth startled at the risk she ran in offending against
+opinions so deeply seated in the minds of all, and from which her own
+superstitious habits were far from free, she muttered a few words of
+apology, and finally withdrew. There was another uneasy and suspicious
+glance thrown around her, however, before the door was closed. When they
+were once more alone, the monk motioned for silence to the impetuous Don
+Camillo, who could scarce restrain his impatience until the intruder
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Son, be prudent,&quot; he said; &quot;we are in the midst of treachery; in this
+unhappy city none know in whom they can confide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think we are sure of Enrico,&quot; said the Donna Florinda, though the
+very doubts she affected not to feel lingered in the tones of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It matters not, daughter. He is ignorant of the presence of Don
+Camillo, and in that we are safe. Duke of Sant' Agata, if you can
+deliver us from these toils we will accompany you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A cry of joy was near bursting from the lips of Violetta; but obedient
+to the eye of the monk, she turned to her lover, as if to learn his
+decision. The expression of Don Camillo's face was the pledge of his
+assent. Without speaking, he wrote hastily, with a pencil, a few words
+on the envelope of a letter, and inclosing a piece of coin in its folds,
+he moved with a cautious step to the balcony. A signal was given, and
+all awaited in breathless silence the answer. Presently they heard the
+wash of the water caused by the movement of a gondola beneath the
+window. Stepping forward again, Don Camillo dropped the paper with such
+precision that he distinctly heard the fall of the coin in the bottom of
+the boat. The gondolier scarce raised his eyes to the balcony, but
+commencing an air much used on the canals, he swept onward, like one
+whose duty called for no haste.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That has succeeded!&quot; said Don Camillo, when he heard the song of Gino.
+&quot;In an hour my agent will have secured the felucca, and all now depends
+on our own means of quitting the palace unobserved. My people will await
+us shortly, and perhaps 'twould be well to trust openly to our speed in
+gaining the Adriatic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a solemn and necessary duty to perform,&quot; observed the monk;
+&quot;daughters, withdraw to your rooms, and occupy yourselves with the
+preparation necessary for your flight, which may readily be made to
+appear as intended to meet the Senate's pleasure. In a few minutes I
+shall summon you hither again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Wondering, but obedient, the females withdrew. The Carmelite then made a
+brief but clear explanation of his intention. Don Camillo listened
+eagerly, and when the other had done speaking they retired together into
+the oratory. Fifteen minutes had not passed, before the monk reappeared,
+alone, and touched the bell which communicated with the closet of
+Violetta. Donna Florinda and her pupil were quickly in the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prepare thy mind for the confessional,&quot; said the priest, placing
+himself with grave dignity in that chair which he habitually used when
+listening to the self-accusations and failings of his spiritual child.</p>
+
+<p>The brow of Violetta paled and flushed again, as if there lay a heavy
+sin on her conscience. She turned an imploring look on her maternal
+monitor, in whose mild features she met an encouraging smile, and then
+with a beating heart, though ill-collected for the solemn duty, but with
+a decision that the occasion required, she knelt on the cushion at the
+feet of the monk.</p>
+
+<p>The murmured language of Donna Violetta was audible to none but him for
+whose paternal ear it was intended, and that dread Being whose just
+anger it was hoped it might lessen. But Don Camillo gazed, through the
+half-opened door of the chapel, on the kneeling form, the clasped hands,
+and the uplifted countenance of the beautiful penitent. As she proceeded
+with the acknowledgment of her errors, the flush on her cheek deepened,
+and a pious excitement kindled in those eyes which he had so lately seen
+glowing with a very different passion. The ingenuous and disciplined
+soul of Violetta was not so quickly disburdened of its load of sin as
+that of the more practised mind of the Lord of Sant' Agata. The latter
+fancied that he could trace in the movement of her lips the sound of his
+own name, and a dozen times during the confession he thought he could
+even comprehend sentences of which he himself was the subject. Twice the
+good father smiled involuntarily, and at each indiscretion he laid a
+hand in affection on the bared head of the suppliant. But Violetta
+ceased to speak, and the absolution was pronounced with a fervor that
+the remarkable circumstances in which they all stood did not fail to
+heighten.</p>
+
+<p>When this portion of his duty was ended, the Carmelite entered the
+oratory. With steady hands he lighted the candles of the altar, and made
+the other dispositions for the mass. During this interval Don Camillo
+was at the side of his mistress, whispering with the warmth of a
+triumphant and happy lover. The governess stood near the door, watching
+for the sound of footsteps in the antechamber. The monk then advanced to
+the entrance of the little chapel, and was about to speak, when a
+hurried step from Donna Florinda arrested his words. Don Camillo had
+just time to conceal his person within the drapery of a window, before
+the door opened and Annina entered.</p>
+
+<p>When the preparations of the altar and the solemn countenance of the
+priest first met her eye, the girl recoiled with the air of one rebuked.
+But rallying her thoughts, with that readiness which had gained her the
+employment she filled, she crossed herself reverently, and took a place
+apart, like one who, while she knew her station, wished to participate
+in the mysteries of the holy office.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Daughter, none who commence this mass with us, can quit the presence
+ere it be completed,&quot;, observed the monk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, it is my duty to be near the person of my mistress, and it is a
+happiness to be near it on the occasion of this early matin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk was embarrassed. He looked from one to the other, in
+indecision, and was about to frame some pretence to get rid of the
+intruder, when Don Cainillo appeared in the middle of the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reverend monk, proceed,&quot; he said; &quot;'tis but another witness of my
+happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While speaking, the noble touched the handle of his sword significantly
+with a finger, and cast a look at the half petrified Annina, which
+effectually controlled the exclamation that was about to escape her. The
+monk appeared to understand the terms of this silent compact, for with a
+deep voice he commenced the offices of the mass. The singularity of
+their situation, the important results of the act in which they were
+engaged, the impressive dignity of the Carmelite, and the imminent
+hazard which they all ran of exposure, together with the certainty of
+punishment for their daring to thwart the will of Venice, if betrayed,
+caused a deeper feeling than that which usually pervades a marriage
+ceremony, to preside at nuptials thus celebrated. The youthful Violetta
+trembled at every intonation of the solemn voice of the monk, and
+towards the close she leaned in helplessness on the arm of the man to
+whom she had just plighted her vows. The eye of the Carmelite kindled as
+he proceeded with the office, however; and long ere he had done, he had
+obtained such a command over the feelings of even Annina as to hold her
+mercenary spirit in awe. The final union was pronounced, and the
+benediction given.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maria, of pure memory, watch over thy happiness, daughter!&quot; said the
+monk, for the first time in his life saluting the fair brow of the
+weeping bride. &quot;Duke of Sant' Agata, may thy patron hear thy prayers, as
+thou provest kind to this innocent and confiding child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Amen!&mdash;Ha!&mdash;we are not too soon united, my Violetta; I hear the sound
+of oars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A glance from the balcony assured him of the truth of his words, and
+rendered it apparent that it had now become necessary to take the most
+decided step of all. A six-oared gondola, of a size suited to endure
+the waves of the Adriatic at that mild season, and with a pavilion of
+fit dimensions, stopped at the water-gate of the palace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder at this boldness!&quot; exclaimed Don Camillo. &quot;There must be no
+delay, lest some spy of the Republic apprise the police. Away, dearest
+Violetta&mdash;away, Donna Florinda! Father, away!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The governess and her charge passed swiftly into the inner rooms. In a
+minute they returned bearing the caskets of Donna Violetta, and a
+sufficient supply of necessaries for a short voyage. The instant they
+reappeared, all was ready; for Don Camillo had long held himself
+prepared for this decisive moment, and the self-denying Carmelite had
+little need of superfluities. It was no moment for unnecessary
+explanation or trivial objections.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our hope is in celerity,&quot; said Don Camillo. &quot;Secresy is impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was still speaking, when the monk led the way from the room. Donna
+Florinda and the half-breathless Violetta followed; Don Camillo drew the
+arm of Annina under his own, and in a low voice bid her, at her peril,
+refuse to obey.</p>
+
+<p>The long suite of outer rooms was passed without meeting a single
+observer of the extraordinary movement. But when the fugitive entered
+the great hall that communicated with the principal stairs, they found
+themselves in the centre of a dozen menials of both sexes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Place,&quot; cried the Duke of Sant' Agata, whose person and voice were
+alike unknown to them. &quot;Your mistress will breathe the air of the
+canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Wonder and curiosity were alive in every countenance, but suspicion and
+eager attention were uppermost in the features of many. The foot of
+Donna Violetta had scarcely touched the pavement of the lower hall, when
+several menials glided down the flight and quitted the palace by its
+different outlets. Each sought those who engaged him in the service.
+One flew along the narrow streets of the islands, to the residence of
+the Signor Gradenigo; another sought his son; and one, ignorant of the
+person of him he served, actually searched an agent of Don Camillo, to
+impart a circumstance in which that noble was himself so conspicuous an
+actor. To such a pass of corruption had double-dealing and mystery
+reduced the household of the fairest and richest in Venice! The gondola
+lay at the marble steps of the water gate, held against the stones by
+two of its crew. Don Camillo saw at a glance that the masked gondoliers
+had neglected none of the precautions he had prescribed, and he inwardly
+commended their punctuality. Each wore a short rapier at his girdle, and
+he fancied he could trace beneath the folds of their garments evidence
+of the presence of the clumsy fire-arms in use at that period. These
+observations were made while the Carmelite and Violetta entered the
+boat. Donna Florinda followed, and Annina was about to imitate her
+example, when she was arrested by the arm of Don Camillo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy service ends here,&quot; whispered the bridegroom. &quot;Seek another
+mistress; in fault of a better, thou mayest devote thyself to Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little interruption caused Don Camillo to look backwards, and for a
+single moment he paused to scrutinize the group of eyes that crowded the
+hall of the palace, at a respectful distance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adieu, my friends!&quot; he added. &quot;Those among ye who love your mistress
+shall be remembered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He would have said more, but a rude seizure of his arms caused him to
+turn hastily away. He was firm in the grasp of the two gondoliers who
+had landed. While he was yet in too much astonishment to struggle,
+Annina, obedient to a signal, darted past him and leaped into the boat.
+The oars fell into the water; Don Camillo was repelled by a violent
+shove backwards into the hall, the gondoliers stepped lightly into
+their places, and the gondola swept away from the steps, beyond the
+power of him they left to follow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gino!&mdash;miscreant!&mdash;what means this treachery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The moving of the parting gondola was accompanied by no other sound than
+the usual washing of the water. In speechless agony Don Camillo saw the
+boat glide, swifter and swifter at each stroke of the oars, along the
+canal, and then whirling round the angle of a palace, disappear.</p>
+
+<p>Venice admitted not of pursuit like another city; for there was no
+passage along the canal taken by the gondola, but by water. Several of
+the boats used by the family, lay within the piles on the great canal,
+at the principal entrance, and Don Camillo was about to rush into one,
+and to seize its oars with his own hands, when the usual sounds
+announced the approach of a gondola from the direction of the bridge
+that had so long served as a place of concealment to his own domestic.
+It soon issued from the obscurity cast by the shadows of the houses, and
+proved to be a large gondola pulled, like the one which had just
+disappeared, by six masked gondoliers. The resemblance between the
+equipments of the two was so exact, that at first not only the wondering
+Camillo, but all the others present, fancied the latter, by some
+extraordinary speed, had already made the tour of the adjoining palaces,
+and was once more approaching the private entrance of that of Donna
+Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gino!&quot; cried the bewildered bridegroom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore mio?&quot; answered the faithful domestic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Draw nearer, varlet. What meaneth this idle trifling at a moment like
+this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo leaped a fearful distance, and happily he reached the
+gondola. To pass the men and rush into the canopy needed but a moment;
+to perceive that it was empty was the work of a glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Villains, have you dared to be false!&quot; cried the confounded noble.</p>
+
+<p>At that instant the clock of the city began to tell the hour of two,
+and it was only as that appointed signal sounded heavy and melancholy on
+the night-air, that the undeceived Camillo got a certain glimpse of the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gino,&quot; he said, repressing his voice, like one summoning a desperate
+resolution&mdash;&quot;are thy fellows true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As faithful as your own vassals, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou didst not fail to deliver the note to my agent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He had it before the ink was dry, eccellenza.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The mercenary villain! He told thee where to find the gondola, equipped
+as I see it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he did; and I do the man the justice to say that nothing is
+wanting, either to speed or comfort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, he even deals in duplicates, so tender is his care!&quot; muttered Don
+Camillo between his teeth. &quot;Pull away, men; your own safety and my
+happiness now depend on your arms. A thousand ducats if you equal my
+hopes&mdash;my just anger if you disappoint them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo threw himself on the cushions as he spoke, in bitterness of
+heart, though he seconded his words by a gesture which bid the men
+proceed. Gino, who occupied the stern and managed the directing oar,
+opened a small window in the canopy which communicated with the
+interior, and bent to take his master's directions as the boat sprang
+ahead. Rising from his stooping posture, the practised gondolier gave a
+sweep with his blade, which caused the sluggish element of the narrow
+canal to whirl in eddies, and then the gondola glided into the great
+canal, as if it obeyed an instinct.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XVII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Why liest thou so on the green earth?<br />
+'Tis not the hour of slumber:&mdash;why so pale?&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">CAIN</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his apparent decision, the Duke of Sant' Agata was
+completely at a loss in what manner to direct his future movements. That
+he had been duped by one or more of the agents to whom he had been
+compelled to confide his necessary preparations for the flight he had
+meditated several days, was too certain to admit of his deceiving
+himself with the hopes that some unaccountable mistake was the cause of
+his loss. He saw at once that the Senate was master of the person of his
+bride, and he too well knew its power and its utter disregard of human
+obligations when any paramount interest of the state was to be
+consulted, to doubt for an instant its willingness to use its advantage
+in any manner that was most likely to contribute to its own views. By
+the premature death of her uncle, Donna Violetta had become the heiress
+of vast estates in the dominions of the church, and a compliance with
+that jealous and arbitrary law of Venice, which commanded all of its
+nobles to dispose of any foreign possessions they might acquire, was
+only suspended on account of her sex, and, as has already been seen,
+with the hope of disposing of her hand in a manner that would prove more
+profitable to the Republic. With this object still before them, and with
+the means of accomplishing it in their own hands, the bridegroom well
+knew that his marriage would not only be denied, but he feared the
+witnesses of the ceremony would be so disposed of, as to give little
+reason ever to expect embarrassment from their testimony. For himself,
+personally, he felt less apprehension, though he foresaw that he had
+furnished his opponents with an argument that was likely to defer to an
+indefinite period, if it did not entirely defeat, his claims to the
+disputed succession. But he had already made up his mind to this result,
+though it is probable that his passion for Violetta had not entirely
+blinded him to the fact, that her Roman signories would be no unequal
+offset for the loss. He believed that he might possibly return to his
+palace with impunity, so far as any personal injury was concerned; for
+the great consideration he enjoyed in his native land, and the high
+interest he possessed at the court of Rome, were sufficient pledges that
+no open violence would be done him. The chief reason why his claim had
+been kept in suspense, was the wish to profit by his near connexion with
+the favorite cardinal; and though he had never been able entirely to
+satisfy the ever-increasing demands of the council in this respect, he
+thought it probable that the power of the Vatican would not be spared,
+to save him from any very imminent personal hazard. Still he had given
+the state of Venice plausible reasons for severity; and liberty, just at
+that moment, was of so much importance, that he dreaded falling into the
+hands of the officials, as one of the greatest misfortunes which could
+momentarily overtake him. He so well knew the crooked policy of those
+with whom he had to deal, that he believed he might be arrested solely
+that the government could make an especial merit of his future release,
+under circumstances of so seeming gravity. His order to Gino, therefore,
+had been to pull down the principal passage towards the port.</p>
+
+<p>Before the gondola, which sprang at each united effort of its crew, like
+some bounding animal, entered among the shipping, its master had time to
+recover his self-possession, and to form some hasty plans for the
+future. Making a signal for the crew to cease rowing, he came from
+beneath the canopy. Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, boats were
+plying on the water within the town, and the song was still audible on
+the canals. But among the mariners a general stillness prevailed, such
+as befitted their toil during the day, and their ordinary habits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Call the first idle gondolier of thy acquaintance hither, Gino,&quot; said
+Don Camillo, with assumed calmness; &quot;I would question him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In less than a minute he was gratified.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast seen any strongly manned gondola plying, of late, in this part of
+the canal?&quot; demanded Don Camillo, of the man they had stopped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, but this of your own, Signore; which is the fastest of all that
+passed beneath the Rialto in this day's regatta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How knowest thou, friend, aught of the speed of my boat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I have pulled an oar on the canals of Venice six-and-twenty
+years, and I do not remember to have seen a gondola move more swiftly on
+them than did this very boat but a few minutes ago, when it dashed among
+the feluccas, further down in the port, as if it were again running for
+the oar. Corpo di Bacco! There are rich wines in the palaces of the
+nobles, that men can give such life to wood!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whither did we steer?&quot; eagerly asked Don Camillo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed San Teodoro! I do not wonder, eccellenza, that you ask that
+question, for though it is but a moment since, here I see you lying as
+motionless on the water as a floating weed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Friend, here is silver&mdash;addio.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier swept slowly onwards, singing a strain in honor of his
+bark, while the boat of Don Camillo darted ahead. Mystic, felucca,
+xebec, brigantine, and three-masted ship, were apparently floating past
+them, as they shot through the maze of shipping, when Gino bent forward
+and drew the attention of his master to a large gondola, which was
+pulling with a lazy oar towards them, from the direction of the Lido.
+Both boats were in a wide avenue in the midst of the vessels, the usual
+track of those who went to sea, and there was no object whatever between
+them. By changing the course of his own boat, Don Camillo soon found
+himself within an oar's length of the other. He saw, at a glance, it was
+the treacherous gondola by which he had been duped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Draw, men, and follow!&quot; shouted the desperate Neapolitan, preparing to
+leap into the midst of his enemies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You draw against St. Mark!&quot; cried a warning voice from beneath the
+canopy. &quot;The chances are unequal, Signore; for the smallest signal would
+bring twenty galleys to our succor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo might have disregarded this menace, had he not perceived
+that it caused the half-drawn rapiers of his followers to return to
+their scabbards.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Robber!&quot; he answered, &quot;restore her whom you have spirited away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, you young nobles are often pleased to play your extravagances
+with the servants of the Republic. Here are none but the gondoliers and
+myself.&quot; A movement of the boat permitted Don Camillo to look into the
+covered part, and he saw that the other uttered no more than the truth.
+Convinced of the uselessness of further parley, knowing the value of
+every moment, and believing he was on a track which might still lead to
+success, the young Neapolitan signed to his people to go on. The boats
+parted in silence, that of Don Camillo proceeding in the direction from
+which the other had just come.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time the gondola of Don Camillo was in an open part of the
+Giudecca, and entirely beyond the tiers of the shipping. It was so late
+that the moon had begun to fall, and its light was cast obliquely on the
+bay, throwing the eastern sides of the buildings and the other objects
+into shadow. A dozen different vessels were seen, aided by the
+land-breeze, steering towards the entrance of the port. The rays of the
+moon fell upon the broad surface of those sides of their canvas which
+were nearest to the town, and they resembled so many spotless clouds,
+sweeping the water and floating seaward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are sending my wife to Dalmatia!&quot; cried Don Camillo, like a man
+on whom the truth began to dawn.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore mio!&quot; exclaimed the astonished Gino.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee, sirrah, that this accursed Senate hath plotted against my
+happiness, and having robbed me of thy mistress, hath employed one of
+the many feluccas that I see, to transport her to some of its
+strongholds on the eastern coast of the Adriatic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed Maria! Signor Duca, and my honored master; they say that the
+very images of stone in Venice have ears, and that the horses of bronze
+will kick, if an evil word is spoken against those up above.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it not enough, varlet, to draw curses from the meek Job, to rob him
+of a wife? Hast thou no feeling for thy mistres?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not dream, eccellenza, that you were so happy as to have the one,
+or that I was so honored as to have the other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou remindest me of my folly, good Gino. In aiding me on this
+occasion, thou wilt have thy own fortune in view, as thy efforts, like
+those of thy fellows, will be made in behalf of the lady to whom I have
+just plighted a husband's vows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;San Theodoro help us all, and hint what is to be done! The lady is most
+happy, Signor Don Camillo, and if I only knew by what name to mention
+her she should never be forgotten in any prayer that so humble a sinner
+might dare to offer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast not forgotten the beautiful lady I drew from the Giudecca?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Corpo di Bacco! Your eceellenza floated like a swan, and swam faster
+than a gull. Forgotten! Signore, no,&mdash;I think of it every time I hear a
+plash in the canals, and every time I think of it I curse the Ancona-man
+in my heart. St. Theodore forgive me if it be unlike a Christian to do
+so. But, though we all tell marvels of what our Lord did in the
+Giudecca, the dip of its waters is not the marriage ceremony, nor can we
+speak with much certainty of beauty that was seen to so great
+disadvantage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art right, Gino. But that lady, the illustrious Donna Violetta
+Tiepolo, the daughter and heiress of a famed senator, is now thy
+mistress. It remains for us to establish her in the Castle of Sant'
+Agata, where I shall defy Venice and its agents.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino bowed his head in submission, though he cast a look behind to make
+sure that none of those agents, whom his master set so openly at
+defiance, were within ear-shot.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the gondola proceeded, for the dialogue in no manner
+interrupted the exertions of Gino, still holding the direction of the
+Lido. As the land-breeze freshened, the different vessels in sight
+glided away, and by the time Don Camillo reached the barrier of sand
+which separates the Lagunes from the Adriatic, most of them had glided
+through the passages, and were now shaping their courses, according to
+their different destinations, across the open gulf. The young noble had
+permitted his people to pursue the direction originally taken, in pure
+indecision. He was certain that his bride was in one of the many barques
+in sight, but he possessed no clue to lead him towards the right one,
+nor any sufficient means of pursuit were he even master of that
+important secret. When he landed, therefore, it was with the simple hope
+of being able to form some general conjecture as to the portion of the
+Republic's dominions in which he might search for her he had lost, by
+observing to what part of the Adriatic the different feluccas held their
+way. He had determined on immediate pursuit, however, and before he
+quitted the gondola, he once more turned to his confidential gondolier
+to give the necessary instructions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest, Gino,&quot; he said, &quot;that there is one born a vassal on my
+estates, here in the port, with a felucca from the Sorrentine shore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know the man better than I know my own faults Signore, or even my own
+virtues.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go to him at once, and make sure of his presence. I have imagined a
+plan to decoy him into the service of his lord; but I would now know the
+condition of his vessel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino said a few words in commendation of the zeal of his friend Stefano,
+and in praise of the Bella Sorrentina, as the gondola receded from the
+shore; and then he dashed his oar into the water, like a man in earnest
+to execute the commission.</p>
+
+<p>There is a lonely spot on the Lido di Palestrina where Catholic
+exclusion has decreed that the remains of all who die in Venice, without
+the pale of the church of Rome, shall moulder into their kindred dust.
+Though it is not distant from the ordinary landing and the few buildings
+which line the shore, it is a place that, in itself, is no bad emblem of
+a hopeless lot. Solitary, exposed equally to the hot airs of the south
+and the bleak blasts of the Alps, frequently covered with the spray of
+the Adriatic, and based on barren sands, the utmost that human art,
+aided by a soil which has been fattened by human remains, can do, has
+been to create around the modest graves a meagre vegetation, that is in
+slight contrast to the sterility of most of the bank. This place of
+interment is without the relief of trees: at the present day it is
+uninclosed, and in the opinions of those who have set it apart for
+heretic and Jew, it is unblessed. And yet, though condemned alike to
+this, the last indignity which man can inflict on his fellow, the two
+proscribed classes furnish a melancholy proof of the waywardness of
+human passions and prejudice, by refusing to share in common the scanty
+pittance of earth which bigotry has allowed for their everlasting
+repose! While the Protestant sleeps by the side of the Protestant in
+exclusive obloquy, the children of Israel moulder apart on the same
+barren heath, sedulous to preserve, even in the grave, the outward
+distinctions of faith. We shall not endeavor to seek that deeply-seated
+principle which renders man so callous to the most eloquent and striking
+appeals to liberality, but rest satisfied with being grateful that we
+have been born in a land in which the interests of religion are as
+little as possible sullied by the vicious contamination of those of
+life; in which Christian humility is not exhibited beneath the purple,
+nor Jewish adhesion by intolerance; in which man is left to care for the
+welfare of his own soul, and in which, so far as the human eye can
+penetrate, God is worshipped for himself.</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo Monforte landed near the retired graves of the proscribed.
+As he wished to ascend the low sand-hills, which have been thrown up by
+the waves and the winds of the gulf on the outer edge of the Lido, it
+was necessary that he should pass directly across the contemned spot, or
+make such a circuit as would have been inconvenient. Crossing himself,
+with a superstition that was interwoven with all his habits and
+opinions, and loosening his rapier, in order that he might not miss the
+succor of that good weapon at need, he moved across the heath tenanted
+by the despised dead, taking care to avoid the mouldering heaps of earth
+which lay above the bones of heretic or Jew. He had not threaded more
+than half the graves, however, when a human form arose from the grass,
+and seemed to walk like one who mused on the moral that the piles at
+his feet would be apt to excite. Again Don Camillo touched the handle of
+his rapier; then moving aside, in a manner to give himself an equal
+advantage from the light of the moon, he drew near the stranger. His
+footstep was heard, for the other paused, regarded the approaching
+cavalier, and folding his arms, as it might be in sign of neutrality,
+awaited his nearer approach.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast chosen a melancholy hour for thy walk, Signore,&quot; said the
+young Neapolitan; &quot;and a still more melancholy scene. I hope I do not
+intrude on an Israelite, or a Lutheran, who mourns for his friend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo Monforte, I am, like yourself, a Christian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! Thou knowest me&mdash;'tis Battista, the gondolier that I once
+entertained in my household?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, 'tis not Battista.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the stranger faced the moon, in a manner that threw all of
+its mild light upon his features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo!&quot; exclaimed the duke, recoiling, as did all in Venice
+habitually, when that speaking eye was unexpectedly met.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore&mdash;Jacopo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the rapier of Don Camillo glittered in the rays of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep thy distance, fellow, and explain the motive that hath brought
+thee thus across my solitude!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo smiled, but his arms maintained their fold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might, with equal justice, call upon the Duke of Sant' Agata to
+furnish reasons why he wanders at this hour among the Hebrew graves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, spare thy pleasantry; I trifle not with men of thy reputation; if
+any in Venice have thought fit to employ thee against my person, thou
+wilt have need of all thy courage and skill ere thou earnest thy fee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Put up thy rapier, Don Camillo, here is none to do you harm. Think
+you, if employed in the manner you name, I would be in this spot to seek
+you? Ask yourself whether your visit here was known, or whether it was
+more than the idle caprice of a young noble, who finds his bed less easy
+than his gondola. We have met, Duke of Sant' Agata, when you distrusted
+my honor less.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest true, Jacopo,&quot; returned the noble, suffering the point of
+his rapier to fall from before the breast of the Bravo, though he still
+hesitated to withdraw the weapon. &quot;Thou sayest the truth. My visit to
+this spot is indeed accidental, and thou could'st not have possibly
+foreseen it. Why art thou here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why are these here?&quot; demanded Jacopo, pointing to the graves at his
+feet. &quot;We are born, and we die&mdash;that much is known to us all; but the
+when and the where are mysteries, until time reveals them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art not a man to act without good motive. Though these Israelites
+could not foresee their visit to the Lido, thine hath not been without
+intention.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am here, Don Camillo Monforte, because my spirit hath need of room. I
+want the air of the sea&mdash;the canals choke me&mdash;I can only breathe in
+freedom on this bank of sand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast another reason, Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, Signore&mdash;I loathe yon city of crimes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As the Bravo spoke, he shook his hand in the direction of the domes of
+St. Mark, and the deep tones of his voice appeared to heave up from the
+depths of his chest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is extraordinary language for a----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bravo; speak the word boldly, Signore&mdash;it is no stranger to my ears.
+But even the stiletto of a Bravo is honorable, compared to that sword of
+pretended justice which St. Mark wields! The commonest hireling of
+Italy&mdash;he who will plant his dagger in the heart of his friend for two
+sequins, is a man of open dealing, compared to the merciless treachery
+of some in yonder town!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand thee, Jacopo; thou art, at length, proscribed. The public
+voice, faint as it is in the Republic, has finally reached the ears of
+thy employers, and they withdraw their protection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo regarded the noble, for an instant, with an expression so
+ambiguous, as to cause the latter insensibly to raise the point of his
+rapier, but when he answered it was with his ordinary quiet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Duca,&quot; he said, &quot;I have been thought worthy to be retained by
+Don Camillo Monforte!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I deny it not&mdash;and now that thou recallest the occasion, new light
+breaks in upon me. Villain, to thy faithlessness I owe the loss of my
+bride!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though the rapier was at the very throat of Jacopo, he did not flinch.
+Gazing at his excited companion, he laughed in a smothered manner, but
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would seem that the Lord of Sant' Agata wishes to rob me of my
+trade,&quot; he said. &quot;Arise, ye Israelites, and bear witness, lest men
+doubt the fact! A common bravo of the canals is waylaid, among your
+despised graves, by the proudest Signor of Calabria! You have chosen
+your spot in mercy, Don Camillo, for sooner or later this crumbling and
+sea-worn earth is to receive me. Were I to die at the altar itself, with
+the most penitent prayer of holy church on my lips, the bigots would
+send my body to rest among these hungry Hebrews and accursed heretics.
+Yes, I am a man proscribed, and unfit to sleep with the faithful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His companion spoke with so strange a mixture of irony and melancholy,
+that the purpose of Don Camillo wavered. But remembering his loss, he
+shook the rapier's point, and continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy taunts and effrontery will not avail thee, knave,&quot; he cried. &quot;Thou
+knowest that I would have engaged thee as the leader of a chosen band,
+to favor the flight of one dear from Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing more true, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou didst refuse the service?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Noble duke, I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not content with this, having learned the particulars of my project,
+thou sold the secret to the Senate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo Monforte, I did not. My engagements with the council would
+not permit me to serve you; else, by the brightest star of yonder vault!
+it would have gladdened my heart to have witnessed the happiness of two
+young and faithful lovers. No&mdash;no&mdash;no; they know me not, who think I
+cannot find pleasure in the joy of another. I told you that I was the
+Senate's, and there the matter ended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I had the weakness to believe thee, Jacopo, for thou hast a
+character so strangely compounded of good and evil, and bearest so fair
+a name for observance of thy faith, that the seeming frankness of the
+answer lulled me to security. Fellow, I have been betrayed, and that at
+the moment when I thought success most sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo manifested interest, but, as he moved slowly on, accompanied by
+the vigilant and zealous noble, he smiled coldly, like one who had pity
+for the other's credulity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In bitterness of soul, I have cursed the whole race for its treachery,&quot;
+continued the Neapolitan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is rather for the priore of St. Mark, than for the ear of one who
+carries a public stiletto.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My gondola has been imitated&mdash;the liveries of my people copied&mdash;my
+bride stolen. Thou answerest not, Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What answer would you have? You have been cozened, Signore, in a state,
+whose very prince dare not trust his secrets to his wife. You would have
+robbed Venice of an heiress, and Venice has robbed you of a bride. You
+have played high, Don Camillo, and have lost a heavy stake. You have
+thought of your own wishes and rights, while you have pretended to serve
+Venice with the Spaniard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo started in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why this wonder, Signore? You forget that I have lived much among those
+who weigh the chances of every political interest, and that your name is
+often in their mouths. This marriage is doubly disagreeable to Venice,
+who has nearly as much need of the bridegroom as of the bride. The
+council hath long ago forbidden the banns.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye&mdash;but the means?&mdash;explain the means by which I have been duped, lest
+the treachery be ascribed to thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, the very marbles of the city give up their secrets to the
+state. I have seen much, and understood much, when my superiors have
+believed me merely a tool; but I have seen much that even those who
+employed me could not comprehend. I could have foretold this
+consummation of your nuptials, had I known of their celebration.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This thou could'st not have done, without being an agent of their
+treachery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The schemes of the selfish may be foretold; it is only the generous and
+the honest that baffle calculation. He who can gain a knowledge of the
+present interest of Venice is master of her dearest secrets of state;
+for what she wishes she will do, unless the service cost too dear. As
+for the means&mdash;how can they be wanting in a household like yours,
+Signore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trusted none but those deepest in my confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo, there is not a servitor in your palace, Gino alone
+excepted, who is not a hireling of the Senate, or of its agents. The
+very gondoliers who row you to your daily pleasures have had their hauds
+crossed with the Republic's sequins. Nay, they are not only paid to
+watch you, but to watch each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can this be true!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you ever doubted it, Signore?&quot; asked Jacopo, looking up like one
+who admired another's simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew them to be false&mdash;pretenders to a faith that in secret they
+mock; but I had not believed they dared to tamper with the very menials
+of my person. This undermining of the security of families is to destroy
+society at its core.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You talk like one who hath not been long a bridegroom, Signore,&quot; said
+the Bravo with a hollow laugh. &quot;A year hence, you may know what it is to
+have your own wife turning your secret thoughts into gold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou servest them, Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who does not, in some manner suited to his habits? We are not masters
+of our fortune, Don Camillo, or the Duke of Sant' Agata would not be
+turning his influence with a relative to the advantage of the Republic.
+What I have done hath not been done without bitter penitence, and an
+agony of soul that your own light servitude may have spared you,
+Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I have lived through it all, 'tis because one mightier than the
+state hath not deserted me. But, Don Camillo Monforte, there are crimes
+which pass beyond the powers of man to endure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo shuddered, and he moved among the despised graves in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They have then proved too ruthless even for thee?&quot; said Don Camillo,
+who watched the contracting eye and heaving form of his companion, in
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, they have. I have witnessed, this night, a proof of their
+heartlessness and bad faith, that hath caused me to look forward to my
+own fate. The delusion is over; from this hour I serve them no longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo spoke with deep feeling, and his companion fancied, strange as
+it was coming from such a man, with an air of wounded integrity. Don
+Camillo knew that there was no condition of life, however degraded or
+lost to the world, which had not its own particular opinions of the
+faith due to its fellows; and he had seen enough of the sinuous course
+of the oligarchy of Venice, to understand that it was quite possible its
+shameless and irresponsible duplicity might offend the principles of
+even an assassin. Less odium was attached to men of that class, in Italy
+and at that day, than will be easily imagined in a country like this;
+for the radical defects and the vicious administration of the laws,
+caused an irritable and sensitive people too often to take into their
+own hands the right of redressing their own wrongs. Custom had lessened
+the odium of the crime; and though society denounced the assassin
+himself, it is scarcely too much to say, that his employer was regarded
+with little more disgust than the religious of our time regard the
+survivor of a private combat. Still it was not usual for nobles like Don
+Camillo to hold intercourse, beyond that which the required service
+exacted, with men of Jacopo's cast; but the language and manner of the
+Bravo so strongly attracted the curiosity, and even the sympathy of his
+companion, that the latter unconsciously sheathed his rapier and drew
+nearer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy penitence and regrets, Jacopo, may lead thee yet nearer to virtue,&quot;
+he said, &quot;than mere abandonment of the Senate's service. Seek out some
+godly priest, and ease thy soul by confession and prayer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo trembled in every limb, and his eye turned wistfully to the
+countenance of the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak, Jacopo; even I will hear thee, if thou would'st remove the
+mountain from thy breast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thanks, noble Signore! a thousand thanks for this glimpse of sympathy
+to which I have long been a stranger! None know how dear a word of
+kindness is to one who has been condemned by all, as I have been. I have
+prayed&mdash;I have craved&mdash;I have wept for some ear to listen to my tale,
+and I thought I had found one who would have heard me without scorn,
+when the cold policy of the Senate struck him. I came here to commune
+with the hated dead, when chance brought us together. Could I&mdash;&quot; the
+Bravo paused and looked doubtfully again at his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say on, Jacopo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have not dared to trust my secrets even to the confessional, Signore,
+and can I be so bold as to offer them to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Truly, it is a strange behest!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, it is. You are noble, I am of humble blood. Your ancestors
+were senators and Doges of Venice, while mine have been, since the
+fishermen first built their huts in the Lagunes, laborers on the canals,
+and rowers of gondolas. You are powerful, and rich, and courted; while I
+am denounced, and in secret, I fear, condemned. In short, you are Don
+Camillo Monforte, and I am Jacopo Frontoni!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo was touched, for the Bravo spoke without bitterness, and in
+deep sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would thou wert at the confessional, poor Jacopo!&quot; he said; &quot;I am
+little able to give ease to such a burden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I have lived too long shut out from the good wishes of my
+fellows, and I can bear with it no longer. The accursed Senate may cut
+me off without warning, and then who will stop to look at my grave!
+Signore, I must speak or die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy case is piteous, Jacopo! Thou hast need of ghostly counsel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is no priest, Signore, and I carry a weight past bearing. The only
+man who has shown interest in me, for three long and dreadful years, is
+gone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But he will return, poor Jacopo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he will never return. He is with the fishes of the Lagunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By thy hand, monster!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By the justice of the illustrious Republic,&quot; said the Bravo, with a
+smothered but bitter smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! they are then awake to the acts of thy class? Thy repentance is
+the fruit of fear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo seemed choked. He had evidently counted on the awakened sympathy
+of his companion, notwithstanding the difference in their situations,
+and to be thus thrown off again, unmanned him. He shuddered, and every
+muscle and nerve appeared about to yield its power. Touched by so
+unequivocal signs of suffering, Don Camillo kept close at his side,
+reluctant to enter more deeply into the feelings of one of his known
+character, and yet unable to desert a fellow-creature in so grievous
+agony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Duca,&quot; said the Bravo, with a pathos in his voice that went to
+the heart of his auditor, &quot;leave me. If they ask for a proscribed man,
+let them come here; in the morning they will find my body near the
+graves of the heretics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak, I will hear thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo looked up with doubt expressed on his features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unburden thyself; I will listen, though thou recounted the
+assassination of my dearest friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The oppressed Bravo gazed at him, as if he still distrusted his
+sincerity. His face worked, and his look became still more wistful; but
+as Don Camillo faced the moon, and betrayed the extent of his sympathy,
+the other burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo, I will hear thee&mdash;I will hear thee, poor Jacopo!&quot; cried Don
+Camillo, shocked at this exhibition of distress in one so stern by
+nature. A wave from the hand of the Bravo silenced him, and Jacopo,
+struggling with himself for a moment, spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have saved a soul from perdition, Signore,&quot; he said, smothering his
+emotion. &quot;If the happy knew how much power belongs to a single word of
+kindness&mdash;a glance of feeling, when given to the despised, they would
+not look so coldly on the miserable. This night must have been my last,
+had you cast me off without pity&mdash;but you will hear my tale,
+Signore&mdash;you will not scorn the confession of a Bravo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have promised. Be brief, for at this moment I have great care of my
+own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I know not the whole of your wrongs, but they will not be less
+likely to be redressed for this grace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo made an effort to command himself, when he commenced his tale.</p>
+
+<p>The course of the narrative does not require that we should accompany
+this extraordinary man though the relation of the secrets he imparted to
+Don Camillo. It is enough for our present purposes to say, that, as he
+proceeded, the young Calabrian noble drew nearer to his side, and
+listened with growing interest. The Duke of Sant' Agata scarcely
+breathed, while his companion, with that energy of language and feeling
+which marks Italian character, recounted his secret sorrows, and the
+scenes in which he had been an actor. Long before he was done, Don
+Camillo had forgotten his own private causes of concern, and, by the
+time the tale was finished, every shade of disgust had given place to an
+ungovernable expression of pity. In short, so eloquent was the speaker,
+and so interesting the facts with which he dealt, that he seemed to play
+with the sympathies of the listener, as the improvisatore of that region
+is known to lead captive the passions of the admiring crowd.</p>
+
+<p>During the time Jacopo was speaking, he and his wondering auditor had
+passed the limits of the despised cemetery; and as the voice of the
+former ceased, they stood on the outer beach of the Lido. When the low
+tones of the Bravo were no longer audible, they were succeeded by the
+sullen wash of the Adriatic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This surpasseth belief!&quot; Don Camillo exclaimed after a long pause,
+which had only been disturbed by the rush and retreat of the waters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, as holy Maria is kind! it is true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I doubt you not, Jacopo&mdash;poor Jacopo! I cannot distrust a tale thus
+told! Thou hast, indeed, been a victim of their hellish duplicity, and
+well mayest thou say, the load was past bearing. What is thy intention?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I serve them no longer, Don Camillo&mdash;I wait only for the last solemn
+scene, which is now certain, and then I quit this city of deceit, to
+seek my fortune in another region. They have blasted my youth, and
+loaded my name with infamy&mdash;God may yet lighten the load!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reproach not thyself beyond reason, Jacopo, for the happiest and most
+fortunate of us all are not above the power of temptation. Thou knowest
+that even my name and rank have not, altogether, protected me from their
+arts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know them capable, Signore, of deluding angels! Their arts are only
+surpassed by their means, and their pretence of virtue by their
+indifference to its practice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou sayest true, Jacopo: the truth is never in greater danger, than
+when whole communities lend themselves to the vicious deception of
+seemliness, and without truth there is no virtue. This it is to
+substitute profession for practice&mdash;to use the altar for a worldly
+purpose&mdash;and to bestow power without any other responsibility than that
+which is exacted by the selfishness of caste! Jacopo&mdash;poor Jacopo! thou
+shalt be my servitor&mdash;I am lord of my own seignories, and once rid of
+this specious Republic, I charge myself with the care of thy safety and
+fortunes. Be at peace as respects thy conscience: I have interest near
+the Holy See, and thou shalt not want absolution!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gratitude of the Bravo was more vivid in feeling than in expression.
+He kissed the hand of Don Camillo, but it was with a reservation of
+self-respect that belonged to the character of the man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A system like this of Venice,&quot; continued the musing noble, &quot;leaves none
+of us masters of our own acts. The wiles of such a combination are
+stronger than the will. It cloaks its offences against right in a
+thousand specious forms, and it enlists the support of every man under
+the pretence of a sacrifice for the common good. We often fancy
+ourselves simple dealers in some justifiable state intrigue, when in
+truth we are deep in sin. Falsehood is the parent of all crimes, and in
+no case has it a progeny so numerous as that in which its own birth is
+derived from the state. I fear I may have made sacrifices to this
+treacherous influence, I could wish forgotten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though Don Camillo soliloquized, rather than addressed his companion, it
+was evident, by the train of his thoughts, that the narrative of Jacopo
+had awakened disagreeable reflections on the manner in which he had
+pushed his own claims with the Senate. Perhaps he felt the necessity of
+some apology to one who, though so much his inferior in rank, was so
+competent to appreciate his conduct, and who had just denounced, in the
+strongest language, his own fatal subserviency to the arts of that
+irresponsible and meretricious body.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo uttered a few words of a general nature, but such as had a
+tendency to quiet the uneasiness of his companion; after which, with a
+readiness that proved him qualified for the many delicate missions with
+which he had been charged, he ingeniously turned the discourse to the
+recent abduction of Donna Violetta, with the offer of rendering his new
+employer all the services in his power to regain his bride.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That thou mayest know all thou hast undertaken,&quot; rejoined Don Camillo,
+&quot;listen, Jacopo, and I will conceal nothing from thy shrewdness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Sant' Agata now briefly, but explicitly, laid bare to his
+companion all his own views and measures with respect to her he loved,
+and all those events with which the reader has already become
+acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo gave great attention to the minutest parts of the detail, and
+more than once, as the other proceeded, he smiled to himself, like a man
+who was able to trace the secret means by which this or that intrigue
+had been effected. The whole was just related, when the sound of a
+footstep announced the return of Gino.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="010.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XVIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Pale she looked,<br />
+Yet cheerful; though methought, once, if not twice.<br />
+She wiped away a tear that would be coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ROGERS.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The hours passed as if naught had occurred, within the barriers of the
+city, to disturb their progress. On the following morning men proceeded
+to their several pursuits, of business or of pleasure, as had been done
+for ages, and none stopped to question his neighbor of the scene which
+might have taken place during the night. Some were gay, and others
+sorrowing; some idle, and others occupied; here one toiled, there
+another sported; and Venice presented, as of wont, its noiseless,
+suspicious, busy, mysterious, and yet stirring throngs, as it had before
+done at a thousand similar risings of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>The menials lingered around the water-gate of Donna Violetta's palace
+with distrustful but cautious faces, scarce whispering among themselves
+their secret suspicions of the fate of their mistress. The residence of
+the Signor Gradenigo presented its usual gloomy magnificence, while the
+abode of Don Camillo Monforte betrayed no sign of the heavy
+disappointment which its master had sustained. The Bella Sorrentina
+still lay in the port, with a yard on deck, while the crew repaired its
+sails in the lazy manner of mariners who work without excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The Lagunes were dotted with the boats of fishermen, and travellers
+arrived and departed from the city by the well known channels of Fusina
+and Mestre. Here, some adventurer from the north quitted the canals on
+his return towards the Alps, carrying with him a pleasing picture of the
+ceremonies he had witnessed, mingled with some crude conjectures of that
+power which predominated in the suspected state; and there, a countryman
+of the Main sought his little farm, satisfied with the pageants and
+regatta of the previous day. In short, all seemed as usual, and the
+events we have related remained a secret with the actors, and that
+mysterious council which had so large a share in their existence.</p>
+
+<p>As the day advanced, many a sail was spread for the pillars of Hercules
+or the genial Levant, and feluccas, mystics, and golettas, went and came
+as the land or sea-breeze prevailed. Still the mariner of Calabria
+lounged beneath the awning which sheltered his deck, or took his siesta
+on a pile of old sails, which were ragged with the force of many a hot
+sirocco. As the sun fell, the gondolas of the great and idle began to
+glide over the water; and when the two squares were cooled by the air of
+the Adriatic, the Broglio began to fill with those privileged to pace
+its vaulted passage. Among these came the Duke of Sant' Agata, who,
+though an alien to the laws of the Republic, being of so illustrious
+descent, and of claims so equitable, was received among the senators, in
+their moments of ease, as a welcome sharer in this vain distinction. He
+entered the Broglio at the wonted hour, and with his usual composure,
+for he trusted to his secret influence at Rome, and something to the
+success of his rivals, for impunity. Reflection had shown Don Camillo
+that, as his plans were known to the council, they would long since have
+arrested him had such been their intention; and it had also led him to
+believe that the most efficient manner of avoiding the personal
+consequences of his adventure was to show confidence in his own power to
+withstand them. When he appeared, therefore, leaning on the arm of a
+high officer of the papal embassy, and with an eye that spoke assurance
+in himself, he was greeted, as usual, by all who knew him, as was due to
+his rank and expectations. Still Don Camillo walked among the patricians
+of the Republic with novel sensations. More than once he thought he
+detected, in the wandering glances of those with whom he conversed,
+signs of their knowledge of his frustrated attempt; and more than once,
+when he least suspected such scrutiny, his countenance was watched, as
+if the observer sought some evidence of his future intentions. Beyond
+this none might have discovered that an heiress of so much importance
+had been so near being lost to the state, or, on the other hand, that a
+bridegroom had been robbed of his bride. Habitual art, on the part of
+the state, and resolute but wary intention, on the part of the young
+noble, concealed all else from observation.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner the day passed, not a tongue in Venice, beyond those
+which whispered in secret, making any allusion to the incidents of our
+tale.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the sun was setting a gondola swept slowly up to the water-gate
+of the ducal palace. The gondolier landed, fastened his boat in the
+usual manner to the stepping-stones, and entered the court. He wore a
+mask, for the hour of disguise had come, and his attire was so like the
+ordinary fashion of men of his class, as to defeat recognition by its
+simplicity. Glancing an eye about him, he entered the building by a
+private door.</p>
+
+<p>The edifice in which the Doges of Venice dwelt still stands a gloomy
+monument of the policy of the Republic, furnishing evidence, in itself,
+of the specious character of the prince whom it held. It is built around
+a vast but gloomy court, as is usual with nearly all of the principal
+edifices of Europe. One of its fronts forms a side of the piazzetta so
+often mentioned, and another lines the quay next the port. The
+architecture of these two exterior faces of the palace renders the
+structure remarkable. A low portico, which forms the Broglio, sustains
+a row of massive oriental windows, and above these again lies a pile of
+masonry, slightly relieved by apertures, which reverses the ordinary
+uses of the art. A third front is nearly concealed by the cathedral of
+St. Mark, and the fourth is washed by its canal. The public prison of
+the city forms the other side of this canal, eloquently proclaiming the
+nature of the government by the close approximation of the powers of
+legislation and of punishment. The famous Bridge of Sighs is the
+material, and we might add the metaphorical, link between the two. The
+latter edifice stands on the quay, also, and though less lofty and
+spacious, in point of architectural beauty it is the superior structure,
+though the quaintness and unusual style of the palace are most apt to
+attract attention.</p>
+
+<p>The masked gondolier soon reappeared beneath the arch of the water-gate,
+and with a hurried step he sought his boat. It required but a minute to
+cross the canal, to land on the opposite quay, and to enter the public
+door of the prison. It would seem that he had some secret means of
+satisfying the vigilance of the different keepers, for bolts were drawn,
+and doors unlocked, with little question, wherever he presented himself.
+In this manner he quickly passed all the outer barriers of the place,
+and reached a part of the building which had the appearance of being
+fitted for the accommodation of a family. Judging from the air of all
+around him, those who dwelt there took the luxury of their abode but
+little into the account, though neither the furniture nor the rooms were
+wanting in most of the necessaries suited to people of their class and
+the climate, and in that age.</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier had ascended a private stairway, and he was now before a
+door which had none of those signs of a prison that so freely abounded
+in other parts of the building. He paused to listen, and then tapped
+with singular caution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is without?&quot; asked a gentle female voice, at the same instant that
+the latch moved and fell again, as if she within waited to be assured
+of the character of her visitor before she opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A friend to thee, Gelsomina,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, here all are friends to the keepers, if words can be believed. You
+must name yourself, or go elsewhere for your answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier removed the mask a little, which had altered his voice as
+well as concealed his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is I, Gessina,&quot; he said, using the diminutive of her name.</p>
+
+<p>The bolts grated, and the door was hurriedly opened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is wonderful that I did not know thee, Carlo!&quot; said the female, with
+eager simplicity; &quot;but thou takest so many disguises of late, and so
+counterfeitest strange voices, that thine own mother might have
+distrusted her ear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier paused to make certain they were alone; then laying aside
+the mask altogether, he exposed the features of the Bravo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest the need of caution,&quot; he added, &quot;and wilt not judge me
+harshly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I said not that, Carlo&mdash;but thy voice is so familiar, that I thought it
+wonderful thou could'st speak as a stranger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou aught for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gentle girl&mdash;for she was both young and gentle&mdash;hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou aught new, Gelsomina?&quot; repeated the Bravo, reading her
+innocent face with his searching gaze.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art fortunate in not being sooner in the prison. I have just had a
+visitor. Thou would'st not have liked to be seen, Carlo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest I have good reasons for coming masked. I might, or I might
+not have disliked thy acquaintance, as he should have proved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, now thou judgest wrong,&quot; returned the female, hastily&mdash;&quot;I had no
+other here but my cousin Annina.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou think me jealous?&quot; said the Bravo, smiling in kindness, as
+he took her hand. &quot;Had it been thy cousin Pietro, or Michele, or
+Roberto, or any other youth of Venice, I should have no other dread than
+that of being known.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But it was only Annina&mdash;my cousin Annina, whom thou hast never
+seen&mdash;and I have no cousins Pietro, and Michele, and Roberto. We are not
+many, Carlo. Annina has a brother, but he never comes hither. Indeed it
+is long since she has found it convenient to quit her trade to come to
+this dreary place. Few children of sisters see each other so seldom as
+Annina and I!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a good girl, Gessina, and art always to be found near thy
+mother. Hast thou naught in particular for my ear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again the soft eyes of Gelsomina, or Gessina, as she was familiarly
+called, dropped to the floor; but raising them ere he could note the
+circumstance, she hurriedly continued the discourse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear Annina will return, or I would go with thee at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this cousin of thine still here, then?&quot; asked the Bravo, with
+uneasiness. &quot;Thou knowest I would not be seen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear not. She cannot enter without touching that bell; for she is above
+with my poor bed-ridden mother. Thou can'st go into the inner room as
+usual, when she comes, and listen to her idle discourse, if thou wilt;
+or&mdash;but we have not time&mdash;for Annina comes seldom, and I know not why,
+but she seems to love a sick room little, as she never stays many
+minutes with her aunt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou would'st have said, or I might go on my errand, Gessina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would, Carlo, but I am certain we should be recalled by my impatient
+cousin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can wait. I am patient when with thee, dearest Gessina.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hist!&mdash;'Tis my cousin's step. Thou canst go in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While she spoke, a small bell rang, and the Bravo withdrew into the
+inner room, like one accustomed to that place of retreat. He left the
+door ajar&mdash;for the darkness of the closet sufficiently concealed his
+person. In the meantime Gelsomina opened the outer door for the
+admission of her visitor. At the first sound of the latter's voice,
+Jacopo, who had little suspected the fact from a name which was so
+common, recognised the artful daughter of the wine-seller.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art at thy ease, here, Gelsomina,&quot; cried the latter, entering and
+throwing herself into a seat, like one fatigued. &quot;Thy mother is better,
+and thou art truly mistress of the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would I were not, Annina; for I am young to have this trust, with
+this affliction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not so insupportable, Gessina, to be mistress within doors, at
+seventeen! Authority is sweet, and obedience is odious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have found neither so, and I will give up the first with joy,
+whenever my poor mother shall be able to take command of her own family
+again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is well, Gessina, and does credit to the good father confessor.
+But authority is dear to woman, and so is liberty. Thou wast not with
+the maskers yesterday, in the square?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I seldom wear a disguise, and I could not quit my mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which means that thou would'st have been glad to do it. Thou hast a
+good reason for thy regrets, since a gayer marriage of the sea, or a
+braver regatta, has not been witnessed in Venice since thou wast born.
+But the first was to be seen from thy window?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw the galley of state sweeping towards the Lido, and the train of
+patricians on its deck; but little else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter. Thou shalt have as good an idea of the pageant as if thou
+had'st played the part of the Doge himself. First came the men of the
+guard with their ancient dresses&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, this I remember to have often seen; for the same show is kept from
+year to year.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art right; but Venice never witnessed such a brave regatta! Thou
+knowest that the first trial is always between gondolas of many oars,
+steered by the best esteemed of the canals. Luigi was there, and though
+he did not win, he more than merited success, by the manner in which he
+directed his boat. Thou knowest Luigi?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I scarce know any in Venice, Annina; for the long illness of my mother,
+and this unhappy office of my father, keep me within when others are on
+the canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True. Thou art not well placed to make acquaintances. But Luigi is
+second to no gondolier in skill or reputation, and he is much the
+merriest rogue of them all, that put foot on the Lido.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was foremost, then, in the grand race?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He should have been, but the awkwardness of his fellows, and some
+unfairness in the crossing, threw him back to be second. 'Twas a sight
+to behold, that of many noble watermen struggling to maintain or to get
+a name on the canals. Santa Maria! I would thou could'st have seen it,
+girl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should not have been glad to see a friend defeated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must take fortune as it offers. But the most wonderful sight of the
+day, after all, though Luigi and his fellows did so well, was to see a
+poor fisherman, named Antonio, in his bare head and naked legs, a man of
+seventy years, and with a boat no better than that I use to carry
+liquors to the Lido, entering on the second race, and carrying off the
+prize!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He could not have met with powerful rivals?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The best of Venice; though Luigi, having strived for the first, could
+not enter for the second trial. 'Tis said, too,&quot; continued Annina,
+looking about her with habitual caution, &quot;that one, who may scarce be
+named in Venice, had the boldness to appear in that regatta masked; and
+yet the fisherman won! Thou hast heard of Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The name is common.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is but one who bears it now in Venice. All mean the same when
+they say Jacopo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard of a monster of that name. Surely he hath not dared to
+show himself among the nobles, on such a festa!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gessina, we live in an unaccountable country! The man walks the piazza
+with a step as lordly as the Doge, at his pleasure, and yet none say
+aught to him! I have seen him, at noonday, leaning against the triumphal
+mast, or the column of San Theodoro, with as proud an air as if he were
+put there to celebrate a victory of the Republic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps he is master of some terrible secret, which they fear he will
+reveal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest little of Venice, child! Holy Maria! a secret of that kind
+is a death-warrant of itself. It is as dangerous to know too much as it
+is to know too little, when one deals with St. Mark. But they say Jacopo
+was there, standing eye to eye with the Doge, and scaring the Senators
+as if he had been an uncalled spectre from the vaults of their fathers.
+Nor is this all; as I crossed the Lagunes this morning, I saw the body
+of a young cavalier drawn from the water, and those who were near it
+said it had the mark of his fatal hand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The timid Gelsomina shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They who rule,&quot; she said, &quot;will have to answer for this negligence to
+God, if they let the wretch longer go at large.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed St. Mark protect his children! They say there is much of this
+sort of sin to answer for&mdash;but see the body I did, with my own eyes, in
+entering the canals this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And didst thou sleep on the Lido, that thou wert abroad so early?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Lido&mdash;yes&mdash;nay&mdash;I slept not, but thou knowest my father had a busy
+day during the revels, and I am not like thee, Gessina, mistress of the
+household, to do as I would. But I tarry here to chat with thee, when
+there is great need of industry at home. Hast thou the package, child,
+which I trusted to thy keeping at my last visit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is here,&quot; answered Gelsomina, opening a drawer, and handing to her
+cousin a small but closely enveloped package, which, unknown to herself,
+contained some articles of forbidden commerce, and which the other, in
+her indefatigable activity, had been obliged to secrete for a time. &quot;I
+had begun to think that thou hadst forgotten it, and was about to send
+it to thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina, if thou lovest me, never do so rash an act! My brother
+Giuseppe&mdash;thou scarce knowest Giuseppe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have little acquaintance, for cousins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art fortunate in thy ignorance. I cannot say what I might of the
+child of the same parents, but had Giuseppe seen this package by any
+accident, it might have brought thee into great trouble!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I fear not thy brother, nor any else,&quot; said the daughter of the
+prison-keeper, with the firmness of innocence; &quot;he could do me no harm
+for dealing kindly by a relative.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art right; but he might have caused me great vexation. Sainted
+Maria! if thou knewest the pain that unthinking and misguided boy gives
+his family! He is my brother, after all, and you will fancy the rest.
+Addio, good Gessina; I hope thy father will permit thee to come and
+visit, at last, those who so much love thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Addio, Annina; thou knowest I would come gladly, but that I scarce
+quit the side of my poor mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The wily daughter of the wine-seller gave her guileless and unsuspecting
+friend a kiss, and then she was let out and departed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo,&quot; said the soft voice of Gessina; &quot;thou can'st come forth, for we
+have no further fear of visits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo appeared, but with a paleness deeper than common on his cheek.
+He looked mournfully at the gentle and affectionate being who awaited
+his return, and when he struggled to answer her ingenuous smile, the
+abortive effort gave his features an expression of ghastliness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Annina has wearied thee with her idle discourse of the regatta, and of
+murders on the canals. Thou wilt not judge her harshly, for the manner
+in which she spoke of Giuseppe, who may deserve this, and more. But I
+know thy impatience, and I will not increase thy weariness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold, Gessina&mdash;this girl is thy cousin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have I not told thee so? Our mothers are sisters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And she is here often?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not as often as she could wish, I am certain, for her aunt has not
+quitted her room for many, many months.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art an excellent daughter, kind Gessina, and would make all others
+as virtuous as thyself. And thou hast been to return these visits?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never. My father forbids it, for they are dealers in wines, and
+entertain the gondoliers in revelry. But Annina is blameless for the
+trade of her parents.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt&mdash;and that package? it hath been long in thy keeping.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A month; Annina left it at her last visit, for she was hurried to cross
+to the Lido. But why these questions? You do not like my cousin, who is
+giddy, and given to idle conversation, but who, I think, must have a
+good heart. Thou heard'st the manner in which she spoke of the wretched
+bravo, Jacopo, and of this late murder?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou could'st not have shown more horror at the monster's crime
+thyself, Carlo. Nay, Annina is thoughtless, and she might be less
+worldly; but she hath, like all of us, a holy aversion to sin. Shall I
+lead thee to the cell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy honest nature, Carlo, revolts at the cold villany of the assassin.
+I have heard much of his murders, and of the manner in which those up
+above bear with him. They say, in common, that his art surpasseth
+theirs, and that the officers wait for proof, that they may not do
+injustice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the Senate so tender, think you?&quot; asked the Bravo, huskily, but
+motioning for his companion to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked sad, like one who felt the force of this question; and
+she turned away to open a private door, whence she brought forth a
+little box.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the key, Carlo,&quot; she said, showing him one of a massive bunch,
+&quot;and I am now the sole warder. This much, at least, we have effected;
+the day may still come when we shall do more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo endeavored to smile, as if he appreciated her kindness; but he
+only succeeded in making her understand his desire to go on. The eye of
+the gentle-hearted girl lost its gleam of hope in an expression of
+sorrow, and she obeyed.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="011.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XIX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;But let us to the roof,<br />
+And, when thou hast surveyed the sea, the land,<br />
+Visit the narrow cells that cluster there,<br />
+As in a place of tombs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ST. MARK'S PLACE.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>We shall not attempt to thread the vaulted galleries, the gloomy
+corridors, and all the apartments, through which the keeper's daughter
+led her companion. Those who have ever entered an extensive prison, will
+require no description to revive the feeling of pain which it excited,
+by barred windows, creaking hinges, grating bolts, and all those other
+signs, which are alike the means and evidence of incarceration. The
+building, unhappily like most other edifices intended to repress the
+vices of society, was vast, strong, and intricate within, although, as
+has been already intimated, of a chaste and simple beauty externally,
+that might seem to have been adopted in mockery of its destination.</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina entered a low, narrow, and glazed gallery, when she stopped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou soughtest me, as wont, beneath the water-gate, Carlo,&quot; she asked,
+&quot;at the usual hour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should not have entered the prison had I found thee there, for thou
+knowest I would be little seen. But I bethought me of thy mother, and
+crossed the canal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wast wrong. My mother rests much as she has done for many
+months&mdash;thou must have seen that we are not taking the usual route to
+the cell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have; but as we are not accustomed to meet in thy father's rooms, on
+this errand, I thought this the necessary direction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou much knowledge of the palace and the prison, Carlo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More than I could wish, good Gelsomina; but why am I thus questioned,
+at a moment when I would be otherwise employed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The timid and conscious girl did not answer. Her cheek was never bright,
+for, like a flower reared in the shade, it had the delicate hue of her
+secluded life; but at this question it became pale. Accustomed to the
+ingenuous habits of the sensitive being at his side, the Bravo studied
+her speaking features intently. He moved swiftly to a window, and
+looking out, his eye fell upon a narrow and gloomy canal. Crossing the
+gallery, he cast a glance beneath him, and saw the same dark watery
+passage, leading between the masonry of two massive piles to the quay
+and the port.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina!&quot; he cried, recoiling from the sight, &quot;this is the Bridge of
+Sighs!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is, Carlo; hast thou ever crossed it before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never: nor do I understand why I cross it now. I have long thought that
+it might one day be my fortune to walk this fatal passage, but I could
+not dream of such a keeper!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eye of Gelsomina brightened, and her smile was cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt never cross it to thy harm with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of that I am certain, kind Gessina,&quot; he answered, taking her hand. &quot;But
+this is a riddle that I cannot explain. Art thou in the habit of
+entering the palace by this gallery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is little used, except by the keepers and the condemned, as
+doubtless thou hast often heard; but yet they have given me the keys,
+and taught me the windings of the place, in order that I might serve, as
+usual, for thy guide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina, I fear I have been too happy in thy company to note, as
+prudence would have told me, the rare kindness of the council in
+permitting me to enjoy it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou repent, Carlo, that thou hast known me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The reproachful melancholy of her voice touched the Bravo, who kissed
+the hand he held with Italian fervor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should then repent me of the only hours of happiness I have known for
+years,&quot; he said. &quot;Thou hast been to me, Gelsomina, like a flower in a
+desert&mdash;a pure spring to a feverish man&mdash;a gleam of hope to one
+suffering under malediction. No, no, not for a moment have I repented
+knowing thee, my Gelsomina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twould not have made my life more happy, Carlo, to have thought I had
+added to thy sorrows. I am young, and ignorant of the world, but I know
+we should cause joy, and not pain, to those we esteem.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy nature would teach thee this gentle lesson. But is it not strange
+that one like me should be suffered to visit the prison unattended by
+any other keeper?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had not thought it so, Carlo; but surely, it is not common!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have found so much pleasure in each other, dear Gessina, that we
+have overlooked what ought to have caused alarm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alarm, Carlo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or, at least, distrust; for these wily senators do no act of mercy
+without a motive. But it is now too late to recall the past if we would;
+and in that which relates to thee I would not lose the memory of a
+moment. Let us proceed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The slight cloud vanished from the face of the mild auditor of the
+Bravo; but still she did not move.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Few pass this bridge, they say,&quot; she added tremulously, &quot;and enter the
+world again; and yet thou dost not even ask why we are here, Carlo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a transient gleam of distrust in the hasty glance of the
+Bravo, as he shot a look at the undisturbed eye of the innocent being
+who put this question. But it scarcely remained long enough to change
+the expression of manly interest she was accustomed to meet in his look.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since thou wilt have me curious,&quot; he said, &quot;why hast thou come hither,
+and more than all, being here, why dost thou linger?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The season is advanced, Carlo,&quot; she answered, speaking scarcely above
+her breath, &quot;and we should look in vain among the cells.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand thee,&quot; he said; &quot;we will proceed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina lingered to gaze wistfully into the face of her companion, but
+finding no visible sign of the agony he endured she went on. Jacopo
+spoke hoarsely, but he was too long accustomed to disguise to permit the
+weakness to escape, when he knew how much it would pain the sensitive
+and faithful being who had yielded her affections to him with a
+singleness and devotion which arose nearly as much from her manner of
+life as from natural ingenuousness.</p>
+
+<p>In order that the reader may be enabled to understand the allusions,
+which seem to be so plain to our lovers, it may be necessary to explain
+another odious feature in the policy of the Republic of Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be the pretension of a state, in its acknowledged theories,
+an unerring clue to its true character is ever to be found in the
+machinery of its practice. In those governments which are created for
+the good of the people, force is applied with caution and reluctance,
+since the protection and not the injury of the weak is their object:
+whereas the more selfish and exclusive the system becomes, the more
+severe and ruthless are the coercive means employed by those in power.
+Thus in Venice, whose whole political fabric reposed on the narrow
+foundation of an oligarchy, the jealousy of the Senate brought the
+engines of despotism in absolute contact with even the pageantry of
+their titular prince, and the palace of the Doge himself was polluted by
+the presence of the dungeons. The princely edifice had its summer and
+winter cells. The reader may be ready to believe that mercy had dictated
+some slight solace for the miserable in this arrangement. But this would
+be ascribing pity to a body which, to its latest moment, had no tie to
+subject it to the weakness of humanity. So far from consulting the
+sufferings of the captive, his winter cell was below the level of the
+canals, while his summers were to be passed beneath the leads exposed to
+the action of the burning sun of that climate. As the reader has
+probably anticipated already, that Jacopo was in the prison on an errand
+connected with some captive, this short explanation will enable him to
+understand the secret allusion of his companion. He they sought had, in
+truth, been recently conveyed from the damp cells where he had passed
+the winter and spring, to the heated chambers beneath the roof.</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina continued to lead the way with a sadness of eye and feature
+that betrayed her strong sympathy with the sufferings of her companion,
+but without appearing to think further delay necessary. She had
+communicated a circumstance which weighed heavily on her own mind, and,
+like most of her mild temperament, who had dreaded such a duty, now that
+it was discharged she experienced a sensible relief. They ascended many
+flights of steps, opened and shut numberless doors, and threaded several
+narrow corridors in silence, before reaching the place of destination.
+While Gelsomina sought the key of the door before which they stopped, in
+the large bunch she carried, the Bravo breathed the hot air of the attic
+like one who was suffocating.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They promised me that this should not be done again!&quot; he said. &quot;But
+they forget their pledges, fiends as they are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo! thou forgettest that this is the palace of the Doge!&quot; whispered
+the girl, while she threw a timid glance behind her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I forget nothing that is connected with the Republic! It is all here,&quot;
+striking his flushed brow&mdash;&quot;what is not there, is in my heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor Carlo! this cannot last for ever&mdash;there will be an end!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art right,&quot; answered the Bravo hoarsely. &quot;The end is nearer than
+thou thinkest. No matter; turn the key, that we may go in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hand of Gelsomina lingered on the lock, but admonished by his
+impatient eye, she complied, and they entered the cell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot; exclaimed the Bravo, hastening to the side of a pallet that
+lay on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>The attenuated and feeble form of an old man rose at the word, and an
+eye which, while it spoke mental feebleness, was at that moment even
+brighter than that of his son, glared on the faces of Gelsomina and her
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast not suffered, as I had feared, by this sudden change,
+father!&quot; continued the latter, kneeling by the side of the straw. &quot;Thine
+eye, and cheek, and countenance are better, than in the damp caves
+below!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am happy here,&quot; returned the prisoner; &quot;there is light, and though
+they have given me too much of it, thou canst never know, my boy, the
+joy of looking at the day, after so long a night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is better, Gelsomina. They have not yet destroyed him. See! his eye
+is bright even, and his cheek has a glow!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are ever so, after passing the winter in the lower dungeons,&quot;
+whispered the gentle girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou news for me, boy? What tidings from thy mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo bowed his head to conceal the anguish occasioned by this
+question, which he now heard for the hundredth time.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is happy, father&mdash;happy as one can be, who so well loves thee, when
+away from thy side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does she speak of me often?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The last word that I heard from her lips, was thy name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Maria bless her! I trust she remembers me in her prayers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt it not, father, they are the prayers of an angel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thy patient sister? thou hast not named her, son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She, too, is well, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Has she ceased to blame herself for being the innocent cause of my
+sufferings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then she pines no longer over a blow that cannot be helped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo seemed to search for relief in the sympathizing eye of the
+pale and speechless Gelsomina.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has ceased to pine, father,&quot; he uttered with compelled calmness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast ever loved thy sister, boy, with manly tenderness. Thy heart
+is kind, as I have reason to know. If God has given me grief, he has
+blessed me in my children!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A long pause followed, during which the parent seemed to muse on the
+past, while the child rejoiced in the suspension of questions which
+harrowed his soul, since those of whom the other spoke had long been the
+victims of family misfortune. The old man, for the prisoner was aged as
+well as feeble, turned his look on the still kneeling Bravo,
+thoughtfully, and continued.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is little hope of thy sister marrying, for none are fond of tying
+themselves to the proscribed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She wishes it not&mdash;she wishes it not&mdash;she is happy, with my mother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a happiness the Republic will not begrudge. Is there no hope of
+our being able to meet soon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt meet my mother&mdash;yes, that pleasure will come at last!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a weary time since any of my blood, but thee, have stood in my
+sight. Kneel, that I may bless thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo, who had risen under his mental torture, obeyed, and bowed his
+head in reverence to receive the paternal benediction. The lips of the
+old man moved, and his eyes were turned to Heaven, but his language was
+of the heart, rather than that of the tongue. Gelsomina bent her head to
+her bosom, and seemed to unite her prayers to those of the prisoner.
+When the silent but solemn ceremony was ended, each made the customary
+sign of the cross, and Jacopo kissed the wrinkled hand of the captive.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou hope for me?&quot; the old man asked, this pious and grateful duty
+done. &quot;Do they still promise to let me look upon the sun again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They do. They promise fair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would that their words were true! I have lived on hope for a weary
+time&mdash;I have now been within these walls more than four years,
+methinks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo did not answer, for he knew that his father named the period only
+that he himself had been permitted to see him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I built upon the expectation that the Doge would remember his ancient
+servant, and open my prison-doors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still Jacopo was silent, for the Doge, of whom the other spoke, had long
+been dead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet I should be grateful, for Maria and the saints have not
+forgotten me. I am not without my pleasures in captivity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God be praised!&quot; returned the Bravo. &quot;In what manner dost thou ease thy
+sorrows, father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look hither, boy,&quot; exclaimed the old man, whose eye betrayed a mixture
+of feverish excitement, caused by the recent change in his prison, and
+the growing imbecility of a mind that was gradually losing its powers
+for want of use; &quot;dost thou see the rent in that bit of wood? It opens
+with the heat, from time to time, and since I have been an inhabitant
+here, that fissure has doubled in length&mdash;I sometimes fancy, that when
+it reaches the knot, the hearts of the senators will soften, and that my
+doors will open. There is a satisfaction in watching its increase, as it
+lengthens, inch by inch, year after year!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I have other pleasures. There was a spider the past year, that
+wove his web from yonder beam, and he was a companion, too, that I loved
+to see; wilt thou look, boy, if there is hope of his coming back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see him not,&quot; whispered the Bravo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, there is always the hope of his return. The flies will enter
+soon, and then he will be looking for his prey. They may shut me up on a
+false charge, and keep me weary years from my wife and daughter, but
+they cannot rob me of all my happiness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The aged captive was mute and thoughtful. A childish impatience glowed
+in his eye, and he gazed from the rent, the companion of so many
+solitary summers, to the face of his son, like one who began to distrust
+his enjoyments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, let them take it away,&quot; he said, burying his head beneath the
+covering of his bed: &quot;I will not curse them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In his turn the Bravo was speechless. He did not venture, even, to steal
+a glance towards the breathless and attentive Gelsomina, though his
+bosom heaved with longing to examine her guileless features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou hear me, son?&quot; continued the prisoner, uncovering his head:
+&quot;dost thou really think they will have the heart to chase the spider
+from my cell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will leave thee this pleasure, father, for it touches neither
+their power nor their fame. So long as the Senate can keep its foot on
+the neck of the people, and so long as it can keep the seemliness of a
+good name, it will not envy thee this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed Maria make me thankful!&mdash;I had my fears, child; for it is not
+pleasant to lose any friend in a cell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo then proceeded to soothe the mind of the prisoner, and he
+gradually led his thoughts to other subjects. He laid by the bed-side a
+few articles of food, that he was allowed to bring with him, and again
+holding out the hope of eventual liberation, he proposed to take his
+leave.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will try to believe thee, son,&quot; said the old man, who had good reason
+to distrust assurances so often made. &quot;I will do all I can to believe
+it. Thou wilt tell thy mother, that I never cease to think of her, and
+to pray for her; and thou wilt bless thy sister, in the name of her poor
+imprisoned parent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo bowed in acquiescence, glad of any means to escape speech. At
+a sign from the old man he again bent his knee, and received the parting
+benediction. After busying himself in arranging the scanty furniture of
+the cell, and in trying to open one or two small fissures, with a view
+to admit more light and air, he quitted the place.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Gelsomina nor Jacopo spoke, as they returned by the intricate
+passages through which they had ascended to the attic, until they were
+again on the Bridge of Sighs. It was seldom that human foot trod this
+gallery, and the former, with female quickness, selected it as a place
+suited to their further conference.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou find him changed?&quot; she asked, lingering on the arch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest with a frightful meaning!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have not taught my countenance to lie to thee, Gelsomina.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But there is hope.--- Thou told'st him there was hope, thyself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed Maria forgive the fraud! I could not rob the little life he has
+of its only comfort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo!&mdash;Carlo!&mdash;Why art thou so calm? I have never heard thee speak so
+calmly of thy father's wrongs and imprisonment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is because his liberation is near.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this moment he was without hope, and thou speakest now of
+liberation!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The liberation of death. Even the anger of the Senate will respect the
+grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou think his end near? I had not seen this change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art kind, good Gelsomina, and true to thy friends, and without
+suspicion of those crimes of which thou art so innocent: but to one who
+has seen as much evil as I, a jealous thought comes at every new event.
+The sufferings of my poor father are near their end, for nature is worn
+out; but were it not, I can foresee that means would be found to bring
+them to a close.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou can'st not suspect that any here would do him harm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suspect none that belong to thee. Both thy father and thyself,
+Gelsomina, are placed here by the interposition of the saints, that the
+fiends should not have too much power on earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not understand thee, Carlo&mdash;but thou art often so.&mdash;Thy father
+used a word to-day that I could wish he had not, in speaking to thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eye of the Bravo threw a quick, uneasy, suspicious glance at his
+companion, and then averted its look with haste.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He called thee Jacopo!&quot; continued the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Men often have glimpses of their fate, by the kindness of their
+patrons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would'st thou say, Carlo, that thy father suspects the senate will
+employ the monster he named?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&mdash;they have employed worse men. If report says true, he is not
+unknown to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can this be so!&mdash;Thou art bitter against the Republic, because it has
+done injury to thy family; but thou canst not believe it has ever dealt
+with the hired stiletto.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I said no more than is whispered daily on the canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would thy father had not called thee by this terrible name, Carlo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art too wise to be moved by a word, Gelsomina. But what thinkest
+thou of my unhappy father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This visit has not been like the others thou hast made him in my
+company. I know not the reason, but to me thou hast ever seemed to feel
+the hope with which thou hast cheered the prisoner; while now, thou
+seemest to have even a frightful pleasure in despair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy fears deceive thee,&quot; returned the Bravo, scarce speaking above his
+breath. &quot;Thy fears deceive thee, and we will say no more. The senate
+mean to do us justice, at last. They are honorable Signori, of
+illustrious birth, and renowned names! 'Twould be madness to distrust
+the patricians! Dost thou not know, girl, that he who is born of gentle
+blood is above the weaknesses and temptations that beset us of base
+origin! They are men placed by birth above the weaknesses of mortals,
+and owing their account to none, they will be sure to do justice. This
+is reasonable, and who can doubt it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he ended, the Bravo laughed bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, now thou triflest with me, Carlo; none are above the danger of
+doing wrong, but those whom the saints and kind Maria favor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This comes of living in a prison, and of saying thy prayers night and
+morning! No&mdash;no&mdash;silly girl, there are men in the world born wise, from
+generation to generation; born honest, virtuous, brave, incorruptible,
+and fit in all things to shut up and imprison those who are born base
+and ignoble. Where hast thou passed thy days, foolish Gelsomina, not to
+have felt this truth in the very air thou breathest? 'Tis clear as the
+sun's light, and palpable&mdash;aye&mdash;palpable as these prison walls!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The timid girl recoiled from his side, and there was a moment when she
+meditated flight; for never before, during their numberless and
+confidential interviews, had she ever heard so bitter a laugh, or seen
+so wild a gleam in the eye of her companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I could almost fancy, Carlo, that my father was right in using the name
+he did,&quot; she said, as, recovering herself, she turned a reproachful look
+on his still excited features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the business of parents to name their children;&mdash;but enough. I
+must leave thee, good Gelsomina, and I leave thee with a heavy heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The unsuspecting Gelsomina forgot her alarm. She knew not why, but,
+though the imaginary Carlo seldom quitted her that she was not sad, she
+felt a weight heavier than common on her spirits at this declaration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast thy affairs, and they must not be forgotten. Art fortunate
+with the gondola of late, Carlo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gold and I are nearly strangers. The Republic throws the whole charge
+of the venerable prisoner on my toil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have little, as thou knowest, Carlo,&quot; said Gelsomina in a
+half-audible voice; &quot;but it is thine. My father is not rich, as thou
+can'st feel, or he would not live on the sufferings of others, by
+holding the keys of the prison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is better employed than those who set the duty. Were the choice
+given me, girl, to wear the horned bonnet, to feast in their halls, to
+rest in their palaces, to be the gayest bauble in such a pageant as that
+of yesterday, to plot in their secret councils, and to be the heartless
+judge to condemn my fellows to this misery&mdash;or to be merely the keeper
+of the keys and turner of the bolts&mdash;I should seize on the latter
+office, as not only the most innocent, but by far the most honorable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou dost not judge as the world judges, Carlo. I had feared thou
+might'st feel shame at being the husband of a jailor's daughter; nay, I
+will not hide the secret longer, since thou speakest so calmly, I have
+wept that it should be so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then thou hast neither understood the world nor me. Were thy father of
+the Senate, or of the Council of Three, could the grievous fact be
+known, thou would'st have cause to sorrow. But, Gelsomina, the canals
+are getting dusky, and I must leave thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The reluctant girl saw the truth of what he said, and applying a key,
+she opened the door of the covered bridge. A few turnings and a short
+descent brought the Bravo and his companion to the level of the quays.
+Here the former took a hurried leave and quitted the prison.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;But they who blunder thus are raw beginners.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">DON JUAN.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The hour had come for the revels of the Piazza, and for the movement of
+the gondolas. Maskers glided along the porticoes as usual; the song and
+cry were heard anew, and Venice was again absorbed in delusive gaiety.</p>
+
+<p>When Jacopo issued from the prison on the quay, he mingled with the
+stream of human beings that was setting towards the squares, protected
+from observation by the privileged mask. While crossing the lower bridge
+of the canal of St. Mark, he lingered an instant, to throw a look at the
+glazed gallery he had just quitted, and then moved forward with the
+crowd&mdash;the image of the artless and confiding Gelsomina uppermost in his
+thoughts. As he passed slowly along the gloomy arches of the Broglio,
+his eye sought the person of Don Camillo Monforte. They met at the angle
+of the little square, and exchanging secret signs, the Bravo moved on
+unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of boats lay at the foot of the Piazzetta. Among these Jacopo
+sought his own gondola, which he extricated from the floating mass, and
+urged into the stream. A few sweeps of the oar, and he lay at the side
+of La Bella Sorrentina. The padrone paced the deck, enjoying the cool of
+the evening with Italian indolence, while his people, grouped on the
+forecastle, sang, or rather chanted, a song of those seas. The greetings
+were blunt and brief, as is usual among men of that class. But the
+padrone appeared to expect the visit, for he led his guest far from the
+ears of his crew, to the other extremity of the felucca.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou aught in particular, good Roderigo?&quot; demanded the mariner,
+who knew the Bravo by a sign, and yet who only knew him by that
+fictitious name. &quot;Thou seest we have not passed the time idly, though
+yesterday was a festa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou ready for the gulf?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the Levant, or the pillars of Hercules, as shall please the Senate.
+We have got our yard aloft since the sun went behind the mountains, and
+though we may seem careless of delay, an hour's notice will fit us for
+the outside of the Lido.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then take the notice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Master Roderigo, you bring your news to an overstocked market. I have
+already been informed that we shall be wanted to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The quick movement of suspicion made by the Bravo escaped the
+observation of the padrone, whose eye was running over the felucca's
+gear, with a sailor's habitual attention to that part of his vessel,
+when there was question of its service.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art right, Stefano. But there is little harm in repeated caution.
+Preparation is the first duty in a delicate commission.&quot;'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you look for yourself, Signor Roderigo?&quot; said the mariner, in a
+lower tone. &quot;La Bella Sorrentina is not the Bucentaur, nor a galley of
+the Grand Master of Malta; but, for her size, better rooms are not to be
+had in the palace of the Doge. When they told me there was a lady in the
+freight, the honor of Calabria was stirred in her behalf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well. If they have named to thee all the particulars, thou wilt
+not fail to do thyself credit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not say that they have shown me half of them, good Signore,&quot;
+interrupted Stefano. &quot;The secresy of your Venetian shipments is my
+greatest objection to the trade. It has more than once happened to me,
+that I have lain weeks in the canals, with my hold as clean as a
+friar's conscience, when orders have come to weigh, with some such cargo
+as a messenger, who has got into his berth as we cleared the port, to
+get out of it on the coast of Dalmatia, or among the Greek islands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In such cases thou hast earned thy money easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diamine! Master Roderigo, if I had a friend in Venice to give timely
+advice, the felucca might be ballasted with articles that would bring a
+profit on the other shore. Of what concern is it to the Senate, when I
+do my duty to the nobles faithfully, that I do my duty at the same time
+to the good woman and her little brown children left at home in
+Calabria?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is much reason in what thou sayest, Stefano; but thou knowest the
+Republic is a hard master. An affair of this nature must be touched with
+a gentle hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None know it better than I, for when they sent the trader with all his
+movables out of the city, I was obliged to throw certain casks into the
+sea, to make room for his worthless stuffs. The Senate owes me just
+compensation for that loss, worthy Signor Roderigo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which thou would'st be glad to repair to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santissima Maria! You may be the Doge himself, Signore, for anything I
+know of your countenance; but I could swear at the altar you ought to be
+of the Senate for your sagacity! If this lady will not be burdened with
+many effects, and there is yet time, I might humor the tastes of the
+Dalmatians with certain of the articles that come from the countries
+beyond the pillars of Hercules!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art the judge of the probability thyself, since they told thee of
+the nature of thy errand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;San Gennaro of Napoli open my eyes!&mdash;They said not a word beyond this
+little fact, that a youthful lady, in whom the Senate had great
+interest, would quit the city this night for the eastern coast. If it is
+at all agreeable to your conscience, Master Roderigo, I should be happy
+to hear who are to be her companions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of that thou shalt hear more in proper season. In the meantime, I would
+recommend to thee a cautious tongue, for St. Mark makes no idle jokes
+with those who offend him. I am glad to see thee in this state of
+preparation, worthy padrone, and wishing thee a happy night, and a
+prosperous voyage, I commit thee to thy patron. But hold&mdash;ere I quit
+thee, I would know the hour that the land-breeze will serve?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are exact as a compass in your own matters, Signore, but of little
+charity to thy friends! With the burning sun of to-day we should have
+the air of the Alps about the turn of the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well. My eye shall be on thee. Once more, addio!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! and thou hast said nothing of the cargo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twill not be so weighty in bulk as in value,&quot; carelessly answered
+Jacopo, shoving his gondola from the side of the felucca. The fall of
+his oar into the water succeeded, and as Stefano stood, meditating the
+chances of his speculation on his deck, the boat glided away towards the
+quay with a swift but easy movement.</p>
+
+<p>Deceit, like the windings of that subtle animal the fox, often crosses
+its own path. It consequently throws out those by whom it is practised,
+as well as those who art meant to be its victims. When Jacopo parted
+from Don Camillo, it was with an understanding that he should adopt all
+the means that his native sagacity or his experience might suggest, to
+ascertain in what manner the council intended to dispose of the person
+of Donna Yioletta. They had separated on the Lido, and as none knew of
+their interview but him, and none would probably suspect their recent
+alliance, the Bravo entered on his new duty with some chances of
+success, that might otherwise have been lost. A change of its agents, in
+affairs of peculiar delicacy, was one of the ordinary means taken by the
+Republic to avoid investigation. Jacopo had often been its instrument
+in negotiating with the mariner, who, as has been so plainly intimated,
+had frequently been engaged in carrying into effect its secret, and
+perhaps justifiable measures of police; but in no instance had it ever
+been found necessary to interpose a second agent between the
+commencement and the consummation of its bargains, except in this. He
+had been ordered to see the padrone, and to keep him in preparation for
+immediate service; but since the examination of Antonio before the
+council, his employers had neglected to give him any further
+instructions. The danger of leaving the bride within reach of the agents
+of Don Camillo was so obvious, that this unusual caution had been
+considered necessary. It was under this disadvantage, therefore, that
+Jacopo entered on the discharge of his new and important duties.</p>
+
+<p>That cunning, as has just been observed, is apt to overreach itself, has
+passed into a proverb; and the case of Jacopo and his employers was one
+in point to prove its truth. The unusual silence of those who ordinarily
+sought him on similar occasions, had not been lost on the agent; and the
+sight of the felucca, as he strayed along the quays, gave an accidental
+direction to his inquiries. The manner in which they were aided by the
+cupidity of the Calabrian, has just been related.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo had no sooner touched the quay and secured his boat, than he
+hastened again to the Broglio. It was now filled by maskers and the
+idlers of the Piazzetta. The patricians had withdrawn to the scenes of
+their own pleasures, or, in furtherance of that system of mysterious
+sway which it was their policy to maintain, they did not choose to
+remain exposed to the common eye, during the hours of license which were
+about to follow.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem that Jacopo had his instructions, for no sooner did he
+make sure that Don Camillo had retired, than he threaded the throng with
+the air of a man whose course was decided. By this time, both the
+squares were full, and at least half of those who spent the night in
+those places of amusement, were masked. The step of the Bravo, though so
+unhesitating, was leisurely, and he found time, in passing up the
+Piazzetta, to examine the forms, and, when circumstances permitted, the
+features of all he met. He proceeded, in this manner, to the point of
+junction between the two squares, when his elbow was touched by a light
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo was not accustomed, unnecessarily, to trust his voice in the
+square of St. Mark, and at that hour. But his look of inquiry was
+returned by a sign to follow. He had been stopped by one whose figure
+was so completely concealed by a domino, as to baffle all conjecture
+concerning his true character. Perceiving, however, that the other
+wished to lead him to a part of the square that was vacant, and which
+was directly on the course he was about to pursue, the Bravo made a
+gesture of compliance and followed. No sooner were the two apart from
+the pressure of the crowd, and in a place where no eaves-dropper could
+overhear their discourse without detection, than the stranger stopped.
+He appeared to examine the person, stature, and dress of Jacopo, from
+beneath his mask, with singular caution, closing the whole with a sign
+that meant recognition. Jacopo returned his dumb show, but maintained a
+rigid silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just Daniel!&quot; muttered the stranger, when he found that his companion
+was not disposed to speak; &quot;one would think, illustrious Signore, that
+your confessor had imposed a penance of silence, by the manner in which
+you refuse to speak to your servant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What would'st thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here am I, sent into the piazza, among knights of industry, valets,
+gondoliers, and all other manner of revellers that adorn this Christian
+land, in search of the heir of one of the most ancient and honorable
+houses of Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How knowest thou I am he thou seekest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, there are many signs seen by a wise man, that escape the
+unobservant. When young cavaliers have a taste for mingling with the
+people in honorable disguise, as in the case of a certain patrician of
+this Republic, they are to be known by their air, if not by their
+voices.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a cunning agent, Hosea; but the shrewdness of thy race is its
+livelihood!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is its sole defence against the wrongs of the oppressor, young
+noble. We are hunted like wolves, and it is not surprising that we
+sometimes show the ferocity of the beasts yon take us for. But why
+should I tell the wrongs of my people to one who believes life is a
+masquerade!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who would not be sorry, ingenious Hosea, were it composed only of
+Hebrews! But thy errand; I have no gage unredeemed, nor do I know that I
+owe thee gold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Righteous Samuel! your cavaliers of the Senate are not always mindful
+of the past, Signore, or these are words that might have been spared. If
+your excellency is inclined to forget pledges, the fault is not of my
+seeking; but as for the account that has been so long growing between
+us, there is not a dealer on the Rialto that will dispute the proofs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, be it so&mdash;would'st thou dun my father's son in the face of the
+revellers in St. Mark?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would do no discredit to any come of that illustrious race, Signore,
+and therefore we will say no more of the matter; always relying that, at
+the proper moment, you will not question your own hand and seal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like thy prudence, Hebrew. It is a pledge thou comest on some errand
+less ungracious than common. As I am pressed for time, 'twill be a favor
+wert thou to name it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hosea examined, in a covert but very thorough manner, the vacant spot
+around them, and drawing nearer to the supposed noble, he continued:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, your family is in danger of meeting with a great loss! It is
+known to you that the Senate has altogether and suddenly removed Donna
+Violetta from the keeping of the faithful and illustrious senator your
+father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though Jacopo started slightly, the movement was so natural for a
+disappointed lover, that it rather aided than endangered his disguise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Compose yourself, young Signore,&quot; continued Hosea; &quot;these
+disappointments attend us all in youth, as I know by severe trials. Leah
+was not gained without trouble, and next to success in barter, success
+in love is perhaps the most uncertain. Gold is a great make-weight in
+both, and it commonly prevails. But you are nearer to losing the lady of
+your love and her possessions than you may imagine, for I am sent
+expressly to say that she is about to be removed from the city.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whither?&quot; demanded Jacopo, so quickly as to do credit to his assumed
+character.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is the point to learn, Signore. Thy father is a sagacious senator,
+and is deep at times in the secrets of the State. But judging from his
+uncertainty on this occasion, I think he is guided more by his
+calculations than by any assurance of his own knowledge. Just Daniel! I
+have seen the moments when I have suspected that the venerable patrician
+himself was a member of the Council of Three!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His house is ancient and his privileges well established&mdash;why should he
+not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I say naught against it, Signore. It is a wise body, that doeth much
+good, and preventeth much harm. None speak evil of the secret councils
+on the Rialto, where men are more given to gainful industry that to wild
+discussions of their rulers' acts. But, Signore, be he of this or that
+council, or merely of the Senate, a heedful hint has fallen from his
+lips of the danger we are in of losing&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We!&mdash;Hast thou thoughts of Donna Violetta, Hosea?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leah and the law forbid!&mdash;If the comely queen of Sheba herself were to
+tempt me, and a frail nature showed signs of weakness, I doubt that our
+rabbis would find reasons for teaching self-denial! Besides, the
+daughter of Levi is no favorer of polygamy, nor any other of our sex's
+privileges. I spoke in pluralities, Signore, because the Rialto has some
+stake in this marriage as well as the house of Gradenigo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand thee. Thou hast fears for thy gold?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had I been easily alarmed, Signor Giacomo, in that particular, I might
+not have parted with it so readily. But, though the succession of thy
+illustrious father will be ample to meet any loan within my humble
+means, that of the late Signor Tiepolo will not weaken the security.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I admit thy sagacity, and feel the importance of thy warning. But it
+seems to have no other object or warranty than thy own fears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With certain obscure hints from your honored father, Signore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did he say more to the point?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He spoke in parables, young noble, but having an oriental ear his words
+were not uttered to the wind. That the rich damsel is about to be
+conveyed from Venice am I certain, and for the benefit of the little
+stake I have myself in her movements, I would give the best turquoise in
+my shop to know whither.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Canst thou say with certainty, 'twill be this night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giving no pledge for redemption in the event of mistake, I am so sure,
+young cavalier, as to have many unquiet thoughts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enough&mdash;I will look to my own interests and to thine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo waved his hand in adieu, and pursued his walk up the piazza.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had I looked more sharply to the latter, as became one accustomed to
+deal with the accursed race,&quot; muttered the Hebrew, &quot;it would be a
+matter of no concern to me if the girl married a Turk!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hosea,&quot; said a mask at his ear; &quot;a word with thee in secret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The jeweller started, and found that in his zeal he had suffered one to
+approach within sound of his voice unseen. The other was in a domino
+also, and so well enveloped as to be effectually concealed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What would'st thou, Signor Mask?&quot; demanded the wary Jew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A word in friendship and in confidence.&mdash;Thou hast moneys to lend at
+usury?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The question had better be put to the Republic's treasury! I have many
+stones valued much below their weight, and would be glad to put them
+with some one more lucky than myself who will be able to keep them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, this will not suffice&mdash;thou art known to be abounding in sequins;
+one of thy race and riches will never refuse a sure loan with securities
+as certain as the laws of Venice. A thousand ducats in thy willing hand
+is no novelty&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They who call me rich, Signor Mask, are pleased to joke with the
+unhappy child of a luckless race. That I might have been above
+want&mdash;nay, that I am not downright needy, may be true; but when they
+speak of a thousand ducats, they speak of affairs too weighty for my
+burdened shoulders. Were it your pleasure to purchase an amethyst or a
+ruby, gallant Signore, there might possibly be dealings between us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have need of gold, old man, and can spare thee jewels myself at need.
+My wants are urgent at this moment, and I have little time to lose in
+words&mdash;name thy conditions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One should have good securities, Signore, to be so peremptory in a
+matter of money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast heard that the laws of Venice are not more certain. A
+thousand sequins, and that quickly. Thou shalt settle the usury with
+thine own conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hosea thought that this was giving ample room to the treaty, and he
+began to listen more seriously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore,&quot; he said, &quot;a thousand ducats are not picked up at pleasure
+from the pavement of the great square. He who would lend them must first
+earn them with long and patient toil; and he who would borrow----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Waits at thy elbow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Should have a name and countenance well known on the Rialto.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou lendest on sufficient pledges to masks, careful Hosea, or fame
+belies thy generosity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A sufficient pledge gives me power to see the way clearly, though the
+borrower should be as much hidden as those up above. But here is none
+forthcoming. Come to me to-morrow, masked or not, as may suit your own
+pleasure, for I have no impertinent desire to pry into any man's secrets
+beyond what a regard to my own interests requires, and I will look into
+my coffers; though those of no heir-apparent in Venice can be emptier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My necessities are too urgent to brook delay. Hast thou the gold, on
+condition of naming thine own usury?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With sufficient pledges, in stones of price, I might rake together the
+sum among our dispersed people, Signore. But he who goes on the island
+to borrow, as I shall be obliged to do, should be able to satisfy all
+doubts concerning the payment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gold can then be had&mdash;on that point I may be easy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hosea hesitated, for he had in vain endeavored to penetrate the other's
+disguise, and while he thought his assurance a favorable omen, with a
+lender's instinct he disliked his impatience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have said, by the friendly aid of our people,&quot; he answered, with
+caution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This uncertainty will not answer my need. Addio, Hosea&mdash;I must seek
+elsewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, you could not be more hurried were the money to pay the cost
+of your nuptials. Could I find Isaac and Aaron within, at this late
+hour, I think I might be safe in saying, that part of the money might be
+had.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot trust to this chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Signore, the chance is but small, since Aaron is bed-ridden, and
+Isaac never fails to look into his affairs after the toil of the day is
+ended. The honest Hebrew finds sufficient recreation in the employment,
+though I marvel at his satisfaction, since nothing but losses have come
+over our people the year past!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee, Jew, no doubt must hang over the negotiation. The money,
+with pledges, and thine own conscience for arbiter between us; but no
+equivocal dealings, to be followed by a disappointment, under the
+pretence that second parties are not satisfied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just Daniel! to oblige you, Signore, I think I may venture. The well
+known Hebrew, Levi of Livorno, has left with me a sack, containing the
+very sum of which there is question, and, under the conditions named, I
+will convert it to my uses, arid repay the good jeweller his gold, with
+moneys of my own, at a later day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank thee for the fact, Hosea,&quot; said the other, partially removing
+his mask, but as instantly replacing it. &quot;It will greatly shorten our
+negotiations. Thou hast not that sack of the Jew of Livorno beneath thy
+domino?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hosea was speechless. The removal of the mask had taught him two
+material facts. He had been communicating his distrust of the Senate's
+intentions, concerning Donna Violetta, to an unknown person, and,
+possibly, to an agent of the police; and he had just deprived himself of
+the only argument he had ever found available, in refusing the attempts
+of Giacomo Gradenigo to borrow, by admitting to that very individual
+that he had in his power the precise sum required.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I trust the face of an old customer is not likely to defeat our
+bargain, Hosea?&quot; demanded the profligate heir of the senator, scarce
+concealing the irony in which the question was put.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father Abraham! Had I known it had been you, Signor Giacomo, we might
+have greatly shortened the treaty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By denying that thou hadst the money, as thou hast so often done of
+late!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, nay, I am not a swallower of my own words, young Signore; but my
+duty to Levi must not be forgotten. The careful Hebrew made me take a
+vow, by the name of our tribe, that I would not part with his gold to
+any that had not the means of placing its return beyond all chances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This assurance is not wanting, since thou art the borrower, thyself, to
+lend to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, you place my conscience in an awkward position. You are now my
+debtor some six thousand sequins, and were I to make this loan of money
+in trust, and were you to return it&mdash;two propositions I make on
+supposition&mdash;a natural love for my own might cause me to pass the
+payment to account, whereby I should put the assets of Levi in
+jeopardy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Settle that as thou wilt with thy conscience, Hosea&mdash;thou hast
+confessed to the money, and here are jewels for the pledge&mdash;I ask only
+the sequins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that the appeal of Giacomo Gradenigo would not have
+produced much effect on the flinty nature of the Hebrew, who had all the
+failings of a man proscribed by opinion; but having recovered from his
+surprise, he began to explain to his companion his apprehensions on
+account of Donna Violetta, whose marriage, it will be remembered, was a
+secret to all but the witnesses and the Council of Three, when to his
+great joy he found that the gold was wanting to advance his own design
+of removing her to some secret place. This immediately changed the whole
+face of the bargain. As the pledges offered were really worth the sum to
+be received, Hosea thought, taking the chances of recovering back his
+ancient loans, from the foreign estates of the heiress, into the
+account, the loan would be no bad investment of the pretended sequins of
+his friend Levi.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the parties had come to a clear understanding, they left the
+square together, to consummate their bargain.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">HENRY VI</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The night wore on. The strains of music again began to break through the
+ordinary stillness of the town, and the boats of the great were once
+more in motion on every canal. Hands waved timidly in recognition, from
+the windows of the little dark canopies, as the gondolas glided by, but
+few paused to greet each other in that city of mystery and suspicion.
+Even the refreshing air of the evening was inhaled under an appearance
+of restraint, which, though it might not be at the moment felt, was too
+much interwoven with the habits of the people, ever to be entirely
+thrown aside.</p>
+
+<p>Among the lighter and gayer barges of the patricians, a gondola of more
+than usual size, but of an exterior so plain as to denote vulgar uses,
+came sweeping down the great canal. Its movement was leisurely, and the
+action of the gondoliers that of men either fatigued or little pressed
+for time. He who steered, guided the boat with consummate skill, but
+with a single hand, while his three fellows, from time to time, suffered
+their oars to trail on the water in very idleness. In short, it had the
+ordinary listless appearance of a boat returning to the city from an
+excursion on the Brenta, or to some of the more distant isles.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the gondola diverged from the centre of the passage, down which
+it rather floated than pulled, and shot into one of the least frequented
+canals of the city. From this moment its movement became more rapid and
+regular, until it reached a quarter of the town inhabited by the lowest
+order of the Venetians. Here it stopped by the side of a warehouse, and
+one of its crew ascended to a bridge. The others threw themselves on the
+thwarts and seemed to repose.</p>
+
+<p>He who quitted the boat threaded a few narrow but public alleys, such as
+are to be found in every part of that confined town, and knocked lightly
+at a window. It was not long before the casement opened, and a female
+voice demanded the name of him without.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is I, Annina,&quot; returned Gino, who was not an unfrequent applicant
+for admission at that private portal. &quot;Open the door, girl, for I have
+come on a matter of pressing haste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina complied, though not without making sure that her suitor was
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art come unseasonably, Gino,&quot; said the wine-seller's daughter; &quot;I
+was about to go to St. Mark's to breathe the evening air. My father and
+brothers are already departed, and I only stay to make sure of the
+bolts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Their gondola will hold a fourth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They have gone by the footways.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou walkest the streets alone at this hour, Annina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not thy right to question it, if I do,&quot; returned the girl with
+spirit. &quot;San Theodore be praised, I am not yet the slave of a
+Neapolitan's servitor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Neapolitan is a powerful noble, Annina, able and willing to keep
+his servitors in respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will have need of all his interest&mdash;but why hast thou come at this
+unseasonable hour? Thy visits are never too welcome, Gino, and when I
+have other affairs they are disagreeable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Had the passion of the gondolier been very deep or very sensitive, this
+plain dealing might have given him a shock; but Gino appeared to take
+the repulse as coolly as it was given.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am used to thy caprices, Annina,&quot; he said, throwing himself upon a
+bench like one determined to remain where he was. &quot;Some young patrician
+has kissed his hand to thee as thou hast crossed San Marco, or thy
+father has made a better day of it than common on the Lido; thy pride
+always mounts with thy father's purse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diamine! to hear the fellow one would think he had my troth, and that
+he only waited in the sacristy for the candles to be lighted to receive
+my vows! What art thou to me, Gino Tullini, that thou takest on thee
+these sudden airs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what art thou to me, Annina, that thou playest off these worn-out
+caprices on Don Camillo's confidant?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Out upon thee, insolent! I have no time to waste in idleness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art in much haste to-night, Annina.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be rid of thee. Now listen to what I say, Gino, and let every word
+go to thy heart, for they are the last thou wilt ever hear from me. Thou
+servest a decayed noble, one who will shortly be chased in disgrace from
+the city, and with him will go all his idle servitors. I choose to
+remain in the city of my birth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier laughed in real indifference at her affected scorn. But
+remembering his errand, he quickly assumed a graver air, and endeavored
+to still the resentment of his fickle mistress by a more respectful
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St. Mark protect me, Annina!&quot; he said. &quot;If we are not to kneel before
+the good priore together, it is no reason we should not bargain in
+wines. Here have I come into the dark canals, within stone's throw of
+thy very door, with a gondola of mellow Lachryma Christi, such as honest
+'Maso, thy father, has rarely dealt in, and thou treatest me as a dog
+that is chased from a church!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have little time for thee or thy wines to-night, Gino. Hadst thou not
+stayed me, I should already have been abroad and happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Close thy door, girl, and make little ceremony with an old friend,&quot;
+said the gondolier, officiously offering to aid her in securing the
+dwelling. Annina took him at his word, and as both appeared to work with
+good will, the house was locked, and the wilful girl and her suitor were
+soon in the street. Their route lay across the bridge already named.
+Gino pointed to the gondola as he said, &quot;Thou art not to be tempted,
+Annina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy rashness in leading the smugglers to my father's door will bring us
+to harm some day, silly fellow!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The boldness of the act will prevent suspicion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what vineyard is the liquor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It came from the foot of Vesuvius, and is ripened by the heat of the
+volcano. Should my friends part with it to thy enemy, old Beppo, thy
+father will rue the hour!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina, who was much addicted to consulting her interests on all
+occasions, cast a longing glance at the boat. The canopy was closed, but
+it was large, and her willing imagination readily induced her to fancy
+it well filled with skins from Naples.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This will be the last of thy visits to our door, Gino?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As thou shalt please. But go down and taste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina hesitated, and, as a woman is said always to do when she
+hesitates, she complied. They reached the boat with quick steps, and
+without regarding the men who were still lounging on the thwarts, Annina
+glided immediately beneath the canopy. A fifth gondolier was lying at
+length on the cushions, for, unlike a boat devoted to the contraband,
+the canopy had the usual arrangement of a barque of the canals.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see nothing to turn me aside!&quot; exclaimed the disappointed girl. &quot;Wilt
+thou aught with me, Signore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art welcome. We shall not part so readily as before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger had arisen while speaking, and as he ended, he laid a hand
+on the shoulder of his visitor, who found herself confronted with Don
+Camillo Monforte.</p>
+
+<p>Annina was too much practised in deception to indulge in any of the
+ordinary female symptoms, either of real or of affected alarm.
+Commanding her features, though in truth her limbs shook, she said with
+assumed pleasantry&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The secret trade is honored in the services of the noble Duke of St.
+Agata!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not here to trifle, girl, as thou wilt see in the end. Thou hast
+thy choice before thee, frank confession or my just anger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo spoke calmly, but in a manner that plainly showed Annina she
+had to deal with a resolute man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What confession would your eccellenza have from the daughter of a poor
+wine-seller?&quot; she asked, her voice trembling in spite of herself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The truth&mdash;and remember that this time we do not part until I am
+satisfied. The Venetian police and I are now fairly at issue, and thou
+art the first fruits of my plan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Duca, this is a bold step to take in the heart of the canals!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The consequences be mine. Thy interest will teach thee to confess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall make no great merit, Signore, of doing that which is forced
+upon me. As it is your pleasure to know the little I can tell you, I am
+happy to be permitted to relate it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak then; for time presses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I shall not pretend to deny you have been ill-treated.
+Capperi! how ill has the council treated you! A noble cavalier, of a
+strange country, who, the meanest gossip in Venice knows, has a just
+right to the honors of the Senate, to be so treated is a disgrace to the
+Republic! I do not wonder that your eccellenza is out of humor with
+them. Blessed St. Mark himself would lose his patience to be thus
+treated!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A truce with this, girl, and to your facts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My facts, Signor Duca, are a thousand times clearer than the sun, and
+they are all at your eccellenza's service. I am sure I wish I had more
+of them, since they give you pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enough of this profession. Speak to the facts themselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina, who in the manner of most of her class in Italy, that had been
+exposed to the intrigues of the towns, had been lavish of her words, now
+found means to cast a glance at the water, when she saw that the boat
+had already quitted the canals, and was rowing easily out upon the
+Lagunes. Perceiving how completely she was in the power of Don Camillo,
+she began to feel the necessity of being more explicit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your eccellenza has probably suspected that the council found means to
+be acquainted with your intention to fly from the city with Donna
+Violetta?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All that is known to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why they chose me to be the servitor of the noble lady is beyond my
+powers to discover. Our Lady of Loretto! I am not the person to be sent
+for, when the state wishes to part two lovers!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have borne with thee, Annina, because I would let the gondola get
+beyond the limits of the city; but now thou must throw aside thy
+subterfuge, and speak plainly. Where didst thou leave my wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does your eccellenza then think the state will admit the marriage to be
+legal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Girl, answer, or I will find means to make thee. Where didst thou leave
+my wife?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed St. Theodore! Signore, the agents of the Republic had little
+need of me, and I was put on the first bridge that the gondola passed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou strivest to deceive me in vain. Thou wast on the Lagunes till a
+late hour in the day, and I have notice of thy having visited the prison
+of St. Mark as the sun was setting; and this on thy return from the boat
+of Donna Violetta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no acting in the wonder of Annina.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santissima Maria! You are better served, Signore, than the council
+thinks!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As thou wilt find to thy cost, unless the truth be spoken. From what
+convent did'st thou come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, from none. If your eccellenza has discovered that the Senate
+has shut up the Signora Tiepolo in the prison of St. Mark, for
+safe-keeping, it is no fault of mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy artifice is useless, Annina,&quot; observed Don Camillo, calmly. &quot;Thou
+wast in the prison, in quest of forbidden articles that thou hadst long
+left with thy cousin Gelsomina, the keeper's daughter, who little
+suspected thy errand, and on whose innocence and ignorance of the world
+thou hast long successfully practised. Donna Violetta is no vulgar
+prisoner, to be immured in a jail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santissima Madre di Dio!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Amazement confined the answer of the girl to this single, but strong
+exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou seest the impossibility of deception. I am acquainted with so much
+of thy movements as to render it impossible that thou should'st lead me
+far astray. Thou art not wont to visit thy cousin; but as thou entered
+the canals this evening----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shout on the water caused Don Camillo to pause. On looking out he saw
+a dense body of boats sweeping towards the town as if they were all
+impelled by a single set of oars. A thousand voices were speaking at
+once, and occasionally a general and doleful cry proclaimed that the
+floating multitude, which came on, was moved by a common feeling. The
+singularity of the spectacle, and the fact that his own gondola lay
+directly in the route of the fleet, which was composed of several
+hundred boats, drove the examination of the girl, momentarily, from the
+thoughts of the noble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have we here, Jacopo?&quot; he demanded, in an under-tone, of the
+gondolier who steered his own barge.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are fishermen, Signore, and by the manner in which they come down
+towards the canals, I doubt they are bent on some disturbance. There has
+been discontent among them since the refusal of the Doge to liberate the
+boy of their companion from the galleys.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Curiosity induced the people of Don Camillo to linger a minute, and then
+they perceived the necessity of pulling out of the course of the
+floating mass, which came on like a torrent, the men sweeping their
+boats with that desperate stroke which is so often seen among the
+Italian oarsmen. A menacing hail, with a command to remain, admonished
+Don Camillo of the necessity of downright flight, or of obedience. He
+chose the latter, as the least likely to interfere with his own plans.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot; demanded one, who had assumed the character of a leader.
+&quot;If men of the Lagunes and Christians, join your friends, and away with
+us to St. Mark for justice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What means this tumult?&quot; asked Don Camillo, whose dress effectually
+concealed his rank, a disguise that he completed by adopting the
+Venetian dialect. &quot;Why are you here in these numbers, friends?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Behold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo turned, and he beheld the withered features and glaring eyes
+of old Antonio, fixed in death. The explanation was made by a hundred
+voices, accompanied by oaths so bitter, and denunciations so deep, that
+had not Don Camillo been prepared by the tale of Jacopo, he would have
+found great difficulty in understanding what he heard.</p>
+
+<p>In dragging the Lagunes for fish, the body of Antonio had been found,
+and the result was, first, a consultation on the probable means of his
+death, and then a collection of the men of his calling, and finally the
+scene described.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giustizia!&quot; exclaimed fifty excited voices, as the grim visage of the
+fisherman was held towards the light of the moon; &quot;Giustizia in Palazzo
+e paue in Piazza!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ask it of the Senate!&quot; returned Jacopo, not attempting to conceal the
+derision of his tones.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thinkest thou our fellow has suffered for his boldness yesterday?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stranger things have happened in Venice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They forbid us to cast our nets in the Canale Orfano, lest the secrets
+of justice should be known, and yet they have grown bold enough to drown
+one of our own people in the midst of our gondolas!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Justice, justice!&quot; shouted numberless hoarse throats.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Away to St. Mark's! Lay the body at the feet of the Doge! Away,
+brethren, Antonio's blood is on their souls!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bent on a wild and undigested scheme of asserting their wrongs, the
+fishermen again plied their oars, and the whole fleet swept away, as if
+it was composed of a single mass.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting, though so short, was accompanied by cries, menaces, and all
+those accustomed signs of rage which mark a popular tumult among those
+excitable people, and it had produced a sensible effect on the nerves of
+Annina. Don Camillo profited by her evident terror to press his
+questions, for the hour no longer admitted of trifling.</p>
+
+<p>The result was, that while the agitated mob swept into the mouth of the
+Great Canal, raising hoarse shouts, the gondola of Don Camillo Monforte
+glided away across the wide and tranquil surface of the Lagunes.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;A Clifford, a Clifford! we'll follow the king and Clifford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">HENRY VI.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The tranquillity of the best ordered society may be disturbed, at any
+time, by a sudden outbreaking of the malcontents. Against such a
+disaster there is no more guarding than against the commission of more
+vulgar crimes; but when a government trembles for its existence, before
+the turbulence of popular commotion, it is reasonable to infer some
+radical defect in its organization. Men will rally around their
+institutions, as freely as they rally around any other cherished
+interest, when they merit their care, and there can be no surer sign of
+their hollowness than when the rulers seriously apprehend the breath of
+the mob. No nation ever exhibited more of this symptomatic terror, on
+all occasions of internal disturbance, than the pretending Republic of
+Venice. There was a never-ceasing and a natural tendency to dissolution,
+in her factious system, which was only resisted by the alertness of her
+aristocracy, and the political buttresses which their ingenuity had
+reared. Much was said of the venerable character of her polity, and of
+its consequent security, but it is in vain that selfishness contends
+with truth. Of all the fallacies with which man has attempted to gloss
+his expedients, there is none more evidently false than that which
+infers the duration of a social system, from the length of time it has
+already lasted. It would be quite as reasonable to affirm that the man
+of seventy has the same chances for life as the youth of fifteen, or
+that the inevitable fate of all things of mortal origin was not
+destruction. There is a period in human existence when the principle of
+vitality has to contend with the feebleness of infancy, but this
+probationary state passed, the child attains the age when it has the
+most reasonable prospect of living. Thus the social, like any other
+machine, which has run just long enough to prove its fitness, is at the
+precise period when it is least likely to fail, and although he that is
+young may not live to become old, it is certain that he who is old was
+once young. The empire of China was, in its time, as youthful as our own
+republic, nor can we see any reason for believing that it is to outlast
+us, from the decrepitude which is a natural companion of its years.</p>
+
+<p>At the period of our tale, Venice boasted much of her antiquity, and
+dreaded, in an equal degree, her end. She was still strong in her
+combinations, but they were combinations that had the vicious error of
+being formed for the benefit of the minority, and which, like the mimic
+fortresses and moats of a scenic representation, needed only a strong
+light to destroy the illusion. The alarm with which the patricians heard
+the shouts of the fishermen, as they swept by the different palaces, on
+their way to the great square, can be readily imagined. Some feared that
+the final consummation of their artificial condition, which had so long
+been anticipated by a secret political instinct, was at length arrived,
+and began to bethink them of the savest means of providing for their own
+security. Some listened in admiration, for habit had so far mastered
+dulness, as to have created a species of identity between the state and
+far more durable things, and they believed that St. Mark had gained a
+victory, in that decline, which was never exactly intelligible to their
+apathetic capacities. But a few, and these were the spirits that
+accumulated all the national good which was vulgarly and falsely
+ascribed to the system itself, intuitively comprehended the danger,
+with a just appreciation of its magnitude, as well as of the means to
+avoid it.</p>
+
+<p>But the rioters were unequal to any estimate of their own force, and had
+little aptitude in measuring their accidental advantages. They acted
+merely on impulse. The manner in which their aged companion had
+triumphed on the preceding day, his cold repulse by the Doge, and the
+scene of the Lido, which in truth led to the death of Antonio, had
+prepared their minds for the tumult. When the body was found, therefore,
+after the time necessary to collect their forces on the Lagunes, they
+yielded to passion, and moved away towards the palace of St. Mark, as
+described, without any other definite object than a simple indulgence of
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the canal, the narrowness of the passage compressed the
+boats into a mass so dense, as, in a measure, to impede the use of oars,
+and the progress of the crowd was necessarily slow. All were anxious to
+get as near as possible to the body of Antonio, and, like all mobs, they
+in some degree frustrated their own objects by ill-regulated zeal. Once
+or twice the names of offensive senators were shouted, as if the
+fishermen intended to visit the crimes of the state on its agents; but
+these cries passed away in the violent breath that was expended. On
+reaching the bridge of the Rialto, more than half of the multitude
+landed, and took the shorter course of the streets to the point of
+destination, while those in front got on the faster, for being
+disembarrassed of the pressure in the rear. As they drew nearer to the
+port, the boats began to loosen, and to take something of the form of a
+funeral procession.</p>
+
+<p>It was during this moment of change that a powerfully manned gondola
+swept, with strong strokes, out of a lateral passage into the Great
+Canal. Accident brought it directly in front of the moving phalanx of
+boats that was coming down the same channel. Its crew seemed staggered
+by the extraordinary appearance which met their view, and for an
+instant its course was undecided.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A gondola of the Republic!&quot; shouted fifty fishermen. A single voice
+added&mdash;&quot;Canale Orfano!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bare suspicion of such an errand, as was implied by the latter
+words, and at that moment, was sufficient to excite the mob. They raised
+a cry of denunciation, and some twenty boats made a furious
+demonstration of pursuit. The menace, however, was sufficient; for
+quicker far than the movements of the pursuers, the gondoliers of the
+Republic dashed towards the shore, and leaping on one of those passages
+of planks which encircle so many of the palaces of Venice, they
+disappeared by an alley.</p>
+
+<p>Encouraged by this success, the fishermen seized the boat as a waif, and
+towed it into their own fleet, filling the air with cries of triumph.
+Curiosity led a few to enter the hearse-like canopy, whence they
+immediately reissued dragging forth a priest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot; hoarsely demanded he who took upon himself the authority
+of a leader.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A Carmelite, and a servant of God!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou serve St. Mark? Hast thou been to the Canale Orfano to shrive
+a wretch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am here in attendance on a young and noble lady, who has need of my
+counsel and prayers. The happy and the miserable, the free and the
+captive, are equally my care!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! Thou art not above thy office? Thou wilt say the prayers for the
+dead in behalf of a poor man's soul?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My son, I know no difference, in this respect, between the Doge and the
+poorest fisherman. Still I would not willingly desert the females.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The ladies shall receive no harm. Come into my boat, for there is need
+of thy holy office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo&mdash;the reader will readily anticipate that it was
+he&mdash;entered the canopy, said a few words in explanation to his
+trembling companions, and complied. He was rowed to the leading gondola,
+and, by a sign, directed to the dead body.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou see'st that corpse, father?&quot; continued his conductor. &quot;It is the
+face of one who was an upright and pious Christian!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We all knew him as the oldest and the most skilful fisherman of the
+Lagunes, and one ever ready to assist an unlucky companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can believe thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest, for the holy books are not more true than my words:
+yesterday he came down this very canal in triumph, for he bore away the
+honors of the regatta from the stoutest oars in Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard of his success.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They say that Jacopo, the Bravo&mdash;he who once held the best oar in the
+canals&mdash;was of the party! Santa Madonna! such a man was too precious to
+die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the fate of all&mdash;rich and poor, strong and feeble, happy and
+miserable, must alike come to this end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not to this end, reverend Carmelite, for Antonio having given offence
+to the Republic, in the matter of a grandson that is pressed for the
+galleys, has been sent to purgatory without a Christian hope for his
+soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is an eye that watcheth on the meanest of us, son; we will
+believe he was not forgotten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! They say that those the Senate look black upon get but little
+aid from the church! Wilt thou pray for him, Carmelite, and make good
+thy words?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will,&quot; said Father Anselmo, firmly. &quot;Make room, son, that no decency
+of my duty be overlooked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The swarthy, expressive faces of the fishermen gleamed with
+satisfaction, for, in the midst of the rude turmoil, they all retained a
+deep and rooted respect for the offices of the church in which they had
+been educated. Silence was quickly obtained, and the boats moved on with
+greater order than before.</p>
+
+<p>The spectacle was now striking. In front rowed the gondola which
+contained the remains of the dead. The widening of the canal, as it
+approached the port, permitted the rays of the moon to fall upon the
+rigid features of old Antonio, which were set in such a look as might be
+supposed to characterize the dying thoughts of a man so suddenly and so
+fearfully destroyed. The Carmelite, bare-headed, with clasped hands, and
+a devout heart, bowed his head at the feet of the body, with his white
+robes flowing in the light of the moon. A single gondolier guided the
+boat, and no other noise was audible but the plash of the water, as the
+oars slowly fell and rose together. This silent procession lasted a few
+minutes, and then the tremulous voice of the monk was heard chanting the
+prayers for the dead. The practised fishermen, for few in that
+disciplined church, and that obedient age, were ignorant of those solemn
+rites, took up the responses in a manner that must be familiar to every
+ear that has ever listened to the sounds of Italy, the gentle washing of
+the element, on which they glided, forming a soft accompaniment.
+Casement after casement opened while they passed, and a thousand curious
+and anxious faces crowded the balconies as the funeral cort&eacute;ge swept
+slowly on.</p>
+
+<p>The gondola of the Republic was towed in the centre of the moving mass
+by fifty lighter boats, for the fishermen still clung to their prize. In
+this manner the solemn procession entered the port, and touched the quay
+at the foot of the Piazzetta. While numberless eager hands were aiding
+in bringing the body of Antonio to land, there arose a shout from the
+centre of the ducal palace, which proclaimed the presence already of the
+other part of their body in its court.</p>
+
+<p>The squares of St. Mark now presented a novel picture. The quaint and
+oriental church, the rows of massive and rich architecture, the giddy
+pile of the Campanile, the columns of granite, the masts of triumph, and
+all those peculiar and remarkable fixtures, which had witnessed so many
+scenes of violence, of rejoicing, of mourning, and of gaiety, were
+there, like landmarks of the earth, defying time; beautiful and
+venerable in despite of all those varying exhibitions of human passions
+that were daily acted around them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the song, the laugh, and the jest, had ceased. The lights of the
+coffee-houses had disappeared, the revellers had fled to their homes,
+fearful of being confounded with those who braved the anger of the
+Senate, while the grotesque, the ballad-singers, and the buffoon, had
+abandoned their assumed gaiety for an appearance more in unison with the
+true feelings of their hearts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giustizia!&mdash;&quot; cried a thousand deep voices, as the body of Antonio was
+borne into the court&mdash;&quot;Illustrious Doge! Giustizia. in palazzo, e pane
+in piazza! Give us justice! We are beggars for justice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gloomy but vast court was paved with the swarthy faces and
+glittering eyes of the fishermen. The corpse was laid at the foot of the
+Giant's Stairs, while the trembling halberdier at the head of the
+flight, scarce commanded himself sufficiently to maintain that air of
+firmness which was exacted by discipline and professional pride. But
+there was no other show of military force, for the politic power which
+ruled in Venice, knew too well its momentary impotency, to irritate when
+it could not quell. The mob beneath was composed of nameless rioters,
+whose punishment could carry no other consequences than the suppression
+of immediate danger, and for that, those who ruled were not prepared.</p>
+
+<p>The Council of Three had been apprised of the arrival of the excited
+fishermen. When the mob entered the court, it was consulting in secret
+conclave, on the probabilities of the tumult having a graver and more
+determined object, than was apparent in the visible symptoms. The
+routine of office had not yet dispossessed the men already presented to
+the reader, of their dangerous and despotic power.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are the Dalmatians apprised of this movement?&quot; asked one of the secret
+tribunal, whose nerves were scarcely equal to the high functions he
+discharged. &quot;We may have occasion for their volleys, ere this riot is
+appeased.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confide in the ordinary authorities for that, Signore,&quot; answered the
+Senator Gradenigo. &quot;I have only concern, lest some conspiracy, which may
+touch the fidelity of the troops, lies concealed beneath the outcry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The evil passions of man know no limits! What would the wretches have?
+For a state in the decline, Venice is to the last degree prosperous. Our
+ships are thriving; the bank flourishes with goodly dividends; and I do
+assure you, Signore, that, for many years, I have not known so ample
+revenues for most of our interests, as at this hour. All cannot thrive
+alike!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are happily connected with flourishing affairs, Signore, but there
+are many that are less lucky. Our form of government is somewhat
+exclusive, and it is a penalty that we have ever paid for its
+advantages, to be liable to sudden and malevolent accusations, for any
+evil turn of fortune that besets the Republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can nothing satisfy these exacting spirits? Are they not free&mdash;are they
+not happy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would seem that they want better assurance of these facts, than our
+own feelings, or our words.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Man is the creature of envy! The poor desire to be rich&mdash;the weak,
+powerful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is an exception to your rule, at least, Signore, since the rich
+rarely wish to be poor, or the powerful, weak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You deride my sentiments to-night, Signor Gradenigo. I speak, I hope,
+as becomes a Senator of Venice, and in a manner that you are not
+unaccustomed to hear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, the language is not unusual. But I fear me there is something
+unsuited to a falling fortune, in the exacting and narrow spirit of our
+laws. When a state is eminently flourishing, its subjects overlook
+general defects in private prosperity, but there is no more fastidious
+commentator on measures than your merchant of a failing trade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is their gratitude! Have we not converted these muddy isles into a
+mart for half Christendom, and now they are dissatisfied that they
+cannot retain all the monopolies that the wisdom of our ancestors has
+accumulated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They complain much in your own spirit, Signore,&mdash;but you are right in
+saying the present riot must be looked to. Let us seek his highness, who
+will go out to the people, with such patricians as may be present, and
+one of our number as a witness: more than that might expose our
+character.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Secret Council withdrew to carry this resolution into effect, just
+as the fishermen in the court received the accession of those who
+arrived by water.</p>
+
+<p>There is no body so sensible of an increase of its members as a mob.
+Without discipline, and dependent solely on animal force for its
+ascendency, the sentiment of physical power is blended with its very
+existence. When they saw the mass of living beings which had assembled
+within the wall of the ducal palace, the most audacious of that throng
+became more hardy, and even the wavering grew strong. This is the
+reverse of the feeling which prevails among those who are called on to
+repress this species of violence, who generally gain courage as its
+exhibition is least required.</p>
+
+<p>The throng in the court was raising one of its loudest and most menacing
+cries as the train of the Doge appeared, approaching by one of the long
+open galleries of the principal floor of the edifice.</p>
+
+<p>The presence of the venerable man who nominally presided over that
+factitious state, and the long training of the fishermen in habits of
+deference to authority, notwithstanding their present tone of
+insubordination, caused a sudden and deep silence. A feeling of awe
+gradually stole over the thousand dark faces that were gazing upwards,
+as the little cort&eacute;ge drew near. So profound, indeed, was the stillness
+caused by this sentiment, that the rustling of the ducal robes was
+audible, as the prince, impeded by his infirmities, and consulting the
+state usual to his rank, slowly advanced. The previous violence of the
+untutored fishermen, and their present deference to the external state
+that met their eyes, had its origin in the same causes;&mdash;ignorance and
+habit were the parents of both.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why are ye assembled here, my children?&quot; asked the Doge, when he had
+reached the summit of the Giant's Stairs, &quot;and most of all, why have ye
+come into the palace of your prince with these unbefitting cries?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The tremulous voice of the old man was clearly audible, for the lowest
+of its tones were scarcely interrupted by a breath. The fishermen gazed
+at each other, and all appeared to search for him who might be bold
+enough to answer. At length one in the centre of the crowded mass, and
+effectually concealed from observation, cried, &quot;Justice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such is our object,&quot; mildly continued the prince; &quot;and such, I will
+add, is our practice. Why are ye assembled here, in a manner so
+offensive to the state, and so disrespectful to your prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still none answered. The only spirit of their body, which had been
+capable of freeing itself from the trammels of usage and prejudice, had
+deserted the shell which lay on the lower step of the Giant's Stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will none speak! are ye so bold with your voices when unquestioned, and
+so silent when confronted?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak them fair, your highness,&quot; whispered he of the council, who was
+commissioned to be a secret witness of the interview; &quot;the Dalmatians
+are scarce yet apparelled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prince bowed to advice which he well knew must be respected, and he
+assumed his former tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If none will acquaint me with your wants, I must command you to retire,
+and while my parental heart grieves----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giustizia!&quot; repeated the hidden member of the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name thy wants, that we may know them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness! deign to look at this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One bolder than the rest had turned the body of Antonio to the moon, in
+a manner to expose the ghastly features, and, as he spoke, he pointed
+towards the spectacle he had prepared. The prince started at the
+unexpected sight, and, slowly descending the steps, closely accompanied
+by his companions and his guards, he paused over the body.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Has the assassin done this?&quot; he asked, after looking at the dead
+fisherman, and crossing himself. &quot;What could the end of one like this
+profit a Bravo? Haply the unfortunate man hath fallen in a broil of his
+class?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Neither, illustrious Doge! we fear that Antonio has suffered for the
+displeasure of St. Mark!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio! Is this the hardy fisherman who would have taught us how to
+rule in the state regatta!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, it is,&quot; returned the simple laborer of the Lagunes, &quot;and a
+better hand with a net, or a truer friend in need, never rowed a gondola
+to or from the Lido. Diavolo! It would have done your highness pleasure
+to have seen the poor old Christian among us, on a saint's day, taking
+the lead in our little ceremonies, and teaching us the manner in which
+our fathers used to do credit to the craft!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or to have been with us, illustrious Doge,&quot; cried another, for, the ice
+once broken, the tongues of a mob soon grow bold, &quot;in a merry-making on
+the Lido, when old Antonio was always the foremost in the laugh, and the
+discreetest in knowing when to be grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doge began to have a dawning of the truth, and he cast a glance
+aside to examine the countenance of the unknown inquisitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is far easier to understand the merits of the unfortunate man, than
+the manner of his death,&quot; he said, finding no explanation in the drilled
+members of the face he had scrutinized. &quot;Will any of your party explain
+the facts?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The principal speaker among the fishermen willingly took on himself the
+office, and, in the desultory manner of one of his habits, he acquainted
+the Doge with the circumstances connected with the finding of the body.
+When he had done, the prince again asked explanations, with his eye,
+from the senator at his side, for he was ignorant whether the policy of
+the state required an example, or simply a death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see nothing in this, your highness,&quot; observed he of the council, &quot;but
+the chances of a fisherman. The unhappy old man has come to his end by
+accident, and it would be charity to have a few masses said for his
+soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Noble senator!&quot; exclaimed the fisherman, doubtingly, &quot;St. Mark was
+offended!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rumor tells many idle tales of the pleasure and displeasure of St.
+Mark, If we are to believe all that the wit of men can devise, in
+affairs of this nature, the criminals are not drowned in the Lagunes,
+but in the Canale Orfano.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, eccellenza, and we are forbidden to cast our nets there, on pain
+of sleeping with the eels at its bottom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So much greater reason for believing that this old man hath died by
+accident. Is there mark of violence on his body? for though the state
+could scarcely occupy itself with such as he, some other might. Hath the
+condition of the body been looked to?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, it was enough to cast one of his years into the centre of
+the Lagunes. The stoutest arm in Venice could not save him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There may have been violence in some quarrel, and the proper authority
+should be vigilant. Here is a Carmelite! Father, do you know aught of
+this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk endeavored to answer, but his voice failed. He stared wildly
+about him, for the whole scene resembled some frightful picture of the
+imagination, and then folding his arms on his bosom, he appeared to
+resume his prayers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou dost not answer, Friar?&quot; observed the Doge, who had been as
+effectually deceived, by the natural and indifferent manner of the
+inquisitor, as any other of his auditors. &quot;Where didst thou find this
+body?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo briefly explained the manner in which he had been pressed
+into the service of the fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>At the elbow of the prince there stood a young patrician, who, at the
+moment, filled no other office in the state than such as belonged to his
+birth. Deceived, like the others, by the manner of the only one who knew
+the real cause of Antonio's death, he felt a humane and praiseworthy
+desire to make sure that no foul play had been exercised towards the
+victim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard of this Antonio,&quot; said this person, who was called the
+Senator Soranzo, and who was gifted by nature with feelings that, in any
+other form of government, would have made him a philanthropist, &quot;and of
+his success in the regatta. Was it not said that Jacopo, the Bravo, was
+his competitor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A low, meaning, and common murmur ran through the throng.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man of his reputed passions and ferocity may well have sought to
+revenge defeat by violence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A second and a louder murmur denoted the effect this suggestion had
+produced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, Jacopo deals in the stiletto!&quot; observed the half-credulous
+but still doubting fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is as may be necessary. A man of his art and character may have
+recourse to other means to gratify his malice. Do you not agree with me,
+Signore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Senator Soranzo put this question, in perfect good faith, to the
+unknown member of the secret council. The latter appeared struck with
+the probability of the truth of his companion's conjecture, but
+contented himself with a simple acknowledgment to that effect, by
+bowing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo! Jacopo!&quot; hoarsely repeated voice after voice in the
+crowd&mdash;&quot;Jacopo has done this! The best gondolier in Venice has been
+beaten by an old fisherman, and nothing but blood could wipe out the
+disgrace!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It shall be inquired into, my children, and strict justice done,&quot; said
+the Doge, preparing to depart. &quot;Officers, give money for masses, that
+the soul of the unhappy man be not the sufferer. Reverend Carmelite, I
+commend the body to thy care, and thou canst do no better service than
+to pass the night in prayer by its side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A thousand caps were waved in commendation of this gracious command, and
+the whole throng stood in silent respect, as the prince, followed by his
+retinue, retired as he had approached, through the long, vaulted gallery
+above.</p>
+
+<p>A secret order of the Inquisition prevented the appearance of the
+Dalmatians.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later and all was prepared. A bier and canopy were brought
+out of the adjoining cathedral, and the corpse was placed upon the
+former. Father Anselmo then headed the procession, which passed through
+the principal gate of the palace into the square, chanting the usual
+service. The Piazzetta and the piazza were still empty. Here and there,
+indeed, a curious face, belonging to some agent of the police, or to
+some observer more firm than common, looked out from beneath the arches
+of the porticoes on the movements of the mob, though none ventured to
+come within its influence.</p>
+
+<p>But the fishermen were no longer bent on violence. With the fickleness
+of men little influenced by reflection, and subject to sudden and
+violent emotions, a temperament which, the effect of a selfish system,
+is commonly tortured into the reason why it should never be improved,
+they had abandoned all idea of revenge on the agents of the police, and
+had turned their thoughts to the religious services, which, being
+commanded by the prince himself, were so flattering to their class.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that a few of the sterner natures among them mingled menaces
+against the Bravo with their prayers for the dead, but these had no
+other effect on the matter in hand, than is commonly produced by the
+by-players on the principal action of the piece.</p>
+
+<p>The great portal of the venerable church was thrown open, and the solemn
+chant was heard issuing, in responses, from among the quaint columns and
+vaulted roofs within. The body of the lowly and sacrificed Antonio was
+borne beneath that arch which sustains the precious relics of Grecian
+art, and deposited in the nave. Candles glimmered before the altar and
+around the ghastly person of the dead, throughout the night; and the
+cathedral of St. Mark was pregnant with all the imposing ceremonials of
+the Catholic ritual, until the day once more appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Priest succeeded priest, in repeating the masses, while the attentive
+throng listened, as if each of its members felt that his own honor and
+importance were elevated by this concession to one of their number. In
+the square the maskers gradually reappeared, though the alarm had been
+too sudden and violent, to admit a speedy return to the levity which
+ordinarily was witnessed in that spot, between the setting and the
+rising of the sun.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;'Tis of a lady in her earliest youth,<br />
+The very last of that illustrious race.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ROGERS.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>When the fishermen landed on the quay, they deserted the gondola of the
+state to a man. Donna Violetta and her governess heard the tumultuous
+departure of their singular captors with alarm, for they were nearly in
+entire ignorance of the motive which had deprived them of the protection
+of Father Anselmo, and which had so unexpectedly made them actors in the
+extraordinary scene. The monk had simply explained that his offices were
+required in behalf of the dead, but the apprehension of exciting
+unnecessary terror prevented him from adding that they were in the power
+of a mob. Donna Florinda, however, had ascertained sufficient, by
+looking from the windows of the canopy and from the cries of those
+around her, to get a glimmering of the truth. Under the circumstances,
+she saw that the most prudent course was to keep themselves as much as
+possible from observation. But when the profound stillness that
+succeeded the landing of the rioters announced that they were alone,
+both she and her charge had an intuitive perception of the favorable
+chance which fortune had so strangely thrown in their way.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are gone!&quot; whispered Donna Florinda, holding her breath in
+attention, as soon as she had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the police will be soon here to seek us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No further explanation passed, for Venice was a town in which even the
+young and innocent were taught caution. Donna Florinda stole another
+look without.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They have disappeared, Heaven knows where! Let us go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In an instant the trembling fugitives were on the quay. The Piazzetta
+was without a human form, except their own. A low, murmuring sound arose
+from the court palace, which resembled the hum of a disturbed hive; but
+nothing was distinct or intelligible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is violence meditated,&quot; again whispered the governess; &quot;would to
+God that Father Anselmo were here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shuffling footstep caught their ears, and both turned towards a boy,
+in the dress of one of the Lagunes, who approached from the direction of
+the Broglio.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A reverend Carmelite bid me give you this,&quot; said the youth, stealing a
+glance behind him, like one who dreaded detection. Then putting a small
+piece of paper in the hand of Donna Florinda, he turned his own swarthy
+palm, in which a small silver coin glittered, to the moon, and vanished.</p>
+
+<p>By the aid of the same light the governess succeeded in tracing
+pencil-marks, in a hand that had been well known to her younger days.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Save thyself, Florinda&mdash;There is not an instant to lose. Avoid public
+places, and seek a shelter quickly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But whither?&quot; asked the bewildered woman, when she had read aloud the
+scroll.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anywhere but here,&quot; rejoined Donna Violetta; &quot;follow me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nature frequently more than supplies the advantages of training and
+experience, by her own gifts. Had Donna Florinda been possessed of the
+natural decision and firmness of her pupil, she would not now have been
+existing in the isolated condition which is so little congenial to
+female habits, nor would Father Anselmo have been a monk. Both had
+sacrificed inclination to what they considered to be duty, and if the
+ungenial life of the governess was owing to the tranquil course of her
+ordinary feelings, it is probable that its impunity was to be ascribed
+to the same respectable cause. Not so with Violetta. She was ever more
+ready to act than to reflect, and though, in general, the advantage
+might possibly be with those of a more regulated temperament, there are
+occasions that form exceptions to the rule. The present moment was one
+of those turns in the chances of life, when it is always better to do
+anything than to do nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Donna Violetta had scarcely spoken, before her person was shadowed
+beneath the arches of the Broglio. Her governess clung to her side, more
+in affection than in compliance with the warnings of the monk, or with
+the dictates of her own reason. A vague and romantic intention of
+throwing herself at the feet of the Doge, who was a collateral
+descendant of her own ancient house, had flashed across the mind of the
+youthful bride, when she first fled; but no sooner had they reached the
+palace, than a cry from the court acquainted them with its situation,
+and consequently with the impossibility of penetrating to the interior.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us retire, by the streets, to thy dwelling, my child,&quot; said Donna
+Florinda, drawing her mantle about her in womanly dignity. &quot;None will
+offend females of our condition; even the Senate must, in the end,
+respect our sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This from thee, Florinda! Thou, who hast so often trembled for their
+anger! But go, if thou wilt&mdash;I am no longer the Senate's. Don Camillo
+Monforte has my duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Florinda had no intention of disputing this point, and as the
+moment had now arrived when the most energetic was likely to lead, she
+quietly submitted herself to the superior decision of her pupil. The
+latter took the way along the portico, keeping always within its
+shadows. In passing the gateway which opened towards the sea, the
+fugitives had a glimpse of what was going on in the court. The sight
+quickened their steps, and they now flew, rather than ran, along the
+arched passage. In a minute they were on the bridge which crosses the
+canal of St. Mark, still flying with all their force. A few mariners
+were looking from their feluccas and gazing in curiosity, but the sight
+of two terrified females, seeking refuge from a mob, had nothing in
+itself likely to attract notice.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, a dark mass of human bodies appeared advancing along the
+quay in the opposite direction. Arms glittered in the moon-beams, and
+the measured tread of trained men became audible. The Dalmatians were
+moving down from the arsenal in a body. Advance and retreat now seemed
+equally impossible to the breathless fugitives. As decision and
+self-possession are very different qualities, Donna Violetta did not
+understand so readily as the circumstances required, that it was more
+than probable the hirelings of the Republic would consider the flight
+perfectly natural, as it had appeared to the curious gazers of the port.</p>
+
+<p>Terror made them blind, and as shelter was now the sole object of the
+fugitives, they would probably have sought it in the chamber of doom
+itself, had there been an opportunity. As it was, they turned and
+entered the first, and indeed the only gate which offered. They were met
+by a girl, whose anxious face betrayed that singular compound of
+self-devotion and terror, which probably has its rise in the instinct of
+feminine sympathies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is safety, noble ladies,&quot; said the youthful Venetian, in the soft
+accent of her native islands; &quot;none will dare do you harm within these
+walls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Into whose palace have I entered?&quot; demanded the half-breathless
+Violetta. &quot;If its owner has a name in Venice, he will not refuse
+hospitality to a daughter of Tiepolo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signora, you are welcome,&quot; returned the gentle girl, curtsying low, and
+still leading the way deeper within the vast edifice. &quot;You bear the name
+of an illustrious house!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are few in the Republic of note, from whom I may not claim,
+either the kindness of ancient and near services, or that of kindred.
+Dost thou serve a noble master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The first in Venice, lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name him, that we may demand his hospitality as befits us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Saint Mark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donna Violetta and her governess stopped short.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have we unconsciously entered a portal of the palace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That were impossible, lady, since the canal lies between you and the
+residence of the Doge. Still is St. Mark master here. I hope you will
+not esteem your safety less, because it has been obtained in the public
+prison, and by the aid of its keeper's daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The moment for headlong decision was passed, and that of reflection had
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How art thou called, child?&quot; asked Donna Florinda, moving ahead of her
+pupil and taking the discourse up, where in wonder the other had
+permitted it to pause. &quot;We are truly grateful for the readiness with
+which thou threw open the gate for our admission, in a moment of such
+alarm&mdash;How art thou called?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina,&quot; answered the modest girl. &quot;I am the keeper's only
+child&mdash;and when I saw ladies of your honorable condition fleeing on the
+quay, with the Dalmatians marching on one side, and a mob shouting on
+the other, I bethought me that even a prison might be welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy goodness of heart did not mislead thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had I known it was a lady of the Tiepolo, I should have been even more
+ready; for there are few of that great name now left to do us honor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Violetta curtsied to the compliment, but she seemed uneasy that haste
+and pride of rank had led her so indiscreetly to betray herself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Canst thou not lead us to some place less public?&quot; she asked,
+observing that her conductor had stopped in a public corridor to make
+this explanation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here you will be retired as in your own palaces, great ladies,&quot;
+answered Gelsomina, turning into a private passage, and leading the way
+towards the rooms of her family, from a window of which she had first
+witnessed the embarrassment of her guests. &quot;None enter here, without
+cause, but my father and myself; and my father is much occupied with his
+charge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou no domestic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, lady. A prison-keeper's daughter should not be too proud to serve
+herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou sayest well. One of thy discretion, good Gelsomina, must know it
+is not seemly for females of condition to be thrown within walls like
+these, even by accident, and thou wilt do us much favor, by taking more
+than common means to be certain that we are unseen. We give thee much
+trouble, but it shall not go unrequited. Here is gold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina did not answer, but as she stood with her eyes cast to the
+floor, the color stole to her cheeks, until her usually bloodless face
+was in a soft glow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I have mistaken thy character!&quot; said Donna Florinda, secreting the
+sequins, and taking the unresisting hand of the silent girl. &quot;If I have
+pained thee by my indiscretion, attribute the offer to our dread of the
+disgrace of being seen in this place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The glow deepened, and the lips of the girl quivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it then a disgrace to be innocently within these walls, lady?&quot; she
+asked, still with an averted eye. &quot;I have long suspected this, but none
+has ever before said it, in my hearing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Maria pardon me! If I have uttered a syllable to pain thee,
+excellent girl, it has been unwittingly and without intention!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are poor, lady, and the needy must submit to do that which their
+wishes might lead them to avoid. I understand your feelings, and will
+make sure of your being secret, and Blessed Maria will pardon a greater
+sin than any you have committed here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While the ladies were wondering, at witnessing such proofs of delicacy
+and feeling in so singular a place, the girl withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had not expected this in a prison!&quot; exclaimed Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As all is not noble or just in a palace, neither is all to be condemned
+unheard, that we find in a prison. But this is, in sooth, an
+extraordinary girl for her condition, and we are indebted to blessed St.
+Theodore (crossing herself) for putting her in our way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can we do better than by making her a confidante and a friend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The governess was older, and less disposed than her pupil to confide in
+appearances. But the more ardent mind and superior rank of the latter
+had given her an influence that the former did not always successfully
+resist. Gelsomina returned before there was time to discuss the prudence
+of what Violetta had proposed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast a father, Gelsomina?&quot; asked the Venetian heiress, taking the
+hand of the gentle girl, as she put her question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Maria be praised! I have still that happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a happiness&mdash;for surely a father would not have the heart to sell
+his own child to ambition and mercenary hopes! And thy mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Has long been bed-ridden, lady. I believe we should not have been here,
+but we have no other place so suitable for her sufferings as this jail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina, thou art happier than I, even in thy prison. I am
+fatherless&mdash;motherless&mdash;I could almost say, friendless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this from a lady of the Tiepolo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All is not as it seems in this evil world, kind Gelsomina. We have had
+many Doges, but we have had much suffering. Thou mayest have heard that
+the house of which I come is reduced to a single, youthful girl like
+thyself, who has been left in the Senate's charge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They speak little of these matters, lady, in Venice; and, of all here,
+none go so seldom into the square as I. Still have I heard of the beauty
+and riches of Donna Violetta. The last I hope is true; the first I now
+see is so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The daughter of Tiepolo colored, in turn, but it was not in resentment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They have spoken in too much kindness for an orphan,&quot; she answered;
+&quot;though that fatal wealth is perhaps not over-estimated. Thou knowest
+that the state charges itself with the care and establishment of all
+noble females, whom Providence has left fatherless?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady, I did not. It is kind of St. Mark to do it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt think differently, anon. Thou art young, Gelsomina, and hast
+passed thy time in privacy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, lady. It is seldom I go further than my mother's room, or the
+cell of some suffering prisoner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Violetta looked towards her governess, with an expression which seemed
+to say, that she anticipated her appeal would be made in vain, to one so
+little exposed to the feelings of the world.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt not understand, then, that a noble female may have little
+inclination to comply with all the Senate's wishes, in disposing of her
+duties and affections?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina gazed at the fair speaker, but it was evident that she did not
+clearly comprehend the question. Again Violetta looked at the governess
+as if asking aid.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The duties of our sex are often painful,&quot; said Donna Florinda,
+understanding the appeal with female instinct. &quot;Our attachments may not
+always follow the wishes of our friends. We may not choose, but we
+cannot always obey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard that noble ladies are not suffered to see those to whom
+they are to be wedded, Signora, if that is what your eccellenza means,
+and, to me, the custom has always seemed unjust, if not cruel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And are females of thy class permitted to make friends among those who
+may become dearer at any other day?&quot; asked Violetta.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady, we have that much freedom even in the prisons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then art thou happier than those of the palaces! I will trust thee,
+generous girl, for thou canst not be unfaithful to the weakness and
+wrongs of thy sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina raised a hand, as if to stop the impetuous confidence of her
+guest, and then she listened intently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Few enter here,&quot; she said; &quot;but there are many ways of learning secrets
+within these walls which are still unknown to me. Come deeper into the
+rooms, noble ladies, for here is a place that I have reason to think is
+safe, even from listeners.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The keeper's daughter led the way into the little room in which she was
+accustomed to converse with Jacopo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were saying, lady, that I had a feeling for the weakness and
+helplessness of our sex, and surely you did me justice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Violetta had leisure to reflect an instant, in passing from one room to
+the other, and she began her communications with more reserve. But the
+sensitive interest that a being of the gentle nature and secluded habits
+of Gelsomina took in her narrative, won upon her own natural frankness,
+and, in a manner nearly imperceptible to herself, she made the keeper's
+daughter mistress of most of the circumstances under which she had
+entered the prison.</p>
+
+<p>The cheek of Gelsomina became colorless as she listened and when Donna
+Violetta ceased, every limb of her slight frame trembled with interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Senate is a fearful power to resist!&quot; she said, speaking so low as
+hardly to be audible. &quot;Have you reflected, lady, on the chances of what
+you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I have not, it is now too late to change my intentions, I am the
+wife of the Duke of Sant' Agata, and can never wed another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gesu! This is true. And yet, methinks, I would choose to die a nun
+rather than offend the council!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest not, good girl, to what courage the heart of even a young
+wife is equal. Thou art still bound to thy father, in the instruction
+and habits of childhood, but thou mayest live to know that all thy hopes
+will centre in another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina ceased to tremble, and her mild eye brightened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The council is terrible,&quot; she answered, &quot;but it must be more terrible
+to desert one to whom you have vowed duty and love at the altar!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou the means of concealing us, kind girl,&quot; interrupted Donna
+Florinda, &quot;and canst thou, when this tumult shall be quieted, in any
+manner help us to further secresy or flight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady, I have none. Even the streets and squares of Venice are nearly
+strangers to me. Santissima Maria! what would I give to know the ways of
+the town as well as my cousin Annina, who passes at will from her
+father's shop to the Lido, and from St. Mark's to the Rialto, as her
+pleasure suits. I will send for my cousin, who will counsel us in this
+fearful strait!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy cousin! Hast thou a cousin named Annina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady, Annina. My mother's sister's child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The daughter of a wine-seller called Tomaso Torti?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do the noble dames of the city take such heed of their inferiors! This
+will charm my cousin, for she has great desires to be noted by the
+great.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And does thy cousin come hither?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rarely, lady&mdash;we are not of much intimacy. I suppose Annina finds a
+girl, simple and uninstructed as I, unworthy of her company. But she
+will not refuse to aid us in a danger like this. I know she little loves
+the Republic, for we have had words on its acts, and my cousin has been
+bolder of speech about them, than befits one of her years, in this
+prison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina, thy cousin is a secret agent of the police, and unworthy of
+thy confidence&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not speak without reason. Trust me, she is employed in duties that
+are unbecoming her sex, and unworthy of thy confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Noble dames, I will not say anything to do displeasure to your high
+rank and present distress, but you should not urge me to think thus of
+my mother's niece. You have been unhappy, and you may have cause to
+dislike the Republic, and you are safe here&mdash;but I do not desire to hear
+Annina censured.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Both Donna Florinda and her less experienced pupil knew enough of human
+nature, to consider this generous incredulity as a favorable sign of the
+integrity of her who manifested it, and they wisely contented themselves
+with stipulating that Annina should on no account be made acquainted
+with their situation. After this understanding, the three discussed more
+leisurely the prospect of the fugitives being able to quit the place,
+when ready, without detection.</p>
+
+<p>At the suggestion of the governess, a servitor of the prison was sent
+out by Gelsomina, to observe the state of the square. He was
+particularly charged, though in a manner to avoid suspicion, to search
+for a Carmelite of the order of the bare-footed friars. On his return,
+the menial reported that the mob had quitted the court of the palace,
+and was gone to the cathedral, with the body of the fisherman who had so
+unexpectedly gained the prize in the regatta of the preceding day.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Repeat your aves and go to sleep, Bella Gelsomina,&quot; concluded the
+sub-keeper, &quot;for the fishermen have left off shouting to say their
+prayers. Per Diana! The bare-headed and bare-legged rascals are as
+impudent as if St. Mark were their inheritance! The noble patricians
+should give them a lesson in modesty, by sending every tenth knave among
+them to the galleys. Miscreants! to disturb the quiet of an orderly town
+with their vulgar complaints!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But thou hast said nothing of the friar; is he with the rioters?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a Carmelite at the altar&mdash;but my blood boiled at seeing such
+vagabonds disturb the peace of respectable persons, and I took little
+note of his air or years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then thou failedst to do the errand on which I sent thee. It is now too
+late to repair thy fault. Thou canst return to thy charge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A million pardons, Bellissima Gelsomina, but indignation is the
+uppermost feeling, when one in office sees his rights attacked by the
+multitude. Send me to Corfu, or to Candia, if you please, and I will
+bring back the color of every stone in their prisons, but do not send me
+among rebels. My gorge rises at the sight of villany!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As the keeper's daughter withdrew, while her father's assistant was
+making this protestation of loyalty, the latter was compelled to give
+vent to the rest of his indignation in a soliloquy.</p>
+
+<p>One of the tendencies of oppression is to create a scale of tyranny,
+descending from those who rule a state, to those who domineer over a
+single individual. He, who has been much accustomed to view men, need
+not be told that none are so arrogant with their inferiors, as those who
+are oppressed by their superiors; for poor human nature has a secret
+longing to revenge itself on the weak for all the injuries it receives
+from the strong. On the other hand, no class is so willing to render
+that deference, when unexacted, which is the proper meed of virtue, and
+experience, and intelligence, as he who knows that he is fortified on
+every side against innovations on his natural rights. Thus it is, that
+there is more security against popular violence and popular insults in
+these free states, than in any other country on earth, for there is
+scarcely a citizen so debased as not to feel that, in assuming the
+appearance of a wish to revenge the chances of fortune, he is making an
+undue admission of inferiority.</p>
+
+<p>Though the torrent may be pent up and dammed by art, it is with the
+constant hazard of breaking down the unnatural barriers; but left to its
+own course, it will become the tranquil and the deep stream, until it
+finally throws off its superfluous waters into the common receptacle of
+the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>When Gelsomina returned to her visitors, it was with a report favorable
+to their tranquillity. The riot in the court of the palace, and the
+movement of the Dalmatians, had drawn all eyes in another direction; and
+although some errant gaze might have witnessed their entrance into the
+gate of the prison, it was so natural a circumstance, that no one would
+suspect females of their appearance of remaining there an instant longer
+than was necessary. The momentary absence of the few servants of the
+prison, who took little heed of those who entered the open parts of the
+building, and who had been drawn away by curiosity, completed their
+security. The humble room they were in was exclusively devoted to the
+use of their gentle protector, and there was scarcely a possibility of
+interruption, until the council had obtained the leisure and the means
+of making use of those terrible means, which rarely left anything it
+wished to know concealed.</p>
+
+<p>With this explanation Donna Violetta and her companion were greatly
+satisfied. It left them leisure to devise means for their flight, and
+kindled a hope, in the former, of being speedily restored to Don
+Camillo. Still there existed the cruel embarrassment of not possessing
+the means of acquainting the latter with their situation. As the tumult
+ceased, they resolved to seek a boat, avored by such disguises as the
+means of Gelsomina could supply, and to row to his palace; but
+reflection convinced Donna Florinda of the danger of such a step, since
+the Neapolitan was known to be surrounded by the agents of the police.
+Accident, which is more effectual than stratagem in defeating intrigues,
+had thrown them into a place of momentary security, and it would be to
+lose the vantage-ground of their situation to cast themselves, without
+the utmost caution, into the hazards of the public canals.</p>
+
+<p>At length the governess bethought her of turning the services of the
+gentle creature, who had already shown so much sympathy in their behalf,
+to account. During the revelations of her pupil, the feminine instinct
+of Donna Florinda had enabled her to discover the secret springs which
+moved the unpractised feelings of their auditor. Gelsomina had listened
+to the manner in which Don Camillo had thrown himself into the canal to
+save the life of Violetta, with breathless admiration; her countenance
+was a pure reflection of her thoughts, when the daughter of Tiepolo
+spoke of the risks he had run to gain her love, and woman glowed in
+every lineament of her mild face, when the youthful bride touched on the
+nature of the engrossing tie which had united them, and which was far
+too holy to be severed by the Senate's policy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we had the means of getting our situation to the ears of Don
+Camillo,&quot; said the governess, &quot;all might yet be saved; else will this
+happy refuge in the prison avail us nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the cavalier of too stout a heart to shrink before those up above?&quot;
+demanded Gelsomina.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He would summon the people of his confidence, and ere the dawn of day
+we might still be beyond their power. Those calculating senators will
+deal with the vows of my pupil as if they were childish oaths, and set
+the anger of the Holy See itself at defiance, when there is question of
+their interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the sacrament of marriage is not of man; that, at least, they will
+respect!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Believe it not. There is no obligation so solemn as to be respected,
+when their policy is concerned. What are the wishes of a girl, or what
+the happiness of a solitary and helpless female, to their fortunes? That
+my charge is young, is a reason why their wisdom should interfere,
+though it is none to touch their hearts with the reflection that the
+misery to which they would condemn her, is to last the longer. They take
+no account of the solemn obligations of gratitude; the ties of affection
+are so many means of working upon the fears of those they rule, but none
+for forbearance; and they laugh at the devotedness of woman's love, as a
+folly to amuse their leisure, or to take off the edge of disappointment
+in graver concerns.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can anything be more grave than wedlock, lady?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To them it is important, as it furnishes the means of perpetuating
+their honors and their proud names. Beyond this, the council looks
+little at domestic interests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are fathers and husbands!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, for to be legally the first, they must become the last. Marriage
+to them is not a tie of sacred and dear affinity, but the means of
+increasing their riches and of sustaining their names,&quot; continued the
+governess, watching the effect of her words on the countenance of the
+guileless girl. &quot;They call marriages of affection children's games, and
+they deal with the wishes of their own daughters, as they would traffic
+with their commodities of commerce. When a state sets up an idol of gold
+as its god, few will refuse to sacrifice at its altar!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would I might serve the noble Donna Violetta!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art too young, good Gelsomina, and I fear too little practised in
+the cunning of Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt me not, lady; for I can do my duty like another, in a good
+cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it were possible to convey to Don Camillo Monforte a knowledge of
+our situation&mdash;but thou art too inexperienced for the service!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Believe it not, Signora,&quot; interrupted the generous Gelsomina, whose
+pride began to stimulate her natural sympathies with one so near her own
+age, and one too, like herself, subject to that passion which engrosses
+a female heart. &quot;I may be apter than my appearance would give reason to
+think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will trust thee, kind girl, and if the Sainted Virgin protects us,
+thy fortunes shall not be forgotten!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The pious Gelsomina crossed herself, and, first acquainting her
+companions with her intentions, she went within to prepare herself,
+while Donna Florinda penned a note, in terms so guarded as to defy
+detection in the event of accident, but which might suffice to let the
+lord of St. Agata understand their present situation.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes the keeper's daughter reappeared. Her ordinary attire,
+which was that of a modest Venetian maiden of humble condition, needed
+no concealment; and the mask, an article of dress which none in that
+city were without, effectually disguised her features. She then received
+the note, with the name of the street, and the palace she was to seek, a
+description of the person of the Neapolitan, with often-repeated
+cautions to be wary, and departed.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXIV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Which is the wiser here?&mdash;Justice or iniquity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">MEASURE FOR MEASURE.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>In the constant struggle between the innocent and the artful, the latter
+have the advantage, so long as they confine themselves to familiar
+interests. But the moment the former conquer their disgust for the study
+of vice, and throw themselves upon the protection of their own high
+principles, they are far more effectually concealed from the
+calculations of their adversaries than if they practised the most
+refined of their subtle expedients. Nature has given to every man enough
+of frailty to enable him to estimate the workings of selfishness and
+fraud, but her truly privileged are those who can shroud their motives
+and intentions in a degree of justice and disinterestedness, which
+surpass the calculations of the designing. Millions may bow to the
+commands of a conventional right, but few, indeed, are they who know how
+to choose in novel and difficult cases. There is often a mystery in
+virtue. While the cunning of vice is no more than a pitiful imitation of
+that art which endeavors to cloak its workings in the thin veil of
+deception, the other, in some degree, resembles the sublimity of
+infallible truth.</p>
+
+<p>Thus men too much practised in the interests of life, constantly
+overreach themselves when brought in contact with the simple and
+intelligent; and the experience of every day proves that, as there is no
+fame permanent which is not founded on virtue, so there is no policy
+secure which is not bottomed on the good of the whole. Vulgar minds may
+control the concerns of a community so long as they arc limited to
+vulgar views; but woe to the people who confide on great emergencies in
+any but the honest, the noble, the wise, and the philanthropic; for
+there is no security for success when the meanly artful control the
+occasional and providential events which regenerate a nation. More than
+half the misery which has defeated as well as disgraced civilization,
+proceeds from neglecting to use those great men that are always created
+by great occasions.</p>
+
+<p>Treating, as we are, of the vices of the Venetian system, our pen has
+run truant with its subject, since the application of the moral must be
+made on the familiar scale suited to the incidents of our story. It has
+already been seen that Gelsomina was intrusted with certain important
+keys of the prison. For this trust there had been sufficient motive with
+the wily guardians of the jail, who had made their calculations on her
+serving their particular orders, without ever suspecting that she was
+capable of so far listening to the promptings of a generous temper, as
+might induce her to use them in any manner prejudicial to their own
+views. The service to which they were now to be applied proved that the
+keepers, one of whom was her own father, had not fully known how to
+estimate the powers of the innocent and simple.</p>
+
+<p>Provided with the keys in question, Gelsomina took a lamp and passed
+upwards from the mezzinino in which she dwelt, to the first floor of the
+edifice, instead of descending to its court. Door was opened after door,
+and many a gloomy corridor was passed by the gentle girl, with the
+confidence of one who knew her motive to be good. She soon crossed the
+Bridge of Sighs, fearless of interruption in that unfrequented gallery,
+and entered the palace. Here she made her way to a door that opened on
+the common and public vomitories of the structure. Moving with
+sufficient care to make impunity from detection sure, she extinguished
+the light and applied the key. At the next instant she was on the vast
+and gloomy stairway. It required but a moment to descend it, and to
+reach the covered gallery which surrounded the court. A halberdier was
+within a few feet of her. He looked at the unknown female with interest;
+but as it was not his business to question those who issued from the
+building, nothing was said. Gelsomina walked on. A half-repenting but
+vindictive being was dropping an accusation in the lion's mouth.
+Gelsomina stopped involuntarily until the secret accuser had done his
+treacherous work and departed. Then, when she was about to proceed, she
+saw that the halberdier at the head of the Giant's stairway was smiling
+at her indecision, like one accustomed to such scenes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there danger in quitting the palace?&quot; she asked of the rough
+mountaineer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Corpo di Bacco! There might have been an hour since, Bella Donna; but
+the rioters are muzzled and at their prayers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina hesitated no longer. She descended the well known flight, down
+which the head of Faliero had rolled, and was soon beneath the arch of
+the gate. Here the timid and unpractised maid again stopped, for she
+could not venture into the square without assuring herself, like a deer
+about to quit its cover, of the tranquillity of the place into which she
+was to enter.</p>
+
+<p>The agents of the police had been too much alarmed by the rising of the
+fishermen not to call their usual ingenuity and finesse into play, the
+moment the disturbance was appeased. Money had been given to the
+mountebanks and ballad singers to induce them to reappear, and groups of
+hirelings, some in masks and others without concealment, were
+ostentatiously assembled in different parts of the piazza. In short,
+those usual expedients were resorted to which are constantly used to
+restore the confidence of a people, in those countries in which
+civilization is so new, that they are not yet considered sufficiently
+advanced to be the guardians of their own security. There are few
+artifices so shallow that many will not be their dupes. The idler, the
+curious, the really discontented, the factious, the designing, with a
+suitable mixture of the unthinking, and of those who only live for the
+pleasure of the passing hour, a class not the least insignificant for
+numbers, had lent themselves to the views of the police; and when
+Gelsomina was ready to enter the Piazzetta, she found both the squares
+partly filled. A few excited fishermen clustered about the doors of the
+cathedral, like bees swarming before their hive; but, on that side,
+there was no very visible cause of alarm. Unaccustomed as she was to
+scenes like that before her, the first glance assured the gentle girl of
+the real privacy which so singularly distinguishes the solitude of a
+crowd. Gathering her simple mantle more closely about her form, and
+settling her mask with care, she moved with a swift step into the centre
+of the piazza.</p>
+
+<p>We shall not detail the progress of our heroine, as, avoiding the
+commonplace gallantry that assailed and offended her ear, she went her
+way on her errand of kindness. Young, active, and impelled by her
+intentions, the square was soon passed, and she reached the place of San
+Nico. Here was one of the landings of the public gondolas. But at the
+moment there was no boat in waiting, for curiosity or fear had induced
+the men to quit their usual stand. Gelsomina had ascended the bridge,
+and was on the crown of its arch, when a gondolier came sweeping lazily
+in from the direction of the Grand Canal. Her hesitation and doubting
+manner attracted his attention, and the man made the customary sign
+which conveyed the offer of his services. As she was nearly a stranger
+in the streets of Venice, labyrinths that offer greater embarrassment to
+the uninitiated than perhaps the passages of any other town of its size,
+she gladly availed herself of the offer. To descend to the steps, to
+leap into the boat, to utter the word &quot;Rialto,&quot; and to conceal herself
+in the pavilion, was the business of a minute. The boat was instantly in
+motion.</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina now believed herself secure of effecting her purpose, since
+there was little to apprehend from the knowledge or the designs of a
+common boatman. He could not know her object, and it was his interest to
+carry her in safety to the place she had commanded. But so important was
+success, that she could not feel secure of attaining it while it was
+still unaccomplished. She soon summoned sufficient resolution to look
+out at the palaces and boats they were passing, and she felt the
+refreshing air of the canal revive her courage. Then turning with a
+sensitive distrust to examine the countenance of the gondolier, she saw
+that his features were concealed beneath a mask that was so well
+designed, as not to be perceptible to a casual observer by moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>Though it was common on occasions for the servants of the great, it was
+not usual for the public gondoliers to be disguised. The circumstance
+itself was one justly to excite slight apprehension, though, on second
+thoughts, Gelsomina saw no more in it than a return from some expedition
+of pleasure, or some serenade perhaps, in which the caution of a lover
+had compelled his followers to resort to this species of concealment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I put you on the public quay, Signora,&quot; demanded the gondolier,&quot;
+or shall I see you to the gate of your own palace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The heart of Gelsomina beat high. She liked the tone of the voice,
+though it was necessarily smothered by the mask, but she was so little
+accustomed to act in the affairs of others, and less still in any of so
+great interest, that the sounds caused her to tremble like one less
+worthily employed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou know the palace of a certain Don Camillo Monforte, a lord of
+Calabria, who dwells here in Venice?&quot; she asked, after a moment's pause.
+The gondolier sensibly betrayed surprise, by the manner in which he
+started at the question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would you be rowed there, lady?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thou art certain of knowing the palazzo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The water stirred, and the gondola glided between high walls. Gelsomina
+knew by the sound that they were in one of the smaller canals, and she
+augured well of the boatman's knowledge of the town. They soon stopped
+by the side of a water-gate, and the man appeared on the step, holding
+an arm to aid her in ascending, after the manner of people of his craft.
+Gelsomina bade him wait her return, and proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>There was a marked derangement in the household of Don Camillo, that one
+more practised than our heroine would have noted. The servants seemed
+undecided in the manner of performing the most ordinary duties; their
+looks wandered distrustfully from one to another, and when their
+half-frightened visitor entered the vestibule, though all arose, none
+advanced to meet her. A female masked was not a rare sight in Venice,
+for few of that sex went upon the canals without using the customary
+means of concealment; but it would seem by their hesitating manner that
+the menials of Don Camillo did not view the entrance of her who now
+appeared with the usual indifference.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am in the dwelling of the Duke of St. Agata, a Signore of Calabria?&quot;
+demanded Gelsomina, who saw the necessity of being firm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signora, si----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is your lord in the palace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signora, he is&mdash;and he is not. What beautiful lady shall I tell him
+does him this honor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he be not at home it will not be necessary to tell him anything. If
+he is, I could wish to see him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The domestics, of whom there were several, put their heads together,
+and seemed to dispute on the propriety of receiving the visit. At this
+instant a gondolier in a flowered jacket entered the vestibule.
+Gelsomina took courage at his good-natured eye and frank manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you serve Don Camillo Monforte?&quot; she asked, as he passed her, on his
+way to the canal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With the oar, Bellissima Donna,&quot; answered Gino, touching his cap,
+though scarce looking aside at the question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And could he be told that a female wishes earnestly to speak to him in
+private?&mdash;A female.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santa Maria! Bella Donna, there is no end to females who come on these
+errands in Venice. You might better pay a visit to the statue of San
+Teodore, in the piazza, than see my master at this moment; the stone
+will give you the better reception.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this he commands you to tell all of my sex who come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diavolo! Lady, you are particular in your questions. Perhaps my master
+might, on a strait, receive one of the sex I could name, but on the
+honor of a gondolier he is not the most gallant cavalier of Venice, just
+at this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If there is one to whom he would pay this deference, you are bold for a
+servitor. How know you I am not that one?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino started. He examined the figure of the applicant, and lifting his
+cap, he bowed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady, I do not know anything about it,&quot; he said; &quot;you may be his
+Highness the Doge, or the ambassador of the emperor. I pretend to know
+nothing in Venice of late----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The words of Gino were cut short by a tap on the shoulder from the
+public gondolier, who had hastily entered the vestibule. The man
+whispered in the ear of Don Camillo's servitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is not a moment to refuse any,&quot; he said. &quot;Let the stranger go up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gino hesitated no longer. With the decision of a favored menial he
+pushed the groom of the chambers aside, and offered to conduct Gelsomina
+himself to the presence of his master. As they ascended the stairs,
+three of the inferior servants disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The palace of Don Camillo had an air of more than Venetian gloom. The
+rooms were dimly lighted, many of the walls had been stripped of the
+most precious of their pictures, and in other respects a jealous eye
+might have detected evidence of a secret intention, on the part of its
+owner, not to make a permanent residence of the dwelling. But these were
+particulars that Gelsomina did not note, as she followed Gino through
+the apartments, into the more private parts of the building. Here the
+gondolier unlocked a door, and regarding his companion with an air,
+half-doubting, half-respectful, he made a sign for her to enter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My master commonly receives the ladies here,&quot; he said. &quot;Enter,
+eccellenza, while I run to tell him of his happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina did not hesitate, though she felt a violent throb at the heart
+when she heard the key turning in the lock behind her. She was in an
+ante-chamber, and inferring from the light which shone through the door
+of an adjoining room that she was to proceed, she went on. No sooner had
+she entered the little closet than she found herself alone, with one of
+her own sex.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Annina!&quot; burst from the lips of the unpractised prison-girl, under the
+impulse of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina! The simple, quiet, whispering, modest Gelsomina!&quot; returned
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>The words of Annina admitted but of one construction. Wounded, like the
+bruised sensitive plant, Gelsomina withdrew her mask for air, actually
+gasping for breath, between offended pride and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou here!&quot; she added, scarce knowing-what she uttered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou here!&quot; repeated Annina, with such a laugh as escapes the degraded
+when they believe the innocent reduced to their own level.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I come on an errand of pity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santa Maria! we are both here with the same end!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Annina! I know not what thou would'st say! This is surely the palace of
+Don Camillo Monforte! a noble Neapolitan, who urges claims to the honors
+of the Senate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gayest, the handsomest, the richest, and the most inconstant
+cavalier in Venice! Hadst thou been here a thousand times thou could'st
+not be better informed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina listened in horror. Her artful cousin, who knew her character
+to the full extent that vice can comprehend innocence, watched her
+colorless cheek and contracting eye with secret triumph. At the first
+moment she had believed all that she insinuated, but second thoughts and
+a view of the visible distress of the frightened girl gave a new
+direction to her suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I tell thee nothing new,&quot; she quickly added. &quot;I only regret thou
+should'st find me, where, no doubt, you expected to meet the Duca di
+Sant' Agata himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Annina!&mdash;This from thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou surely didst not come to his palace to seek thy cousin!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina had long been familiar with grief, but until this moment she
+had never felt the deep humiliation of shame. Tears started from her
+eyes, and she sank back into a seat, in utter inability to stand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would not distress thee out of bearing,&quot; added the artful daughter of
+the wine-seller. &quot;But that we are both in the closet of the gayest
+cavalier of Venice, is beyond dispute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have told thee that pity for another brought me hither.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pity for Don Camillo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a noble lady&mdash;a young, a virtuous, and a beautiful wife&mdash;a daughter
+of the Tiepolo&mdash;of the Tiepolo, Annina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should a lady of the Tiepolo employ a girl of the public prisons!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why!&mdash;because there has been injustice by those up above. There has
+been a tumult among the fishermen&mdash;and the lady and her governess were
+liberated by the rioters&mdash;and his Highness spoke to them in the great
+court&mdash;and the Dalmatians were on the quay&mdash;and the prison was a refuge
+for ladies of their quality, in a moment of so great terror&mdash;and the
+Holy Church itself has blessed their love&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina could utter no more, but breathless with the wish to vindicate
+herself, and wounded to the soul by the strange embarrassment of her
+situation, she sobbed aloud. Incoherent as had been her language, she
+had said enough to remove every doubt from the mind of Annina. Privy to
+the secret marriage, to the rising of the fishermen, and to the
+departure of the ladies from the convent on a distant island, where they
+had been carried on quitting their own palace, the preceding night, and
+whither she had been compelled to conduct Don Camillo, who had
+ascertained the departure of those he sought without discovering their
+destination, the daughter of the wine-seller readily comprehended, not
+only the errand of her cousin, but the precise situation of the
+fugitives.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou believest this fiction, Gelsomina?&quot; she said, affecting pity
+for her cousin's credulity. &quot;The characters of thy pretended daughter of
+Tiepolo and her governess are no secrets to those who frequent the
+piazza of San Marco.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hadst thou seen the beauty and innocence of the lady, Annina, thou
+would'st not say this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blessed San Teodoro! What is more beautiful than vice! 'Tis the
+cheapest artifice of the devil to deceive frail sinners. This thou hast
+heard of thy confessor, Gelsomina, or he is of much lighter discourse
+than mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But why should a woman of this life enter the prisons?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They had good reasons to dread the Dalmatians, no doubt. But it is in
+my power to tell thee more, of these thou hast entertained, with such
+peril to thine own reputation. There are women in Venice who discredit
+their sex in various ways, and of these more particularly she who calls
+herself Florinda, is notorious for her agency in robbing St. Mark of his
+revenue. She has received a largess from the Neapolitan, of wines grown
+on his Calabrian mountains, and wishing to tamper with my honesty, she
+offered the liquor to me, expecting one like me to forget my duty, and
+to aid her in deceiving the Republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can this be true, Annina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should I deceive thee! Are we not sisters' children, and though
+affairs on the Lido keep me much from thy company, is not the love
+between us natural! I complained to the authorities, and the liquors
+were seized, and the pretended noble ladies were obliged to hide
+themselves this very day. 'Tis thought they wish to flee the city with
+their profligate Neapolitan. Driven to take shelter, they have sent thee
+to acquaint him with their hiding-place, in order that he may come to
+their aid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why art thou here, Annina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I marvel that thou didst not put the question sooner. Gino, the
+gondolier of Don Camillo, has long been an unfavored suitor of mine, and
+when this Florinda complained of my having, what every honest girl in
+Venice should do, exposed her fraud to the authorities, she advised his
+master to seize me, partly in revenge, and partly with the vain hope of
+making me retract the complaint I have made. Thou hast heard of the
+bold violence of these cavaliers when thwarted in their wills.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina then related the manner of her seizure, with sufficient
+exactitude, merely concealing those facts that it was not her interest
+to reveal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But there is a lady of the Tiepolo, Annina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As sure as there are cousins like ourselves. Santa Madre di Dio! that
+woman so treacherous and so bold should have met one of thy innocence!
+It would have been better had they fallen in with me, who am too
+ignorant for their cunning, blessed St. Anna knows!&mdash;but who have not to
+learn their true characters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They did speak of thee, Annina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The glance which the wine-seller's daughter threw at her cousin, was
+such as the treacherous serpent casts at the bird; but preserving her
+self-possession she added&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not to my favor; it would sicken me to hear words of favor from such as
+they!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are not thy friends, Annina.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps they told thee, child, that I was in the employment of the
+council?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed they did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No wonder. Your dishonest people can never believe one can do an act of
+pure conscience. But here comes the Neapolitan.&mdash;Note the libertine,
+Gelsomina, and thou wilt feel for him the same disgust as I!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and Don Camillo Monforte entered. There was an
+appearance of distrust in his manner, which proved that he did not
+expect to meet his bride. Gelsomina arose, and, though bewildered by the
+tale of her cousin, and her own previous impressions, she stood
+resembling a meek statue of modesty, awaiting his approach. The
+Neapolitan was evidently struck by her beauty, and the simplicity of her
+air, but his brow was fixed, like that of a man who had steeled his
+feelings against deceit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou would'st see me?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had that wish, noble Signore, but&mdash;Annina&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seeing another, thy mind hath changed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, it has.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Don Camillo looked at her earnestly, and with manly regret.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art young for thy vocation&mdash;here is gold. Retire as thou
+earnest.&mdash;But hold&mdash;dost thou know this Annina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is my mother's sister's daughter, noble Duca.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Per Diana! a worthy sisterhood! Depart together, for I have no need of
+either. But mark me,&quot; and as he spoke, Don Camillo took Annina by the
+arm, and led her aside, when he continued with a low but menacing
+voice&mdash;&quot;Thou seest I am to be feared, as well as thy Councils. Thou
+canst not cross the threshold of thy father without my knowledge. If
+prudent, thou wilt teach thy tongue discretion. Do as thou wilt, I fear
+thee not; but remember, prudence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Annina made an humble reverence, as if in acknowledgment of the wisdom
+of his advice, and taking the arm of her half-unconscious cousin, she
+again curtsied, and hurried from the room. As the presence of their
+master in his closet was known to them, none of the menials presumed to
+stop those who issued from the privileged room. Gelsomina, who was even
+more impatient than her wily companion to escape from a place she
+believed polluted, was nearly breathless when she reached the gondola.
+Its owner was in waiting on the steps, and in a moment the boat whirled
+away from a spot which both of those it contained were, though for
+reasons so very different, glad to quit.</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina had forgotten her mask in her hurry, and the gondola was no
+sooner in the great canal than she put her face at the window of the
+pavilion in quest of the evening air. The rays of the moon fell upon her
+guileless eye, and a cheek that was now glowing, partly with offended
+pride, and partly with joy at her escape from a situation she felt to
+be so degrading. Her forehead was touched with a finger, and turning she
+saw the gondolier making a sign of caution. He then slowly lifted his
+mask.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo!&quot; had half burst from her lips, but another sign suppressed the
+cry.</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina withdrew her head, and, after her beating heart had ceased to
+throb, she bowed her face and murmured thanksgivings at finding herself,
+at such a moment, under the protection of one who possessed all her
+confidence.</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier asked no orders for his direction. The boat moved on,
+taking the direction of the port, which appeared perfectly natural to
+the two females.</p>
+
+<p>Annina supposed it was returning to the square, the place she would have
+sought had she been alone, and Gelsomina, who believed that he whom she
+called Carlo, toiled regularly as a gondolier for support, fancied, of
+course, that he was taking her to her ordinary residence.</p>
+
+<p>But though the innocent can endure the scorn of the world, it is hard
+indeed to be suspected by those they love. All that Annina had told her
+of the character of Don Camillo and his associates came gradually across
+the mind of the gentle Gelsomina, and she felt the blood creeping to her
+temples, as she saw the construction her lover might put on her conduct.
+A dozen times did the artless girl satisfy herself with saying inwardly,
+&quot;he knows me and will believe the best,&quot; and as often did her feelings
+prompt her to tell the truth. Suspense is far more painful, at such
+moments, than even vindication, which, in itself, is a humiliating duty
+to the virtuous. Pretending a desire to breathe the air, she left her
+cousin in the canopy. Annina was not sorry to be alone, for she had need
+to reflect on all the windings of the sinuous path on which she had
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina succeeded in passing the pavilion, and in gaining the side of
+the gondolier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo!&quot;&mdash;she said, observing that he continued to row in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast not questioned me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know thy treacherous cousin, and can believe thou art her dupe. The
+moment to learn the truth will come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou didst not know me, Carlo, when I called thee from the bridge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did not. Any fare that would occupy my time was welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why dost thou call Annina treacherous?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because Venice does not hold a more wily heart, or a falser tongue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina remembered the warning of Donna Florinda. Possessed of the
+advantage of blood, and that reliance which the inexperienced always
+place in the integrity of their friends, until exposure comes to destroy
+the illusion, Annina had found it easy to persuade her cousin of the
+unworthiness of her guests. But here was one who had all her sympathies,
+who openly denounced Annina herself. In such a dilemma the bewildered
+girl did what nature and her feelings suggested. She recounted, in a low
+but rapid voice, the incidents of the evening, and Annina's construction
+of the conduct of the females whom she had left behind in the prison.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo listened so intently that his oar dragged in the water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enough,&quot; he said, when Gelsomina, blushing with her own earnestness to
+stand exculpated in his eyes, had done; &quot;I understand it all. Distrust
+thy cousin, for the Senate itself is not more false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The pretended Carlo spoke cautiously, but in a firm voice. Gelsomina
+took his meaning, though wondering at what she heard, and returned to
+Annina within. The gondola proceeded, as if nothing had occurred.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Enough.<br />
+I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee;<br />
+Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee:<br />
+Remember.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">KING JOHN.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Jacopo was deeply practised in the windings of Venetian deceit. He knew
+how unceasingly the eyes of the Councils, through their agents, were on
+the movements of those in whom they took an interest, and he was far
+from feeling all the advantage circumstances had seemingly thrown in his
+way. Annina was certainly in his power, and it was not possible that she
+had yet communicated the intelligence, derived from Gelsomina, to any of
+her employers. But a gesture, a look in passing the prison-gates, the
+appearance of duresse, or an exclamation, might give the alarm to some
+one of the thousand spies of the police. The disposal of Annina's person
+in some place of safety, therefore, became the first and the most
+material act. To return to the palace of Don Camillo, would be to go
+into the midst of the hirelings of the Senate; and although the
+Neapolitan, relying on his rank and influence, had preferred this step,
+when little importance was attached to the detention of the girl, and
+when all she knew had been revealed, the case was altered, now that she
+might become the connecting link in the information necessary to enable
+the officers to find the fugitives.</p>
+
+<p>The gondola moved on. Palace after palace was passed, and the impatient
+Annina thrust her head from a window to note its progress. They came
+among the shipping of the port, and her uneasiness sensibly increased.
+Making? pretext similar to that of Gelsomina, the wine-seller's daughter
+quitted the pavilion, to steal to the side of the gondolier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would be landed quickly at the water-gate of the Doge's palace,&quot; she
+said, slipping a piece of silver into the hand of the boatman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall be served, Bella Donna. But&mdash;Diamine! I marvel that a girl of
+thy wit should not scent the treasures in yonder felucca!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou mean the Sorrentine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What other padrone brings as well flavored liquors within the Lido!
+Quiet thy impatience to land, daughter of honest old Maso, and traffic
+with the padrone, for the comfort of us of the canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! Thou knowest me, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be the pretty wine-seller of the Lido. Corpo di Bacco! Thou art as
+well known as the sea-wall itself to us gondoliers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why art thou masked? Thou canst not be Luigi!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is little matter whether I am called Luigi, or Enrico, or Giorgio; I
+am thy customer, and honor the shortest hair of thy eyebrows. Thou
+knowest, Annina, that the young patricians have their frolics, and they
+swear us gondoliers to keep secret till all danger of detection is over;
+were any impertinent eyes following me, I might be questioned as to the
+manner of having passed the earlier hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Methinks it would be better to have given thee gold, and to have sent
+thee at once to thy home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be followed like a denounced Hebrew to my door. When I have
+confounded my boat with a thousand others it will be time to uncover.
+Wilt thou to the Bella Sorrentina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, 'tis not necessary to ask, since thou takest the direction of
+thine own will?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gondolier laughed and nodded his head, as if he would give his
+companion to understand that he was master of her secret wishes. Annina
+was hesitating in what manner she should make him change his purpose,
+when the gondola touched the felucca's side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will go up and speak to the padrone,&quot; whispered Jacopo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is of no avail; he is without liquors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Trust him not; I know the man and his pretences,&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou forgettest my cousin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is an innocent and unsuspecting child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo lifted Annina, as he spoke, on the deck of the Bella Sorrentina,
+in a manner between gallantry and force, and leaped after her. Without
+pausing, or suffering her to rally her thoughts, he led her to the cabin
+stairs, which she descended, wondering at his conduct, but determined
+not to betray her own secret wrongs on the customs to a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>Stefano Milano was asleep in a sail on deck. A touch aroused him, and a
+sign gave him to understand that the imaginary Roderigo stood before
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand pardons, Signore,&quot; said the gaping mariner; &quot;is the freight
+come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In part only. I have brought thee a certain Annina Torti, the daughter
+of old Tommaso Torti, a wine-seller of the Lido.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santa Madre! does the Senate think it necessary to send one like her
+from the city in secret?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It does; and it lays great stress on her detention. I have come hither
+with her, without suspicion of my object, and she has been prevailed on
+to enter thy cabin, under a pretence of some secret dealings in wines.
+According to our former understanding, it will be thy business to make
+sure of her presence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is easily done,&quot; returned Stefano, stepping forward and closing
+the cabin-door, which he secured by a bolt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is alone, now, with the image of our Lady, and a better occasion
+to repeat her aves cannot offer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is well, if thou canst keep her so. It is now time to lift thy
+anchors, and to go beyond the tiers of the vessels with the felucca.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, there wants but five minutes for that duty, since we are
+ready.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then perform it, in all speed, for much depends on the management of
+this delicate duty. I will be with thee anon. Harkee, Master Stefano;
+take heed of thy prisoner, for the Senate makes great account of her
+security.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Calabrian made such a gesture, as one initiated uses, when he would
+express a confidence in his own shrewdness. While the pretended Roderigo
+re-entered his gondola, Stefano began to awaken his people. As the
+gondola entered the canal of San Marco, the sails of the felucca fell,
+and the low Calabrian vessel stole along the tiers towards the clear
+water beyond.</p>
+
+<p>The boat quickly touched the steps of the water-gate of the palace.
+Gelsomina entered the arch, and glided up the Giant's Stairway, the
+route by which she had quitted the palace. The halberdier was the same
+that watched as she went out. He spoke to her, in gallantry, but offered
+no impediment to her entrance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Haste, noble ladies, hasten for the love of the Holy Virgin!&quot; exclaimed
+Gelsomina, as she burst into the room in which Donna Violetta and her
+companion awaited her appearance. &quot;I have endangered your liberty by my
+weakness, and there is not a moment to lose. Follow while you may, nor
+stop to whisper even a prayer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art hurried and breathless,&quot; returned Donna Florinda; &quot;hast thou
+seen the Duca di Sant' Agata?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, question me not, but follow, noble dames.&quot; Gelsomina seized the
+lamp, and casting a glance that appealed strongly to her visitors for
+tacit compliance, she led the way into the corridors. It is scarcely
+necessary to say that she was followed.</p>
+
+<p>The prison was left in safety, the Bridge of Sighs was passed, for it
+will be remembered that Gelsomina was still mistress of the keys, and
+the party went swiftly by the great stairs of the palace into the open
+gallery. No obstruction was offered to their progress, and they all
+descended to the court, with the quiet demeanor of females who went out
+on their ordinary affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo awaited at the water-gate. In less than a minute he was driving
+his gondola across the port, following the course of the felucca, whose
+white sail was visible in the moonlight, now bellying in the breeze, and
+now flapping as the mariners checked her speed. Gelsomina watched their
+progress for a moment in breathless interest, and then she crossed the
+bridge of the quay, and entered the prison by its public gate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou made sure of the old 'Maso's daughter?&quot; demanded Jacopo, on
+reaching the deck of the Bella Sorrentina again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is like shifting ballast, Master Roderigo; first on one side of the
+cabin, and then on the other; but you see the bolt is undrawn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well: here is more of thy freight; thou hast the proper passes for
+the galley of the guard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All is in excellent order, Signore; when was Stefano Milano out of rule
+in a matter of haste? Diamine! let the breeze come, and though the
+Senate should wish us back again, it might send all its sbirri after us
+in vain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excellent, Stefano! fill thy sails, then, for our masters watch your
+movements, and set a value on your diligence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While the Calabrian complied, Jacopo assisted the females to come up out
+of the gondola. In a moment the heavy yards swung off, wing and wing,
+and the bubbles that appeared to glance past the side of the Bella
+Sorrentina, denoted her speed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast noble ladies in thy passengers,&quot; said Jacopo to the padrone,
+when the latter was released from the active duties of getting his
+vessel in motion; &quot;and though policy requires that they should quit the
+city for a time, thou wilt gain favor by consulting their pleasures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt me not, Master Roderigo; but thou forgettest that I have not yet
+received my sailing instructions; a felucca without a course is as badly
+off as an owl in the sun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That in good time; there will come an officer of the Republic to settle
+this matter with thee. I would not have these noble ladies know, that
+one like Annina is to be their fellow-passenger, while they are near the
+port; for they might complain of disrespect. Thou understandest,
+Stefano?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto! am I a fool? a blunderer? if so, why does the Senate employ
+me? the girl is out of hearing, and there let her stay. As long as the
+noble dames are willing to breathe the night air, they shall have none
+of her company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No fear of them. The dwellers of the land little relish the pent air of
+thy cabin. Thou wilt go without the Lido, Stefano, and await my coming.
+If thou should'st not see me before the hour of one, bear away for the
+port of Ancona, where thou wilt get further tidings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Stefano, who had often previously received his instructions from the
+imaginary Roderigo, nodded assent, and they parted. It is scarcely
+necessary to add, that the fugitives had been fully instructed in the
+conduct they were to maintain.</p>
+
+<p>The gondola of Jacopo never flew faster, than he now urged it towards
+the land. In the constant passage of the boats, the movements of one
+were not likely to be remarked; and he found, when he reached the quay
+of the square, that his passing and repassing had not been observed. He
+boldly unmasked and landed. It was near the hour when he had given Don
+Camillo a rendezvous in the piazza, and he walked slowly up the smaller
+square, towards the appointed place of meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo, as has been seen in an earlier chapter, had a practice of
+walking near the columns of granite in the first hours of the night. It
+was the vulgar impression that he waited there for custom in his bloody
+calling, as men of more innocent lives take their stands in places of
+mark. When seen on his customary stand, he was avoided by all who were
+chary of their character, or scrupulous of appearances.</p>
+
+<p>The persecuted and yet singularly tolerated Bravo, was slowly pacing the
+flags on his way to the appointed place, unwilling to anticipate the
+moment, when a laquais thrust a paper into his hand, and disappeared as
+fast as legs would carry him. It has been seen that Jacopo could not
+read, for that was an age when men of his class were studiously kept in
+ignorance. He turned to the first passenger who had the appearance of
+being likely to satisfy his wishes, and desired him to do the office of
+interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>He had addressed an honest shop-keeper of a distant quarter. The man
+took the scroll, and good-naturedly commenced reading its contents
+aloud. &quot;I am called away, and cannot meet thee, Jacopo!&quot; At the name of
+Jacopo, the tradesman dropped the paper and fled.</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo walked slowly back again towards the quay, ruminating on the
+awkward accident which had crossed his plans; his elbow was touched, and
+a masker confronted him when he turned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art Jacopo Frontoni?&quot; said the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast a hand to serve an employer faithfully?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I keep my faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well, thou wilt find a hundred sequins in this sack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whose life is set against this gold?&quot; asked Jacopo, in an under tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo Monforte.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo Monforte!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same; dost thou know the rich noble!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have well described him, Signore. He would pay his barber this for
+letting blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do thy job thoroughly, and the price shall be doubled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want the security of a name. I know you not, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger looked cautiously around him, and raising his mask for an
+instant, he showed the countenance of Giacomo Gradenigo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the pledge sufficient?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, it is. When must this deed be done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This night. Nay, this hour, even.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I strike a noble of his rank in his palace&mdash;in his very
+pleasures?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come hither, Jacopo, and thou shalt know more. Hast thou a mask?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo signified his assent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then keep thy face behind a cloud, for it is not in favor here, and
+seek thy boat. I will join thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The young patrician, whose form was effectually concealed by his attire,
+quitted his companion, with a view of rejoining him anew, where his
+person should not be known. Jacopo forced his boat from among the crowd
+at the quay, and having entered the open space between the tiers, he lay
+on his oar, well knowing that he was watched, and that he would soon be
+followed. His conjecture was right, for in a few moments a gondola
+pulled swiftly to the side of his own, and two men in masks passed from
+the strange boat into that of the Bravo, without speaking.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the Lido,&quot; said a voice, which Jacopo knew to be that of his new
+employer.</p>
+
+<p>He was obeyed, the boat of Giacomo Gradenigo following at a little
+distance. When they were without the tiers, and consequently beyond the
+danger of being overheard, the two passengers came out of the pavilion,
+and made a sign to the Bravo to cease rowing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt accept the service, Jacopo Frontoni?&quot; demanded the profligate
+heir of the old senator.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I strike the noble in his pleasures, Signore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not necessary. We have found means to lure him from his palace,
+and he is now in thy power, with no other hope than that which may come
+from his single arm and courage. Wilt thou take the service?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gladly, Signore&mdash;It is my humor to encounter the brave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt be gratified. The Neapolitan has thwarted me in my&mdash;shall I
+call it love, Hosea; or hast thou a better name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just Daniel! Signor Giacomo, you have no respect for reputations and
+surety! I see no necessity for a home thrust, Master Jacopo; but a smart
+wound, that may put matrimony out of the head of the Duca for a time at
+least, and penitence into its place, would be better&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Strike to the heart!&quot; interrupted Giacomo. &quot;It is the certainty of thy
+blow which has caused me to seek thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is usurious vengeance, Signor Giacomo,&quot; returned the less resolute
+Jew. &quot;'Twill be more than sufficient for our purposes, if we cause the
+Neapolitan to keep house for a month.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Send him to his grave. Harkee, Jacopo, a hundred for thy blow&mdash;a second
+for insurance of its depth&mdash;a third if the body shall be buried in the
+Orfano, so that the water will never give back the secret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the two first must be performed, the last will be prudent caution,&quot;
+muttered the Jew, who was a wary villain, and who greatly preferred such
+secondary expedients as might lighten the load on his conscience. &quot;You
+will not trust, young Signore, to a smart wound?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a sequin. 'Twill be heating the fancy of the girl with hopes and
+pity. Dost thou accept the terms, Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then row to the Lido. Among the graves of Hosea's people&mdash;why dost thou
+pull at my skirts, Jew! would'st thou hope to deceive a man of this
+character with a flimsy lie&mdash;among the graves of Hosea's people thou
+wilt meet Don Camillo within the hour. He is deluded by a pretended
+letter from the lady of our common pursuit, and will be alone, in the
+hopes of flight; I trust to thee to hasten the latter, so far as the
+Neapolitan is concerned. Dost take my meaning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, it is plain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis enough. Thou knowest me, and can take the steps necessary for thy
+reward as thou shalt serve me. Hosea, our affair is ended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Giacomo Gradenigo made a sign for his gondola to approach, and dropping
+a sack which contained the retainer in this bloody business, he passed
+into it with the indifference of one who had been accustomed to consider
+such means of attaining his object lawful. Not so Hosea: he was a rogue
+rather than a villain. The preservation of his money, with the
+temptation of a large sum which had been promised him by both father and
+son in the event of the latter's success with Violetta, were
+irresistible temptations to one who had lived contemned by those around
+him, and he found his solace for the ruthless attempt in the acquisition
+of those means of enjoyment which are sought equally by Christian and
+Jew. Still his blood curdled at the extremity to which Giacomo would
+push the affair, and he lingered to utter a parting word to the Bravo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art said to carry a sure stiletto, honest Jacopo,&quot; he whispered.
+&quot;A hand of thy practice must know how to maim as well as to slay.
+Strike the Neapolitan smartly, but spare his life. Even the bearer of a
+public dagger like thine may not fare the worse, at the coming of
+Shiloh, for having been tender of his strength on occasion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou forgettest the gold, Hosea!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father Abraham! what a memory am I getting in my years! Thou sayest
+truth, mindful Jacopo; the gold shall be forthcoming in any
+event&mdash;always provided that the affair is so managed as to leave my
+young friend a successful adventurer with the heiress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo made an impatient gesture, for at that moment he saw a gondolier
+pulling rapidly towards a private part of the Lido. The Hebrew joined
+his companion, and the boat of the Bravo darted ahead. It was not long
+ere it lay on the strand of the Lido. The steps of Jacopo were rapid, as
+he moved towards those proscribed graves among which he had made his
+confession to the very man he was now sent to slay.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou sent to meet me?&quot; demanded one who started from behind a
+rising in the sands, but who took the precaution to bare his rapier as
+he appeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signor Duca, I am,&quot; returned the Bravo, unmasking.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo! This is even better than I had hoped. Hast thou tidings from my
+bride?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Follow, Don Camillo, and you shall quickly meet her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Words were unnecessary to persuade, when there was such a promise. They
+were both in the gondola of Jacopo, and on their way to one of the
+passages through the Lido which conducts to the gulf, before the Bravo
+commenced his explanation. This, however, was quickly made, not
+forgetting the design of Giacomo Gradenigo on the life of his auditor.</p>
+
+<p>The felucca, which had been previously provided with the necessary pass
+by the agents of the police itself, had quitted the port under easy sail
+by the very inlet through which the gondola made its way into the
+Adriatic. The water was smooth, the breeze fresh from the land, and in
+short all things were favorable to the fugitives. Donna Violetta and her
+governess were leaning against a mast, watching with impatient eyes the
+distant domes and the midnight beauty of Venice. Occasionally strains of
+music came to their ears from the canals, and then a touch of natural
+melancholy crossed the feelings of the former as she feared they might
+be the last sounds of that nature she should ever hear from her native
+town. But unalloyed pleasure drove every regret from her mind when Don
+Camillo leaped from the gondola and folded her in triumph to his heart.</p>
+
+<p>There was little difficulty in persuading Stefano Milano to abandon for
+ever the service of the Senate for that of his feudal lord. The promises
+and commands of the latter were sufficient of themselves to reconcile
+him to the change, and all were convinced there was no time to lose. The
+felucca soon spread her canvas to the wind and slid away from the beach.
+Jacopo permitted his gondola to be towed a league to sea before he
+prepared to re-enter it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will steer for Ancona, Signor Don Camillo,&quot; said the Bravo, leaning
+on the felucca's side, still unwilling to depart, &quot;and throw yourself at
+once under the protection of the Cardinal Secretary. If Stefano keep the
+sea he may chance to meet the galleys of the Senate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Distrust us not&mdash;but thou, my excellent Jacopo&mdash;what wilt thou become
+in their hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear not for me, Signore. God disposes of all as he sees fit. I have
+told your eccellenza that I cannot yet quit Venice. If fortune favor me,
+I may still see your stout castle of Sant' Agata.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And none will be more welcome within its secure walls; I have much fear
+for thee, Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, think not of it. I am used to danger&mdash;and to misery&mdash;and to
+hopelessness. I have known a pleasure this night, in witnessing the
+happiness of two young hearts, that God, in his anger, has long denied
+me. Lady, the Saints keep you, and God, who is above all, shield you
+from harm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He kissed the hand of Donna Violetta, who, half ignorant still of his
+services, listened to his words in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don Camillo Monforte,&quot; he continued, &quot;distrust Venice to your dying
+day. Let no promises&mdash;no hopes&mdash;no desire of increasing your honors or
+your riches, ever tempt you to put yourself in her power. None know the
+falsehood of the state better than I, and with my parting words I warn
+you to be wary!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest as if we were to meet no more, worthy Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo turned, and the action brought his features to the moon. There
+was a melancholy smile, in which deep satisfaction at the success of the
+lovers was mingled with serious forebodings for himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are certain only of the past,&quot; he said in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>Touching the hand of Don Camillo, he kissed his own and leaped hastily
+into his gondola. The fast was thrown loose, and the felucca glided
+away, leaving this extraordinary being alone on the waters. The
+Neapolitan ran to the taffrail, and the last he saw of Jacopo, the
+Bravo, was rowing leisurely back towards that scene of violence and
+deception from which he himself was so glad to have escaped.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="012.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXVI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;My limbs are bowed, though not with toil,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp;  But rusted with a vile repose,<br />
+For they have been a dungeon's spoil,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp;  And mine hath been the fate of those<br />
+To whom the goodly earth and air<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp;  Are banned, and barred&mdash;forbidden fare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">PRISONER OF CHILLON.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>When the day dawned on the following morning the square of St. Mark was
+empty. The priests still chanted their prayers for the dead near the
+body of old Antonio, and a few fishermen still lingered in and near the
+cathedral, but half persuaded of the manner in which their companion had
+come to his end. But as was usual at that hour of the day the city
+appeared tranquil, for though a slight alarm had passed through the
+canals at the movement of the rioters, it had subsided in that specious
+and distrustful quiet, which is more or less the unavoidable consequence
+of a system that is not substantially based on the willing support of
+the mass.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo was again in the attic of the Doge's palace, accompanied by the
+gentle Gelsomina. As they threaded the windings of the building, he
+recounted to the eager ear of his companion all the details connected
+with the escape of the lovers; omitting, as a matter of prudence, the
+attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo on the life of Don Camillo. The unpractised
+and single-hearted girl heard him in breathless attention, the color of
+her cheek and the changeful eye betraying the force of her sympathies at
+each turn in their hazardous adventure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And dost thou think they can yet escape from those up above?&quot; murmured
+Gelsomina, for few in Venice would trust their voices, by putting such a
+question aloud. &quot;Thou knowest the Republic hath at all times its galleys
+in the Adriatic!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have had thought of that, and the Calabrian is advised to steer for
+the mole of Ancona. Once within the States of the Church the influence
+of Don Camillo and the rights of his noble wife will protect them. Is
+there a place here whence we can look out upon the sea?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina led the Bravo into an empty room of the attic which commanded
+a view of the port, the Lido, and the waste of water beyond. The breeze
+came in strong currents over the roofs of the town, and causing the
+masts of the port to rock, it lighted on the Lagunes, without the tiers
+of the shipping. From this point to the barrier of sand, it was apparent
+by the stooping sails and the struggles of the gondoliers who pulled
+towards the quay, that the air was swift. Without the Lido itself, the
+element was shadowed and fitful, while further in the distance the
+troubled waters, with their crests of foam, sufficiently proved its
+power.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santa Maria be praised!&quot; exclaimed Jacopo, when his understanding eye
+had run over the near and distant view&mdash;&quot;they are already far down the
+coast, and with a wind like this they cannot fail to reach their haven
+in a few hours. Let us go to the cell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina smiled when he assured her of the safety of the fugitives, but
+her look saddened when he changed the discourse. Without reply, however,
+she did as he desired, and in a very few moments they were standing by
+the side of the prisoner's pallet. The latter did not appear to observe
+their entrance, and Jacopo was obliged to announce himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot; he said, with that melancholy pathos which always crept into
+his voice when he addressed the old man, &quot;it is I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner turned, and though, evidently much enfeebled since the
+last visit, a wan smile gleamed on his wasted features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thy mother, boy?&quot; he asked, so eagerly as to cause Gelsomina to
+turn hastily aside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Happy, father&mdash;happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Happy without me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is ever with thee in spirit, father. She thinks of thee in her
+prayers. Thou hast a saint for an intercessor in my mother&mdash;father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thy good sister?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Happy too&mdash;doubt it not, father. They are both patient and resigned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Senate, boy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the same: soulless, selfish, and pretending!&quot; answered Jacopo
+sternly; then turning away his face, in bitterness of heart, though
+without permitting the words to be audible, he cursed them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The noble Signori were deceived in believing me concerned in the
+attempt to rob their revenues,&quot; returned the patient old man; &quot;one day
+they will see and acknowledge their error.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo made no answer, for unlettered as he was, and curtailed of that
+knowledge which should be, and is bestowed on all by every paternal
+government, the natural strength of his mind had enabled him to
+understand that a system, which on its face professed to be founded on
+the superior acquirements of a privileged few, would be the least likely
+to admit the fallacy of its theories, by confessing it could err.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou dost the nobles injustice, son; they are illustrious patricians,
+and have no motive in oppressing one like me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, father, but the necessity of maintaining the severity of the
+laws, which make them senators and you a prisoner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, boy, I have known worthy gentlemen of the Senate! There was the
+late Signor Tiepolo, who did me much favor in my youth. But for this
+false accusation, I might now have been one of the most thriving of my
+craft in Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, we will pray for the soul of the Tiepolo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the senator dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So says a gorgeous tomb in the church of the Redentore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must all die at last,&quot; whispered the old man, crossing himself.
+&quot;Doge as well as patrician&mdash;patrician as well as gondolier,&mdash;Jaco&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot; exclaimed the Bravo, so suddenly as to interrupt the coming
+word; then kneeling by the pallet of the prisoner, he whispered in his
+ear, &quot;thou forgettest there is reason why thou should'st not call me by
+that name. I have told thee often if thus called my visits must stop.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner looked bewildered, for the failing of nature rendered that
+obscure which was once so evident to his mind. After gazing long at his
+son, his eye wandered between him and the wall, and he smiled
+childishly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou look, good boy, if the spider is come back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo groaned, but he rose to comply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not see it, father; the season is not yet warm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not warm! my veins feel heated to bursting. Thou forgettest this is the
+attic, and that these are the leads, and then the sun&mdash;oh! the sun! The
+illustrious senators do not bethink them of the pain of passing the
+bleak winter below the canals, and the burning summers beneath hot
+metal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They think of nothing but their power,&quot; murmured Jacopo&mdash;&quot;that which is
+wrongfully obtained, must be maintained by merciless injustice&mdash;but why
+should we speak of this, father; hast thou all thy body needs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Air&mdash;son, air!&mdash;give me of that air, which God has made for the meanest
+living thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo rushed towards those fissures in the venerable but polluted
+pile he had already striven to open, and with frantic force he
+endeavored to widen them with his hands. The material resisted, though
+blood flowed from the ends of his fingers in the desperate effort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The door, Gelsomina, open wide the door!&quot; he cried, turning away from
+the spot, exhausted with his fruitless exertions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I do not suffer now, my child&mdash;it is when thou hast left me, and
+when I am alone with my own thoughts, when I see thy weeping mother and
+neglected sister, that I most feel the want of air&mdash;are we not in the
+fervid month of August, son?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, it is not yet June.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall then have more heat to bear! God's will be done, and blessed
+Santa Maria, his mother undefiled!&mdash;give me strength to endure it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eye of Jacopo gleamed with a wildness scarcely less frightful than
+the ghastly look of the old man, his chest heaved, his fingers were
+clenched, and his breathing was audible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; he said, in a low, but in so determined a voice, as to prove how
+fiercely his resolution was set, &quot;thou shalt not await their torments:
+arise, father, and go with me. The doors are open, the ways of the
+palace are known to me in the darkest night, and the keys are at hand. I
+will find means to conceal thee until dark, and we will quit the
+accursed Republic for ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hope gleamed in the eye of the old captive, as he listened to this
+frantic proposal, but distrust of the means immediately altered its
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou forgettest those up above, son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think only of One truly above, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this girl&mdash;how canst thou hope to deceive her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She will take thy place&mdash;she is with us in heart, and will lend
+herself to a seeming violence. I do not promise for thee idly, kindest
+Gelsomina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The frightened girl, who had never before witnessed so plain evidence of
+desperation in her companion, had sunk upon an article of furniture,
+speechless. The look of the prisoner changed from one to the other, and
+he made an effort to rise, but debility caused him to fall backwards,
+and not till then did Jacopo perceive the impracticability, on many
+accounts, of what, in a moment of excitement, he had proposed. A long
+silence followed. The hard breathing of Jacopo gradually subsided, and
+the expression of his face changed to its customary settled and
+collected look.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; he said, &quot;I must quit thee; our misery draws near a close.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wilt come to me soon again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the saints permit&mdash;thy blessing, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old man folded his hands above the head of Jacopo, and murmured a
+prayer. When this pious duty was performed, both the Bravo and Gelsomina
+busied themselves a little time in contributing to the bodily comforts
+of the prisoner, and then they departed in company.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo appeared unwilling to quit the vicinity of the cell. A melancholy
+presentiment seemed to possess his mind, that these stolen visits were
+soon to cease. After a little delay, however, they descended to the
+apartments below, and as Jacopo desired to quit the palace without
+re-entering the prisons, Gelsomina prepared to let him out by the
+principal corridor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art sadder than common, Carlo,&quot; she observed, watching with
+feminine assiduity his averted eye. &quot;Methinks thou should'st rejoice in
+the fortunes of the Neapolitan, and of the lady of the Tiepolo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That escape is like a gleam of sunshine in a wintry day. Good girl&mdash;but
+we are observed! who is yon spy on our movements?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a menial of the palace; they constantly cross us in this part of
+the building: come hither, if thou art weary. The room is little used,
+and we may again look out upon the sea.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo followed his mild conductor into one of the neglected closets of
+the second floor, where, in truth, he was glad to catch a glimpse of the
+state of things in the piazza, before he left the palace. His first look
+was at the water, which was still rolling southward, before the gale
+from the Alps. Satisfied with this prospect, he bent his eye beneath. At
+the instant, an officer of the Republic issued from the palace gate,
+preceded by a trumpeter, as was usual, when there was occasion to make
+public proclamation of the Senate's will. Gelsomina opened the casement,
+and both leaned forward to listen. When the little procession had
+reached the front of the cathedral, the trumpet sounded, and the voice
+of the officer was heard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whereas many wicked and ruthless assassinations have of late been
+committed on the persons of divers good citizens of Venice,&quot;&mdash;he
+proclaimed&mdash;&quot;the Senate, in its fatherly care of all whom it is charged
+to protect, has found reason to resort to extraordinary means of
+preventing the repetition of crimes so contrary to the laws of God and
+the security of society. The illustrious Ten therefore offer, thus
+publicly, a reward of one hundred sequins to him who shall discover the
+perpetrator of any of these most horrible assassinations; and, whereas,
+during the past night, the body of a certain Antonio, a well known
+fisherman, and a worthy citizen, much esteemed by the patricians, has
+been found in the Lagunes, and, whereas, there is but too much reason to
+believe that he has come to his death by the hands of a certain Jacopo
+Frontoni, who has the reputation of a common Bravo, but who has been
+long watched in rain by the authorities, with the hope of detecting him
+in the commission of some one of the aforesaid horrible assassinations;
+now, all good and honest citizens of the Republic are enjoined to assist
+the authorities in seizing the person of the said Jacopo Frontoni, even
+though he should take sanctuary: for Venice can no longer endure the
+presence of one of his sanguinary habits, and for the encouragement of
+the same, the Senate, in its paternal care, offers the reward of three
+hundred sequins.&quot; The usual words of prayer and sovereignty closed the
+proclamation.</p>
+
+<p>As it was not usual for those who ruled so much in the dark to make
+their intentions public, all near listened with wonder and awe to the
+novel procedure. Some trembled, lest the mysterious and much-dreaded
+power was about to exhibit itself; while most found means of making
+their admiration of the fatherly interest of their rulers audible.</p>
+
+<p>None heard the words of the officer with more feeling than Gelsomina.
+She bent her body far from the window, in order that not a syllable
+should escape her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did'st thou hear, Carlo?&quot; demanded the eager girl, as she drew back her
+head; &quot;they proclaim, at last, money for the monster who has committed
+so many murders!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo laughed; but to the ears of his startled companion the sounds
+were unnatural.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The patricians are just, and what they do is right,&quot; he said. &quot;They are
+of illustrious birth, and cannot err! They will do their duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But here is no other duty than that they owe to God, and to the
+people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have heard of the duty of the people, but little is said of the
+Senate's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Carlo, we will not refuse them credit when in truth they seek to
+keep the citizens from harm. This Jacopo is a monster, detested by all,
+and his bloody deeds have too long been a reproach to Venice. Thou
+hearest that the patricians are not niggard of their gold, when there is
+hope of his being taken. Listen! they proclaim again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The trumpet sounded, and the proclamation was repeated between the
+granite columns of the Piazzetta, and quite near to the window occupied
+by Gelsomina and her unmoved companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why dost thou mask, Carlo?&quot; she asked, when the officer had done; &quot;it
+is not usual to be disguised in the palace at this hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They will believe it the Doge, blushing to be an auditor of his own
+liberal justice, or they may mistake me for one of the Three itself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They go by the quay to the arsenal; thence they will take boat, as is
+customary, for the Rialto.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thereby giving this redoubtable Jacopo timely notice to secrete
+himself! Your judges up above are mysterious when they should be open;
+and open when they should be secret. I must quit thee, Gelsomina; go,
+then, back to the room of thy father, and leave me to pass out by the
+court of the palace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may not be, Carlo&mdash;thou knowest the permission of the authorities&mdash;I
+have exceeded&mdash;why should I wish to conceal it from thee&mdash;but it was not
+permitted to thee to enter at this hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou hast had the courage to transgress the leave for my sake,
+Gelsomina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The abashed girl hung her head, and the color which glowed about her
+temples was like the rosy light of her own Italy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou would'st have it so,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand thanks, dearest, kindest, truest Gelsomina; but doubt not my
+being able to leave the palace unseen. The danger was in entering. They
+who go forth do it with the air of having authority.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None pass the halberdiers masked by day, Carlo, but they who have the
+secret word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo appeared struck with this truth, and there was great
+embarrassment expressed in his manner. The terms of his admittance were
+so well understood to himself, that he distrusted the expediency of
+attempting to get upon the quays by the prison, the way he had entered,
+since he had little doubt that his retreat would be intercepted by those
+who kept the outer gate, and who were probably, by this time, in the
+secret of his true character. It now appeared that egress by the other
+route was equally hazardous. He had not been surprised so much by the
+substance of the proclamation, as by the publicity the Senate had seen
+fit to give to its policy, and he had heard himself denounced, with a
+severe pang, it is true, but without terror. Still he had so many means
+of disguise, and the practice of personal concealment was so general in
+Venice, that he had entertained no great distrust of the result until he
+now found himself in this awkward dilemma. Gelsomina read his indecision
+in his eye, and regretted that she should have caused him so much
+uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not so bad as thou seemest to think, Carlo,&quot; she observed; &quot;they
+have permitted thee to visit thy father at stated hours, and the
+permission is a proof that the Senate is not without pity. Now that I,
+to oblige thy wishes, have forgotten one of their injunctions, they will
+not be so hard of heart as to visit the fault as a crime.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo gazed at her with pity, for well did he understand how little she
+knew of the real nature and wily policy of the state.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is time that we should part,&quot; he said, &quot;lest thy innocence should be
+made to pay the price of my mistake. I am now near the public corridor,
+and must trust to my fortune to gain the quay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina hung upon his arm, unwilling to trust him to his own guidance
+in that fearful building.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will not do, Carlo; thou wilt stumble on a soldier, and thy fault
+will be known; perhaps they will refuse to let thee come again; perhaps
+altogether shut the door of thy poor father's cell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo made a gesture for her to lead the way, and followed. With a
+beating, but still lightened heart, Gelsomina glided along the passages,
+carefully locking each door, as of wont, behind her, when she had passed
+through it. At length they reached the well known Bridge of Sighs. The
+anxious girl went on with a lighter step, when she found herself
+approaching her own abode, for she was busy in planning the means of
+concealing her companion in her father's rooms, should there be hazard
+in his passing out of the prison during the day.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But a single minute, Carlo,&quot; she whispered, applying the key to the
+door which opened into the latter building&mdash;the lock yielded, but the
+hinges refused to turn. Gelsomina paled as she added&mdash;&quot;They have drawn
+the bolts within!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter; I will go down by the court of the palace, and boldly pass
+the halberdier unmasked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina, after all, saw but little risk of his being known by the
+mercenaries who served the Doge, and, anxious to relieve him from so
+awkward a position, she flew back to the other end of the gallery.
+Another key was applied to the door by which they had just entered, with
+the same result. Gelsomina staggered back, and sought support against
+the waft.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can neither return nor proceed!&quot; she exclaimed, frightened she knew
+not why.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see it all,&quot; answered Jacopo, &quot;we are prisoners on the fatal bridge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the Bravo calmly removed his mask, and showed the
+countenance of a man whose resolution was at its height.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santa Madre di Dio! what can it mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That we have passed here once too often, love. The council is tender of
+these visits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bolts of both doors grated, and the hinges creaked at the same
+instant. An officer of the inquisition entered armed, and bearing
+manacles. Gelsomina shrieked, but Jacopo moved not limb or muscle, while
+he was fettered and chained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I too!&quot; cried his frantic companion. &quot;I am the most guilty&mdash;bind
+me&mdash;cast me into a cell, but let poor Carlo go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo!&quot; echoed an officer, laughing unfeelingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it such a crime to seek a father in his prison! They knew of his
+visits&mdash;they permitted them&mdash;he has only mistaken the hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Girl, dost thou know for whom thou pleadest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the kindest heart&mdash;the most faithful son in Venice! Oh! if ye had
+seen him weep as I have done, over the sufferings of the old captive&mdash;if
+ye had seen his very form shivering in agony, ye would have pity on
+him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen,&quot; returned the officer, raising a finger for attention.</p>
+
+<p>The trumpeter sounded on the bridge of St. Mark, immediately beneath
+them, and proclamation was again made, offering gold for the arrest of
+the Bravo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis the officer of the Republic, bidding for the head of one who
+carries a common stiletto,&quot; cried the half-breathless Gelsomina, who
+little heeded the ceremony at that instant; &quot;he merits his fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then why resist it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye speak without meaning!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doting girl, this is Jacopo Frontoni!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina would have disbelieved her ears, but for the anguished
+expression of Jacopo's eye. The horrible truth burst upon her mind, and
+she fell lifeless. At that moment the Bravo was hurried from the bridge.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXVII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Let us lift up the curtain, and observe<br />
+What passes in that chamber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ROGERS</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>There were many rumors uttered in the fearful and secret manner which
+characterized the manner of the town, in the streets of Venice that day.
+Hundreds passed near the granite columns, as if they expected to see the
+Bravo occupying his accustomed stand, in audacious defiance of the
+proclamation, for so long and so mysteriously had he been permitted to
+appear in public, that men had difficulty in persuading themselves he
+would quit his habits so easily. It is needless to say that the vague
+expectation was disappointed. Much was also said, vauntingly, in behalf
+of the Republic's justice, for the humbled are bold enough in praising
+their superiors; and he, who had been dumb for years on subjects of a
+public nature, now found his voice like a fearless freeman.</p>
+
+<p>But the day passed away without any new occurrence to call the citizens
+from their pursuits. The prayers for the dead were continued with little
+intermission, and masses were said before the altars of half the
+churches for the repose of the fisherman's soul. His comrades, a little
+distrustful, but greatly gratified, watched the ceremonies with jealousy
+and exultation singularly blended. Ere the night set in again, they were
+among the most obedient of those the oligarchy habitually trod upon; for
+such is the effect of this species of domination, that it acquires a
+power to appease, by its flattery, the very discontents created by its
+injustice. Such is the human mind: a factitious but deeply-seated
+sentiment of respect is created by the habit of submission, which gives
+the subject of its influence a feeling of atonement, when he who has
+long played the superior comes down from his stilts, and confesses the
+community of human frailties!</p>
+
+<p>The square of St. Mark filled at the usual hour, the patricians deserted
+the Broglio as of wont, and the gaieties of the place were again
+uppermost, before the clock had struck the second hour of the night.
+Gondolas, filled with noble dames, appeared on the canals; the blinds of
+the palaces were raised for the admission of the sea-breeze;&mdash;and music
+began to be heard in the port, on the bridges, and under the balconies
+of the fair. The course of society was not to be arrested, merely
+because the wronged were unavenged, or the innocent suffered.</p>
+
+<p>There stood, then, on the grand canal, as there stand now, many palaces
+of scarcely less than royal magnificence. The reader has had occasion to
+become acquainted with one or two of these splendid edifices, and it is
+now our duty to convey him, in imagination, to another.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiarity of construction, which is a consequence of the watery
+site of Venice, gives the same general character to all the superior
+dwellings of that remarkable town. The house to which the thread of the
+narrative now leads us, had its water-gate, its vestibule, its massive
+marble stairs, its inner court, its magnificent suites of rooms above,
+its pictures, its lustres, and its floors of precious stones embedded in
+composition, like all those which we have already found it necessary to
+describe.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was ten, according to our own manner of computing time. A small
+but lovely family picture presented itself, deep within the walls of the
+patrician abode to which we have alluded. There was a father, a
+gentleman who had scarcely attained the middle age, with an eye in which
+spirit, intelligence, philanthropy, and, at that moment, paternal
+fondness were equally glowing. He tossed in his arms, with paternal
+pride, a laughing urchin of some three or four years, who rioted in the
+amusement which brought him, and the author of his being, for a time
+seemingly on a level. A fair Venetian dame, with golden locks and
+glowing cheeks, such as Titian loved to paint her sex, reclined on a
+couch nigh by, following the movements of both, with the joint feelings
+of mother and wife, and laughing in pure sympathy with the noisy
+merriment of her young hope. A girl, who was the youthful image of
+herself, with tresses that fell to her waist, romped with a crowing
+infant, whose age was so tender as scarcely to admit the uncertain
+evidence of its intelligence. Such was the scene as the clock of the
+piazza told the hour. Struck with the sound, the father set down the boy
+and consulted his watch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou use thy gondola to-night, love?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With thee, Paolo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not with me, dearest; I have affairs which will employ me until
+twelve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, thou art given to cast me off, when thy caprices are wayward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say not so. I have named to-night for an interview with my agent, and I
+know thy maternal heart too well, to doubt thy being willing to spare me
+for that time, while I look to the interests of these dear ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Donna Giulietta rang for her mantle and attendants. The crowing
+infant and the noisy boy were dismissed to their beds, while the lady
+and the eldest child descended to the gondola. Donna Giulietta was not
+permitted to go unattended to her boat, for this was a family in which
+the inclinations had fortunately seconded the ordinary calculations of
+interest when the nuptial knot was tied. Her husband kissed her hand
+fondly, as he assisted her into the gondola, and the boat had glided
+some distance from the palace ere he quitted the moist stones of the
+water-gate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou prepared the cabinet for my friends?&quot; demanded the Signor
+Soranzo, for it was the same Senator who had been in company with the
+Doge when the latter went to meet the fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, si.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the quiet, and the lights&mdash;as ordered?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, all will be done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast placed seats for six&mdash;we shall be six.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, there are six arm-chairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well: when the first of my friends arrive, I will join them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, there are already two cavaliers in masks within.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Signor Soranzo started, again consulted his watch, and went hastily
+towards a distant and very silent part of the palace. He reached a small
+door unattended, and closing it, found himself at once in the presence
+of those who evidently awaited his appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand pardons, Signori,&quot; cried the master of the house; &quot;this is
+novel duty to me, at least&mdash;I know not what may be your honorable
+experience&mdash;and the time stole upon me unmarked. I pray for grace,
+Messires; future diligence shall repair the present neglect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Both the visitors were older men than their host, and it was quite
+evident by their hardened visages they were of much longer practice in
+the world. His excuses were received with courtesy, and, for a little
+time, the discourse was entirely of usage and convention.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are in secret here, Signore?&quot; asked one of the guests, after some
+little time had been wasted in this manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As the tomb. None enter here unbidden but my wife, and she has this
+moment taken boat for better enjoyment of the evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The world gives you credit, Signor Soranzo, for a happy m&eacute;nage. I hope
+you have duly considered the necessity of shutting the door even against
+the Donna Giulietta to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doubt me not, Signore; the affairs of St. Mark are paramount.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I feel myself thrice happy, Signori, that in drawing a lot for the
+secret council, my good fortune hath given me so excellent colleagues.
+Believe me, I have discharged this awful trust, in my day, in less
+agreeable company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This flattering speech, which the wily old senator had made regularly to
+all whom chance had associated with him in the inquisition, during a
+long life, was well received, and it was returned with equal
+compliments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would appear that the worthy Signor Alessandro Gradenigo was one of
+our predecessors,&quot; he continued, looking at some papers; for though the
+actual three were unknown, at the time being, to all but a few
+secretaries and officers of the state, Venetian policy transmitted their
+names to their successors, as a matter of course,&mdash;&quot;a noble gentleman,
+and one of great devotion to the state!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The others assented, like men accustomed to speak with caution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We were about to have entered on our duties at a troublesome moment,
+Signori,&quot; observed another. &quot;But it would seem that this tumult of the
+fishermen has already subsided. I understand the knaves had some reason
+for their distrust of the state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is an affair happily settled,&quot; answered the senior of the three, who
+was long practised in the expediency of forgetting all that policy
+required should cease to be remembered after the object was attained.
+&quot;The galleys must be manned, else would St. Mark quickly hang his head
+in shame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Signor Soranzo, who had received some previous instruction in his
+new duties, looked melancholy; but he, too, was merely the creature of a
+system.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there matter of pressing import for our reflection?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signori, there is every reason to believe that the state has just
+sustained a grievous loss. Ye both well know the heiress of Tiepolo, by
+reputation at least, though her retired manner of life may have kept you
+from her company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donna Giulietta is eloquent in praise of her beauty,&quot; said the young
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We had not a better fortune in Venice,&quot; rejoined the third inquisitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excellent in qualities, and better in riches, as she is, I fear we have
+lost her, Signori! Don Camillo Monforte, whom God protect until we have
+no future use for his influence! had come near to prevail against us;
+but just as the state baffled his well laid schemes, the lady has been
+thrown by hazard into the hands of the rioters, since which time there
+is no account of her movements!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Paolo Soranzo secretly hoped she was in the arms of the Neapolitan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A secretary has communicated to me the disappearance of the Duca di
+Sant' Agata also,&quot; observed the third; &quot;nor is the felucca, usually
+employed in distant and delicate missions, any longer at her anchors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two old men regarded each other as if the truth was beginning to
+dawn upon their suspicions. They saw that the case was hopeless, and as
+theirs was altogether a practical duty, no time was lost in useless
+regrets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have two affairs which press,&quot; observed the elder. &quot;The body of the
+old fisherman must be laid quietly in the earth with as little risk of
+future tumult as may be; and we have this notorious Jacopo to dispose
+of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The latter must first be taken,&quot; said the Signor Soranzo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That has been done already. Would you think it, Sirs he was seized in
+the very palace of the Doge!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the block with him without delay!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old men again looked at each other, and it was quite apparent that,
+as both of them had been in previous councils, they had a secret
+intelligence, to which their companion was yet a stranger. There was
+also visible in their glances something like a design to manage his
+feelings before they came more openly to the graver practices of their
+duties.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the sake of blessed St. Mark, Signori, let justice be done openly
+in this instance!&quot; continued the unsuspecting member of the Three. &quot;What
+pity can the bearer of a common stiletto claim? and what more lovely
+exercise of our authority than to make public an act of severe and
+much-required justice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old senators bowed to this sentiment of their colleague, which was
+uttered with the fervor of young experience, and the frankness of an
+upright mind; for there is a conventional acquiescence in received
+morals which is permitted, in semblance at least, to adorn the most
+tortuous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be well, Signore Soranzo, to do this homage to the right,&quot;
+returned the elder. &quot;Here have been sundry charges found in different
+lions' mouths against the Neapolitan, Signor Don Camillo Monforte. I
+leave it to your wisdom, my illustrious colleagues, to decide on their
+character.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An excess of malice betrays its own origin,&quot; exclaimed the least
+practised member of the Inquisition. &quot;My life on it, Signori, these
+accusations come of private spleen, and are unworthy of the state's
+attention. I have consorted much with the young lord of Sant' Agata, and
+a more worthy gentleman does not dwell among us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still hath he designs on the hand of old Tiepolo's daughter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it a crime in youth to seek beauty? He did great service to the
+lady in her need, and that youth should feel these sympathies is nothing
+strange.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Venice hath her sympathies, as well as the youngest of us all,
+Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Venice cannot wed the heiress!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True. St. Mark must be satisfied with playing the prudent father's
+part. You are yet young, Signore Soranzo, and the Donna Giulietta is of
+rare beauty! As life wears upon ye both, ye will see the fortunes of
+kingdoms, as well as of families, differently. But we waste our breath
+uselessly in this matter, since our agents have not yet reported their
+success in the pursuit. The most pressing affair, just now, is the
+disposition of the Bravo. Hath his Highness shown you the letter of the
+sovereign pontiff, in the question of the intercepted dispatches,
+Signore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He hath. A fair answer was returned by our predecessors, and it must
+rest there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will then look freely into the matter of Jacopo Frontoni. There will
+be necessity of our assembling in the chamber of the Inquisition, that
+we may have the prisoner confronted to his accusers. 'Tis a grave trial,
+Signori, and Venice would lose in men's estimation, were not the highest
+tribunal to take an interest in its decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the block with the villain!&quot; again exclaimed the Signor Soranzo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He may haply meet with that fate, or even with the punishment of the
+wheel. A mature examination will enlighten us much on the course which
+policy may dictate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There can be but one policy when the protection of the lives of our
+citizens is in question. I have never before felt impatience to shorten
+the life of man, but in this trial I can scarce brook delay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your honorable impatience shall be gratified, Signor Soranzo: for,
+foreseeing the urgency of the case, my colleague, the worthy senator who
+is joined with us in this high duty, and myself, have already issued
+the commands necessary to that object. The hour is near, and we will
+repair to the chamber of the Inquisition in time to our duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The discourse then turned on subjects of a more general concern. This
+secret and extraordinary tribunal, which was obliged to confine its
+meetings to no particular place, which could decide on its decrees
+equally in the Piazza or the palace, amidst the revelries of the
+masquerade or before the altar, in the assemblies of the gay or in their
+own closets, had of necessity much ordinary matter submitted to its
+inspection. As the chances of birth entered into its original
+composition, and God hath not made all alike fit for so heartless a
+duty, it sometimes happened, as in the present instance, that the more
+worldly of its members had to overcome the generous disposition of a
+colleague, before the action of the terrible machine could go on.</p>
+
+<p>It is worthy of remark, that communities always establish a higher
+standard of justice and truth, than is exercised by their individual
+members. The reason is not to be sought for, since nature hath left to
+all a perception of that right, which is abandoned only under the
+stronger impulses of personal temptation. We commend the virtue we
+cannot imitate. Thus it is that those countries, in which public opinion
+has most influence, are always of the purest public practice. It follows
+as a corollary from this proposition, that a representation should be as
+real as possible, for its tendency will be inevitably to elevate
+national morals. Miserable, indeed, is the condition of that people,
+whose maxims and measures of public policy are below the standard of its
+private integrity, for the fact not only proves it is not the master of
+its own destinies, but the still more dangerous truth, that the
+collective power is employed in the fatal service of undermining those
+very qualities which are necessary to virtue, and which have enough to
+do, at all times, in resisting the attacks of immediate selfishness. A
+strict legal representation of all its interests is far more necessary
+to a worldly than to a simple people, since responsibility, which is the
+essence of a free government, is more likely to keep the agents of a
+nation near to its own standard of virtue than any other means. The
+common opinion that a Republic cannot exist without an extraordinary
+degree of virtue in its citizens, is so flattering to our own actual
+condition, that we seldom take the trouble to inquire into its truth;
+but, to us, it seems quite apparent that the effect is here mistaken for
+the cause. It is said, as the people are virtually masters in a
+Republic, that the people ought to be virtuous to rule well. So far as
+this proposition is confined to degrees, it is just as true of a
+Republic as of any other form of government. But kings do rule, and
+surely all have not been virtuous; and that aristocracies have ruled
+with the very minimum of that quality, the subject of our tale
+sufficiently shows. That, other things being equal, the citizens of a
+Republic will have a higher standard of private virtue than the subjects
+of any other form of government, is true as an effect, we can readily
+believe; for responsibility to public opinion existing in all the
+branches of its administration, that conventional morality which
+characterizes the common sentiment, will be left to act on the mass, and
+will not be perverted into a terrible engine of corruption, as is the
+case when factitious institutions give a false direction to its
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>The case before us was in proof of the truth of what has here been said.
+The Signor Soranzo was a man of great natural excellence of character,
+and the charities of his domestic circle had assisted in confirming his
+original dispositions. Like others of his rank and expectations, he had,
+from time to time, made the history and polity of the self-styled
+Republic his study, and the power of collective interests and specious
+necessities had made him admit sundry theories, which, presented in
+another form, he would have repulsed with indignation. Still the Signor
+Soranzo was far from understanding the full effects of that system
+which he was born to uphold. Even Venice paid that homage to public
+opinion, of which there has just been question, and held forth to the
+world but a false picture of her true state maxims. Still, many of those
+which were too apparent to be concealed were difficult of acceptance,
+with one whose mind was yet untainted with practice; and the young
+senator rather shut his eyes on their tendency, or, as he felt their
+influence in every interest which environed him, but that of poor,
+neglected, abstract virtue, whose rewards were so remote, he was fain to
+seek out some palliative, or some specious and indirect good as the
+excuse for his acquiescence.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of mind the Signor Soranzo was unexpectedly admitted a
+member of the Council of Three. Often, in the day-dreams of his youth,
+had he contemplated the possession of this very irresponsible power as
+the consummation of his wishes. A thousand pictures of the good he would
+perform had crossed his brain, and it was only as he advanced in life,
+and came to have a near view of the wiles which beset the
+best-intentioned, that he could bring himself to believe most of that
+which he meditated was impracticable. As it was, he entered into the
+council with doubts and misgivings. Had he lived in a later age, under
+his own system modified by the knowledge which has been a consequence of
+the art of printing, it is probable that the Signor Soranzo would have
+been a noble in opposition, now supporting with ardor some measure of
+public benevolence, and now yielding gracefully to the suggestions of a
+sterner policy, and always influenced by the positive advantages he was
+born to possess, though scarcely conscious himself he was not all he
+professed to be. The fault, however, was not so much that of the
+patrician as that of circumstances, which, by placing interest in
+opposition to duty, lures many a benevolent mind into still greater
+weaknesses.</p>
+
+<p>The companions of the Signor Soranzo, however, had a more difficult
+task to prepare him for the duties of the statesman, which were so very
+different from those he was accustomed to perform as a man, than they
+had anticipated. They were like two trained elephants of the east,
+possessing themselves all the finer instincts and generous qualities of
+the noble animal, but disciplined by a force quite foreign to their
+natural condition into creatures of mere convention, placed one on each
+side of a younger brother, fresh from the plains, and whom it was their
+duty to teach new services for the trunk, new affections, and haply the
+manner in which to carry with dignity the howdah of a Rajah.</p>
+
+<p>With many allusions to their policy, but with no direct intimation of
+their own intention, the seniors of the council continued the
+conversation until the hour for the meeting in the Doge's palace drew
+nigh. They then separated as privately as they had come together, in
+order that no vulgar eye might penetrate the mystery of their official
+character.</p>
+
+<p>The most practised of the three appeared in an assembly of the
+patricians, which noble and beautiful dames graced with their presence,
+from which he disappeared in a manner to leave no clue to his motions.
+The other visited the death-bed of a friend, where he discoursed long
+and well with a friar, of the immortality of the soul and the hopes of a
+Christian: when he departed, the godly man bestowing his blessing, and
+the family he left being loud and eloquent in his praise.</p>
+
+<p>The Signor Soranzo clung to the enjoyments of his own family circle
+until the last moment. The Donna Giulietta had returned, fresher and
+more lovely than ever, from the invigorating sea-breeze, and her soft
+voice, with the melodious laugh of his first-born, the blooming,
+ringlet-covered girl described, still rang in his ears, when his
+gondolier landed him beneath the bridge of the Rialto. Here he masked,
+and drawing his cloak about him, he moved with the current towards the
+square of St. Mark, by means of the narrow streets. Once in the crowd
+there was little danger of impertinent observation. Disguise was as
+often useful to the oligarchy of Venice as it was absolutely necessary
+to elude its despotism, and to render the town tolerable to the citizen.
+Paolo saw swarthy, bare-legged men of the Lagunes, entering occasionally
+into the cathedral. He followed, and found himself standing near the
+dimly lighted altar at which masses were still saying for the soul of
+Antonio.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is one of thy fellows?&quot; he asked of a fisherman, whose dark eye
+glittered in that light, like the organ of a basilisk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he was&mdash;a more honest or a more just man did not cast his net
+in the gulf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has fallen a victim to his craft?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cospetto di Bacco! none know in what manner he came by his end. Some
+say St. Mark was impatient to see him in paradise, and some pretend he
+has fallen by the hand of a common Bravo, named Jacopo Frontoni.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should a Bravo take the life of one like this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By having the goodness to answer your own question, Signore, you will
+spare me some trouble. Why should he, sure enough? They say Jacopo is
+revengeful, and that shame and anger at his defeat in the late regatta,
+by one old as this, was the reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he so jealous of his honor with the oar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Diamine! I have seen the time when Jacopo would sooner die than lose a
+race; but that was before he carried a stiletto. Had he kept to his oar
+the thing might have happened, but once known for the hired blow, it
+seems unreasonable he should set his heart so strongly on the prizes of
+the canals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May not the man have fallen into the Lagunes by accident?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt, Signore. This happens to some of us daily; but then we think
+it wiser to swim to the boat than to sink. Old Antonio had an arm in
+youth to carry him from the quay to the Lido.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But he may have been struck in falling, and rendered unable to do
+himself this good office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There would be marks to show this, were it true, Signore!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would not Jacopo have used the stiletto?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps not on one like Antonio. The gondola of the old man was found
+in the mouth of the Grand Canal, half a league from the body and against
+the wind! We note these things, Signore, for they are within our
+knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A happy night to thee, fisherman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A most happy night, eccellenza,&quot; said the laborer of the Lagunes,
+gratified with having so long occupied the attention of one he rightly
+believed so much his superior. The disguised senator passed on. He had
+no difficulty in quitting the cathedral unobserved, and he had his
+private means of entering the palace, without attracting any impertinent
+eye to his movements. Here he quickly joined his colleagues of the
+fearful tribunal.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;<i>There</i> the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the
+oppressor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">JOB.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The manner in which the Council of Three held its more public meetings,
+if aught connected with that mysterious body could be called public, has
+already been seen. On the present occasion there were the same robes,
+the same disguises, and the same officers of the inquisition, as in the
+scene related in a previous chapter. The only change was in the
+character of the judges, and in that of the accused. By a peculiar
+arrangement of the lamp, too, most of the light was thrown upon the spot
+it was intended the prisoner should occupy, while the side of the
+apartment on which the inquisitors sat, was left in a dimness that well
+accorded with their gloomy and secret duties. Previously to the opening
+of the door by which the person to be examined was to appear, there was
+audible the clanking of chains, the certain evidence that the affair in
+hand was considered serious. The hinges turned, and the Bravo stood in
+presence of those unknown men who were to decide on his fate.</p>
+
+<p>As Jacopo had often been before the council, though not as a prisoner,
+he betrayed neither surprise nor alarm at the black aspect of all his
+eye beheld. His features were composed, though pale, his limbs
+immovable, and his mien decent. When the little bustle of his entrance
+had subsided, there reigned a stillness in the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art called Jacopo Frontoni?&quot; said the secretary, who acted as the
+mouth-piece of the Three, on this occasion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art the son of a certain Ricardo Frontoni, a man well known as
+having been concerned in robbing the Republic's customs, and who is
+thought to have been banished to the distant islands, or to be otherwise
+punished?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore&mdash;or otherwise punished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wert a gondolier in thy youth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was a gondolier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy mother is----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dead,&quot; said Jacopo, perceiving the other paused to examine his notes.</p>
+
+<p>The depth of the tone in which this word was uttered, caused a silence,
+that the secretary did not interrupt, until he had thrown a glance
+backwards at the judges.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She was not accused of thy father's crime?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had she been, Signore, she is long since beyond the power of the
+Republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shortly after thy father fell under the displeasure of the state, thou
+quittedst thy business of a gondolier?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art accused, Jacopo, of having laid aside the oar for the
+stiletto?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For several years, the rumors of thy bloody deeds have been growing in
+Venice, until, of late, none have met with an untimely fate that the
+blow has not been attributed to thy hand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is too true, Signor Segretario&mdash;I would it were not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The ears of his highness, and of the Councils, have not been closed to
+these reports, but they have long attended to the rumors with the
+earnestness which becomes a paternal and careful government. If they
+have suffered thee to go at large, it hath only been that there might
+be no hazard of sullying the ermine of justice, by a premature and not
+sufficiently supported judgment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo bent his head, but without speaking. A smile so wild and meaning,
+however, gleamed on his face at this declaration, that the permanent
+officer of the secret tribunal, he who served as its organ of
+communication, bowed nearly to the paper he held, as it might be to look
+deeper into his documents. Let not the reader turn back to this page in
+surprise, when he shall have reached the explanation of the tale, for
+mysticisms quite as palpable, if not of so ruthless a character, have
+been publicly acted by political bodies in his own times.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is now a specific and a frightful charge brought against thee,
+Jacopo Frontoni,&quot; continued the secretary; &quot;and, in tenderness of the
+citizen's life, the dreaded Council itself hath taken the matter in
+hand. Didst thou know a certain Antonio Vecchio, a fisherman here in our
+Lagunes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I knew him well of late, and much regret that it was only of
+late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest, too, that his body hath been found, drowned in the bay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo shuddered, signifying his assent merely by a sign. The effect of
+this tacit acknowledgment on the youngest of the three was apparent, for
+he turned to his companions, like one struck by the confession it
+implied. His colleagues made dignified inclinations in return, and the
+silent communication ceased.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His death has excited discontent among his fellows, and its cause has
+become a serious subject of inquiry for the illustrious Council.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The death of the meanest man in Venice should call forth the care of
+the patricians, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou know, Jacopo, that thou art accused of being his murderer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is said that thou earnest among the gondoliers in the late regatta,
+and that, but for this aged fisherman, thou would'st have been winner of
+the prize?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that, rumor hath not lied, Signore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou dost not, then, deny the charge!&quot; said the examiner, in evident
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is certain that, but for the fisherman, I should have been the
+winner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou wished it, Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, greatly,&quot; returned the accused, with a show of emotion, that
+had not hitherto escaped him. &quot;I was a man condemned of his fellows, and
+the oar had been my pride, from childhood to that hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Another movement of the third inquisitor betrayed equally his interest
+and his surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou confess the crime?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo smiled, but more in derision than with any other feeling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the illustrious senators here present will unmask, I may answer that
+question, haply, with greater confidence,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy request is bold and out of rule. None know the persons of the
+patricians who preside over the destinies of the state. Dost thou
+confess the crime?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The entrance of an officer, in some haste, prevented a reply. The man
+placed a written report in the hands of the inquisitor in red, and
+withdrew. After a short pause, the guards were ordered to retire with
+their prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Great senators!&quot; said Jacopo, advancing earnestly towards the table, as
+if he would seize the moment to urge what he was about to say;&mdash;&quot;Mercy!
+grant me your authority to visit one in the prisons, beneath the
+leads!&mdash;I have weighty reasons for the wish, and I pray you, as men and
+fathers, to grant it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The interest of the two, who were consulting apart on the new
+intelligence, prevented them from listening to what he urged. The other
+inquisitor, who was the Signer Soranzo, had drawn near the lamp, anxious
+to read the lineaments of one so notorious, and was gazing at his
+striking countenance. Touched by the pathos of his voice, and agreeably
+disappointed in the lineaments he studied, he took upon himself the
+power to grant the request.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humor his wish,&quot; he said to the halberdiers; &quot;but have him in
+readiness to reappear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo looked his gratitude, but fearful that the others might still
+interfere to prevent his wish, he hurried from the room.</p>
+
+<p>The march of the little procession, which proceeded from the chamber of
+the inquisition to the summer cells of its victims, was sadly
+characteristic of the place and the government.</p>
+
+<p>It went through gloomy and secret corridors, that were hid from the
+vulgar eye, while thin partitions only separated them from the
+apartments of the Doge, which, like the specious aspect of the state,
+concealed the nakedness and misery within, by their gorgeousness and
+splendor! On reaching the attic, Jacopo stopped, and turned to his
+conductors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are beings of God's forming,&quot; he said, &quot;take off these clanking
+chains, though it be but for a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The keepers regarded each other in surprise, neither offering to do the
+charitable office.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I go to visit, probably for the last time,&quot; continued the prisoner, &quot;a
+bed-ridden&mdash;I may say&mdash;a dying father, who knows nothing of my
+situation,&mdash;will ye that he should see me thus?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The appeal which was made, more with the voice and manner, than in the
+words, had its effect. A keeper removed the chains, and bade him
+proceed. With a cautious tread, Jacopo advanced, and when the door was
+opened he entered the room alone, for none there had sufficient
+interest in an interview between a common Bravo and his father, to
+endure the glowing warmth of the place, the while. The door was closed
+after him, and the room became dark.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his assumed firmness, Jacopo hesitated when he found
+himself so suddenly introduced to the silent misery of the forlorn
+captive. A hard breathing told him the situation of the pallet, but the
+walls, which were solid on the side of the corridor, effectually
+prevented the admission of light.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot; said Jacopo with gentleness.</p>
+
+<p>He got no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot; he repeated in a stronger voice.</p>
+
+<p>The breathing became more audible, and then the captive spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Maria hear my prayers!&quot; he said feebly. &quot;God hath sent thee, son,
+to close my eyes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doth thy strength fail thee, father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Greatly&mdash;my time is come&mdash;I had hoped to see the light of the day again
+to bless thy dear mother and sister&mdash;God's will be done!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They pray for us both, father. They are beyond the power of the
+Senate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo, I do not understand thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My mother and sister are dead; they are saints in Heaven, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old man groaned, for the tie of earth had not yet been entirely
+severed. Jacopo heard him murmuring a prayer, and he knelt by the side
+of his pallet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is a sudden blow!&quot; whispered the old man. &quot;We depart together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are long dead, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why hast thou not told me this before, Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hadst thou not sorrows enough without this? Now that thou art about to
+join them, it will be pleasant to know that they have so long been
+happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou?&mdash;thou wilt be alone&mdash;give me thy hand&mdash;poor Jacopo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Bravo reached forth and took the feeble member of his parent; it was
+clammy and cold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo,&quot; continued the captive, whose mind still sustained the body, &quot;I
+have prayed thrice within the hour: once for my own soul&mdash;once for the
+peace of thy mother&mdash;lastly, for thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bless thee, father!&mdash;bless thee! I have need of prayer!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have asked of God favor in thy behalf. I have bethought me of all thy
+love and care&mdash;of all thy devotion to my age and sufferings. When thou
+wert a child, Jacopo, tenderness for thee tempted me to acts of
+weakness: I trembled lest thy manhood might bring upon me pain and
+repentance. Thou hast not known the yearnings of a parent for his
+offspring, but thou hast well requited them. Kneel, Jacopo, that I may
+ask of God, once more, to remember thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am at thy side, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old man raised his feeble arms, and with a voice whose force
+appeared reviving, he pronounced a fervent and solemn benediction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The blessing of a dying parent will sweeten thy life, Jacopo,&quot; he added
+after a pause, &quot;and give peace to thy last moments.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will do the latter, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A rude summons at the door interrupted them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come forth, Jacopo,&quot; said a keeper, &quot;the Council seeks thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo felt the convulsive start of his father, but he did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will they not leave thee&mdash;a few minutes longer?&quot; whispered the old
+man&mdash;&quot;I shall not keep thee long!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and a gleam from the lamp fell on the group in the
+cell. The keeper had the humanity to shut it again, leaving all in
+obscurity. The glimpse which Jacopo obtained, by that passing light, was
+the last look he had of his father's countenance. Death was fearfully on
+it, but the eyes were turned in unutterable affection on his own.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The man is merciful&mdash;he will not shut thee out!&quot; murmured the parent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They cannot leave thee to die alone, father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Son, I am with my God&mdash;yet I would gladly have thee by my side!&mdash;Didst
+thou say&mdash;thy mother and thy sister were dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy young sister, too?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, both. They are saints in Heaven.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old man breathed thick, and there was silence. Jacopo felt a hand
+moving in the darkness, as if in quest of him. He aided the effort, and
+laid the member in reverence on his own head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maria undefiled, and her Son, who is God!&mdash;bless thee, Jacopo!&quot;
+whispered a voice, that to the excited imagination of the kneeling Bravo
+appeared to hover in the air. The solemn words were followed by a
+quivering sigh. Jacopo hid his face in the blanket, and prayed. After
+which there was deep quiet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot; he added, trembling at his own smothered voice.</p>
+
+<p>He was unanswered; stretching out a hand, it touched the features of a
+corpse. With a firmness that had the quality of desperation, he again
+bowed his head and uttered fervently a prayer for the dead.</p>
+
+<p>When the door of the cell opened, Jacopo appeared to the keepers, with a
+dignity of air that belongs only to character, and which was heightened
+by the scene in which he had just been an actor. He raised his hands,
+and stood immovable while the manacles were replaced. This office done,
+they walked away together in the direction of the secret chamber. It was
+not long ere all were again in their places, before the Council of
+Three.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jacopo Frontoni,&quot; resumed the secretary, &quot;thou art suspected of being
+privy to another dark deed that hath had place of late within our city.
+Hast thou any knowledge of a noble Calabrian, who hath high claim to the
+senate's honors, and who hath long had his abode in Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou had aught of concern with him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A movement of common interest made itself apparent among the auditors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou know where the Don Camillo Monforte is at present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo hesitated. He so well understood the means of intelligence
+possessed by the Council, that he doubted how far it might be prudent to
+deny his connexion with the flight of the lovers. Besides, at that
+moment, his mind was deeply impressed with a holy sentiment of truth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Canst thou say, why the young duca is not to be found in his palace?&quot;
+repeated the secretary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Illustrissimo, he hath quitted Venice for ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How canst thou know this?&mdash;Would he make a confidant of a common
+Bravo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The smile which crossed the features of Jacopo was full of superiority;
+it caused the conscious agent of the Secret Tribunal to look closely at
+his papers, like one who felt its power.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou his confidant&mdash;I ask again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, in this, I am&mdash;I have the assurance from the mouth of Don
+Camillo Monforte himself, that he will not return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is impossible, since it would involve a loss of all his fair
+hopes and illustrious fortunes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He consoled himself, Signore, with the possession of the heiress of
+Tiepolo's love, and with her riches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a movement among the Three, which all their practised
+restraint, and the conventional dignity of their mysterious functions,
+could not prevent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let the keepers withdraw,&quot; said the inquisitor of the scarlet robe. So
+soon as the prisoner was alone with the Three, and their permanent
+officer, the examination continued; the Senators themselves, trusting to
+the effect produced by their masks, and some feints, speaking as
+occasion offered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is important intelligence that thou hast communicated, Jacopo,&quot;
+continued he of the robe of flame. &quot;It may yet redeem thy life, wert
+thou wise enough to turn it to account.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What would your eccellenza at my hands? It is plain that the Council
+know of the flight of Don Camillo, nor will I believe that eyes, which
+so seldom are closed, have not yet missed the daughter of the Tiepolo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Both are true, Jacopo; but what hast thou to say of the means?
+Remember, that as thou findest favor with the council, thine own fate
+will be decided.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner suffered another of those freezing gleams to cross his
+face, which invariably caused his examiners to bend their looks aside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The means of escape cannot be wanting to a bold lover, Signore,&quot; he
+replied. &quot;Don Camillo is rich, and might employ a thousand agents, had
+he need of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art equivocating; 'twill be the worse for thee, that thou triflest
+with the Council&mdash;who are these agents?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He had a generous household, Eccellenza;&mdash;many hardy gondoliers, and
+servitors of all conditions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of these we have nothing to learn. He hath escaped by other means&mdash;or
+art thou sure he hath escaped at all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, is he in Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, that we ask of thee. Here is an accusation, found in the lion's
+mouth, which charges thee with his assassination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the Donna Violetta's, too, eccellenza?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of her, we have heard nothing. What answer dost make to the charge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, why should I betray my own secrets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! art thou equivocating and faithless? Remember that we have a
+prisoner beneath the leads, who can extract the truth from thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo raised his form to such an altitude as one might fancy to express
+the mounting of a liberated spirit. Still his eye was sad, and, spite of
+an effort to the contrary, his voice melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Senators,&quot; he said, &quot;your prisoner beneath the leads is free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! thou art trifling, in thy despair!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I speak truth. The liberation, so long delayed, hath come at last.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy father----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is dead,&quot; interrupted Jacopo, solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>The two elder members of the Council looked at each other in surprise,
+while their junior colleague listened with the interest of one who was
+just entering on a noviciate of secret and embarrassing duties. The
+former consulted together, and then they communicated as much of their
+opinions to the Signor Soranzo, as they deemed necessary to the
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou consult thine own safety, Jacopo, and reveal all thou knowest
+of this affair of the Neapolitan?&quot; continued the inquisitor, when this
+by-play was ended.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo betrayed no weakness at the menace implied by the words of the
+senator; but, after a moment's reflection, he answered writh as much
+frankness as he could have used at the confessional.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is known to you, illustrious senator,&quot; he said, &quot;that the state had
+a desire to match the heiress of Tiepolo, to its own advantage; that she
+was beloved of the Neapolitan noble; and that, as is wont between young
+and virtuous hearts, she returned his love as became a maiden of her
+high condition and tender years. Is there anything extraordinary in the
+circumstance that two of so illustrious hopes should struggle to prevent
+their own misery? Signori, the night that old Antonio died, I was alone,
+among the graves of the Lido, with many melancholy and bitter thoughts,
+and life had become a burden to me. Had the evil spirit which was then
+uppermost, maintained its mastery, I might have died the death of a
+hopeless suicide. God sent Don Camillo Monforte to my succor. Praised be
+the immaculate Maria, and her blessed Son, for the mercy! It was there I
+learned the wishes of the Neapolitan, and enlisted myself in his
+service. I swore to him, senators of Venice, to be true&mdash;to die in his
+cause, should it be necessary, and to help him to his bride. This pledge
+have I redeemed. The happy lovers are now in the States of the Church,
+and under the puissant protection of the cardinal secretary, Don
+Camillo's mother's brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fool! why did'st thou this? Had'st thou no thought for thyself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eccellenza, but little. I thought more of finding a human bosom to pour
+out my sufferings to, than of your high displeasure. I have not known so
+sweet a moment in years, as that in which I saw the lord of Sant' Agata
+fold his beautiful and weeping bride to his heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The inquisitors were struck with the quiet enthusiasm of the Bravo, and
+surprise once more held them in suspense. At length the elder of the
+three resumed the examination.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou impart the manner of this escape, Jacopo?&quot; he demanded.
+&quot;Remember, thou hast still a life to redeem!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, it is scarce worth the trouble. But to do your pleasure,
+nothing shall be concealed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo then recounted in simple and undisguised terms, the entire means
+employed by Don Camillo in effecting his escape&mdash;his hopes, his
+disappointments, and his final success. In this narrative nothing was
+concealed but the place in which the ladies had temporarily taken
+refuge, and the name of Gelsomina. Even the attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo
+on the life of the Neapolitan, and the agency of the Hebrew, were fully
+exposed. None listened to this explanation so intently as the young
+husband. Notwithstanding his public duties, his pulses quickened as the
+prisoner dwelt on the different chances of the lovers, and when their
+final union was proclaimed, he felt his heart bound with delight. On the
+other hand, his more practised colleagues heard the detail of the Bravo
+with politic coolness. The effect of all factitious systems is to render
+the feelings subservient to expediency. Convention and fiction take
+place of passion and truth, and like the Mussulman with his doctrine of
+predestination, there is no one more acquiescent in defeat, than he who
+has obtained an advantage in the face of nature and justice; his
+resignation being, in common, as perfect as his previous arrogance was
+insupportable. The two old senators perceived at once that Don Camillo
+and his fair companion were completely beyond the reach of their power,
+and they instantly admitted the wisdom of making a merit of necessity.
+Having no farther occasion for Jacopo, they summoned the keepers, and
+dismissed him to his cell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will be seemly to send letters of congratulation to the cardinal
+secretary, on the union of his nephew with so rich an heiress of our
+city,&quot; said the Inquisitor of the Ten, as the door closed on the
+retiring group. &quot;So great an interest as that of the Neapolitan should
+be propitiated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But should he urge the state's resistance to his hopes?&quot; returned the
+Signor Soranzo, in feeble objection to so bold a scheme.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will excuse it as the act of a former council. These misconceptions
+are the unavoidable consequences of the caprices of liberty, Signore.
+The steed that ranges the plains in the freedom of nature, cannot be
+held to perfect command, like the dull beast that draws the car. This is
+the first of your sittings in the Three; but experience will show you
+that excellent as we are in system, we are not quite perfect in
+practice. This is grave matter of the young Gradenigo, Signori!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have long known his unworthiness,&quot; returned his more aged colleague.
+&quot;It is a thousand pities that so honorable and so noble a patrician
+should have produced so ignoble a child. But neither the state nor the
+city can tolerate assassination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would it were less, frequent!&quot; exclaimed the Signore Soranzo, in
+perfect sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would it were, indeed! There are hints in our secret information, which
+tend to confirm the charge of Jacopo, though long experience has taught
+us to put full faith in his reports.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! Is Jacopo, then, an agent of the police!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of that more at our leisure, Signor Soranzo. At present we must look to
+this attempt on the life of one protected by our laws.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Three then entered into a serious discussion of the case of the two
+delinquents. Venice, like all despotic governments, had the merit of
+great efficiency in its criminal police, when it was disposed to exert
+it. Justice was sure enough in those instances in which the interests of
+the government itself were not involved, or in which bribery could not
+well be used. As to the latter, through the jealousy of the state, and
+the constant agency of those who were removed from temptation, by being
+already in possession of a monopoly of benefits, it was by no means as
+frequent as in some other communities in which the affluent were less
+interested. The Signor Soranzo had now a fair occasion for the exercise
+of his generous feelings. Though related to the house of Gradenigo, he
+was not backward in decrying the conduct of its heir. His first impulses
+were to make a terrible example of the accused, and to show the world
+that no station brought with it, in Venice, impunity for crime. From
+this view of the case, however, he was gradually enticed by his
+companions, who reminded him that the law commonly made a distinction
+between the intention and the execution of an offence. Driven from his
+first determination by the cooler heads of his colleagues, the young
+inquisitor next proposed that the case should be sent to the ordinary
+tribunals for judgment. Instances had not been wanting in which the
+aristocracy of Venice sacrificed one of its body to the seemliness of
+justice; for when such cases were managed with discretion, they rather
+strengthened than weakened their ascendency. But the present crime was
+known to be too common, to permit so lavish an expenditure of their
+immunities, and the old inquisitors opposed the wish of their younger
+colleague with great plausibility, and with some show of reason. It was
+finally resolved that they should themselves decide on the case.</p>
+
+<p>The next question was the degree of punishment. The wily senior of the
+council began by proposing a banishment for a few months, for Giacomo
+Gradenigo was already obnoxious to the anger of the state on more
+accounts than one. But this punishment was resisted by the Signor
+Soranzo with the ardor of an uncorrupted and generous mind. The latter
+gradually prevailed, his companions taking care that their compliance
+should have the air of a concession to his arguments. The result of all
+this management was, that the heir of Gradenigo was condemned to ten
+years' retirement in the provinces, and Hosea to banishment for life.
+Should the reader be of opinion that strict justice was not meted out to
+the offenders, he should remember, that the Hebrew ought to be glad to
+have escaped as he did.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must not conceal this judgment, nor its motive,&quot; observed the
+Inquisitor of the Ten, when the affair was concluded. &quot;The state is
+never a loser for letting its justice be known.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor for its exercise, I should hope,&quot; returned the Signor Soranzo. &quot;As
+our affairs are ended for the night, is it your pleasures, Signori, that
+we return to our palaces?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, we have this matter of Jacopo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Him may we now, surely, turn over to the ordinary tribunals!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As you may decide, Signori; is this your pleasure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Both the others bowed assent, and the usual preparations were made for
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>Ere the two seniors of the Council left the palace, however, they held a
+long and secret conference together. The result was a private order to
+the criminal judge, and then they returned, each to his own abode, like
+men who had the approbation of their own consciences.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the Signor Soranzo hastened to his own luxurious and
+happy dwelling. For the first time in his life he entered it with a
+distrust of himself. Without being conscious of the reason, he felt sad,
+for he had taken the first step in that tortuous and corrupting path,
+which eventually leads to the destruction of all those generous and
+noble sentiments, which can only flourish apart from the sophistry and
+fictions of selfishness. He would have rejoiced to have been as light of
+heart as at the moment he handed his fair-haired partner into the
+gondola that night; but his head had pressed the pillow for many hours,
+before sleep drew a veil over the solemn trifling with the most serious
+of your duties, in which he had been an actor.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXIX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&quot;Art thou not guilty! No, indeed, I am not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">ROGERS.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The following morning brought the funeral of Antonio. The agents of the
+police took the precaution to circulate in the city, that the Senate
+permitted this honor to the memory of the old fisherman, on account of
+his success in the regatta, and as some atonement for his unmerited and
+mysterious death. All the men of the Lagunes were assembled in the
+square at the appointed hour, in decent guise, flattered with the notice
+that their craft received, and more than half disposed to forget their
+former anger in the present favor. Thus easy is it for those who are
+elevated above their fellow-creatures by the accident of birth, or by
+the opinions of a factitious social organization, to repair the wrongs
+they do in deeds, by small concessions of their conventional
+superiority.</p>
+
+<p>Masses were still chanted for the soul of old Antonio before the altar
+of St. Mark. Foremost among the priests was the good Carmelite, who had
+scarce known hunger or fatigue, in his pious desire to do the offices of
+the church in behalf of one whose fate he might be said to have
+witnessed. His zeal, however, in that moment of excitement passed
+unnoticed by all, but those whose business it was to suffer no unusual
+display of character, nor any unwonted circumstance to have place,
+without attracting their suspicion. As the Carmelite finally withdrew
+from the altar, previously to the removal of the body, he felt the
+sleeve of his robe slightly drawn aside, and yielding to the impulse,
+he quickly found himself among the columns of that gloomy church, alone
+with a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, thou hast shrived many a parting soul!&quot; observed, rather than
+asked, the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the duty of my holy office, son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The state will note thy services; there will be need of thee when the
+body of this fisherman is committed to the earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk shuddered, but making the sign of the cross, he bowed his pale
+face, in signification of his readiness to discharge the duty. At that
+moment the bearers lifted the body, and the procession issued upon the
+great square. First marched the usual lay underlings of the cathedral,
+who were followed by those who chanted the offices of the occasion.
+Among the latter the Carmelite hastened to take his station. Next came
+the corpse, without a coffin, for that is a luxury of the grave even now
+unknown to the Italians of old Antonio's degree. The body was clad in
+the holiday vestments of a fisherman, the hands and feet being naked. A
+cross lay on the breast; the grey hairs were blowing about in the air,
+and, in frightful adornment of the ghastliness of death, a bouquet of
+flowers was placed upon the mouth. The bier was rich in gilding and
+carving, another melancholy evidence of the lingering wishes and false
+direction of human vanity.</p>
+
+<p>Next to this characteristic equipage of the dead walked a lad, whose
+brown cheek, half-naked body, and dark, roving eye, announced the
+grandson of the fisherman. Venice knew when to yield gracefully, and the
+boy was liberated unconditionally from the galleys, in pity, as it was
+whispered, for the untimely fate of his parent. There was the aspiring
+look, the dauntless spirit, and the rigid honesty of Antonio, in the
+bearing of the lad; but these qualities were now smothered by a natural
+grief; and, as in the case of him whose funeral escort he followed,
+something obscured by the rude chances of his lot. From time to time
+the bosom of the generous boy heaved, as they marched along the quay,
+taking the route of the arsenal; and there were moments in which his
+lips quivered, grief threatening to overcome his manhood.</p>
+
+<p>Still not a tear wetted his cheek, until the body disappeared from his
+view. Then nature triumphed, and straying from out the circle, he took a
+seat apart and wept, as one of his years and simplicity would be apt to
+weep, at finding himself a solitary wanderer in the wilderness of the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Thus terminated the incident of Antonio Vecchio, the fisherman, whose
+name soon ceased to be mentioned in that city of mysteries, except on
+the Lagunes, where the men of his craft long vaunted his merit with the
+net, and the manner in which he bore away the prize from the best oars
+of Venice. His descendant lived and toiled, like others of his
+condition, and we will here dismiss him, by saying, that he so far
+inherited the native qualities of his ancestor, that he forbore to
+appear, a few hours later, in the crowd, which curiosity and vengeance
+drew into the Piazzetta.</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo took boat to return to the canals, and when he landed at
+the quay of the smaller square it was with the hope that he would now be
+permitted to seek those of whose fate he was still ignorant, but in whom
+he felt so deep an interest. Not so, however. The individual who had
+addressed him in the cathedral was, apparently, in waiting, and knowing
+the uselessness as well as the danger of remonstrance, where the state
+was concerned, the Carmelite permitted himself to be conducted whither
+his guide pleased. They took a devious route, but it led them to the
+public prisons. Here the priest was shown into the keeper's apartment,
+where he was desired to wait a summons from his companion.</p>
+
+<p>Our business now leads us to the cell of Jacopo. On quitting the
+presence of the Three, he had been remanded to his gloomy room, where he
+passed the night like others similarly situated. With the appearance of
+the dawn the Bravo had been led before those who ostensibly discharged
+the duties of his judges. We say ostensibly, for justice never yet was
+pure under a system in which the governors have an interest in the least
+separated from that of the governed; for in all cases which involve the
+ascendency of the existing authorities, the instinct of
+self-preservation is as certain to bias their decision as that of life
+is to cause man to shun danger. If such is the fact in countries of
+milder sway, the reader will easily believe in its existence in a state
+like that of Venice. As may have been anticipated, those who sat in
+judgment on Jacopo had their instructions, and the trial that he
+sustained was rather a concession to appearances than a homage to the
+laws. All the records were duly made, witnesses were examined, or said
+to be examined, and care was had to spread the rumor in the city that
+the tribunals were at length occupied in deciding on the case of the
+extraordinary man who had so long been permitted to exercise his bloody
+profession with impunity even in the centre of the canals. During the
+morning the credulous tradesmen were much engaged in recounting to each
+other the different flagrant deeds that, in the course of the last three
+or four years, had been imputed to his hand. One spoke of the body of a
+stranger that had been found near the gaming-houses frequented by those
+who visited Venice. Another recalled the fate of the young noble who had
+fallen by the assassin's blow even on the Rialto, and another went into
+the details of a murder which had deprived a mother of her only son, and
+the daughter of a patrician of her love. In this manner, as one after
+another contributed to the list, a little group, assembled on the quay,
+enumerated no less than five-and-twenty lives which were believed to
+have been taken by the hand of Jacopo, without including the vindictive
+and useless assassination of him whose funeral rites had just been
+celebrated. Happily, perhaps, for his peace of mind, the subject of all
+these rumors and of the maledictions which they drew upon his head, knew
+nothing of either. Before his judges he had made no defence whatever,
+firmly refusing to answer their interrogatories.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye know what I have done, Messires,&quot; he said haughtily. &quot;And what I
+have not done, ye know. As for yourselves, look to your own interests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When again in his cell he demanded food, and ate tranquilly, though with
+moderation. Every instrument which could possibly be used against his
+life was then removed, his irons were finally and carefully examined,
+and he was left to his thoughts. It was in this situation that the
+prisoner heard the approach of footsteps to his cell. The bolts turned,
+and the door opened. The form of a priest appeared between him and the
+day. The latter, however, held a lamp, which, as the cell was again shut
+and secured, he placed on the low shelf that held the jug and loaf of
+the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo received his visitor calmly, but with the deep respect of one who
+reverenced his body office. He arose, crossed himself, and advanced as
+far as the chains permitted, to do him honor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art welcome, father,&quot; he said; &quot;in cutting me off from earth, the
+Council, I see, does not wish to cut me off from God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That would exceed their power, son. He who died for them, shed his
+blood for thee, if thou wilt not reject his grace. But&mdash;Heaven knows I
+say it with reluctance! thou art not to think that one of thy sins,
+Jacopo, can have hope without deep and heartfelt repentance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, have any?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite started, for the point of the question, and the tranquil
+tones of the speaker, had a strange effect in such an interview.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art not what I had supposed thee, Jacopo!&quot; he answered. &quot;Thy mind
+is not altogether obscured in darkness, and thy crimes have been
+committed against the consciousness of their enormity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear this is true, reverend monk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou must feel their weight in the poignancy of grief&mdash;in the&mdash;&quot; Father
+Anselmo stopped, for a sob at that moment apprised them that they were
+not alone. Moving aside, in a little alarm, the action discovered the
+figure of the shrinking Gelsomina, who had entered the cell, favored by
+the keepers, and concealed by the robes of the Carmelite. Jacopo groaned
+when he beheld her form, and turning away, he leaned against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Daughter, why art thou here&mdash;and who art thou?&quot; demanded the monk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis the child of the principal keeper,&quot; said Jacopo, perceiving that
+she was unable to answer, &quot;one known to me, in my frequent adventures in
+this prison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eye of Father Anselmo wandered from one to the other. At first its
+expression was severe, and then, as it saw each countenance in turn, it
+became less unkind, until it softened at the exhibition of their mutual
+agony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This comes of human passions!&quot; he said, in a tone between consolation
+and reproof. &quot;Such are ever the fruits of crime.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; said Jacopo, with earnestness, &quot;I may deserve the word; but
+the angels in Heaven are scarce purer than this weeping girl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I rejoice to hear it. I will believe thee, unfortunate man, and glad am
+I that thy soul is relieved from the sin of having corrupted one so
+youthful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bosom of the prisoner heaved, while Gelsomina shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why hast thou yielded to the weakness of nature, and entered the cell?&quot;
+asked the good Carmelite, endeavoring to throw into his eye a reproof,
+that the pathos and kindness of his tones contradicted. &quot;Didst thou know
+the character of the man thou loved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Immaculate Maria!&quot; exclaimed the girl&mdash;&quot;no&mdash;no&mdash;no&mdash;no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now that thou hast learned the truth, surely thou art no longer the
+victim of wayward fancies!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gaze of Gelsomina was bewildered, but anguish prevailed over all
+other expression. She bowed her head, partly in shame, but more in
+sorrow, without answering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not, children, what end this interview can answer,&quot; continued
+the monk. &quot;I am sent hither to receive the last confession of a Bravo,
+and surely, one who has so much cause to condemn the deception he has
+practised, would not wish to hear the details of such a life?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No&mdash;no&mdash;no&mdash;&quot; murmured Gelsomina again, enforcing her words with a wild
+gesture of the hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is better, father, that she should believe me all that her fancy can
+imagine as monstrous,&quot; said Jacopo, in a thick voice: &quot;she will then
+learn to hate my memory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina did not speak, but the negative gesture was repeated
+franticly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The heart of the poor child hath been sorely touched,&quot; said the
+Carmelite, with concern. &quot;We must not treat so tender a flower rudely.
+Hearken to me, daughter, and consult thy reason, more than thy
+weakness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Question her not, father; let her curse me, and depart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo!&quot; shrieked Gelsomina.</p>
+
+<p>A long pause succeeded. The monk perceived that human passion was
+superior to his art, and that the case must be left to time; while the
+prisoner maintained within himself a struggle more fierce than any which
+it had yet been his fate to endure. The lingering desires of the world
+conquered, and he broke silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; he said, advancing to the length of his chain, and speaking
+both solemnly and with dignity, &quot;I had hoped&mdash;I had prayed that this
+unhappy but innocent creature might have turned from her own weakness
+with loathing, when she came to know that the man she loved was a Bravo.
+But I did injustice to the heart of woman! Tell me, Gelsomina, and as
+thou valuest thy salvation deceive me not&mdash;canst thou look at me without
+horror?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina trembled, but she raised her eyes, and smiled on him as the
+weeping infant returns the earnest and tender regard of its mother. The
+effect of that glance on Jacopo was so powerful that his sinewy frame
+shook, until the wondering Carmelite heard the clanking of his chains.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis enough,&quot; he said, struggling to command himself, &quot;Gelsomina, thou
+shalt hear my confession. Thou hast long been mistress of one great
+secret, none other shall be hid from thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio!&quot; gasped the girl. &quot;Carlo! Carlo! what had that aged fisherman
+done that thy hand should seek his life?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Antonio!&quot; echoed the monk; &quot;dost thou stand charged with his death, my
+son?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is the crime for which I am condemned to die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite sank upon the stool of the prisoner, and sat motionless,
+looking with an eye of horror from the countenance of the unmoved Jacopo
+to that of his trembling companion. The truth began to dawn upon him,
+though his mind was still enveloped in the web of Venetian mystery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is some horrible mistake!&quot; he whispered. &quot;I will hasten to thy
+judges and undeceive them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner smiled calmly, as he reached out a hand to arrest the
+zealous movement of the simple Carmelite.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twill be useless,&quot; he said; &quot;it is the pleasure of the Three that I
+should suffer for old Antonio's death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then wilt thou die unjustly! I am a witness that he fell by other
+hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot; shrieked Gelsomina, &quot;oh! repeat the words; say that Carlo
+could not do the cruel deed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of that murder, at least, he is innocent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gelsomina!&quot; said Jacopo, struggling to stretch forth his arms towards
+her, and yielding to a full heart, &quot;and of every other!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A cry of wild delight burst from the lips of the girl, who in the next
+instant lay senseless on his bosom.</p>
+
+<p>We draw the veil before the scene that followed. Near an hour must pass
+before we can again remove it. The cell then exhibited a group in its
+centre, over which the lamp shed its feeble light, marking the
+countenances of the different personages with strong tints and deep
+shadows, in a manner to bring forth all the force of Italian expression.
+The Carmelite was seated on the stool, while Jacopo and Gelsomina knelt
+beside him. The former of the two last was speaking earnestly, while his
+auditors caught each syllable that issued from his lips, as if interest
+in his innocence were still stronger than curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have told you, father,&quot; he continued, &quot;that a false accusation of
+having wronged the customs brought my unhappy parent under the Senate's
+displeasure, and that he was many years an innocent inhabitant of one of
+these accursed cells, while we believed him in exile among the islands.
+At length we succeeded in getting such proof before the Council, as
+ought to have satisfied the patricians of their own injustice. I am
+afraid that when men pretend that the chosen of the earth exercise
+authority, they are not ready to admit their errors, for it would be
+proof against the merit of their system. The Council delayed a weary
+time to do us justice&mdash;so long, that my poor mother sank under her
+sufferings. My sister, a girl of Gelsomina's years, followed her
+soon&mdash;for the only reason given by the state, when pressed for proof,
+was the suspicion that one who sought her love was guilty of the crime
+for which my unhappy father perished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And did they refuse to repair their injustice?&quot; exclaimed the
+Carmelite.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They could not do it, father, without publishing their fallibility. The
+credit of certain great patricians was concerned, and I fear there is a
+morality in these Councils which separates the deed of the man from
+those of the senators, putting policy before justice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This may be true, son; for when a community is grounded on false
+principles, its interests must, of necessity, be maintained by sophisms.
+God will view this act with a different eye!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Else would the world be hopeless, father! After years of prayers and
+interest, I was, under a solemn oath of secresy, admitted to my father's
+cell. There was happiness in being able to administer to his wants&mdash;in
+hearing his voice&mdash;in kneeling for his blessing. Gelsomina was then a
+child approaching womanhood. I knew not their motive, though after
+thoughts left it no secret, and I was permitted to see my father through
+her means. When they believed that I was sufficiently caught in their
+toils, I was led into that fatal error which has destroyed my hopes, and
+brought me to this condition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast affirmed thy innocence, my son!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Innocent of shedding blood, father, but not of lending myself to their
+artifices. I will not weary you, holy monk, with the history of the
+means by which they worked upon my nature. I was sworn to serve the
+state, as its secret agent, for a certain time. The reward was to be my
+father's freedom. Had they taken me in the world, and in my senses,
+their arts would not have triumphed; but a daily witness of the
+sufferings of him who had given me life, and who was now all that was
+left me in the world, they were too strong for my weakness, They
+whispered to me of racks and wheels, and I was shown paintings of dying
+martyrs, that I might understand the agony they could inflict.
+Assassinations were frequent, and called for the care of the police; in
+short, father&quot;&mdash;Jacopo hid his face in the dress of Gelsomina&mdash;&quot;I
+consented to let them circulate such tales as might draw the eye of the
+public on me. I need not add, that he who lends himself to his own
+infamy will soon attain his object.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With what end was this miserable falsehood invented?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, I was applied to as a public Bravo, and my reports, in more
+ways than one, answered their designs, That I saved some lives is at
+least a consolation for the error or crime into which I fell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand thee, Jacopo. I have heard that Venice did not hesitate to
+use the ardent and brave in this manner. Holy St. Mark! can deceit like
+this be practised under the sanction of thy blessed name!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, it is, and more. I had other duties connected with the
+interests of the Republic, and of course I was practised in their
+discharge. The citizens marvelled that one like me should go at large,
+while the vindictive and revengeful took the circumstance as a proof of
+address. When rumor grew too strong for appearances, the Three took
+measures to direct it to other things; and when it grew too faint for
+their wishes it was fanned. In short, for three long and bitter years
+did I pass the life of the damned&mdash;sustained only by the hope of
+liberating my father, and cheered by the love of this innocent!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor Jacopo, thou art to be pitied! I will remember thee in my
+prayers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou, Gelsomina?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The keeper's daughter did not answer. Her ears had drunk in each
+syllable that fell from his lips, and now that the whole truth began to
+dawn on her mind, there was a bright radiance in her eye that appeared
+almost supernatural to those who witnessed it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I have failed in convincing thee, Gelsomina,&quot; continued Jacopo,
+&quot;that I am not the wretch I seemed, would that I had been dumb!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stretched a hand towards him, and dropping her head on his bosom,
+wept.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see all thy temptations, poor Carlo,&quot; she said, softly; &quot;I know how
+strong was thy love for thy father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dost thou forgive me, dearest Gelsomina, for the deception on thy
+innocence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was no deception; I believed thee a son ready to die for his
+father, and I find thee what I thought thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The good Carmelite regarded this scene with eyes of interest and
+indulgence; tears wetted his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy affection for each other, children,&quot; he said, &quot;is such as angels
+might indulge. Has thy intercourse been of long date?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It has lasted years, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou, daughter, hast been with Jacopo in the cell of his parent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was his constant guide on these holy errands, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk mused deeply. After a silence of several minutes he proceeded
+to the duties of his holy office. Receiving the spiritual confession of
+the prisoner he gave the absolution with a fervor which proved how
+deeply his sympathies were enlisted in behalf of the youthful pair. This
+duty done, he gave Gelsomina his hand, and there was a mild confidence
+in his countenance as he took leave of Jacopo.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We quit thee,&quot; he said; &quot;but be of heart, son. I cannot think that even
+Venice will be deaf to a tale like thine! Trust first to thy God, and
+believe that neither this faithful girl nor I will abandon thee without
+an effort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo received this assurance like one accustomed to exist in extreme
+jeopardy. The smile which accompanied his own adieux had in it as much
+of incredulity as of melancholy. It was, however, full of the joy of a
+lightened heart.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="013.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  &quot;Your heart<br />
+is free, and quick with virtuous wrath to accuse<br />
+Appearances; and views a criminal<br />
+In innocence's shadow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">WERNER.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The Carmelite and Gelsomina found the keepers in waiting, and when they
+quitted the cell its door was secured for the night. As they had no
+further concerns with the jailors they passed on unquestioned. But when
+the end of the corridor which led towards the apartments of the keeper
+was reached, the monk stopped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou equal to a great effort, in order that the innocent shall not
+die?&quot; he suddenly asked, though with a solemnity that denoted the
+influence of a high and absorbing motive.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would know if thy love for the youth can sustain thee in a trying
+scene; for without this effort he will surely perish!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would die to save Jacopo a pang!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Deceive not thyself, daughter! Canst thou forget thy habits; overstep
+the diffidence of thy years and condition; stand and speak fearlessly in
+the presence of the great and dreaded?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reverend Carmelite, I speak daily without fear, though not without awe,
+to one more to be dreaded than any in Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk looked in admiration at the gentle being, whose countenance
+was glowing with the mild resolution of innocence and affection, and he
+motioned for her to follow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will go, then, before the proudest and the most fearful of earth,
+should there be occasion,&quot; he resumed. &quot;We will do our duty to both
+parties, to the oppressor and the oppressed, that the sin of omission
+lie not on our souls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo, without further explanation, led the obedient girl into
+that part of the palace which was known to be appropriated to the
+private uses of the titular head of the Republic.</p>
+
+<p>The jealousy of the Venetian patricians on the subject of their Doge is
+matter of history. He was, by situation, a puppet in the hands of the
+nobles, who only tolerated his existence, because the theory of their
+government required a seeming agent in the imposing ceremonies that
+formed part of their specious system, and in their intercourse with
+other states. He dwelt in his palace like the queen-bee in the hive,
+pampered and honored to the eye, but in truth devoted to the objects of
+those who alone possess the power to injure, and perhaps we might add,
+like the insect named, known for consuming more than a usual portion of
+the fruits of the common industry.</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo was indebted to his own decision, and to the confidence
+of his manner, for reaching the private apartments of a prince, thus
+secluded and watched. He was permitted to pass by various sentinels, who
+imagined, from his holy calling and calm step, that he was some friar
+employed in his usual and privileged office. By this easy, quiet method
+did the Carmelite and his companion penetrate to the very ante-chamber
+of the sovereign, a spot that thousands had been defeated in attempting
+to reach, by means more elaborate.</p>
+
+<p>There were merely two or three drowsy inferior officers of the household
+in waiting. One arose quickly at the unexpected appearance of these
+unknown visitors, expressing, by the surprise and the confusion of his
+eye, the wonder into which he was thrown by so unlooked-for guests.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His Highness waits for us, I fear?&quot; simply observed Father Anselmo, who
+had known how to quiet his concern, in a look of passive courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Santa Maria! holy father, you should know best, but----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will not lose more time in idle words, son, when there has already
+been this delay&mdash;show us to the closet of his Highness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is forbidden to usher any, unannounced, into the presence----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou seest this is not an ordinary visit. Go, inform the Doge that the
+Carmelite he expects, and the youthful maiden, in whom his princely
+bosom feels so parental an interest, await his pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His Highness has then commanded----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him, moreover, that time presses; for the hour is near when
+innocence is condemned to suffer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The usher was deceived by the gravity and assurance of the monk. He
+hesitated, and then throwing open a door, he showed the visitors into an
+inner room, where he requested them to await his return. After this, he
+went on the desired commission to the closet of his master.</p>
+
+<p>It has already been shown that the reigning Doge, if such a title can be
+used of a prince who was merely a tool of the aristocracy, was a man
+advanced in years. He had thrown aside the cares of the day, and, in the
+retirement of his privacy, was endeavoring to indulge those human
+sympathies that had so little play in the ordinary duties of his
+factitious condition, by holding intercourse with the mind of one of the
+classics of his country. His state was laid aside for lighter ease and
+personal freedom. The monk could not have chosen a happier moment for
+his object, since the man was undefended by the usual appliances of his
+rank, and he was softened by communion with one who had known how to
+mould and temper the feelings of his readers at will. So entire was the
+abstraction of the Doge, at the moment, that the usher entered unheeded,
+and had stood in respectful attention to his sovereign's pleasure, near
+a minute before he was seen.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What would'st thou, Marco?&quot; demanded the prince, when his eye rose from
+the page.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore,&quot; returned the officer, using the familiar manner in which
+those nearest to the persons of princes are permitted to indulge&mdash;&quot;here
+are the reverend Carmelite, and the young girl, in waiting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How sayest thou? a Carmelite, and a girl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, the same. Those whom your Highness expects.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What bold pretence is this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I do but repeat the words of the monk. 'Tell his Highness,'
+said the father, 'that the Carmelite he wishes to see, and the young
+girl in whose happiness his princely bosom feels so parental an
+interest, await his pleasure.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There passed a glow, in which indignation was brighter than shame, over
+the wasted cheek of the old prince, and his eye kindled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this to me&mdash;even in my palace!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon, Signore. This is no shameless priest, like so many that
+disgrace the tonsure. Both monk and girl have innocent and harmless
+looks, and I do suspect your Highness may have forgotten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bright spots disappeared from the prince's cheeks and his eye
+regained its paternal expression. But age, and experience in his
+delicate duties, had taught the Doge of Venice caution. He well knew
+that memory had not failed him, and he at once saw that a hidden meaning
+lay concealed beneath an application so unusual. There might be a device
+of his enemies, who were numerous and active, or, in truth, there might
+be some justifiable motive to warrant the applicant in resorting to a
+measure so hardy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did the Carmelite say more, good Marco?&quot; he asked, after deep
+reflection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, he said there was great urgency, as the hour was near when the
+innocent might suffer. I doubt not that he comes with a petition in
+behalf of some young indiscreet, for there are said to be several young
+nobles arrested for their follies in the carnival. The female may be a
+sister disguised.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bid one of thy companions come hither; and when I touch my bell, do
+thou usher these visitors to my presence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The attendant withdrew, taking care to pass into the antechamber by
+doors that rendered it unnecessary to show himself too soon to those who
+expected his return. The second usher quickly made his appearance, and
+was immediately dispatched in quest of one of the Three, who was
+occupied with important papers in an adjoining closet. The senator was
+not slow to obey the summons, for he appeared there as a friend of the
+prince, having been admitted publicly, and with the customary honors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here are visitors of an unusual character, Signore,&quot; said the Doge,
+rising to receive him whom he had summoned in precaution to himself,
+&quot;and I would have a witness of their requests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your Highness does well to make us of the Senate share your labors;
+though if any mistaken opinion of the necessity has led you to conceive
+it important to call a councillor each time a guest enters the
+palace----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is well, Signore,&quot; mildly interrupted the prince, touching the bell.
+&quot;I hope my importunity has not deranged you. But here come those I
+expect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo and Gelsomina entered the closet together. The first
+glance convinced the Doge that he received strangers. He exchanged looks
+with the member of the secret council, and each saw in the other's eye
+that the surprise was mutual.</p>
+
+<p>When fairly in the presence, the Carmelite threw back his cowl, entirely
+exposing the whole of his ascetic features; while Gelsomina, awed by the
+rank of him who received them, shrank abashed, partly concealed by his
+robes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What means this visit?&quot; demanded the prince, whose finger pointed to
+the shrinking form of the girl, while his eye rested steadily on that of
+the monk, &quot;and that unusual companion? Neither the hour, nor the mode,
+is customary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo stood before the Venetian sovereign for the first time.
+Accustomed, like all of that region, and more especially in that age, to
+calculate his chances of success warily, before venturing to disburden
+his mind, the monk fastened a penetrating look on his interrogator.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Illustrious prince,&quot; he said, &quot;we come petitioners for justice. They
+who are thus commissioned had need be bold, lest they do their own
+character, and their righteous office, discredit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Justice is the glory of St. Mark, and the happiness of his subjects.
+Thy course, father, is not according to established rules and wholesome
+restraints, but it may have its apology&mdash;name thy errand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is one in the cells, condemned of the public tribunals, and he
+must die with the return of day, unless your princely authority
+interfere to save him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One condemned of the tribunals may merit his fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am the ghostly adviser of the unhappy youth, and in the execution of
+my sacred office I have learned that he is innocent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Didst thou say, condemned of the common judges-father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sentenced to die, highness, by a decree of the criminal tribunals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prince appeared relieved. So long as the affair had been public,
+there was at least reason to believe he might indulge his love of the
+species, by listening further, without offence to the tortuous policy of
+the state. Glancing his eye at the motionless inquisitor, as if to seek
+approbation, he advanced a step nearer to the Carmelite, with increasing
+interest in the application.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By what authority, reverend priest, dost thou impeach the decision of
+the judges?&quot; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, as I have just said, in virtue of knowledge gained in the
+exercise of my holy office. He has laid bare his soul to me, as one
+whose feet were in the grave; and, though offending, like all born of
+woman, towards his God, he is guiltless as respects the state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thinkest thou, father, that the law would ever reach its victim, were
+we to listen only to self-accusations? I am old, monk, and have long
+worn that troublesome cap,&quot; pointing to the horned bonnet, which lay
+near his hand, the symbol of his state, &quot;and in my day, I do not recall
+the criminal that has not fancied himself the victim of untoward
+circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That men apply this treacherous solace to their consciences, one of my
+vocation has not to learn. Our chief task is to show the delusion of
+those, who, while condemning their own sins by words of confession and
+self-abasement, make a merit of humility; but, Doge of Venice, there is
+still a virtue in the sacred rite I have this evening been required to
+perform, which can overcome the mounting of the most exalted spirit.
+Many attempt to deceive themselves at the confessional, while, by the
+power of God, few succeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Praised be the blessed mother and the incarnate son, that it is so!&quot;
+returned the prince, struck by the mild faith of the monk, and crossing
+himself reverently. &quot;Father, thou hast forgotten to name the condemned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a certain Jacopo Frontoni;&mdash;a reputed bravo,&quot; The start, the
+changing color, and the glance of the prince of Venice, were full of
+natural surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Callest thou the bloodiest stiletto that ever disgraced the city, the
+weapon of a reputed bravo? The arts of the monster have prevailed over
+thy experience, monk!&mdash;the true confession of such a wretch would be but
+a history of bloody and revolting crimes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I entered his cell with this opinion, but I left it convinced that the
+public sentiment has done him wrong. If your Highness will deign hear
+his tale, you will think him a fit subject for your pity, rather than
+for punishment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of all the criminals of my reign, this is the last in whose favor I
+could have imagined there was aught to be said!&mdash;Speak freely,
+Carmelite; for curiosity is as strong as wonder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So truly did the Doge give utterance to his feelings, that he
+momentarily forgot the presence of the inquisitor, whose countenance
+might have shown him that the subject was getting to be grave.</p>
+
+<p>The monk ejaculated a thanksgiving, for it was not always easy, in that
+city of mystery, to bring truth to the ears of the great. When men live
+under a system of duplicity, more or less of the quality gets interwoven
+with the habits of the most ingenuous, although they may remain
+themselves unconscious of the taint. Thus Father Anselmo, as he
+proceeded with the desired explanation, touched more tenderly on the
+practices of the state, and used more of reserve in alluding to those
+usages and opinions, which one of his holy calling and honest nature,
+under other circumstances, would have fearlessly condemned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may not be known to one of your high condition, sovereign prince,&quot;
+resumed the Carmelite, &quot;that an humble but laborious mechanic of this
+city, a certain Francesco Frontoni, was long since condemned for frauds
+against the Republic's revenue. This is a crime St. Mark never fails to
+visit with his heavy displeasure, for when men place the goods of the
+world before all other considerations, they mistake the objects which
+have brought them together in social union.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, thou wert speaking of a certain Francesco Frontoni?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, such was his name. The unhappy man had taken into his
+confidence and friendship, one who, pretending to his daughter's love,
+might appear to be the master of his secrets. When this false suitor
+stood on the verge of detection, for offences against the customs, he
+laid a snare of deception, which, while he was permitted to escape, drew
+the anger of the state on his too confiding friend. Francesco was
+condemned to the cells, until he might reveal facts which never had an
+existence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is a hard fate, reverend friar, could it be but proved!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis the evil of secresy and intrigue, great Doge, in managing the
+common interests!&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou more of this Francesco, monk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His history is short, Signore; for at the age when most men are active
+in looking to their welfare, he was pining in a prison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I remember to have heard of some such accusation; but it occurred in
+the reign of the last Doge, did it not, father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And he has endured to near the close of the reign of this, Highness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How? The Senate, when apprised of the error of its judgment, was not
+slow to repair the wrong!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk regarded the prince earnestly, as if he would make certain
+whether the surprise he witnessed was not a piece of consummate acting.
+He felt convinced that the affair was one of that class of acts, which,
+however oppressive, unjust, and destructive of personal happiness, had
+not sufficient importance to come before them, who govern under systems
+which care more for their own preservation than for the good of the
+ruled. &quot;Signor Doge,&quot; he said, &quot;the state is discreet in matters that
+touch its own reputation. There are reasons that I shall not presume to
+examine, why the cell of poor Francesco was kept closed, long after the
+death and confession of his accuser left his innocence beyond dispute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prince mused, and then he bethought him to consult the countenance
+of his companion. The marble of the pilaster, against which he leaned,
+was not more cold and unmoved than the face of the inquisitor. The man
+had learned to smother every natural impulse in the assumed and
+factitious duties of his office.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what has this case of Francesco to do with the execution of the
+Bravo?&quot; demanded the Doge, after a pause, in which he had in vain
+struggled to assume the indifference of his counsellor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That I shall leave this prison-keeper's daughter to explain. Stand
+forth, child, and relate what you know, remembering, if you speak before
+the Prince of Venice, that you also speak before the King of Heaven!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina trembled, for one of her habits, however supported by her
+motives, could not overcome a nature so retiring without a struggle. But
+faithful to her promise, and sustained by her affection for the
+condemned, she advanced a step, and stood no longer concealed by the
+robes of the Carmelite.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art the daughter of the prison-keeper?&quot; asked the prince mildly,
+though surprise was strongly painted in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, we are poor, and we are unfortunate: we serve the state for
+bread.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye serve a noble master, child. Dost thou know aught of this Bravo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dread sovereign, they that call him thus know not his heart! One more
+true to his friends, more faithful to his word, or more suppliant with
+the saints, than Jacopo Frontoni, is not in Venice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is a character which art might appropriate, even to a bravo. But
+we waste the moments. What have these Frontoni in common?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, they are father and son. When Jacopo came to be of an age to
+understand the misfortunes of his family, he wearied the senators with
+applications in his father's behalf, until they commanded the door of
+the cell to be secretly opened to a child so pious. I well know, great
+prince, that they who rule cannot have all-seeing eyes, else could this
+wrong never have happened. But Francesco wasted years in cells, chill
+and damp in winter, and scorching in summer, before the falsehood of the
+accusation was known. Then, as some relief to sufferings so little
+merited, Jacopo was admitted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With what object, girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, was it not in pity? They promised too, that in good time the
+service of the son should buy the father's liberty. The patricians were
+slow to be convinced, and they made terms with poor Jacopo, who agreed
+to undergo a hard service that his father might breathe free air before
+he died.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou dealest in enigmas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am little used, great Doge, to speak in such a presence, or on such
+subjects. But this I know, that for three weary years hath Jacopo been
+admitted to his father's cell, and that those up above consented to the
+visits, else would my father have denied them. I was his companion in
+the holy act, and will call the blessed Maria and the saints------&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Girl, didst thou know him for a bravo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! Highness, no. To me he seemed a dutiful child, fearing God and
+honoring his parent. I hope never to feel another pang, like that which
+chilled my heart when they said, he I had known as the kind Carlo was
+hunted in Venice as the abhorred Jacopo! But it is passed, the Mother of
+God be praised!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art betrothed to this condemned man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The color did not deepen on the cheek of Gelsomina at this abrupt
+question, for the tie between her and Jacopo had become too sacred for
+the ordinary weaknesses of her sex.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness, yes; we were to be married, should it have pleased God, and
+those great senators who have so much influence over the happiness of
+the poor, to permit it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thou art still willing, knowing the man, to pledge thy vows to one
+like Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is because I do know him to be as he is, that I most reverence him,
+great Doge. He has sold his time and his good name to the state, in
+order to save his imprisoned father, and in that I see nothing to
+frighten one he loves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This affair needs explanation, Carmelite. The girl has a heated fancy,
+and she renders that obscure she should explain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Illustrious prince, she would say that the Republic was content to
+grant the son the indulgence of visiting the captive, with some
+encouragement of his release, on condition that the youth might serve
+the police by bearing a bravo's reputation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And for this incredible tale, father, you have the word of a condemned,
+criminal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With the near view of death before his eyes. There are means of
+rendering truth evident, familiar to those who are often near the dying
+penitents, that are unknown to those of the world. In any case, Signore,
+the matter is worthy of investigation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that thou art right. Is the hour named for the execution?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With the morning light, prince.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A prisoner, Carmelite!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A prisoner, Prince of Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou heard of the death of one named Antonio?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, yes. By the sacred nature of my holy office, do I affirm that
+of this crime is Jacopo innocent! I shrived the fisherman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doge turned away, for the truth began to dawn upon him, and the
+flush which glowed on his aged cheek contained a confession that might
+not be observed by every eye. He sought the glance of his companion, but
+his own expression of human feeling was met by the disciplined features
+of the other, as light is coldly repelled from polished stone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Highness!&quot; added a tremulous voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What would'st thou, child?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a God for the Republic, as well as for the gondolier! Your
+Highness will turn this great crime from Venice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art of plain speech, girl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The danger of Carlo has made me bold. You are much beloved by the
+people, and none speak of you, that they do not speak of your goodness,
+and of your desire to serve the poor. You are the root of a rich and
+happy family, and you will not&mdash;nay, you cannot if you would, think it a
+crime for a son to devote all to a father. You are our father, and we
+have a right to come to you, even for mercy&mdash;but, Highness, I ask only
+for justice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Justice is the motto of Venice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They who live in the high favor of Providence do not always know what
+the unhappy undergo. It has pleased God to afflict my own poor mother,
+who has griefs that, but for her patience and Christian faith, would
+have been hard to bear. The little care I had it in my power to show,
+first caught Jacopo's eye, for his heart was then full of the duty of
+the child. Would your Highness consent to see poor Carlo, or to command
+him to be brought hither, his simple tale would give the lie to every
+foul slander they have dared to say against him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is unnecessary&mdash;it is unnecessary. Thy faith in his innocence, girl,
+is more eloquent than any words of his can prove.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A gleam of joy irradiated the face of Gelsomina, who turned eagerly to
+the listening monk, as she continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His Highness listens,&quot; she said, &quot;and we shall prevail! Father, they
+menace in Venice, and alarm the timid, but they will never do the deed
+we feared. Is not the God of Jacopo my God, and your God?&mdash;the God of
+the senate and of the Doge?&mdash;of the Council and of the Republic? I would
+the secret members of the Three could have seen poor Jacopo, as I have
+seen him, coming from his toil, weary with labor and heart-broken with
+delay, enter the winter or the summer cell&mdash;chilling or scorching as the
+season might be&mdash;struggling to be cheerful, that the falsely accused
+might not feel a greater weight of misery. Oh! venerable and kind
+prince, you little know the burden that the feeble are often made to
+carry, for to you life has been sunshine; but there are millions who are
+condemned to do that they loathe, that they may not do that they dread.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Child, thou tell'st me nothing new.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Except in convincing you, Highness, that Jacopo is not the monster they
+would have him. I do not know the secret reasons of the councils for
+wishing the youth to lend himself to a deception that had nigh proved so
+fatal; but all is explained, we have naught now to fear. Come, father;
+we will leave the good and just Doge to go to rest, as suits his years,
+and we will return to gladden the heart of Jacopo with our success, and
+thank the blessed Maria for her favor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stay!&quot; exclaimed the half-stifled old man. &quot;Is this true that thou
+tellest me, girl:&mdash;Father, can it be so!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signore, I have said all that truth and my conscience have prompted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prince seemed bewildered, turning his look from the motionless girl
+to the equally immovable member of the Three.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come hither, child,&quot; he said, his voice trembling as he spoke. &quot;Come
+hither, that I may bless thee.&quot; Gelsomina sprang forward, and knelt at
+the feet of her sovereign. Father Anselmo never uttered a clearer or
+more fervent benediction than that which fell from the lips of the
+Prince of Venice. He raised the daughter of the prison-keeper, and
+motioned for both his visitors to withdraw. Gelsomina willingly
+complied, for her heart was already in the cell of Jacopo, in the
+eagerness to communicate her success; but the Carmelite lingered to cast
+a look behind, like one better acquainted with the effects of worldly
+policy, when connected with the interests of those who pervert
+governments to the advantage of the privileged. As he passed through the
+door, however, he felt his hopes revive, for he saw the aged prince,
+unable any longer to suppress his feelings, hastening towards his still
+silent companion, with both hands extended, eyes moistening with tears,
+and a look that betrayed the emotions of one anxious to find relief in
+human sympathies.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Chapter XXXI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>  &quot;On&mdash;on&mdash;<br />
+It Is our knell, or that of Venice.&mdash;On.&quot;</p>
+
+<p align="right">MARINO FALIERO.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Another morning called the Venetians to their affairs. Agents of the
+police had been active in preparing the public mind, and as the sun rose
+above the narrow sea, the squares began to fill. There were present the
+curious citizen in his, cloak and cap, bare-legged laborers in wondering
+awe, the circumspect Hebrew in his gaberdine and beard, masked
+gentlemen, and many an attentive stranger from among the thousands who
+still frequented that declining mart. It was rumored that an act of
+retributive justice was about to take place, for the peace of the town
+and the protection of the citizen. In short, curiosity, idleness, and
+revenge, with all the usual train of human feelings, had drawn together
+a multitude eager to witness the agonies of a fellow-creature.</p>
+
+<p>The Dalmatians were drawn up near the sea, in a manner to inclose the
+two granite columns of the Piazzetta. Their grave and disciplined faces
+fronted inwards towards the African pillars, those well known landmarks
+of death. A few grim warriors of higher rank paced the flags before the
+troops, while a dense crowd filled the exterior space. By special favor
+more than a hundred fishermen were grouped within the armed men,
+witnesses that their class had revenge. Between the lofty pedestals of
+St. Theodore and the winged lion lay the block and the axe, the basket
+and the saw-dust; the usual accompaniments of justice in that day. By
+their side stood the executioner.</p>
+
+<p>At length a movement in the living mass drew every eye towards the gate
+of the palace. A murmur arose, the multitude wavered, and a small body
+of the Sbirri came into view. Their steps were swift like the march of
+destiny. The Dalmatians opened to receive these ministers of fate into
+their bosom, and closing their ranks again, appeared to preclude the
+world with its hopes from the condemned. On reaching the block between
+the columns the Sbirri fell off in files, waiting at a little distance,
+while Jacopo was left before the engines of death attended by his
+ghostly counsellor, the Carmelite. The action left them open to the gaze
+of the throng.</p>
+
+<p>Father Anselmo was in the usual attire of a bare-footed friar of his
+order. The cowl of the holy man was thrown back, exposing his mortified
+lineaments and his self-examining eye to those around. The expression of
+his countenance was that of bewildered uncertainty, relieved by frequent
+but fitful glimmerings of hope. Though his lips were constant in prayer,
+his looks wandered, by an irrepressible impulse, from one window of the
+Doge's palace to another. He took his station near the condemned,
+however, and thrice crossed himself fervently.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo had tranquilly placed his person before the block. His head was
+bare, his cheek colorless, his throat and neck uncovered from the
+shoulders, his body in its linen, and the rest of his form was clad in
+the ordinary dress of a gondolier. He kneeled with his face bowed to the
+block, repeated a prayer, and rising he faced the multitude with dignity
+and composure. As his eye moved slowly over the array of human
+countenances by which he was environed, a hectic glowed on his features,
+for not one of them all betrayed sympathy in his sufferings. His breast
+heaved, and those nearest to his person thought the self-command of the
+miserable man was about to fail him. The result disappointed
+expectation. There was a shudder, and the limbs settled into repose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast looked in vain among the multitude for a friendly eye?&quot; said
+the Carmelite, whose attention had been drawn to the convulsive
+movement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None here have pity for an assassin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remember thy Redeemer, son. He suffered ignominy and death for a race
+that denied his Godhead, and derided his sorrows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo crossed himself, and bowed his head in reverence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou more prayers to repeat, father?&quot; demanded the chief of the
+Sbirri; he who was particularly charged with the duty of the hour.&quot;
+Though the illustrious councils are so sure in justice, they are
+merciful to the souls of sinners.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are thy orders peremptory?&quot; asked the monk, unconsciously fixing his
+eye again on the windows of the palace. &quot;Is it certain that the prisoner
+is to die?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer smiled at the simplicity of the question, but with the
+apathy of one too much familiarized with human suffering to admit of
+compassion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do any doubt it?&quot; he rejoined. &quot;It is the lot of man, reverend monk;
+and more especially is it the lot of those on whom the judgment of St.
+Mark has alighted. It were better that your penitent looked to his
+soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely thou hast thy private and express commands! They have named a
+minute when this bloody work is to be performed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Carmelite, I have. The time will not be weary, and you will do
+well to make the most of it, unless you have faith already in the
+prisoner's condition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the officer threw a glance at the dial of the square, and
+walked coolly away. The action left the priest and the prisoner again
+alone between the columns. It was evident that the former could not yet
+believe in the reality of the execution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou no hope, Jacopo?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carmelite, in my God.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They cannot commit this wrong! I shrived Antonio&mdash;I witnessed his fate,
+and the Prince knows it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is a Prince and his justice, where the selfishness of a few rules!
+Father, thou art new in the Senate's service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not presume to say that God will blast those who do this deed,
+for we cannot trace the mysteries of his wisdom. This life and all this
+world can offer, are but specks in his omniscient eye, and what to us
+seems evil may be pregnant with good.&mdash;Hast thou faith in thy Redeemer,
+Jacopo?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner laid his hand upon his heart and smiled, with the calm
+assurance that none but those who are thus sustained can feel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will again pray, my son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite and Jacopo kneeled side by side, the latter bowing his
+head to the block, while the monk uttered a final appeal to the mercy of
+the Deity. The former arose, but the latter continued in the suppliant
+attitude. The monk was so full of holy thoughts that, forgetting his
+former wishes, he was nearly content the prisoner should pass into the
+fruition of that hope which elevated his own mind. The officer and
+executioner drew near, the former touching the arm of Father Anselmo,
+and pointing towards the distant dial.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The moment is near,&quot; he whispered, more from habit than in any
+tenderness to the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>The Carmelite turned instinctively towards the palace, forgetting in the
+sudden impulse all but his sense of earthly justice. There were forms at
+the windows, and he fancied a signal to stay the impending blow was
+about to be given.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;For the love of Maria of most pure memory, be not
+too hasty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The exclamation was repeated by a shrill female voice, and then
+Gelsomina, eluding every effort to arrest her, rushed through the
+Dalmatians, and reached the group between the granite columns. Wonder
+and curiosity agitated the multitude, and a deep murmur ran through the
+square.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a maniac!&quot; cried one.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a victim of his arts!&quot; said another, for when men have a
+reputation for any particular vice, the world seldom fails to attribute
+all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina seized the bonds of Jacopo, and endeavored frantically to
+release his arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had hoped thou would'st have been spared this sight, poor Gessina!&quot;
+said the condemned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be not alarmed!&quot; she answered, gasping for breath. &quot;They do it in
+mockery; 't is one of their wiles to mislead&mdash;but they cannot&mdash;no, they
+dare not harm a hair of thy head, Carlo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dearest Gelsomina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, do not hold me; I will speak to the citizens, and tell them all.
+They are angry now, but when they know the truth they will love thee,
+Carlo, as I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bless thee&mdash;bless thee!&mdash;I would thou hadst not come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear not for me! I am little used to such a crowd, but thou wilt see
+that I shall dare to speak them fair, and to make known the truth
+boldly. I want but breath.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dearest! Thou hast a mother&mdash;a father to share thy tenderness. Duty to
+them will make thee happy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now I can speak, and thou shalt see how I will vindicate thy name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She arose from the arms of her lover, who, notwithstanding his bonds,
+released his hold of her slight form with a reluctance greater than that
+with which he parted with life. The struggle in the mind of Jacopo
+seemed over. He bowed his head passively to the block, before which he
+was kneeling; and it is probable, by the manner in which his hands were
+clasped, that he prayed for her who left him. Not so Gelsomina. Parting
+her hair over her spotless forehead with both hands, she advanced
+towards the fishermen, who were familiar to her eye by their red caps
+and bare limbs. Her smile was like that which the imagination would
+bestow on the blessed, in their intercourse of love.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Venetians!&quot; she said, &quot;I cannot blame you; ye are here to witness the
+death of one whom ye believe unfit to live----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The murderer of old Antonio!&quot; muttered several of the group.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, even the murderer of that aged and excellent man. But when you
+hear the truth, when you come to know that he whom you have believed an
+assassin, was a pious child, a faithful servant of the Republic, a
+gentle gondolier, and a true heart, you will change your bloody purpose
+for a wish for justice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A common murmur drowned her voice, which was so trembling and low as to
+need deep stillness to render the words audible. The Carmelite had
+advanced to her side, and he motioned earnestly for silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hear her, men of the Lagunes!&quot; he said; &quot;she utters holy truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This reverend and pious monk, with Heaven, is my witness. When you
+shall know Carlo better, and have heard his tale, ye will be the first
+to cry out for his release. I tell you this, that when the Doge shall
+appear at yon window and make the signal of mercy, you need not be
+angry, and believe that your class has been wronged. Poor Carlo----&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The girl raves!&quot; interrupted the moody fishermen. &quot;Here is no Carlo,
+but Jacopo Frontoni, a common bravo.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gelsomina smiled, in the security of the innocent, and regaining her
+breath, which nervous agitation still disturbed, she resumed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Carlo or Jacopo&mdash;Jacopo or Carlo&mdash;it matters little.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha! There is a sign from the palace!&quot; shouted the Carmelite,
+stretching both his arms in that direction, as if to grasp a boon. The
+clarions sounded, and another wave stirred the multitude. Gelsomina
+uttered a cry of delight, and turned to throw herself upon the bosom of
+the reprieved. The axe glittered before her eyes, and the head of Jacopo
+rolled upon the stones, as if to meet her. A general movement in the
+living mass denoted the end.</p>
+
+<p>The Dalmatians wheeled into column, the Sbirri pushed aside the throng
+on their way to their haunts; the water of the bay was dashed upon the
+flags; the clotted saw-dust was gathered; the head and trunk, block,
+basket, axe, and executioner disappeared, and the crowd circulated
+around the fatal spot.</p>
+
+<p>During this horrible and brief moment neither Father Anselmo nor
+Gelsomina moved. All was over, and still the entire scene appeared to be
+delusion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take away this maniac!&quot; said an officer of the police, pointing to
+Gelsomina as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>He was obeyed with Venetian readiness, but his words proved prophetic
+before his servitors had quitted the square. The Carmelite scarce
+breathed. He gazed at the moving multitude, at the windows of the
+palace, and at the sun which shone so gloriously in the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art lost in this crowd!&quot; whispered one at his elbow. &quot;Reverend
+Carmelite, you will do well to follow me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The monk was too much subdued to hesitate. His conductor led him by many
+secret ways to a quay, where he instantly embarked in a gondola for the
+main. Before the sun reached the meridian the thoughtful and trembling
+monk was on his journey towards the States of the Church, and ere long
+he became established in the castle of Sant' Agata.</p>
+
+<p>At the usual hour the sun fell behind the mountains of the Tyrol, and
+the moon reappeared above the Lido. The narrow streets of Venice again
+poured out their thousands upon the squares. The mild light fell athwart
+the quaint architecture and the giddy tower, throwing a deceptive glory
+on the city of islands.</p>
+
+<p>The porticoes became brilliant with lamps, the gay laughed, the reckless
+trifled, the masker pursued his hidden purpose, the cantatrice and the
+grotesque acted their parts, and the million existed in that vacant
+enjoyment which distinguishes the pleasures of the thoughtless and the
+idle. Each lived for himself, while the state of Venice held its vicious
+sway, corrupting alike the ruler and the ruled, by its mockery of those
+sacred principles which are alone founded in truth and natural justice.</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="014.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bravo, by J. Fenimore Cooper
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diff --git a/old/10363.txt b/old/10363.txt
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+++ b/old/10363.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bravo, by J. Fenimore Cooper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bravo
+
+Author: J. Fenimore Cooper
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2003 [EBook #10363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRAVO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BRAVO
+
+A TALE
+
+BY J. FENIMORE COOPER
+
+
+"Giustizia in palazzo, e pane in piazza."
+
+
+1872.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+It is to be regretted the world does not discriminate more justly in its
+use of political terms. Governments are usually called either monarchies
+or republics. The former class embraces equally those institutions in
+which the sovereign is worshipped as a god, and those in which he
+performs the humble office of a manikin. In the latter we find
+aristocracies and democracies blended in the same generic appellation.
+The consequence of a generalization so wide is an utter confusion on the
+subject of the polity of states.
+
+The author has endeavored to give his countrymen, in this book, a
+picture of the social system of one of the _soi-disant_ republics of the
+other hemisphere. There has been no attempt to portray historical
+characters, only too fictitious in their graver dress, but simply to set
+forth the familiar operations of Venetian policy. For the justification
+of his likeness, after allowing for the defects of execution, he refers
+to the well-known work of M. Daru.
+
+A history of the progress of political liberty, written purely in the
+interests of humanity, is still a desideratum in literature. In nations
+which have made a false commencement, it would be found that the
+citizen, or rather the subject, has extorted immunity after immunity, as
+his growing intelligence and importance have both instructed and
+required him to defend those particular rights which were necessary to
+his well-being. A certain accumulation of these immunities constitutes,
+with a solitary and recent exception in Switzerland, the essence of
+European liberty, even at this hour. It is scarcely necessary to tell
+the reader, that this freedom, be it more or less, depends on a
+principle entirely different from our own. Here the immunities do not
+proceed from, but they are granted to, the government, being, in other
+words, concessions of natural rights made by the people to the state,
+for the benefits of social protection. So long as this vital difference
+exists between ourselves and other nations, it will be vain to think of
+finding analogies in their institutions. It is true that, in an age like
+this, public opinion is itself a charter, and that the most despotic
+government which exists within the pale of Christendom, must, in some
+degree, respect its influence. The mildest and justest governments in
+Europe are, at this moment, theoretically despotisms. The characters of
+both prince and people enter largely into the consideration of so
+extraordinary results; and it should never be forgotten that, though the
+character of the latter be sufficiently secure, that of the former is
+liable to change. But, admitting every benefit which possibly can flow
+from a just administration, with wise and humane princes, a government
+which is not properly based on the people, possesses an unavoidable and
+oppressive evil of the first magnitude, in the necessity of supporting
+itself by physical force and onerous impositions, against the natural
+action of the majority.
+
+Were we to characterize a republic, we should say it was a state in
+which power, both theoretically and practically, is derived from the
+nation, with a constant responsibility of the agents of the public to
+the people--a responsibility that is neither to be evaded nor denied.
+That such a system is better on a large than on a small scale, though
+contrary to brilliant theories which have been written to uphold
+different institutions, must be evident on the smallest reflection,
+since the danger of all popular governments is from popular mistakes;
+and a people of diversified interests and extended territorial
+possessions, are much less likely to be the subjects of sinister
+passions than the inhabitants of a single town or county. If to this
+definition we should add, as an infallible test of the genus, that a
+true republic is a government of which all others are jealous and
+vituperative, on the instinct of self-preservation, we believe there
+would be no mistaking the class. How far Venice would have been
+obnoxious to this proof, the reader is left to judge for himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  "I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
+  A palace and a prison on each hand;
+  I saw from out the wave her structures rise,
+  As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand;
+  A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
+  Around me, and a dying glory smiles
+  O'er the far times, when many a subject land
+  Looked to the winged lions' marble piles,
+  Where Venice sat in state, throned on her hundred isles."
+                                          BYRON.
+
+
+The sun had disappeared behind the summits of the Tyrolean Alps, and the
+moon was already risen above the low barrier of the Lido. Hundreds of
+pedestrians were pouring out of the narrow streets of Venice into the
+square of St. Mark, like water gushing through some strait aqueduct,
+into a broad and bubbling basin. Gallant cavalieri and grave cittadini;
+soldiers of Dalmatia, and seamen of the galleys; dames of the city, and
+females of lighter manners; jewellers of the Rialto, and traders from
+the Levant; Jew, Turk, and Christian; traveller, adventurer, podesta,
+valet, avvocato, and gondolier, held their way alike to the common
+centre of amusement. The hurried air and careless eye; the measured step
+and jealous glance; the jest and laugh; the song of the cantatrice, and
+the melody of the flute; the grimace of the buffoon, and the tragic
+frown of the improvisatore; the pyramid of the grotesque, the compelled
+and melancholy smile of the harpist, cries of water-sellers, cowls of
+monks, plumage of warriors, hum of voices, and the universal movement
+and bustle, added to the more permanent objects of the place, rendered
+the scene the most remarkable of Christendom.
+
+On the very confines of that line which separates western from eastern
+Europe, and in constant communication with the latter, Venice possessed
+a greater admixture of character and costume, than any other of the
+numerous ports of that region. A portion of this peculiarity is still to
+be observed, under the fallen fortunes of the place; but at the period
+of our tale, the city of the isles, though no longer mistress of the
+Mediterranean, nor even of the Adriatic, was still rich and powerful.
+Her influence was felt in the councils of the civilized world, and her
+commerce, though waning, was yet sufficient to uphold the vast
+possessions of those families, whose ancestors had become rich in the
+day of her prosperity. Men lived among her islands in that state of
+incipient lethargy, which marks the progress of a downward course,
+whether the decline be of a moral or of a physical decay.
+
+At the hour we have named, the vast parallelogram of the piazza was
+filling fast, the cafes and casinos within the porticoes, which surround
+three of its sides, being already thronged with company. While all
+beneath the arches was gay and brilliant with the flare of torch and
+lamp, the noble range of edifices called the Procuratories, the massive
+pile of the Ducal Palace, the most ancient Christian church, the granite
+columns of the piazzetta, the triumphal masts of the great square, and
+the giddy tower of the campanile, were slumbering in the more mellow
+glow of the moon.
+
+Facing the wide area of the great square stood the quaint and venerable
+cathedral of San Marco. A temple of trophies, and one equally
+proclaiming the prowess and the piety of its founders, this remarkable
+structure presided over the other fixtures of the place, like a monument
+of the republic's antiquity and greatness. Its Saracenic architecture,
+the rows of precious but useless little columns that load its front, the
+low Asiatic domes which rest upon its walls in the repose of a thousand
+years, the rude and gaudy mosaics, and above all the captured horses of
+Corinth which start from out the sombre mass in the glory of Grecian
+art, received from the solemn and appropriate light, a character of
+melancholy and mystery, that well comported with the thick recollections
+which crowd the mind as the eye gazes at this rare relic of the past.
+
+As fit companions to this edifice, the other peculiar ornaments of the
+place stood at hand. The base of the campanile lay in shadow, but a
+hundred feet of its grey summit received the full rays of the moon along
+its eastern face. The masts destined to bear the conquered ensigns of
+Candia, Constantinople, and the Morea, cut the air by its side, in dark
+and fairy lines; while at the extremity of the smaller square, and near
+the margin of the sea, the forms of the winged lion and the patron saint
+of the city, each on his column of African granite, were distinctly
+traced against the back-ground of the azure sky.
+
+It was near the base of the former of these massive blocks of stone,
+that one stood who seemed to gaze at the animated and striking scene,
+with the listlessness and indifference of satiety. A multitude, some in
+masques and others careless of being known, had poured along the quay
+into the piazzetta, on their way to the principal square, while this
+individual had scarce turned a glance aside, or changed a limb in
+weariness. His attitude was that of patient, practised, and obedient
+waiting on another's pleasure. With folded arms, a body poised on one
+leg, and a vacant though good-humored eye, he appeared to attend some
+beck of authority ere he quitted the spot. A silken jacket, in whose
+tissue flowers of the gayest colors were interwoven, the falling collar
+of scarlet, the bright velvet cap with armorial bearings embroidered on
+its front, proclaimed him to be a gondolier in private service.
+
+Wearied at length with the antics of a distant group of tumblers, whose
+pile of human bodies had for a time arrested his look, this individual
+turned away, and faced the light air from the water. Recognition and
+pleasure shot into his countenance, and in a moment his arms were
+interlocked with those of a swarthy mariner, who wore the loose attire
+and Phrygian cap of men of his calling. The gondolier was the first to
+speak, the words flowing from him in the soft accents of his native
+islands.
+
+"Is it thou, Stefano? They said thou hadst fallen into the gripe of the
+devils of Barbary, and that thou wast planting flowers for an infidel
+with thy hands, and watering them with thy tears!"
+
+The answer was in the harsher dialect of Calabria, and it was given with
+the rough familiarity of a seaman.
+
+"La Bella Sorrentina is no housekeeper of a curato! She is not a damsel
+to take a siesta with a Tunisian rover prowling about in her
+neighborhood. Hadst ever been beyond the Lido, thou wouldst have known
+the difference between chasing the felucca and catching her."
+
+"Kneel down and thank San Teodoro for his care. There was much praying
+on thy decks that hour, caro Stefano, though none is bolder among the
+mountains of Calabria when thy felucca is once safely drawn up on the
+beach!"
+
+The mariner cast a half-comic, half-serious glance upward at the image
+of the patron saint, ere he replied.
+
+"There was more need of the wings of thy lion than of the favor of thy
+saint. I never come further north for aid than San Gennaro, even when it
+blows a hurricane."
+
+"So much the worse for thee, caro, since the good bishop is better at
+stopping the lava than at quieting the winds. But there was danger,
+then, of losing the felucca and her brave people among the Turks?"
+
+"There was, in truth, a Tunis-man prowling about, between Stromboli and
+Sicily; but, Ali di San Michele! he might better have chased the cloud
+above the volcano than run after the felucca in a sirocco!"
+
+"Thou wast chicken-hearted, Stefano!"
+
+"I!--I was more like thy lion here, with some small additions of chains
+and muzzles."
+
+"As was seen by thy felucca's speed?"
+
+"Cospetto! I wished myself a knight of San Giovanni a thousand times
+during the chase, and La Bella Sorrentina a brave Maltese galley, if it
+were only for the cause of Christian honor! The miscreant hung upon my
+quarter for the better part of three glasses; so near, that I could tell
+which of the knaves wore dirty cloth in his turban, and which clean. It
+was a sore sight to a Christian, Stefano, to see the right thus borne
+upon by an infidel."
+
+"And thy feet warmed with the thought of the bastinado, caro mio?"
+
+"I have run too often barefoot over our Calabrian mountains, to tingle
+at the sole with every fancy of that sort."
+
+"Every man has his weak spot, and I know thine to be dread of a Turk's
+arm. Thy native hills have their soft as well as their hard ground, but
+it is said the Tunisian chooses a board knotty as his own heart, when he
+amuses himself with the wailings of a Christian."
+
+"Well, the happiest of us all must take such as fortune brings. If my
+soles are to be shod with blows, the honest priest of Sant' Agata will
+be cheated by a penitent. I have bargained with the good curato, that
+all such accidental calamities shall go in the general account of
+penance. But how fares the world of Venice?--and what dost thou among
+the canals at this season, to keep the flowers of thy jacket from
+wilting?"
+
+"To-day, as yesterday, and to-morrow will be as to-day I row the
+gondola from the Rialto to the Giudecca; from San Giorgio to San Marco;
+from San Marco to the Lido, and from the Lido home. There are no
+Tunis-men by the way, to chill the heart or warm the feet."
+
+"Enough of friendship. And is there nothing stirring in the
+republic?--no young noble drowned, nor any Jew hanged?"
+
+"Nothing of that much interest--except the calamity which befell Pietro.
+Thou rememberest Pietrello? he who crossed into Dalmatia with thee once,
+as a supernumerary, the time he was suspected of having aided the young
+Frenchman in running away with a senator's daughter?"
+
+"Do I remember the last famine? The rogue did nothing but eat maccaroni,
+and swallow the lachryma christi, which the Dalmatian count had on
+freight."
+
+"Poverino! His gondola has been run down by an Ancona-man, who passed
+over the boat as if it were a senator stepping on a fly."
+
+"So much for little fish coming into deep water."
+
+"The honest fellow was crossing the Giudecca, with a stranger, who had
+occasion to say his prayers at the Redentore, when the brig hit him in
+the canopy, and broke up the gondola, as if it had been a bubble left by
+the Bucentaur."
+
+"The padrone should have been too generous to complain of Pietro's
+clumsiness, since it met with its own punishment."
+
+"Madre di Dio! He went to sea that hour, or he might be feeding the
+fishes of the Lagunes! There is not a gondolier in Venice who did not
+feel the wrong at his heart; and we know how to obtain justice for an
+insult, as well as our masters."
+
+"Well, a gondola is mortal, as well as a felucca, and both have their
+time; better die by the prow of a brig than fall into the gripe of a
+Turk. How is thy young master, Gino; and is he likely to obtain his
+claims of the senate?"
+
+"He cools himself in the Giudecca in the morning; and if thou would'st
+know what he does at evening, thou hast only to look among the nobles in
+the Broglio."
+
+As the gondolier spoke he glanced an eye aside at a group of patrician
+rank, who paced the gloomy arcades which supported the superior walls of
+the doge's palace, a spot sacred, at times, to the uses of the
+privileged.
+
+"I am no stranger to the habit thy Venetian nobles have of coming to
+that low colonnade at this hour, but I never before heard of their
+preferring the waters of the Giudecca for their baths."
+
+"Were even the doge to throw himself out of a gondola, he must sink or
+swim, like a meaner Christian."
+
+"Acqua dell' Adriatico! Was the young duca going to the Redentore, too,
+to say his prayers?"
+
+"He was coming back after having; but what matters it in what canal a
+young noble sighs away the night! We happened to be near when the
+Ancona-man performed his feat; while Giorgio and I were boiling with
+rage at the awkwardness of the stranger, my master, who never had much
+taste or knowledge in gondolas, went into the water to save the young
+lady from sharing the fate of her uncle."
+
+"Diavolo! This is the first syllable thou hast uttered concerning any
+young lady, or of the death of her uncle!"
+
+"Thou wert thinking of thy Tunis-man, and hast forgotten. I must have
+told thee how near the beautiful signora was to sharing the fate of the
+gondola, and how the loss of the Roman marchese weighs, in addition, on
+the soul of the padrone."
+
+"Santo Padre! That a Christian should die the death of a hunted dog by
+the carelessness of a gondolier!"
+
+"It may have been lucky for the Ancona-man that it so fell out; for they
+say the Roman was one of influence enough to make a senator cross the
+Bridge of Sighs, at need."
+
+"The devil take all careless watermen, say I! And what became of the
+awkward rogue?"
+
+"I tell thee he went outside the Lido that very hour, or----"
+
+"Pietrello?"
+
+"He was brought up by the oar of Giorgio, for both of us were active in
+saving the cushions and other valuables."
+
+"Could'st thou do nothing for the poor Roman? Ill-luck may follow that
+brig on account of his death!"
+
+"Ill-luck follow her, say I, till she lays her bones on some rock that
+is harder than the heart of her padrone. As for the stranger, we could
+do no more than offer up a prayer to San Teodoro, since he never rose
+after the blow. But what has brought thee to Venice, caro mio? for thy
+ill-fortune with the oranges, in the last voyage, caused thee to
+denounce the place."
+
+The Calabrian laid a finger on one cheek, and drew the skin down in a
+manner to give a droll expression to his dark, comic eye, while the
+whole of his really fine Grecian face was charged with an expression of
+coarse humor.
+
+"Look you, Gino--thy master sometimes calls for his gondola between
+sunset and morning?"
+
+"An owl is not more wakeful than he has been of late. This head of mine
+has not been on a pillow before the sun has come above the Lido, since
+the snows melted from Monselice."
+
+"And when the sun of thy master's countenance sets in his own palazzo,
+thou hastenest off to the bridge of the Rialto, among the jewellers and
+butchers, to proclaim the manner in which he passed the night?"
+
+"Diamine! 'Twould be the last night I served the Duca di Sant' Agata,
+were my tongue so limber! The gondolier and the confessor are the two
+privy-councillors of a noble, Master Stefano, with this small
+difference--that the last only knows what the sinner wishes to reveal,
+while the first sometimes knows more. I can find a safer, if not a more
+honest employment, than to be running about with my master's secrets in
+the air."
+
+"And I am wiser than to let every Jew broker in San Marco, here, have a
+peep into my charter-party."
+
+"Nay, old acquaintance, there is some difference between our
+occupations, after all. A padrone of a felucca cannot, in justice, be
+compared to the most confidential gondolier of a Neapolitan duke, who
+has an unsettled right to be admitted to the Council of Three Hundred."
+
+"Just the difference between smooth water and rough--you ruffle the
+surface of a canal with a lazy oar, while I run the channel of Piombino
+in a mistral, shoot the Faro of Messina in a white squall, double Santa
+Maria di Leuca in a breathing Levanter, and come skimming up the
+Adriatic before a sirocco that is hot enough to cook my maccaroni, and
+which sets the whole sea boiling worse than the caldrons of Scylla."
+
+"Hist!" eagerly interrupted the gondolier, who had indulged, with
+Italian humor, in the controversy for preeminence, though without any
+real feeling, "here comes one who may think, else, we shall have need of
+his hand to settle the dispute--Eccolo!"
+
+The Calabrian recoiled apace, in silence, and stood regarding the
+individual who had caused this hurried remark, with a gloomy but steady
+air. The stranger moved slowly past. His years were under thirty, though
+the calm gravity of his countenance imparted to it a character of more
+mature age. The cheeks were bloodless, but they betrayed rather the
+pallid hue of mental than of bodily disease. The perfect condition of
+the physical man was sufficiently exhibited in the muscular fulness of a
+body which, though light and active, gave every indication of strength.
+His step was firm, assured, and even; his carriage erect and easy, and
+his whole mien was strongly characterized by a self-possession that
+could scarcely escape observation; and yet his attire was that of an
+inferior class. A doublet of common velvet, a dark Montero cap, such as
+was then much used in the southern countries of Europe, with other
+vestments of a similar fashion, composed his dress. The face was
+melancholy rather than sombre, and its perfect repose accorded well with
+the striking calmness of the body. The lineaments of the former,
+however, were bold and even noble, exhibiting that strong and manly
+outline which is so characteristic of the finer class of the Italian
+countenance. Out of this striking array of features gleamed an eye that
+was full of brilliancy, meaning, and passion.
+
+As the stranger passed, his glittering organs rolled over the persons of
+the gondolier and his companion, but the look, though searching, was
+entirely without interest. 'Twas the wandering but wary glance, which
+men who have much reason to distrust, habitually cast on a multitude. It
+turned with the same jealous keenness on the face of the next it
+encountered, and by the time the steady and well balanced form was lost
+in the crowd, that quick and glowing eye had gleamed, in the same rapid
+and uneasy manner, on twenty others.
+
+Neither the gondolier nor the mariner of Calabria spoke until their
+riveted gaze after the retiring figure became useless. Then the former
+simply ejaculated, with a strong respiration--
+
+"Jacopo!"
+
+His companion raised three of his fingers, with an occult meaning,
+towards the palace of the doges.
+
+"Do they let him take the air, even in San Marco?" he asked, in
+unfeigned surprise.
+
+"It is not easy, caro amico, to make water run up stream, or to stop the
+downward current. It is said that most of the senators would sooner lose
+their hopes of the horned bonnet, than lose him. Jacopo! He knows more
+family secrets than the good Priore of San Marco himself, and he, poor
+man, is half his time in the confessional."
+
+"Aye, they are afraid to put him in an iron jacket, lest awkward secrets
+should be squeezed out."
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! there would be little peace in Venice, if the Council
+of Three should take it into their heads to loosen the tongue of yonder
+man in that rude manner."
+
+"But they say, Gino, that thy Council of Three has a fashion of feeding
+the fishes of the Lagunes, which might throw the suspicion of his death
+on some unhappy Ancona-man, were the body ever to come up again."
+
+"Well, no need of bawling it aloud, as if thou wert hailing a Sicilian
+through thy trumpet, though the fact should be so. To say the truth,
+there are few men in business who are thought to have more custom than
+he who has just gone up the piazzetta."
+
+"Two sequins!" rejoined the Calabrian, enforcing his meaning by a
+significant grimace.
+
+"Santa Madonna! Thou forgettest, Stefano, that not even the confessor
+has any trouble with a job in which he has been employed. Not a caratano
+less than a hundred will buy a stroke of his art. Your blows, for two
+sequins, leave a man leisure to tell tales, or even to say his prayers
+half the time."
+
+"Jacopo!" ejaculated the other, with an emphasis which seemed to be a
+sort of summing up of all his aversion and horror.
+
+The gondolier shrugged his shoulders with quite as much meaning as a man
+born on the shores of the Baltic could have conveyed by words; but he
+too appeared to think the matter exhausted.
+
+"Stefano Milano," he added, after a moment of pause, 'there are things
+in Venice which he who would eat his maccaroni in peace, would do well
+to forget. Let thy errand in port be what it may, thou art in good
+season to witness the regatta which will be given by the state itself
+to-morrow."
+
+"Hast thou an oar for that race?"
+
+"Giorgio's, or mine, under the patronage of San Teodoro. The prize will
+be a silver gondola to him who is lucky or skilful enough to win; and
+then we shall have the nuptials with the Adriatic."
+
+"Thy nobles had best woo the bride well; for there are heretics who lay
+claim to her good will. I met a rover of strange rig and miraculous
+fleetness, in rounding the headlands of Otranto, who seemed to have half
+a mind to follow the felucca in her path towards the Lagunes."
+
+"Did the sight warm thee at the soles of thy feet, Gino dear?"
+
+"There was not a turbaned head on his deck, but every sea-cap sat upon a
+well covered poll and a shorn chin. Thy Bucentaur is no longer the
+bravest craft that floats between Dalmatia and the islands, though her
+gilding may glitter brightest. There are men beyond the pillars of
+Hercules who are not satisfied with doing all that can be done on their
+own coasts, but who are pretending to do much of that which can be done
+on ours."
+
+"The republic is a little aged, caro, and years need rest. The joints of
+the Bucentaur are racked by time and many voyages to the Lido. I have
+heard my master say that the leap of the winged lion is not as far as it
+was, even in his young days."
+
+"Don Camillo has the reputation of talking boldly of the foundation of
+this city of piles, when he has the roof of old Sant' Agata safely over
+his head. Were he to speak more reverently of the horned bonnet, and of
+the Council of Three, his pretensions to succeed to the rights of his
+forefathers might seem juster in the eyes of his judges. But distance is
+a great mellower of colors and softener of fears. My own opinion of the
+speed of the felucca, and of the merits of a Turk, undergo changes of
+this sort between port and the open sea; and I have known thee, good
+Gino, forget San Teodoro, and bawl as lustily to San Gennaro, when at
+Naples, as if thou really fancied thyself in danger from the mountain."
+
+"One must speak to those at hand, in order to be quickest heard,"
+rejoined the gondolier, casting a glance that was partly humorous, and
+not without superstition, upwards at the image which crowned the granite
+column against whose pedestal he still leaned. "A truth which warns us
+to be prudent, for yonder Jew cast a look this way, as if he felt a
+conscientious scruple in letting any irreverent remark of ours go
+without reporting. The bearded old rogue is said to have other dealings
+with the Three Hundred besides asking for the moneys he has lent to
+their sons. And so, Stefano, thou thinkest the republic will never plant
+another mast of triumph in San Marco, or bring more trophies to the
+venerable church?"
+
+"Napoli herself, with her constant change of masters, is as likely to do
+a great act on the sea as thy winged beast just now! Thou art well
+enough to row a gondola in the canals, Gino, or to follow thy master to
+his Calabrian castle; but if thou would'st know what passes in the wide
+world, thou must be content to listen to mariners of the long course.
+The day of San Marco has gone by, and that of the heretics more north
+has come."
+
+"Thou hast been much of late among the lying Genoese, Stefano, that thou
+comest hither with these idle tales of what a heretic can do. Genova la
+Superba! What has a city of walls to compare with one of canals and
+islands like this?--and what has that Apennine republic performed, to be
+put in comparison with the great deeds of the Queen of the Adriatic?
+Thou forgettest that Venezia has been--"
+
+"Zitto, zitto! that _has_ been, caro mio, is a great word with all
+Italy. Thou art as proud of the past as a Roman of the Trastevere."
+
+"And the Roman of the Trastevere is right. Is it nothing, Stefano
+Milano, to be descended from a great and victorious people?"
+
+"It is better, Gino Monaldi, to be one of a people which is great and
+victorious just now. The enjoyment of the past is like the pleasure of
+the fool who dreams of the wine he drank yesterday."
+
+"This is well for a Neapolitan, whose country never was a nation,"
+returned the gondolier, angrily. "I have heard Don Camillo, who is one
+educated as well as born in the land, often say that half of the people
+of Europe have ridden the horse of Sicily, and used the legs of thy
+Napoli, except those who had the best right to the services of both."
+
+"Even so; and yet the figs are as sweet as ever, and the beccafichi as
+tender! The ashes of the volcano cover all!"
+
+"Gino," said a voice of authority, near the gondolier.
+
+"Signore."
+
+He who interrupted the dialogue pointed to the boat without saying more.
+
+"A rivederli," hastily muttered the gondolier. His friend squeezed his
+hand in perfect amity--for, in truth, they were countrymen by birth,
+though chance had trained the former on the canals--and, at the next
+instant, Gino was arranging the cushions for his master, having first
+aroused his subordinate brother of the oar from a profound sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  "Hast ever swam in a gondola at Venice?"
+                           SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+When Don Camillo Monforte entered the gondola, he did not take his seat
+in the pavilion. With an arm leaning on the top of the canopy, and his
+cloak thrown loosely over one shoulder, the young noble stood, in a
+musing attitude, until his dexterous servitors had extricated the boat
+from the little fleet which crowded the quay, and had urged it into open
+water. This duty performed, Gino touched his scarlet cap, and looked at
+his master as if to inquire the direction in which they were to proceed.
+He was answered by a silent gesture that indicated the route of the
+great canal.
+
+"Thou hast an ambition, Gino, to show thy skill in the regatta?" Don
+Camillo observed, when they had made a little progress. "The motive
+merits success. Thou wast speaking to a stranger when I summoned thee to
+the gondola?"
+
+"I was asking the news of our Calabrian hills from one who has come into
+port with his felucca, though the man took the name of San Gennaro to
+witness that his former luckless voyage should be the last."
+
+"How does he call his felucca, and what is the name of the padrone?"
+
+"La Bella Sorrentina, commanded by a certain Stefano Milano, son of an
+ancient servant of Sant' Agata. The bark is none of the worst for speed,
+and it has some reputation for beauty. It ought to be of happy fortune,
+too, for the good curato recommended it, with many a devout prayer, to
+the Virgin and to San Francesco."
+
+The noble appeared to lend more attention to the discourse, which, until
+now, on his part, had been commenced in the listless manner with which a
+superior encourages an indulged dependant.
+
+"La Bella Sorrentina! Have I not reason to know the bark?"
+
+"Nothing more true, Signore. Her padrone has relations at Sant' Agata,
+as I have told your eccellenza, and his vessel has lain on the beach
+near the castle many a bleak winter."
+
+"What brings him to Venice?"
+
+"That is what I would give my newest jacket of your eccellenza's colors
+to know, Signore. I have as little wish to inquire into other people's
+affairs as any one, and I very well know that discretion is the chief
+virtue of a gondolier. I ventured, however, a deadly hint concerning his
+errand, such as ancient neighborhood would warrant, but he was as
+cautious of his answers as if he were freighted with the confessions of
+fifty Christians. Now, if your eccellenza should see fit to give me
+authority to question him in your name, the deuce is in't if between
+respect for his lord, and good management, we could not draw something
+more than a false bill of lading from him."
+
+"Thou wilt take thy choice of my gondolas for the regatta, Gino,"
+observed the Duke of Sant' Agata, entering the pavilion, and throwing
+himself on the glossy black leathern cushions, without adverting to the
+suggestion of his servant.
+
+The gondola continued its noiseless course, with the sprite-like
+movement peculiar to that description of boat. Gino, who, as superior
+over his fellow, stood perched on the little arched deck in the stern,
+pushed his oar with accustomed readiness and skill, now causing the
+light vessel to sheer to the right, and now to the left, as it glided
+among the multitude of craft, of all sizes and uses, which it met in
+its passage. Palace after palace had been passed, and more than one of
+the principal canals, which diverged towards the different spectacles,
+or the other places of resort frequented by his master, was left behind,
+without Don Camillo giving any new direction. At length the boat arrived
+opposite to a building which seemed to excite more than common
+expectation. Giorgio worked his oar with a single hand, looking over his
+shoulder at Gino, and Gino permitted his blade fairly to trail on the
+water. Both seemed to await new orders, manifesting something like that
+species of instinctive sympathy with him they served, which a long
+practised horse is apt to show when he draws near a gate that is seldom
+passed unvisited by his driver.
+
+The edifice which caused this hesitation in the two gondoliers was one
+of those residences at Venice, which are quite as remarkable for their
+external riches and ornaments as for their singular situation amid the
+waters. A massive rustic basement of marble was seated as solidly in the
+element as if it grew from a living rock, while story was seemingly
+raised on story, in the wanton observance of the most capricious rules
+of meretricious architecture, until the pile reached an altitude that is
+little known, except in the dwellings of princes. Colonnades,
+medallions, and massive cornices overhung the canal, as if the art of
+man had taken pride in loading the superstructure in a manner to mock
+the unstable element which concealed its base. A flight of steps, on
+which each gentle undulation produced by the passage of the barge washed
+a wave, conducted to a vast vestibule, that answered many of the
+purposes of a court. Two or three gondolas were moored near, but the
+absence of their people showed they were for the use of those who dwelt
+within. The boats were protected from rough collision with the passing
+craft by piles driven obliquely into the bottom. Similar spars, with
+painted and ornamented heads, that sometimes bore the colors and arms
+of the proprietor, formed a sort of little haven for the gondolas of the
+household, before the door of every dwelling of mark.
+
+"Where is it the pleasure of your eccellenza to be rowed?" asked Gino,
+when he found his sympathetic delay had produced no order.
+
+"To the Palazzo."
+
+Giorgio threw a glance of surprise back at his comrade, but the obedient
+gondola shot by the gloomy, though rich abode, as if the little bark had
+suddenly obeyed an inward impulse. In a moment more it whirled aside,
+and the hollow sound, caused by the plash of water between high walls,
+announced its entrance into a narrower canal. With shortened oars the
+men still urged the boat ahead, now turning short into some new channel,
+now glancing beneath a low bridge, and now uttering, in the sweet shrill
+tones of the country and their craft, the well known warning to those
+who were darting in an opposite direction. A backstroke of Gino's oar,
+however, soon brought the side of the arrested boat to a flight of
+steps.
+
+"Thou wilt follow me," said Don Camillo, as he placed his foot, with the
+customary caution, on the moist stone, and laid a hand on the shoulder
+of Gino; "I have need of thee."
+
+Neither the vestibule, nor the entrance, nor the other visible
+accessories of the dwelling were so indicative of luxury and wealth as
+that of the palace on the great canal. Still they were all such as
+denoted the residence of a noble of consideration.
+
+"Thou wilt do wisely, Gino, to trust thy fortunes to the new gondola,"
+said the master, as he mounted the heavy stone stairs to an upper floor,
+pointing, as he spoke, to a new and beautiful boat, which lay in a
+corner of the large vestibule, as carriages are seen standing in the
+courts of houses built on more solid ground. "He who would find favor
+with Jupiter must put his own shoulder to the wheel, thou knowest, my
+friend."
+
+The eye of Gino brightened, and he was voluble in his expression of
+thanks. They had ascended to the first floor, and were already deep in a
+suite of gloomy apartments, before the gratitude and professional pride
+of the gondolier were exhausted.
+
+"Aided by a powerful arm and a fleet gondola, thy chance will be as good
+as another's, Gino," said Don Camillo, closing the door of his cabinet
+on his servant; "at present thou mayest give some proof of zeal in my
+service, in another manner. Is the face of a man called Jacopo Frontoni
+known to thee?"
+
+"Eccellenza!" exclaimed the gondolier, gasping for breath.
+
+"I ask thee if thou knowest the countenance of one named Frontoni?"
+
+"His countenance, Signore!"
+
+"By what else would'st thou distinguish a man?"
+
+"A man, Signor' Don Camillo!"
+
+"Art thou mocking thy master, Gino? I have asked thee if thou art
+acquainted with the person of a certain Jacopo Frontoni, a dweller here
+in Venice?"
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"He I mean has been long remarked by the misfortunes of his family; the
+father being now in exile on the Dalmatian coast, or elsewhere."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"There are many of the name of Frontoni, and it is important that thou
+should'st not mistake the man. Jacopo, of that family, is a youth of
+some five-and-twenty, of an active frame and melancholy visage, and of
+less vivacity of temperament than is wont, at his years."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"One who consorts but little with his fellows, and who is rather noted
+for the silence and industry with which he attends to his concerns, than
+for any of the usual pleasantries and trifling of men of his cast. A
+certain Jacopo Frontoni, that hath his abode somewhere near the
+arsenal?"
+
+"Cospetto! Signor' Duca, the man is as well known to us gondoliers as
+the bridge of the Rialto! Your eccellenza has no need to trouble
+yourself to describe him."
+
+Don Camillo Monforte was searching among the papers of a secretaire. He
+raised his eyes in some little amazement at the sally of his dependant,
+and then he quietly resumed his occupation.
+
+"If thou knowest the man, it is enough."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes. And what is your pleasure with this accursed Jacopo?"
+
+The Duke of Sant' Agata seemed to recollect himself. He replaced the
+papers which had been deranged, and he closed the secretaire.
+
+"Gino," he said, in a tone of confidence and amity, "thou wert born on
+my estates, though so long trained here to the oar in Venice, and thou
+hast passed thy life in my service."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+"It is my desire that thou should'st end thy days where they began. I
+have had much confidence in thy discretion hitherto, and I have
+satisfaction in saying it has never failed thee, notwithstanding thou
+hast necessarily been a witness of some exploits of youth which might
+have drawn embarrassment on thy master were thy tongue less disposed to
+silence."
+
+"Eccellenza, yes."
+
+Don Camillo smiled; but the gleam of humor gave way to a look of grave
+and anxious thought.
+
+"As thou knowest the person of him I have named, our affair is simple.
+Take this packet," he continued, placing a sealed letter of more than
+usual size into the hand of the gondolier, and drawing from his finger a
+signet ring, "with this token of thy authority. Within that arch of the
+Doge's palace which leads to the canal of San Marco, beneath the Bridge
+of Sighs, thou wilt find Jacopo. Give him the packet; and, should he
+demand it, withhold not the ring. Wait his bidding, and return with the
+answer."
+
+Gino received this commission with profound respect, but with an awe he
+could not conceal. Habitual deference to his master appeared to struggle
+with deep distaste for the office he was required to perform; and there
+was even some manifestation of a more principled reluctance, in his
+hesitating yet humble manner. If Don Camillo noted the air and
+countenance of his menial at all, he effectually concealed it.
+
+"At the arched passage of the palace, beneath the Bridge of Sighs," he
+coolly added; "and let thy arrival there be timed, as near as may be, to
+the first hour of the night."
+
+"I would, Signore, that you had been pleased to command Giorgio and me
+to row you to Padua!"
+
+"The way is long. Why this sudden wish to weary thyself?"
+
+"Because there is no Doge's palace, nor any Bridge of Sighs, nor any dog
+of Jacopo Frontoni among the meadows."
+
+"Thou hast little relish for this duty; but thou must know that what the
+master commands it is the duty of a faithful follower to perform. Thou
+wert born my vassal, Gino Monaldi; and though trained from boyhood in
+this occupation of a gondolier, thou art properly a being of my fiefs in
+Napoli."
+
+"St. Gennaro make me grateful for the honor, Signore! But there is not a
+water-seller in the streets of Venice, nor a mariner on her canals, who
+does not wish this Jacopo anywhere but in the bosom of Abraham. He is
+the terror of every young lover, and of all the urgent creditors on the
+islands."
+
+"Thou seest, silly babbler, there is one of the former, at least, who
+does not hold him in dread. Thou wilt seek him beneath the Bridge of
+Sighs, and, showing the signet, deliver the package according to my
+instructions."
+
+"It is certain loss of character to be seen speaking with the miscreant!
+So lately as yesterday, I heard Annina, the pretty daughter of the old
+wine-seller on the Lido, declare, that to be seen once in company with
+Jacopo Frontoni was as bad as to be caught twice bringing old rope from
+the arsenal, as befell Roderigo, her mother's cousin."
+
+"Thy distinctions savor of the morals of the Lido. Remember to exhibit
+the ring, lest he distrust thy errand."
+
+"Could not your eccellenza set me about clipping the wings of the lion,
+or painting a better picture than Tiziano di Vecelli? I have a mortal
+dislike even to pass the mere compliments of the day with one of your
+cut-throats. Were any of our gondoliers to see me in discourse with the
+man, it might exceed your eccellenza's influence to get me a place in
+the regatta."
+
+"If he detain thee, Gino, thou wilt wait his pleasure; and if he dismiss
+thee at once, return hither with all expedition, that I may know the
+result."
+
+"I very well know, Signor Don Camillo, that the honor of a noble is more
+tender of reproach than that of his followers, and that the stain upon
+the silken robe of a senator is seen farther than the spot upon a velvet
+jacket. If any one unworthy of your eccellenza's notice has dared to
+offend, here are Giorgio and I, ready, at any time, to show how deeply
+we can feel an indignity which touches our master's credit; but a
+hireling of two, or ten, or even of a hundred sequins!"
+
+"I thank thee for the hint, Gino. Go thou and sleep in thy gondola, and
+bid Giorgio come into my cabinet."
+
+"Signore!"
+
+"Art thou resolute to do none of my biddings?"
+
+"Is it your eccellenza's pleasure that I go to the Bridge of Sighs by
+the footways of the streets, or by the canals?"
+
+"There may be need of a gondola--thou wilt go with the oar."
+
+"A tumbler shall not have time to turn round before the answer of Jacopo
+shall be here."
+
+With this sudden change of purpose the gondolier quitted the room, for
+the reluctance of Gino disappeared the moment he found the confidential
+duty assigned him by his master was likely to be performed by another.
+Descending rapidly by a secret stair instead of entering the vestibule
+where half a dozen menials of different employments were in waiting, he
+passed by one of the narrow corridors of the palace into an inner court,
+and thence by a low and unimportant gate into an obscure alley which
+communicated with the nearest street.
+
+Though the age is one of so great activity and intelligence, and the
+Atlantic is no longer a barrier even to the ordinary amusements of life,
+a great majority of Americans have never had an opportunity of
+personally examining the remarkable features of a region, of which the
+town that Gino now threaded with so much diligence is not the least
+worthy of observation. Those who have been so fortunate as to have
+visited Italy, therefore, will excuse us if we make a brief, but what we
+believe useful digression, for the benefit of those who have not had
+that advantage.
+
+The city of Venice stands on a cluster of low sandy islands. It is
+probable that the country which lies nearest to the gulf, if not the
+whole of the immense plain of Lombardy itself, is of alluvial formation.
+Whatever may have been the origin of that wide and fertile kingdom, the
+causes which have given to the Lagunes their existence, and to Venice
+its unique and picturesque foundation, are too apparent to be mistaken.
+Several torrents which flow from the valleys of the Alps pour their
+tribute into the Adriatic at this point. Their waters come charged with
+the debris of the mountains, pulverized nearly to their original
+elements. Released from the violence of the stream, these particles have
+necessarily been deposited in the gulf, at the spot where they have
+first become subjected to the power of the sea. Under the influence of
+counteracting currents, eddies, and waves, the sands have been thrown
+into submarine piles, until some of the banks have arisen above the
+surface, forming islands, whose elevation has been gradually augmented
+by the decay of vegetation. A glance at the map will show that, while
+the Gulf of Venice is not literally, it is practically, considered with
+reference to the effect produced by the south-east wind called the
+Sirocco, at the head of the Adriatic. This accidental circumstance is
+probably the reason why the Lagunes have a more determined character at
+the mouths of the minor streams that empty themselves here than at the
+mouths of most of the other rivers, which equally flow from the Alps or
+the Apennines into the same shallow sea.
+
+The natural consequence of a current of a river meeting the waters of
+any broad basin, and where there is no base of rock, is the formation,
+at or near the spot where the opposing actions are neutralized, of a
+bank, which is technically called a bar. The coast of the Union
+furnishes constant evidence of the truth of this theory, every river
+having its bar, with channels that are often shifted, or cleared, by the
+freshets, the gales, or the tides. The constant and powerful operation
+of the south-eastern winds on one side, with the periodical increase of
+the Alpine streams on the other, have converted this bar at the entrance
+of the Venetian Lagunes, into a succession of long, low, sandy islands,
+which extend in a direct line nearly across the mouth of the gulf. The
+waters of the rivers have necessarily cut a few channels for their
+passage, or, what is now a lagune, would long since have become a lake.
+Another thousand years may so far change the character of this
+extraordinary estuary as to convert the channels of the bay into rivers,
+and the muddy banks into marshes and meadows, resembling those that are
+now seen for so many leagues inland.
+
+The low margin of sand that, in truth, gives all its maritime security
+to the port of Venice and the Lagunes, is called the Lido di Palestrino.
+It has been artificially connected and secured, in many places, and the
+wall of the Lido (literally the beach), though incomplete, like most of
+the great and vaunted works of the other hemisphere, and more
+particularly of Italy, ranks with the mole of Ancona, and the sea-wall
+of Cherbourg. The hundred little islands which now contain the ruins of
+what, during the middle ages, was the mart of the Mediterranean, are
+grouped together within cannon-shot of the natural barrier. Art has
+united with nature to turn the whole to good account; and, apart from
+the influence of moral causes, the rivalry of a neighboring town, which
+has been fostered by political care, and the gradual filling up of the
+waters, by the constant deposit of the streams, it would be difficult to
+imagine a more commodious, or a safer haven when entered, than that
+which Venice affords, even to this hour.
+
+As all the deeper channels of the Lagunes have been preserved, the city
+is intersected in every direction by passages, which from their
+appearance are called canals, but which, in truth, are no more than so
+many small natural branches of the sea. On the margin of these passages,
+the walls of the dwellings arise literally from out of the water, since
+economy of room has caused their owners to extend their possessions to
+the very verge of the channel, in the manner that quays and wharfs are
+pushed into the streams in our own country. In many instances the
+islands themselves were no more than banks, which were periodically
+bare, and on all, the use of piles has been necessary to support the
+superincumbent loads of palaces, churches, and public monuments, under
+which, in the course of ages, the humble spits of sand have been made
+to groan.
+
+The great frequency of the canals, and perhaps some attention to economy
+of labor, has given to by far the greater part of the buildings the
+facility of an approach by water. But, while nearly every dwelling has
+one of its fronts on a canal, there are always communications by the
+rear with the interior passages of the town. It is a fault in most
+descriptions, that while the stranger hears so much of the canals of
+Venice, but little is said of her streets: still, narrow, paved,
+commodious, and noiseless passages of this description, intersect all
+the islands, which communicate with each other by means of a countless
+number of bridges. Though the hoof of a horse or the rumbling of a wheel
+is never heard in these strait avenues, they are of great resort for all
+the purposes of ordinary intercourse.
+
+Gino issued into one of these thoroughfares when he quitted the private
+passage which communicated with the palace of his master. He threaded
+the throng by which it was crowded, with a dexterity that resembled the
+windings of an eel among the weeds of the Lagunes. To the numerous
+greetings of his fellows, he replied only by nods; nor did he once
+arrest his footsteps, until they had led him through the door of a low
+and dark dwelling that stood in a quarter of the place which was
+inhabited by people of an inferior condition. Groping his way among
+casks, cordage, and rubbish of all descriptions, the gondolier succeeded
+in finding an inner and retired door that opened into a small room,
+whose only light came from a species of well that descended between the
+walls of the adjacent houses and that in which he was.
+
+"Blessed St. Anne! Is it thou, Gino Monaldi!" exclaimed a smart Venetian
+grisette, whose tone and manner betrayed as much of coquetry as of
+surprise. "On foot, and by the secret door! Is this an hour to come on
+any of thy errands?"
+
+"Truly, Annina, it is not the season for affairs with thy father, and
+it is something early for a visit to thee. But there is less time for
+words than for action, just now. For the sake of San Teodoro, and that
+of a constant and silly young man, who, if not thy slave, is at least
+thy dog, bring forth the jacket I wore when we went together to see the
+merry-making at Fusina."
+
+"I know nothing of thy errand, Gino, nor of thy reason for wishing to
+change thy master's livery for the dress of a common boatman. Thou art
+far more comely with those silken flowers than in this faded velveteen;
+and if I have ever said aught in commendation of its appearance, it was
+because we were bent on merry-making, and being one of the party, it
+would have been churlish to have withheld a word of praise to a
+companion, who, as thou knowest, does not dislike a civil speech in his
+own praise."
+
+"Zitto, zitto! here is no merry-making and companions, but a matter of
+gravity, and one that must be performed offhand. The jacket, if thou
+lovest me!"
+
+Annina, who had not neglected essentials while she moralized on motives,
+threw the garment on a stool that stood within reach of the gondolier's
+hand, as he made this strong appeal in a way to show that she was not to
+be surprised out of a confession of this sort, even in the most
+unguarded moment.
+
+"If I love thee, truly! Thou hast the jacket, Gino, and thou mayest
+search in its pockets for an answer to thy letter, which I do not thank
+thee for having got the duca's secretary to indite. A maiden should be
+discreet in affairs of this sort; for one never knows but he may make a
+confidant of a rival."
+
+"Every work of it is as true as if the devil himself had done the office
+for me, girl," muttered Gino, uncasing himself from his flowery
+vestment, and as rapidly assuming the plainer garment he had
+sought--"The cap, Annina, and the mask!"
+
+"One who wears so false a face, in common, has little need of a bit of
+silk to conceal his countenance," she answered, throwing him,
+notwithstanding, both the articles he required.
+
+"This is well. Father Battista himself, who boasts he can tell a sinner
+from a penitent merely by the savor of his presence, would never suspect
+a servitor of Don Camillo Monforte in this dress. Cospetto! but I have
+half a mind to visit that knave of a Jew, who has got thy golden chain
+in pledge, and give him a hint of what may be the consequences, should
+he insist on demanding double the rate of interest we agreed on."
+
+"'Twould be Christian justice! but what would become of thy matter of
+gravity the while, Gino, and of thy haste to enter on its performance?"
+
+"Thou sayest truly, girl. Duty above all other things; though to
+frighten a grasping Hebrew may be as much of a duty as other matters.
+Are all thy father's gondolas in the water?"
+
+"How else could he be gone to the Lido, and my brother Luigi to Fusini,
+and the two serving-men on the usual business to the islands, or how
+else should I be alone?"
+
+"Diavolo! is there no boat in the canal?"
+
+"Thou art in unwonted haste, Gino, now thou hast a mask and jacket of
+velvet. I know not that I should suffer one to enter my father's house
+when I am in it alone, and take such disguises to go abroad, at this
+hour. Thou wilt tell me thy errand, that I may judge of the propriety of
+what I do."
+
+"Better ask the Three Hundred to open the leaves of their book of doom!
+Give me the key of the outer door, girl, that I may go my way."
+
+"Not till I know whether this business is likely to draw down upon my
+father the displeasure of the Senate. Thou knowest, Gino, that I am----"
+
+"Diamine! There goes the clock of San Marco, and I tarry past my hour.
+If I am too late, the fault will rest with thee."
+
+"'Twill not be the first of thy oversights which it has been my business
+to excuse. Here thou art, and here shalt thou remain, until I know the
+errand which calls for a mask and jacket, and all about this matter of
+gravity."
+
+"This is talking like a jealous wife instead of a reasonable girl,
+Annina. I have told thee that I am on business of the last importance,
+and that delay may bring heavy calamities."
+
+"On whom? What is thy business? Why art thou, whom in general it is
+necessary to warn from this house by words many times repeated, now in
+such a haste to leave it?"
+
+"Have I not told thee, girl, 'tis an errand of great concern to six
+noble families, and if I fail to be in season there may be a
+strife--aye, between the Florentine and the Republic!"
+
+"Thou hast said nothing of the sort, nor do I put faith in thy being an
+ambassador of San Marco. Speak truth for once, Gino Monaldi, or lay
+aside the mask and jacket, and take up thy flowers of Sant' Agata."
+
+"Well, then, as we are friends, and I have faith in thy discretion,
+Annina, thou shalt know the truth to the extremity, for I find the bell
+has only tolled the quarters, which leaves me yet a moment for
+confidence."
+
+"Thou lookest at the wall, Gino, and art consulting thy wits for some
+plausible lie!"
+
+"I look at the wall because conscience tells me that too much weakness
+for thee is about to draw me astray from duty. What thou takest for
+deceit is only shame and modesty."
+
+"Of that we shall judge, when the tale is told."
+
+"Then listen. Thou hast heard of the affair between my master and the
+niece of the Roman Marchese, who was drowned in the Giudecca by the
+carelessness of an Ancona-man, who passed over the gondola of Pietro as
+if his felucca had been a galley of state?"
+
+"Who has been upon the Lido the month past without hearing the tale
+repeated, with every variation of a gondolier's anger?"
+
+"Well, the matter is likely to come to a conclusion this night; my
+master is about to do, as I fear, a very foolish thing."
+
+"He will be married!"
+
+"Or worse! I am sent in all haste and secresy in search of a priest."
+
+Annina manifested strong interest in the fiction of the gondolier.
+Either from a distrustful temperament, long habit, or great familiarity
+with the character of her companion, however, she did not listen to his
+explanation without betraying some doubts of its truth.
+
+"This will be a sudden bridal feast!" she said, after a moment of pause.
+"'Tis well that few are invited, or its savor might be spoiled by the
+Three Hundred! To what convent art thou sent?"
+
+"My errand is not particular. The first that may be found, provided he
+be a Franciscan, and a priest likely to have bowels for lovers in
+haste."
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte, the heir of an ancient and great line, does not
+wive with so little caution. Thy false tongue has been trying to deceive
+me, Gino; but long use should have taught thee the folly of the effort.
+Unless thou sayest truth, not only shalt thou not go to thy errand, but
+here art thou prisoner at my pleasure."
+
+"I may have told thee what I expect will shortly happen, rather than
+what has happened. But Don Camillo keeps me so much upon the water of
+late, that I do little besides dream, when not at the oar."
+
+"It is vain to attempt deceiving me, Gino, for thine eye speaketh
+truth, let thy tongue and brains wander where they will. Drink of this
+cup, and disburden thy conscience, like a man."
+
+"I would that thy father would make the acquaintance of Stefano Milano,"
+resumed the gondolier, taking a long breath, after a still longer
+draught. "'Tis a padrone of Calabria, who oftentimes brings into the
+port excellent liquors of his country, and who would pass a cask of the
+red lachryma christi through the Broglio itself, and not a noble of them
+all should see it. The man is here at present, and, if thou wilt, he
+shall not be long without coming into terms with thee for a few skins."
+
+"I doubt if he have better liquors than this which hath ripened upon the
+sands of the Lido. Take another draught, for the second taste is thought
+to be better than the first."
+
+"If the wine improve in this manner, thy father should be heavy-hearted
+at the sight of the lees. 'Twould be no more than charity to bring him
+and Stefano acquainted."
+
+"Why not do it immediately? His felucca is in the port, thou sayest, and
+thou canst lead him hither by the secret door and the lanes."
+
+"Thou forgettest my errand. Don Camillo is not used to be served the
+second. Cospetto! 'T were a pity that any other got the liquor which I
+am certain the Calabrian has in secret."
+
+"This errand can be no matter of a moment, like that of being sure of
+wine of the quality thou namest; or, if it be, thou canst first dispatch
+thy master's business, and then to the port, in quest of Stefano. That
+the purchase may not fail, I will take a mask and be thy companion, to
+see the Calabrian. Thou knowest my father hath much confidence in my
+judgment in matters like this."
+
+While Gino stood half stupified and half delighted at this proposition,
+the ready and wily Annina made some slight change in her outer
+garments, placed a silken mask before her face, applied a key to the
+door, and beckoned to the gondolier to follow.
+
+The canal with which the dwelling of the wine-dealer communicated, was
+narrow, gloomy, and little frequented. A gondola of the plainest
+description was fastened near, and the girl entered it, without
+appearing to think any further arrangement necessary. The servant of Don
+Camillo hesitated a single instant, but having seen that his
+half-meditated project of escaping by the use of another boat could not
+be accomplished for want of means, he took his worried place in the
+stern, and began to ply the oar with mechanical readiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  "What well appointed leader fronts us here?"
+                       KING HENRY VI.
+
+
+The presence of Annina was a grave embarrassment to Gino. He had his
+secret wishes and limited ambition, like other men, and among the
+strongest of the former, was the desire to stand well in the favor of
+the wine-seller's daughter. But the artful girl, in catering to his
+palate with a liquor that was scarcely less celebrated among people of
+his class for its strength than its flavor, had caused a momentary
+confusion in the brain of Gino, that required time to disperse. The boat
+was in the Grand Canal, and far on its way to the place of its
+destination, before this happy purification of the intellects of the
+gondolier had been sufficiently effected. By that time, however, the
+exercise of rowing, the fresh air of the evening, and the sight of so
+many accustomed objects, restored his faculties to the necessary degree
+of coolness and forethought. As the boat approached the end of the canal
+he began to cast his eyes about him in quest of the well known felucca
+of the Calabrian.
+
+Though the glory of Venice had departed, the trade of the city was not
+then at its present low ebb. The port was still crowded with vessels
+from many distant havens, and the flags of most of the maritime states
+of Europe were seen, at intervals, within the barrier of the Lido. The
+moon was now sufficiently high to cast its soft light on the whole of
+the glittering basin, and a forest composed of lateen yards, of the
+slender masts of polaccas, and of the more massive and heavy hamper of
+regularly rigged ships, was to be seen rising above the tranquil
+element.
+
+"Thou art no judge of a vessel's beauty, Annina," said the gondolier to
+his companion, who was deeply housed in the pavilion of the boat, "else
+should I tell thee to look at this stranger from Candia. 'Tis said that
+a fairer model has never entered within the Lido than that same Greek!"
+
+"Our errand is not with the Candian trader, Gino; therefore ply thy oar,
+for time passes."
+
+"There's plenty of rough Greek wine in his hold; but, as thou sayest, we
+have naught with him. Yon tall ship, which is moored without the smaller
+craft of our seas, is the vessel of a Lutheran from the islands of
+Inghilterra. 'Twas a sad day for the Republic, girl, when it first
+permitted the stranger to come into the waters of the Adriatic!"
+
+"Is it certain, Gino, that the arm of St. Mark was strong enough to keep
+him out?"
+
+"Mother of Diana! I would rather thou didst not ask that question in a
+place where so many gondoliers are in motion! Here are Ragusans,
+Maltese, Sicilians, and Tuscans without number; and a little fleet of
+French lie near each other there, at the entrance of the Giudecca. They
+are a people who get together, afloat or ashore, for the benefit of the
+tongue. Here we are, at the end of our journey."
+
+The oar of Gino gave a backward sweep, and the gondola was at rest by
+the side of a felucca.
+
+"A happy night to the Bella Sorrentina and her worthy padrone!" was the
+greeting of the gondolier, as he put his foot on the deck of the vessel.
+"Is the honest Stefano Milano on board the swift felucca?"
+
+The Calabrian was not slow to answer; and in a few moments the padrone
+and his two visitors were in close and secret conference.
+
+"I have brought one here who will be likely to put good Venetian
+sequins into thy pocket, caro," observed the gondolier, when the
+preliminaries of discourse had been properly observed. "She is the
+daughter of a most conscientious wine-dealer, who is quite as ready at
+transplanting your Sicilian grapes into the islands as he is willing and
+able to pay for them."
+
+"And one, no doubt, as handsome as she is ready," said the mariner, with
+blunt gallantry, "were the black cloud but fairly driven from before her
+face."
+
+"A mask is of little consequence in a bargain provided the money be
+forthcoming. We are always in the Carnival at Venice; and he who would
+buy, or he who would sell, has the same right to hide his face as to
+hide his thoughts. What hast thou in the way of forbidden liquors,
+Stefano, that my companion may not lose the night in idle words?"
+
+"Per Diana! Master Gino, thou puttest thy questions with little
+ceremony. The hold of the felucca is empty, as thou mayest see by
+stepping to the hatches; and as for any liquor, we are perishing for a
+drop to warm the blood."
+
+"And so far from coming to seek it here," said Annina, "we should have
+done better to have gone into the cathedral, and said an Ave for thy
+safe voyage home. And now that our wit is spent, we will quit thee,
+friend Stefano, for some other less skilful in answers."
+
+"Cospetto! thou knowest not what thou sayest," whispered Gino, when he
+found that the wary Annina was not disposed to remain. "The man never
+enters the meanest creek in Italy, without having something useful
+secreted in the felucca on his own account. One purchase of him would
+settle the question between the quality of thy father's wines and those
+of Battista. There is not a gondolier in Venice but will resort to thy
+shop if the intercourse with this fellow can be fairly settled."
+
+Annina hesitated; long practised in the small, but secret exceedingly
+hazardous commerce which her father, notwithstanding the vigilance and
+severity of the Venetian police, had thus far successfully driven, she
+neither liked to risk an exposure of her views to an utter stranger, nor
+to abandon a bargain that promised to be lucrative. That Gino trifled
+with her as to his true errand needed no confirmation, since a servant
+of the Duke of Sant' Agata was not likely to need a disguise to search a
+priest; but she knew his zeal for her personal welfare too well to
+distrust his faith in a matter that concerned her own safety.
+
+"If thou distrust that any here are the spies of the authorities," she
+observed to the padrone, with a manner that readily betrayed her wishes,
+"it will be in Gino's power to undeceive thee. Thou wilt testify, Gino,
+that I am not to be suspected of treachery in an affair like this."
+
+"Leave me to put a word into the private ear of the Calabrian," said the
+gondolier, significantly.--"Stefano Milano, if thou love me," he
+continued, when they were a little apart, "keep the girl in parley, and
+treat with her fairly for thy adventure."
+
+"Shall I sell the vintage of Don Camillo, or that of the Viceroy of
+Sicily, caro? There is as much wine of each on board the Bella
+Sorrentina, as would float the fleet of the Republic."
+
+"If, in truth, thou art dry, then feign that thou hast it, and differ in
+thy prices. Entertain her but a minute with fair words, while I can get
+unseen into my gondola; and then, for the sake of an old and tried
+friend, put her tenderly on the quay, in the best manner thou art able."
+
+"I begin to see into the nature of the trade," returned the pliant
+padrone, placing a finger on the side of his nose. "I will discourse the
+woman by the hour about the flavor of the liquor, or, if thou wilt, of
+her own beauty; but to squeeze a drop of anything better than the water
+of the Lagunes out of the ribs of the felucca, would be a miracle worthy
+of San Teodoro."
+
+"There is but little need to touch on aught but the quality of thy
+wine. The girl is not like most of her sex, and she takes sudden offence
+when there is question of her appearance. Indeed, the mask she wears is
+as much to hide a face that has little to tempt the eye, as from any
+wish at concealment."
+
+"Since Gino has entered frankly into the matter," resumed the
+quick-witted Calabrian, cheerfully, and with an air of sudden confidence
+to the expectant Annina, "I begin to see more probability of our
+understanding each other's meaning. Deign, bella donna, to go into my
+poor cabin, where we will speak more at our ease, and something more to
+our mutual profit and mutual security."
+
+Annina was not without secret doubts, but she suffered the padrone to
+lead her to the stairs of the cabin, as if she were disposed to descend.
+Her back was no sooner turned, than Gino slid into the gondola, which
+one shove of his vigorous arm sent far beyond the leap of man. The
+action was sudden, rapid, and noiseless; but the jealous eye of Annina
+detected the escape of the gondolier, though not in time to prevent it.
+Without betraying uneasiness, she submitted to be led below, as if the
+whole were done by previous concert.
+
+"Gino has said that you have a boat which will do the friendly office to
+put me on the quay when our conference is over," she remarked, with a
+presence of mind that luckily met the expedient of her late companion.
+
+"The felucca itself should do that much, were there want of other
+means," gallantly returned the manner when they disappeared in the
+cabin.
+
+Free to discharge his duty, Gino now plied his task with redoubled zeal.
+The light boat glided among the vessels, inclining, by the skilful
+management of his single oar, in a manner to avoid all collision, until
+it entered the narrow canal which separates the palace of the Doge from
+the more beautiful and classic structure that contains the prisons of
+the Republic. The bridge which continues the communication of the quays,
+was first passed, and then he was stealing beneath that far-famed arch
+which supports a covered gallery leading from the upper story of the
+palace into that of the prisons, and which, from its being appropriated
+to the passage of the accused from their cells to the presence of their
+judges, has been so poetically, and it may be added so pathetically,
+called the Bridge of Sighs.
+
+The oar of Gino now relaxed its efforts, and the gondola approached a
+flight of steps over which, as usual, the water cast its little waves.
+Stepping on the lowest flag, he thrust a small iron spike to which a
+cord was attached, into a crevice between two of the stones, and left
+his boat to the security of this characteristic fastening. When this
+little precaution was observed, the gondolier passed up lightly beneath
+the massive arch of the water-gate of the palace, and entered its large
+but gloomy court.
+
+At that hour, and with the temptation of the gay scene which offered in
+the adjoining square, the place was nearly deserted. A single female
+water-carrier was at the well, waiting for the element to filter into
+its basin, in order to fill her buckets, while her ear listened in dull
+attention to the hum of the moving crowd without. A halberdier paced the
+open gallery at the head of the Giant's Stairs, and, here and there, the
+footfall of other sentinels might be heard among the hollow and
+ponderous arches of the long corridors. No light was shed from the
+windows; but the entire building presented a fit emblem of that
+mysterious power which was known to preside over the fortunes of Venice
+and her citizens. Ere Gino trusted himself without the shadow of the
+passage by which he had entered, two or three curious faces had appeared
+at the opposite entrance of the court, where they paused a moment to
+gaze at the melancholy and imposing air of the dreaded palace, before
+they vanished in the throng which trifled in the immediate proximity of
+that secret and ruthless tribunal, as man riots in security even on the
+verge of an endless and unforeseen future.
+
+Disappointed in his expectation of meeting him he sought, on the
+instant, the gondolier advanced, and taking courage by the possibility
+of his escaping altogether from the interview, he ventured to furnish
+audible evidence of his presence by a loud hem. At that instant a figure
+glided into the court from the side of the quay, and walked swiftly
+towards its centre. The heart of Gino beat violently, but he mustered
+resolution to meet the stranger. As they drew near each other, it became
+evident, by the light of the moon, which penetrated even to that gloomy
+spot, that the latter was also masked.
+
+"San Teodoro and San Marco have you in mind!" commenced the gondolier.
+"If I mistake not, you are the man I am sent to meet."
+
+The stranger started, and first manifesting an intention to pass on
+quickly, he suddenly arrested the movement to reply.
+
+"This may be so or not. Unmask, that I may judge by thy countenance if
+what thou sayest be true."
+
+"By your good leave, most worthy and honorable Signore, and if it be
+equally agreeable to you and my master, I would choose to keep off the
+evening air by this bit of pasteboard and silk."
+
+"Here are none to betray thee, wert thou naked as at thy birth. Unless
+certain of thy character, in what manner may I confide in thy honesty?"
+
+"I have no distrust of the virtues of an undisguised face, Signore, and
+therefore do I invite you, yourself, to exhibit what nature has done for
+you in the way of features, that I, who am to make the confidence, be
+sure it be to the right person."
+
+"This is well, and gives assurance of thy prudence. I may not unmask,
+however; and as there seemeth little probability of our coming to an
+understanding, I will go my way. A most happy night to thee."
+
+"Cospetto!--Signore, you are far too quick in your ideas and movements
+for one little used to negotiations of this sort. Here is a ring whose
+signet may help us to understand each other."
+
+The stranger took the jewel, and holding the stone in a manner to
+receive the light of the moon, he started in a manner to betray both
+surprise and pleasure.
+
+"This is the falcon crest of the Neapolitan--he that is the lord of
+Sant' Agata!"
+
+"And of many other fiefs, good Signore, to say nothing of the honors he
+claims in Venice. Am I right in supposing my errand with you?"
+
+"Thou hast found one whose present business has no other object than Don
+Camillo Monforte. But thy errand was not solely to exhibit the signet?"
+
+"So little so, that I have a packet here which waits only for a
+certainty of the person with whom I speak, to be placed into his hands."
+
+The stranger mused a moment; then glancing a look about him, he answered
+hurriedly--
+
+"This is no place to unmask, friend, even though we only wear our
+disguises in pleasantry. Tarry here, and at my return I will conduct
+thee to a more fitting spot."
+
+The words were scarcely uttered when Gino found himself standing in the
+middle of the court alone. The masked stranger had passed swiftly on,
+and was at the bottom of the Giant's Stairs ere the gondolier had time
+for reflection. He ascended with a light and rapid step, and without
+regarding the halberdier, he approached the first of three or four
+orifices which opened into the wall of the palace, and which, from the
+heads of the animal being carved in relief around them, had become
+famous as the receptacles of secret accusations under the name of the
+Lion's Mouths. Something he dropped into the grinning aperture of the
+marble, though what, the distance and the obscurity of the gallery
+prevented Gino from perceiving; and then his form was seen gliding like
+a phantom down the flight of massive steps.
+
+Gino had retired towards the arch of the water-gate, in expectation that
+the stranger would rejoin him within its shadows; but, to his great
+alarm, he saw the form darting through the outer portal of the palace
+into the square of St. Mark. It was not a moment ere Gino, breathless
+with haste, was in chase. On reaching the bright and gay scene of the
+piazza, which contrasted with the gloomy court he had just quitted like
+morning with night, he saw the utter fruitlessness of further pursuit.
+Frightened at the loss of his master's signet, however, the indiscreet
+but well intentioned gondolier rushed into the crowd, and tried in vain
+to select the delinquent from among a thousand masks.
+
+"Harkee, Signore," uttered the half-distracted gondolier to one, who,
+having first examined his person with distrust, evidently betrayed a
+wish to avoid him, "if thou hast sufficiently pleased thy finger with my
+master's signet, the occasion offers to return it."
+
+"I know thee not," returned a voice, in which Gino's ear could detect no
+familiar sound.
+
+"It may not be well to trifle with the displeasure of a noble as
+powerful as him, you know," he whispered at the elbow of another, who
+had come under his suspicions. "The signet, if thou pleasest, and the
+affair need go no further."
+
+"He who would meddle in it, with or without that gage, would do well to
+pause."
+
+The gondolier again turned away disappointed.
+
+"The ring is not suited to thy masquerade, friend of mine," he essayed
+with a third; "and it would be wise not to trouble the podesta about
+such a trifle."
+
+"Then name it not, lest he hear thee." The answer proved, like all the
+others, unsatisfactory and bootless.
+
+Gino now ceased to question any; but he threaded the throng with an
+active and eager eye. Fifty times was he tempted to speak, but as often
+did some difference in stature or dress, some laugh, or trifle uttered
+in levity, warn him of his mistake. He penetrated to the very head of
+the piazza, and, returning by the opposite side, he found his way
+through the throng of the porticoes, looking into every coffee-house,
+and examining each figure that floated by, until he again issued into
+the piazzetta, without success. A slight jerk at the elbow of his jacket
+arrested his steps, and he turned to look at the person who had detained
+him. A female, attired like a contadina, addressed him in the feigned
+voice common to all.
+
+"Whither so fast, and what hast thou lost in this merry crowd? If a
+heart, 'twill be wise to use diligence, for many here may be willing to
+wear the jewel."
+
+"Corpo di Bacco!" exclaimed the disappointed gondolier; "any who find
+such a bauble of mine under foot, are welcome to their luck! Hast thou
+seen a domino of a size like that of any other man, with a gait that
+might pass for the step of a senator, padre, or Jew, and a mask that
+looks as much like a thousand of these in the square as one side of the
+campanile is like the other?"
+
+"Thy picture is so well drawn that one cannot fail to know the original.
+He stands beside thee."
+
+Gino wheeled suddenly, and saw that a grinning harlequin was playing his
+antics in the place where he had expected to find the stranger.
+
+"And thy eyes, bella contadina, are as dull as a mole's."
+
+He ceased speaking; for, deceived in his person, she who had saluted him
+was no longer visible. In this manner did the disappointed gondolier
+thread his way towards the water, now answering to the boisterous salute
+of some clown, and now repelling the advances of females less disguised
+than the pretended contadina, until he gained a space near the quays,
+where there was more room for observation. Here he paused, undetermined
+whether to return and confess his indiscretion to his master, or whether
+he should make still another effort to regain the ring which had been so
+sillily lost. The vacant space between the two granite columns was left
+to the quiet possession of himself and one other, who stood near the
+base of that which sustained the lion of St. Mark, as motionless as if
+he too were merely a form of stone. Two or three stragglers, either led
+by idle curiosity or expecting to meet one appointed to await their
+coming, drew near this immovable man, but all glided away, as if there
+were repulsion in his marble-like countenance. Gino had witnessed
+several instances of this evident dislike to remain near the unknown
+figure, ere he felt induced to cross the space between them, in order to
+inquire into its cause. A slow movement at the sound of his footsteps,
+brought the rays of the moon full upon the calm countenance and
+searching eye of the very man he sought.
+
+The first impulse of the gondolier, like that of all the others he had
+seen approach the spot, was to retreat; but the recollection of his
+errand and his loss came in season to prevent such an exhibition of his
+disgust and alarm. Still he did not speak; but he met the riveted gaze
+of the Bravo with a look that denoted, equally, confusion of intellect
+and a half-settled purpose.
+
+"Would'st thou aught with me?" demanded Jacopo, when the gaze of each
+had continued beyond the term of accidental glances.
+
+"My master's signet."
+
+"I know thee not."
+
+"That image of San Teodoro could testify that this is holy truth, if it
+would but speak! I have not the honor of your friendship, Signor Jacopo;
+but one may have affairs even with a stranger. If you met a peaceable
+and innocent gondolier in the court of the palace since the clock of the
+piazza told the last quarter, and got from him a ring, which can be of
+but little use to any but its rightful owner, one so generous will not
+hesitate to return it."
+
+"Dost thou take me for a jeweller of the Rialto that thou speakest to me
+of rings?"
+
+"I take you for one well known and much valued by many of name and
+quality, here in Venice, as witness my errand from my own master."
+
+"Remove thy mask. Men of fair dealing need not hide the features which
+nature has given them."
+
+"You speak nothing but truths, Signor Frontoni, which is little
+remarkable considering thy opportunities of looking into the motives of
+men. There is little in my face to pay you for the trouble of casting a
+glance at it. I would as lief do as others in this gay season, if it be
+equally agreeable to you."
+
+"Do as thou wilt; but I pray thee to give me the same permission."
+
+"There are few so bold as to dispute thy pleasure, Signore."
+
+"It is, to be alone."
+
+"Cospetto! There is not a man in Venice who would more gladly consult
+it, if my master's errand were fairly done!" muttered Gino, between his
+teeth. "I have here a packet, which it is my duty to put into your
+hands, Signore, and into those of no other."
+
+"I know thee not--thou hast a name?"
+
+"Not in the sense in which you speak, Signore. As to that sort of
+reputation I am as nameless as a foundling."
+
+"If thy master is of no more note than thyself the packet may be
+returned."
+
+"There are few within the dominions of St. Mark of better lineage or of
+fairer hopes than the Duke of Sant' Agata."
+
+The cold expression of the Bravo's countenance changed.
+
+"If thou comest from Don Camillo Monforte, why dost thou hesitate to
+proclaim it? Where are his requests?"
+
+"I know not whether it is his pleasure or that of another which this
+paper contains, but such as it is, Signor Jacopo, my duty commands me to
+deliver it to thee."
+
+The packet was received calmly, though the organ which glanced at its
+seal and its superscription, gleamed with an expression which the
+credulous gondolier fancied to resemble that of the tiger at the sight
+of blood.
+
+"Thou said'st something of a ring. Dost thou bear thy master's signet? I
+am much accustomed to see pledges ere I give faith."
+
+"Blessed San Teodore grant that I did! Were it as heavy as a skin of
+wine, I would willingly bear the load; but one that I mistook for you,
+Master Jacopo, has it on his own light finger, I fear."
+
+"This is an affair that thou wilt settle with thy master," returned the
+Bravo, coldly, again examining the impression of the seal.
+
+"If you are acquainted with the writing of my master," hurriedly
+remarked Gino, who trembled for the fate of the packet, "you will see
+his skill in the turn of those letters. There are few nobles in Venice,
+or indeed in the Sicilies, who have a more scholarly hand, with a quill,
+than Don Camillo Monforte; I could not do the thing half so well
+myself."
+
+"I am no clerk," observed the Bravo, without betraying shame at the
+confession. "The art of deciphering a scroll, like this, was never
+taught me; if thou art so expert in the skill of a penman, tell me the
+name the packet bears."
+
+"'Twould little become me to breathe a syllable concerning any of my
+master's secrets," returned the gondolier, drawing himself up in sudden
+reserve. "It is enough that he bid me deliver the letter; after which I
+should think it presumption even to whisper more."
+
+The dark eye of the Bravo was seen rolling over the person of his
+companion, by the light of the moon, in a manner that caused the blood
+of the latter to steal towards his heart.
+
+"I bid thee read to me aloud the name the paper bears," said Jacopo,
+sternly. "Here is none but the lion and the saint above our heads to
+listen."
+
+"Just San Marco! who can tell what ear is open or what ear is shut in
+Venice? If you please, Signor Frontoni, we will postpone the examination
+to a more suitable occasion."
+
+"Friend, I do not play the fool! The name, or show me some gage that
+thou art sent by him thou hast named, else take back the packet; 'tis no
+affair for my hand."
+
+"Reflect a single moment on the consequences, Signor Jacopo, before you
+come to a determination so hasty."
+
+"I know no consequences which can befall a man who refuses to receive a
+message like this."
+
+"Per Diana! Signore, the Duca will not be likely to leave me an ear to
+hear the good advice of Father Battista."
+
+"Then will the Duca save the public executioner some trouble."
+
+As he spoke, the Bravo cast the packet at the feet of the gondolier, and
+began to walk calmly up the piazzetta. Gino seized the letter, and, with
+his brain in a whirl, with the effort to recall some one of his master's
+acquaintances to whom he would be likely to address an epistle on such
+an occasion, he followed.
+
+"I wonder, Signor Jacopo, that a man of your sagacity has not remembered
+that a packet to be delivered to himself should bear his own name."
+
+The Bravo took the paper, and held the superscription again to the
+light.
+
+"That is not so. Though unlearned, necessity has taught me to know when
+I am meant."
+
+"Diamine! That is just my own case, Signore. Were the letter for me,
+now the old should not know its young quicker than I would come at the
+truth."
+
+"Then thou canst not read?"
+
+"I never pretended to the art. The little said was merely about writing.
+Learning, as you well understand, Master Jacopo, is divided into
+reading, writing, and figures; and a man may well understand one,
+without knowing a word of the others. It is not absolutely necessary to
+be a bishop to have a shaved head, or a Jew to wear a beard."
+
+"Thou would'st have done better to have said this at once; go, I will
+think of the matter."
+
+Gino gladly turned away, but he had not left the other many paces before
+he saw a female form gliding behind the pedestal of one of the granite
+columns. Moving swiftly in a direction to uncover this seeming spy, he
+saw at once that Annina had been a witness of his interview with the
+Bravo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+       "'T will make me think
+  The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune
+  Runs 'gainst the bias."
+                       RICHARD THE SECOND.
+
+
+Though Venice at that hour was so gay in her squares, the rest of the
+town was silent as the grave. A city in which the hoof of horse or the
+rolling of wheels is never heard, necessarily possesses a character of
+its own; but the peculiar form of the government, and the long training
+of the people in habits of caution, weighed on the spirits of the gay.
+There were times and places, it is true, when the buoyancy of youthful
+blood, and the levity of the thoughtless, found occasion for their
+display--nor were they rare; but when men found themselves removed from
+the temptation, and perhaps from the support of society, they appeared
+to imbibe the character of their sombre city.
+
+Such was the state of most of the town, while the scene described in the
+previous chapter was exhibited in the lively piazza of San Marco. The
+moon had risen so high that its light fell between the range of walls,
+here and there touching the surface of the water, to which it imparted a
+quivering brightness, while the domes and towers rested beneath its
+light in a solemn but grand repose. Occasionally the front of a palace
+received the rays on its heavy cornices and labored columns, the gloomy
+stillness of the interior of the edifice furnishing, in every such
+instance, a striking contrast to the richness and architectural beauty
+without. Our narrative now leads us to one of these patrician abodes of
+the first class.
+
+A heavy magnificence pervaded the style of the dwelling. The vestibule
+was vast, vaulted, and massive. The stairs, rich in marbles, heavy and
+grand. The apartments were imposing in their gildings and sculpture,
+while the walls sustained countless works on which the highest geniuses
+of Italy had lavishly diffused their power. Among these relics of an age
+more happy in this respect than that of which we write, the connoisseur
+would readily have known the pencils of Titian, Paul Veronese, and
+Tintoretto--the three great names in which the subjects of St. Mark so
+justly prided themselves. Among these works of the higher masters were
+mingled others by the pencils of Bellino, and Montegna, and Palma
+Vecchio--artists who were secondary only to the more renowned colorists
+of the Venetian school. Vast sheets of mirrors lined the walls, wherever
+the still more precious paintings had no place; while the ordinary
+hangings of velvet and silk became objects of secondary admiration, in a
+scene of nearly royal magnificence. The cool and beautiful floors, made
+of a composition in which all the prized marbles of Italy and of the
+East polished to the last degree of art, were curiously embedded, formed
+a suitable finish to a style so gorgeous, and in which luxury and taste
+were blended in equal profusion.
+
+The building, which, on two of its sides, literally rose from out the
+water, was, as usual, erected around a dark court. Following its
+different faces, the eye might penetrate, by many a door, open at that
+hour for the passage of the air from off the sea, through long suites of
+rooms, furnished and fitted in the manner described, all lighted by
+shaded lamps that spread a soft and gentle glow around. Passing without
+notice ranges of reception and sleeping rooms--the latter of a
+magnificence to mock the ordinary wants of the body--we shall at once
+introduce the reader into the part of the palace where the business of
+the tale conducts us.
+
+At the angle of the dwelling on the side of the smaller of the two
+canals, and most remote from the principal water-avenue of the city on
+which the edifice fronted, there was a suite of apartments, which, while
+it exhibited the same style of luxury and magnificence as those first
+mentioned in its general character, discovered greater attention in its
+details to the wants of ordinary life. The hangings were of the richest
+velvets or of glossy silks, the mirrors were large and of exquisite
+truth, the floors of the same gay and pleasing colors, and the walls
+were adorned with their appropriate works of art. But the whole was
+softened down to a picture of domestic comfort. The tapestries and
+curtains hung in careless folds, the beds admitted of sleep, and the
+pictures were delicate copies by the pencil of some youthful amateur,
+whose leisure had been exercised in this gentle and feminine employment.
+
+The fair being herself, whose early instruction had given birth to so
+many skilful imitations of the divine expression of Raphael, or to the
+vivid tints of Titian, was at that hour in her privacy, discoursing with
+her ghostly adviser, and one of her own sex, who had long discharged the
+joint trusts of instructor and parent. The years of the lady of the
+palace were so tender that, in a more northern region, she would
+scarcely have been deemed past the period of childhood, though in her
+native land, the justness and maturity of her form, and the expression
+of a dark, eloquent eye, indicated both the growth and the intelligence
+of womanhood.
+
+"For this good counsel I thank you, my father, and my excellent Donna
+Florinda will thank you still more, for your opinions are so like her
+own, that I sometimes admire the secret means by which experience
+enables the wise and the good to think so much alike, on a matter of so
+little personal interest."
+
+A slight but furtive smile struggled around the mortified mouth of the
+Carmelite, as he listened to the naive observation of his ingenuous
+pupil.
+
+"Thou wilt learn, my child," he answered, "as time heaps wisdom on thy
+head, that it is in concerns which touch our passions and interests
+least, we are most apt to decide with discretion and impartiality.
+Though Donna Florinda is not yet past the age when the heart is finally
+subdued, and there is still so much to bind her to the world, she will
+assure thee of this truth, or I greatly mistake the excellence of that
+mind, which hath hitherto led her so far blameless, in this erring
+pilgrimage to which we are all doomed."
+
+Though the cowl was over the head of the speaker, who was evidently
+preparing to depart, and his deeply-seated eye never varied from its
+friendly look at the fair face of her he instructed, the blood stole
+into the pale cheeks of the maternal companion, and her whole
+countenance betrayed some such reflection of feeling at his praise, as a
+wintry sky exhibits at a sudden gleam from the setting sun.
+
+"I trust that Violetta does not now hear this for the first time,"
+observed Donna Florinda, in a voice so meek and tremulous as to be
+observed.
+
+"Little that can be profitably told one of my inexperience has been left
+untaught," quickly answered the pupil, unconscious herself that she
+reached her hand towards that of her constant monitor, though too intent
+on her object to change her look from the features of the Carmelite.
+"But why this desire in the Senate to dispose of a girl who would be
+satisfied to live for ever, as she is now, happy in her youth, and
+contented with the privacy which becomes her sex?"
+
+"The relentless years will not stay their advance, that even one
+innocent as thou may never know the unhappiness and trials of a more
+mature age. This life is one of imperious and, oftentimes, of tyrannical
+duties. Thou art not ignorant of the policy that rules a state which
+hath made its name so illustrious by high deeds in arms, its riches, and
+its widely-spread influence. There is a law in Venice which commandeth
+that none claiming an interest in its affairs shall so bind himself to
+the stranger as to endanger the devotion all owe to the Republic. Thus
+may not the patrician of St. Mark be a lord in other lands, nor may the
+heiress of a name, great and valued as thine, be given in marriage to
+any of note, in a foreign state, without counsel and consent from those
+who are appointed to watch over the interests of all."
+
+"Had Providence cast my lot in an humbler class, this would not have
+been. Methinks it ill comports with the happiness of woman to be the
+especial care of the Council of Ten!"
+
+"There is indiscretion, and I lament to say, impiety in thy words. Our
+duty bids us submit to earthly laws, and more than duty, reverence
+teaches us not to repine at the will of Providence. But I do not see the
+weight of this grievance against which thou murmurest, daughter. Thou
+art youthful, wealthy beyond the indulgence of all healthful desires, of
+a lineage to excite an unwholesome worldly pride, and fair enough to
+render thee the most dangerous of thine own enemies--and thou repinest
+at a lot to which all of thy sex and station are, of necessity,
+subject!"
+
+"For the offence against Providence I am already a penitent," returned
+the Donna Violetta. "But surely it would be less embarrassing to a girl
+of sixteen, were the fathers of the state so much occupied with more
+weighty affairs as to forget her birth and years, and haply her wealth?"
+
+"There would be little merit in being content with a world fashioned
+after our own caprices, though it may be questioned if we should be
+happier by having all things as we desire than by being compelled to
+submit to them as they are. The interest taken by the Republic in thy
+particular welfare, daughter, is the price thou payest for the ease and
+magnificence with which thou art encircled. One more obscure, and less
+endowed by fortune, might have greater freedom of will, but it would be
+accompanied by none of the pomp which adorns the dwelling of thy
+fathers."
+
+"I would there were less of luxury and more of liberty within its
+walls."
+
+"Time will enable thee to see differently. At thy age all is viewed in
+colors of gold, or life is rendered bootless, because we are thwarted in
+our ill-digested wishes. I deny not, however, that thy fortune is
+tempered by some peculiar passages. Venice is ruled by a policy that is
+often calculating, and haply some deem it remorseless." Though the voice
+of the Carmelite had fallen, he paused and glanced an uneasy look from
+beneath his cowl ere he continued. "The caution of the senate teaches it
+to preclude, as far as in it lies, the union of interests that may not
+only oppose each other, but which may endanger those of the state. Thus,
+as I have said, none of senatorial rank may hold lands without the
+limits of the Republic, nor may any of account connect themselves, by
+the ties of marriage, with strangers of dangerous influence, without the
+consent and supervision of the Republic. The latter is thy situation,
+for of the several foreign lords who seek thy hand the council see none
+to whom the favor may be extended without the apprehension of creating
+an influence here, in the centre of the canals, which ought not to be
+given to a stranger. Don Camillo Monforte, the cavalier to whom thou art
+indebted for thy life, and of whom thou hast so lately spoken with
+gratitude, has far more cause to complain of these hard decrees, than
+thou mayest have, in any reason."
+
+"'Twould make my griefs still heavier, did I know that one who has shown
+so much courage in my behalf, has equal reason to feel their justice,"
+returned Violetta, quickly. "What is the affair that, so fortunately for
+me, hath brought the Lord of Sant' Agata to Venice, if a grateful girl
+may, without indiscretion, inquire?"
+
+"Thy interest in his behalf is both natural and commendable," answered
+the Carmelite, with a simplicity which did more credit to his cowl than
+to his observation. "He is young, and doubtless he is tempted by the
+gifts of fortune and the passions of his years to divers acts of
+weakness. Remember him, daughter, in thy prayers, that part of the debt
+of gratitude may be repaid. His worldly interest here is one of general
+notoriety, and I can ascribe thy ignorance of it only to a retired
+manner of life."
+
+"My charge hath other matters to occupy her thoughts than the concerns
+of a young stranger, who cometh to Venice for affairs," mildly observed
+Donna Florinda,
+
+"But if I am to remember him in my prayers, Father, it might enlighten
+my petition to know in what the young noble is most wanting."
+
+"I would have thee remember his spiritual necessities only. He wanteth,
+of a truth, little in temporalities that the world can offer, though the
+desires of life often lead him who hath most in quest of more. It would
+seem that an ancestor of Don Camillo was anciently a senator of Venice,
+when the death of a relation brought many Calabrian signories into his
+possession. The younger of his sons, by an especial decree, which
+favored a family that had well served the state, took these estates,
+while the elder transmitted the senatorial rank and the Venetian
+fortunes to his posterity. Time hath extinguished the elder branch; and
+Don Camillo hath for years besieged the council to be restored to those
+rights which his predecessor renounced."
+
+"Can they refuse him?"
+
+"His demand involves a departure from established laws. Were he to
+renounce the Calabrian lordships, the Neapolitan might lose more than he
+would gain; and to keep both is to infringe a law that is rarely
+suffered to be dormant. I know little, daughter, of the interests of
+life; but there are enemies of the Republic who say that its servitude
+is not easy, and that it seldom bestows favors of this sort without
+seeking an ample equivalent."
+
+"Is this as it should be? If Don Camillo Monforte has claims in Venice,
+whether it be to palaces on the canals, or to lands on the main; to
+honors in the state, or voice in the senate; justice should be rendered
+without delay, lest it be said the Republic vaunts more of the sacred
+quality than it practises."
+
+"Thou speakest as a guileless nature prompts. It is the frailty of man,
+my daughter, to separate his public acts from the fearful responsibility
+of his private deeds; as if God, in endowing his being with reason and
+the glorious hopes of Christianity, had also endowed him with two souls,
+of which only one was to be cared for."
+
+"Are there not those, Father, who believe that, while the evil we commit
+as individuals is visited on our own persons, that which is done by
+states, falls on the nation?"
+
+"The pride of human reason has invented diverse subtleties to satisfy
+its own longings, but it can never feed itself on a delusion more fatal
+than this! The crime which involves others in its guilt or consequences,
+is doubly a crime, and though it be a property of sin to entail its own
+punishment, even in our present life, he trusts to a vain hope who
+thinks the magnitude of the offence will ever be its apology. The chief
+security of our nature is to remove it beyond temptation, and he is
+safest from the allurements of the world who is farthest removed from
+its vices. Though I would wish justice done to the noble Neapolitan, it
+may be for his everlasting peace that the additional wealth he seeks
+should be withheld."
+
+"I am unwilling to believe, Father, that a cavalier, who has shown
+himself so ready to assist the distressed, will easily abuse the gifts
+of fortune."
+
+The Carmelite fastened an uneasy look on the bright features of the
+young Venetian. Parental solicitude and prophetic foresight were in his
+glance, but the expression was relieved by the charity of a chastened
+spirit.
+
+"Gratitude to the preserver of thy life becomes thy station and sex; it
+is a duty. Cherish the feeling, for it is akin to the holy obligation of
+man to his Creator."
+
+"Is it enough to feel grateful!" demanded Violetta. "One of my name and
+alliances might do more. We can move the patricians of my family in
+behalf of the stranger, that his protracted suit may come to a more
+speedy end."
+
+"Daughter, beware; the intercession of one in whom St. Mark feels so
+lively an interest, may raise up enemies to Don Camillo, instead of
+friends."
+
+Donna Violetta was silent, while the monk and Donna Florinda both
+regarded her with affectionate concern. The former then adjusted his
+cowl, and prepared to depart. The noble maiden approached the Carmelite,
+and looking into his face with ingenuous confidence and habitual
+reverence, she besought his blessing. When the solemn and customary
+office was performed, the monk turned towards the companion of his
+spiritual charge. Donna Florinda permitted the silk, on which her needle
+had been busy, to fall into her lap, and she sat in meek silence, while
+the Carmelite raised his open palms towards her bended head. His lips
+moved, but the words of benediction were inaudible. Had the ardent being
+intrusted to their joint care been less occupied with her own feelings,
+or more practised in the interests of that world into which she was
+about to enter, it is probable she would have detected some evidence of
+that deep but smothered sympathy, which so often betrayed itself in the
+silent intelligence of her ghostly father and her female Mentor.
+
+"Thou wilt not forget us, Father?" said Violetta, with winning
+earnestness. "An orphan girl, in whose fate the sages of the Republic so
+seriously busy themselves, has need of every friend in whom she can
+confide."
+
+"Blessed be thy intercessor," said the monk, "and the peace of the
+innocent be with thee."
+
+Once more he waved his hand, and turning, he slowly quitted the room.
+The eye of Donna Florinda followed the white robes of the Carmelite,
+while they were visible; and when it fell again upon the silk, it was
+for a moment closed, as if looking at the movements of the rebuked
+spirit within. The young mistress of the palace summoned a menial, and
+bade him do honor to her confessor, by seeing him to his gondola. She
+then moved to the open balcony. A long pause succeeded; it was such a
+silence, breathing, thoughtful, and luxurious with the repose of Italy,
+as suited the city and the hour. Suddenly Violetta receded from the open
+window, and withdrew a step, in alarm.
+
+"Is there a boat beneath?" demanded her companion, whose glance was
+unavoidably attracted to the movement.
+
+"The water was never more quiet. But thou hearest those strains of the
+hautboys?"
+
+"Are they so rare on the canals, that they drive thee from the balcony?"
+
+"There are cavaliers beneath the windows of the Mentoni palace;
+doubtless they compliment our friend Olivia."
+
+"Even that gallantry is common. Thou knowest that Olivia is shortly to
+be united to her kinsman, and he takes the usual means to show his
+admiration."
+
+"Dost thou not find this public announcement of a passion painful? Were
+I to be wooed, I could wish it might only be to my own ear."
+
+"That is an unhappy sentiment for one whose hand is in the gift of the
+Senate! I fear that a maiden of thy rank must be content to hear her
+beauty extolled and her merits sung, if not exaggerated, even by
+hirelings beneath a balcony."
+
+"I would that they were done!" exclaimed Violetta, stopping her ears.
+"None know the excellence of our friend better than I; but this open
+exposure of thoughts that ought to be so private, must wound her."
+
+"Thou mayest go again into the balcony; the music ceases."
+
+"There are gondoliers singing near the Rialto--these are sounds I love!
+Sweet in themselves, they do no violence to our sacred feelings. Art
+thou for the water to-night, my Florinda?"
+
+"Whither would'st thou?"
+
+"I know not; but the evening is brilliant, and I pine to mingle with the
+splendor and pleasure without."
+
+"While thousands on the canals pine to mingle with the splendor and
+pleasure within! Thus is it ever with life: that which is possessed is
+little valued, and that which we have not is without price."
+
+"I owe my duty to my guardian," said Violetta; "we will row to his
+palace."
+
+Though Donna Florinda had uttered so grave a moral, she spoke without
+severity. Casting aside her work, she prepared to gratify the desire of
+her charge. It was the usual hour for the high in rank and the secluded
+to go abroad; and neither Venice with its gay throng, nor Italy with its
+soft climate, ever offered greater temptation to seek the open air.
+
+The groom of the chambers was called, the gondoliers were summoned, and
+the ladies, cloaking and taking their masks, were quickly in the boat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+                       "If your master
+  Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him
+  That majesty, to keep decorum, must
+  No less beg than a kingdom."
+                               ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
+
+
+The silent movement of the hearse-like gondola soon brought the fair
+Venetian and her female Mentor to the water-gate of the noble, who had
+been intrusted by the Senate with the especial guardianship of the
+person of the heiress. It was a residence of more than common gloom,
+possessing all the solemn but stately magnificence which then
+characterized the private dwellings of the patricians in that city of
+riches and pride. Its magnitude and architecture, though rather less
+imposing than those which distinguished the palace of the Donna
+Violetta, placed it among the private edifices of the first order, and
+all its external decorations showed it to be the habitation of one of
+high importance. Within, the noiseless steps and the air of silent
+distrust among the domestics, added to the gloomy grandeur of the
+apartments, rendered the abode no bad type of the Republic itself.
+
+As neither of his present visitors was a stranger beneath the roof of
+the Signor Gradenigo--for so the proprietor of the palace was
+called--they ascended its massive stairs, without pausing to consider
+any of those novelties of construction that would attract the eye of one
+unaccustomed to such a dwelling. The rank and the known consequence of
+the Donna Violetta assured her of a ready reception; and while she was
+ushered to the suite of rooms above, by a crowd of bowing menials, one
+had gone, with becoming speed, to announce her approach to his master.
+When in the ante-chamber, however, the ward stopped, declining to
+proceed any further, in deference to the convenience and privacy of her
+guardian. The delay was short; for no sooner was the old senator
+apprised of her presence, than he hastened from his closet to do her
+honor, with a zeal that did credit to his fitness for the trust he
+filled. The countenance of the old patrician--a face in which thought
+and care had drawn as many lines as time--lighted with unequivocal
+satisfaction as he pressed forward to receive his beautiful ward. To her
+half-uttered apologies for the intrusion, he would not listen; but as he
+led her within, he gallantly professed his pleasure at being honored
+with her visits even at moments that, to her scrupulous delicacy, might
+appear the most ill-timed.
+
+"Thou canst never come amiss, child as thou art of my ancient friend,
+and the especial care of the state!" he added. "The gates of the
+Gradenigo palace would open of themselves, at the latest period of the
+night, to receive such a guest. Besides, the hour is most suited to the
+convenience of one of thy quality who would breathe the fresh evening
+air on the canals. Were I to limit thee to hours and minutes, some
+truant wish of the moment--some innocent caprice of thy sex and years,
+might go ungratified. Ah! Donna Florinda, we may well pray that all our
+affection--not to call it weakness--for this persuasive girl, shall not
+in the end lead to her own disadvantage!"
+
+"For the indulgence of both, I am grateful," returned Violetta; "I only
+fear to urge my little requests at moments when your precious time is
+more worthily occupied in behalf of the state."
+
+"Thou overratest my consequence. I sometimes visit the Council of Three
+Hundred; but my years and infirmities preclude me now from serving the
+Republic as I could wish Praise be to St. Mark, our patron! its affairs
+are not unprosperous for our declining fortunes. We have dealt bravely
+with the infidel of late; the treaty with the Emperor is not to our
+wrong; and the anger of the church, for the late seeming breach of
+confidence on our part, has been diverted. We owe something in the
+latter affair to a young Neapolitan, who sojourns here at Venice, and
+who is not without interest at the Holy See, by reason of his uncle, the
+Cardinal Secretary. Much good is done by the influence of friends
+properly employed. 'Tis the secret of our success in the actual
+condition of Venice; for that which power cannot achieve must be trusted
+to favor and a wise moderation."
+
+"Your declarations encourage me to become, once more, a suitor; for I
+will confess that, in addition to the desire of doing you honor, I have
+come equally with the wish to urge your great influence in behalf of an
+earnest suit I have."
+
+"What now! Our young charge, Donna Florinda, has inherited, with the
+fortunes of her family, its ancient habits of patronage and protection!
+But we will not discourage the feeling, for it has a worthy origin, and,
+used with discretion, it fortifies the noble and powerful in their
+stations."
+
+"And may we not say," mildly observed Donna Florinda, "that when the
+affluent and happy employ themselves with the cares of the less
+fortunate, they not only discharge a duty, but they cultivate a
+wholesome and useful state of mind?"
+
+"Doubt it not. Nothing can be more useful than to give to each class in
+society, a proper sense of its obligations, and a just sentiment of its
+duties. These are opinions I greatly approve, and which I desire my ward
+may thoroughly understand."
+
+"She is happy in possessing instructors so able and so willing to teach
+all she should know," rejoined Violetta.
+
+"With this admission, may I ask the Signor Gradenigo to give ear to my
+petition?"
+
+"Thy little requests are ever welcome. I would merely observe, that
+generous and ardent temperaments sometimes regard a distant object so
+steadily, as to overlook others that are not only nearer, and perhaps of
+still more urgent importance, but more attainable. In doing a benefit to
+one, we should be wary not to do injury to many. The relative of some
+one of thy household may have thoughtlessly enlisted for the wars?"
+
+"Should it be so, I trust the recruit will have the manhood not to quit
+his colors."
+
+"Thy nurse, who is one little likely to forget the service she did thy
+infancy, urges the claim of some kinsman to an employment in the
+customs?"
+
+"I believe all of that family are long since placed," said Violetta,
+laughing, "unless we might establish the good mother herself in some
+station of honor. I have naught to ask in their behalf."
+
+"She who hath reared thee to this goodly and healthful beauty, would
+prefer a well-supported suit, but still is she better as she is,
+indolent, and, I fear, pampered by thy liberality. Thy private purse is
+drained by demands on thy charity;--or, perhaps, the waywardness of a
+female taste hath cost thee dear, of late?"
+
+"Neither. I have little need of gold, for one of my years cannot
+properly maintain the magnificence of her condition. I come, guardian,
+with a far graver solicitation than any of these."
+
+"I hope none in thy favor have been indiscreet of speech!" exclaimed the
+Signor Gradenigo, casting a hasty and suspicious look at his ward.
+
+"If any have been so thoughtless, let them abide the punishment of their
+fault."
+
+"I commend thy justice. In this age of novel opinions, innovations of
+all descriptions cannot be too severely checked. Were the senate to shut
+its ears to all the wild theories that are uttered by the unthinking and
+vain, their language would soon penetrate to the ill-regulated minds of
+the ignorant and idle. Ask me, if thou wilt, for purses in scores, but
+do not move me to forgetfulness of the guilt of the disturber of the
+public peace!"
+
+"Not a sequin. My errand is of nobler quality."
+
+"Speak without riddle, that I may know its object."
+
+Now that nothing stood between her wish to speak, and her own manner of
+making known the request, Donna Violetta appeared to shrink from
+expressing it. Her color went and came, and she sought support from the
+eye of her attentive and wondering companion. As the latter was ignorant
+of her intention, however, she could do no more than encourage the
+supplicant by such an expression of sympathy as woman rarely refuses to
+her sex, in any trial that involves their peculiar and distinctive
+feelings. Violetta struggled with her diffidence, and then laughing at
+her own want of self-possession, she continued--
+
+"You know, Signor Gradenigo," she said, with a loftiness that was not
+less puzzling, though far more intelligible than the agitation which a
+moment before had embarrassed her manner, "that I am the last of a line
+eminent for centuries in the state of Venice."
+
+"So sayeth our history."
+
+"That I bear a name long known, and which it becomes me to shield from
+all imputation of discredit in my own person."
+
+"This is so true, that it scarce needed so clear an exposure," drily
+returned the senator.
+
+"And that, though thus gifted by the accidents of fortune and birth, I
+have received a boon that remains still unrequited, in a manner to do no
+honor to the house of Thiepolo."
+
+"This becometh serious! Donna Florinda, our ward is more earnest than
+intelligible, and I must ask an explanation at your hands. It becometh
+her not to receive boons of this nature from any."
+
+"Though unprepared for this request," mildly replied the companion, "I
+think she speaks of the boon of life."
+
+The Signor Gradenigo's countenance assumed a dark expression.
+
+"I understand you," he said, coldly. "It is true that the Neapolitan was
+ready to rescue thee, when the calamity befell thy uncle of Florence,
+but Don Camillo Monforte is not a common diver of the Lido, to be
+rewarded like him who finds a bauble dropped from a gondola. Thou hast
+thanked the cavalier; I trust that a noble maiden can do no more in a
+case like this."
+
+"That I have thanked him, and thanked him from my soul, is true!"
+fervently exclaimed Violetta. "When I forget the service, Maria
+Santissima and the good saints forget me!"
+
+"I doubt, Signora Florinda, that your charge hath spent more hours among
+the light works of her late father's library, and less time with her
+missal, than becomes her birth?"
+
+The eye of Violetta kindled, and she folded an arm around the form of
+her shrinking companion, who drew down her veil at this reproof, though
+she forbore to answer.
+
+"Signor Gradenigo," said the young heiress, "I may have done discredit
+to my instructors, but if the pupil has been idle the fault should not
+be visited on the innocent. It is some evidence that the commands of
+holy church have not been neglected, that I now come to entreat favor in
+behalf of one to whom I owe my life. Don Camillo Monforte has long
+pursued, without success, a claim so just, that were there no other
+motive to concede it, the character of Venice should teach the senators
+the danger of delay."
+
+"My ward has spent lier leisure with the doctors of Padua! The Republic
+hath its laws, and none who have right on their side appeal to them in
+vain. Thy gratitude is not to be censured; it is rather worthy of thy
+origin and hopes; still, Donna Violetta, we should remember how
+difficult it is to winnow the truth from the chaff of imposition and
+legal subtlety, and, most of all, should a judge be certain before he
+gives his decree, that, in confirming the claims of one applicant, he
+does not defeat those of another."
+
+"They tamper with his rights! Being born in a foreign realm, he is
+required to renounce more in the land of the stranger than he will gain
+within the limits of the Republic! He wastes life and youth in pursuing
+a phantom! You are of weight in the senate, my guardian, and were you to
+lend him the support of your powerful voice and great instruction, a
+wronged noble would have justice, and Venice, though she might lose a
+trifle from her stores, would better deserve the character of which she
+is so jealous."
+
+"Thou art a persuasive advocate, and I will think of what thou urgest,"
+said the Signor Gradenigo, changing the frown which had been gathering
+about his brow, to a look of indulgence, with a facility that betrayed
+much practice in adapting the expression of his features to his policy.
+"I ought only to hearken to the Neapolitan in my public character of a
+judge; but his service to thee, and my weakness in thy behalf, extorts
+that thou would'st have."
+
+Donna Violetta received the promise with a bright and guileless smile.
+She kissed the hand he extended as the pledge of his faith, with a
+fervor that gave her attentive guardian serious uneasiness.
+
+"Thou art too winning even to be resisted by one wearied with rebutting
+plausible pretensions," he added. "The young and the generous, Donna
+Florinda, believe all to be as their own wishes and simplicity would
+have them. As for this right of Don Camillo--but no matter--thou wilt
+have it so, and it shall be examined with that blindness which is said
+to be the failing of justice."
+
+"I have understood the metaphor to mean blind to favor, but not
+insensible to the right."
+
+"I fear that is a sense which might defeat our hopes--but we will look
+into it. My son has been mindful of his duty and respect of late, Donna
+Violetta, as I would have him? The boy wants little urging, I know, to
+do honor to my ward and the fairest of Venice. Thou wilt receive him
+with friendship, for the love thou bearest his father?"
+
+Donna Violetta curtsied, but it was with womanly reserve.
+
+"The door of my palace is never shut on the Signor Giacomo on all proper
+occasions," she said, coldly. "Signore, the son of my guardian could
+hardly be other than an honored visitor."
+
+"I would have the boy attentive--and even more, I would have him prove
+some little of that great esteem,--but we live in a jealous city, Donna
+Florinda, and one in which prudence is a virtue of the highest price. If
+the youth is less urgent than I could wish, believe me, it is from the
+apprehension of giving premature alarm to those who interest themselves
+in the fortunes of our charge."
+
+Both the ladies bowed, and by the manner in which they drew their cloaks
+about them, they made evident their wish to retire. Donna Violetta
+craved a blessing, and after the usual compliments, and a short dialogue
+of courtesy, she and her companion withdrew to their boat.
+
+The Signor Gradenigo paced the room in which he had received his ward
+for several minutes in silence. Not a sound of any sort was audible
+throughout the whole of that vast abode, the stillness and cautious
+tread of those within, answering to the quiet town without; but a young
+man, in whose countenance and air were to be seen most of the usual
+signs of a well-bred profligacy, sauntering along the suite of
+chambers, at length caught the eye of the senator, who beckoned him to
+approach.
+
+"Thou art unhappy, as of wont, Giacomo," he said, in a tone between
+paternal indulgence and reproach. "The Donna Violetta has, but a minute
+since, departed, and thou wert absent. Some unworthy intrigue with the
+daughter of a jeweller, or some injurious bargain of thy hopes with the
+father, hath occupied the time that might have been devoted more
+honorably, and to far better profit."
+
+"You do me little justice," returned the youth. "Neither Jew nor Jewess
+hath this day greeted my eye."
+
+"The calendar should mark the time for its singularity! I would know,
+Giacomo, if thou turnest to a right advantage the occasion of my
+guardianship, and if thou thinkest with sufficient gravity of the
+importance of what I urge?"
+
+"Doubt it not, father. He who hath so much suffered for the want of that
+which the Donna Violetta possesses in so great a profusion, needeth
+little prompting on such a subject. By refusing to supply my wants, you
+have made certain of my consent. There is not a fool in Venice who sighs
+more loudly beneath his mistress's window, than I utter my pathetic
+wishes to the lady--when there is opportunity, and I am in the humor."
+
+"Thou knowest the danger of alarming the senate?"
+
+"Fear me not. My progress is by secret and gradual means. Neither my
+countenance nor my mind is unused to a mask--thanks to necessity! My
+spirits have been too buoyant not to have made me acquainted with
+duplicity!"
+
+"Thou speakest, ungrateful boy, as if I denied thy youth the usual
+indulgences of thy years and rank. It is thy excesses, and not thy
+spirits, I would check. But I would not now harden thee with reproof.
+Giacomo, thou hast a rival in the stranger. His act in the Giudecca has
+won upon the fancy of the girl; and like all of generous and ardent
+natures, ignorant as she is of his merits, she supplies his character
+with all necessary qualities by her own ingenuity."
+
+"I would she did the same by me!"
+
+"With thee, Sirrah, my ward might be required to forget, rather than
+invent. Hast thou bethought thee of turning the eyes of the council on
+the danger which besets their heiress?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"And the means?"
+
+"The plainest and the most certain--the lion's mouth."
+
+"Ha! that, indeed, is a bold adventure."
+
+"And, like all bold adventures, it is the more likely to succeed. For
+once, fortune hath not been a niggard with me. I have given them the
+Neapolitan's signet by way of proof."
+
+"Giacomo! dost thou know the hazard of thy temerity? I hope there is no
+clue left in the handwriting, or by any other means taken to obtain the
+ring?"
+
+"Father, though I may have overlooked thy instruction in less weighty
+matters, not an admonition which touches the policy of Venice hath been
+forgotten. The Neapolitan stands accused, and if thy council is
+faithful, he will be a suspected, if not a banished man."
+
+"That the Council of Three will perform its trust is beyond dispute. I
+would I were as certain that thy indiscreet zeal may not lead to some
+unpleasant exposure!"
+
+The shameless son stared at the father a moment in doubt, and then he
+passed into the more private parts of the palace, like one too much
+accustomed to double-dealing, to lend it a second, or a serious thought.
+The senator remained. His silent walk was now manifestly disturbed by
+great uneasiness; and he frequently passed a hand across his brow, as if
+he mused in pain. While thus occupied, a figure stole through the long
+suite of ante-chambers, and stopped near the door of the room he
+occupied. The intruder was aged; his face was tawny by exposure, and
+his hair thinned and whitened by time. His dress was that of a
+fisherman, being both scanty and of the meanest materials. Still there
+was a naturally noble and frank intelligence in his bold eye and
+prominent features, while the bare arms and naked legs exhibited a
+muscle and proportion which proved that nature was rather at a stand
+than in the decline. He had been many moments dangling his cap, in
+habitual but unembarrassed respect, before his presence was observed.
+
+"Ha! thou here, Antonio!" exclaimed the senator, when their eyes met.
+"Why this visit?"
+
+"Signore, my heart is heavy."
+
+"Hath the calendar no saint--the fisherman no patron? I suppose the
+sirocco hath been tossing the waters of the bay, and thy nets are empty.
+Hold! thou art my foster-brother, and thou must not want."
+
+The fisherman drew back with dignity, refusing the gift, simply, but
+decidedly, by the act.
+
+"Signore, we have lived from childhood to old age since we drew our milk
+from the same breast; in all that time have you ever known me a beggar?"
+
+"Thou art not wont to ask these boons, Antonio, it is true; but age
+conquers our pride with our strength. If it be not sequins that thou
+seekest, what would'st thou?"
+
+"There are other wants than those of the body, Signore, and other
+sufferings besides hunger."
+
+The countenance of the senator lowered. He cast a sharp glance at his
+foster-brother, and ere he answered he closed the door which
+communicated with the outer chamber.
+
+"Thy words forebode disaffection, as of wont. Thou art accustomed to
+comment on measures and interests that are beyond thy limited reason,
+and thou knowest that thy opinions have already drawn displeasure on
+thee. The ignorant and the low are, to the state, as children, whose
+duty it is to obey, and not to cavil. Thy errand?"
+
+"I am not the man you think me, Signore. I am used to poverty and want,
+and little satisfies my wishes. The senate is my master, and as such I
+honor it; but a fisherman hath his feelings as well as the Doge!"
+
+"Again! These feelings of thine, Antonio, are most exacting. Thou namest
+them on all occasions, as if they were the engrossing concerns of life."
+
+"Signore, are they not to me? Though I think mostly of my own concerns,
+still I can have a thought for the distress of those I honor. When the
+beautiful and youthful lady, your eccellenza's daughter, was called away
+to the company of the saints, I felt the blow as if it had been the
+death of my own child; and it has pleased God, as you very well know,
+Signore, not to leave me unacquainted with the anguish of such a loss."
+
+"Thou art a good fellow, Antonio," returned the senator, covertly
+removing the moisture from his eyes; "an honest and a proud man, for thy
+condition!"
+
+"She from whom we both drew our first nourishment, Signore, often told
+me, that next to my own kin, it was my duty to love the noble race she
+had helped to support. I make no merit of natural feeling, which is a
+gift from Heaven, and the greater is the reason that the state should
+not deal lightly with such affections."
+
+"Once more the state! Name thy errand."
+
+"Your eccellenza knows the history of my humble life. I need not tell
+you, Signore, of the sons which God, by the intercession of the Virgin
+and blessed St. Anthony, was pleased to bestow on me, or of the manner
+in which he hath seen proper to take them one by one away."
+
+"Thou hast known sorrow, poor Antonio; I well remember thou hast
+suffered, too."
+
+"Signore, I have. The deaths of five manly and honest sons is a blow to
+bring a groan from a rock. But I have known how to bless God, and be
+thankful!"
+
+"Worthy fisherman, the Doge himself might envy this resignation. It is
+often easier to endure the loss than the life of a child, Antonio!"
+
+"Signore, no boy of mine ever caused me grief, but the hour in which he
+died. And even then"--the old man turned aside to conceal the working of
+his features--"I struggled to remember from how much pain, and toil, and
+suffering they were removed to enjoy a more blessed state."
+
+The lip of the Signer Gradenigo quivered, and he moved to and fro with a
+quicker step.
+
+"I think, Antonio," he said, "I think, honest Antonio, I had masses said
+for the souls of them all?"
+
+"Signore, you had; St. Anthony remember the kindness in your own
+extremity! I was wrong in saying that the youths never gave me sorrow
+but in dying, for there is a pain the rich cannot know, in being too
+poor to buy a prayer for a dead child!"
+
+"Wilt thou have more masses? Son of thine shall never want a voice with
+the saints, for the ease of his soul!"
+
+"I thank you, eccellenza, but I have faith in what has been done, and,
+more than all, in the mercy of God. My errand now is in behalf of the
+living."
+
+The sympathy of the senator was suddenly checked, and he already
+listened with a doubting and suspicious air.
+
+"Thy errand?" he simply repeated.
+
+"Is to beg your interest, Signore, to obtain the release of my grandson
+from the galleys. They have seized the lad in his fourteenth year, and
+condemned him to the wars with the Infidels, without thought of his
+tender years, without thought of evil example, without thought of my age
+and loneliness, and without justice; for his father died in the last
+battle given to the Turk."
+
+As he ceased, the fisherman riveted his look on the marble countenance
+of his auditor, wistfully endeavoring to trace the effect of his words.
+But all there was cold, unanswering, and void of human sympathy. The
+soulless, practised, and specious reasoning of the state, had long since
+deadened all feeling in the senator on any subject that touched an
+interest so vital as the maritime power of the Republic. He saw the
+hazard of innovation in the slightest approach to interests so delicate,
+and his mind was drilled by policy into an apathy that no charity could
+disturb, when there was question of the right of St. Mark to the
+services of his people.
+
+"I would thou hadst come to beg masses, or gold, or aught but this,
+Antonio!" he answered, after a moment of delay. "Thou hast had the
+company of the boy, if I remember, from his birth, already."
+
+"Signore, I have had that satisfaction, for he was an orphan born; and I
+would wish to have it until the child is fit to go into the world armed
+with an honesty and faith that shall keep him from harm. Were my own
+brave son here, he would ask no other fortune for the lad than such
+counsel and aid as a poor man has a right to bestow on his own flesh and
+blood."
+
+"He fareth no worse than others; and thou knowest that the Republic hath
+need of every arm."
+
+"Eccellenza, I saw the Signor Giacomo land from his gondola, as I
+entered the palace."
+
+"Out upon thee, fellow! dost thou make no distinction between the son of
+a fisherman, one trained to the oar and toil, and the heir of an ancient
+house? Go to, presuming man, and remember thy condition, and the
+difference that God hath made between our children."
+
+"Mine never gave me sorrow but the hour in which they died," said the
+fisherman, uttering a severe but mild reproof.
+
+The Signor Gradenigo felt the sting of this retort, which in no degree
+aided the cause of his indiscreet foster-brother. After pacing the room
+in agitation for some time, he so far conquered his resentment as to
+answer more mildly, as became his rank.
+
+"Antonio," he said, "thy disposition and boldness are not strangers to
+me; if thou would'st have masses for the dead, or gold for the living,
+they are thine; but in asking for my interest with the general of the
+galleys, thou askest that which, at a moment so critical, could not be
+yielded to the son of the Doge, were the Doge--"
+
+"A fisherman," continued Antonio, observing that he hesitated--"Signore,
+adieu; I would not part in anger with my foster-brother, and I pray the
+saints to bless you and your house. May you never know the grief of
+losing a child by a fate far worse than death--that of destruction by
+vice."
+
+As Antonio ceased, he made his reverence and departed by the way he had
+entered. He retired unnoticed, for the senator averted his eyes with a
+secret consciousness of the force of what the other in his simplicity
+had uttered; and it was some time before the latter knew he was alone.
+Another step, however, soon diverted his attention. The door re-opened,
+and a menial appeared. He announced that one without sought a private
+audience.
+
+"Let him enter," answered the ready senator, smoothing his features to
+the customary cautious and distrustful expression.
+
+The servant withdrew, when one masked and wearing a cloak quickly
+entered the room. When the latter instrument of disguise was thrown upon
+an arm, and the visor was removed, the form and face of the dreaded
+Jacopo became visible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  "Caesar himself has work, and our oppression
+  Exceeds what we expected."
+                                  SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+"Didst thou note him that left me?" eagerly demanded the Signer
+Gradenigo.
+
+"I did."
+
+"Enough so to recognise form and countenance?"
+
+"'Twas a fisherman of the Lagunes, named Antonio."
+
+The senator dropped the extended limb, and regarded the Bravo with a
+look in which surprise and admiration were equally blended. He resumed
+his course up and down the room, while his companion stood waiting his
+pleasure in an attitude so calm as to be dignified. A few minutes were
+wasted in this abstraction.
+
+"Thou art quick of sight, Jacopo!" continued the patrician, breaking the
+pause--"Hast thou had dealings with the man?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Thou art certain it is--"
+
+"Your eccellenza's foster-brother."
+
+"I did not inquire into thy knowledge of his infancy and origin, but of
+his present state," returned the Signor Gradenigo, turning away to
+conceal his countenance from the glowing eye of Jacopo--"Has he been
+named to thee by any in authority?"
+
+"He has not--my mission does not lie with fishermen."
+
+"Duty may lead us into still humbler society, young man. They who are
+charged with the grievous burden of the state, must not consider the
+quality of the load they carry. In what manner hath this Antonio come to
+thy knowledge?"
+
+"I have known him as one esteemed by his fellows--a man skilful in his
+craft, and long practised in the mystery of the Lagunes."
+
+"He is a defrauder of the revenue, thou would'st be understood to say?"
+
+"I would not. He toils too late and early to have other means of support
+than labor."
+
+"Thou knowest, Jacopo, the severity of our laws in matters that concern
+the public moneys?"
+
+"I know that the judgment of St. Mark, Signore, is never light when its
+own interest is touched."
+
+"Thou art not required to utter opinions beyond the present question.
+This man hath a habit of courting the goodwill of his associates, and of
+making his voice heard concerning affairs of which none but his
+superiors may discreetly judge."
+
+"Signore, he is old, and the tongue grows loose with years."
+
+"This is not the character of Antonio. Nature hath not treated him
+unkindly; had his birth and education been equal to his mind, the senate
+might have been glad to listen--at it is, I fear he speaks in a sense to
+endanger his own interests."
+
+"Surely, if he speaks to offend the ear of St. Mark."
+
+There was a quick suspicious glance from the senator to the Bravo, as if
+to read the true meaning of the latter's words. Finding, however, the
+same expression of self-possession in the quiet features he scrutinized,
+the latter continued as if distrust had not been awakened.
+
+"If, as thou sayest, he so speaks as to injure the Republic, his years
+have not brought discretion. I love the man, Jacopo, for it is usual to
+regard, with some partiality, those who have drawn nourishment from the
+same breast with ourselves."
+
+"Signore, it is."
+
+"And feeling this weakness in his favor, I would have him admonished to
+be prudent. Thou art acquainted, doubtless, with his opinions concerning
+the recent necessity of the state, to command the services of all the
+youths on the Lagunes in her fleets?"
+
+"I know that the press has taken from him the boy who toiled in his
+company."
+
+"To toil honorably, and perhaps gainfully, in behalf of the Republic!"
+
+"Signore, perhaps!"
+
+"Thou art brief in thy speech to-night, Jacopo! But if thou knowest the
+fisherman, give him counsel of discretion. St. Mark will not tolerate
+such free opinions of his wisdom. This is the third occasion in which
+there has been need to repress that fisherman's speech; for the paternal
+care of the senate cannot see discontent planted in the bosom of a
+class, it is their duty and pleasure to render happy. Seek opportunities
+to let him hear this wholesome truth, for in good sooth, I would not
+willingly see a misfortune light upon the head of a son of my ancient
+nurse, and that, too, in the decline of his days."
+
+The Bravo bent his body in acquiescence, while the Signor Gradenigo
+paced the room, in a manner to show that he really felt concern.
+
+"Thou hast had advice of the judgment in the matter of the Genoese?"
+resumed the latter, when another pause had given time to change the
+current of his thoughts. "The sentence of the tribunals has been prompt,
+and, though there is much assumption of a dislike between the two
+republics, the world can now see how sternly justice is con sulted on
+our isles. I hear the Genoese will have ample amends, and that certain
+of our own citizens will be mulcted of much money."
+
+"I have heard the same since the sun set, in the Piazzetta, Signore!"
+
+"And do men converse of our impartiality, and more than all of our
+promptitude? Bethink thee, Jacopo, 'tis but a se'nnight since the claim
+was preferred to the senate's equity!"
+
+"None dispute the promptitude with which the Republic visits offences."
+
+"Nor the justice, I trust also, good Jacopo. There is a beauty and a
+harmony in the manner in which the social machine rolls on its course,
+under such a system, that should secure men's applause! Justice
+administers to the wants of society, and checks the passions with a
+force as silent and dignified, as if her decrees came from a higher
+volition. I often compare the quiet march of the state, contrasted with
+the troubled movements of some other of our Italian sisters, to the
+difference between the clatter of a clamorous town, and the stillness of
+our own noiseless canals. Then the uprightness of the late decree is in
+the mouths of the masquers to-night?"
+
+"Signore, the Venetians are bold when there is an opportunity to praise
+their masters."
+
+"Dost thou think thus, Jacopo? To me, they have ever seemed more prone
+to vent their seditious discontent. But 'tis the nature of man to be
+niggardly of praise and lavish of censure. This decree of the tribunal
+must not be suffered to die, with the mere justice of the case. Our
+friends should dwell on it, openly, in the cafes, and at the Lido. They
+will have no cause to fear, should they give their tongues a little
+latitude. A just government hath no jealousy of comment."
+
+"True, Signore."
+
+"I look to thee and thy fellows to see that the affair be not too
+quickly forgotten. The contemplation of acts such as this, will quicken
+the dormant seeds of virtue in the public mind. He who has examples of
+equity incessantly before his eyes, will come at last to love the
+quality. The Genoese, I trust, will depart satisfied?"
+
+"Doubt it not, Signore; he has all that can content a sufferer; his own
+with usury, and revenge of him who did the wrong."
+
+"Such is the decree--ample restoration and the chastening hand of
+punishment. Few states would thus render a judgment against themselves,
+Jacopo!"
+
+"Is the state answerable for the deed of the merchant, Signore?"
+
+"Through its citizen. He who inflicts punishment on his own members, is
+a sufferer, surely. No one can part with his own flesh without pain; is
+not this true, fellow?"
+
+"There are nerves that are delicate to the touch, Signore, and an eye or
+a tooth is precious; but the paring of a nail, or the fall of the beard,
+is little heeded."
+
+"One who did not know thee, Jacopo, would imagine thee in the interest
+of the emperor! The sparrow does not fall in Venice, without the loss
+touching the parental feelings of the senate. Well, is there further
+rumor among the Jews, of a decrease of gold? Sequins are not so abundant
+as of wont, and the chicanery of that race lends itself to the scarcity,
+in the hope of larger profits."
+
+"I have seen faces on the Rialto, of late, Signore, that look empty
+purses. The Christian seems anxious, and in want, while the unbelievers
+wear their gaberdines with a looser air than is usual."
+
+"This hath been expected. Doth report openly name any of the Israelites
+who are in the custom of lending, on usury, to the young nobles?"
+
+"All, who have to lend, may be accounted of the class; the whole
+synagogue, rabbis, and all, are of a mind, when there is question of a
+Christian's purse."
+
+"Thou likest not the Hebrew, Jacopo; but he is of good service in the
+Republic's straits. We count all friends, who are ready with their gold
+at need. Still the young hopes of Venice must not be left to waste their
+substance in unwary bargains with the gainful race, and should'st thou
+hear of any of mark, who are thought to be too deeply in their clutches,
+thou wilt do wisely to let the same be known, with little delay, to the
+guardians of the public weal. We must deal tenderly with those who prop
+the state, but we must also deal discreetly with those who will shortly
+compose it. Hast thou aught to say in the matter?"
+
+"I have heard men speak of Signor Giacomo as paying dearest for their
+favors."
+
+"Gesu Maria! my son and heir! Dost thou not deceive me, man, to gratify
+thine own displeasure against the Hebrews?"
+
+"I have no other malice against the race, Signore, than the wholesome
+disrelish of a Christian. Thus much I hope may be permitted to a
+believer, but beyond that, in reason, I carry hatred to no man. It is
+well known that your heir is disposing freely of his hopes, and at
+prices that lower expectations might command."
+
+"This is a weighty concern! The boy must be speedily admonished of the
+consequences, and care must be had for his future discretion. The Hebrew
+shall be punished, and as a solemn warning to the whole tribe, the debt
+confiscated to the benefit of the borrower. With such an example before
+their eyes, the knaves will be less ready with their sequins. Holy St.
+Theodore! 'twere self-destruction to suffer one of such promise to be
+lost for the want of prudent forethought. I will charge myself with the
+matter, as an especial duty, and the senate shall have no cause to say
+that its interests have been neglected. Hast thou had applications of
+late, in thy character of avenger of private wrongs?"
+
+"None of note--there is one that seeks me earnestly, though I am not yet
+wholly the master of his wishes."
+
+"Thy office is of much delicacy and trust, and, as thou art well aware,
+the reward is weighty and sure." The eyes of the Bravo kindled with an
+expression which caused his companion to pause. But observing that the
+repose, for which the features of Jacopo were so remarkable, again
+presided over his pallid face, he continued, as if there had been no
+interruption, "I repeat, the bounty and clemency of the state will not
+be forgotten. If its justice is stern and infallible, its forgiveness is
+cordial, and its favors ample. Of these facts I have taken much pains to
+assure thee, Jacopo. Blessed St. Mark! that one of the scions of thy
+great stock should waste his substance for the benefit of a race of
+unbelievers! But thou hast not named him who seeks thee with this
+earnestness?"
+
+"As I have yet to learn his errand, before I go further, Signore, it may
+be well to know more of his wishes."
+
+"This reserve is uncalled for. Thou art not to distrust the prudence of
+the Republic's ministers, and I should be sorry were the Inquisitors to
+get an unfavorable opinion of thy zeal. The individual must be
+denounced."
+
+"I denounce him not. The most that I can say is, that he hath a desire
+to deal privately with one, with whom it is almost criminal to deal at
+all."
+
+"The prevention of crime is better than its punishment, and such is the
+true object of all government. Thou wilt not withhold the name of thy
+correspondent?"
+
+"It is a noble Neapolitan, who hath long sojourned in Venice, on matters
+touching a great succession, and some right even to the senate's
+dignity."
+
+"Ha! Don Camillo Monforte! Am I right, sirrah?"
+
+"Signore, the same!"
+
+The pause which followed was only broken by the clock of the great
+square striking eleven, or the fourth hour of the night, as it is
+termed, by the usage of Italy. The senator started, consulted a
+time-piece in his own apartment, and again addressed his companion.
+
+"This is well," he said; "thy faith and punctuality shall be remembered.
+Look to the fisherman Antonio; the murmurs of the old man must not be
+permitted to awaken discontent, for a cause so trifling as this transfer
+of his descendant from a gondola to a galley; and most of all, keep thy
+ears attentive to any rumors on the Rialto. The glory and credit of a
+patrician name must not be weakened by the errors of boyhood. As to this
+stranger--quickly, thy mask and cloak--depart as if thou wert merely a
+friend bent on some of the idle pleasantries of the hour."
+
+The Bravo resumed his disguise with the readiness of one long practised
+in its use, but with a composure that was not so easily disconcerted as
+that of the more sensitive senator. The latter did not speak again,
+though he hurried Jacopo from his presence by an impatient movement of
+the hand.
+
+When the door was closed and the Signor Gradenigo was again alone, he
+once more consulted the time-piece, passed his hand slowly and
+thoughtfully across his brow, and resumed his walk. For nearly an hour
+this exercise, or nervous sympathy of the body with a mind that was
+possibly overworked, continued without any interruption from without.
+Then came a gentle tap at the door, and, at the usual bidding, one
+entered, closely masked like him who had departed, as was so much the
+usage of that city in the age of which we write. A glance at the figure
+of his guest seemed to apprise the senator of his character, for the
+reception, while it was distinguished by the quaint courtesy of the age,
+was that of one expected.
+
+"I am honored in the visit of Don Camillo Monforte," said the host,
+while the individual named laid aside his cloak and silken visor;
+"though the lateness of the hour had given me reason to apprehend that
+some casualty had interfered between me and the pleasure."
+
+"A thousand excuses, noble senator, but the coolness of the canals, and
+the gaiety of the square, together with some apprehension of intruding
+prematurely on time so precious, has, I fear, kept me out of season. But
+I trust to the known goodness of the Signor Gradenigo for my apology."
+
+"The punctuality of the great lords of Lower Italy is not their greatest
+merit," the Signor Gradenigo drily answered. "The young esteem life so
+endless, that they take little heed of the minutes that escape them;
+while we, whom age begins to menace, think chiefly of repairing the
+omissions of youth. In this manner, Signor Duca, does man sin and repent
+daily, until the opportunities of doing either are imperceptibly lost.
+But we will not be more prodigal of the moments than there is need--are
+we to hope for better views of the Spaniard?"
+
+"I have neglected little that can move the mind of a reasonable man, and
+I have, in particular, laid before him the advantage of conciliating the
+senate's esteem."
+
+"Therein have you done wisely, Signore, both as respects his interests
+and your own. The senate is a liberal paymaster to him who serves it
+well, and a fearful enemy to those who do harm to the state. I hope the
+matter of the succession draws near a conclusion?"
+
+"I wish it were possible to say it did. I urge the tribunal in all
+proper assiduity, omitting no duty of personal respect nor of private
+solicitation. Padua has not a doctor more learned than he who presents
+my right to their wisdom, and yet the affair lingers like life in the
+hectic. If I have not shown myself a worthy son of St. Mark, in this
+affair with the Spaniard, it is more from the want of a habit of
+managing political interests than from any want of zeal."
+
+"The scales of justice must be nicely balanced to hang so long, without
+determining to one side or the other! You will have need of further
+assiduity, Don Camillo, and of great discretion in disposing the minds
+of the patricians in your favor. It will be well to make your attachment
+to the state be observed by further service near the ambassador. You are
+known to have his esteem, and counsel coming from such a quarter will
+enter deeply into his mind. It should also quicken the exertions of so
+benevolent and generous a young spirit, to know that in serving his
+country, he also aids the cause of humanity."
+
+Don Camillo did not appear to be strongly impressed with the justice of
+the latter remark. He bowed, however, in courtesy to his companion's
+opinion.
+
+"It is pleasant, Signore, to be thus persuaded," he answered; "my
+kinsman of Castile is a man to hear reason, let it come from what
+quarter it may. Though he meets my arguments with some allusions to the
+declining power of the Republic, I do not see less of deep respect for
+the influence of a state, that hath long made itself remarkable by its
+energy and will."
+
+"Venice is no longer what the City of the Isles hath been, Signer Duca;
+still she is not powerless. The wings of our lion are a little clipped,
+but his leap is still far, and his teeth dangerous. If the new-made
+prince would have his ducal coronet sit easily on his brow, he would do
+well to secure the esteem of his nearest neighbors."
+
+"This is obviously true, and little that my influence can do towards
+effecting the object, shall be wanting. And now, may I entreat of your
+friendship, advice as to the manner of further urging my own
+long-neglected claims?"
+
+"You will do well, Don Camillo, to remind the senators of your presence,
+by frequent observance of the courtesies due to their rank and yours."
+
+"This do I never neglect, as seemly both in my station and my object."
+
+"The judges should not be forgotten, young man, for it is wise to
+remember that justice hath ever an ear for solicitation."
+
+"None can be more assiduous in the duty, nor is it common to see a
+suppliant so mindful of those whom he troubleth, by more substantial
+proofs of respect."
+
+"But chiefly should we be particular to earn the senate's esteem. No act
+of service to the state is overlooked by that body, and the smallest
+good deed finds its way into the recesses of the two councils."
+
+"Would I could have communication with those reverend fathers! I think
+the justice of my claim would speedily work out its own right."
+
+"That were impossible!" gravely returned the senator. "Those august
+bodies are secret, that their majesty may not be tarnished by
+communication with vulgar interests. They rule like the unseen influence
+of mind over matter, and form, as it were, the soul of the state, whose
+seat, like that of reason, remains a problem exceeding human
+penetration."
+
+"I express the desire rather as a wish than with any hope of its being
+granted," returned the Duke of St. Agata, resuming his cloak and mask,
+neither of which had been entirely laid aside. "Adieu, noble Signore; I
+shall not cease to move the Castilian with frequent advice, and, in
+return, I commit my affair to the justice of the patricians, and your
+own good friendship."
+
+Signor Gradenigo bowed his guest through all the rooms of the long suite
+but the last, where he committed him to the care of the groom of his
+chambers.
+
+"The youth must be stirred to greater industry in this matter, by
+clogging the wheels of the law. He that would ask favors of St. Mark
+must first earn them, by showing zealous dispositions in his behalf."
+
+Such were the reflections of the Signor Gradenigo, as he slowly
+returned towards his closet, after a ceremonious leave-taking with his
+guest, in the outer apartment. Closing the door, he commenced pacing the
+small apartment with the step and eye of a man who again mused with some
+anxiety. After a minute of profound stillness, a door, concealed by the
+hangings of the room, was cautiously opened, and the face of still
+another visitor appeared.
+
+"Enter!" said the senator, betraying no surprise at the apparition; "the
+hour is past, and I wait for thee."
+
+The flowing dress, the grey and venerable beard, the noble outline of
+features, the quick, greedy, and suspicious eye, with an expression of
+countenance that was, perhaps, equally marked by worldly sagacity, and
+feelings often rudely rebuked, proclaimed a Hebrew of the Rialto.
+
+"Enter, Hosea, and unburden thyself," continued the senator, like one
+prepared for some habitual communication. "Is there aught new that
+touches the public weal?"
+
+"Blessed is the people over whom there is so fatherly a care! Can there
+be good or evil to the citizen of the Republic, noble Signore, without
+the bowels of the senate moving, as the parent yearneth over his young?
+Happy is the country in which men of reverend years and whitened heads
+watch, until night draws towards the day, and weariness is forgotten in
+the desire to do good, and to honor the state!"
+
+"Thy mind partaketh of the eastern imagery of the country of thy
+fathers, good Hosea, and thou art apt to forget that thou art not yet
+watching on the steps of the Temple. What of interest hath the day
+brought forth?"
+
+"Say rather the night, Signore, for little worthy of your ear hath
+happened, save a matter of some trifling import, which hath grown out of
+the movements of the evening."
+
+"Have there been stilettoes busy on the bridge?--ha!--or do the people
+joy less than common in their levities?"
+
+"None have died wrongfully, and the square is gay as the fragrant
+vineyards of Engedi. Holy Abraham! what a place is Venice for its
+pleasures, and how the hearts of old and young revel in their merriment!
+It is almost sufficient to fix the font in the synagogue, to witness so
+joyous a dispensation in behalf of the people of these islands! I had
+not hoped for the honor of an interview to-night, Signore, and I had
+prayed, before laying my head upon the pillow, when one charged by the
+council brought to me a jewel, with an order to decipher the arms and
+other symbols of its owner. 'Tis a ring, with the usual marks which
+accompany private confidences."
+
+"Thou hast the signet?" said the noble, stretching out an arm.
+
+"It is here, and a goodly stone it is; a turquoise of price."
+
+"Whence came it--and why is it sent to thee?"
+
+"It came, Signore, as I gather more through hints and intimations of the
+messenger than by his words, from a place resembling that which the
+righteous Daniel escaped in virtue of his godliness and birth."
+
+"Thou meanest the Lion's Mouth?"
+
+"So say our ancient books, Signore, in reference to the prophet, and so
+would the council's agent seem to intimate in reference to the ring?"
+
+"Here is naught but a crest with the equestrian helmet--comes it of any
+in Venice?"
+
+"The upright Solomon guided the judgment of his servant in a matter of
+this delicacy! The jewel is of rare beauty, such as few possess but
+those who have gold in store for other purposes. Do but regard the soft
+lustre in this light, noble Signore, and remark the pleasing colors that
+rise by the change of view!"
+
+"Ay--'tis well--but who claimeth the bearings?"
+
+"It is wonderful to contemplate how great a value may lie concealed in
+so small a compass! I have known sequins of full weight and heavy amount
+given for baubles less precious."
+
+"Wilt thou never forget thy stall and the wayfarers of the Rialto? I
+bid thee name him who beareth these symbols as marks of his family and
+rank."
+
+"Noble Signore, I obey. The crest is of the family of Monforte, the last
+senator of which died some fifteen years since."
+
+"And his jewels?"
+
+"They have passed with other movables of which the state taketh no
+account, into the keeping of his kinsman and successor--if it be the
+senate's pleasure that there shall be a successor to that ancient
+name--Don Camillo of St. Agata. The wealthy Neapolitan who now urges his
+rights here in Venice, is the present owner of this precious stone."
+
+"Give me the ring; this must be looked to--hast thou more to say?"
+
+"Nothing, Signore--unless to petition, if there is to be any
+condemnation and sale of the jewel, that it may first be offered to an
+ancient servitor of the Republic, who hath much reason to regret that
+his age hath been less prosperous than his youth."
+
+"Thou shalt not be forgotten. I hear it said, Hosea, that divers of our
+young nobles frequent thy Hebrew shops with intent to borrow gold,
+which, lavished in present prodigality, is to be bitterly repaid at a
+later day by self-denial, and such embarrassments as suit not the heirs
+of noble names. Take heed of this matter--for if the displeasure of the
+council should alight on any of thy race, there would be long and
+serious accounts to settle! Hast thou had employment of late with other
+signets besides this of the Neapolitan?"
+
+"Unless in the vulgar way of our daily occupation, none of note,
+illustrious Signore."
+
+"Regard this," continued the Signor Gradenigo, first searching in a
+secret drawer, whence he drew a small bit of paper, to which a morsel of
+wax adhered; "canst thou form any conjecture, by the impression,
+concerning him who used that seal?"
+
+The jeweller took the paper and held it towards the light, while his
+glittering eyes intently examined the conceit.
+
+"This would surpass the wisdom of the son of David!" he said, after a
+long and seemingly fruitless examination; "here is naught but some
+fanciful device of gallantry, such as the light-hearted cavaliers of the
+city are fond of using, when they tempt the weaker sex with fair words
+and seductive vanities."
+
+"It is a heart pierced with the dart of love, and the motto of _'pensa
+al cuore trafitto d'amore?'_"
+
+"Naught else, as my eyes do their duty. I should think there was but
+very little meant by those words, Signore!"
+
+"That as may be. Thou hast never sold a jewel with that conceit?"
+
+"Just Samuel! We dispose of them daily to Christians of both sexes and
+all ages. I know no device of greater frequency, whereby I conceive
+there is much commerce in this light fidelity."
+
+"He who used it did well in concealing his thoughts beneath so general a
+dress! There will be a reward of a hundred sequins to him who traces the
+owner."
+
+Hosea was about to return the seal as beyond his knowledge, when this
+remark fell casually from the lips of the Signor Gradenigo. In a moment
+his eyes were fortified with a glass of microscopic power, and the paper
+was again before the lamp.
+
+"I disposed of a cornelian of no great price, which bore this conceit,
+to the wife of the emperor's ambassador, but conceiving there was no
+more in the purchase than some waywardness of fancy, I took no
+precaution to note the stone. A gentleman in the family of the Legate of
+Ravenna, also trafficked with me for an amethyst of the same design, but
+with him neither did I hold it important to be particular. Ha! here is
+a private mark, that in truth seemeth to be of my own hand!"
+
+"Dost thou find a clue? What is the sign of which thou speakest?"
+
+"Naught, noble senator, but a slur in a letter, which would not be apt
+to catch the eye of an over-credulous maiden."
+
+"And thou parted with the seal to----?"
+
+Hosea hesitated, for he foresaw some danger of losing his reward by a
+too hasty communication of the truth.
+
+"If it be important that the fact be known, Signore," he said, "I will
+consult my books. In a matter of this gravity, the senate should not be
+misled."
+
+"Thou sayest well. The affair is grave, and the reward a sufficient
+pledge that we so esteem it."
+
+"Something was said, illustrious Signore, of a hundred sequins; but my
+mind taketh little heed of such particulars when the good of Venice is
+in question."
+
+"A hundred is the sum I promised."
+
+"I parted with a signet-ring, bearing some such design, to a female in
+the service of the Nuncio's first gentleman. But this seal cannot come
+of that, since a woman of her station----"
+
+"Art sure?" eagerly interrupted the Signor Gradenigo.
+
+Hosea looked earnestly at his companion; and reading in his eye and
+countenance that the clue was agreeable, he answered promptly,--
+
+"As that I live under the law of Moses! The bauble had been long on hand
+without an offer, and I abandoned it to the uses of my money."
+
+"The sequins are thine, excellent Jew! This clears the mystery of every
+doubt. Go; thou shalt have thy reward; and if thou hast any particulars
+in thy secret register, let me be quickly possessed of them. Go to, good
+Hosea, and be punctual as of wont. I tire of these constant exercises
+of the spirit."
+
+The Hebrew, exulting in his success, now took his leave, with a manner
+in which habitual cupidity and subdued policy completely mastered every
+other feeling. He disappeared by the passage through which he had
+entered.
+
+It seemed, by the manner of the Signor Gradenigo, that the receptions
+for that evening had now ended. He carefully examined the locks of
+several secret drawers in his cabinet, extinguished the lights, closed
+and secured the doors, and quitted the place. For some time longer,
+however, he paced one of the principal rooms of the outer suite, until
+the usual hour having arrived, he sought his rest, and the palace was
+closed for the night.
+
+The reader will have gained some insight into the character of the
+individual who was the chief actor in the foregoing scenes. The Signor
+Gradenigo was born with all the sympathies and natural kindliness of
+other men, but accident, and an education which had received a strong
+bias from the institutions of the self-styled Republic, had made him the
+creature of a conventional policy. To him Venice seemed a free state,
+because he partook so largely of the benefits of her social system; and,
+though shrewd and practised in most of the affairs of the world, his
+faculties, on the subject of the political ethics of his country, were
+possessed of a rare and accommodating dulness. A senator, he stood in
+relation to the state as a director of a moneyed institution is
+proverbially placed in respect to his corporation; an agent of its
+collective measures, removed from the responsibilities of the man. He
+could reason warmly, if not acutely, concerning the principles of
+government, and it would be difficult, even in this money-getting age,
+to find a more zealous convert to the opinion that property was not a
+subordinate, but the absorbing interest of civilized life. He would talk
+ably of character, and honor, and virtue, and religion, and the rights
+of persons, but when called upon to act in their behalf, there was in
+his mind a tendency to blend them all with worldly policy, that proved
+as unerring as the gravitation of matter to the earth's centre. As a
+Venetian he was equally opposed to the domination of one, or of the
+whole; being, as respects the first, a furious republican, and, in
+reference to the last, leaning to that singular sophism which calls the
+dominion of the majority the rule of many tyrants! In short, he was an
+aristocrat; and no man had more industriously or more successfully
+persuaded himself into the belief of all the dogmas that were favorable
+to his caste. He was a powerful advocate of vested rights, for their
+possession was advantageous to himself; he was sensitively alive to
+innovations on usages and to vicissitudes in the histories of families,
+for calculation had substituted taste for principles; nor was he
+backward, on occasion, in defending his opinions by analogies drawn from
+the decrees of Providence. With a philosophy that seemed to satisfy
+himself, he contended that, as God had established orders throughout his
+own creation, in a descending chain from angels to men, it was safe to
+follow an example which emanated from a wisdom that was infinite.
+Nothing could be more sound than the basis of his theory, though its
+application had the capital error of believing there was any imitation
+of nature in an endeavor to supplant it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  "The moon went down; and nothing now was seen
+  Save where the lamp of a Madonna shone
+  Faintly."
+                                      ROGERS.
+
+
+Just as the secret audiences of the Palazzo Gradenigo were ended, the
+great square of St. Mark began to lose a portion of its gaiety. The
+cafes were now occupied by parties who had the means, and were in the
+humor, to put their indulgences to more substantial proof than the
+passing gibe or idle laugh; while those who were reluctantly compelled
+to turn their thoughts from the levities of the moment to the cares of
+the morrow, were departing in crowds to humble roofs and hard pillows.
+There remained one of the latter class, however, who continued to occupy
+a spot near the junction of the two squares, as motionless as if his
+naked feet grew to the stone on which he stood. It was Antonio.
+
+The position of the fisherman brought the whole of his muscular form and
+bronzed features beneath the rays of the moon. The dark, anxious, and
+stern eyes were fixed upon the mild orb, as if their owner sought to
+penetrate into another world, in quest of that peace which he had never
+known in this. There was suffering in the expression of the weather-worn
+face; but it was the suffering of one whose native sensibilities had
+been a little deadened by too much familiarity with the lot of the
+feeble. To one who considered life and humanity in any other than their
+familiar and vulgar aspects, he would have presented a touching picture
+of a noble nature, enduring with pride, blunted by habit; while to him,
+who regards the accidental dispositions of society as paramount laws, he
+might have presented the image of dogged turbulence and discontent,
+healthfully repressed by the hand of power. A heavy sigh struggled from
+the chest of the old man, and, stroking down the few hairs which time
+had left him, he lifted his cap from the pavement, and prepared to move.
+
+"Thou art late from thy bed, Antonio," said a voice at his elbow. "The
+triglie must be of good price, or of great plenty, that one of thy trade
+can spare time to air himself in the Piazza at this hour. Thou hearest,
+the clock is telling the fifth hour of the night."
+
+The fisherman bent his head aside, and regarded the figure of his masked
+companion, for a moment, with indifference, betraying neither curiosity
+nor feeling at his address.
+
+"Since thou knowest me," he answered, "it is probable thou knowest that
+in quitting this place I shall go to an empty dwelling. Since thou
+knowest me so well, thou should'st also know my wrongs."
+
+"Who hath injured thee, worthy fisherman, that thou speakest so boldly
+beneath the very windows of the Doge?"
+
+"The state."
+
+"This is hardy language for the ear of St. Mark! Were it too loudly
+spoken, yonder lion might growl. Of what dost thou accuse the Republic?"
+
+"Lead me to them that sent thee, and I will spare the trouble of a
+go-between. I am ready to tell my wrongs to the Doge, on his throne; for
+what can one, poor and old as I, dread from their anger?"
+
+"Thou believest me sent to betray thee?"
+
+"Thou knowest thine own errand."
+
+The other removed his mask, and turned his face towards the moon.
+
+"Jacopo!" exclaimed the fisherman, gazing at the expressive Italian
+features; "one of thy character can have no errand with me."
+
+A flush, that was visible even in that light, passed athwart the
+countenance of the Bravo; but he stilled every other exhibition of
+feeling.
+
+"Thou art wrong. My errand is with thee."
+
+"Does the senate think a fisherman of the Lagunes of sufficient
+importance to be struck by a stiletto? Do thy work, then!" he added,
+glancing at his brown and naked bosom; "there is nothing to prevent
+thee!"
+
+"Antonio, thou dost me wrong. The senate has no such purpose. But I have
+heard that thou hast reason for discontent, and that thou speakest
+openly, on the Lido and among the islands, of affairs that the
+patricians like not to be stirred among men of your class. I come, as a
+friend, to warn thee of the consequences of such indiscretion, rather
+than as one to harm thee."
+
+"Thou art sent to say this?"
+
+"Old man, age should teach thy tongue moderation. What will avail vain
+complaints against the Republic, or what canst thou hope for, as their
+fruits, but evil to thyself, and evil to the child that thou lovest?"
+
+"I know not; but when the heart is sore the tongue will speak. They have
+taken away my boy, and they have left little behind that I value. The
+life they threaten is too short to be cared for."
+
+"Thou should'st temper thy regrets with wisdom. The Signor Gradenigo has
+long been friendly to thee, and I have heard that thy mother nursed him.
+Try his ears with prayers, but cease to anger the Republic with
+complaints."
+
+Antonio looked wistfully at his companion, but when he had ceased he
+shook his head mournfully, as if to express the hopelessness of relief
+from that quarter.
+
+"I have told him all that a man, born and nursed on the Lagunes, can
+find words to say. He is a senator, Jacopo; and he thinks not of
+suffering he does not feel."
+
+"Art thou not wrong, old man, to accuse him who hath been born in
+affluence of hardness of heart, merely that he doth not feel the misery
+thou would'st avoid, too, were it in thy power? Thou hast thy gondola
+and nets, with health and the cunning of thy art, and in that art thou
+happier than he who hath neither; would'st thou forget thy skill, and
+share thy little stock with the beggar of San Marco, that your fortunes
+might be equal?"
+
+"There may be truth in what thou sayest of our labor and our means, but
+when it comes to our young, nature is the same in both. I see no reason
+why the son of the patrician should go free and the child of the
+fisherman be sold to blood. Have not the senators enough of happiness in
+their riches and greatness, that they rob me of my son?"
+
+"Thou knowest, Antonio, the state must be served, and were its officers
+to go into the palaces in quest of hardy mariners for the fleet, would
+they, think you, find them that would honor the winged lion in the hour
+of his need? Thy old arm is muscular, and thy leg steady on the water,
+and they seek those who, like thee, have been trained to the seas."
+
+"Thou should'st have said, also, and thy old breast is scarred. Before
+thy birth, Jacopo, I went against the infidel, and my blood was shed,
+like water, for the state. But they have forgotten it, while there are
+rich marbles raised in the churches, which speak of what the nobles did,
+who came unharmed from the same wars."
+
+"I have heard my father say as much," returned the Bravo, gloomily, and
+speaking in an altered voice. "He, too, bled in that war; but that is
+forgotten."
+
+The fisherman glanced a look around, and perceiving that several groups
+were conversing near, in the square, he signed to his companion to
+follow him, and walked towards the quays.
+
+"Thy father," he said, as they moved slowly on together, "was my comrade
+and my friend. I am old, Jacopo, and poor; my days are passed in toil,
+on the Lagunes, and my nights in gaining strength to meet the labor of
+the morrow; but it hath grieved me to hear that the son of one I much
+loved, and with whom I have so often shared good and evil, fair and
+foul, hath taken to a life like that which men say is thine. The gold
+that is the price of blood was never yet blessed to him that gave or him
+that received."
+
+The Bravo listened in silence, though his companion, who, at another
+moment, and under other emotions, would have avoided him as one shrinks
+from contagion, saw, on looking mournfully up into his face, that the
+muscles were slightly agitated, and that a paleness crossed his cheeks,
+which the light of the moon rendered ghastly.
+
+"Thou hast suffered poverty to tempt thee into grievous sin, Jacopo; but
+it is never too late to call on the saints for aid, and to lay aside the
+stiletto. It is not profitable for a man to be known in Venice as thy
+fellow, but the friend of thy father will not abandon one who shows a
+penitent spirit. Lay aside thy stiletto, and come with me to the
+Lagunes. Thou wilt find labor less burdensome than guilt, and though
+thou never canst be to me like the boy they have taken, for he was
+innocent as the lamb! thou wilt still be the son of an ancient comrade,
+and a stricken spirit. Come with me then to the Lagunes, for poverty and
+misery like mine cannot meet with more contempt, even for being thy
+companion."
+
+"What is it men say, that thou treatest me thus?" demanded Jacopo, in a
+low, struggling voice.
+
+"I would they said untruth! But few die by violence, in Venice, that thy
+name is not uttered."
+
+"And would they suffer one thus marked to go openly on the canals, or
+to be at large in the great square of San Marco?"
+
+"We never know the reasons of the senate. Some say thy time is not yet
+come, while others think thou art too powerful for judgment."
+
+"Thou dost equal credit to the justice and the activity of the
+inquisition. But should I go with thee to-night, wilt thou be more
+discreet in speech among thy fellows of the Lido, and the islands?"
+
+"When the heart hath its load, the tongue will strive to lighten it. I
+would do anything to turn the child of my friend from his evil ways, but
+forget my own. Thou art used to deal with the patricians, Jacopo; would
+there be possibility for one, clad in this dress, and with a face
+blackened by the sun, to come to speak with the Doge?"
+
+"There is no lack of seeming justice in Venice, Antonio; the want is in
+the substance. I doubt not thou would'st be heard."
+
+"Then will I wait, here, upon the stones of the square, until he comes
+forth for the pomp of to-morrow, and try to move his heart to justice.
+He is old, like myself, and he hath bled, too, for the state, and what
+is more he is a father."
+
+"So is the Signor Gradenigo."
+
+"Thou doubtest his pity--ha?"
+
+"Thou canst but try. The Doge of Venice will hearken to a petition from
+the meanest citizen. I think," added Jacopo, speaking so low as to be
+scarcely audible, "he would listen even to me."
+
+"Though I am not able to put my prayer in such speech as becometh the
+ear of a great prince, he shall hear the truth from a wronged man. They
+call him the chosen of the state, and such a one should gladly listen to
+justice. This is a hard bed, Jacopo," continued the fisherman, seating
+himself at the foot of the column of St. Theodore, "but I have slept on
+colder and as hard, when there was less reason to do it--a happy night."
+
+The bravo lingered a minute near the old man, who folded his arms on his
+naked breast, which was fanned by the sea-breeze, and disposed of his
+person to take his rest in the square, a practice not unusual among men
+of his class; but when he found that Antonio was inclined to be alone,
+he moved on, leaving the fisherman to himself.
+
+The night was now getting to be advanced, and few of the revellers
+remained in the areas of the two squares. Jacopo cast a glance around,
+and noting the hour and the situation of the place, he proceeded to the
+edge of the quay. The public gondoliers had left their boats moored, as
+usual, at this spot, and a profound stillness reigned over the whole
+bay. The water was scarce darkened by the air, which rather breathed
+upon than ruffled its surface, and no sound of oar was audible amid the
+forest of picturesque and classical spars, which crowded the view
+between the Piazzetta and the Giudecca. The Bravo hesitated, cast
+another wary glance around him, settled his mask, undid the slight
+fastenings of a boat, and presently he was gliding away into the centre
+of the basin.
+
+"Who cometh?" demanded one, who seemingly stood at watch, in a felucca,
+anchored a little apart from all others.
+
+"One expected," was the answer.
+
+"Roderigo?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"Thou art late," said the mariner of Calabria, as Jacopo stepped upon
+the low deck of the Bella Sorrentina. "My people have long been below,
+and I have dreamt thrice of shipwreck, and twice of a heavy sirocco,
+since thou hast been expected."
+
+"Thou hast had more time to wrong the customs. Is the felucca ready for
+her work?"
+
+"As for the customs, there is little chance of gain in this greedy
+city. The senators secure all profits to themselves and their friends,
+while we of the barks are tied down to low freights and hard bargains. I
+have sent a dozen casks of lachryma christi up the canals since the
+masquers came abroad, and beyond that I have not occasion. There is
+enough left for thy comfort, at need. Wilt drink?"
+
+"I am sworn to sobriety. Is thy vessel ready, as wont, for the errand?"
+
+"Is the senate as ready with its money? This is the fourth of my voyages
+in their service; and they have only to look into their own secrets to
+know the manner in which the work hath been done."
+
+"They are content, and thou hast been well rewarded."
+
+"Say it not. I have gained more gold by one lucky shipment of fruits
+from the isles than by all their night-work. Would those who employ me
+give a little especial traffic on the entrance of the felucca, there
+might be advantage in the trade."
+
+"There is nothing which St. Mark visits with a heavier punishment than
+frauds on his receipts. Have a care with thy wines, or thou wilt lose
+not only thy bark and thy voyage, but thy liberty!"
+
+"This is just the ground of my complaint, Signor Roderigo. Rogue and no
+rogue, is the Republic's motto. Here they are as close in justice as a
+father amid his children; and there it is better that what is done
+should be done at midnight. I like not the contradiction, for just as my
+hopes are a little raised by what I have witnessed, perhaps a little too
+near, they are all blown to the winds by such a frown as San Gennero
+himself might cast upon a sinner."
+
+"Remember thou art not in thy wide Mediterranean, but on a canal of
+Venice. This language might be unsafe, were it heard by less friendly
+ears."
+
+"I thank thee for thy care, though the sight of yonder old palace is as
+good a hint to the loose tongue as the sight of a gibbet on the
+sea-shore to a pirate. I met an ancient fellow in the Piazzetta about
+the time the masquers came in, and we had some words on this matter. By
+his tally every second man in Venice is well paid for reporting what the
+others say and do. 'Tis a pity, with all their seeming love of justice,
+good Roderigo, that the senate should let divers knaves go at large;
+men, whose very faces cause the stones to redden with anger and shame!"
+
+"I did not know that any such were openly seen in Venice; what is
+secretly done may be favored for a time, through difficulty of proof,
+but--"
+
+"Cospetto! They tell me the councils have a short manner of making a
+sinner give up his misdeeds. Now, here is the miscreant Jacopo. What
+aileth thee, man? The anchor on which thou leanest is not heated."
+
+"Nor is it of feathers; one's bones may ache from its touch, without
+offence, I hope."
+
+"The iron is of Elba, and was forged in a volcano. This Jacopo is one
+that should not go at large in an honest city, and yet is he seen pacing
+the square with as much ease as a noble in the Broglio!"
+
+"I know him not."
+
+"Not to know the boldest hand and surest stiletto in Venice, honest
+Roderigo, is to thy praise. But he is well marked among us of the port,
+and we never see the man but we begin to think of our sins, and of
+penances forgotten. I marvel much that the inquisitors do not give him
+to the devil on some public ceremony, for the benefit of small
+offenders!"
+
+"Are his deeds so notorious that they might pronounce on his fate
+without proof?"
+
+"Go, ask that question in the streets! Not a Christian loses his life in
+Venice without warning; and the number is not few, to say nothing of
+those who die with state fevers, but men see the work of his sure hand
+in the blow. Signor Roderigo, your canals are convenient graves for
+sudden deaths!"
+
+"Methinks there is contradiction in this. Thou speakest of proofs of the
+hand that gave it, in the manner of the blow, and then thou callest in
+the aid of the canals to cover the whole deed. Truly, there is some
+wrong done this Jacopo, who is, haply, a man slandered."
+
+"I have heard of slandering a priest, for they are Christians, bound to
+keep good names for the church's honor, but to utter an injury against a
+bravo would a little exceed the tongue of an avocato. What mattereth it
+whether the hand be a shade deeper in color or not, when blood is on
+it."
+
+"Thou sayest truly," answered the pretended Roderigo, drawing a heavy
+breath. "It mattereth little indeed to him condemned, whether the
+sentence cometh of one or of many crimes."
+
+"Dost know, friend Roderigo, that this very argument hath made me less
+scrupulous concerning the freight I am called on to carry, in this
+secret trade of ours. Thou art fairly in the senate's business, worthy
+Stefano, I say to myself, and therefore the less reason that thou
+should'st be particular in the quality of the merchandise. That Jacopo
+hath an eye and a scowl that would betray him, were he chosen to the
+chair of St. Peter! But doff thy mask, Signor Roderigo, that the sea-air
+may cool thy cheek; 'tis time there should no longer be this suspicion
+between old and tried friends."
+
+"My duty to those that send me forbid the liberty, else would I gladly
+stand face to face with thee, Master Stefano."
+
+"Well, notwithstanding thy caution, cunning Signore, I would hazard ten
+of the sequins thou art to pay to me, that I will go on the morrow into
+the crowd of San Marco, and challenge thee openly, by name, among a
+thousand. Thou mayest as well unmask, for I tell thee thou art as well
+known to me as the lateen yards of my felucca."
+
+"The less need to uncover. There are certain signs, no doubt, by which
+men who meet so often should be known to each other."
+
+"Thou hast a goodly countenance, Signore, and the less need to hide it.
+I have noted thee among the revellers, when thou hast thought thyself
+unseen; and I will say of thee this much, without wish to gain aught in
+our bargain, one of appearance fair as thine, Signor Roderigo, had
+better be seen openly than go thus for ever behind a cloud."
+
+"My answer hath been made. What the state wills cannot be overlooked;
+but since I see thou knowest me, take heed not to betray thy knowledge."
+
+"Thou would'st not be more safe with thy confessor. Diamine! I am not a
+man to gad about among the water-sellers, with a secret at the top of my
+voice; but thou didst leer aside when I winked at thee dancing among the
+masquers on the quay. Is it not so, Roderigo?"
+
+"There is more cleverness in thee, Master Stefano, than I had thought;
+though thy readiness with the felucca is no secret."
+
+"There are two things, Signor Roderigo, on which I value myself, but
+always, I hope, with Christian moderation. As a mariner of the coast, in
+mistral or sirocco, levanter or zephyr, few can claim more practice; and
+for knowing an acquaintance in a carnival, I believe the father of evil
+himself could not be so disguised that eye of mine should not see his
+foot! For anticipating a gale, or looking behind a mask, Signor
+Roderigo, I know not my own equal among men of small learning."
+
+"These faculties are great gifts in one who liveth by the sea and a
+critical trade."
+
+"Here came one Gino, a gondolier of Don Camillo Monforte, and an ancient
+fellow of mine, aboard the felucca, attended by a woman in mask. He
+threw off the girl dexterously enough, and, as he thought, among
+strangers; but I knew her at a glance for the daughter of a wine-seller,
+who had already tasted lachryma christi of mine. The woman was angered
+at the trick, but making the best of luck, we drove a bargain for the
+few casks which lay beneath the ballast, while Gino did his master's
+business in San Marco."
+
+"And what that business was thou didst not learn, good Stefano?"
+
+"How should I, Master Roderigo, when the gondolier scarce left time for
+greeting; but Annina--"
+
+"Annina!"
+
+"The same. Thou knowest Annina, old Tomaso's daughter; for she danced in
+the very set in which I detected thy countenance! I would not speak thus
+of the girl, but that I know thou art not backward to receive liquors
+that do not visit the custom-house, thyself."
+
+"For that, fear nothing. I have sworn to thee that no secret of this
+nature shall pass my lips. But this Annina is a girl of quick wit and
+much boldness."
+
+"Between ourselves, Signor Roderigo, it is not easy to tell who is in
+the senate's pay here in Venice, or who is not. I have sometimes
+fancied, by thy manner of starting, and the tones of thy voice, that
+thou wert thyself no less than the lieutenant-general of the galleys, a
+little disguised."
+
+"And this with thy knowledge of men!"
+
+"If faith were always equal, where would be its merit? Thou hast never
+been hotly chased by an infidel, Master Roderigo, or thou would'st know
+how the mind of man can change from hope to fear, from the big voice to
+the humble prayer! I remember once, in the confusion and hurry of
+baffling winds and whistling shot, having always turbans before the eye,
+and the bastinado in mind, to have beseeched St. Stefano in some such
+voice as one would use to a dog, and to have bullied the men with the
+whine of a young kitten. Corpo di Bacco! One hath need of experience in
+these affairs, Signor Roderigo, to know even his own merits."
+
+"I believe thee. But who is this Gino of whom thou hast spoken, and what
+has his occupation, as a gondolier, to do with one known in thy youth in
+Calabria?"
+
+"Therein lie matters exceeding my knowledge. His master, and I may say
+my master, for I was born on his estates, is the young Duca di Sant'
+Agata--the same that pushes his fortunes with the senate in a claim to
+the riches and honors of the last Monforte that sat in thy councils. The
+debate hath so long endured, that the lad hath made himself a gondolier
+by sheer shoving an oar between his master's palace and those of the
+nobles he moves with interest--at least such is Gino's own history of
+his education."
+
+"I know the man. He wears the colors of him he serves. Is he of quick
+wit?"
+
+"Signor Roderigo, all who come of Calabria cannot boast that advantage.
+We are no more than our neighbors, and there are exceptions, in all
+communities as in all families. Gino is ready enough with his oar, and
+as good a youth in his way as need be. But as to looking into things
+beyond their surface, why we should not expect the delicacy of a
+beccafica in a goose. Nature makes men, though kings make nobles. Gino
+is a gondolier."
+
+"And of good skill?"
+
+"I say nothing of his arm or his leg, both of which are well enough in
+their places; but when it comes to knowing men and things--poor Gino is
+but a gondolier! The lad hath a most excellent heart, and is never
+backward to serve a friend. I love him, but thou would'st not have me
+say more than the truth will warrant."
+
+"Well, keep thy felucca in readiness, for we know not the moment it may
+be needed."
+
+"Thou hast only to bring thy freight, Signore, to have the bargain
+fulfilled."
+
+"Adieu. I would recommend to thee to keep apart from all other trades,
+and to see that the revelries of to-morrow do not debauch thy people."
+
+"God speed thee, Signor Roderigo. Naught shall be wanting."
+
+The Bravo stepped into his gondola, which glided from the felucca's side
+with a facility which showed that an arm skilled in its use held the
+oar. He waved his hand in adieu to Stefano, and then the boat
+disappeared among the hulls that crowded the port.
+
+For a few minutes the padrone of the Bella Sorrentina continued to pace
+her decks, snuffing the fresh breeze that came in over the Lido, and
+then he sought his rest. By this time the dark, silent gondolas, which
+had been floating by hundreds through the basin, were all gone. The
+sound of music was heard no longer on the canals, and Venice, at all
+times noiseless and peculiar, seemed to sleep the sleep of the dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                         "The fisher came
+  From his green islet, bringing o'er the waves
+  His wife and little one; the husbandman
+  From the firm land, with many a friar and nun.
+  And village maiden, her first flight from home,
+  Crowding the common ferry."
+                                     ROGERS.
+
+
+A brighter day than that which succeeded the night last mentioned never
+dawned upon the massive domes, the gorgeous palaces, and the glittering
+canals of Venice. The sun had not been long above the level of the Lido
+before the strains of horns and trumpets arose from the square of St.
+Mark. They were answered in full echoes from the distant arsenal. A
+thousand gondolas glided from the canals, stealing in every direction
+across the port, the Giudecca, and the various outer channels of the
+place; while the well known routes from Fusina and the neighboring isles
+were dotted with endless lines of boats urging their way towards the
+capital.
+
+The citizens began to assemble early, in their holiday attire, while
+thousands of contadini landed at the different bridges, clad in the gay
+costumes of the main. Before the day had far advanced, all the avenues
+of the great square were again thronged, and by the time the bells of
+the venerable cathedral had finished a peal of high rejoicing, St.
+Mark's again teemed with its gay multitude. Few appeared in masks, but
+pleasure seemed to lighten every eye, while the frank and unconcealed
+countenance willingly courted the observation and sympathy of its
+neighbors. In short, Venice and her people were seen, in all the gaiety
+and carelessness of a favorite Italian festa. The banners of the
+conquered nations flapped heavily on the triumphal masts, each
+church-tower hung out its image of the winged lion, and every palace was
+rich in its hangings of tapestry and silk, floating from balcony and
+window.
+
+In the midst of this exhilarating and bright spectacle was heard the din
+of a hundred thousand voices. Above the constant hum, there arose, from
+time to time, the blasts of trumpets and the symphonies of rich music.
+Here the improvisatore, secretly employed by a politic and mysterious
+government, recounted, with a rapid utterance, and in language suited to
+the popular ear, at the foot of the spars which upheld the conquered
+banners of Candia, Crete, and the Morea, the ancient triumphs of the
+Republic; while there, a ballad-singer chanted, to the greedy crowd, the
+glory and justice of San Marco. Shouts of approbation succeeded each
+happy allusion to the national renown, and bravos, loud and
+oft-repeated, were the reward of the agents of the police, whenever they
+most administered to the self-delusion and vanity of their audience.
+
+In the meantime, gondolas rich in carvings and gildings, and containing
+females renowned for grace and beauty, began to cluster in hundreds
+around the port. A general movement had already taken place among the
+shipping, and a wide and clear channel was opened from the quay at the
+foot of the Piazzetta, to the distant bank, which shut out the waves of
+the Adriatic. Near this watery path, boats of all sizes and
+descriptions, filled with the curious and observant, were fast
+collecting.
+
+The crowd thickened as the day drew in, all the vast plains of the
+Padovano appearing to have given up their people to swell the numbers of
+those that rejoiced. A few timid and irresolute masquers now began to
+appear in the throng, stealing a momentary pleasure under the favor of
+that privileged disguise, from out of the seclusion and monotony of
+their cloisters. Next came the rich marine equipages of the accredited
+agents of foreign states, and then, amid the sound of clarions and the
+cries of the populace, the Bucentaur rowed out of the channel of the
+arsenal, and came sweeping to her station at the quay of St. Mark.
+
+These preliminaries, which occupied some hours, being observed, the
+javelin-men, and others employed about the person of the head of the
+Republic, were seen opening an avenue through the throng. After which,
+the rich strains of a hundred instruments proclaimed the approach of the
+Doge.
+
+We shall not detain the narrative, to describe the pomp in which a
+luxurious and affluent aristocracy, that in general held itself aloof
+from familiar intercourse with those it ruled, displayed its
+magnificence to the eyes of the multitude, on an occasion of popular
+rejoicing. Long lines of senators, dressed in their robes of office, and
+attended by crowds of liveried followers, came from under the galleries
+of the palace, and descended by the Giant's Stairway into the sombre
+court. Thence, the whole issued into the Piazzetta in order, and
+proceeded to their several stations on the canopied deck of the well
+known bark. Each patrician had his allotted place, and before the rear
+of the cortege had yet quitted the quay, there was a long and imposing
+row of grave legislators seated in the established order of their
+precedency. The ambassadors, the high dignitaries of the state, and the
+aged man who had been chosen to bear the empty honors of sovereignty,
+still remained on the land, waiting, with the quiet of trained docility,
+the moment to embark. At this moment, a man of an embrowned visage, legs
+bare to the knee, and breast open to the breeze, rushed through the
+guards, and knelt on the stones of the quay at his feet.
+
+"Justice!--great prince!" cried the bold stranger; "justice and mercy!
+Listen to one who has bled for St. Mark, and who hath his scars for his
+witnesses."
+
+"Justice and mercy are not always companions," calmly observed he who
+wore the horned bonnet, motioning to his officious attendants to let the
+intruder stay.
+
+"Mighty prince! I come for the last."
+
+"Who and what art thou?"
+
+"A fisherman of the Lagunes. One named Antonio, who seeketh the liberty
+of the prop of his years--a glorious boy, that force and the policy of
+the state have torn from me."
+
+"This should not be! Violence is not the attribute of justice--but the
+youth hath offended the laws, and he suffereth for his crimes?"
+
+"He is guilty, Excellent and most Serene Highness, of youth, and health,
+and strength, with some skill in the craft of the mariner. They have
+taken him, without warning or consent, for the service of the galleys,
+and have left me in my age, alone."
+
+The expression of pity, which had taken possession of the venerable
+features of the prince, changed instantly to a look of uneasiness and
+distrust. The eye, which just before had melted with compassion, became
+cold and set in its meaning, and signing to his guards, he bowed with
+dignity to the attentive and curious auditors, among the foreign agents,
+to proceed.
+
+"Bear him away," said an officer, who took his master's meaning from the
+glance; "the ceremonies may not be retarded for a prayer so idle."
+
+Antonio offered no resistance, but yielding to the pressure of those
+around him, he sank back meekly among the crowd, disappointment and
+sorrow giving place, for an instant, to an awe and an admiration of the
+gorgeous spectacle, that were perhaps in some degree inseparable from
+his condition and habits. In a few moments, the slight interruption
+produced by this short scene, was forgotten in the higher interest of
+the occasion.
+
+When the ducal party had taken their places, and an admiral of
+reputation was in possession of the helm, the vast and gorgeous bark,
+with its gilded galleries thronged with attendants, swept away from the
+quay with a grand and stately movement. Its departure was the signal for
+a new burst of trumpets and clarions, and for fresh acclamations from
+the people. The latter rushed to the edge of the water, and by the time
+the Bucentaur had reached the middle of the port, the stream was black
+with the gondolas that followed in her train. In this manner did the gay
+and shouting cortege sweep on, some darting ahead of the principal bark,
+and some clinging, like smaller fish swimming around the leviathan, as
+near to her sides as the fall of the ponderous oars would allow. As each
+effort of the crew sent the galley further from the land, the living
+train seemed to extend itself, by some secret principle of expansion;
+nor was the chain of its apparent connexion entirely broken, until the
+Bucentaur had passed the island, long famous for its convent of
+religious Arminians. Here the movement became slower, in order to permit
+the thousand gondolas to approach, and then the whole moved forward, in
+nearly one solid phalanx, to the landing of the Lido.
+
+The marriage of the Adriatic, as the ceremony was quaintly termed, has
+been too often described to need a repetition here. Our business is
+rather with incidents of a private and personal nature than with
+descriptions of public events, and we shall pass over all that has no
+immediate connexion with the interest of the tale.
+
+When the Bucentaur became stationary, a space around her stern was
+cleared, and the Doge appeared in a rich gallery, so constructed as to
+exhibit the action to all in sight. He held a ring, glittering with
+precious stones, on high, and, pronouncing the words of betrothal, he
+dropped it upon the bosom of his fancied spouse. Shouts arose, trumpets
+blew their blasts, and each lady waved her handkerchief, in felicitation
+of the happy union. In the midst of the fracas--which was greatly
+heightened by the roar of cannon on board the cruisers in the channel,
+and from the guns in the arsenal--a boat glided into the open space
+beneath the gallery of the Bucentaur. The movement of the arm which
+directed the light gondola was dexterous and still strong, though the
+hairs of him who held the oar were thin and white. A suppliant eye was
+cast up at the happy faces that adorned the state of the prince, and
+then the look was changed intently to the water. A small fisherman's
+buoy fell from the boat, which glided away so soon, that, amid the
+animation and uproar of that moment, the action was scarce heeded by the
+excited throng.
+
+The aquatic procession now returned towards the city, the multitude
+rending the air with shouts at the happy termination of a ceremony, to
+which time and the sanction of the sovereign pontiff had given a species
+of sanctity that was somewhat increased by superstition. It is true that
+a few among the Venetians themselves regarded these famous nuptials of
+the Adriatic with indifference; and that several of the ministers of the
+northern and more maritime states, who were witnesses on the occasion,
+had scarcely concealed, as they cast glances of intelligence and pride
+among themselves, their smiles. Still, such was the influence of
+habit--for so much does even arrogant assumption, when long and
+perseveringly maintained, count among men--that neither the increasing
+feebleness of the Republic, nor the known superiority of other powers on
+the very element which this pageant was intended to represent as the
+peculiar property of St. Mark, could yet cover the lofty pretension with
+the ridicule it merited. Time has since taught the world that Venice
+continued this idle deception for ages after both reason and modesty
+should have dictated its discontinuance; but, at the period of which we
+write, that ambitious, crapulous, and factitious state was rather
+beginning to feel the symptomatic evidence of its fading circumstances,
+than to be fully conscious of the swift progress of a downward course.
+In this manner do communities, like individuals, draw near their
+dissolution, inattentive to the symptoms of decay, until they are
+overtaken with that fate which finally overwhelms empires and their
+power in the common lot of man.
+
+The Bucentaur did not return directly to the quay, to disburden itself
+of its grave and dignified load. The gaudy galley anchored in the centre
+of the port, and opposite to the wide mouth of the great canal. Officers
+had been busy, throughout the morning, in causing all the shipping and
+heavy boats, of which hundreds lay in that principal artery of the city,
+to remove from the centre of the passage, and heralds now summoned the
+citizens to witness the regatta, with which the public ceremonies of the
+day were to terminate.
+
+Venice, from her peculiar formation and the vast number of her watermen,
+had long been celebrated for this species of amusement. Families were
+known and celebrated in her traditions for dexterous skill with the oar,
+as they were known in Rome for feats of a far less useful and of a more
+barbarous nature. It was usual to select from these races of watermen
+the most vigorous and skilful; and after invoking the aid of
+patron-saints, and arousing their pride and recollections by songs that
+recounted the feats of their ancestors, to start them for the goal, with
+every incitement that pride and the love of victory could awaken.
+
+Most of these ancient usages were still observed. As soon as the
+Bucentaur was in its station, some thirty or forty gondoliers were
+brought forth, clad in their gayest habiliments, and surrounded and
+supported by crowds of anxious friends and relatives. The intended
+competitors were expected to sustain the long-established reputations of
+their several names, and they were admonished of the disgrace of
+defeat. They were cheered by the men, and stimulated by the smiles and
+tears of the other sex. The rewards were recalled to their minds; they
+were fortified by prayers to the saints; and then they were dismissed,
+amid the cries and the wishes of the multitude, to seek their allotted
+places beneath the stern of the galley of state.
+
+It has already been mentioned in these pages, that the city of Venice is
+divided into two nearly equal parts by a channel much broader than that
+of the ordinary passages of the town. This dividing artery, from its
+superior size and depth, and its greater importance, is called the Grand
+Canal. Its course is not unlike that of an undulating line, which
+greatly increases its length. As it is much used by the larger boats of
+the bay--being, in fact, a sort of secondary port--and its width is so
+considerable, it has throughout the whole distance but one bridge, the
+celebrated Rialto. The regatta was to be held on this canal, which
+offered the requisites of length and space, and which, as it was lined
+with most of the palaces of the principal senators, afforded all the
+facilities necessary for viewing the struggle.
+
+In passing from one end of this long course to the other, the men
+destined for the race were not permitted to make any exertion. Their
+eyes roamed over the gorgeous hangings, which, as is still wont
+throughout Italy on all days of festa, floated from every window, and on
+groups of females in rich attire, brilliant with the peculiar charms of
+the famed Venetian beauty, that clustered in the balconies. Those who
+were domestics, rose and answered to the encouraging signals thrown from
+above, as they passed the palaces of their masters; while those who were
+watermen of the public, endeavored to gather hope among the sympathizing
+faces of the multitude.
+
+At length every formality had been duly observed, and the competitors
+assumed their places. The gondolas were much larger than those commonly
+used, and each was manned by three watermen in the centre, directed by a
+fourth, who, standing on the little deck in the stern, steered, while he
+aided to impel the boat. There were light, low staffs in the bows, with
+flags, that bore the distinguishing colors of several noble families of
+the Republic, or which had such other simple devices as had been
+suggested by the fancies of those to whom they belonged. A few
+flourishes of the oars, resembling the preparatory movements which the
+master of fence makes ere he begins to push and parry, were given; a
+whirling of the boats, like the prancing of curbed racers, succeeded;
+and then, at the report of a gun, the whole darted away as if the
+gondolas were impelled by volition. The start was followed by a shout,
+which passed swiftly along the canal, and an eager agitation of heads
+that went from balcony to balcony, till the sympathetic movement was
+communicated to the grave load under which the Bucentaur labored.
+
+For a few minutes the difference in force and skill was not very
+obvious. Each gondola glided along the element apparently with that ease
+with which a light-winged swallow skims the lake, and with no visible
+advantage to any one of the ten. Then, as more art in him who steered,
+or greater powers of endurance in those who rowed, or some of the latent
+properties of the boat itself came into service, the cluster of little
+barks which had come off like a closely-united flock of birds taking
+flight together in alarm, began to open, till they formed a long and
+vacillating line in the centre of the passage. The whole train shot
+beneath the bridge so near each other as to render it still doubtful
+which was to conquer, and the exciting strife came more in view of the
+principal personages of the city.
+
+But here those radical qualities which insure success in efforts of this
+nature manifested themselves. The weaker began to yield, the train to
+lengthen, and hopes and fears to increase, until those in front
+presented the exhilarating spectacle of success, while those behind
+offered the still more noble sight of men struggling without hope.
+Gradually the distances between the boats increased, while that between
+them and the goal grew rapidly less, until three of those in advance
+came in, like glancing arrows, beneath the stern of the Bucentaur, with
+scarce a length between them. The prize was won, the conquerors were
+rewarded, and the artillery gave forth the usual signals of rejoicing.
+Music answered to the roar of cannon and the peals of bells, while
+sympathy with success, that predominant and so often dangerous principle
+of our nature, drew shouts even from the disappointed.
+
+The clamor ceased, and a herald proclaimed aloud the commencement of a
+new and different struggle. The last, and what might be termed the
+national race, had been limited by an ancient usage to the known and
+recognised gondoliers of Venice. The prize had been awarded by the
+state, and the whole affair had somewhat of an official and political
+character. It was now announced, however, that a race was to be run, in
+which the reward was open to all competitors, without question as to
+their origin, or as to their ordinary occupations. An oar of gold, to
+which was attached a chain of the same precious metal, was exhibited as
+the boon of the Doge to him who showed most dexterity and strength in
+this new struggle; while a similar ornament of silver was to be the
+portion of him who showed the second-best dexterity and bottom. A mimic
+boat of less precious metal was the third prize. The gondolas were to be
+the usual light vehicles of the canals, and as the object was to display
+the peculiar skill of that city of islands, but one oarsman was allowed
+to each, on whom would necessarily fall the whole duty of guiding, while
+he impelled his little bark. Any of those who had been engaged in the
+previous trial were admitted to this; and all desirous of taking part in
+the new struggle were commanded to come beneath the stern of the
+Bucentaur within a prescribed number of minutes, that note might be had
+of their wishes. As notice of this arrangement had been previously
+given, the interval between the two races was not long.
+
+The first who came out of the crowd of boats which environed the vacant
+place that had been left for the competitors, was a gondolier of the
+public landing, well known for his skill with the oar, and his song on
+the canal.
+
+"How art thou called, and in whose name dost thou put thy chance?"
+demanded the herald of this aquatic course.
+
+"All know me for Bartolomeo, one who lives between the Piazzetta and the
+Lido, and, like a loyal Venetian, I trust in San Teodoro."
+
+"Thou art well protected; take thy place and await thy fortune."
+
+The conscious waterman swept the water with a back stroke of his blade,
+and the light gondola whirled away into the centre of the vacant spot,
+like a swan giving a sudden glance aside.
+
+"And who art thou?" demanded the official of the next that came.
+
+"Enrico, a gondolier of Fusina. I come to try my oar with the braggarts
+of the canals."
+
+"In whom is thy trust?"
+
+"Sant' Antonio di Padua?"
+
+"Thou wilt need his aid, though we commend thy spirit. Enter, and take
+place."--"And who art thou?" he continued, to another, when the second
+had imitated the easy skill of the first.
+
+"I am called Gino of Calabria, a gondolier in private service."
+
+"What noble retaineth thee?"
+
+"The illustrious and most excellent Don Camillo Monforte, Duca and Lord
+of Sant' Agata in Napoli, and of right a senator in Venice."
+
+"Thou should'st have come of Padua, friend, by thy knowledge of the
+laws! Dost thou trust in him thou servest for the victory?"
+
+There was a movement among the senators at the answer of Gino; and the
+half-terrified varlet thought he perceived frowns gathering on more than
+one brow. He looked around in quest of him whose greatness he had
+vaunted, as if he sought succor.
+
+"Wilt thou name thy support in this great trial of force?" resumed the
+herald.
+
+"My master," uttered the terrified Gino, "St. Januarius, and St. Mark."
+
+"Thou art well defended. Should the two latter fail thee, thou mayest
+surely count on the first!"
+
+"Signor Monforte has an illustrious name, and he is welcome to our
+Venetian sports," observed the Doge, slightly bending his head towards
+the young Calabrian noble, who stood at no great distance in a gondola
+of state, regarding the scene with a deeply-interested countenance. This
+cautious interruption of the pleasantries of the official was
+acknowledged by a low reverence, and the matter proceeded.
+
+"Take thy station, Gino of Calabria, and a happy fortune be thine," said
+the latter; then turning to another, he asked in surprise--"Why art thou
+here?"
+
+"I come to try my gondola's swiftness."
+
+"Thou art old, and unequal to this struggle; husband thy strength for
+daily toil. An ill-advised ambition hath put thee on this useless
+trial."
+
+The new aspirant had forced a common fisherman's gondola, of no bad
+shape, and of sufficient lightness, but which bore about it all the
+vulgar signs of its daily uses, beneath the gallery of the Bucentaur. He
+received the reproof meekly, and was about to turn his boat aside,
+though with a sorrowing and mortified eye, when a sign from the Doge
+arrested his arm.
+
+"Question him, as of wont," said the prince.
+
+"How art thou named?" continued the reluctant official, who, like all of
+subordinate condition, had far more jealousy of the dignity of the
+sports he directed, than his superior.
+
+"I am known as Antonio, a fisherman of the Lagunes."
+
+"Thou art old!"
+
+"Signore, none know it better than I. It is sixty summers since I first
+threw net or line into the water."
+
+"Nor art thou clad as befitteth one who cometh before the state of
+Venice in a regatta."
+
+"I am here in the best that I have. Let them who would do the nobles
+greater honor, come in better."
+
+"Thy limbs are uncovered--thy bosom bare--thy sinews feeble--go to; thou
+art ill advised to interrupt the pleasures of the nobles by this
+levity."
+
+Again Antonio would have shrunk from the ten thousand eyes that shone
+upon him, when the calm voice of the Doge once more came to his aid.
+
+"The struggle is open to all," said the sovereign; "still I would advise
+the poor and aged man to take counsel; give him silver, for want urges
+him to this hopeless trial."
+
+"Thou hearest; alms are offered thee; but give place to those who are
+stronger and more seemly for the sport."
+
+"I will obey, as is the duty of one born and accustomed to poverty. They
+said the race was open to all, and I crave the pardon of the nobles,
+since I meant to do them no dishonor."
+
+"Justice in the palace, and justice on the canals," hastily observed the
+prince. "If he will continue, it is his right. It is the pride of St.
+Mark that his balances are held with an even hand."
+
+A murmur of applause succeeded the specious sentiment, for the powerful
+rarely affect the noble attribute of justice, however limited may be its
+exercise, without their words finding an echo in the tongues of the
+selfish.
+
+"Thou hearest--His Highness, who is the voice of a mighty state, says
+thou mayest remain;--though thou art still advised to withdraw."
+
+"I will then see what virtue is left in this naked arm," returned
+Antonio, casting a mournful glance, and one that was not entirely free
+from the latent vanity of man, at his meagre and threadbare attire. "The
+limb hath its scars, but the infidels may have spared enough, for the
+little I ask."
+
+"In whom is thy faith?"
+
+"Blessed St. Anthony, of the Miraculous Draught."
+
+"Take thy place.--Ha! here cometh one unwilling to be known! How now!
+who appears with so false a face?"
+
+"Call me, Mask."
+
+"So neat and just a leg and arm need not have hid their follow, the
+countenance. Is it your Highness's pleasure that one disguised should be
+entered for the sports?"
+
+"Doubt it not. A mask is sacred in Venice. It is the glory of our
+excellent and wise laws, that he who seeketh to dwell within the privacy
+of his own thoughts, and to keep aloof from curiosity by shadowing his
+features, rangeth our streets and canals as if he dwelt in the security
+of his own abode. Such are the high privileges of liberty, and such it
+is to be a citizen of a generous, a magnanimous, and a free state."
+
+A thousand bowed in approbation of the sentiment, and a rumor passed
+from mouth to mouth that a young noble was about to try his strength in
+the regatta, in compliment to some wayward beauty.
+
+"Such is justice!" exclaimed the herald, in a loud voice, admiration
+apparently overcoming respect, in the ardor of the moment. "Happy is he
+that is born in Venice, and envied are the people in whose councils
+wisdom and mercy preside, like lovely and benignant sisters! On whom
+dost thou rely?"
+
+"Mine own arm."
+
+"Ha! this is impious! None so presuming may enter into these privileged
+sports."
+
+The hurried exclamation of the herald was accompanied by a general stir,
+such as denotes sudden and strong emotion in a multitude.
+
+"The children of the Republic are protected by an even hand," observed
+the venerable prince. "It formeth our just pride, and blessed St. Mark
+forbid that aught resembling vain-glory should be uttered! but it is
+truly our boast that we know no difference between our subjects of the
+islands or those of the Dalmatian coast; between Padua or Candia; Corfu
+or St. Giorgio. Still it is not permitted for any to refuse the
+intervention of the saints."
+
+"Name thy patron, or quit the place," continued the observant herald,
+anew.
+
+The stranger paused, as if he looked into his mind, and then he
+answered--
+
+"San Giovanni of the Wilderness."
+
+"Thou namest one of blessed memory!"
+
+"I name him who may have pity on me, in this living desert."
+
+"The temper of thy soul is best known to thyself, but this reverend rank
+of patricians, yonder brilliant show of beauty, and that goodly
+multitude, may claim another name.--Take thy place."
+
+While the herald proceeded to take the names of three or four more
+applicants, all gondoliers in private service, a murmur ran through the
+spectators, which proved how much their interest and curiosity had been
+awakened by the replies and appearance of the two last competitors. In
+the meantime, the young nobles who entertained those who came last,
+began to move among the throng of boats, with the intention of making
+such manifestations of their gallant desires and personal devotion, as
+suited the customs and opinions of the age. The list was now proclaimed
+to be full, and the gondolas were towed off, as before, towards the
+starting point, leaving the place beneath the stern of the Bucentaur,
+vacant. The scene that followed, consequently passed directly before the
+eyes of those grave men, who charged themselves with most of the private
+interests, as well as with the public concerns of Venice.
+
+There were many unmasked and high-born dames, whirling about in their
+boats, attended by cavaliers in rich attire, and here and there appeared
+a pair of dark lustrous eyes, peeping through the silk of a visor, that
+concealed some countenance too youthful for exposure in so gay a scene.
+One gondola, in particular, was remarked for the singular grace and
+beauty of the form it held, qualities which made themselves apparent,
+even through the half-disguise of the simple habiliments she wore. The
+boat, the servants, and the ladies, for there were two, were alike
+distinguished for that air of severe but finished simplicity, which
+oftener denotes the presence of high quality and true taste, than a more
+lavish expenditure of vulgar ornament. A Carmelite, whose features were
+concealed by his cowl, testified that their condition was high, and lent
+a dignity to their presence by his reverend and grave protection. A
+hundred gondolas approached this party, and after as many fruitless
+efforts to penetrate the disguises, glided away, while whispers and
+interrogatories passed from one to another, to learn the name and
+station of the youthful beauty. At length, a gay bark, with watermen in
+gorgeous liveries, and in whose equipment there was a studied display of
+magnificence, came into the little circle that curiosity had drawn
+together. The single cavalier who occupied the seat, arose, for few
+gondolas appeared that day with their gloomy-looking and mysterious
+pavilions, and saluted the masked females with the ease of one
+accustomed to all presences, but with the reserve of deep respect.
+
+"I have a favorite follower in this race," he said gallantly, "and one
+in whose skill and force I put great trust. Until now I have uselessly
+sought a lady of a beauty and merit so rare, as to warrant that I should
+place his fortune on her smiles. But I seek no further."
+
+"You are gifted with a keen sight, Signore, that you discover all you
+seek beneath these masks," returned one of the two females, while their
+companion, the Carmelite, bowed graciously to the compliment, which
+seemed little more than was warranted by the usage of such scenes.
+
+"There are other means of recognition than the eyes, and other sources
+of admiration than the senses, lady. Conceal yourselves as you will,
+here do I know that I am near the fairest face, the warmest heart, and
+the purest mind of Venice!"
+
+"This is bold augury, Signore," returned she who was evidently the
+oldest of the two, glancing a look at her companion as if to note the
+effect of this gallant speech. "Venice has a name for the beauty of its
+dames, and the sun of Italy warms many a generous heart."
+
+"Better that such noble gifts should be directed to the worship of the
+Creator than of the creature," murmured the monk.
+
+"Some there are, holy father, who have admiration for both. Such I would
+fain hope is the happy lot of her who is favored with the spiritual
+counsel of one so virtuous and wise as yourself. Here I place my
+fortune, let what may follow; and here would I gladly place a heavier
+stake, were it permitted."
+
+As the cavalier spoke, he tendered to the silent fair a bouquet of the
+sweetest and most fragrant flowers; and among them were those to which
+poets and custom have ascribed the emblematic qualities of constancy and
+love. She, to whom this offering of gallantry was made, hesitated to
+accept it. It much exceeded the reserve imposed on one of her station
+and years to allow of such homage from the other sex, though the
+occasion was generally deemed one that admitted of more than usual
+gallantry; and she evidently shrank, with the sensitiveness of one whose
+feelings were unpractised, from a homage so public.
+
+"Receive the flowers, my love," mildly whispered her companion--"the
+cavalier who offers them simply intends to show the quality of his
+breeding."
+
+"That will be seen in the end," hastily returned Don Camillo--for it was
+he. "Signora, adieu; we have met on this water when there was less
+restraint between us."
+
+He bowed, and, signing to his gondolier, was quickly lost in the crowd
+of boats. Ere the barks, however, were separated, the mask of the silent
+fair was slightly moved as if she sought relief from the air; and the
+Neapolitan was rewarded for his gallantry by a momentary glance at the
+glowing countenance of Violetta.
+
+"Thy guardian hath a displeased eye," hurriedly observed Donna Florinda.
+"I wonder that we should be known!"
+
+"I should more wonder that we were not. I could recall the noble
+Neapolitan cavalier amid a million. Thou dost not remember all that I
+owe to him!"
+
+Donna Florinda did not answer; but in secret she offered up a fervent
+prayer that the obligation might be blessed to the future happiness of
+her who had received it. There was a furtive and uneasy glance between
+her and the Carmelite; but as neither spoke, a long and thoughtful
+silence succeeded the rencontre.
+
+From this musing the party, in common with all the gay and laughing
+multitude by which they were surrounded, were reminded of the business
+on which they were assembled by the signal-gun, the agitation on the
+great canal nearest the scene of strife, and a clear blast of the
+trumpets. But in order that the narrative may proceed regularly, it is
+fit that we should return a little in the order of time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  "Here art thou in appointment fresh and fair,
+  Anticipating time with starting courage."
+                                   SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+It has been seen that the gondolas, which were to contend in the race,
+had been towed towards the place of starting, in order that the men
+might enter on the struggle with undiminished vigor. In this precaution,
+even the humble and half-clad fisherman had not been neglected, but his
+boat, like the others, was attached to the larger barges to which this
+duty had been assigned. Still, as he passed along the canal, before the
+crowded balconies and groaning vessels which lined its sides, there
+arose that scornful and deriding laugh, which seems ever to grow more
+strong and bold, as misfortune weighs most heavily on its subject.
+
+The old man was not unconscious of the remarks of which he was the
+subject; and, as it is rare indeed that our sensibilities do not survive
+our better fortunes, even he was so far conscious of a fall as not to be
+callous to contempt thus openly expressed. He looked wistfully on every
+side of him, and seemed to seek in every eye he encountered, some
+portion of the sympathy which his meek and humble feelings still craved.
+But even the men of his caste and profession threw jibes upon his ear;
+and though, of all the competitors, perhaps the one whose motive most
+hallowed his ambition, he was held to be the only proper subject of
+mirth. For the solution of this revolting trait of human character we
+are not to look to Venice and her institutions, since it is known that
+none are so arrogant, on occasions, as the ridden, and that the abject
+and insolent spirits are usually tenants of the same bosom.
+
+The movement of the boats brought those of the masked waterman, and the
+subjects of those taunts, side by side.
+
+"Thou art not the favorite in this strife," observed the former, when a
+fresh burst of jibes was showered on the head of his unresisting
+associate. "Thou hast not been sufficiently heedful of thy attire, for
+this is a town of luxury, and he who would meet applause must appear on
+the canals in the guise of one less borne upon by fortune."
+
+"I know them! I know them!" returned the fisherman; "they are led away
+by their pride, and they think ill of one who cannot share in their
+vanities. But, friend unknown, I have brought with me a face, which, old
+though it be, and wrinkled, and worn by the weather like the stones of
+the sea-shore, is uncovered to the eye, and without shame."
+
+"There may be reasons which thou knowest not, why I wear a mask. But if
+my face be hid the limbs are bare, and thou seest there is no lack of
+sinews to make good that which I have undertaken. Thou should'st have
+thought better of the matter ere thou puttest thyself in the way of so
+much mortification. Defeat will not cause the people to treat thee more
+tenderly."
+
+"If my sinews are old and stiffened, Signor Mask, they are long used to
+toil. As to shame, if it is a shame to be below the rest of mankind in
+fortune, it will not now come for the first time. A heavy sorrow hath
+befallen me, and this race may lighten the burden of grief. I shall not
+pretend that I hear this laughter, and all these scornful speeches, as
+one listens to the evening breeze on the Lagunes--for a man is still a
+man, though he lives with the humblest, and eats of the coarsest. But
+let it pass, Sant' Antonio will give me heart to bear it."
+
+"Thou hast a stout mind, fisherman, and I would gladly pray my patron
+to grant thee a stronger arm, but that I have much need of this victory
+myself. Wilt thou be content with the second prize, if, by any manner of
+skill, I might aid thy efforts? for, I suppose, the metal of the third
+is as little to thy taste as it is to my own."
+
+"Nay, I count not on gold or silver."
+
+"Can the honor of such a struggle awaken the pride of one like thee?"
+
+The old man looked earnestly at his companion, but he shook his head
+without answer. Fresh merriment, at his expense, caused him to bend his
+face towards the scoffers, and he perceived they were just then passing
+a numerous group of his fellows of the Lagunes, who seemed to feel that
+his unjustifiable ambition reflected, in some degree, on the honor of
+their whole body.
+
+"How now, old Antonio!" shouted the boldest of the band, "is it not
+enough that thou hast won the honors of the net, but thou would'st have
+a golden oar at thy neck?"
+
+"We shall yet see him of the senate!" cried a second.
+
+"He standeth in need of the horned bonnet for his naked head," continued
+a third. "We shall see the brave Admiral Antonio sailing in the
+Bucentaur, with the nobles of the land!"
+
+Their sallies were succeeded by coarse laughter. Even the fair in the
+balconies were not uninfluenced by these constant jibes, and the
+apparent discrepancy between the condition and the means of so unusual a
+pretender to the honors of the regatta. The purpose of the old man
+wavered, but he seemed goaded by some inward incentive that still
+enabled him to maintain his ground. His companion closely watched the
+varying expression of a countenance that was far too little trained in
+deception to conceal the feelings within; and, as they approached the
+place of starting, he again spoke.
+
+"Thou mayest yet withdraw," he said; "why should one of thy years make
+the little time he has to stay bitter, by bearing the ridicule of his
+associates for the rest of his life?"
+
+"St. Anthony did a greater wonder when he caused the fishes to come up
+on the waters to hear his preaching, and I will not show a cowardly
+heart at a moment when there is most need of resolution."
+
+The masked waterman crossed himself devoutly; and, relinquishing all
+further design to persuade the other to abandon the fruitless contest,
+he gave all his thoughts to his own interest in the coming struggle.
+
+The narrowness of most of the canals of Venice, with the innumerable
+angles and the constant passing, have given rise to a fashion of
+construction and of rowing that are so peculiar to that city and its
+immediate dependencies as to require some explanation. The reader has
+doubtless already understood that a gondola is a long, narrow, and light
+boat, adapted to the uses of the place, and distinct from the wherries
+of all other towns. The distance between the dwellings on most of the
+canals is so small, that the width of the latter does not admit of the
+use of oars on both sides, at the same time. The necessity of constantly
+turning aside to give room for others, and the frequency of the bridges
+and the corners, have suggested the expediency of placing the face of
+the waterman in the direction in which the boat is steering, and, of
+course, of keeping him on his feet. As every gondola, when fully
+equipped, has its pavilion in the centre, the height of the latter
+renders it necessary to place him who steers on such an elevation as
+will enable him to overlook it. From these several causes a one-oared
+boat in Venice is propelled by a gondolier, who stands on a little
+angular deck in its stern, formed like the low roof of a house, and the
+stroke of the oar is given by a push, instead of a pull, as is common
+elsewhere. This habit of rowing erect, however, which is usually done
+by a forward, instead of a backward movement of the body, is not
+unfrequent in all the ports of the Mediterranean, though in no other is
+there a boat which resembles the gondola in all its properties or uses.
+The upright position of the gondolier requires that the pivot on which
+the oar rests should have a corresponding elevation; and there is,
+consequently, a species of bumkin raised from the side of the boat to
+the desired height, and which, being formed of a crooked and very
+irregular knee of wood, has two or three row-locks, one above the other,
+to suit the stature of different individuals, or to give a broader or a
+narrower sweep of the blade as the movement shall require. As there is
+frequent occasion to cast the oar from one of these row-locks to the
+other, and not unfrequently to change its side, it rests in a very open
+bed; and the instrument is kept in its place by great dexterity alone,
+and by a perfect knowledge of the means of accommodating the force and
+the rapidity of the effort to the forward movement of the boat and the
+resistance of the water. All these difficulties united render skill in a
+gondolier one of the most delicate branches of a waterman's art, as it
+is clear that muscular strength alone, though of great aid, can avail
+but little in such a practice.
+
+The great canal of Venice, following its windings, being more than a
+league in length, the distance in the present race was reduced nearly
+half, by causing the boats to start from the Rialto. At this point,
+then, the gondolas were all assembled, attended by those who were to
+place them. As the whole of the population which before had been
+extended along the entire course of the water, was now crowded between
+the bridge and the Bucentaur, the long and graceful avenue resembled a
+vista of human heads. It was an imposing sight to look along that bright
+and living lane, and the hearts of each competitor beat high, as hope,
+or pride, or apprehension, became the feeling of the moment.
+
+"Gino of Calabria," cried the marshal who placed the gondolas, "thy
+station is on the right. Take it, and St. Januarius speed thee!"
+
+The servitor of Don Camillo assumed his oar, and the boat glided
+gracefully into its berth.
+
+"Thou comest next, Enrico of Fusina. Call stoutly on thy Paduan patron,
+and husband thy strength; for none of the main have ever yet borne away
+a prize in Venice."
+
+He then summoned, in succession, those whose names have not been
+mentioned, and placed them side by side, in the centre of the canal.
+
+"Here is place for thee, Signore," continued the officer, inclining his
+head to the unknown gondolier; for he had imbibed the general impression
+that the face of some young patrician was concealed beneath the mask, to
+humor the fancy of some capricious fair.--"Chance hath given thee the
+extreme left."
+
+"Thou hast forgotten to call the fisherman," observed the masker, as he
+drove his own gondola into its station.
+
+"Does the hoary fool persist in exposing his vanity and his rags to the
+best of Venice?"
+
+"I can take place in the rear," meekly observed Antonio. "There may be
+those in the line it doth not become one like me to crowd, and a few
+strokes of the oar, more or less, can differ but little in so long; a
+strife."
+
+"Thou hadst better push modesty to discretion, and remain."
+
+"If it be your pleasure, Signore, I would rather see what St. Anthony
+may do for an old fisherman, who has prayed to him, night and morning,
+these sixty years?"
+
+"It is thy right; and, as thou seemest content with it, Keep the place
+thou hast in the rear. It is only occupying it a little earlier than
+thou would'st otherwise. Now, recall the rules of the games, hardy
+gondoliers, and make your last appeal to your patrons. There is to be no
+crossing, or other foul expedients; naught except ready oars, and
+nimble wrists. He who varies needlessly from his line until he leadeth,
+shall be recalled by name; and whoever is guilty of any act to spoil the
+sports, or otherwise to offend the patricians, shall be both checked and
+punished. Be ready for the signal."
+
+The assistant, who was in a strongly manned boat, fell back a little,
+while runners, similarly equipped, went ahead to order the curious from
+the water. These preparations were scarcely made, when a signal floated
+on the nearest dome. It was repeated on the campanile, and a gun was
+fired at the arsenal. A deep but suppressed murmur arose in the throng,
+which was as quickly succeeded by suspense.
+
+Each gondolier had suffered the bows of his boat to incline slightly
+towards the left shore of the canal, as the jockey is seen, at the
+starting-post, to turn his courser aside, in order to repress its ardor,
+or divert its attention. But the first long and broad sweep of the oar
+brought them all in a line again, and away they glided in a body.
+
+For the first few minutes there was no difference in speed, nor any sign
+by which the instructed might detect the probable evidence of defeat or
+success. The whole ten, which formed the front line, skimmed the water
+with an equal velocity, beak to beak, as if some secret attraction held
+each in its place, while the humble, though equally light bark of the
+fisherman steadily kept its position in the rear.
+
+The boats were soon held in command. The oars got their justest poise
+and widest sweep, and the wrists of the men accustomed to their play.
+The line began to waver, It undulated, the glittering prow of one
+protruding beyond the others; and then it changed its form. Enrico of
+Fusina shot ahead, and, privileged by success, he insensibly sheered
+more into the centre of the canal, avoiding by the change the eddies,
+and the other obstructions of the shore. This manoeuvre which, in the
+language of the course, would have been called "taking the track," had
+the additional advantage of throwing upon those who followed some
+trifling impediment from the back-water. The sturdy and practised
+Bartolomeo of the Lido, as his companions usually called him, came next,
+occupying the space on his leader's quarter, where he suffered least
+from the reaction caused by the stroke of his oar. The gondolier of Don
+Camillo, also, soon shot out of the crowd, and was seen plying his arms
+vigorously still farther to the right, and a little in the rear of
+Bartolomeo. Then came in the centre of the canal, and near as might be
+in the rear of the triumphant waterman of the main, a dense body, with
+little order and varying positions, compelling each other to give way,
+and otherwise increasing the difficulties of their struggle. More to the
+left, and so near to the palaces as barely to allow room for the sweep
+of his oar, was the masked competitor, whose progress seemed retarded by
+some unseen cause, for he gradually fell behind all the others, until
+several boats' lengths of open water lay between him and even the group
+of his nameless opponents. Still he plied his arms steadily, and with
+sufficient skill. As the interest of mystery had been excited in his
+favor, a rumor passed up the canal, that the young cavalier had been
+little favored by fortune in the choice of a boat. Others, who reflected
+more deeply on causes, whispered of the folly of one of his habits
+taking the risk of mortification by a competition with men whose daily
+labor had hardened their sinews, and whose practice enabled them to
+judge closely of every chance of the race. But when the eyes of the
+multitude turned from the cluster of passing boats to the solitary barge
+of the fisherman, who came singly on in the rear, admiration was again
+turned to derision.
+
+Antonio had cast aside the cap he wore of wont, and the few straggling
+hairs that were left streamed about his hollow temples, leaving the
+whole of his swarthy features exposed to view. More than once, as the
+gondola came on, his eyes turned aside reproachfully, as if he keenly
+felt the stings of so many unlicensed tongues applied to feelings which,
+though blunted by his habits and condition, were far from extinguished.
+Laugh arose above laugh, however, and taunt succeeded taunt more
+bitterly, as the boats came among the gorgeous palaces which lined the
+canal nearer to the goal. It was not that the owners of these lordly
+piles indulged in the unfeeling triumph, but their dependants,
+constantly subject themselves to the degrading influence of a superior
+presence, let loose the long-pent torrents of their arrogance on the
+head of the first unresisting subject which offered.
+
+Antonio bore all these jibes manfully, if not in tranquillity, and
+always without retort, until he again approached the spot occupied by
+his companions of the Lagunes. Here his eye sank under the reproaches,
+and his oar faltered. The taunts and denunciations increased as he lost
+ground, and there was a moment when the rebuked and humbled spirit of
+the old man seemed about to relinquish the contest. But dashing a hand
+across his brow, as if to clear a sight which had become dimmed and
+confused, he continued to ply the oar, and, happily, he was soon past
+the point most trying to his resolution. From this moment the cries
+against the fisherman diminished, and as the Bucentaur, though still
+distant, was now in sight, interest in the issue of the race absorbed
+all other feelings.
+
+Enrico still kept the lead; but the judges of the gondolier's skill
+began to detect signs of exhaustion in his faltering stroke. The
+waterman of the Lido pressed him hard, and the Calabrian was drawing
+more into a line with them both. At this moment, too, the masked
+competitor exhibited a force and skill that none had expected to see in
+one of his supposed rank. His body was thrown more upon the effort of
+the oar, and as his leg was stretched behind to aid the stroke, it
+discovered a volume of muscle, and an excellence of proportion, that
+excited murmurs of applause. The consequence was soon apparent. His
+gondola glided past the crowd in the centre of the canal, and by a
+change that was nearly insensible, he became the fourth in the race. The
+shouts which rewarded his success had scarcely parted from the
+multitude, ere their admiration was called to a new and an entirely
+unexpected aspect in the struggle.
+
+Left to his own exertions, and less annoyed by that derision and
+contempt which often defeat even more generous efforts, Antonio had
+drawn nearer to the crowd of nameless competitors. Though
+undistinguished in this narrative, there were seen, in that group of
+gondoliers, faces well known on the canals of Venice, as belonging to
+watermen in whose dexterity and force the city took pride. Either
+favored by his isolated position, or availing himself of the
+embarrassment these men gave to each other, the despised fisherman was
+seen a little on their left, coining up abreast, with a stroke and
+velocity that promised further success. The expectation was quickly
+realized. He passed them all, amid a dead and wondering silence, and
+took his station as fifth in the struggle.
+
+From this moment all interest in those who formed the vulgar mass was
+lost. Every eye was turned towards the front, where the strife increased
+at each stroke of the oar, and where the issue began to assume a new and
+doubtful character. The exertions of the waterman of Fusina were
+seemingly redoubled, though his boat went no faster. The gondola of
+Bartolomeo shot past him; it was followed by those of Gino and the
+masked gondolier, while not a cry betrayed the breathless interest of
+the multitude. But when the boat of Antonio also swept ahead, there
+arose such a hum of voices as escapes a throng when a sudden and violent
+change of feeling is produced in their wayward sentiments. Enrico was
+frantic with the disgrace. He urged every power of his frame to avert
+the dishonor, with the desperate energy of an Italian, and then he cast
+himself into the bottom of the gondola, tearing his hair and weeping in
+agony. His example was followed by those in the rear, though with more
+governed feelings, for they shot aside among the boats which lined the
+canal, and were lost to view.
+
+From this open and unexpected abandonment of the struggle, the
+spectators got the surest evidence of its desperate character. But as a
+man has little sympathy for the unfortunate when his feelings are
+excited by competition, the defeated were quickly forgotten. The name of
+Bartolomeo was borne high upon the winds by a thousand voices, and his
+fellows of the Piazzetta and the Lido called upon him, aloud, to die for
+the honor of their craft. Well did the sturdy gondolier answer to their
+wishes, for palace after palace was left behind, and no further change
+was made in the relative positions of the boats. But, like his
+predecessor, the leader redoubled his efforts with a diminished effect,
+and Venice had the mortification of seeing a stranger leading one of the
+most brilliant of her regattas. Bartolomeo no sooner lost place, than
+Gino, the masker, and the despised Antonio, in turn, shot by, leaving
+him who had so lately been first in the race, the last. He did not,
+however, relinquish the strife, but continued to struggle with the
+energy of one who merited a better fortune.
+
+When this unexpected and entirely new character was given to the
+contest, there still remained a broad sheet of water between the
+advancing gondolas and the goal. Gino led, and with many favorable
+symptoms of his being able to maintain his advantage. He was encouraged
+by the shouts of the multitude, who now forgot his Calabrian origin in
+his success, while many of the serving-men of his master cheered him on
+by name. All would not do. The masked waterman, for the first time,
+threw the grandeur of his skill and force into the oar. The ashen
+instrument bent to the power of an arm whose strength appeared to
+increase at will, and the movements of his body became rapid as the
+leaps of the greyhound. The pliant gondola obeyed, and amid a shout
+which passed from the Piazzetta to the Rialto, it glided ahead.
+
+If success gives force and increases the physical and moral energies,
+there is a fearful and certain reaction in defeat. The follower of Don
+Camillo was no exception to the general law, and when the masked
+competitor passed him the boat of Antonio followed as if it were
+impelled by the same strokes. The distance between the two leading
+gondolas even now seemed to lessen, and there was a moment of breathless
+interest when all there expected to see the fisherman, in despite of his
+years and boat, shooting past his rival.
+
+But expectation was deceived. He of the mask, notwithstanding his
+previous efforts, seemed to sport with the toil, so ready was the sweep
+of his oar, so sure its stroke, and so vigorous the arm by which it was
+impelled. Nor was Antonio an antagonist to despise. If there was less of
+the grace of a practised gondolier of the canals in his attitudes than
+in those of his companion, there was no relaxation in the force of his
+sinews. They sustained him to the last with that enduring power which
+had been begotten by threescore years of unremitting labor, and while
+his still athletic form was exerted to the utmost there appeared no
+failing of its energies.
+
+A few moments sent the leading gondolas several lengths ahead of their
+nearest followers. The dark beak of the fisherman's boat hung upon the
+quarter of the more showy bark of his antagonist, but it could do no
+more. The port was open before them, and they glanced by church, palace,
+barge, mystick, and felucca, without the slightest inequality in their
+relative speed. The masked waterman glanced a look behind as if to
+calculate his advantage, and then bending again to his pliant oar he
+spoke, loud enough to be heard only by him who pressed so hard upon his
+track.
+
+"Thou hast deceived me, fisherman!" he said--"there is more of manhood
+in thee yet than I had thought."
+
+"If there is manhood in my arms there is childlessness and sorrow at the
+heart," was the reply.
+
+"Dost thou so prize a golden bauble? Thou art second; be content with
+thy lot."
+
+"It will not do; I must be foremost or I have wearied my old limbs in
+vain!"
+
+This brief dialogue was uttered with an ease that showed how far use had
+accustomed both to powerful bodily efforts, and with a firmness of tones
+that few could have equalled in a moment of so great physical effort.
+The masker was silent, but his purpose seemed to waver. Twenty strokes
+of his powerful oar-blade and the goal was attained: but his sinews were
+not so much extended, and that limb which had shown so fine a
+development of muscle, was less swollen and rigid. The gondola of old
+Antonio glided abeam.
+
+"Push thy soul into the blade," muttered he of the mask, "or thou wilt
+yet be beaten!"
+
+The fisherman threw every effort of his body on the coming effort, and
+he gained a fathom. Another stroke caused the boat to quiver to its
+centre, and the water curled from its bows like the ripple of a rapid.
+Then the gondola darted between the two goal-barges, and the little
+flags that marked the point of victory fell into the water. The action
+was scarce noted ere the glittering beak of the masquer shot past the
+eyes of the judges, who doubted for an instant on whom success had
+fallen. Gino was not long behind, and after him came Bartolomeo, fourth
+and last in the best contested race which had ever been seen on the
+waters of Venice.
+
+When the flags fell, men held their breaths in suspense. Few knew the
+victor, so close had been the struggle. But a flourish of the trumpets
+soon commanded attention, and then a herald proclaimed that--
+
+"Antonio, a fisherman of the Lagunes, favored by his holy patron of the
+Miraculous Draught, had borne away the prize of gold--while a waterman
+who wore his face concealed, but who hath trusted to the care of the
+blessed San Giovanni of the Wilderness, is worthy of the silver prize,
+and that the third had fallen to the fortunes of Gino of Calabria, a
+servitor of the illustrious Don Camillo Monforte, Duca di Sant' Agata,
+and lord of many Neapolitan Seignories."
+
+When this formal announcement was made, there succeeded a silence like
+that of the tomb. Then there arose a general shout among the living
+mass, which bore on high the name of Antonio as if they celebrated the
+success of some conqueror. All feeling of contempt was lost in the
+influence of his triumph. The fishermen of the Lagunes, who so lately
+had loaded their aged companion with contumely, shouted for his glory
+with a zeal that manifested the violence of the transition from
+mortification to pride; and, as has ever been and ever will be the meed
+of success, he who was thought least likely to obtain it was most
+greeted with praise and adulation when it was found that the end had
+disappointed expectation. Ten thousand voices were lifted in proclaiming
+his skill and victory, and young and old, the fair, the gay, the noble,
+the winner of sequins and he who lost, struggled alike to catch a
+glimpse of the humble old man, who had so unexpectedly wrought this
+change of sentiment in the feelings of a multitude.
+
+Antonio bore his triumph meekly. When his gondola had reached the goal
+he checked its course, and, without discovering any of the usual signs
+of exhaustion, he remained standing, though the deep heaving of his
+broad and tawny chest proved that his powers had been taxed to their
+utmost. He smiled as the shouts arose on his ear, for praise is grateful
+even to the meek; still he seemed oppressed with an emotion of a
+character deeper than pride. Age had somewhat dimmed his eye, but it was
+now full of hope. His features worked, and a single burning drop fell
+on each rugged cheek. The fisherman then breathed more freely.
+
+Like his successful antagonist, the waterman of the mask betrayed none
+of the debility which usually succeeds great bodily exertion. His knees
+were motionless, his hands still grasped the oar firmly, and he too
+kept his feet with a steadiness that showed the physical perfection of
+his frame. On the other hand, both Gino and Bartolomeo sank in their
+respective boats as they gained the goal in succession; and so exhausted
+was each of these renowned gondoliers, that several moments elapsed
+before either had breath for speech. It was during this momentary pause
+that the multitude proclaimed its sympathy with the victor by their
+longest and loudest shouts. The noise had scarcely died away, however,
+before a herald summoned Antonio of the Lagunes, the masked waterman of
+the Blessed St. John of the Wilderness, and Gino the Calabrian, to the
+presence of the Doge, whose princely hand was to bestow the promised
+prizes of the regatta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  "We shall not spend a large expense of time,
+  Before we reckon with your several loves,
+  And make us even with you."
+                                  MACBETH.
+
+
+When the three gondolas reached the side of the Bucentaur, the fisherman
+hung back, as if he distrusted his right to intrude himself into the
+presence of the senate. He was, however, commanded to ascend, and signs
+were made for his two companions to follow.
+
+The nobles, clad in their attire of office, formed a long and imposing
+lane from the gangway to the stern, where the titular sovereign of that
+still more titular Republic was placed, in the centre of the high
+officers of state, gorgeous and grave in borrowed guise and natural
+qualities.
+
+"Approach," said the Prince, mildly, observing that the old and
+half-naked man that led the victors hesitated to advance. "Thou art the
+conqueror, fisherman, and to thy hands must I consign the prize."
+
+Antonio bent his knee to the deck, and bowed his head lowly ere he
+obeyed. Then taking courage, he drew nearer to the person of the Doge,
+where he stood with a bewildered eye and rebuked mien, waiting the
+further pleasure of his superiors. The aged Prince paused for stillness
+to succeed the slight movements created by curiosity. When he spoke, it
+was amid a perfect calm.
+
+"It is the boast of our glorious Republic," he said, "that the rights of
+none are disregarded; that the lowly receive their merited rewards as
+surely as the great; that St. Mark holds the balance with an even hand,
+and that this obscure fisherman, having deserved the honors of this
+regatta, will receive them with the same readiness on the part of him
+who bestows, as if he were the most favored follower of our own house.
+Nobles and burghers of Venice, learn to prize your excellent and equable
+laws in this occasion, for it is most in acts of familiar and common
+usage that the paternal character of a government is seen, since in
+matters of higher moment the eyes of a world impel a compliance with its
+own opinions."
+
+The Doge delivered these preliminary remarks in a firm tone, like one
+confident of his auditors' applause. He was not deceived. No sooner had
+he done, than a murmur of approbation passed through the assembly, and
+extended itself to thousands who were beyond the sound of his voice, and
+to more who were beyond the reach of his meaning. The senators bent
+their heads in acknowledgment of the justice of what their chief had
+uttered, and the latter, having waited to gather these signs of an
+approving loyalty, proceeded.
+
+"It is my duty, Antonio, and, being a duty, it hath become a pleasure to
+place around thy neck this golden chain. The oar which it bears is an
+emblem of thy skill; and among thy associates it will be a mark of the
+Republic's favor and impartiality, and of thy merit. Take it, then,
+vigorous old man, for though age hath thinned thy temples and furrowed
+thy cheek, it hath scarcely affected thy wonderful sinews and hardy
+courage!"
+
+"Highness!" observed Antonio, recoiling apace, when he found that he was
+expected to stoop, in order that the bauble might be bestowed, "I am not
+fit to bear about me such a sign of greatness and good fortune. The
+glitter of the gold would mock my poverty, and a jewel which comes from
+so princely a hand would be ill placed on a naked bosom."
+
+This unexpected refusal caused a general surprise, and a momentary
+pause.
+
+"Thou hast not entered on the struggle, fisherman, without a view to its
+prize? But thou sayest truly, the golden ornament would, indeed, but ill
+befit thy condition and daily wants. Wear it for the moment, since it is
+meet that all should know the justice and impartiality of our decisions,
+and bring it to my treasurer when the sports are done; he will make such
+an exchange as better suits thy wishes. There is precedent for this
+practice, and it shall be followed."
+
+"Illustrious Highness! I did not trust my old limbs in so hard a strife
+without hopes of a reward. But it was not gold, nor any vanity to be
+seen among my equals with that glittering jewel, that led me to meet the
+scorn of the gondoliers, and the displeasure of the great."
+
+"Thou art deceived, honest fisherman, if thou supposest that we regard
+thy just ambition with displeasure. We love to see a generous emulation
+among our people, and take all proper means to encourage those aspiring
+spirits who bring honor to a state, and fortune to our shores."
+
+"I pretend not to place my poor thoughts against those of my Prince,"
+answered the fisherman; "my fears and shame have led me to believe that
+it would give more pleasure to the noble and gay had a younger and
+happier borne away this honor."
+
+"Thou must not think this. Bend then thy knee, that I may bestow the
+prize. When the sun sets thou wilt find those in my palace who will
+relieve thee of the ornament at a just remuneration."
+
+"Highness!" said Antonio, looking earnestly at the Doge, who again
+arrested his movement in surprise, "I am old, and little wont to be
+spoilt by fortune. For my wants, the Lagunes, with the favor of the Holy
+St. Anthony, are sufficient; but it is in thy power to make the last
+days of an old man happy, and to have thy name remembered in many an
+honest and well meant prayer. Grant me back my child, forget the
+boldness of a heart-broken father!"
+
+"Is not this he who urged us with importunity concerning a youth that is
+gone into the service of the state?" exclaimed the Prince, across whose
+countenance passed that expression of habitual reserve which so often
+concealed the feelings of the man.
+
+"The same," returned a cold voice, which the ear of Antonio well knew
+came from the Signor Gradenigo.
+
+"Pity for thy ignorance, fisherman, represses our anger. Receive thy
+chain, and depart."
+
+Antonio's eye did not waver. He kneeled with an air of profound respect,
+and folding his hands on his bosom, he said--
+
+"Misery has made me bold, dread Prince! What I say comes from a heavy
+heart rather than from a licentious tongue, and I pray your royal ear to
+listen with indulgence."
+
+"Speak briefly, for the sports are delayed."
+
+"Mighty Doge! riches and poverty have caused a difference in our
+fortunes, which knowledge and ignorance have made wider. I am rude in my
+discourse, and little suited to this illustrious company. But, Signore,
+God hath given to the fisherman the same feelings, and the same love for
+his offspring, as he has given to a prince. Did I place dependence only
+on the aid of my poor learning, I should now be dumb, but there is a
+strength within that gives me courage to speak to the first and noblest
+in Venice in behalf of my child!"
+
+"Thou canst not impeach the senate's justice, old man, or utter aught in
+truth against the known impartiality of the laws?"
+
+"Sovrano mio! deign to listen, and you shall hear. I am what your eyes
+behold--a man, poor, laborious, and drawing near to the hour when he
+shall be called to the side of the blessed St. Anthony of Rimini, and
+stand in a presence even greater than this. I am not vain enough to
+think that my humble name is to be found among those of the patricians
+who have served the Republic in her wars--that is an honor which none
+but the great, and the noble, and the happy, can claim; but if the
+little I have done for my country is not in the Golden Book, it is
+written here," as Antonio spoke, he pointed to the scars on his
+half-naked form; "these are signs of the enmity of the Turk, and I now
+offer them as so many petitions to the bounty of the senate."
+
+"Thou speakest vaguely. What is thy will?"
+
+"Justice, mighty Prince. They have forced the only vigorous branch from
+the dying trunk--they have lopped the withering stem of its most
+promising shoot--they have exposed the sole companion of my labors and
+pleasures, the child to whom I have looked to close my eyes, when it
+shall please God to call me away, untaught, and young in lessons of
+honesty and virtue, a boy in principle as in years, to all the
+temptation, and sin, and dangerous companionship of the galleys!"
+
+"Is this all? I had thought thy gondola in the decay, or thy right to
+use the Lagunes in question!"
+
+"Is this all?" repeated Antonio, looking around him in bitter
+melancholy. "Doge of Venice, it is more than one, old, heart-stricken,
+and bereaved, can bear?"
+
+"Go to; take thy golden chain and oar, and depart among thy fellows in
+triumph. Gladden thy heart at a victory, on which thou could'st not, in
+reason, have counted, and leave the interests of the state to those that
+are wiser than thee, and more fitted to sustain its cares."
+
+The fisherman arose with an air of rebuked submission, the result of a
+long life passed in the habit of political deference; but he did not
+approach to receive the proffered reward.
+
+"Bend thy head, fisherman, that his Highness may bestow the prize,"
+commanded an officer.
+
+"I ask not for gold, nor any oar, but that which carries me to the
+Lagunes in the morning, and brings me back into the canals at night.
+Give me my child, or give me nothing."
+
+"Away with him!" muttered a dozen voices; "he utters sedition! let him
+quit the galley."
+
+Antonio was hurried from the presence, and forced into his gondola with
+very unequivocal signs of disgrace. This unwonted interruption of the
+ceremonies clouded many a brow, for the sensibilities of a Venetian
+noble were quick, indeed, to reprehend the immorality of political
+discontent, though the conventional dignity of the class suppressed all
+other ill-timed exhibition of dissatisfaction.
+
+"Let the next competitor draw near," continued the sovereign, with a
+composure that constant practice in dissimulation rendered easy.
+
+The unknown waterman to whose secret favor Antonio owed his success,
+approached, still concealed by the licensed mask.
+
+"Thou art the gainer of the second prize," said the Prince, "and were
+rigid justice done, thou should'st receive the first also, since our
+favor is not to be rejected with impunity. Kneel, that I may bestow the
+favor."
+
+"Highness, pardon!" observed the masker, bowing with great respect, but
+withdrawing a single step from the offered reward; "if it be your
+gracious will to grant a boon for the success of the regatta, I too have
+to pray that it may be given in another form."
+
+"This is unusual! It is not wont that prizes, offered by the hand of a
+Venetian Doge, should go a-begging."
+
+"I would not seem to press more than is respectful, in this great
+presence. I ask but little, and, in the end, it may cost the Republic
+less, than that which is now offered."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"I, too, and on my knee, in dutiful homage to the chief of the state,
+beg that the prayer of the old fisherman be heard, and that the father
+and son may be restored to each other, for the service will corrupt the
+tender years of the boy, and make the age of his parent miserable."
+
+"This touches on importunity! Who art thou, that comest in this hidden
+manner, to support a petition once refused?"
+
+"Highness--the second victor in the ducal regatta."
+
+"Dost trifle in thy answers? The protection of a mask, in all that does
+not tend to unsettle the peace of the city, is sacred. But here seemeth
+matter to be looked into. Remove thy disguise, that we see thee eye to
+eye."
+
+"I have heard that he who kept civil speech, and in naught offended
+against the laws, might be seen at will, disguised in Venice, without
+question of his affairs or name."
+
+"Most true, in all that does not offend St. Mark. But here is a concert
+worthy of inquiry: I command thee, unmask."
+
+The waterman, reading in every face around him the necessity of
+obedience, slowly withdrew the means of concealment, and discovered the
+pallid countenance and glittering eyes of Jacopo. An involuntary
+movement of all near, left this dreaded person standing singly,
+confronted with the Prince of Venice, in a wide circle of wondering and
+curious listeners.
+
+"I know thee not!" exclaimed the Doge, with an open amazement that
+proved his sincerity, after regarding the other earnestly for a moment.
+"Thy reasons for the disguise should be better than thy reasons for
+refusing the prize."
+
+The Signor Gradenigo drew near to the sovereign, and whispered in his
+ear. When he had done, the latter cast one look, in which curiosity and
+aversion were in singular union, at the marked countenance of the Bravo,
+and then he silently motioned to him to depart. The throng drew about
+the royal person with instinctive readiness, closing the space in his
+front.
+
+"We shall look into this at our leisure," said the Doge. "Let the
+festivities proceed."
+
+Jacopo bowed low, and withdrew. As he moved along the deck of the
+Bucentaur, the senators made way, as if pestilence was in his path,
+though it was quite apparent, by the expression of their faces, that it
+was in obedience to a feeling of a mixed character. The avoided, but
+still tolerated Bravo descended to his gondola, and the usual signals
+were given to the multitude beneath, who believed the customary
+ceremonies were ended.
+
+"Let the gondolier of Don Camillo Monforte stand forth," cried a herald,
+obedient to the beck of a superior.
+
+"Highness, here," answered Gino, troubled and hurried.
+
+"Thou art of Calabria?"
+
+"Highness, yes."
+
+"But of long practice on our Venetian canals or thy gondola could never
+have outstripped those of the readiest oarsmen. Thou servest a noble
+master?"
+
+"Highness, yes."
+
+"And it would seem that the Duke of St. Agata is happy in the possession
+of an honest and faithful follower?"
+
+"Highness, too happy."
+
+"Kneel, and receive the reward of thy resolution and skill."
+
+Gino, unlike those who had preceded him, bent a willing knee to the
+deck, and took the prize with a low and humble inclination of the body.
+At this moment the attention of the spectators was drawn from the short
+and simple ceremony by a loud shout, which arose from the water at no
+great distance from the privileged bark of the senate. A common movement
+drew all to the side of the galley, and the successful gondolier was
+quickly forgotten.
+
+A hundred boats were moving in a body towards the Lido, while the space
+they covered on the water presented one compact mass of the red caps of
+fishermen. In the midst of this marine picture was seen the bare head of
+Antonio, borne along in the floating multitude, without any effort of
+his own. The general impulsion was received from the vigorous arms of
+some thirty or forty of their number, who towed those in the rear by
+applying their force to three or four large gondolas in advance.
+
+There was no mistaking the object of this singular and characteristic
+procession. The tenants of the Lagunes, with the fickleness with which
+extreme ignorance acts on human passions, had suddenly experienced a
+violent revolution in their feelings towards their ancient comrade. He
+who, an hour before, had been derided as a vain and ridiculous
+pretender, and on whose head bitter imprecations had been so lavishly
+poured, was now lauded with cries of triumph.
+
+The gondoliers of the canals were laughed to scorn, and the ears of even
+the haughty nobles were not respected, as the exulting band taunted
+their pampered menials.
+
+In short, by a process which is common enough with man in all the
+divisions and subdivisions of society, the merit of one was at once
+intimately and inseparably connected with the glory and exultation of
+all.
+
+Had the triumph of the fishermen confined itself to this natural and
+commonplace exhibition, it would not have given grave offence to the
+vigilant and jealous power that watched over the peace of Venice. But
+amid the shouts of approbation were mingled cries of censure. Words of
+grave import were even heard, denouncing those who refused to restore to
+Antonio his child; and it was whispered on the deck of the Bucentaur,
+that, filled with the imaginary importance of their passing victory, the
+hardy band of rioters had dared to menace a forcible appeal, to obtain
+what they audaciously termed the justice of the case.
+
+This ebullition of popular feeling was witnessed by the assembled
+senate in ominous and brooding silence. One unaccustomed to reflection
+on such a subject, or unpractised in the world, might have fancied alarm
+and uneasiness were painted on the grave countenances of the patricians,
+and that the signs of the times were little favorable to the continuance
+of an ascendency that was dependent more on the force of convention than
+on the possession of any physical superiority. But, on the other hand,
+one who was capable of judging between the power of political
+ascendency, strengthened by its combinations and order, and the mere
+ebullitions of passion, however loud and clamorous, might readily have
+seen that the latter was not yet displayed in sufficient energy to break
+down the barriers which the first had erected.
+
+The fishermen were permitted to go their way unmolested, though here and
+there a gondola was seen stealing towards the Lido, bearing certain of
+those secret agents of the police whose duty it was to forewarn the
+existing powers of the presence of danger. Among the latter was the boat
+of the wine-seller, which departed from the Piazzetta, containing a
+stock of his merchandise, with Annina, under the pretence of making his
+profit out of the present turbulent temper of their ordinary customers.
+In the meantime, the sports proceeded, and the momentary interruption
+was forgotten; or, if remembered, it was in a manner suited to the
+secret and fearful power which directed the destinies of that remarkable
+republic.
+
+There as another regatta, in which men of inferior powers contended, but
+we deem it unworthy to detain the narrative by a description.
+
+Though the grave tenants of the Bucentaur seemed to take an interest in
+what was passing immediately before their eyes, they had ears for every
+shout that was borne on the evening breeze from the distant Lido; and
+more than once the Doge himself was seen to bend his looks in that
+direction, in a manner which betrayed the concern that was uppermost in
+his mind.
+
+Still the day passed on as usual. The conquerors triumphed, the crowd
+applauded, and the collected senate appeared to sympathize with the
+pleasures of a people, over whom they ruled with a certainty of power
+that resembled the fearful and mysterious march of destiny.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  "Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?"
+                                         SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+The evening of such a day, in a city with the habits of Venice, was not
+likely to be spent in the dulness of retirement. The great square of St.
+Mark was again filled with its active and motley crowd, and the scenes
+already described in the opening chapters of this work were resumed, if
+possible, with more apparent devotion to the levities of the hour, than
+on the occasion mentioned. The tumblers and jugglers renewed their
+antics, the cries of the fruit-sellers and other venders of light
+luxuries were again mingled with the tones of the flute and the notes of
+the guitar and harp; while the idle and the busy, the thoughtless and
+the designing, the conspirator and the agent of the police, once more
+met in privileged security.
+
+The night had advanced, beyond its turn, when a gondola came gliding
+through the shipping of the port with that easy and swan-like motion
+which is peculiar to its slow movement, and touched the quay with its
+beak, at the point where the canal of St. Mark forms its junction with
+the bay.
+
+"Thou art welcome, Antonio," said one, who approached the solitary
+individual that had directed the gondola, when the latter had thrust the
+iron spike of his painter between the crevices of the stones, as
+gondoliers are accustomed to secure their barges; "thou art welcome,
+Antonio, though late."
+
+"I begin to know the sounds of that voice, though they come from a
+masked face," said the fisherman. "Friend, I owe my success to-day to
+thy kindness, and though it has not had the end for which I had both
+hoped and prayed, I ought not to thank thee less. Thou hast thyself been
+borne hard upon by the world, or thou would'st not have bethought thee
+of an old and despised man, when the shouts of triumph were ringing in
+thy ear, and when thy own young blood was stirred with the feelings of
+pride and victory."
+
+"Nature gives thee strong language, fisherman. I have not passed the
+hours, truly, in the games and levities of my years. Life has been no
+festa to me--but no matter. The senate was not pleased to hear of
+lessening the number of the galleys' crew, and thou wilt bethink thee of
+some other reward. I have here the chain and golden oar in the hope that
+it will still be welcome."
+
+Antonio looked amazed, but, yielding to a natural curiosity, he gazed a
+moment with a longing at the prize. Then recoiling with a shudder, he
+uttered moodily, and with the tones of one whose determination was made:
+"I should think the bauble coined of my grandchild's blood! Keep it;
+they have trusted it to thee, for it is thine of right, and now that
+they refuse to hear my prayer, it will be useless to all but to him who
+fairly earned it."
+
+"Thou makest no allowance, fisherman, for difference of years and for
+sinews that are in their vigor. Methinks that in adjudging such a prize,
+thought should be had to these matters, and then wouldest thou be found
+outstripping us all. Holy St. Theodore! I passed my childhood with the
+oar in hand, and never before have I met one in Venice who has driven my
+gondola so hard! Thou touchest the water with the delicacy of a lady
+fingering her harp, and yet with the force of the wave rolling on the
+Lido!"
+
+"I have seen the hour, Jacopo, when even thy young arm would have tired
+in such a strife between us. That was before the birth of my eldest son,
+who died in battle with the Ottoman, when the dear boy he left me was
+but an infant in arms. Thou never sawest the comely lad, good Jacopo?"
+
+"I was not so happy, old man; but if he resembled thee, well mayest thou
+mourn his loss. Body of Diana! I have little cause to boast of the small
+advantage youth and strength gave me."
+
+"There was a force within that bore me and the boat on, but of what use
+hath it been? Thy kindness and the pain given to an old frame, that hath
+been long racked by hardship and poverty, are both thrown away on the
+rocky hearts of the nobles."
+
+"We know not yet, Antonio. The good saints will hear our prayers, when
+we least think they are listening. Come with me, for I am sent to seek
+thee."
+
+The fisherman regarded his new acquaintance with surprise, and then
+turning to bestow an instant of habitual care on his boat, he cheerfully
+professed himself ready to proceed. The place where they stood was a
+little apart from the thoroughfare of the quays, and though there was a
+brilliant moon, the circumstance of two men in their garbs being there,
+was not likely to attract observation; but Jacopo did not appear to be
+satisfied with this security from remark. He waited until Antonio had
+left the gondola, and then unfolding a cloak, which had lain on his arm,
+he threw it, without asking permission, over the shoulders of the other.
+A cap, like that he wore himself, was next produced, and being placed on
+the grey hairs of the fisherman, effectually completed his
+metamorphosis.
+
+"There is no need of a mask," he said, examining his companion
+attentively, when his task was accomplished. "None would know thee,
+Antonio, in this garb."
+
+"And is there need of what thou hast done, Jacopo? I owe thee thanks for
+a well meant, and, but for the hardness of heart of the rich and
+powerful, for what would have proved a great kindness. Still I must
+tell thee that a mask was never yet put before my face; for what reason
+can there be why one who rises with the sun to go to his toil, who
+trusteth to the favor of the blessed St. Anthony for the little he hath,
+should go abroad like a gallant, ready to steal the good name of a
+virgin, or a robber at night?"
+
+"Thou knowest our Venetian custom, and it may be well to use some
+caution in the business we are on."
+
+"Thou forgettest that thy intention is yet a secret to me. I say it
+again, and I say it with truth and gratitude, that I owe thee many
+thanks, though the end is defeated, and the boy is still a prisoner in
+the floating-school of wickedness; but thou hast a name, Jacopo, that I
+could wish did not belong to thee. I find it hard to believe all that
+they have this day said on the Lido, of one who has so much feeling for
+the weak and wronged."
+
+The Bravo ceased to adjust the disguise of his companion, and the
+profound stillness which succeeded his remark proved so painful to
+Antonio, that he felt like one reprieved from suffocation, when he heard
+the deep respiration that announced the relief of his companion.
+
+"I would not willingly say--"
+
+"No matter," interrupted Jacopo, in a hollow voice. "No matter,
+fisherman; we will speak of these things on some other occasion. At
+present, follow, and be silent."
+
+As he ceased, the self-appointed guide of Antonio beckoned for the
+latter to come on, when he led the way from the water side. The
+fisherman obeyed; for little did it matter to one poor and
+heart-stricken as he, whither he was conducted. Jacopo took the first
+entrance into the court of the Doge's palace. His footstep was
+leisurely, and to the passing multitude they appeared like any others of
+the thousands who were abroad to breathe the soft air of the night, or
+to enter into the pleasures of the piazza.
+
+When within the dimmer and broken light of the court, Jacopo paused,
+evidently to scan the persons of those it contained. It is to be
+presumed he saw no reason to delay, for with a secret sign to his
+companion to follow, he crossed the area, and mounted the well known
+steps, down which the head of the Faliero had rolled, and which, from
+the statues on the summit, is called the Giant's Stairs. The celebrated
+mouths of the lions were passed, and they were walking swiftly along the
+open gallery when they encountered a halberdier of the ducal guard.
+
+"Who comes?" demanded the mercenary, throwing forward his long and
+dangerous weapon.
+
+"Friends to the state and to St. Mark."
+
+"None pass at this hour without the word."
+
+Jacopo motioned to Antonio to stand fast, while he drew nearer to the
+halberdier and whispered. The weapon was instantly thrown up, and the
+sentinel again paced the long gallery with practised indifference. The
+way was no sooner cleared than they proceeded. Antonio, not a little
+amazed at what he had already seen, eagerly followed his guide, for his
+heart began to beat high with an exciting but undefined hope. He was not
+so ignorant of human affairs as to require to be told that those who
+ruled would sometimes concede that in secret which policy forbade them
+to yield openly. Full, therefore, of the expectation of being ushered
+into the presence of the Doge himself, and of having his child restored
+to his arms, the old man stepped lightly along the gloomy gallery, and
+darting through an entrance, at the heels of Jacopo, he found himself at
+the foot of another flight of massive steps. The route now became
+confused to the fisherman, for, quitting the more public vomitories of
+the palace, his companion held his way by a secret door, through many
+dimly lighted and obscure passages. They ascended and descended
+frequently, as often quitting or entering rooms of but ordinary
+dimensions and decorations, until the head of Antonio was completely
+turned, and he no longer knew the general direction of their course. At
+length they stopped in an apartment of inferior ornaments, and of a
+dusky color, which the feeble light rendered still more gloomy.
+
+"Thou art well acquainted with the dwelling of our prince," said the
+fisherman, when his companion enabled him to speak, by checking his
+swift movements. "The oldest gondolier of Venice is not more ready on
+the canals, than thou appearest to be among these galleries and
+corridors."
+
+"'Tis my business to bring thee hither, and what I am to do, I endeavor
+to do well. Antonio, thou art a man that feareth not to stand in the
+presence of the great, as this day hath shown. Summon thy courage, for a
+moment of trial is before thee."
+
+"I have spoken boldly to the Doge. Except the Holy Father himself, what
+power is there on earth besides to fear?"
+
+"Thou mayest have spoken, fisherman, too boldly. Temper thy language,
+for the great love not words of disrespect."
+
+"Is truth unpleasant to them?"
+
+"That is as may be. They love to hear their own acts praised, when their
+acts have merited praise, but they do not like to hear them condemned,
+even though they know what is said to be just."
+
+"I fear me," said the old man, looking with simplicity at the other,
+"there is little difference between the powerful and the weak, when the
+garments are stripped from both, and the man stands naked to the eye."
+
+"That truth may not be spoken here."
+
+"How! Do they deny that they are Christians, and mortals, and sinners?"
+
+"They make a merit of the first, Antonio--they forget the second, and
+they never like to be called the last by any but themselves."
+
+"I doubt, Jacopo, after all, if I get from them the freedom of the
+boy."
+
+"Speak them fair, and say naught to wound their self-esteem, or to
+menace their authority--they will pardon much, if the last, in
+particular, be respected."
+
+"But it is that authority which has taken away my child! Can I speak in
+favor of the power which I know to be unjust?"
+
+"Thou must feign it, or thy suit will fail."
+
+"I will go back to the Lagunes, good Jacopo, for this tongue of mine
+hath ever moved at the bidding of the heart. I fear I am too old to say
+that a son may righteously be torn from the father by violence. Tell
+them, thou, from me, that I came thus far, in order to do them respect,
+but that, seeing the hopelessness of beseeching further, I have gone to
+my nets, and to my prayers to blessed St. Anthony."
+
+As he ceased speaking, Antonio wrung the hand of his motionless
+companion, and turned away, as if to retire. Two halberds fell to the
+level of his breast ere his foot had quitted the marble floor, and he
+now saw, for the first time, that armed men crossed his passage, and
+that, in truth, he was a prisoner. Nature had endowed the fisherman with
+a quick and just perception, and long habit had given great steadiness
+to his nerves. When he perceived his real situation, instead of entering
+into useless remonstrance, or in any manner betraying alarm, he again
+turned to Jacopo with an air of patience and resignation.
+
+"It must be that the illustrious Signore wish to do me justice," he
+said, smoothing the remnant of his hair, as men of his class prepare
+themselves for the presence of their superiors, "and it would not be
+decent in an humble fisherman to refuse them the opportunity. It would
+be better, however, if there were less force used here in Venice, in a
+matter of simple right and wrong. But the great love to show their
+power, and the weak must submit."
+
+"We shall see!" answered Jacopo, who had manifested no emotion during
+the abortive attempt of the other to retire.
+
+A profound stillness succeeded. The halberdiers maintained their rigid
+attitudes within the shadow of the wall, looking like two insensible
+statues in the attire and armor of the age, while Jacopo and his
+companion occupied the centre of the room with scarcely more of the
+appearance of consciousness and animation. It may be well to explain
+here to the reader some of the peculiar machinery of the State, in the
+country of which we write, and which is connected with the scene that is
+about to follow: for the name of a Republic, a word which, if it mean
+anything, strictly implies the representation and supremacy of the
+general interests, but which has so frequently been prostituted to the
+protection and monopolies of privileged classes, may have induced him to
+believe that there was at least a resemblance between the outlines of
+that government, and the more just, because more popular, institutions
+of his own country.
+
+In an age when rulers were profane enough to assert, and the ruled weak
+enough to allow, that the right of a man to govern his fellows was a
+direct gift from God, a departure from the bold and selfish principle,
+though it were only in profession, was thought sufficient to give a
+character of freedom and common sense to the polity of a nation. This
+belief is not without some justification, since it establishes in
+theory, at least, the foundations of government on a base sufficiently
+different from that which supposes all power to be the property of one,
+and that one to be the representative of the faultless and omnipotent
+Ruler of the Universe. With the first of these principles we have
+nothing to do, except it be to add that there are propositions so
+inherently false that they only require to be fairly stated to produce
+their own refutation; but our subject necessarily draws us into a short
+digression on the errors of the second as they existed in Venice.
+
+It is probable that when the patricians of St. Mark created a community
+of political rights in their own body, they believed their State had
+done all that was necessary to merit the high and generous title it
+assumed. They had innovated on a generally received principle, and they
+cannot claim the distinction of being either the first or the last who
+have imagined that to take the incipient steps in political improvement
+is at once to reach the goal of perfection. Venice had no doctrine of
+divine right, and as her prince was little more than a pageant, she
+boldly laid claim to be called a Republic. She believed that a
+representation of the most prominent and brilliant interests in society
+was the paramount object of government, and faithful to the seductive
+but dangerous error, she mistook to the last, collective power for
+social happiness.
+
+It may be taken as a governing principle, in all civil relations, that
+the strong will grow stronger and the feeble more weak, until the first
+become unfit to rule or the last unable to endure. In this important
+truth is contained the secret of the downfall of all those states which
+have crumbled beneath the weight of their own abuses. It teaches the
+necessity of widening the foundations of society until the base shall
+have a breadth capable of securing the just representation of every
+interest, without which the social machine is liable to interruption
+from its own movement, and eventually to destruction from its own
+excesses.
+
+Venice, though ambitious and tenacious of the name of a republic, was,
+in truth, a narrow, a vulgar, and an exceedingly heartless oligarchy. To
+the former title she had no other claim than her denial of the naked
+principle already mentioned, while her practice is liable to the
+reproach of the two latter, in the unmanly and narrow character of its
+exclusion, in every act of her foreign policy, and in every measure of
+her internal police. An aristocracy must ever want the high personal
+feeling which often tempers despotism by the qualities of the chief or
+the generous and human impulses of a popular rule. It has the merit of
+substituting things for men, it is true, but unhappily it substitutes
+the things of a few men for those of the whole. It partakes, and it
+always has partaken, though necessarily tempered by circumstances and
+the opinions of different ages, of the selfishness of all corporations
+in which the responsibility of the individual, while his acts are
+professedly submitted to the temporizing expedients of a collective
+interest, is lost in the subdivision of numbers. At the period of which
+we write, Italy had several of these self-styled commonwealths, in not
+one of which, however, was there ever a fair and just confiding of power
+to the body of the people, though perhaps there is not one that has not
+been cited sooner or later in proof of the inability of man to govern
+himself! In order to demonstrate the fallacy of a reasoning which is so
+fond of predicting the downfall of our own liberal system, supported by
+examples drawn from transatlantic states of the middle ages, it is
+necessary only to recount here a little in detail the forms in which
+power was obtained and exercised in the most important of them all.
+
+Distinctions in rank, as separated entirely from the will of the nation,
+formed the basis of Venetian polity. Authority, though divided, was not
+less a birthright than in those governments in which it was openly
+avowed to be a dispensation of Providence. The patrician order had its
+high and exclusive privileges, which were guarded and maintained with a
+most selfish and engrossing spirit. He who was not born to govern, had
+little hope of ever entering into the possession of his natural rights:
+while he who was, by the intervention of chance, might wield a power of
+the most fearful and despotic character. At a certain age all of
+senatorial rank (for, by a specious fallacy, nobility did not take its
+usual appellations) were admitted into the councils of the nation. The
+names of the leading families were inscribed in a register, which was
+well entitled the "Golden Book," and he who enjoyed the envied
+distinction of having an ancestor thus enrolled could, with a few
+exceptions (such as that named in the case of Don Camillo), present
+himself in the senate and lay claim to the honors of the "Horned
+Bonnet." Neither our limits nor our object will permit a digression of
+sufficient length to point out the whole of the leading features of a
+system so vicious, and which was, perhaps, only rendered tolerable to
+those it governed by the extraneous contributions of captured and
+subsidiary provinces, of which in truth, as in all cases of metropolitan
+rule, the oppression weighed most grievously. The reader will at once
+see that the very reason why the despotism of the self-styled Republic
+was tolerable to its own citizens was but another cause of its eventual
+destruction.
+
+As the senate became too numerous to conduct with sufficient secresy and
+dispatch the affairs of a state that pursued a policy alike tortuous and
+complicated, the most general of its important interests were intrusted
+to a council composed of three hundred of its members. In order to avoid
+the publicity and delay of a body large even as this, a second selection
+was made, which was known as the Council of Ten, and to which much of
+the executive power that aristocratical jealousy withheld from the
+titular chief of the state, was confided. To this point the political
+economy of the Venetian Republic, however faulty, had at least some
+merit for simplicity and frankness. The ostensible agents of the
+administration were known, and though all real responsibility to the
+nation was lost in the superior influence and narrow policy of the
+patricians, the rulers could not entirely escape from the odium that
+public opinion might attach to their unjust or illegal proceedings. But
+a state whose prosperity was chiefly founded on the contribution and
+support of dependants, and whose existence was equally menaced by its
+own false principles, and by the growth of other and neighboring
+powers, had need of a still more efficient body in the absence of that
+executive which its own Republican pretensions denied to Venice. A
+political inquisition, which came in time to be one of the most fearful
+engines of police ever known, was the consequence. An authority as
+irresponsible as it was absolute, was periodically confided to another
+and still smaller body, which met and exercised its despotic and secret
+functions under the name of the Council of Three. The choice of these
+temporary rulers was decided by lot, and in a manner that prevented the
+result from being known to any but to their own number and to a few of
+the most confidential of the more permanent officers of the government.
+Thus there existed at all times in the heart of Venice a mysterious and
+despotic power that was wielded by men who moved in society unknown, and
+apparently surrounded by all the ordinary charities of life; but which,
+in truth, was influenced by a set of political maxims that were perhaps
+as ruthless, as tyrannic, and as selfish, as ever were invented by the
+evil ingenuity of man. It was, in short, a power that could only be
+intrusted, without abuse, to infallible virtue and infinite
+intelligence, using the terms in a sense limited by human means; and yet
+it was here confided to men whose title was founded on the double
+accident of birth, and the colors of balls, and by whom it was wielded
+without even the check of publicity.
+
+The Council of Three met in secret, ordinarily issued its decrees
+without communicating with any other body, and had them enforced with a
+fearfulness of mystery, and a suddenness of execution, that resembled
+the blows of fate. The Doge himself was not superior to its authority,
+nor protected from its decisions, while it has been known that one of
+the privileged three has been denounced by his companions. There is
+still in existence a long list of the state maxims which this secret
+tribunal recognised as its rule of conduct, and it is not saying too
+much to affirm, that they set at defiance every other consideration but
+expediency,--all the recognised laws of God, and every principle of
+justice, which is esteemed among men. The advances of the human
+intellect, supported by the means of publicity, may temper the exercise
+of a similar irresponsible power, in our own age; but in no country has
+this substitution of a soulless corporation for an elective
+representation, been made, in which a system of rule has not been
+established, that sets at naught the laws of natural justice and the
+rights of the citizen. Any pretension to the contrary, by placing
+profession in opposition to practice, is only adding hypocrisy to
+usurpation.
+
+It appears to be an unavoidable general consequence that abuses should
+follow, when power is exercised by a permanent and irresponsible body,
+from whom there is no appeal. When this power is secretly exercised, the
+abuses become still more grave. It is also worthy of remark, that in the
+nations which submit, or have submitted, to these undue and dangerous
+influences, the pretensions to justice and generosity are of the most
+exaggerated character; for while the fearless democrat vents his
+personal complaints aloud, and the voice of the subject of professed
+despotism is smothered entirely, necessity itself dictates to the
+oligarchist the policy of seemliness, as one of the conditions of his
+own safety. Thus Venice prided herself on the justice of St. Mark, and
+few states maintained a greater show or put forth a more lofty claim to
+the possession of the sacred quality, than that whose real maxims of
+government were veiled in a mystery that even the loose morality of the
+age exacted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  "A power that if but named
+  In casual converse, be it where it might,
+  The speaker lowered at once his voice, his eyes,
+  And pointed upward as at God in heaven."
+                                   ROGERS.
+
+
+The reader has probably anticipated, that Antonio was now standing in an
+antechamber of the secret and stern tribunal described in the preceding
+chapter. In common with all of his class, the fisherman had a vague idea
+of the existence, and of the attributes, of the council before which he
+was to appear; but his simple apprehension was far from comprehending
+the extent or the nature of functions that equally took cognizance of
+the most important interests of the Republic, and of the more trifling
+concerns of a patrician family. While conjectures on the probable result
+of the expected interview were passing through his mind, an inner door
+opened, and an attendant signed for Jacopo to advance.
+
+The deep and imposing silence which instantly succeeded the entrance of
+the summoned into the presence of the Council of Three, gave time for a
+slight examination of the apartment and of those it contained. The room
+was not large for that country and climate, but rather of a size suited
+to the closeness of the councils that had place within its walls. The
+floor was tessellated with alternate pieces of black and white marble;
+the walls were draped in one common and sombre dress of black cloth; a
+single lamp of dark bronze was suspended over a solitary table in its
+centre, which, like every other article of the scanty furniture, had
+the same melancholy covering as the walls. In the angles of the room
+there were projecting closets, which might have been what they seemed,
+or merely passages into the other apartments of the palace. All the
+doors were concealed from casual observation by the hangings, which gave
+one general and chilling aspect of gloom to the whole scene. On the side
+of the room opposite to that on which Antonio stood, three men were
+seated in curule chairs; but their masks, and the drapery which
+concealed their forms, prevented all recognition of their persons. One
+of this powerful body wore a robe of crimson, as the representative that
+fortune had given to the select council of the Doge, and the others
+robes of black, being those which had drawn the lucky, or rather the
+unlucky balls, in the Council of Ten, itself a temporary and
+chance-created body of the senate. There were one or two subordinates
+near the table, but these, as well as the still more humble officials of
+the place, were hidden from all ordinary knowledge, by disguises similar
+to those of the chiefs. Jacopo regarded the scene like one accustomed to
+its effect, though with evident reverence and awe; but the impression on
+Antonio was too manifest to be lost. It is probable that the long pause
+which followed his introduction was intended to produce, and to note
+this effect, for keen eyes were intently watching his countenance during
+its continuance.
+
+"Thou art called Antonio of the Lagunes?" demanded one of the
+secretaries near the table, when a sign had been secretly made from the
+crimson member of that fearful tribunal to proceed.
+
+"A poor fisherman, eccellenza, who owes much to blessed Saint Antonio of
+the Miraculous Draught."
+
+"And thou hast a son who bears thine own name, and who follows the same
+pursuit?"
+
+"It is the duty of a Christian to submit to the will of God! My boy has
+been dead twelve years, come the day when the Republic's galleys chased
+the infidel from Corfu to Candia. He was slain, noble Signore, with
+many others of his calling, in that bloody fight."
+
+There was a movement of surprise among the clerks, who whispered
+together, and appeared to examine the papers in their hands with some
+haste and confusion. Glances were sent back at the judges, who sate
+motionless, wrapped in the impenetrable mystery of their functions. A
+secret sign, however, soon caused the armed attendants of the place to
+lead Antonio and his companion from the room.
+
+"Here is some inadvertency!" said a stern voice, from one of the masked
+Three, so soon as the fall of the footsteps of those who retired was no
+longer audible. "It is not seemly that the inquisition of St. Mark
+should show this ignorance."
+
+"It touches merely the family of an obscure fisherman, illustrious
+Signore," returned the trembling dependant; "and it may be that his art
+would wish to deceive us in the opening interrogatories."
+
+"Thou art in error," interrupted another of the Three. "The man is named
+Antonio Vecchio, and, as he sayeth, his only child died in the hot
+affair with the Ottoman. He of whom there is question is a grandson, and
+still a boy."
+
+"The noble Signore is right!" returned the clerk--"In the hurry of
+affairs, we have misconceived a fact, which the wisdom of the council
+has been quick to rectify. St. Mark is happy in having among his
+proudest and oldest names, senators who enter thus familiarly into the
+interests of his meanest children!"
+
+"Let the man be again introduced," resumed the judge, slightly bending
+his head to the compliment. "These accidents are unavoidable in the
+press of affairs."
+
+The necessary order was given, and Antonio, with his companion
+constantly at his elbow, was brought once more into the presence.
+
+"Thy son died in the service of the Republic, Antonio?" demanded the
+secretary.
+
+"Signore, he did. Holy Maria have pity on his early fate, and listen to
+my prayers! So good a child and so brave a man can have no great need of
+masses for his soul, or his death would have been doubly grievous to me,
+since I am too poor to buy them."
+
+"Thou hast a grandson?"
+
+"I had one, noble senator; I hope he still lives."
+
+"He is not with thee in thy labors on the Lagunes?"
+
+"San Teodoro grant that he were! he is taken, Signore, with many more of
+tender years, into the galleys, whence may our Lady give him a save
+deliverance! If your eccellenza has an opportunity to speak with the
+general of the galleys, or with any other who may have authority in such
+a matter, on my knees I pray you to speak in behalf of the child, who is
+a good and pious lad, that seldom casts a line into the water without an
+ave or a prayer to St. Anthony, and who has never given me uneasiness,
+until he fell into the grip of St. Mark."
+
+"Rise--this is not the affair in which I have to question thee. Thou
+hast this day spoken of thy prayer to our most illustrious prince, the
+Doge?"
+
+"I have prayed his highness to give the boy liberty."
+
+"And this thou hast done openly, and with little deference to the high
+dignity and sacred character of the chief of the Republic?"
+
+"I did it like a father and a man. If but half what they say of the
+justice and kindness of the state were true, his highness would have
+heard me as a father and a man."
+
+A slight movement among the fearful Three caused the secretary to pause;
+when he saw, however, that his superiors chose to maintain their
+silence, he continued--
+
+"This didst thou once in public and among the senators, but when
+repulsed, as urging a petition both out of place and out of reason, thou
+soughtest other to prefer thy request?"
+
+"True, illustrious Signore."
+
+"Thou camest among the gondoliers of the regatta in an unseemly garb,
+and placed thyself foremost with those who contended for the favor of
+the senate and its prince?"
+
+"I came in the garb which I wear before the Virgin and St. Antonio, and
+if I was foremost in the race, it was more owing to the goodness and
+favor of the man at my side, than any virtue which is still left in
+these withered sinews and dried bones. San Marco remember him in his
+need, for the kind wish, and soften the hearts of the great to hear the
+prayer of a childless parent!"
+
+There was another slight expression of surprise or curiosity among the
+inquisitors, and once more the secretary suspended his examination.
+
+"Thou hearest, Jacopo," said one of the Three. "What answer dost thou
+make the fisherman?"
+
+"Signore, he speaketh truth."
+
+"And thou hast dared to trifle with the pleasures of the city, and to
+set at naught the wishes of the Doge!"
+
+"If it be a crime, illustrious senator, to have pitied an old man who
+mourned for his offspring, and to have given up my own solitary triumph
+to his love for the boy, I am guilty."
+
+There was along and silent pause after his reply. Jacopo had spoken with
+habitual reverence, but with the grave composure that appeared to enter
+deeply into the composition of his character. The paleness of the cheek
+was the same, and the glowing eye which so singularly lighted and
+animated a countenance that possessed a hue not unlike that of death,
+scarce varied its gaze while he answered. A secret sign caused the
+secretary to proceed with his duty.
+
+"And thou owest thy success in the regatta, Antonio, to the favor of thy
+competitor--he who is now with thee in the presence of the council?"
+
+"Under San Teodoro and St. Antonio, the city's patron and my own."
+
+"And thy whole desire was to urge again thy rejected petition in behalf
+of the young sailor?"
+
+"Signore, I had no other. What is the vanity of a triumph among the
+gondoliers, or the bauble of a mimic oar and chain, to one of my years
+and condition?"
+
+"Thou forgettest that the oar and chain are gold?"
+
+"Excellent gentlemen, gold cannot heal the wounds which misery has left
+on a heavy heart. Give me back the child, that my eyes may not be closed
+by strangers, and that I may speak good counsel into his young ears,
+while there is hope my words may be remembered, and I care not for all
+the metals of the Rialto! Thou mayest see that I utter no vain vaunt, by
+this jewel, which I offer to the nobles with the reverence due to their
+greatness and wisdom."
+
+When the fisherman had done speaking, he advanced with the timid step of
+a man unaccustomed to move in superior presences, and laid upon the dark
+cloth of the table a ring that sparkled with what at least seemed to be
+very precious stones. The astonished secretary raised the jewel, and
+held it in suspense before the eyes of the judges.
+
+"How is this?" exclaimed he of the Three, who had oftenest interfered in
+the examination; "that seemeth the pledge of our nuptials!"
+
+"It is no other, illustrious senator: with this ring did the Doge wed
+the Adriatic, in the presence of the ambassadors and the people."
+
+"Hadst thou aught to do with this, also, Jacopo?" sternly demanded the
+judge.
+
+The Bravo turned his eye on the jewel with a look of interest, but his
+voice maintained its usual depth and steadiness as he answered--
+
+"Signore, no--until now, I knew not the fortune of the fisherman."
+
+A sign to the secretary caused him to resume his questions.
+
+"Thou must account and clearly account, Antonio," he said, "for the
+manner in which the sacred ring came into thy possession; hadst thou any
+one to aid thee in obtaining it?"
+
+"Signore, I had."
+
+"Name him at once, that we take measures for his security."
+
+"'Twill be useless, Signore; he is far above the power of Venice."
+
+"What meanest thou, fellow? None are superior to the right and the force
+of the Republic that dwell within her limits. Answer without evasion, as
+thou valuest thy person."
+
+"I should prize that which is of little value, Signore, and be guilty of
+a great folly as well as of a great sin, were I to deceive you to save a
+body old and worthless as mine from stripes. If your excellencies are
+willing to hear, you will find that I am no less willing to tell the
+manner in which I got the ring."
+
+"Speak, then, and trifle not."
+
+"I know not, Signori, whether you are used to hearing untruths, that you
+caution me so much not to deal with them; but we of the Lagunes are not
+afraid to say what we have seen and done, for most of our business is
+with the winds and waves, which take their orders from God himself.
+There is a tradition, Signori, among us fishermen, that in times past,
+one of our body brought up from the bay the ring with which the Doge is
+accustomed to marry the Adriatic. A jewel of that value was of little
+use to one who casts his nets daily for bread and oil, and he brought it
+to the Doge, as became a fisherman into whose hands the saints had
+thrown a prize to which he had no title, as it were to prove his
+honesty. This act of our companion is much spoken of on the Lagunes and
+at the Lido, and it is said there is a noble painting done by some of
+our Venetian masters, in the halls of the palace, which tells the story
+as it happened, showing the prince on his throne, and the lucky
+fisherman with his naked legs rendering back to his highness that which
+had been lost. I hope there is foundation for this belief, Signore,
+which greatly flatters our pride, and is not without use in keeping some
+among us truer to the right, and better favored in the eyes of St.
+Anthony than might otherwise be."
+
+"The fact was so."
+
+"And the painting, excellent Signore? I hope our vanity has not deceived
+us concerning the picture, neither?"
+
+"The picture you mention is to be seen within the palace."
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! I have had my misgivings on that point, for it is not
+common that the rich and happy should take such note of what the humble
+and the poor have done. Is the work from the hands of the great Tiziana
+himself, eccellenza?"
+
+"It is not; one of little name hath put his pencil to the canvas."
+
+"They say that Tiziano had the art of giving to his work the look and
+richness of flesh, and one would think that a just man might find, in
+the honesty of the poor fisherman, a color bright enough to have
+satisfied even his eye. But it may be that the senate saw danger in thus
+flattering us of the Lagunes."
+
+"Proceed with the account of thine own fortune with the ring."
+
+"Illustrious nobles, I have often dreamed of the luck of my fellow of
+the old times; and more than once have I drawn the nets with an eager
+hand in my sleep, thinking to find that very jewel entangled in its
+meshes, or embowelled by some fish. What I have so often fancied has at
+last happened. I am an old man, Signore, and there are few pools or
+banks between Fusina and Giorgio, that my lines of my nets have not
+fathomed or covered. The spot to which the Bucentoro is wont to steer in
+these ceremonies is well known to me, and I had a care to cover the
+bottom round about with all my nets in the hope of drawing up the ring.
+When his highness cast the jewel, I dropped a buoy to mark the
+spot--Signore, this is all--my accomplice was St. Anthony."
+
+"For doing this you had a motive?"
+
+"Holy Mother of God! Was it not sufficient to get back my boy from the
+gripe of the galleys?" exclaimed Antonio, with an energy and a
+simplicity that are often found to be in the same character. "I thought
+that if the Doge and the senate were willing to cause pictures to be
+painted, and honors to be given to one poor fisherman for the ring, they
+might be glad to reward another, by releasing a lad who can be of no
+great service to the Republic, but who is all to his parent."
+
+"Thy petition to his Highness, thy strife in the regatta, and thy search
+for the ring, had the same object?"
+
+"To me, Signore, life has but one."
+
+There was a slight but suppressed movement among the council.
+
+"When thy request was refused by his Highness as ill-timed--"
+
+"Ah! eccellenza, when one has a white head and a failing arm, he cannot
+stop to look for the proper moment in such a cause!" interrupted the
+fisherman, with a gleam of that impetuosity which forms the true base of
+Italian character.
+
+"When thy request was denied, and thou hadst refused the reward of the
+victor, thou went among thy fellows and fed their ears with complaints
+of the injustice of St. Mark, and of the senate's tyranny?"
+
+"Signore, no. I went away sad and heart-broken, for I had not thought
+the Doge and nobles would have refused a successful gondolier so light a
+boon."
+
+"And this thou didst not hesitate to proclaim among the fishermen and
+idlers of the Lido?"
+
+"Eccellenza, it was not needed--my fellows knew my unhappiness, and
+tongues were not wanting to tell the worst."
+
+"There was a tumult, with thee at its head, and sedition was uttered,
+with much vain-boasting of what the fleet of the Lagunes could perform
+against the fleet of the Republic."
+
+"There is little difference, Signore, between the two, except that the
+men of the one go in gondolas with nets, and the men of the other are in
+the galleys of the state. Why should brothers seek each other's blood?"
+
+The movement among the judges was more manifest than ever. They
+whispered together, and a paper containing a few lines rapidly written
+in pencil, was put into the hands of the examining secretary.
+
+"Thou didst address thy fellows, and spoke openly of thy fancied wrongs;
+thou didst comment on the laws which require the services of the
+citizens, when the Republic is compelled to send forth a fleet against
+its enemies."
+
+"It is not easy to be silent, Signore, when the heart is full."
+
+"And there was a consultation among thee of coming to the palace in a
+body, and of asking the discharge of thy grandson from the Doge, in the
+name of the rabble of the Lido."
+
+"Signore, there were some generous enough to make the offer, but others
+were of advice it would be well to reflect before they took so bold a
+measure."
+
+"And thou--what was thine own counsel on that point?"
+
+"Eccellenza, I am old, and though unused to be thus questioned by
+illustrious senators, I had seen enough of the manner in which St. Mark
+governs, to believe a few unarmed fishermen and gondoliers would not be
+listened to with--"
+
+"Ha! Did the gondoliers become of thy party? I should have believed
+them jealous, and displeased with the triumph of one who was not of
+their body."
+
+"A gondolier is a man, and though they had the feelings of human nature
+on being beaten, they had also the feelings of human nature when they
+heard that a father was robbed of his son--Signore," continued Antonio,
+with great earnestness and a singular simplicity, "there will be great
+discontent on the canals, if the galleys sail with the boy aboard them!"
+
+"Such is thy opinion; were the gondoliers on the Lido numerous?"
+
+"When the sports ended, eccellenza, they came over by hundreds, and I
+will do the generous fellows the justice to say, that they had forgotten
+their want of luck in the love of justice. Diamine! these gondoliers are
+not so bad a class as some pretend, but they are men like ourselves, and
+can feel for a Christian as well as another."
+
+The secretary paused, for his task was done; and a deep silence pervaded
+the gloomy apartment. After a short pause one of the three resumed--
+
+"Antonio Vecchio," he said, "thou hast served thyself in these said
+galleys, to which thou now seemest so averse--and served bravely, as I
+learn?"
+
+"Signore, I have done my duty by St. Mark. I played my part against the
+infidel, but it was after my beard was grown, and at an age when I had
+learnt to know good from evil. There is no duty more cheerfully
+performed by us all, than to defend the islands and the Lagunes against
+the enemy."
+
+"And all the Republic's dominions.--Thou canst make no distinctions
+between any of the rights of the state."
+
+"There is wisdom granted to the great, which God has denied the poor and
+the weak, Signore. To me it does not seem clear that Venice, a city
+built on a few islands, hath any more right to carry her rule into Crete
+or Candia, than the Turk hath to come here."
+
+"How! Dost thou dare on the Lido to question the claim of the Republic
+to her conquests? or do the irreverent fishermen dare thus to speak
+lightly of her glory?"
+
+"Eccellenza, I know little of rights that come by violence. God hath
+given us the Lagunes, but I know not that he has given us more. This
+glory of which you speak may sit lightly on the shoulder of a senator,
+but it weighs heavily on a fisherman's heart."
+
+"Thou speakest, bold man, of that which thou dost not comprehend."
+
+"It is unfortunate, Signore, that the power to understand hath not been
+given to those who have so much power to suffer."
+
+An anxious pause succeeded this reply.
+
+"Thou mayest withdraw, Antonio," said he, who apparently presided in the
+dread councils of the Three. "Thou wilt not speak of what has happened,
+and thou wilt await the inevitable justice of St. Mark in full
+confidence of its execution."
+
+"Thanks, illustrious senator; I will obey your excellency; but my heart
+is full, and I would fain say a few words concerning the child, before I
+quit this noble company."
+
+"Thou mayest speak--and here thou mayest give free vent to all thy
+wishes, or to all thy griefs, if any thou hast. St. Mark has no greater
+pleasure than to listen to the wishes of his children."
+
+"I believe they have reviled the Republic in calling its chiefs
+heartless, and sold to ambition!" said the old man, with generous
+warmth, disregarding the stern rebuke which gleamed in the eye of
+Jacopo. "A senator is but a man, and there are fathers and children
+among them, as among us of the Lagunes."
+
+"Speak, but refrain from seditious or discreditable discourse," uttered
+a secretary, in a half-whisper. "Proceed."
+
+"I have little now to offer, Signori; I am not used to boast of my
+services to the state, excellent gentlemen, but there is a time when
+human modesty must give way to human nature. These scars were got in one
+of the proudest days of St. Mark, and in the foremost of all the galleys
+that fought among the Greek Islands. The father of my boy wept over me
+then, as I have since wept over his own son--yes--I might be ashamed to
+own it among men, but if the truth must be spoken, the loss of the boy
+has drawn bitter tears from me in the darkness of night, and in the
+solitude of the Lagunes. I lay many weeks, Signori, less a man than a
+corpse, and when I got back again to my nets and my toil, I did not
+withhold my son from the call of the Republic. He went in my place to
+meet the infidel--a service from which he never came back. This was the
+duty of men who had grown in experience, and who were not to be deluded
+into wickedness by the evil company of the galleys. But this calling of
+children into the snares of the devil grieves a father, and--I will own
+the weakness, if such it be--I am not of a courage and pride to send
+forth my own flesh and blood into the danger and corruption of war and
+evil society, as in days when the stoutness of the heart was like the
+stoutness of the limbs. Give me back, then, my boy, till he has seen my
+old head laid beneath the sands, and until, by the aid of blessed St.
+Anthony, and such counsels as a poor man can offer, I may give him more
+steadiness in his love of the right, and until I may have so shaped his
+life, that he will not be driven about by every pleasant or treacherous
+wind that may happen to blow upon his bark. Signori, you are rich, and
+powerful, and honored, and though you may be placed in the way of
+temptations to do wrongs that are suited to your high names and
+illustrious fortunes, ye know little of the trials of the poor. What are
+the temptations of the blessed St. Anthony himself, to those of the evil
+company of the galleys! And now, Signori, though you may be angry to
+hear it, I will say, that when an aged man has no other kin on earth,
+or none so near as to feel the glow of the thin blood of the poor, than
+one poor boy, St. Mark would do well to remember that even a fisherman
+of the Lagunes can feel as well as the Doge on his throne. This much I
+say, illustrious senators, in sorrow, and not in anger; for I would get
+back the child, and die in peace with my superiors, as with my equals."
+
+"Thou mayest depart," said one of the Three.
+
+"Not yet, Signore, I have still more to say of the men of the Lagunes,
+who speak with loud voices concerning this dragging of boys into the
+service of the galleys."
+
+"We will hear their opinions."
+
+"Noble gentlemen, if I were to utter all they have said, word for word,
+I might do some disfavor to your ears! Man is man, though the Virgin and
+the saints listen to his aves and prayers from beneath a jacket of serge
+and a fisherman's cap. But I know too well my duty to the senate to
+speak so plainly. But, Signori, they say, saving the bluntness of their
+language, that St. Mark should have ears for the meanest of his people
+as well as for the richest noble; and that not a hair should fall from
+the head of a fisherman, without its being counted as if it were a lock
+from beneath the horned bonnet; and that where God hath not made marks
+of his displeasure, man should not."
+
+"Do they dare to reason thus?"
+
+"I know not if it be reason, illustrious Signore, but it is what they
+say, and, eccellenza, it is holy truth. We are poor workmen of the
+Lagunes, who rise with the day to cast our nets, and return at night to
+hard beds and harder fare; but with this we might be content, did the
+senate count us as Christians and men. That God hath not given to all
+the same chances in life, I well know, for it often happens that I draw
+an empty net, when my comrades are groaning with the weight of their
+draughts; but this is done to punish my sins, or to humble my heart,
+whereas it exceeds the power of man to look into the secrets of the
+soul, or to foretell the evil of the still innocent child. Blessed St.
+Anthony knows how many years of suffering this visit to the galleys may
+cause to the child in the end. Think of these things, I pray you,
+Signori, and send men of tried principles to the wars."
+
+"Thou mayest retire," rejoined the judge.
+
+"I should be sorry that any who cometh of my blood," continued the
+inattentive Antonio, "should be the cause of ill-will between them that
+rule and them that are born to obey. But nature is stronger even than
+the law, and I should discredit her feelings were I to go without
+speaking as becomes a father. Ye have taken my child and sent him to
+serve the state at the hazard of body and soul, without giving
+opportunity for a parting kiss, or a parting blessing--ye have used my
+flesh and blood as ye would use the wood of the arsenal, and sent it
+forth upon the sea as if it were the insensible metal of the balls ye
+throw against the infidel. Ye have shut your ears to my prayers, as if
+they were words uttered by the wicked, and when I have exhorted you on
+my knees, wearied my stiffened limbs to do ye pleasure, rendered ye the
+jewel which St. Anthony gave to my net, that it might soften your
+hearts, and reasoned with you calmly on the nature of your acts, you
+turn from me coldly, as if I were unfit to stand forth in defence of the
+offspring that God hath left my age! This is not the boasted justice of
+St. Mark, Venetian senators, but hardness of heart and a wasting of the
+means of the poor, that would ill become the most grasping Hebrew of the
+Rialto!"
+
+"Hast thou aught more to urge, Antonio?" asked the judge, with the wily
+design of unmasking the fisherman's entire soul.
+
+"Is it not enough, Signore, that I urge my years, my poverty, my scars,
+and my love for the boy? I know ye not, but though ye are hid behind the
+folds of your robes and masks, still must ye be men. There may be among
+ye a father, or perhaps some one who hath a still more sacred charge,
+the child of a dead son. To him I speak. In vain ye talk of justice when
+the weight of your power falls on them least able to bear it; and though
+ye may delude yourselves, the meanest gondolier of the canal knows--"
+
+He was stopped from uttering more by his companion, who rudely placed a
+hand on his mouth.
+
+"Why hast thou presumed to stop the complaints of Antonio?" sternly
+demanded the judge.
+
+"It was not decent, illustrious senators, to listen to such disrespect
+in so noble a presence," Jacopo answered, bending reverently as he
+spoke. "This old fisherman, dread Signori, is warmed by love for his
+offspring, and he will utter that which, in his cooler moments, he will
+repent."
+
+"St. Mark fears not the truth! If he has more to say, let him declare
+it."
+
+But the excited Antonio began to reflect. The flush which had ascended
+to his weather-beaten cheek disappeared, and his naked breast ceased to
+heave. He stood like one rebuked, more by his discretion than his
+conscience, with a calmer eye, and a face that exhibited the composure
+of his years, and the respect of his condition.
+
+"If I have offended, great patricians," he said, more mildly, "I pray
+you to forget the zeal of an ignorant old man, whose feelings are master
+of his breeding, and who knows less how to render the truth agreeable to
+noble ears, than to utter it."
+
+"Thou mayest depart."
+
+The armed attendants advanced, and obedient to a sign from the
+secretary, they led Antonio and his companion through the door by which
+they had entered. The other officials of the place followed, and the
+secret judges were left by themselves in the chamber of doom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  "Oh! the days that we have seen."
+                             SHELTON.
+
+
+A pause like that which accompanies self-contemplation, and perhaps
+conscious distrust of purpose, succeeded. Then the Three arose together,
+and began to lay aside the instruments of their disguise. When the masks
+were removed, they exposed the grave visages of men in the decline of
+life, athwart which worldly cares and worldly passions had drawn those
+deep lines, which no subsequent ease or resignation can erase. During
+the process of unrobing neither spoke, for the affair on which they had
+just been employed, caused novel and disagreeable sensations to them
+all. When they were delivered from their superfluous garments and their
+masks, however, they drew near the table, and each sought that relief
+for his limbs and person which was natural to the long restraint he had
+undergone.
+
+"There are letters from the French king intercepted," said one, after
+time had permitted them to rally their thoughts;--"it would appear they
+treat of the new intentions of the emperor."
+
+"Have they been restored to the ambassador? or are the originals to go
+before the senate?" demanded another.
+
+"On that we must take counsel at our leisure. I have naught else to
+communicate, except that the order given to intercept the messenger of
+the Holy See hath failed of its object."
+
+"Of this the secretaries advertised me. We must look into the negligence
+of the agents, for there is good reason to believe much useful
+knowledge would have come from that seizure."
+
+"As the attempt is already known and much spoken of, care must be had to
+issue orders for the arrest of the robbers, else may the Republic fall
+into disrepute with its friends. There are names on our list which might
+be readily marked for punishment, for that quarter of our patrimony is
+never in want of proscribed to conceal an accident of this nature."
+
+"Good heed will be had to this, since, as you say, the affair is
+weighty. The government or the individual that is negligent of
+reputation, cannot expect long to retain the respect of its equals."
+
+"The ambition of the House of Hapsburgh robs me of my sleep!" exclaimed
+the other, throwing aside some papers, over which his eye had glanced in
+disgust. "Holy St. Theodore! what a scourge to the race is the desire to
+augment territories and to extend an unjust rule, beyond the bounds of
+reason and nature! Here have we, in Venice, been in undisputed
+possession of provinces that are adapted to our institutions, convenient
+to our wants, and agreeable to our desires, for ages; provinces that
+were gallantly won by our ancestors, and which cling to us as habits
+linger in our age: and yet are they become objects of a covetous
+ambition to our neighbor, under a vain pretext of a policy that I fear
+is strengthened by our increasing weakness. I sicken, Signori, of my
+esteem for men, as I dive deeper into their tempers and desires, and
+often wish myself a dog, as I study their propensities. In his appetite
+for power, is not the Austrian the most rapacious of all the princes of
+the earth?"
+
+"More so, think you, worthy Signore, than the Castilian? You overlook
+the unsatiated desire of the Spanish king to extend his sway in Italy."
+
+"Hapsburgh or Bourbon; Turk or Englishman, they all seem actuated by the
+same fell appetite for dominion; and now that Venice hath no more to
+hope, than to preserve her present advantages, the least of all our
+enjoyments becomes a subject of covetous envy to our enemies. There are
+passions to weary one of an interference with governments, and to send
+him to his cord of penitence and the cloisters!"
+
+"I never listen to your observations, Signore, without quitting the
+chamber an edified man! Truly, this desire in the strangers to trespass
+on our privileges, and it may be well said, privileges which have been
+gained by our treasures and our blood, becomes more manifest daily.
+Should it not be checked, St. Mark will be stripped, in the end, of even
+a landing-place for a gondola on the main."
+
+"The leap of the winged lion is much curtailed, excellent Sir, or these
+things might not be! It is no longer in our power to persuade, or to
+command, as of old; and our canals begin to be encumbered with slimy
+weeds, instead of well freighted argosies and swift-sailing feluccas."
+
+"The Portuguese hath done us irretrievable harm, for without his African
+discoveries we might yet have retained the traffic in Indian
+commodities. I cordially dislike the mongrel race, being, as it is, half
+Gothic and half Moorish!"
+
+"I trust not myself to think of their origin or of their deeds, my
+friends, lest prejudice should kindle feelings unbecoming a man and a
+Christian. How now, Signor Gradenigo; thou art thoughtful?"
+
+The third member of the secret council, who had not spoken since the
+disappearance of the accused, and who was no other than the reader's old
+acquaintance of the name just mentioned, slowly lifted his head from a
+meditative position at this address.
+
+"The examination of the fisherman hath recalled scenes of my boyhood,"
+he answered, with a touch of nature that seldom found place in that
+chamber.
+
+"I heard thee say he was thy foster-brother," returned the other,
+struggling to conceal a gape.
+
+"We drank of the same milk, and, for the first years of life, we spoiled
+at the same games."
+
+"These imaginary kindred often give great uneasiness. I am glad your
+trouble hath no other source, for I had heard that the young heir of
+your house hath shown a prodigal disposition of late, and I feared that
+matter might have come to your knowledge, as one of the council, that a
+father might not wish to learn."
+
+The selfish features of the Signor Gradenigo instantly underwent a
+change. He glanced curiously, and with a strong distrust, but in a
+covert manner, at the fallen eyes of his two companions, anxious to
+penetrate their secret thoughts ere he ventured to expose his own.
+
+"Is there aught of complaint against the youth?" he demanded in a voice
+of hesitation. "You understand a father's interest, and will not conceal
+the truth."
+
+"Signore, you know that the agents of the police are active, and little
+that comes to their knowledge fails to reach the ears of the council.
+But, at the worst, the matter is not of life or death. It can only cost
+the inconsiderate young man a visit to Dalmatia, or an order to waste
+the summer at the foot of the Alps."
+
+"Youth is the season of indiscretion, as ye know, Signori," returned the
+father, breathing more freely--"and as none become old that have not
+been young, I have little need to awaken your recollection of its
+weaknesses. I trust my son is incapable of designing aught against the
+Republic?"
+
+"Of that he is not suspected." A slight expression of irony crossed the
+features of the old senator as he spoke. "But he is represented as
+aiming too freely at the person and wealth of your ward; and that she
+who is the especial care of St. Mark is not to be solicited without the
+consent of the Senate, is an usage well known to one of its most
+ancient and most honorable members."
+
+"Such is the law, and none coming of me shall show it disrespect. I have
+preferred my claims to that connexion openly, but with diffidence; and I
+await the decision of the state in respectful confidence."
+
+His associates bowed in courteous acknowledgment of the justice of what
+he said, and of the loyalty of his conduct, but it was in the manner of
+men too long accustomed to duplicity to be easily duped.
+
+"None doubt it, worthy Signor Gradenigo, for thy faith to the state is
+ever quoted as a model for the young, and as a subject for the
+approbation of the more experienced. Hast thou any communications to
+make on the interest of the young heiress, thyself?"
+
+"I am pained to say that the deep obligation conferred by Don Camillo
+Monforte, seems to have wrought upon her youthful imagination, and I
+apprehend that, in disposing of my ward, the state will have to contend
+with the caprice of a female mind. The waywardness of that age will give
+more trouble than the conduct of far graver matters."
+
+"Is the lady attended by suitable companions in her daily life?"
+
+"Her companions are known to the Senate. In so grave an interest, I
+would not act without their authority and sanction. But the affair hath
+great need of delicacy in its government. The circumstance that so much
+of my ward's fortune lies in the states of the church, renders it
+necessary to await the proper moment for disposing of her rights, and of
+transferring their substance within the limits of the Republic, before
+we proceed to any act of decision. Once assured of her wealth, she may
+be disposed of as seemeth best to the welfare of the state, without
+further delay."
+
+"The lady hath a lineage and riches, and an excellence of person, that
+might render her of great account in some of these knotty negotiations
+which so much fetter our movements of late. The time hath been when a
+daughter of Venice, not more fair, was wooed to the bed of a sovereign."
+
+"Signore, those days of glory and greatness exist no longer. Should it
+be thought expedient to overlook the natural claims of my son, and to
+bestow my ward to the advantage of the Republic, the most that can be
+expected through her means, is a favorable concession in some future
+treaty, or a new prop to some of the many decaying interests of the
+city. In this particular, she maybe rendered of as much, or even more
+use, than the oldest and wisest of our body. But that her will may be
+free and the child may have no obstacles to her happiness, it will be
+necessary to make a speedy determination of the claim preferred by Don
+Camillo. Can we do better than to recommend a compromise, that he may
+return without delay to his own Calabria?"
+
+"The concern is weighty, and it demands deliberation."
+
+"He complains of our tardiness already, and not without show of reason.
+It is five years since the claim was first preferred."
+
+"Signor Gradenigo, it is for the vigorous and healthful to display their
+activity--the aged and the tottering must move with caution. Were we in
+Venice to betray precipitation in so weighty a concern, without seeing
+an immediate interest in the judgment, we should trifle with a gale of
+fortune that every sirocco will not blow into the canals. We must have
+terms with the lord of Sant' Agata, or we greatly slight our own
+advantage."
+
+"I hinted of the matter to your excellencies, as a consideration for
+your wisdom; methinks it will be something gained to remove one so
+dangerous from the recollection and from before the eyes of a love-sick
+maiden."
+
+"Is the damsel so amorous?"
+
+"She is of Italy, Signore, and our sun bestows warm fancies and fervent
+minds."
+
+"Let her to the confessional and her prayers! The godly prior of St.
+Mark will discipline her imagination till she shall conceit the
+Neapolitan a Moor and an infidel. Just San Teodoro, forgive me! But thou
+canst remember the time, my friends, when the penance of the church was
+not without service on thine own fickle tastes and truant practices."
+
+"The Signore Gradenigo was a gallant in his time," observed the third,
+"as all well know who travelled in his company. Thou wert much spoken of
+at Versailles and at Vienna; nay, thou canst not deny thy vogue to one
+who, if he hath no other merit, hath a memory."
+
+"I protest against these false recollections," rejoined the accused, a
+withered smile lighting his faded countenance; "we have been young,
+Signori, but among us all, I never knew a Venetian of more general
+fashion and of better report, especially with the dames of France, than
+he who has just spoken."
+
+"Account it not--account it not--'twas the weakness of youth and the use
+of the times!--I remember to have seen thee, Enrico, at Madrid, and a
+gayer or more accomplished gentleman was not known at the Spanish
+court."
+
+"Thy friendship blinded thee. I was a boy and full of spirits; no more,
+I may assure thee. Didst hear of my affair with the mousquetaire when at
+Paris?"
+
+"Did I hear of the general war? Thou art too modest to raise this doubt
+of a meeting that occupied the coteries for a month, as it had been a
+victory of the powers! Signor Gradenigo, it was a pleasure to call him
+countryman at that time; for I do assure thee, a sprightlier or more
+gallant gentleman did not walk the terrace."
+
+"Thou tellest me of what my own eyes have been a witness. Did I not
+arrive when men's voices spoke of nothing else? A beautiful court and a
+pleasant capital were those of France in our day, Signori."
+
+"None pleasanter or of greater freedom of intercourse. St. Mark aid me
+with his prayers! The many pleasant hours that I have passed between the
+Marais and the Chateau! Didst ever meet La Comtesse de Mignon in the
+gardens?"
+
+"Zitto, thou growest loquacious, caro; nay, she wanted not for grace and
+affability, that I will say. In what a manner they played in the houses
+of resort at that time!"
+
+"I know it to my cost. Will you lend me your belief, dear friends? I
+arose from the table of La Belle Duchesse de------, the loser of a
+thousand sequins, and to this hour it seemeth but a moment that I was
+occupied."
+
+"I remember the evening. Thou wert seated between the wife of the
+Spanish ambassador and a miladi of England. Thou wert playing at
+rouge-et-noir in more ways than one; for thy eyes were on thy neighbors,
+instead of thy cards. Giulio, I would have paid half the loss, to have
+read the next epistle of the worthy senator thy father!"
+
+"He never knew it--he never knew it. We had our friends on the Rialto,
+and the account was settled a few years later. Thou wast well with
+Ninon, Enrico?"
+
+"A companion of her leisure, and one who basked in the sunshine of her
+wit."
+
+"Nay, they said thou wert of more favor--"
+
+"Mere gossip of the saloons. I do protest, gentlemen--not that others
+were better received--but idle tongues will have their discourse!"
+
+"Wert thou of the party, Alessandro, that went in a fit of gaiety from
+country to country till it numbered ten courts at which it appeared in
+as many weeks?"
+
+"Was I not its mover? What a memory art thou getting! 'Twas for a
+hundred golden louis, and it was bravely won by an hour. A postponement
+of the reception by the elector of Bavaria went near to defeat us; but
+we bribed the groom of the chambers, as thou mayest remember, and got
+into the presence as it were by accident."
+
+"Was that held to be sufficient?"
+
+"That was it--for our terms mentioned the condition of holding discourse
+with ten sovereigns in as many weeks, in their own palaces. Oh! it was
+fairly won, and I believe I may say that it was as gaily expended!"
+
+"For the latter will I vouch, since I never quitted thee while a piece
+of it all remained. There are divers means of dispensing gold in those
+northern capitals, and the task was quickly accomplished. They are
+pleasant countries for a few years of youth and idleness!"
+
+"It is a pity that their climates are so rude."
+
+A slight and general shudder expressed their Italian sympathy, but the
+discourse did not the less proceed.
+
+"They might have a better sun and a clearer sky, but there is excellent
+cheer, and no want of hospitality," observed the Signor Gradenigo, who
+maintained his full share of the dialogue, though we have not found it
+necessary to separate sentiments that were so common among the different
+speakers. "I have seen pleasant hours even with the Genoese, though
+their town hath a cast of reflection and sobriety that is not always
+suited to the dispositions of youth."
+
+"Nay, Stockholm and Copenhagen have their pleasures too, I do assure
+thee. I passed a season between them. Your Dane is a good joker and a
+hearty bottle companion."
+
+"In that the Englishman surpasseth all! If I were to relate their powers
+of living in this manner, dear friends, ye would discredit me. That
+which I have seen often, seemeth impossible even to myself. 'Tis a
+gloomy abode, and one that we of Italy little like, in common."
+
+"Name it not in comparison with Holland--wert ever in Holland, friends?
+didst ever enjoy the fashion of Amsterdam and the Hague? I remember to
+have heard a young Roman urge a friend to pass a winter there; for the
+witty rogue termed it the beau-ideal of the land of petticoats!"
+
+The three old Italians, in whom this sally excited a multitude of absurd
+recollections and pleasant fancies, broke out into a general and hearty
+fit of laughter. The sound of their cracked merriment, echoing in that
+gloomy and solemn room, suddenly recalled them to the recollection of
+their duties. Each listened an instant, as if in expectation that some
+extraordinary consequence was to follow so extraordinary an interruption
+of the usual silence of the place, like a child whose truant
+propensities were about to draw detection on his offence, and then the
+principal of the council furtively wiped the tears from his eyes, and
+resumed his gravity.
+
+"Signori," he said, fumbling in a bundle of papers, "we must take up the
+matter of the fisherman--but we will first inquire into the circumstance
+of the signet left the past night in the lion's mouth. Signor Gradenigo,
+you were charged with the examination."
+
+"The duty hath been executed, noble Sirs, and with a success I had not
+hoped to meet with. Haste at our last meeting prevented a perusal of the
+paper to which it was attached, but it will now be seen that the two
+have a connexion. Here is an accusation which charges Don Camillo
+Monforte with a design to bear away, beyond the power of the Senate, the
+Donna Violetta, my ward, in order to possess her person and riches. It
+speaketh of proofs in possession of the accuser, as if he were an agent
+intrusted by the Neapolitan. As a pledge of his truth, I suppose, for
+there is no mention made of any other use, he sends the signet of Don
+Camillo himself, which cannot have been obtained without that noble's
+confidence."
+
+"Is it certain that he owns the ring?"
+
+"Of that I am well assured. You know I am especially charged with
+conducting his personal demand with the Senate, and frequent interviews
+have given me opportunity to note that he was wont to wear a signet,
+which is now wanting. My jeweller of the Rialto hath sufficiently
+identified this, as the missing ring."
+
+"Thus far it is clear, though there is an obscurity in the circumstance
+that the signet of the accused should be found with the accusation,
+which, being unexplained, renders the charge vague and uncertain. Have
+you any clue to the writing, or any means of knowing whence it comes?"
+
+There was a small but nearly imperceptible red spot on the cheek of the
+Signor Gradenigo, that did not escape the keen distrust of his
+companions; but he concealed his alarm, answering distinctly that he had
+none.
+
+"We must then defer a decision for further proof. The justice of St.
+Mark hath been too much vaunted to endanger its reputation by a hasty
+decree, in a question which so closely touches the interest of a
+powerful noble of Italy. Don Camillo Monforte hath a name of
+distinction, and counteth too many of note among his kindred, to be
+dealt with as we might dispose of a gondolier, or the messenger of some
+foreign state."
+
+"As respects him, Signore, you are undoubtedly right. But may we not
+endanger our heiress by too much tenderness?"
+
+"There are many convents in Venice, Signore."
+
+"The monastic life is ill suited to the temper of my ward," the Signor
+Gradenigo drily observed, "and I fear to hazard the experiment; gold is
+a key to unlock the strongest cell; besides, we cannot, with due
+observance of propriety, place a child of the state in durance."
+
+"Signor Gradenigo, we have had this matter under long and grave
+consideration, and agreeably to our laws, when one of our number hath a
+palpable interest in the affair, we have taken counsel of his highness,
+who is of accord with as in sentiment. Your personal interest in the
+lady might have warped your usually excellent judgment, else, be
+assured, we should have summoned you to the conference."
+
+The old senator, who thus unexpectedly found himself excluded from
+consultation on the very matter that of all others made him most value
+his temporary authority, stood abashed and silent; reading in his
+countenance, however, a desire to know more, his associates proceeded to
+communicate all it was their intention he should hear.
+
+"It hath been determined to remove the lady to a suitable retirement,
+and for this purpose care hath been already had to provide the means.
+Thou wilt be temporarily relieved of a most grievous charge, which
+cannot but have weighed heavily on thy spirits, and in other particulars
+have lessened thy much-valued usefulness to the Republic."
+
+This unexpected communication was made with marked courtesy of manner,
+but with an emphasis and tone that sufficiently acquainted the Signor
+Gradenigo with the nature of the suspicions that beset him. He had too
+long been familiar with the sinuous policy of the council, in which, at
+intervals, he had so often sat, not to understand that he would run the
+risk of a more serious accusation were he to hesitate in acknowledging
+its justice. Teaching his features, therefore, to wear a smile as
+treacherous as that of his wily companion, he answered with seeming
+gratitude:
+
+"His highness and you, my excellent colleagues, have taken counsel of
+your good wishes and kindness of heart, rather than of the duty of a
+poor subject of St. Mark, to toil on in his service while he hath
+strength and reason for the task," he said. "The management of a
+capricious female mind is a concern of no light moment; and while I
+thank you for this consideration of my case, you will permit me to
+express my readiness to resume the charge whenever it shall please the
+state again to confer it."
+
+"Of this none are more persuaded than we, nor are any better satisfied
+of your ability to discharge the trust faithfully. But you enter,
+Signore, into all our motives, and will join us in the opinion that it
+is equally unbecoming the Republic, and one of its most illustrious
+citizens, to leave a ward of the former in a position that shall subject
+the latter to unmerited censure. Believe me, we have thought less of
+Venice in this matter than of the honor and the interests of the house
+of Gradenigo; for, should this Neapolitan thwart our views, you of us
+all would be most liable to be disapproved of."
+
+"A thousand thanks, excellent Sir," returned the deposed guardian. "You
+have taken a load from my mind, and restored some of the freshness and
+elasticity of youth! The claim of Don Camillo now is no longer urgent,
+since it is your pleasure to remove the lady for a season from the
+city."
+
+"'Twere better to hold it in deeper suspense, if it were only to occupy
+his mind. Keep up thy communications as of wont, and withhold not hope,
+which is a powerful exciter in minds that are not deadened by
+experience. We shall not conceal from one of our number, that a
+negotiation is already near a termination, which will relieve the state
+from the care of the damsel, and at some benefit to the Republic. Her
+estates lying without our limits greatly facilitate the treaty, which
+hath only been withheld from your knowledge by the consideration, that
+of late we have rather too much overloaded thee with affairs."
+
+Again the Signor Gradenigo bowed submissively, and with apparent joy. He
+saw that his secret designs had been penetrated, notwithstanding all his
+practised duplicity and specious candor; and he submitted with that
+species of desperate resignation, which becomes a habit, if not a
+virtue, in men long accustomed to be governed despotically. When this
+delicate subject, which required the utmost finesse of Venetian policy,
+since it involved the interests of one who happened, at that moment, to
+be in the dreaded council itself, was disposed of, the three turned
+their attention to other matters, with that semblance of indifference to
+personal feeling, which practice in tortuous paths of state-intrigue
+enabled men to assume.
+
+"Since we are so happily of opinion concerning the disposition of the
+Donna Violetta," coolly observed the oldest senator, a rare specimen of
+hackneyed and worldly morality, "we may look into our list of daily
+duties--what say the lions' mouths to-night?"
+
+"A few of the ordinary and unmeaning accusations that spring from
+personal hatred," returned another. "One chargeth his neighbor with
+oversight in religious duties, and with some carelessness of the fasts
+of Holy Church--a. foolish scandal, fitted for the ears of a curate."
+
+"Is there naught else?"
+
+"Another complaineth of neglect in a husband. The scrawl is in a woman's
+hand, and beareth on its face the evidence of woman's resentment."
+
+"Sudden to rise and easy to be appeased. Let the neighborhood quiet the
+household by its sneers.--What next?"
+
+"A suitor in the courts maketh complaint of the tardiness of the
+judges."
+
+"This toucheth the reputation of St. Mark; it must be looked to!"
+
+"Hold!" interrupted the Signor Gradenigo. "The tribunal acted
+advisedly--'tis in the matter of a Hebrew, who is thought to have
+secrets of importance. The affair hath need of deliberation, I do assure
+you."
+
+"Destroy the charge.--Have we more?"
+
+"Nothing of note. The usual number of pleasantries and hobbling verses
+which tend to nothing. If we get some useful gleanings by these secret
+accusations, we gain much nonsense. I would whip a youngster of ten who
+could not mould our soft Italian into better rhyme than this?"
+
+"'Tis the wantonness of security. Let it pass, for all that serveth to
+amuse suppresseth turbulent thoughts. Shall we now see his highness,
+Signori?"
+
+"You forget the fisherman," gravely observed the Signor Gradenigo.
+
+"Your honor sayeth true. What a head for business hath he! Nothing that
+is useful escapeth his ready mind."
+
+The old senator, while he was too experienced to be cajoled by such
+language, saw the necessity of appearing flattered. Again he bowed, and
+protested aloud and frequently against the justice of compliments that
+he so little merited. When this little byplay was over, they proceeded
+gravely to consider the matter before them.
+
+As the decision of the Council of Three will be made apparent in the
+course of the narrative, we shall not continue to detail the
+conversation that accompanied their deliberations. The sitting was long,
+so long indeed that when they arose, having completed their business,
+the heavy clock of the square tolled the hour of midnight.
+
+"The Doge will be impatient," said one of the two nameless members, as
+they threw on their cloaks, before leaving the chamber. "I thought his
+highness wore a more fatigued and feeble air to-day, than he is wont to
+exhibit at the festivities of the city."
+
+"His highness is no longer young, Signore. If I remember right, he
+greatly outnumbers either of us in years. Our Lady of Loretto lend him
+strength long to wear the ducal bonnet, and wisdom to wear it well!"
+
+"He hath lately sent offerings to her shrine."
+
+"Signore, he hath. His confessor hath gone in person with the offering,
+as I know of certainty. 'Tis not a serious gift, but a mere remembrance
+to keep himself in the odor of sanctity. I doubt that his reign will not
+be long!"
+
+"There are, truly, signs of decay in his system. He is a worthy prince,
+and we shall lose a father when called to weep for his loss!"
+
+"Most true, Signore: but the horned bonnet is not an invulnerable
+shield against the arrows of death. Age and infirmities are more potent
+than our wishes."
+
+"Thou art moody to-night, Signor Gradenigo. Thou art not used to be so
+silent with thy friends."
+
+"I am not the less grateful, Signore, for their favors. If I have a
+loaded countenance, I bear a lightened heart. One who hath a daughter of
+his own so happily bestowed in wedlock as thine, may judge of the relief
+I feel by this disposition of my ward. Joy affects the exterior,
+frequently, like sorrow; aye, even to tears."
+
+His two companions looked at the speaker with much obvious sympathy in
+their manners. They then left the chamber of doom together. The menials
+entered and extinguished the lights, leaving all behind them in an
+obscurity that was no bad type of the gloomy mysteries of the place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  "Then methought,
+  A serenade broke silence, breathing hope
+  Through walls of stone."
+                             ITALY.
+
+
+Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, the melody of music was rife
+on the water. Gondolas continued to glide along the shadowed canals,
+while the laugh or the song was echoed among the arches of the palaces.
+The piazza and piazzetta were yet brilliant with lights, and gay with
+their multitudes of unwearied revellers.
+
+The habitation of Donna Violetta was far from the scene of general
+amusement. Though so remote, the hum of the moving throng, and the
+higher strains of the wind-instruments, came, from time to time, to the
+ears of its inmates, mellowed and thrilling by distance.
+
+The position of the moon cast the whole of the narrow passage which
+flowed beneath the windows of her private apartments into shadow. In a
+balcony which overhung the water, stood the youthful and ardent girl,
+listening with a charmed ear and a tearful eye to one of those soft
+strains, in which Venetian voices answered to each other from different
+points on the canals, in the songs of the gondoliers. Her constant
+companion and Mentor was near, while the ghostly father of them both
+stood deeper in the room.
+
+"There may be pleasanter towns on the main, and capitals of more
+revelry," said the charmed Violetta, withdrawing her person from its
+leaning attitude, as the voices ceased; "but in such a night and at this
+witching hour, what city may compare with Venice?"
+
+"Providence has been less partial in the distribution of its earthly
+favors than is apparent to a vulgar eye," returned the attentive
+Carmelite. "If we have our peculiar enjoyments and our moments of divine
+contemplation, other towns have advantages of their own; Genoa and Pisa,
+Firenze, Ancona, Roma, Palermo, and, chiefest of all, Napoli--"
+
+"Napoli, father!"
+
+"Daughter, Napoli. Of all the towns of sunny Italy, 'tis the fairest and
+the most blessed in natural gifts. Of every region I have visited,
+during a life of wandering and penitence, that is the country on which
+the touch of the Creator hath been the most God-like!"
+
+"Thou art imaginative to-night, good Father Anselmo. The land must be
+fair indeed, that can thus warm the fancy of a Carmelite."
+
+"The rebuke is just. I have spoken more under the influence of
+recollections that came from days of idleness and levity, than with the
+chastened spirit of one who should see the hand of the Maker in the most
+simple and least lovely of all his wondrous works."
+
+"You reproach yourself causelessly, holy father," observed the mild
+Donna Florinda, raising her eyes towards the pale countenance of the
+monk; "to admire the beauties of nature, is to worship Him who gave them
+being."
+
+At that moment a burst of music rose on the air, proceeding from the
+water beneath the balcony. Donna Violetta started back, abashed; and as
+she held her breath in wonder, and haply with that delight which open
+admiration is apt to excite in a youthful female bosom, the color
+mounted to her temples.
+
+"There passeth a band," calmly observed the Donna Florinda.
+
+"No, it is a cavalier! There are gondoliers, servitors in his colors."
+
+"This is as hardy as it may be gallant," returned the monk, who
+listened to the air with an evident and grave displeasure.
+
+There was no longer any doubt but that a serenade was meant. Though the
+custom was of much use, it was the first time that a similar honor had
+been paid beneath the window of Donna Violetta. The studied privacy of
+her life, her known destiny, and the jealousy of the despotic state, and
+perhaps the deep respect which encircled a maiden of her tender years
+and high condition, had, until that moment, kept the aspiring, the vain,
+and the interested, equally in awe.
+
+"It is for me!" whispered the trembling, the distressed, the delighted
+Violetta.
+
+"It is for one of us, indeed," answered the cautious friend.
+
+"Be it for whom it may, it is bold," rejoined the monk.
+
+Donna Violetta shrank from observation behind the drapery of the window,
+but she raised a hand in pleasure as the rich strains rolled through the
+wide apartments.
+
+"What a taste rules the band!" she half-whispered, afraid to trust her
+voice lest a sound should escape her ears. "They touch an air of
+Petrarch's sonatas! How indiscreet, and yet how noble!"
+
+"More noble than wise," said the Donna Florinda, who entered the balcony
+and looked intently on the water beneath.
+
+"Here are musicians in the color of a noble in one gondola," she
+continued, "and a single cavalier in another."
+
+"Hath he no servitor? Doth he ply the oar himself?"
+
+"Truly that decency hath not been overlooked; one in a flowered jacket
+guides the boat."
+
+"Speak, then, dearest Florinda, I pray thee."
+
+"Would it be seemly?"
+
+"Indeed I think it. Speak them fair. Say that I am the Senate's--that it
+is not discreet to urge a daughter of the state thus--say what thou
+wilt--but speak them fair."
+
+"Ha! it is Don Camillo Monforte! I know him by his noble stature and
+the gallant wave of his hand."
+
+"This temerity will undo him! His claim will be refused--himself
+banished. Is it not near the hour when the gondola of the police passes?
+Admonish him to depart, good Florinda--and yet can we use this rudeness
+to a Signor of his rank!"
+
+"Father, counsel us; you know the hazards of this rash gallantry in the
+Neapolitan--aid us with thy wisdom, for there is not a moment to lose."
+
+The Carmelite had been an attentive and an indulgent observer of the
+emotion which sensations so novel had awakened in the ardent but
+unpractised breast of the fair Venetian. Pity, sorrow, and sympathy,
+were painted on his mortified face, as he witnessed the mastery of
+feeling over a mind so guileless, and a heart so warm; but the look was
+rather that of one who knew the dangers of the passions, than of one who
+condemned them without thought of their origin or power. At the appeal
+of the governess he turned away and silently quitted the room. Donna
+Florinda left the balcony and drew near her charge. There was no
+explanation, nor any audible or visible means of making their sentiments
+known to each other. Violetta threw herself into the arms of her more
+experienced friend, and struggled to conceal her face in her bosom. At
+this moment the music suddenly ceased, and the plash of oars falling
+into the water succeeded.
+
+"He is gone!" exclaimed the young creature who had been the object of
+the serenade, and whose faculties, spite of her confusion, had lost none
+of their acuteness. "The gondolas are moving away, and we have not made
+even the customary acknowledgments for their civility!"
+
+"It is not needed--or rather it might increase a hazard that is already
+too weighty. Remember thy high destiny, my child, and let them depart."
+
+"And yet methinks one of my station should not fail in courtesy. The
+compliment may mean no more than any other idle usage, and they should
+not quit us unthanked."
+
+"Rest you within. I will watch the movement of the boats, for it
+surpasseth female endurance not to note their aspect."
+
+"Thanks, dearest Florinda! hasten, lest they enter the other canal ere
+thou seest them."
+
+The governess was quickly in the balcony. Active as was her movement,
+her eyes were scarcely cast upon the shadow beneath, before a hurried
+question demanded what she beheld.
+
+"Both gondolas are gone," was the answer; "that with the musicians is
+already entering the great canal, but that of the cavalier hath
+unaccountably disappeared!"
+
+"Nay, look again; he cannot be in such haste to quit us."
+
+"I had not sought him in the right direction. Here is his gondola, by
+the bridge of our own canal."
+
+"And the cavalier? He waits for some sign of courtesy; it is meet that
+we should not withhold it."
+
+"I see him not. His servitor is seated on the steps of the landing,
+while the gondola appeareth to be empty. The man hath an air of waiting,
+but I nowhere see the master!"
+
+"Blessed Maria! can aught have befallen the gallant Duca di Sant'
+Agata?"
+
+"Naught but the happiness of casting himself here!" exclaimed a voice
+near the person of the heiress. The Donna Violetta turned her gaze from
+the balcony, and beheld him who filled all her thoughts at her feet.
+
+The cry of the girl, the exclamation of her friend, and a rapid and
+eager movement of the monk, brought the whole party into a group.
+
+"This may not be," said the latter in a reproving voice. "Arise, Don
+Camillo, lest I repent listening to your prayer; you exceed our
+conditions."
+
+"As much as this emotion exceedeth my hopes," answered the noble. "Holy
+father, it is a sin to oppose Providence! Providence brought me to the
+rescue of this lovely being when accident threw her into the Giudecca,
+and once more Providence is my friend, by permitting me to be a witness
+of this feeling. Speak, fair Violetta, thou wilt not be an instrument of
+the Senate's selfishness--thou wilt not hearken to their wish of
+disposing of thy hand on the mercenary who would trifle with the most
+sacred of all vows to possess thy wealth?"
+
+"For whom am I destined?" demanded Violetta.
+
+"No matter, since it be not for me. Some trafficker in happiness, some
+worthless abuser of the gifts of fortune."
+
+"Thou knowest, Camillo, our Venetian custom, and must see that I am
+hopelessly in their hands."
+
+"Arise, Duke of St. Agata," said the monk, with authority--"when I
+suffered you to enter this palace, it was to remove a scandal from its
+gates, and to save you from your own rash disregard of the state's
+displeasure. It is idle to encourage hopes that the policy of the
+Republic opposes. Arise then, and respect your pledges."
+
+"That shall be as this lady may decide. Encourage me with but an
+approving look, fairest Violetta, and not Venice, with its Doge and
+inquisition, shall stir me an inch from thy feet!"
+
+"Camillo!" answered the trembling girl, "thou, the preserver of my life,
+hast little need to kneel to me!"
+
+"Duke of St. Agata--daughter!"
+
+"Nay, heed him not, generous Violetta. He utters words of convention--he
+speaks as all speak in age, when men's tongues deny the feelings of
+their youth. He is a Carmelite, and must feign this prudence. He never
+knew the tyranny of the passions. The dampness of his cell has chilled
+the ardor of the heart. Had he been human, he would have loved; had he
+loved, he would never have worn a cowl."
+
+Father Anselmo receded a pace, like one pricked in conscience, and the
+paleness of his ascetic features took a deadly hue. His lips moved as if
+he would have spoken, but the sounds were smothered by an oppression
+that denied him utterance. The gentle Florinda saw his distress, and she
+endeavored to interpose between the impetuous youth and her charge.
+
+"It may be as you say, Signor Monforte," she said--"and that the Senate,
+in its fatherly care, searches a partner worthy of an heiress of a house
+so illustrious and so endowed as that of Tiepolo. But in this, what is
+there more than of wont? Do not the nobles of all Italy seek their
+equals in condition and in the gifts of fortune, in order that their
+union may be fittingly assorted. How know we that the estates of my
+young friend have not a value in the eye of the Duke of St. Agata as
+well as in those of him that the Senate may elect for thy husband?"
+
+"Can this be true?" exclaimed Violetta.
+
+"Believe it not; my errand in Venice is no secret. I seek the
+restitution of lands and houses long withheld from my family, with the
+honors of the Senate that are justly mine. All these do I joyfully
+abandon for the hope of thy favor."
+
+"Thou nearest, Florinda: Don Camillo is not to be distrusted!"
+
+"What are the Senate and the power of St. Mark that they should cross
+our lives with misery? Be mine, lovely Violetta, and in the fastnesses
+of my own good Calabrian castle we will defy their vengeance and policy.
+Their disappointment shall furnish merriment for my vassals, and our
+felicity shall make the happiness of thousands. I affect no disrespect
+for the dignity of the councils, nor any indifference to that I lose,
+but to me art thou far more precious than the horned bonnet itself, with
+all its fancied influence and glory."
+
+"Generous Camillo!"
+
+"Be mine, and spare the cold calculators of the Senate another crime.
+They think to dispose of thee, as if thou wert worthless merchandise, to
+their own advantage. But thou wilt defeat their design. I read the
+generous resolution in thine eye, Violetta; thou wilt manifest a will
+superior to their arts and egotism."
+
+"I would not be trafficked for, Don Camillo Monforte, but wooed and won
+as befitteth a maiden of my condition. They may still leave me liberty
+of choice. The Signor Gradenigo hath much encouraged me of late with
+this hope, when speaking of the establishment suited to my years."
+
+"Believe him not; a colder heart, a spirit more removed from charity,
+exists not in Venice. He courts thy favor for his own prodigal son; a
+cavalier without honor, the companion of profligates, and the victim of
+the Hebrews. Believe him not, for he is stricken in deceit."
+
+"He is the victim of his own designs, if this be true. Of all the youths
+of Venice I esteem Giacomo Gradenigo least."
+
+"This interview must have an end," said the monk, imposing effectually,
+and compelling the lover to rise. "It would be easier to escape the
+toils of sin than to elude the agents of the police. I tremble lest this
+visit should be known, for we are encircled with the ministers of the
+state, and not a palace in Venice is more narrowly watched than this.
+Were thy presence here detected, indiscreet young man, thy youth might
+pine in a prison, while thou would'st be the cause of persecution and
+unmerited sorrow to this innocent and inexperienced maiden."
+
+"A prison, sayest thou, father!"
+
+"No less, daughter. Lighter offences are often expiated by heavier
+judgments, when the pleasure of the Senate is thwarted."
+
+"Thou must not be condemned to a prison, Camillo!"
+
+"Fear it not. The years and peaceful calling of the father make him
+timid. I have long been prepared for this happy moment, and I ask but a
+single hour to put Venice and all her toils at defiance. Give me the
+blessed assurance of thy truth, and confide in my means for the rest."
+
+"Thou nearest, Florinda!"
+
+"This bearing is suited to the sex of Don Camillo, dearest, but it ill
+becometh thee. A maiden of high quality must await the decision of her
+natural guardians."
+
+"But should that choice be Giacomo Gradenigo?"
+
+"The Senate will not hear of it. The arts of his father have long been
+known to thee; and thou must have seen, by the secresy of his own
+advances, that he distrusts their decision. The state will have a care
+to dispose of thee as befitteth thy hopes. Thou art sought of many, and
+those who guard thy fortune only await the proposals which best become
+thy birth."
+
+"Proposals that become my birth?"
+
+"Suitable in years, condition, expectations, and character."
+
+"Am I to regard Don Camillo Monforte as one beneath me?"
+
+The monk again interposed.
+
+"This interview must end," he said. "The eyes drawn upon us by your
+indiscreet music, are now turned on other objects, Signore, and you must
+break your faith, or depart."
+
+"Alone, father?"
+
+"Is the Donna Violetta to quit the roof of her father with as little
+warning as an unfavored dependant?"
+
+"Nay, Signor Monforte, you could not, in reason, have expected more, in
+this interview, than the hope of some future termination to your suit---
+some pledge--"
+
+"And that pledge?"
+
+The eye of Violetta turned from her governess to her lover, from her
+lover to the monk, and from the latter to the floor.
+
+"Is thine, Camillo."
+
+A common cry escaped the Carmelite and the governess.
+
+"Thy mercy, excellent friends," continued the blushing but decided
+Violetta. "If I have encouraged Don Camillo, in a manner that thy
+counsels and maiden modesty would reprove, reflect that had he hesitated
+to cast himself into the Giudecca, I should have wanted the power to
+confer this trifling grace. Why should I be less generous than my
+preserver? No, Camillo, when the senate condemns me to wed another than
+thee, it pronounces the doom of celibacy; I will hide my griefs in a
+convent till I die!"
+
+There was a solemn and fearful interruption to a discourse which was so
+rapidly becoming explicit, by the sound of the bell, that the groom of
+the chambers, a long-tried and confidential domestic, had been commanded
+to ring before he entered. As this injunction had been accompanied by
+another not to appear, unless summoned, or urged by some grave motive,
+the signal caused a sudden pause, even at that interesting moment.
+
+"How now!" exclaimed the Carmelite to the servant, who abruptly entered.
+"What means this disregard of my injunctions?"
+
+"Father, the Republic!"
+
+"Is St. Mark in jeopardy, that females and priests are summoned to aid
+him?"
+
+"There are officials of the state below, who demand admission in the
+name of the Republic?"
+
+"This grows serious," said Don Camillo, who alone retained his
+self-possession. "My visit is known, and the active jealousy of the
+state anticipates its object. Summon your resolution, Donna Violetta,
+and you, father, be of heart! I will assume the responsibility of the
+offence, if offence it be, and exonerate all others from censure."
+
+"Forbid it, Father Anselmo. Dearest Florinda, we will share his
+punishment!" exclaimed the terrified Violetta, losing all self-command
+in the fear of such a moment. "He has not been guilty of this
+indiscretion without participation of mine; he has not presumed beyond
+his encouragement."
+
+The monk and Donna Florinda regarded each other in mute amazement, and
+haply there was some admixture of feeling in the look that denoted the
+uselessness of caution when the passions were intent to elude the
+vigilance of those who were merely prompted by prudence. The former
+simply motioned for silence, while he turned to the domestic.
+
+"Of what character are these ministers of the state?" he demanded.
+
+"Father, they are its known officers, and wear the badges of their
+condition."
+
+"And their request?"
+
+"Is to be admitted to the presence of the Donna Violetta."
+
+"There is still hope!" rejoined the monk, breathing more freely. Moving
+across the room, he opened a door which communicated with the private
+oratory of the palace. "Retire within this sacred chapel, Don Camillo,
+while we await the explanation of so extraordinary a visit."
+
+As the time pressed, the suggestion was obeyed on the instant. The lover
+entered the oratory, and when the door was closed upon his person, the
+domestic, one known to be worthy of all confidence, was directed to
+usher in those who waited without.
+
+But a single individual appeared. He was known, at a glance, for a
+public and responsible agent of the government, who was often charged
+with the execution of secret and delicate duties. Donna Violetta
+advanced to meet him, in respect to his employers, and with the return
+of that self-possession which long practice interweaves with the habits
+of the great.
+
+"I am honored by this care of my dreaded and illustrious guardians," she
+said, making an acknowledgment for the low reverence with which the
+official saluted the richest ward of Venice. "To what circumstance do I
+owe this visit?"
+
+The officer gazed an instant about him, with an habitual and suspicious
+caution, and then repeating his salutations, he answered.
+
+"Lady," he said, "I am commanded to seek an interview with the daughter
+of the state, the heiress of the illustrious house of Tiepolo, with the
+Donna Florinda Mercato, her female companion, with the Father Anselmo,
+her commissioned confessor, and with any other who enjoy the pleasure of
+her society and the honor of her confidence."
+
+"Those you seek are here; I am Violetta Tiepolo; to this lady am I
+indebted for a mother's care, and this reverend Carmelite is my
+spiritual counsellor. Shall I summon my household?"
+
+"It is unnecessary. My errand is rather of private than of public
+concern. At the decease of your late most honored and much lamented
+parent, the illustrious senator Tiepolo, the care of your person, lady,
+was committed by the Republic, your natural and careful protector, to
+the especial guardianship and wisdom of Signore Alessandro Gradenigo, of
+illustrious birth and estimable qualities."
+
+"Signore, you say true."
+
+"Though the parental love of the councils may have seemed to be dormant,
+it has ever been wakeful and vigilant. Now that the years, instruction,
+beauty, and other excellences of their daughter, have come to so rare
+perfection, they wish to draw the ties that unite them nearer, by
+assuming their own immediate duties about her person."
+
+"By this I am to understand that I am no longer a ward of the Signor
+Gradenigo?"
+
+"Lady, a ready wit has helped you to the explanation. That illustrious
+patrician is released from his cherished and well acquitted duties.
+To-morrow new guardians will be charged with the care of your prized
+person, and will continue their honorable trust, until the wisdom of the
+Senate shall have formed for you such an alliance, as shall not
+disparage a noble name and qualities that might adorn a throne."
+
+"Am I to be separated from those I love?" demanded Violetta impetuously.
+
+"Trust to the Senate's wisdom. I know not its determination concerning
+those who have long dwelt with you, but there can be no reason to doubt
+its tenderness or discretion. I have now only to add, that until those
+charged anew with the honorable office of your protectors shall arrive,
+it will be well to maintain the same modest reserve in the reception of
+visitors as of wont, and that your door, lady, must in propriety be
+closed against the Signor Gradenigo as against all others of his sex."
+
+"Shall I not even thank him for his care?"
+
+"He is tenfold rewarded in the Senate's gratitude."
+
+"It would have been gracious to have expressed my feelings towards the
+Signor Gradenigo in words; but that which is refused to the tongue will
+be permitted to the pen."
+
+"The reserve that becomes the state of one so favored is absolute. St.
+Mark is jealous where he loves. And, now my commission is discharged, I
+humbly take my leave, flattered in having been selected to stand in such
+a presence, and to have been thought worthy of so honorable a duty."
+
+As the officer ceased speaking and Violetta returned his bows, she fixed
+her eyes, filled with apprehension, on the sorrowful features of her
+companions. The ambiguous language of those employed in such missions
+was too well known to leave much hope for the future. They all
+anticipated their separation on the morrow, though neither could
+penetrate the reason of this sudden change in the policy of the state.
+Interrogation was useless, for the blow evidently came from the secret
+council, whose motives could no more be fathomed than its decrees
+foreseen. The monk raised his hands in silent benediction towards his
+spiritual charge, and unable, even in the presence of the stranger, to
+repress their grief, Donna Florinda and Violetta sank into each other's
+arms, and wept.
+
+In the mean time the minister of this cruel blow had delayed his
+departure, like one who had a half-formed resolution. He regarded the
+countenance of the unconscious Carmelite intently, and in a manner that
+denoted the habit of thinking much before he decided.
+
+"Reverend Father," he said, "may I crave a moment of your time, for an
+affair that concerns the soul of a sinner?"
+
+Though amazed, the monk could not hesitate about answering such an
+appeal. Obedient to a gesture of the officer, he followed him from the
+apartment, and continued at his side while the other threaded the
+magnificent rooms and descended to his gondola.
+
+"You must be much honored of the Senate, holy monk," observed the latter
+while they proceeded, "to hold so near a trust about the person of one
+in whom the state takes so great an interest?"
+
+"I feel it as such, my son. A life of peace and prayer should have made
+me friends."
+
+"Men like you, father, merit the esteem they crave. Are you long of
+Venice?"
+
+"Since the last conclave. I came into the Republic as confessor to the
+late minister from Florence."
+
+"An honorable trust. You have been with us then long enough to know that
+the Republic never forgets a servitor, nor forgives an affront."
+
+"'Tis an ancient state, and one whose influence still reaches far and
+near."
+
+"Have a care of the step. These marbles are treacherous to an uncertain
+foot."
+
+"Mine is too practised in the descent to be unsteady. I hope I do not
+now descend these stairs for the last time?"
+
+The minister of the council affected not to understand the question,
+but he answered as if replying only to the previous observation.
+
+"'Tis truly a venerable state," he said, "but a little tottering with
+its years. All who love liberty, father, must mourn to see so glorious a
+sway on the decline. _Sic transit gloria mundi!_ You bare-footed
+Carmelites do well to mortify the flesh in youth, by which you escape
+the pains of a decreasing power. One like you can have few wrongs of his
+younger days to repair?"
+
+"We are none of us without sin," returned the monk, crossing himself.
+"He who would flatter his soul with being perfect lays the additional
+weight of vanity on his life."
+
+"Men of my occupation, holy Carmelite, have few opportunities of looking
+into themselves, and I bless the hour that hath brought me into company
+so godly. My gondola waits--will you enter?"
+
+The monk regarded his companion in distrust, but knowing the uselessness
+of resistance, he murmured a short prayer and complied. A strong dash of
+the oars announced their departure from the steps of the palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+  O pescator! dell' onda
+    Fi da lin;
+  O pescator! dell' onda,
+    Fi da lin;
+  Vien pescar in qua;
+  Colla bella tua barca,
+  Colla bella se ne va,
+  Fi da lin, lin, la--
+                    VENETIAN BOAT SONG.
+
+
+The moon was at the height. Its rays fell in a flood on the swelling
+domes and massive roofs of Venice, while the margin of the town was
+brilliantly defined by the glittering bay. The natural and gorgeous
+setting was more than worthy of that picture of human magnificence; for
+at that moment, rich as was the Queen of the Adriatic in her works of
+art, the grandeur of her public monuments, the number and splendor of
+her palaces, and most else that the ingenuity and ambition of man could
+attempt, she was but secondary in the glories of the hour.
+
+Above was the firmament, gemmed with worlds, and sublime in immensity.
+Beneath lay the broad expanse of the Adriatic, endless to the eye,
+tranquil as the vault it reflected, and luminous with its borrowed
+light. Here and there a low island, reclaimed from the sea by the
+patient toil of a thousand years, dotted the Lagunes, burdened with the
+group of some conventual dwellings, or picturesque with the modest roofs
+of a hamlet of the fisherman. Neither oar, nor song, nor laugh, nor flap
+of sail, nor jest of mariner, disturbed the stillness. All in the near
+view was clothed in midnight loveliness, and all in the distance bespoke
+the solemnity of nature at peace. The city and the Lagunes, the gulf
+and the dreamy Alps, the interminable plain of Lombardy, and the blue
+void of heaven, lay alike in a common and grand repose.
+
+There suddenly appeared a gondola. It issued from among the watery
+channels of the town, and glided upon the vast bosom of the bay,
+noiseless as the fancied progress of a spirit. A practised and nervous
+arm guided its movement, which was unceasing and rapid. So swift indeed
+was the passage of the boat, as to denote pressing haste on the part of
+the solitary individual it contained. It held the direction of the
+Adriatic, steering between one of the more southern outlets of the bay
+and the well known island of St. Giorgio. For half an hour the exertions
+of the gondolier were unrelaxed, though his eye was often cast behind
+him, as if he distrusted pursuit; and as often did he gaze ahead,
+betraying an anxious desire to reach some object that was yet invisible.
+When a wide reach of water lay between him and the town, however, he
+permitted his oar to rest, and he lent all his faculties to a keen and
+anxious search.
+
+A small dark spot was discovered on the water still nearer to the sea.
+The oar of the gondolier dashed the element behind him, and his boat
+again glided away, so far altering its course as to show that all
+indecision was now ended. The darker spot was shortly beheld quivering
+in the rays of the moon, and it soon assumed the form and dimensions of
+a boat at anchor. Again the gondolier ceased his efforts, and he leaned
+forward, gazing intently at this undefined object, as if he would aid
+his powers of sight by the sympathy of his other faculties. Just then
+the notes of music came softly across the Lagunes. The voice was feeble
+even to trembling, but it had the sweetness of tone and the accuracy of
+execution which belong so peculiarly to Venice. It was the solitary man,
+in the distant boat, indulging in the song of a fisherman. The strains
+were sweet, and the intonations plaintive to melancholy. The air was
+common to all who plied the oar in the canals, and familiar to the ear
+of the listener. He waited until the close of a verse had died away, and
+then he answered with a strain of his own. The alternate parts were thus
+maintained until the music ceased, by the two singing a final verse in
+chorus.
+
+When the song was ended, the oar of the gondolier stirred the water
+again, and he was quickly by the other's side.
+
+"Thou art busy with thy hook betimes, Antonio," said he who had just
+arrived, as he stepped into the boat of the old fisherman already so
+well known to the reader. "There are men, that an interview with the
+Council of Three would have sent to their prayers and a sleepless bed."
+
+"There is not a chapel in Venice, Jacopo, in which a sinner may so well
+lay bare his soul as in this. I have been here on the empty Lagunes,
+alone with God, having the gates of Paradise open before my eyes."
+
+"One like thee hath no need of images to quicken his devotion."
+
+"I see the image of my Saviour, Jacopo, in those bright stars, that
+moon, the blue heavens, the misty bank of mountain, the waters on which
+we float, aye, even in my own sinking form, as in all which has come
+from his wisdom and power. I have prayed much since the moon has risen."
+
+"And is habit so strong in thee that thou thinkest of God and thy sins
+while thou anglest?"
+
+"The poor must toil and the sinful must pray. My thoughts have dwelt so
+much of late on the boy, that I have forgotten to provide myself with
+food. If I fish later or earlier than common, 'tis because a man cannot
+live on grief."
+
+"I have bethought me of thy situation, honest Antonio; here is that
+which will support life and raise thy courage.
+
+"See," added the Bravo, stretching forth an arm Into his own gondola,
+from which he drew a basket, "here is bread from Dalmatia, wine of Lower
+Italy, and figs from the Levant--eat, then, and be of cheer."
+
+The fisherman threw a wistful glance at the viands, for hunger was
+making powerful appeals to the weakness of nature, but his hand did not
+relinquish its hold of the line, with which he still continued to angle.
+
+"And these are thy gifts, Jacopo?" he asked, in a voice that, spite of
+his resignation, betrayed the longings of appetite.
+
+"Antonio, they are the offerings of one who respects thy courage and
+honors thy nature."
+
+"Bought with his earnings?"
+
+"Can it be otherwise? I am no beggar for the love of the saints, and few
+in Venice give unasked. Eat, then, without fear; seldom wilt thou be
+more welcome."
+
+"Take them away, Jacopo, if thou lovest me. Do not tempt me beyond what
+I can bear."
+
+"How! art thou commanded to a penance?" hastily exclaimed the other.
+
+"Not so--not so. It is long since I have found leisure or heart for the
+confessional."
+
+"Then why refuse the gift of a friend? Remember thy years and
+necessities."
+
+"I cannot feed on the price of blood!"
+
+The hand of the Bravo was withdrawn as if repelled by an electric touch.
+The action caused the rays of the moon to fall athwart his kindling eye,
+and firm as Antonio was in honesty and principle, he felt the blood
+creep to his heart as he encountered the fierce and sudden glance of his
+companion. A long pause succeeded, during which the fisherman diligently
+plied his line, though utterly regardless of the object for which it had
+been cast.
+
+"I have said it, Jacopo," he added at length, "and tongue of mine shall
+not belie the thought of my heart. Take away thy food then, and forget
+all that is past; for what I have said hath not been said in scorn, but
+out of regard to my own soul. Thou knowest how I have sorrowed for the
+boy, but next to his loss I could mourn over thee--aye, more bitterly
+than over any other of the fallen!"
+
+The hard breathing of the Bravo was audible, but still he spoke not.
+
+"Jacopo," continued the anxious fisherman, "do not mistake me. The pity
+of the suffering and poor is not like the scorn of the rich and worldly.
+If I touch a sore, I do not bruise it with my heel. Thy present pain is
+better than the greatest of all thy former joys."
+
+"Enough, old man," said the other in a smothered voice, "thy words are
+forgotten. Eat without fear, for the offering is bought with earnings as
+pure as the gleanings of a mendicant friar."
+
+"I will trust to the kindness of St. Anthony and the fortune of my
+hook," simply returned Antonio. "'Tis common for us of the Lagunes to go
+to a supperless bed: take away the basket, good Jacopo, and let us speak
+of other things."
+
+The Bravo ceased to press his food upon the fisherman. Laying aside his
+basket, he sat brooding over what had occurred.
+
+"Hast thou come thus far for naught else, good Jacopo?" demanded the old
+man, willing to weaken the shock of his refusal.
+
+The question appeared to restore Jacopo to a recollection of his errand.
+He stood erect, and looked about him, for more than a minute, with a
+keen eye and an entire intentness of purpose. The look in the direction
+of the city was longer and more earnest than those thrown towards the
+sea and the main, nor was it withdrawn, until an involuntary start
+betrayed equally surprise and alarm.
+
+"Is there not a boat, here, in a line with the tower of the campanile?"
+he asked quickly, pointing towards the city.
+
+"It so seems. It is early for my comrades to be abroad, but the draughts
+have not been heavy of late, and the revelry of yesterday drew many of
+our people from their toil. The patricians must eat, and the poor must
+labor, or both would die."
+
+The Bravo slowly seated himself, and he looked with concern into the
+countenance of his companion.
+
+"Art thou long here, Antonio?"
+
+"But an hour. When they turned us away from the palace, thou knowest
+that I told thee of my necessities. There is not, in common, a more
+certain spot on the Lagunes than this, and yet have I long played the
+line in vain. The trial of hunger is hard, but, like all other trials,
+it must be borne. I have prayed to my patron thrice, and sooner or later
+he will listen to my wants. Thou art used to the manners of these masked
+nobles, Jacopo; dost thou think them likely to hearken to reason? I hope
+I did the cause no wrong for want of breeding, but I spoke them fair and
+plainly as fathers and men with hearts."
+
+"As senators they have none. Thou little understandest, Antonio, the
+distinctions of these patricians. In the gaiety of their palaces, and
+among the companions of their pleasures, none will speak you fairer of
+humanity and justice--aye--even of God! but when met to discuss what
+they call the interests of St. Mark, there is not a rock on the coldest
+peak of yonder Alp with less humanity, or a wolf among their valleys
+more heartless!"
+
+"Thy words are strong, Jacopo--I would not do injustice even to those
+who have done me this wrong. The Senators are men, and God has given all
+feelings and nature alike."
+
+"The gift is then abused. Thou hast felt the want of thy daily
+assistant, fisherman, and thou hast sorrowed for thy child; for thee it
+is easy to enter into another's griefs; but the Senators know nothing
+of suffering. Their children are not dragged to the galleys, their hopes
+are never destroyed by laws coming from hard task-masters, nor are their
+tears shed for sons ruined by being made companions of the dregs of the
+Republic. They will talk of public virtue and services to the state, but
+in their own cases they mean the virtue of renown, and services that
+bring with them honors and rewards. The wants of the state is their
+conscience, though they take heed those wants shall do themselves no
+harm."
+
+"Jacopo, Providence itself hath made a difference in men. One is large,
+another small; one weak, another strong; one wise, another foolish. At
+what Providence hath done, we should not murmur?"
+
+"Providence did not make the Senate; 't is an invention of man. Mark me,
+Antonio, thy language hath given offence, and thou art not safe in
+Venice. They will pardon all but complaints against their justice. That
+is too true to be forgiven."
+
+"Can they wish to harm one who seeks his own child?"
+
+"If thou wert great and respected, they would undermine thy fortune and
+character, ere thou should'st put their system in danger--as thou art
+weak and poor, they will do thee some direct injury, unless thou art
+moderate. Before all, I warn thee that their system must stand!"
+
+"Will God suffer this?"
+
+"We may not enter into his secrets," returned the Bravo, devoutly
+crossing himself. "Did his reign end with this world, there might be
+injustice in suffering the wicked to triumph, but, as it is, we------
+Yon boat approaches fast! I little like its air and movements."
+
+"They are not fishermen, truly, for there are many oars and a canopy!"
+
+"It is a gondola of the state!" exclaimed Jacopo, rising and stepping
+into his own boat, which he cast loose from that of his companion, when
+he stood in evident doubt as to his future proceedings. "Antonio, we
+should do well to row away."
+
+"Thy fears are natural," said the unmoved fisherman, "and 'tis a
+thousand pities that there is cause for them. There is yet time for one
+skilful as thou to outstrip the fleetest gondola on the canals."
+
+"Quick, lift thy anchor, old man, and depart, my eye is sure. I know the
+boat."
+
+"Poor Jacopo! what a curse is a tender conscience! Thou hast been kind
+to me in my need, and if prayers from a sincere heart can do thee
+service, thou shalt not want them."
+
+"Antonio!" cried the other, causing his boat to whirl away, and then
+pausing an instant like a man undecided--"I can stay no longer--trust
+them not--they are false as fiends--there is no time to lose--I must
+away."
+
+The fisherman murmured an ejaculation of pity, as he waved a hand in
+adieu.
+
+"Holy St. Anthony, watch over my own child, lest he come to some such
+miserable life!" he added, in an audible prayer--"There hath been good
+seed cast on a rock, in that youth, for a warmer or kinder heart is not
+in man. That one like Jacopo should live by striking the assassin's
+blow!"
+
+The near approach of the strange gondola now attracted the whole
+attention of the old man. It came swiftly towards him, impelled by six
+strong oars, and his eye turned feverishly in the direction of the
+fugitive. Jacopo, with a readiness that necessity and long practice
+rendered nearly instinctive, had taken a direction which blended his
+wake in a line with one of those bright streaks that the moon drew on
+the water, and which, by dazzling the eye, effectually concealed the
+objects within its width. When the fisherman saw that the Bravo had
+disappeared, he smiled and seemed at ease.
+
+"Aye, let them come here," he said; "it will give Jacopo more time. I
+doubt not the poor fellow hath struck a blow, since quitting the palace,
+that the council will not forgive! The sight of gold hath been too
+strong, and he hath offended those who have so long borne with him. God
+forgive me, that I have had communion with such a man! but when the
+heart is heavy, the pity of even a dog will warm our feelings. Few care
+for me now, or the friendship of such as he could never have been
+welcome."
+
+Antonio ceased, for the gondola of the state came with a rushing noise
+to the side of his own boat, where it was suddenly stopped by a backward
+sweep of the oars. The water was still in ebullition, when a form passed
+into the gondola of the fisherman, the larger boat shot away again to
+the distance of a few hundred feet, and remained at rest.
+
+Antonio witnessed this movement in silent curiosity; but when he saw the
+gondoliers of the state lying on their oars, he glanced his eye again
+furtively in the direction of Jacopo, saw that all was safe, and faced
+his companion with confidence. The brightness of the moon enabled him to
+distinguish the dress and aspect of a bare-footed Carmelite. The latter
+seemed more confounded than his companion, by the rapidity of the
+movement, and the novelty of his situation. Notwithstanding his
+confusion, however, an evident look of wonder crossed his mortified
+features when he first beheld the humble condition, the thin and
+whitened locks, and the general air and bearing of the old man with whom
+he now found himself.
+
+"Who art thou?" escaped him, in the impulse of surprise.
+
+"Antonio of the Lamines! A fisherman that owes much to St. Anthony, for
+favors little deserved."
+
+"And why hath one like thee fallen beneath the Senate's displeasure?"
+
+"I am honest and ready to do justice to others. If that offend the
+great, they are men more to be pitied than envied."
+
+"The convicted are always more disposed to believe themselves
+unfortunate than guilty. The error is fatal, and it should be eradicated
+from the mind, lest it lead to death."
+
+"Go tell this to the patricians. They have need of plain counsel, and a
+warning from the church."
+
+"My son, there is pride and anger, and a perverse heart in thy replies.
+The sins of the senators--and as they are men, they are not without
+spot--can in no manner whiten thine own. Though an unjust sentence
+should condemn one to punishment, it leaves the offences against God in
+their native deformity. Men may pity him who hath wrongfully undergone
+the anger of the world, but the church will only pronounce pardon on him
+who confesseth his errors, with a sincere admission of their magnitude."
+
+"Have you come, father, to shrive a penitent?"
+
+"Such is my errand. I lament the occasion, and if what I fear be true,
+still more must I regret that one so aged should have brought his
+devoted head beneath the arm of justice."
+
+Antonio smiled, and again he bent his eyes along that dazzling streak of
+light which had swallowed up the gondola and the person of the Bravo.
+
+"Father," he said, when a long and earnest look was ended, "there can be
+little harm in speaking truth to one of thy holy office. They have told
+thee there was a criminal here in the Lagunes, who hath provoked the
+anger of St. Mark?"
+
+"Thou art right."
+
+"It is not easy to know when St. Mark is pleased, or when he is not,"
+continued Antonio, plying his line with indifference, "for the very man
+he now seeks has he long tolerated; aye, even in presence of the Doge.
+The Senate hath its reasons which lie beyond the reach of the ignorant,
+but it would have been better for the soul of the poor youth, and more
+seemly for the Republic, had it turned a discouraging countenance on his
+deeds from the first."
+
+"Thou speakest of another! thou art not then the criminal they seek!"
+
+"I am a sinner, like all born of woman, reverend Carmelite, but my hand
+hath never held any other weapon than the good sword with which I struck
+the infidel. There was one lately here, that, I grieve to add, cannot
+say this!"
+
+"And he is gone?"
+
+"Father, you have your eyes, and you can answer that question for
+yourself. He is gone; though he is not far; still is he beyond the reach
+of the swiftest gondola in Venice, praised be St. Mark!"
+
+The Carmelite bowed his head, where he was seated, and his lips moved,
+either in prayer or in thanksgiving.
+
+"Are you sorry, monk, that a sinner has escaped?"
+
+"Son, I rejoice that this bitter office hath passed from me, while I
+mourn that there should be a spirit so depraved as to require it. Let us
+summon the servants of the Republic, and inform them that their errand
+is useless."
+
+"Be not of haste, good father. The night is gentle, and these hirelings
+sleep on their oars, like gulls in the Lagunes. The youth will have more
+time for repentance, should he be undisturbed."
+
+The Carmelite, who had risen, instantly reseated himself, like one
+actuated by a strong impulse.
+
+"I thought he had already been far beyond pursuit," he muttered,
+unconsciously apologizing for his apparent haste.
+
+"He is over bold, and I fear he will row back to the canals, in which
+case you might meet nearer to the city--or there may be more gondolas
+of the state out--in short, father, thou wilt be more certain to escape
+hearing the confession of a Bravo, by listening to that of a fisherman,
+who has long wanted an occasion to acknowledge his sins."
+
+Men who ardently wish the same result, require few words to understand
+each other. The Carmelite took, intuitively, the meaning of his
+companion, and throwing back his cowl, a movement that exposed the
+countenance of Father Anselmo, he prepared to listen to the confession
+of the old man.
+
+"Thou art a Christian, and one of thy years hath not to learn the state
+of mind that becometh a penitent," said the monk, when each was ready.
+
+"I am a sinner, father; give me counsel and absolution, that I may have
+hope."
+
+"Thy will be done--thy prayer is heard--approach and kneel."
+
+Antonio, who had fastened his line to his seat, and disposed of his net
+with habitual care, now crossed himself devoutly, and took his station
+before the Carmelite. His acknowledgments of error then began. Much
+mental misery clothed the language and ideas of the fisherman with a
+dignity that his auditor had not been accustomed to find in men of his
+class. A spirit so long chastened by suffering had become elevated and
+noble. He related his hopes for the boy, the manner in which they had
+been blasted by the unjust and selfish policy of the state, his
+different efforts to procure the release of his grandson, and his bold
+expedients at the regatta, and the fancied nuptials with the Adriatic.
+When he had thus prepared the Carmelite to understand the origin of his
+sinful passions, which it was now his duty to expose, he spoke of those
+passions themselves, and of their influence on a mind that was
+ordinarily at peace with mankind. The tale was told simply and without
+reserve, but in a manner to inspire respect, and to awaken powerful
+sympathy in him who heard it.
+
+"And these feelings thou didst indulge against the honored and powerful
+of Venice!" demanded the monk, affecting a severity he could not feel.
+
+"Before my God do I confess the sin! In bitterness of heart I cursed
+them; for to me they seemed men without feeling for the poor, and
+heartless as the marbles of their own palaces."
+
+"Thou knowest that to be forgiven, thou must forgive. Dost thou, at
+peace with all of earth, forget this wrong, and can'st thou, in charity
+with thy fellows, pray to Him who died for the race, in behalf of those
+who have injured thee?"
+
+Antonio bowed his head on his naked breast, and he seemed to commune
+with his soul.
+
+"Father," he said, in a rebuked tone, "I hope I do."
+
+"Thou must not trifle with thyself to thine own perdition. There is an
+eye in yon vault above us which pervades space, and which looks into the
+inmost secrets of the heart. Can'st thou pardon the error of the
+patricians in a contrite spirit for thine own sins?"
+
+"Holy Maria pray for them, as I now ask mercy in their behalf! Father,
+they are forgiven."
+
+"Amen!"
+
+The Carmelite arose and stood over the kneeling Antonio with the whole
+of his benevolent countenance illuminated by the moon. Stretching his
+arms towards the stars, he pronounced the absolution in a voice that was
+touched with pious fervor. The upward expectant eye, with the withered
+lineaments of the fisherman, and the holy calm of the monk, formed a
+picture of resignation and hope that angels would have loved to witness.
+
+"Amen! amen!" exclaimed Antonio, as he arose crossing himself; "St.
+Anthony and the Virgin aid me to keep these resolutions!"
+
+"I will not forget thee, my son, in the offices of holy church. Receive
+my benediction, that I may depart."
+
+Antonio again bowed his knee while the Carmelite firmly pronounced the
+words of peace. When this last office was performed, and a decent
+interval of mutual but silent prayer had passed, a signal was given to
+summon the gondola of the state. It came rowing down with great force,
+and was instantly at their side. Two men passed into the boat of
+Antonio, and with officious zeal assisted the monk to resume his place
+in that of the Republic.
+
+"Is the penitent shrived?" half whispered one, seemingly the superior of
+the two.
+
+"Here is an error. He thou seek'st has escaped. This aged man is a
+fisherman named Antonio, and one who cannot have gravely offended St.
+Mark. The Bravo hath passed towards the island of San Giorgio, and must
+be sought elsewhere."
+
+The officer released the person of the monk, who passed quickly beneath
+the canopy, and he turned to cast a hasty glance at the features of the
+fisherman. The rubbing of a rope was audible, and the anchor of Antonio
+was lifted by a sudden jerk. A heavy plashing of the water followed, and
+the two boats shot away together, obedient to a violent effort of the
+crew. The gondola of the state exhibited its usual number of gondoliers,
+bending to their toil, with its dark and hearse-like canopy, but that of
+the fisherman was empty!
+
+The sweep of the oars and the plunge of the body of Antonio had been
+blended in a common wash of the surge. When the fisherman came to the
+surface after his fall, he was alone in the centre of the vast but
+tranquil sheet of water. There might have been a glimmering of hope as
+he arose from the darkness of the sea to the bright beauty of that
+moonlit night. But the sleeping domes were too far for human strength,
+and the gondolas were sweeping madly towards the town. He turned, and
+swimming feebly, for hunger and previous exertion had undermined his
+strength, he bent his eye on the dark spot which he had constantly
+recognised as the boat of the Bravo.
+
+Jacopo had not ceased to watch the interview with the utmost intentness
+of his faculties. Favored by position, he could see without being
+distinctly visible. He saw the Carmelite pronouncing the absolution, and
+he witnessed the approach of the larger boat. He heard a plunge heavier
+than that of falling oars, and he saw the gondola of Antonio towing away
+empty. The crew of the Republic had scarcely swept the Lagunes with
+their oar-blades before his own stirred the water.
+
+"Jacopo!--Jacopo!" came fearfully and faintly to his ears.
+
+The voice was known, and the occasion thoroughly understood. The cry of
+distress was succeeded by the rush of the water, as it piled before the
+beak of the Bravo's gondola. The sound of the parted element was like
+the sighing of a breeze. Ripples and bubbles were left behind, as the
+driven scud floats past the stars, and all those muscles which had once
+before that day been so finely developed in the race of the gondoliers,
+were now expanded, seemingly in twofold volumes. Energy and skill were
+in every stroke, and the dark spot came down the streak of light, like
+the swallow touching the water with its wing.
+
+"Hither, Jacopo--thou steerest wide!"
+
+The beak of the gondola turned, and the glaring eye of the Bravo caught
+a glimpse of the fisherman's head.
+
+"Quickly, good Jacopo,--I fail!"
+
+The murmuring of the water again drowned the stifled words. The efforts
+of the oar were frenzied, and at each stroke the light gondola appeared
+to rise from its element.
+
+"Jacopo--hither--dear Jacopo!"
+
+"The mother of God aid thee, fisherman!--I come."
+
+"Jacopo--the boy!--the boy!"
+
+The water gurgled; an arm was visible in the air, and it disappeared.
+The gondola drove upon the spot where the limb had just been visible,
+and a backward stroke, that caused the ashen blade to bend like a reed,
+laid the trembling boat motionless. The furious action threw the Lagune
+into ebullition, but, when the foam subsided, it lay calm as the blue
+and peaceful vault it reflected.
+
+"Antonio!"--burst from the lips of the Bravo.
+
+A frightful silence succeeded the call. There was neither answer nor
+human form. Jacopo compressed the handle of his oar with fingers of
+iron, and his own breathing caused him to start. On every side he bent a
+frenzied eye, and on every side he beheld the profound repose of that
+treacherous element which is so terrible in its wrath. Like the human
+heart, it seemed to sympathize with the tranquil beauty of the midnight
+view; but, like the human heart, it kept its own fearful secrets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  "Yet a few days and dream-perturbed nights,
+  And I shall slumber well--but where?--no matter.
+  Adieu, my Angiolina."
+                             MARINO FALIERO.
+
+
+When the Carmelite re-entered the apartment of Donna Violetta his face
+was covered with the hue of death, and his limbs with difficulty
+supported him to a chair. He scarcely observed that Don Camillo Monforte
+was still present, nor did he note the brightness and joy which glowed
+in the eyes of the ardent Violetta. Indeed his appearance was at first
+unseen by the happy lovers, for the Lord of St. Agata had succeeded in
+wresting the secret from the breast of his mistress, if that may be
+called a secret which Italian character had scarcely struggled to
+retain, and he had crossed the room before even the more tranquil look
+of the Donna Florinda rested on his person.
+
+"Thou art ill!" exclaimed the governess. "Father Anselmo hath not been
+absent without grave cause!"
+
+The monk threw back his cowl for air, and the act discovered the deadly
+paleness of his features. But his eye, charged with a meaning of horror,
+rolled over the faces of those who drew around him, as if he struggled
+with memory to recall their persons.
+
+"Ferdinando! Father Anselmo!" cried the Donna Florinda, correcting the
+unbidden familiarity, though she could not command the anxiety of her
+rebel features; "Speak to us--thou art suffering!"
+
+"Ill at heart, Florinda."
+
+"Deceive us not--haply thou hast more evil tidings--Venice--"
+
+"Is a fearful state."
+
+"Why hast thou quitted us?--why in a moment of so much importance to our
+pupil--a moment that may prove of the last influence on her
+happiness--hast thou been absent for a long hour?"
+
+Violetta turned a surprised and unconscious glance towards the clock,
+but she spoke not.
+
+"The servants of the state had need of me," returned the monk, easing
+the pain of his spirit by a groan.
+
+"I understand thee, father;--thou hast shrived a penitent?"
+
+"Daughter, I have: and few depart more at peace with God and their
+fellows!"
+
+Donna Florinda murmured a short prayer for the soul of the dead, piously
+crossing herself as she concluded. Her example was imitated by her
+pupil, and even the lips of Don Camillo moved, while his head was bowed
+by the side of his fair companion in seeming reverence.
+
+"'Twas a just end, father?" demanded Donna Florinda.
+
+"It was an unmerited one!" cried the monk, with fervor, "or there is no
+faith in man. I have witnessed the death of one who was better fitted to
+live, as happily he was better fitted to die, than those who pronounced
+his doom. What a fearful state is Venice!"
+
+"And such are they who are masters of thy person, Violetta," said Don
+Camillo: "to these midnight murderers will thy happiness be consigned!
+Tell us, father, does thy sad tragedy touch in any manner on the
+interests of this fair being? for we are encircled here by mysteries
+that are as incomprehensible, while they are nearly as fearful as fate
+itself."
+
+The monk looked from one to the other, and a more human expression began
+to appear in his countenance.
+
+"Thou art right," he said; "such are the men who mean to dispose of the
+person of our pupil. Holy St. Mark pardon the prostitution of his
+revered name, and shield her with the virtue of his prayers!"
+
+"Father, are we worthy to know more of that thou hast witnessed?"
+
+"The secrets of the confessional are sacred, my son; but this hath been
+a disclosure to cover the living, not the dead, with shame."
+
+"I see the hand of those up above in this!" for so most spoke of the
+Council of Three. "They have tampered with my right for years to suit
+their selfish purposes, and to my shame must I own it, they have driven
+me to a submission, in order to obtain justice, that as ill accords with
+my feelings as with my character."
+
+"Nay, Camillo, thou art incapable of this injustice to thyself!"
+
+"'Tis a fearful government, dearest, and its fruits are equally
+pernicious to the ruler and the subject. It hath, of all other dangers
+the greatest, the curse of secresy on its intentions, its acts, and its
+responsibilities!"
+
+"Thou sayest true, my son; there is no security against oppression and
+wrong in a state but the fear of God or the fear of man. Of the first,
+Venice hath none, for too many souls share the odium of her sins; and as
+for the last, her deeds are hid from their knowledge."
+
+"We speak boldly, for those who live beneath her laws," observed Donna
+Florinda, glancing a look timidly around her. "As we can neither change
+nor mend the practices of the state, better that we should be silent."
+
+"If we cannot alter the power of the council, we may elude it," hastily
+answered Don Camillo, though he too dropped his voice, and assured
+himself of their security by closing the casement, and casting his eyes
+towards the different doors of the room. "Are you assured of the
+fidelity of the menials, Donna Florinda?"
+
+"Far from it, Signore; we have those who are of ancient service and of
+tried character; but we have those who are named by the Senator
+Gradenigo, and who are doubtless no other than the agents of the State."
+
+"In this manner do they pry into the privacy of all! I am compelled to
+entertain in my palace varlets that I know to be their hirelings; and
+yet do I find it better to seem unconscious of their views, lest they
+environ me in a manner that I cannot even suspect. Think you, father,
+that my presence here hath escaped the spies?"
+
+"It would be to hazard much were we to rely on such security. None saw
+us enter, as I think, for we used the secret gate and the more private
+entrance; but who is certain of being unobserved when every fifth eye is
+that of a mercenary?"
+
+The terrified Violetta laid her hand on the arm of her lover.
+
+"Even now, Camillo," she said, "thou mayest be observed, and secretly
+devoted to punishment!"
+
+"If seen, doubt it not: St. Mark will never pardon so bold an
+interference with his pleasure. And yet, sweetest Violetta, to gain thy
+favor this risk is nothing; nor will a far greater hazard turn me from
+my purpose."
+
+"These inexperienced and confiding spirits have taken advantage of my
+absence to communicate more freely than was discreet," said the
+Carmelite, in the manner of one who foresaw the answer.
+
+"Father, nature is too strong for the weak preventives of prudence."
+
+The brow of the monk became clouded. His companions watched the workings
+of his mind, as they appeared in a countenance that in common was so
+benevolent, though always sad. For a few moments none broke the silence.
+
+The Carmelite at length demanded, raising his troubled look to the
+countenance of Don Camillo,--
+
+"Hast thou duly reflected on the consequences of this rashness, son?
+What dost thou purpose in thus braving the anger of the Republic, and in
+setting at defiance her arts, her secret means of intelligence, and her
+terrors?"
+
+"Father, I have reflected as all of my years reflect, when in heart and
+soul they love. I have brought myself to feel that any misery would be
+happiness compared to the loss of Violetta, and that no risk can exceed
+the reward of gaining her favor. Thus much for the first of thy
+questions; for the last I can only say that I am too much accustomed to
+the wiles of the Senate to be a novice in the means of counteracting
+them."
+
+"There is but one language for youth, when seduced by that pleasing
+delusion which paints the future with hues of gold. Age and experience
+may condemn it, but the weakness will continue to prevail in all until
+life shall appear in its true colors. Duke of Sant' Agata, though a
+noble of high lineage and illustrious name, and though lord of many
+vassals, thou art not a power--thou can'st not declare thy palace in
+Venice a fortress, nor send a herald to the Doge with defiance."
+
+"True, reverend monk; I cannot do this--nor would it be well for him who
+could, to trust his fortune on so reckless a risk. But the states of St.
+Mark do not cover the earth--we can fly."
+
+"The Senate hath a long arm, and it hath a thousand secret hands."
+
+"None know it better than I. Still it does no violence without motive;
+the faith of their ward irretrievably mine, the evil, as respects them,
+becomes irreparable."
+
+"Think'st thou so! Means would quickly be found to separate you. Believe
+not that Venice would be thwarted of its design so easily; the wealth of
+a house like this would purchase many an unworthy suitor, and thy right
+would be disregarded, or haply denied."
+
+"But, father, the ceremony of the church may not be despised!"
+exclaimed Violetta; "it comes from heaven and is sacred."
+
+"Daughter, I say it with sorrow, but the great and the powerful find
+means even to set aside that venerable and holy sacrament. Thine own
+gold would serve to seal thy misery."
+
+"This might arrive, father, were we to continue within the grasp of St.
+Mark," interrupted the Neapolitan; "but once beyond his borders, 'twould
+be a bold interference with the right of a foreign state to lay hands on
+our persons. More than this, I have a castle in St. Agata, that will
+defy their most secret means, until events might happen which should
+render it more prudent for them to desist than to persevere."
+
+"This reason hath force wert thou within the walls of St. Agata, instead
+of being, as thou art, among the canals."
+
+"Here is one of Calabria, a vassal born of mine, a certain Stefano
+Milano, the padrone of a Sorrentine felucca, now lying in the port. The
+man is in strict amity with my own gondolier, he who was third in this
+day's race. Art thou ill, father, that thou appearest troubled?"
+
+"Proceed with thy expedient," answered the monk, motioning that he
+wished not to be observed.
+
+"My faithful Gino reports that this Stefano is on the canals, on some
+errand of the Republic, as he thinks; for though the mariner is less
+disposed to familiarity than is wont, he hath let drop hints that lead
+to such a conclusion; the felucca is ready from hour to hour to put to
+sea, and doubt not that the padrone would rather serve his natural lord
+than these double-dealing miscreants of the Senate. I can pay as well as
+they, if served to my pleasure, and I can punish too, when offended."
+
+"There is reason in this, Signore, wert thou beyond the wiles of this
+mysterious city. But in what manner thou embark, without drawing the
+notice of those who doubtless watch our movements, on thy person?"
+
+"There are maskers on the canals at all hours, and if Venice be so
+impertinent in her system of watchfulness, thou knowest, father, that,
+without extraordinary motive, that disguise is sacred. Without this
+narrow privilege, the town would not be habitable a day."
+
+"I fear the result," observed the hesitating monk, while it was evident
+from the thoughtfulness of his countenance, that he calculated the
+chances of the adventure. "If known and arrested, we are all lost!"
+
+"Trust me, father, that thy fortune shall not be forgotten, even in that
+unhappy issue. I have an uncle, as you know, high in the favor of the
+pontiff, and who wears the scarlet hat. I pledge to you the honor of a
+cavalier, all my interest with this relative, to gain such intercession
+from the church as shall weaken the blow to her servant."
+
+The features of the Carmelite flushed, and for the first time the ardent
+young noble observed around his ascetic mouth an expression of worldly
+pride.
+
+"Thou hast unjustly rated my apprehensions, Lord of St. Agata," he said;
+"I fear not for myself, but for others. This tender and lovely child
+hath not been confided to my care, without creating a parental
+solicitude in her behalf, and"--he paused, and seemed to struggle with
+himself--"I have too long known the mild and womanly virtues of Donna
+Florinda, to witness with indifference her exposure to a near and
+fearful danger. Abandon our charge we cannot; nor do I see in what
+manner, as prudent and watchful guardians, we may in any manner consent
+to this risk. Let us hope that they who govern, will yet consult the
+honor and happiness of Donna Violetta."
+
+"That were to hope the winged lion would become a lamb, or the dark and
+soulless senate a community of self-mortifying and godly Carthusians!
+No, reverend monk, we must seize the happy moment, and none is likely
+to be more fortunate than this, or trust our hopes to a cold and
+calculating policy that disregards all motives but its own object. An
+hour--nay, half the time--would suffice to apprise the mariner, and ere
+the morning light, we might see the domes of Venice sinking into their
+own hated Lagunes."
+
+"These are the plans of confident youth, quickened by passion. Believe
+me, son, it is not easy as thou imaginest, to mislead the agents of the
+police. This palace could not be quitted, the felucca entered, or any
+one of the many necessary steps hazarded, without drawing upon us their
+eyes. Hark!--I hear the wash of oars--a gondola is even now at the
+water-gate!"
+
+Donna Florinda went hastily to the balcony, and as quickly returned to
+report that she had seen an officer of the Republic enter the palace.
+There was no time to lose, and Don Camillo was again urged to conceal
+himself in the little oratory. This necessary caution had hardly been
+observed before the door of the room opened, and the privileged
+messenger of the senate announced his own appearance. It was the very
+individual who had presided at the fearful execution of the fisherman,
+and who had already announced the cessation of the Signor Gradenigo's
+powers. His eye glanced suspiciously around the room as he entered, and
+the Carmelite trembled in every limb at the look which encountered his
+own. But all immediate apprehensions vanished when the usual artful
+smile with which he was wont to soften his disagreeable communications,
+took place of the momentary expression of a vague and habitual
+suspicion.
+
+"Noble lady," he said, bowing with deference to the rank of her he
+addressed, "you may learn by this assiduity on the part of their
+servant, the interest which the Senate takes in your welfare. Anxious to
+do you pleasure, and ever attentive to the wishes of one so young, it
+hath been decided to give you the amusement and variety of another
+scene, at a season when the canals of our city become disagreeable, from
+their warmth and the crowds which live in the air. I am sent to request
+you will make such preparations as may befit your convenience during a
+few months' residence in a purer atmosphere, and that this may be done
+speedily, as your journey, always to prevent discomfort to yourself,
+will commence before the rising of the sun."
+
+"This is short notice, Signore, for a female about to quit the dwelling
+of her ancestors!"
+
+"St. Mark suffers his love and parental care to overlook the vain
+ceremonies of form. It is thus the parent dealeth with the child. There
+is little need of unusual notice, since it will be the business of the
+government to see all that is necessary dispatched to the residence
+which is to be honored with the presence of so illustrious a lady."
+
+"For myself, Signore, little preparation is needed. But I fear the train
+of servitors, that befit my condition, will require more leisure for
+their arrangements."
+
+"Lady, that embarrassment hath been foreseen, and to remove it, the
+council hath decided to supply you with the only attendant you will
+require, during an absence from the city which will be so short."
+
+"How, Signore! am I to be separated from my people?"
+
+"From the hired menials of your palace, lady, to be confided to those
+who will serve your person from a nobler motive."
+
+"And my maternal friend--my ghostly adviser?"
+
+"They will be permitted to repose from their trusts, during your
+absence."
+
+An exclamation from Donna Florinda, and an involuntary movement of the
+monk, betrayed their mutual concern. Donna Violetta suppressed the
+exhibition of her own resentment, and of her wounded affections, by a
+powerful effort, in which she was greatly sustained by her pride; but
+she could not entirely conceal the anguish of another sort, that was
+seated in her eye.
+
+"Do I understand that this prohibition extends to her who in common
+serves my person?"
+
+"Signora, such are my instructions."
+
+"Is it expected that Violetta Tiepolo will do these menial offices for
+herself?"
+
+"Signora, no. A most excellent and agreeable attendant has been provided
+for that duty. Annina," he continued, approaching the door, "thy noble
+mistress is impatient to see thee."
+
+As he spoke, the daughter of the wine-seller appeared. She wore an air
+of assumed humility, but it was accompanied by a secret mien, that
+betrayed independence of the pleasure of her new mistress.
+
+"And this damsel is to be my nearest confidante!" exclaimed Donna
+Yioletta, after studying the artful and demure countenance of the girl,
+a moment, with a dislike she did not care to conceal.
+
+"Such hath been the solicitude of your illustrious guardians, lady. As
+the damsel is instructed in all that is necessary, I will intrude no
+longer, but take my leave, recommending that you improve the hours,
+which are now few, between this and the rising sun, that you may profit
+by the morning breeze in quitting the city."
+
+The officer glanced another look around the room, more, however, through
+habitual caution than any other reason, bowed, and departed.
+
+A profound and sorrowful silence succeeded. Then the apprehension that
+Don Camillo might mistake their situation and appear, flashed upon the
+mind of Violetta, and she hastened to apprise him of the danger, by
+speaking to the new attendant.
+
+"Thou hast served before this, Annina?" she asked, so loud as to permit
+the words to be heard in the oratory.
+
+"Never a lady so beautiful and illustrious, Signora. But I hope to make
+myself agreeable to one that I hear is kind to all around her."
+
+"Thou art not new to the flattery of thy class; go then, and acquaint my
+ancient attendants with this sudden resolution, that I may not
+disappoint the council by tardiness. I commit all to thy care, Annina,
+since thou knowest the pleasure of my guardians--those without will
+furnish the means."
+
+The girl lingered, and her watchful observers noted suspicion and
+hesitation in her reluctant manner of compliance. She obeyed, however,
+leaving the room with the domestic Donna Violetta summoned from the
+antechamber. The instant the door was closed behind her, Don Camillo was
+in the group, and the whole four stood regarding each other in a common
+panic.
+
+"Canst thou still hesitate, father?" demanded the lover.
+
+"Not a moment, my son, did I see the means of accomplishing flight."
+
+"How! Thou wilt not then desert me!" exclaimed Violetta, kissing his
+hands in joy. "Nor thou, my second mother!"
+
+"Neither," answered the governess, who possessed intuitive means of
+comprehending the resolutions of the monk; "we will go with thee, love,
+to the Castle of St. Agata, or to the dungeon of St. Mark."
+
+"Virtuous and sainted Florinda, receive my thanks!" cried the reprieved
+Violetta, clasping her hands on her bosom, with an emotion in which
+piety and gratitude were mingled. "Camillo, we await thy guidance."
+
+"Refrain," observed the monk; "a footstep--thy concealment."
+
+Don Camillo was scarce hid from view when Annina reappeared. She had the
+same suspicious manner of glancing her eye around, as the official, and
+it would seem, by the idle question she put, that her entrance had some
+other object than the mere pretence which she made of consulting her new
+mistress's humor in the color of a robe.
+
+"Do as thou wilt, girl," said Violetta, with impatience; "thou knowest
+the place of my intended retirement, and can'st judge of the fitness of
+my attire. Hasten thy preparations, that I be not the cause of delay.
+Enrico, attend my new maid to the wardrobe."
+
+Annina reluctantly withdrew, for she was far too much practised in wiles
+not to distrust this unexpected compliance with the will of the council,
+or not to perceive that she was admitted with displeasure to the
+discharge of her new duties. As the faithful domestic of Donna Violetta
+kept at her side, she was fain, however, to submit, and suffered herself
+to be led a few steps from the door. Suddenly pretending to recollect a
+new question, she returned with so much rapidity as to be again in the
+room before Enrico could anticipate the intention.
+
+"Daughter, complete thy errands, and forbear to interrupt our privacy,"
+said the monk, sternly. "I am about to confess this penitent, who may
+pine long for the consolations of the holy office ere we meet again. If
+thou hast not aught urgent, withdraw, ere thou seriously givest offence
+to the church."
+
+The severity of the Carmelite's tone, and the commanding, though subdued
+gleaming of his eye, had the effect to awe the girl. Quailing before his
+look, and in truth startled at the risk she ran in offending against
+opinions so deeply seated in the minds of all, and from which her own
+superstitious habits were far from free, she muttered a few words of
+apology, and finally withdrew. There was another uneasy and suspicious
+glance thrown around her, however, before the door was closed. When they
+were once more alone, the monk motioned for silence to the impetuous Don
+Camillo, who could scarce restrain his impatience until the intruder
+departed.
+
+"Son, be prudent," he said; "we are in the midst of treachery; in this
+unhappy city none know in whom they can confide."
+
+"I think we are sure of Enrico," said the Donna Florinda, though the
+very doubts she affected not to feel lingered in the tones of her voice.
+
+"It matters not, daughter. He is ignorant of the presence of Don
+Camillo, and in that we are safe. Duke of Sant' Agata, if you can
+deliver us from these toils we will accompany you."
+
+A cry of joy was near bursting from the lips of Violetta; but obedient
+to the eye of the monk, she turned to her lover, as if to learn his
+decision. The expression of Don Camillo's face was the pledge of his
+assent. Without speaking, he wrote hastily, with a pencil, a few words
+on the envelope of a letter, and inclosing a piece of coin in its folds,
+he moved with a cautious step to the balcony. A signal was given, and
+all awaited in breathless silence the answer. Presently they heard the
+wash of the water caused by the movement of a gondola beneath the
+window. Stepping forward again, Don Camillo dropped the paper with such
+precision that he distinctly heard the fall of the coin in the bottom of
+the boat. The gondolier scarce raised his eyes to the balcony, but
+commencing an air much used on the canals, he swept onward, like one
+whose duty called for no haste.
+
+"That has succeeded!" said Don Camillo, when he heard the song of Gino.
+"In an hour my agent will have secured the felucca, and all now depends
+on our own means of quitting the palace unobserved. My people will await
+us shortly, and perhaps 'twould be well to trust openly to our speed in
+gaining the Adriatic."
+
+"There is a solemn and necessary duty to perform," observed the monk;
+"daughters, withdraw to your rooms, and occupy yourselves with the
+preparation necessary for your flight, which may readily be made to
+appear as intended to meet the Senate's pleasure. In a few minutes I
+shall summon you hither again."
+
+Wondering, but obedient, the females withdrew. The Carmelite then made a
+brief but clear explanation of his intention. Don Camillo listened
+eagerly, and when the other had done speaking they retired together into
+the oratory. Fifteen minutes had not passed, before the monk reappeared,
+alone, and touched the bell which communicated with the closet of
+Violetta. Donna Florinda and her pupil were quickly in the room.
+
+"Prepare thy mind for the confessional," said the priest, placing
+himself with grave dignity in that chair which he habitually used when
+listening to the self-accusations and failings of his spiritual child.
+
+The brow of Violetta paled and flushed again, as if there lay a heavy
+sin on her conscience. She turned an imploring look on her maternal
+monitor, in whose mild features she met an encouraging smile, and then
+with a beating heart, though ill-collected for the solemn duty, but with
+a decision that the occasion required, she knelt on the cushion at the
+feet of the monk.
+
+The murmured language of Donna Violetta was audible to none but him for
+whose paternal ear it was intended, and that dread Being whose just
+anger it was hoped it might lessen. But Don Camillo gazed, through the
+half-opened door of the chapel, on the kneeling form, the clasped hands,
+and the uplifted countenance of the beautiful penitent. As she proceeded
+with the acknowledgment of her errors, the flush on her cheek deepened,
+and a pious excitement kindled in those eyes which he had so lately seen
+glowing with a very different passion. The ingenuous and disciplined
+soul of Violetta was not so quickly disburdened of its load of sin as
+that of the more practised mind of the Lord of Sant' Agata. The latter
+fancied that he could trace in the movement of her lips the sound of his
+own name, and a dozen times during the confession he thought he could
+even comprehend sentences of which he himself was the subject. Twice the
+good father smiled involuntarily, and at each indiscretion he laid a
+hand in affection on the bared head of the suppliant. But Violetta
+ceased to speak, and the absolution was pronounced with a fervor that
+the remarkable circumstances in which they all stood did not fail to
+heighten.
+
+When this portion of his duty was ended, the Carmelite entered the
+oratory. With steady hands he lighted the candles of the altar, and made
+the other dispositions for the mass. During this interval Don Camillo
+was at the side of his mistress, whispering with the warmth of a
+triumphant and happy lover. The governess stood near the door, watching
+for the sound of footsteps in the antechamber. The monk then advanced to
+the entrance of the little chapel, and was about to speak, when a
+hurried step from Donna Florinda arrested his words. Don Camillo had
+just time to conceal his person within the drapery of a window, before
+the door opened and Annina entered.
+
+When the preparations of the altar and the solemn countenance of the
+priest first met her eye, the girl recoiled with the air of one rebuked.
+But rallying her thoughts, with that readiness which had gained her the
+employment she filled, she crossed herself reverently, and took a place
+apart, like one who, while she knew her station, wished to participate
+in the mysteries of the holy office.
+
+"Daughter, none who commence this mass with us, can quit the presence
+ere it be completed,", observed the monk.
+
+"Father, it is my duty to be near the person of my mistress, and it is a
+happiness to be near it on the occasion of this early matin."
+
+The monk was embarrassed. He looked from one to the other, in
+indecision, and was about to frame some pretence to get rid of the
+intruder, when Don Cainillo appeared in the middle of the room.
+
+"Reverend monk, proceed," he said; "'tis but another witness of my
+happiness."
+
+While speaking, the noble touched the handle of his sword significantly
+with a finger, and cast a look at the half petrified Annina, which
+effectually controlled the exclamation that was about to escape her. The
+monk appeared to understand the terms of this silent compact, for with a
+deep voice he commenced the offices of the mass. The singularity of
+their situation, the important results of the act in which they were
+engaged, the impressive dignity of the Carmelite, and the imminent
+hazard which they all ran of exposure, together with the certainty of
+punishment for their daring to thwart the will of Venice, if betrayed,
+caused a deeper feeling than that which usually pervades a marriage
+ceremony, to preside at nuptials thus celebrated. The youthful Violetta
+trembled at every intonation of the solemn voice of the monk, and
+towards the close she leaned in helplessness on the arm of the man to
+whom she had just plighted her vows. The eye of the Carmelite kindled as
+he proceeded with the office, however; and long ere he had done, he had
+obtained such a command over the feelings of even Annina as to hold her
+mercenary spirit in awe. The final union was pronounced, and the
+benediction given.
+
+"Maria, of pure memory, watch over thy happiness, daughter!" said the
+monk, for the first time in his life saluting the fair brow of the
+weeping bride. "Duke of Sant' Agata, may thy patron hear thy prayers, as
+thou provest kind to this innocent and confiding child!"
+
+"Amen!--Ha!--we are not too soon united, my Violetta; I hear the sound
+of oars."
+
+A glance from the balcony assured him of the truth of his words, and
+rendered it apparent that it had now become necessary to take the most
+decided step of all. A six-oared gondola, of a size suited to endure
+the waves of the Adriatic at that mild season, and with a pavilion of
+fit dimensions, stopped at the water-gate of the palace.
+
+"I wonder at this boldness!" exclaimed Don Camillo. "There must be no
+delay, lest some spy of the Republic apprise the police. Away, dearest
+Violetta--away, Donna Florinda! Father, away!"
+
+The governess and her charge passed swiftly into the inner rooms. In a
+minute they returned bearing the caskets of Donna Violetta, and a
+sufficient supply of necessaries for a short voyage. The instant they
+reappeared, all was ready; for Don Camillo had long held himself
+prepared for this decisive moment, and the self-denying Carmelite had
+little need of superfluities. It was no moment for unnecessary
+explanation or trivial objections.
+
+"Our hope is in celerity," said Don Camillo. "Secresy is impossible."
+
+He was still speaking, when the monk led the way from the room. Donna
+Florinda and the half-breathless Violetta followed; Don Camillo drew the
+arm of Annina under his own, and in a low voice bid her, at her peril,
+refuse to obey.
+
+The long suite of outer rooms was passed without meeting a single
+observer of the extraordinary movement. But when the fugitive entered
+the great hall that communicated with the principal stairs, they found
+themselves in the centre of a dozen menials of both sexes.
+
+"Place," cried the Duke of Sant' Agata, whose person and voice were
+alike unknown to them. "Your mistress will breathe the air of the
+canals."
+
+Wonder and curiosity were alive in every countenance, but suspicion and
+eager attention were uppermost in the features of many. The foot of
+Donna Violetta had scarcely touched the pavement of the lower hall, when
+several menials glided down the flight and quitted the palace by its
+different outlets. Each sought those who engaged him in the service.
+One flew along the narrow streets of the islands, to the residence of
+the Signor Gradenigo; another sought his son; and one, ignorant of the
+person of him he served, actually searched an agent of Don Camillo, to
+impart a circumstance in which that noble was himself so conspicuous an
+actor. To such a pass of corruption had double-dealing and mystery
+reduced the household of the fairest and richest in Venice! The gondola
+lay at the marble steps of the water gate, held against the stones by
+two of its crew. Don Camillo saw at a glance that the masked gondoliers
+had neglected none of the precautions he had prescribed, and he inwardly
+commended their punctuality. Each wore a short rapier at his girdle, and
+he fancied he could trace beneath the folds of their garments evidence
+of the presence of the clumsy fire-arms in use at that period. These
+observations were made while the Carmelite and Violetta entered the
+boat. Donna Florinda followed, and Annina was about to imitate her
+example, when she was arrested by the arm of Don Camillo.
+
+"Thy service ends here," whispered the bridegroom. "Seek another
+mistress; in fault of a better, thou mayest devote thyself to Venice."
+
+The little interruption caused Don Camillo to look backwards, and for a
+single moment he paused to scrutinize the group of eyes that crowded the
+hall of the palace, at a respectful distance.
+
+"Adieu, my friends!" he added. "Those among ye who love your mistress
+shall be remembered."
+
+He would have said more, but a rude seizure of his arms caused him to
+turn hastily away. He was firm in the grasp of the two gondoliers who
+had landed. While he was yet in too much astonishment to struggle,
+Annina, obedient to a signal, darted past him and leaped into the boat.
+The oars fell into the water; Don Camillo was repelled by a violent
+shove backwards into the hall, the gondoliers stepped lightly into
+their places, and the gondola swept away from the steps, beyond the
+power of him they left to follow.
+
+"Gino!--miscreant!--what means this treachery?"
+
+The moving of the parting gondola was accompanied by no other sound than
+the usual washing of the water. In speechless agony Don Camillo saw the
+boat glide, swifter and swifter at each stroke of the oars, along the
+canal, and then whirling round the angle of a palace, disappear.
+
+Venice admitted not of pursuit like another city; for there was no
+passage along the canal taken by the gondola, but by water. Several of
+the boats used by the family, lay within the piles on the great canal,
+at the principal entrance, and Don Camillo was about to rush into one,
+and to seize its oars with his own hands, when the usual sounds
+announced the approach of a gondola from the direction of the bridge
+that had so long served as a place of concealment to his own domestic.
+It soon issued from the obscurity cast by the shadows of the houses, and
+proved to be a large gondola pulled, like the one which had just
+disappeared, by six masked gondoliers. The resemblance between the
+equipments of the two was so exact, that at first not only the wondering
+Camillo, but all the others present, fancied the latter, by some
+extraordinary speed, had already made the tour of the adjoining palaces,
+and was once more approaching the private entrance of that of Donna
+Violetta.
+
+"Gino!" cried the bewildered bridegroom.
+
+"Signore mio?" answered the faithful domestic.
+
+"Draw nearer, varlet. What meaneth this idle trifling at a moment like
+this?"
+
+Don Camillo leaped a fearful distance, and happily he reached the
+gondola. To pass the men and rush into the canopy needed but a moment;
+to perceive that it was empty was the work of a glance.
+
+"Villains, have you dared to be false!" cried the confounded noble.
+
+At that instant the clock of the city began to tell the hour of two,
+and it was only as that appointed signal sounded heavy and melancholy on
+the night-air, that the undeceived Camillo got a certain glimpse of the
+truth.
+
+"Gino," he said, repressing his voice, like one summoning a desperate
+resolution--"are thy fellows true?"
+
+"As faithful as your own vassals, Signore."
+
+"And thou didst not fail to deliver the note to my agent?"
+
+"He had it before the ink was dry, eccellenza."
+
+"The mercenary villain! He told thee where to find the gondola, equipped
+as I see it?"
+
+"Signore, he did; and I do the man the justice to say that nothing is
+wanting, either to speed or comfort."
+
+"Aye, he even deals in duplicates, so tender is his care!" muttered Don
+Camillo between his teeth. "Pull away, men; your own safety and my
+happiness now depend on your arms. A thousand ducats if you equal my
+hopes--my just anger if you disappoint them!"
+
+Don Camillo threw himself on the cushions as he spoke, in bitterness of
+heart, though he seconded his words by a gesture which bid the men
+proceed. Gino, who occupied the stern and managed the directing oar,
+opened a small window in the canopy which communicated with the
+interior, and bent to take his master's directions as the boat sprang
+ahead. Rising from his stooping posture, the practised gondolier gave a
+sweep with his blade, which caused the sluggish element of the narrow
+canal to whirl in eddies, and then the gondola glided into the great
+canal, as if it obeyed an instinct.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  "Why liest thou so on the green earth?
+  'Tis not the hour of slumber:--why so pale?"
+                                  CAIN.
+
+
+Notwithstanding his apparent decision, the Duke of Sant' Agata was
+completely at a loss in what manner to direct his future movements. That
+he had been duped by one or more of the agents to whom he had been
+compelled to confide his necessary preparations for the flight he had
+meditated several days, was too certain to admit of his deceiving
+himself with the hopes that some unaccountable mistake was the cause of
+his loss. He saw at once that the Senate was master of the person of his
+bride, and he too well knew its power and its utter disregard of human
+obligations when any paramount interest of the state was to be
+consulted, to doubt for an instant its willingness to use its advantage
+in any manner that was most likely to contribute to its own views. By
+the premature death of her uncle, Donna Violetta had become the heiress
+of vast estates in the dominions of the church, and a compliance with
+that jealous and arbitrary law of Venice, which commanded all of its
+nobles to dispose of any foreign possessions they might acquire, was
+only suspended on account of her sex, and, as has already been seen,
+with the hope of disposing of her hand in a manner that would prove more
+profitable to the Republic. With this object still before them, and with
+the means of accomplishing it in their own hands, the bridegroom well
+knew that his marriage would not only be denied, but he feared the
+witnesses of the ceremony would be so disposed of, as to give little
+reason ever to expect embarrassment from their testimony. For himself,
+personally, he felt less apprehension, though he foresaw that he had
+furnished his opponents with an argument that was likely to defer to an
+indefinite period, if it did not entirely defeat, his claims to the
+disputed succession. But he had already made up his mind to this result,
+though it is probable that his passion for Violetta had not entirely
+blinded him to the fact, that her Roman signories would be no unequal
+offset for the loss. He believed that he might possibly return to his
+palace with impunity, so far as any personal injury was concerned; for
+the great consideration he enjoyed in his native land, and the high
+interest he possessed at the court of Rome, were sufficient pledges that
+no open violence would be done him. The chief reason why his claim had
+been kept in suspense, was the wish to profit by his near connexion with
+the favorite cardinal; and though he had never been able entirely to
+satisfy the ever-increasing demands of the council in this respect, he
+thought it probable that the power of the Vatican would not be spared,
+to save him from any very imminent personal hazard. Still he had given
+the state of Venice plausible reasons for severity; and liberty, just at
+that moment, was of so much importance, that he dreaded falling into the
+hands of the officials, as one of the greatest misfortunes which could
+momentarily overtake him. He so well knew the crooked policy of those
+with whom he had to deal, that he believed he might be arrested solely
+that the government could make an especial merit of his future release,
+under circumstances of so seeming gravity. His order to Gino, therefore,
+had been to pull down the principal passage towards the port.
+
+Before the gondola, which sprang at each united effort of its crew, like
+some bounding animal, entered among the shipping, its master had time to
+recover his self-possession, and to form some hasty plans for the
+future. Making a signal for the crew to cease rowing, he came from
+beneath the canopy. Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, boats were
+plying on the water within the town, and the song was still audible on
+the canals. But among the mariners a general stillness prevailed, such
+as befitted their toil during the day, and their ordinary habits.
+
+"Call the first idle gondolier of thy acquaintance hither, Gino," said
+Don Camillo, with assumed calmness; "I would question him."
+
+In less than a minute he was gratified.
+
+"Hast seen any strongly manned gondola plying, of late, in this part of
+the canal?" demanded Don Camillo, of the man they had stopped.
+
+"None, but this of your own, Signore; which is the fastest of all that
+passed beneath the Rialto in this day's regatta."
+
+"How knowest thou, friend, aught of the speed of my boat?"
+
+"Signore, I have pulled an oar on the canals of Venice six-and-twenty
+years, and I do not remember to have seen a gondola move more swiftly on
+them than did this very boat but a few minutes ago, when it dashed among
+the feluccas, further down in the port, as if it were again running for
+the oar. Corpo di Bacco! There are rich wines in the palaces of the
+nobles, that men can give such life to wood!"
+
+"Whither did we steer?" eagerly asked Don Camillo.
+
+"Blessed San Teodoro! I do not wonder, eccellenza, that you ask that
+question, for though it is but a moment since, here I see you lying as
+motionless on the water as a floating weed!"
+
+"Friend, here is silver--addio."
+
+The gondolier swept slowly onwards, singing a strain in honor of his
+bark, while the boat of Don Camillo darted ahead. Mystic, felucca,
+xebec, brigantine, and three-masted ship, were apparently floating past
+them, as they shot through the maze of shipping, when Gino bent forward
+and drew the attention of his master to a large gondola, which was
+pulling with a lazy oar towards them, from the direction of the Lido.
+Both boats were in a wide avenue in the midst of the vessels, the usual
+track of those who went to sea, and there was no object whatever between
+them. By changing the course of his own boat, Don Camillo soon found
+himself within an oar's length of the other. He saw, at a glance, it was
+the treacherous gondola by which he had been duped.
+
+"Draw, men, and follow!" shouted the desperate Neapolitan, preparing to
+leap into the midst of his enemies.
+
+"You draw against St. Mark!" cried a warning voice from beneath the
+canopy. "The chances are unequal, Signore; for the smallest signal would
+bring twenty galleys to our succor."
+
+Don Camillo might have disregarded this menace, had he not perceived
+that it caused the half-drawn rapiers of his followers to return to
+their scabbards.
+
+"Robber!" he answered, "restore her whom you have spirited away."
+
+"Signore, you young nobles are often pleased to play your extravagances
+with the servants of the Republic. Here are none but the gondoliers and
+myself." A movement of the boat permitted Don Camillo to look into the
+covered part, and he saw that the other uttered no more than the truth.
+Convinced of the uselessness of further parley, knowing the value of
+every moment, and believing he was on a track which might still lead to
+success, the young Neapolitan signed to his people to go on. The boats
+parted in silence, that of Don Camillo proceeding in the direction from
+which the other had just come.
+
+In a short time the gondola of Don Camillo was in an open part of the
+Giudecca, and entirely beyond the tiers of the shipping. It was so late
+that the moon had begun to fall, and its light was cast obliquely on the
+bay, throwing the eastern sides of the buildings and the other objects
+into shadow. A dozen different vessels were seen, aided by the
+land-breeze, steering towards the entrance of the port. The rays of the
+moon fell upon the broad surface of those sides of their canvas which
+were nearest to the town, and they resembled so many spotless clouds,
+sweeping the water and floating seaward.
+
+"They are sending my wife to Dalmatia!" cried Don Camillo, like a man
+on whom the truth began to dawn.
+
+"Signore mio!" exclaimed the astonished Gino.
+
+"I tell thee, sirrah, that this accursed Senate hath plotted against my
+happiness, and having robbed me of thy mistress, hath employed one of
+the many feluccas that I see, to transport her to some of its
+strongholds on the eastern coast of the Adriatic."
+
+"Blessed Maria! Signor Duca, and my honored master; they say that the
+very images of stone in Venice have ears, and that the horses of bronze
+will kick, if an evil word is spoken against those up above."
+
+"Is it not enough, varlet, to draw curses from the meek Job, to rob him
+of a wife? Hast thou no feeling for thy mistres?'
+
+"I did not dream, eccellenza, that you were so happy as to have the one,
+or that I was so honored as to have the other."
+
+"Thou remindest me of my folly, good Gino. In aiding me on this
+occasion, thou wilt have thy own fortune in view, as thy efforts, like
+those of thy fellows, will be made in behalf of the lady to whom I have
+just plighted a husband's vows."
+
+"San Theodoro help us all, and hint what is to be done! The lady is most
+happy, Signor Don Camillo, and if I only knew by what name to mention
+her she should never be forgotten in any prayer that so humble a sinner
+might dare to offer."
+
+"Thou hast not forgotten the beautiful lady I drew from the Giudecca?"
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! Your eceellenza floated like a swan, and swam faster
+than a gull. Forgotten! Signore, no,--I think of it every time I hear a
+plash in the canals, and every time I think of it I curse the Ancona-man
+in my heart. St. Theodore forgive me if it be unlike a Christian to do
+so. But, though we all tell marvels of what our Lord did in the
+Giudecca, the dip of its waters is not the marriage ceremony, nor can we
+speak with much certainty of beauty that was seen to so great
+disadvantage."
+
+"Thou art right, Gino. But that lady, the illustrious Donna Violetta
+Tiepolo, the daughter and heiress of a famed senator, is now thy
+mistress. It remains for us to establish her in the Castle of Sant'
+Agata, where I shall defy Venice and its agents."
+
+Gino bowed his head in submission, though he cast a look behind to make
+sure that none of those agents, whom his master set so openly at
+defiance, were within ear-shot.
+
+In the meantime the gondola proceeded, for the dialogue in no manner
+interrupted the exertions of Gino, still holding the direction of the
+Lido. As the land-breeze freshened, the different vessels in sight
+glided away, and by the time Don Camillo reached the barrier of sand
+which separates the Lagunes from the Adriatic, most of them had glided
+through the passages, and were now shaping their courses, according to
+their different destinations, across the open gulf. The young noble had
+permitted his people to pursue the direction originally taken, in pure
+indecision. He was certain that his bride was in one of the many barques
+in sight, but he possessed no clue to lead him towards the right one,
+nor any sufficient means of pursuit were he even master of that
+important secret. When he landed, therefore, it was with the simple hope
+of being able to form some general conjecture as to the portion of the
+Republic's dominions in which he might search for her he had lost, by
+observing to what part of the Adriatic the different feluccas held their
+way. He had determined on immediate pursuit, however, and before he
+quitted the gondola, he once more turned to his confidential gondolier
+to give the necessary instructions.
+
+"Thou knowest, Gino," he said, "that there is one born a vassal on my
+estates, here in the port, with a felucca from the Sorrentine shore?"
+
+"I know the man better than I know my own faults Signore, or even my own
+virtues."
+
+"Go to him at once, and make sure of his presence. I have imagined a
+plan to decoy him into the service of his lord; but I would now know the
+condition of his vessel."
+
+Gino said a few words in commendation of the zeal of his friend Stefano,
+and in praise of the Bella Sorrentina, as the gondola receded from the
+shore; and then he dashed his oar into the water, like a man in earnest
+to execute the commission.
+
+There is a lonely spot on the Lido di Palestrina where Catholic
+exclusion has decreed that the remains of all who die in Venice, without
+the pale of the church of Rome, shall moulder into their kindred dust.
+Though it is not distant from the ordinary landing and the few buildings
+which line the shore, it is a place that, in itself, is no bad emblem of
+a hopeless lot. Solitary, exposed equally to the hot airs of the south
+and the bleak blasts of the Alps, frequently covered with the spray of
+the Adriatic, and based on barren sands, the utmost that human art,
+aided by a soil which has been fattened by human remains, can do, has
+been to create around the modest graves a meagre vegetation, that is in
+slight contrast to the sterility of most of the bank. This place of
+interment is without the relief of trees: at the present day it is
+uninclosed, and in the opinions of those who have set it apart for
+heretic and Jew, it is unblessed. And yet, though condemned alike to
+this, the last indignity which man can inflict on his fellow, the two
+proscribed classes furnish a melancholy proof of the waywardness of
+human passions and prejudice, by refusing to share in common the scanty
+pittance of earth which bigotry has allowed for their everlasting
+repose! While the Protestant sleeps by the side of the Protestant in
+exclusive obloquy, the children of Israel moulder apart on the same
+barren heath, sedulous to preserve, even in the grave, the outward
+distinctions of faith. We shall not endeavor to seek that deeply-seated
+principle which renders man so callous to the most eloquent and striking
+appeals to liberality, but rest satisfied with being grateful that we
+have been born in a land in which the interests of religion are as
+little as possible sullied by the vicious contamination of those of
+life; in which Christian humility is not exhibited beneath the purple,
+nor Jewish adhesion by intolerance; in which man is left to care for the
+welfare of his own soul, and in which, so far as the human eye can
+penetrate, God is worshipped for himself.
+
+Don Camillo Monforte landed near the retired graves of the proscribed.
+As he wished to ascend the low sand-hills, which have been thrown up by
+the waves and the winds of the gulf on the outer edge of the Lido, it
+was necessary that he should pass directly across the contemned spot, or
+make such a circuit as would have been inconvenient. Crossing himself,
+with a superstition that was interwoven with all his habits and
+opinions, and loosening his rapier, in order that he might not miss the
+succor of that good weapon at need, he moved across the heath tenanted
+by the despised dead, taking care to avoid the mouldering heaps of earth
+which lay above the bones of heretic or Jew. He had not threaded more
+than half the graves, however, when a human form arose from the grass,
+and seemed to walk like one who mused on the moral that the piles at
+his feet would be apt to excite. Again Don Camillo touched the handle of
+his rapier; then moving aside, in a manner to give himself an equal
+advantage from the light of the moon, he drew near the stranger. His
+footstep was heard, for the other paused, regarded the approaching
+cavalier, and folding his arms, as it might be in sign of neutrality,
+awaited his nearer approach.
+
+"Thou hast chosen a melancholy hour for thy walk, Signore," said the
+young Neapolitan; "and a still more melancholy scene. I hope I do not
+intrude on an Israelite, or a Lutheran, who mourns for his friend?"
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte, I am, like yourself, a Christian."
+
+"Ha! Thou knowest me--'tis Battista, the gondolier that I once
+entertained in my household?"
+
+"Signore, 'tis not Battista."
+
+As he spoke, the stranger faced the moon, in a manner that threw all of
+its mild light upon his features.
+
+"Jacopo!" exclaimed the duke, recoiling, as did all in Venice
+habitually, when that speaking eye was unexpectedly met.
+
+"Signore--Jacopo."
+
+In a moment the rapier of Don Camillo glittered in the rays of the moon.
+
+"Keep thy distance, fellow, and explain the motive that hath brought
+thee thus across my solitude!"
+
+The Bravo smiled, but his arms maintained their fold.
+
+"I might, with equal justice, call upon the Duke of Sant' Agata to
+furnish reasons why he wanders at this hour among the Hebrew graves."
+
+"Nay, spare thy pleasantry; I trifle not with men of thy reputation; if
+any in Venice have thought fit to employ thee against my person, thou
+wilt have need of all thy courage and skill ere thou earnest thy fee."
+
+"Put up thy rapier, Don Camillo, here is none to do you harm. Think
+you, if employed in the manner you name, I would be in this spot to seek
+you? Ask yourself whether your visit here was known, or whether it was
+more than the idle caprice of a young noble, who finds his bed less easy
+than his gondola. We have met, Duke of Sant' Agata, when you distrusted
+my honor less."
+
+"Thou speakest true, Jacopo," returned the noble, suffering the point of
+his rapier to fall from before the breast of the Bravo, though he still
+hesitated to withdraw the weapon. "Thou sayest the truth. My visit to
+this spot is indeed accidental, and thou could'st not have possibly
+foreseen it. Why art thou here?"
+
+"Why are these here?" demanded Jacopo, pointing to the graves at his
+feet. "We are born, and we die--that much is known to us all; but the
+when and the where are mysteries, until time reveals them."
+
+"Thou art not a man to act without good motive. Though these Israelites
+could not foresee their visit to the Lido, thine hath not been without
+intention."
+
+"I am here, Don Camillo Monforte, because my spirit hath need of room. I
+want the air of the sea--the canals choke me--I can only breathe in
+freedom on this bank of sand!"
+
+"Thou hast another reason, Jacopo?"
+
+"Aye, Signore--I loathe yon city of crimes!"
+
+As the Bravo spoke, he shook his hand in the direction of the domes of
+St. Mark, and the deep tones of his voice appeared to heave up from the
+depths of his chest.
+
+"This is extraordinary language for a----"
+
+"Bravo; speak the word boldly, Signore--it is no stranger to my ears.
+But even the stiletto of a Bravo is honorable, compared to that sword of
+pretended justice which St. Mark wields! The commonest hireling of
+Italy--he who will plant his dagger in the heart of his friend for two
+sequins, is a man of open dealing, compared to the merciless treachery
+of some in yonder town!"
+
+"I understand thee, Jacopo; thou art, at length, proscribed. The public
+voice, faint as it is in the Republic, has finally reached the ears of
+thy employers, and they withdraw their protection."
+
+Jacopo regarded the noble, for an instant, with an expression so
+ambiguous, as to cause the latter insensibly to raise the point of his
+rapier, but when he answered it was with his ordinary quiet.
+
+"Signor Duca," he said, "I have been thought worthy to be retained by
+Don Camillo Monforte!"
+
+"I deny it not--and now that thou recallest the occasion, new light
+breaks in upon me. Villain, to thy faithlessness I owe the loss of my
+bride!"
+
+Though the rapier was at the very throat of Jacopo, he did not flinch.
+Gazing at his excited companion, he laughed in a smothered manner, but
+bitterly.
+
+"It would seem that the Lord of Sant' Agata wishes to rob me of my
+trade," he said. "Arise, ye Israelites, and bear witness, lest men
+doubt the fact! A common bravo of the canals is waylaid, among your
+despised graves, by the proudest Signor of Calabria! You have chosen
+your spot in mercy, Don Camillo, for sooner or later this crumbling and
+sea-worn earth is to receive me. Were I to die at the altar itself, with
+the most penitent prayer of holy church on my lips, the bigots would
+send my body to rest among these hungry Hebrews and accursed heretics.
+Yes, I am a man proscribed, and unfit to sleep with the faithful!"
+
+His companion spoke with so strange a mixture of irony and melancholy,
+that the purpose of Don Camillo wavered. But remembering his loss, he
+shook the rapier's point, and continued:--
+
+"Thy taunts and effrontery will not avail thee, knave," he cried. "Thou
+knowest that I would have engaged thee as the leader of a chosen band,
+to favor the flight of one dear from Venice."
+
+"Nothing more true, Signore."
+
+"And thou didst refuse the service?"
+
+"Noble duke, I did."
+
+"Not content with this, having learned the particulars of my project,
+thou sold the secret to the Senate?"
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte, I did not. My engagements with the council would
+not permit me to serve you; else, by the brightest star of yonder vault!
+it would have gladdened my heart to have witnessed the happiness of two
+young and faithful lovers. No--no--no; they know me not, who think I
+cannot find pleasure in the joy of another. I told you that I was the
+Senate's, and there the matter ended."
+
+"And I had the weakness to believe thee, Jacopo, for thou hast a
+character so strangely compounded of good and evil, and bearest so fair
+a name for observance of thy faith, that the seeming frankness of the
+answer lulled me to security. Fellow, I have been betrayed, and that at
+the moment when I thought success most sure."
+
+Jacopo manifested interest, but, as he moved slowly on, accompanied by
+the vigilant and zealous noble, he smiled coldly, like one who had pity
+for the other's credulity.
+
+"In bitterness of soul, I have cursed the whole race for its treachery,"
+continued the Neapolitan.
+
+"This is rather for the priore of St. Mark, than for the ear of one who
+carries a public stiletto."
+
+"My gondola has been imitated--the liveries of my people copied--my
+bride stolen. Thou answerest not, Jacopo?"
+
+"What answer would you have? You have been cozened, Signore, in a state,
+whose very prince dare not trust his secrets to his wife. You would have
+robbed Venice of an heiress, and Venice has robbed you of a bride. You
+have played high, Don Camillo, and have lost a heavy stake. You have
+thought of your own wishes and rights, while you have pretended to serve
+Venice with the Spaniard."
+
+Don Camillo started in surprise.
+
+"Why this wonder, Signore? You forget that I have lived much among those
+who weigh the chances of every political interest, and that your name is
+often in their mouths. This marriage is doubly disagreeable to Venice,
+who has nearly as much need of the bridegroom as of the bride. The
+council hath long ago forbidden the banns."
+
+"Aye--but the means?--explain the means by which I have been duped, lest
+the treachery be ascribed to thee."
+
+"Signore, the very marbles of the city give up their secrets to the
+state. I have seen much, and understood much, when my superiors have
+believed me merely a tool; but I have seen much that even those who
+employed me could not comprehend. I could have foretold this
+consummation of your nuptials, had I known of their celebration."
+
+"This thou could'st not have done, without being an agent of their
+treachery."
+
+"The schemes of the selfish may be foretold; it is only the generous and
+the honest that baffle calculation. He who can gain a knowledge of the
+present interest of Venice is master of her dearest secrets of state;
+for what she wishes she will do, unless the service cost too dear. As
+for the means--how can they be wanting in a household like yours,
+Signore?"
+
+"I trusted none but those deepest in my confidence."
+
+"Don Camillo, there is not a servitor in your palace, Gino alone
+excepted, who is not a hireling of the Senate, or of its agents. The
+very gondoliers who row you to your daily pleasures have had their hauds
+crossed with the Republic's sequins. Nay, they are not only paid to
+watch you, but to watch each other."
+
+"Can this be true!"
+
+"Have you ever doubted it, Signore?" asked Jacopo, looking up like one
+who admired another's simplicity.
+
+"I knew them to be false--pretenders to a faith that in secret they
+mock; but I had not believed they dared to tamper with the very menials
+of my person. This undermining of the security of families is to destroy
+society at its core."
+
+"You talk like one who hath not been long a bridegroom, Signore," said
+the Bravo with a hollow laugh. "A year hence, you may know what it is to
+have your own wife turning your secret thoughts into gold."
+
+"And thou servest them, Jacopo?"
+
+"Who does not, in some manner suited to his habits? We are not masters
+of our fortune, Don Camillo, or the Duke of Sant' Agata would not be
+turning his influence with a relative to the advantage of the Republic.
+What I have done hath not been done without bitter penitence, and an
+agony of soul that your own light servitude may have spared you,
+Signore."
+
+"Poor Jacopo!"
+
+"If I have lived through it all, 'tis because one mightier than the
+state hath not deserted me. But, Don Camillo Monforte, there are crimes
+which pass beyond the powers of man to endure."
+
+The Bravo shuddered, and he moved among the despised graves in silence.
+
+"They have then proved too ruthless even for thee?" said Don Camillo,
+who watched the contracting eye and heaving form of his companion, in
+wonder.
+
+"Signore, they have. I have witnessed, this night, a proof of their
+heartlessness and bad faith, that hath caused me to look forward to my
+own fate. The delusion is over; from this hour I serve them no longer."
+
+The Bravo spoke with deep feeling, and his companion fancied, strange as
+it was coming from such a man, with an air of wounded integrity. Don
+Camillo knew that there was no condition of life, however degraded or
+lost to the world, which had not its own particular opinions of the
+faith due to its fellows; and he had seen enough of the sinuous course
+of the oligarchy of Venice, to understand that it was quite possible its
+shameless and irresponsible duplicity might offend the principles of
+even an assassin. Less odium was attached to men of that class, in Italy
+and at that day, than will be easily imagined in a country like this;
+for the radical defects and the vicious administration of the laws,
+caused an irritable and sensitive people too often to take into their
+own hands the right of redressing their own wrongs. Custom had lessened
+the odium of the crime; and though society denounced the assassin
+himself, it is scarcely too much to say, that his employer was regarded
+with little more disgust than the religious of our time regard the
+survivor of a private combat. Still it was not usual for nobles like Don
+Camillo to hold intercourse, beyond that which the required service
+exacted, with men of Jacopo's cast; but the language and manner of the
+Bravo so strongly attracted the curiosity, and even the sympathy of his
+companion, that the latter unconsciously sheathed his rapier and drew
+nearer.
+
+"Thy penitence and regrets, Jacopo, may lead thee yet nearer to virtue,"
+he said, "than mere abandonment of the Senate's service. Seek out some
+godly priest, and ease thy soul by confession and prayer."
+
+The Bravo trembled in every limb, and his eye turned wistfully to the
+countenance of the other.
+
+"Speak, Jacopo; even I will hear thee, if thou would'st remove the
+mountain from thy breast."
+
+"Thanks, noble Signore! a thousand thanks for this glimpse of sympathy
+to which I have long been a stranger! None know how dear a word of
+kindness is to one who has been condemned by all, as I have been. I have
+prayed--I have craved--I have wept for some ear to listen to my tale,
+and I thought I had found one who would have heard me without scorn,
+when the cold policy of the Senate struck him. I came here to commune
+with the hated dead, when chance brought us together. Could I--" the
+Bravo paused and looked doubtfully again at his companion.
+
+"Say on, Jacopo."
+
+"I have not dared to trust my secrets even to the confessional, Signore,
+and can I be so bold as to offer them to you."
+
+"Truly, it is a strange behest!"
+
+"Signore, it is. You are noble, I am of humble blood. Your ancestors
+were senators and Doges of Venice, while mine have been, since the
+fishermen first built their huts in the Lagunes, laborers on the canals,
+and rowers of gondolas. You are powerful, and rich, and courted; while I
+am denounced, and in secret, I fear, condemned. In short, you are Don
+Camillo Monforte, and I am Jacopo Frontoni!"
+
+Don Camillo was touched, for the Bravo spoke without bitterness, and in
+deep sorrow.
+
+"I would thou wert at the confessional, poor Jacopo!" he said; "I am
+little able to give ease to such a burden."
+
+"Signore, I have lived too long shut out from the good wishes of my
+fellows, and I can bear with it no longer. The accursed Senate may cut
+me off without warning, and then who will stop to look at my grave!
+Signore, I must speak or die!"
+
+"Thy case is piteous, Jacopo! Thou hast need of ghostly counsel."
+
+"Here is no priest, Signore, and I carry a weight past bearing. The only
+man who has shown interest in me, for three long and dreadful years, is
+gone!"
+
+"But he will return, poor Jacopo."
+
+"Signore, he will never return. He is with the fishes of the Lagunes."
+
+"By thy hand, monster!"
+
+"By the justice of the illustrious Republic," said the Bravo, with a
+smothered but bitter smile.
+
+"Ha! they are then awake to the acts of thy class? Thy repentance is
+the fruit of fear!"
+
+Jacopo seemed choked. He had evidently counted on the awakened sympathy
+of his companion, notwithstanding the difference in their situations,
+and to be thus thrown off again, unmanned him. He shuddered, and every
+muscle and nerve appeared about to yield its power. Touched by so
+unequivocal signs of suffering, Don Camillo kept close at his side,
+reluctant to enter more deeply into the feelings of one of his known
+character, and yet unable to desert a fellow-creature in so grievous
+agony.
+
+"Signor Duca," said the Bravo, with a pathos in his voice that went to
+the heart of his auditor, "leave me. If they ask for a proscribed man,
+let them come here; in the morning they will find my body near the
+graves of the heretics."
+
+"Speak, I will hear thee."
+
+Jacopo looked up with doubt expressed on his features.
+
+"Unburden thyself; I will listen, though thou recounted the
+assassination of my dearest friend."
+
+The oppressed Bravo gazed at him, as if he still distrusted his
+sincerity. His face worked, and his look became still more wistful; but
+as Don Camillo faced the moon, and betrayed the extent of his sympathy,
+the other burst into tears.
+
+"Jacopo, I will hear thee--I will hear thee, poor Jacopo!" cried Don
+Camillo, shocked at this exhibition of distress in one so stern by
+nature. A wave from the hand of the Bravo silenced him, and Jacopo,
+struggling with himself for a moment, spoke.
+
+"You have saved a soul from perdition, Signore," he said, smothering his
+emotion. "If the happy knew how much power belongs to a single word of
+kindness--a glance of feeling, when given to the despised, they would
+not look so coldly on the miserable. This night must have been my last,
+had you cast me off without pity--but you will hear my tale,
+Signore--you will not scorn the confession of a Bravo?"
+
+"I have promised. Be brief, for at this moment I have great care of my
+own."
+
+"Signore, I know not the whole of your wrongs, but they will not be less
+likely to be redressed for this grace."
+
+Jacopo made an effort to command himself, when he commenced his tale.
+
+The course of the narrative does not require that we should accompany
+this extraordinary man though the relation of the secrets he imparted to
+Don Camillo. It is enough for our present purposes to say, that, as he
+proceeded, the young Calabrian noble drew nearer to his side, and
+listened with growing interest. The Duke of Sant' Agata scarcely
+breathed, while his companion, with that energy of language and feeling
+which marks Italian character, recounted his secret sorrows, and the
+scenes in which he had been an actor. Long before he was done, Don
+Camillo had forgotten his own private causes of concern, and, by the
+time the tale was finished, every shade of disgust had given place to an
+ungovernable expression of pity. In short, so eloquent was the speaker,
+and so interesting the facts with which he dealt, that he seemed to play
+with the sympathies of the listener, as the improvisatore of that region
+is known to lead captive the passions of the admiring crowd.
+
+During the time Jacopo was speaking, he and his wondering auditor had
+passed the limits of the despised cemetery; and as the voice of the
+former ceased, they stood on the outer beach of the Lido. When the low
+tones of the Bravo were no longer audible, they were succeeded by the
+sullen wash of the Adriatic.
+
+"This surpasseth belief!" Don Camillo exclaimed after a long pause,
+which had only been disturbed by the rush and retreat of the waters.
+
+"Signore, as holy Maria is kind! it is true."
+
+"I doubt you not, Jacopo--poor Jacopo! I cannot distrust a tale thus
+told! Thou hast, indeed, been a victim of their hellish duplicity, and
+well mayest thou say, the load was past bearing. What is thy intention?"
+
+"I serve them no longer, Don Camillo--I wait only for the last solemn
+scene, which is now certain, and then I quit this city of deceit, to
+seek my fortune in another region. They have blasted my youth, and
+loaded my name with infamy--God may yet lighten the load!"
+
+"Reproach not thyself beyond reason, Jacopo, for the happiest and most
+fortunate of us all are not above the power of temptation. Thou knowest
+that even my name and rank have not, altogether, protected me from their
+arts."
+
+"I know them capable, Signore, of deluding angels! Their arts are only
+surpassed by their means, and their pretence of virtue by their
+indifference to its practice."
+
+"Thou sayest true, Jacopo: the truth is never in greater danger, than
+when whole communities lend themselves to the vicious deception of
+seemliness, and without truth there is no virtue. This it is to
+substitute profession for practice--to use the altar for a worldly
+purpose--and to bestow power without any other responsibility than that
+which is exacted by the selfishness of caste! Jacopo--poor Jacopo! thou
+shalt be my servitor--I am lord of my own seignories, and once rid of
+this specious Republic, I charge myself with the care of thy safety and
+fortunes. Be at peace as respects thy conscience: I have interest near
+the Holy See, and thou shalt not want absolution!"
+
+The gratitude of the Bravo was more vivid in feeling than in expression.
+He kissed the hand of Don Camillo, but it was with a reservation of
+self-respect that belonged to the character of the man.
+
+"A system like this of Venice," continued the musing noble, "leaves none
+of us masters of our own acts. The wiles of such a combination are
+stronger than the will. It cloaks its offences against right in a
+thousand specious forms, and it enlists the support of every man under
+the pretence of a sacrifice for the common good. We often fancy
+ourselves simple dealers in some justifiable state intrigue, when in
+truth we are deep in sin. Falsehood is the parent of all crimes, and in
+no case has it a progeny so numerous as that in which its own birth is
+derived from the state. I fear I may have made sacrifices to this
+treacherous influence, I could wish forgotten."
+
+Though Don Camillo soliloquized, rather than addressed his companion, it
+was evident, by the train of his thoughts, that the narrative of Jacopo
+had awakened disagreeable reflections on the manner in which he had
+pushed his own claims with the Senate. Perhaps he felt the necessity of
+some apology to one who, though so much his inferior in rank, was so
+competent to appreciate his conduct, and who had just denounced, in the
+strongest language, his own fatal subserviency to the arts of that
+irresponsible and meretricious body.
+
+Jacopo uttered a few words of a general nature, but such as had a
+tendency to quiet the uneasiness of his companion; after which, with a
+readiness that proved him qualified for the many delicate missions with
+which he had been charged, he ingeniously turned the discourse to the
+recent abduction of Donna Violetta, with the offer of rendering his new
+employer all the services in his power to regain his bride.
+
+"That thou mayest know all thou hast undertaken," rejoined Don Camillo,
+"listen, Jacopo, and I will conceal nothing from thy shrewdness."
+
+The Duke of Sant' Agata now briefly, but explicitly, laid bare to his
+companion all his own views and measures with respect to her he loved,
+and all those events with which the reader has already become
+acquainted.
+
+The Bravo gave great attention to the minutest parts of the detail, and
+more than once, as the other proceeded, he smiled to himself, like a man
+who was able to trace the secret means by which this or that intrigue
+had been effected. The whole was just related, when the sound of a
+footstep announced the return of Gino.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  "Pale she looked,
+  Yet cheerful; though methought, once, if not twice.
+  She wiped away a tear that would be coming."
+                                  ROGERS.
+
+
+The hours passed as if naught had occurred, within the barriers of the
+city, to disturb their progress. On the following morning men proceeded
+to their several pursuits, of business or of pleasure, as had been done
+for ages, and none stopped to question his neighbor of the scene which
+might have taken place during the night. Some were gay, and others
+sorrowing; some idle, and others occupied; here one toiled, there
+another sported; and Venice presented, as of wont, its noiseless,
+suspicious, busy, mysterious, and yet stirring throngs, as it had before
+done at a thousand similar risings of the sun.
+
+The menials lingered around the water-gate of Donna Violetta's palace
+with distrustful but cautious faces, scarce whispering among themselves
+their secret suspicions of the fate of their mistress. The residence of
+the Signor Gradenigo presented its usual gloomy magnificence, while the
+abode of Don Camillo Monforte betrayed no sign of the heavy
+disappointment which its master had sustained. The Bella Sorrentina
+still lay in the port, with a yard on deck, while the crew repaired its
+sails in the lazy manner of mariners who work without excitement.
+
+The Lagunes were dotted with the boats of fishermen, and travellers
+arrived and departed from the city by the well known channels of Fusina
+and Mestre. Here, some adventurer from the north quitted the canals on
+his return towards the Alps, carrying with him a pleasing picture of the
+ceremonies he had witnessed, mingled with some crude conjectures of that
+power which predominated in the suspected state; and there, a countryman
+of the Main sought his little farm, satisfied with the pageants and
+regatta of the previous day. In short, all seemed as usual, and the
+events we have related remained a secret with the actors, and that
+mysterious council which had so large a share in their existence.
+
+As the day advanced, many a sail was spread for the pillars of Hercules
+or the genial Levant, and feluccas, mystics, and golettas, went and came
+as the land or sea-breeze prevailed. Still the mariner of Calabria
+lounged beneath the awning which sheltered his deck, or took his siesta
+on a pile of old sails, which were ragged with the force of many a hot
+sirocco. As the sun fell, the gondolas of the great and idle began to
+glide over the water; and when the two squares were cooled by the air of
+the Adriatic, the Broglio began to fill with those privileged to pace
+its vaulted passage. Among these came the Duke of Sant' Agata, who,
+though an alien to the laws of the Republic, being of so illustrious
+descent, and of claims so equitable, was received among the senators, in
+their moments of ease, as a welcome sharer in this vain distinction. He
+entered the Broglio at the wonted hour, and with his usual composure,
+for he trusted to his secret influence at Rome, and something to the
+success of his rivals, for impunity. Reflection had shown Don Camillo
+that, as his plans were known to the council, they would long since have
+arrested him had such been their intention; and it had also led him to
+believe that the most efficient manner of avoiding the personal
+consequences of his adventure was to show confidence in his own power to
+withstand them. When he appeared, therefore, leaning on the arm of a
+high officer of the papal embassy, and with an eye that spoke assurance
+in himself, he was greeted, as usual, by all who knew him, as was due to
+his rank and expectations. Still Don Camillo walked among the patricians
+of the Republic with novel sensations. More than once he thought he
+detected, in the wandering glances of those with whom he conversed,
+signs of their knowledge of his frustrated attempt; and more than once,
+when he least suspected such scrutiny, his countenance was watched, as
+if the observer sought some evidence of his future intentions. Beyond
+this none might have discovered that an heiress of so much importance
+had been so near being lost to the state, or, on the other hand, that a
+bridegroom had been robbed of his bride. Habitual art, on the part of
+the state, and resolute but wary intention, on the part of the young
+noble, concealed all else from observation.
+
+In this manner the day passed, not a tongue in Venice, beyond those
+which whispered in secret, making any allusion to the incidents of our
+tale.
+
+Just as the sun was setting a gondola swept slowly up to the water-gate
+of the ducal palace. The gondolier landed, fastened his boat in the
+usual manner to the stepping-stones, and entered the court. He wore a
+mask, for the hour of disguise had come, and his attire was so like the
+ordinary fashion of men of his class, as to defeat recognition by its
+simplicity. Glancing an eye about him, he entered the building by a
+private door.
+
+The edifice in which the Doges of Venice dwelt still stands a gloomy
+monument of the policy of the Republic, furnishing evidence, in itself,
+of the specious character of the prince whom it held. It is built around
+a vast but gloomy court, as is usual with nearly all of the principal
+edifices of Europe. One of its fronts forms a side of the piazzetta so
+often mentioned, and another lines the quay next the port. The
+architecture of these two exterior faces of the palace renders the
+structure remarkable. A low portico, which forms the Broglio, sustains
+a row of massive oriental windows, and above these again lies a pile of
+masonry, slightly relieved by apertures, which reverses the ordinary
+uses of the art. A third front is nearly concealed by the cathedral of
+St. Mark, and the fourth is washed by its canal. The public prison of
+the city forms the other side of this canal, eloquently proclaiming the
+nature of the government by the close approximation of the powers of
+legislation and of punishment. The famous Bridge of Sighs is the
+material, and we might add the metaphorical, link between the two. The
+latter edifice stands on the quay, also, and though less lofty and
+spacious, in point of architectural beauty it is the superior structure,
+though the quaintness and unusual style of the palace are most apt to
+attract attention.
+
+The masked gondolier soon reappeared beneath the arch of the water-gate,
+and with a hurried step he sought his boat. It required but a minute to
+cross the canal, to land on the opposite quay, and to enter the public
+door of the prison. It would seem that he had some secret means of
+satisfying the vigilance of the different keepers, for bolts were drawn,
+and doors unlocked, with little question, wherever he presented himself.
+In this manner he quickly passed all the outer barriers of the place,
+and reached a part of the building which had the appearance of being
+fitted for the accommodation of a family. Judging from the air of all
+around him, those who dwelt there took the luxury of their abode but
+little into the account, though neither the furniture nor the rooms were
+wanting in most of the necessaries suited to people of their class and
+the climate, and in that age.
+
+The gondolier had ascended a private stairway, and he was now before a
+door which had none of those signs of a prison that so freely abounded
+in other parts of the building. He paused to listen, and then tapped
+with singular caution.
+
+"Who is without?" asked a gentle female voice, at the same instant that
+the latch moved and fell again, as if she within waited to be assured
+of the character of her visitor before she opened the door.
+
+"A friend to thee, Gelsomina," was the answer.
+
+"Nay, here all are friends to the keepers, if words can be believed. You
+must name yourself, or go elsewhere for your answer."
+
+The gondolier removed the mask a little, which had altered his voice as
+well as concealed his face.
+
+"It is I, Gessina," he said, using the diminutive of her name.
+
+The bolts grated, and the door was hurriedly opened.
+
+"It is wonderful that I did not know thee, Carlo!" said the female, with
+eager simplicity; "but thou takest so many disguises of late, and so
+counterfeitest strange voices, that thine own mother might have
+distrusted her ear."
+
+The gondolier paused to make certain they were alone; then laying aside
+the mask altogether, he exposed the features of the Bravo.
+
+"Thou knowest the need of caution," he added, "and wilt not judge me
+harshly."
+
+"I said not that, Carlo--but thy voice is so familiar, that I thought it
+wonderful thou could'st speak as a stranger."
+
+"Hast thou aught for me?"
+
+The gentle girl--for she was both young and gentle--hesitated.
+
+"Hast thou aught new, Gelsomina?" repeated the Bravo, reading her
+innocent face with his searching gaze.
+
+"Thou art fortunate in not being sooner in the prison. I have just had a
+visitor. Thou would'st not have liked to be seen, Carlo!"
+
+"Thou knowest I have good reasons for coming masked. I might, or I might
+not have disliked thy acquaintance, as he should have proved."
+
+"Nay, now thou judgest wrong," returned the female, hastily--"I had no
+other here but my cousin Annina."
+
+"Dost thou think me jealous?" said the Bravo, smiling in kindness, as
+he took her hand. "Had it been thy cousin Pietro, or Michele, or
+Roberto, or any other youth of Venice, I should have no other dread than
+that of being known."
+
+"But it was only Annina--my cousin Annina, whom thou hast never
+seen--and I have no cousins Pietro, and Michele, and Roberto. We are not
+many, Carlo. Annina has a brother, but he never comes hither. Indeed it
+is long since she has found it convenient to quit her trade to come to
+this dreary place. Few children of sisters see each other so seldom as
+Annina and I!"
+
+"Thou art a good girl, Gessina, and art always to be found near thy
+mother. Hast thou naught in particular for my ear?"
+
+Again the soft eyes of Gelsomina, or Gessina, as she was familiarly
+called, dropped to the floor; but raising them ere he could note the
+circumstance, she hurriedly continued the discourse.
+
+"I fear Annina will return, or I would go with thee at once."
+
+"Is this cousin of thine still here, then?" asked the Bravo, with
+uneasiness. "Thou knowest I would not be seen."
+
+"Fear not. She cannot enter without touching that bell; for she is above
+with my poor bed-ridden mother. Thou can'st go into the inner room as
+usual, when she comes, and listen to her idle discourse, if thou wilt;
+or--but we have not time--for Annina comes seldom, and I know not why,
+but she seems to love a sick room little, as she never stays many
+minutes with her aunt."
+
+"Thou would'st have said, or I might go on my errand, Gessina?"
+
+"I would, Carlo, but I am certain we should be recalled by my impatient
+cousin."
+
+"I can wait. I am patient when with thee, dearest Gessina."
+
+"Hist!--'Tis my cousin's step. Thou canst go in."
+
+While she spoke, a small bell rang, and the Bravo withdrew into the
+inner room, like one accustomed to that place of retreat. He left the
+door ajar--for the darkness of the closet sufficiently concealed his
+person. In the meantime Gelsomina opened the outer door for the
+admission of her visitor. At the first sound of the latter's voice,
+Jacopo, who had little suspected the fact from a name which was so
+common, recognised the artful daughter of the wine-seller.
+
+"Thou art at thy ease, here, Gelsomina," cried the latter, entering and
+throwing herself into a seat, like one fatigued. "Thy mother is better,
+and thou art truly mistress of the house."
+
+"I would I were not, Annina; for I am young to have this trust, with
+this affliction."
+
+"It is not so insupportable, Gessina, to be mistress within doors, at
+seventeen! Authority is sweet, and obedience is odious."
+
+"I have found neither so, and I will give up the first with joy,
+whenever my poor mother shall be able to take command of her own family
+again."
+
+"This is well, Gessina, and does credit to the good father confessor.
+But authority is dear to woman, and so is liberty. Thou wast not with
+the maskers yesterday, in the square?"
+
+"I seldom wear a disguise, and I could not quit my mother."
+
+"Which means that thou would'st have been glad to do it. Thou hast a
+good reason for thy regrets, since a gayer marriage of the sea, or a
+braver regatta, has not been witnessed in Venice since thou wast born.
+But the first was to be seen from thy window?"
+
+"I saw the galley of state sweeping towards the Lido, and the train of
+patricians on its deck; but little else."
+
+"No matter. Thou shalt have as good an idea of the pageant as if thou
+had'st played the part of the Doge himself. First came the men of the
+guard with their ancient dresses--"
+
+"Nay, this I remember to have often seen; for the same show is kept from
+year to year."
+
+"Thou art right; but Venice never witnessed such a brave regatta! Thou
+knowest that the first trial is always between gondolas of many oars,
+steered by the best esteemed of the canals. Luigi was there, and though
+he did not win, he more than merited success, by the manner in which he
+directed his boat. Thou knowest Luigi?"
+
+"I scarce know any in Venice, Annina; for the long illness of my mother,
+and this unhappy office of my father, keep me within when others are on
+the canals."
+
+"True. Thou art not well placed to make acquaintances. But Luigi is
+second to no gondolier in skill or reputation, and he is much the
+merriest rogue of them all, that put foot on the Lido."
+
+"He was foremost, then, in the grand race?"
+
+"He should have been, but the awkwardness of his fellows, and some
+unfairness in the crossing, threw him back to be second. 'Twas a sight
+to behold, that of many noble watermen struggling to maintain or to get
+a name on the canals. Santa Maria! I would thou could'st have seen it,
+girl!"
+
+"I should not have been glad to see a friend defeated."
+
+"We must take fortune as it offers. But the most wonderful sight of the
+day, after all, though Luigi and his fellows did so well, was to see a
+poor fisherman, named Antonio, in his bare head and naked legs, a man of
+seventy years, and with a boat no better than that I use to carry
+liquors to the Lido, entering on the second race, and carrying off the
+prize!"
+
+"He could not have met with powerful rivals?"
+
+"The best of Venice; though Luigi, having strived for the first, could
+not enter for the second trial. 'Tis said, too," continued Annina,
+looking about her with habitual caution, "that one, who may scarce be
+named in Venice, had the boldness to appear in that regatta masked; and
+yet the fisherman won! Thou hast heard of Jacopo?"
+
+"The name is common."
+
+"There is but one who bears it now in Venice. All mean the same when
+they say Jacopo."
+
+"I have heard of a monster of that name. Surely he hath not dared to
+show himself among the nobles, on such a festa!"
+
+"Gessina, we live in an unaccountable country! The man walks the piazza
+with a step as lordly as the Doge, at his pleasure, and yet none say
+aught to him! I have seen him, at noonday, leaning against the triumphal
+mast, or the column of San Theodoro, with as proud an air as if he were
+put there to celebrate a victory of the Republic!"
+
+"Perhaps he is master of some terrible secret, which they fear he will
+reveal?"
+
+"Thou knowest little of Venice, child! Holy Maria! a secret of that kind
+is a death-warrant of itself. It is as dangerous to know too much as it
+is to know too little, when one deals with St. Mark. But they say Jacopo
+was there, standing eye to eye with the Doge, and scaring the Senators
+as if he had been an uncalled spectre from the vaults of their fathers.
+Nor is this all; as I crossed the Lagunes this morning, I saw the body
+of a young cavalier drawn from the water, and those who were near it
+said it had the mark of his fatal hand!"
+
+The timid Gelsomina shuddered.
+
+"They who rule," she said, "will have to answer for this negligence to
+God, if they let the wretch longer go at large."
+
+"Blessed St. Mark protect his children! They say there is much of this
+sort of sin to answer for--but see the body I did, with my own eyes, in
+entering the canals this morning."
+
+"And didst thou sleep on the Lido, that thou wert abroad so early?"
+
+"The Lido--yes--nay--I slept not, but thou knowest my father had a busy
+day during the revels, and I am not like thee, Gessina, mistress of the
+household, to do as I would. But I tarry here to chat with thee, when
+there is great need of industry at home. Hast thou the package, child,
+which I trusted to thy keeping at my last visit?"
+
+"It is here," answered Gelsomina, opening a drawer, and handing to her
+cousin a small but closely enveloped package, which, unknown to herself,
+contained some articles of forbidden commerce, and which the other, in
+her indefatigable activity, had been obliged to secrete for a time. "I
+had begun to think that thou hadst forgotten it, and was about to send
+it to thee."
+
+"Gelsomina, if thou lovest me, never do so rash an act! My brother
+Giuseppe--thou scarce knowest Giuseppe?"
+
+"We have little acquaintance, for cousins."
+
+"Thou art fortunate in thy ignorance. I cannot say what I might of the
+child of the same parents, but had Giuseppe seen this package by any
+accident, it might have brought thee into great trouble!"
+
+"Nay, I fear not thy brother, nor any else," said the daughter of the
+prison-keeper, with the firmness of innocence; "he could do me no harm
+for dealing kindly by a relative."
+
+"Thou art right; but he might have caused me great vexation. Sainted
+Maria! if thou knewest the pain that unthinking and misguided boy gives
+his family! He is my brother, after all, and you will fancy the rest.
+Addio, good Gessina; I hope thy father will permit thee to come and
+visit, at last, those who so much love thee."
+
+"Addio, Annina; thou knowest I would come gladly, but that I scarce
+quit the side of my poor mother."
+
+The wily daughter of the wine-seller gave her guileless and unsuspecting
+friend a kiss, and then she was let out and departed.
+
+"Carlo," said the soft voice of Gessina; "thou can'st come forth, for we
+have no further fear of visits."
+
+The Bravo appeared, but with a paleness deeper than common on his cheek.
+He looked mournfully at the gentle and affectionate being who awaited
+his return, and when he struggled to answer her ingenuous smile, the
+abortive effort gave his features an expression of ghastliness.
+
+"Annina has wearied thee with her idle discourse of the regatta, and of
+murders on the canals. Thou wilt not judge her harshly, for the manner
+in which she spoke of Giuseppe, who may deserve this, and more. But I
+know thy impatience, and I will not increase thy weariness."
+
+"Hold, Gessina--this girl is thy cousin?"
+
+"Have I not told thee so? Our mothers are sisters."
+
+"And she is here often?"
+
+"Not as often as she could wish, I am certain, for her aunt has not
+quitted her room for many, many months."
+
+"Thou art an excellent daughter, kind Gessina, and would make all others
+as virtuous as thyself. And thou hast been to return these visits?"
+
+"Never. My father forbids it, for they are dealers in wines, and
+entertain the gondoliers in revelry. But Annina is blameless for the
+trade of her parents."
+
+"No doubt--and that package? it hath been long in thy keeping."
+
+"A month; Annina left it at her last visit, for she was hurried to cross
+to the Lido. But why these questions? You do not like my cousin, who is
+giddy, and given to idle conversation, but who, I think, must have a
+good heart. Thou heard'st the manner in which she spoke of the wretched
+bravo, Jacopo, and of this late murder?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Thou could'st not have shown more horror at the monster's crime
+thyself, Carlo. Nay, Annina is thoughtless, and she might be less
+worldly; but she hath, like all of us, a holy aversion to sin. Shall I
+lead thee to the cell?"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Thy honest nature, Carlo, revolts at the cold villany of the assassin.
+I have heard much of his murders, and of the manner in which those up
+above bear with him. They say, in common, that his art surpasseth
+theirs, and that the officers wait for proof, that they may not do
+injustice."
+
+"Is the Senate so tender, think you?" asked the Bravo, huskily, but
+motioning for his companion to proceed.
+
+The girl looked sad, like one who felt the force of this question; and
+she turned away to open a private door, whence she brought forth a
+little box.
+
+"This is the key, Carlo," she said, showing him one of a massive bunch,
+"and I am now the sole warder. This much, at least, we have effected;
+the day may still come when we shall do more."
+
+The Bravo endeavored to smile, as if he appreciated her kindness; but he
+only succeeded in making her understand his desire to go on. The eye of
+the gentle-hearted girl lost its gleam of hope in an expression of
+sorrow, and she obeyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  "But let us to the roof,
+  And, when thou hast surveyed the sea, the land,
+  Visit the narrow cells that cluster there,
+  As in a place of tombs."
+                           ST. MARK'S PLACE.
+
+
+We shall not attempt to thread the vaulted galleries, the gloomy
+corridors, and all the apartments, through which the keeper's daughter
+led her companion. Those who have ever entered an extensive prison, will
+require no description to revive the feeling of pain which it excited,
+by barred windows, creaking hinges, grating bolts, and all those other
+signs, which are alike the means and evidence of incarceration. The
+building, unhappily like most other edifices intended to repress the
+vices of society, was vast, strong, and intricate within, although, as
+has been already intimated, of a chaste and simple beauty externally,
+that might seem to have been adopted in mockery of its destination.
+
+Gelsomina entered a low, narrow, and glazed gallery, when she stopped.
+
+"Thou soughtest me, as wont, beneath the water-gate, Carlo," she asked,
+"at the usual hour?"
+
+"I should not have entered the prison had I found thee there, for thou
+knowest I would be little seen. But I bethought me of thy mother, and
+crossed the canal."
+
+"Thou wast wrong. My mother rests much as she has done for many
+months--thou must have seen that we are not taking the usual route to
+the cell?"
+
+"I have; but as we are not accustomed to meet in thy father's rooms, on
+this errand, I thought this the necessary direction."
+
+"Hast thou much knowledge of the palace and the prison, Carlo?"
+
+"More than I could wish, good Gelsomina; but why am I thus questioned,
+at a moment when I would be otherwise employed?"
+
+The timid and conscious girl did not answer. Her cheek was never bright,
+for, like a flower reared in the shade, it had the delicate hue of her
+secluded life; but at this question it became pale. Accustomed to the
+ingenuous habits of the sensitive being at his side, the Bravo studied
+her speaking features intently. He moved swiftly to a window, and
+looking out, his eye fell upon a narrow and gloomy canal. Crossing the
+gallery, he cast a glance beneath him, and saw the same dark watery
+passage, leading between the masonry of two massive piles to the quay
+and the port.
+
+"Gelsomina!" he cried, recoiling from the sight, "this is the Bridge of
+Sighs!"
+
+"It is, Carlo; hast thou ever crossed it before?"
+
+"Never: nor do I understand why I cross it now. I have long thought that
+it might one day be my fortune to walk this fatal passage, but I could
+not dream of such a keeper!"
+
+The eye of Gelsomina brightened, and her smile was cheerful.
+
+"Thou wilt never cross it to thy harm with me."
+
+"Of that I am certain, kind Gessina," he answered, taking her hand. "But
+this is a riddle that I cannot explain. Art thou in the habit of
+entering the palace by this gallery?"
+
+"It is little used, except by the keepers and the condemned, as
+doubtless thou hast often heard; but yet they have given me the keys,
+and taught me the windings of the place, in order that I might serve, as
+usual, for thy guide."
+
+"Gelsomina, I fear I have been too happy in thy company to note, as
+prudence would have told me, the rare kindness of the council in
+permitting me to enjoy it!"
+
+"Dost thou repent, Carlo, that thou hast known me?"
+
+The reproachful melancholy of her voice touched the Bravo, who kissed
+the hand he held with Italian fervor.
+
+"I should then repent me of the only hours of happiness I have known for
+years," he said. "Thou hast been to me, Gelsomina, like a flower in a
+desert--a pure spring to a feverish man--a gleam of hope to one
+suffering under malediction. No, no, not for a moment have I repented
+knowing thee, my Gelsomina!"
+
+"'Twould not have made my life more happy, Carlo, to have thought I had
+added to thy sorrows. I am young, and ignorant of the world, but I know
+we should cause joy, and not pain, to those we esteem."
+
+"Thy nature would teach thee this gentle lesson. But is it not strange
+that one like me should be suffered to visit the prison unattended by
+any other keeper?"
+
+"I had not thought it so, Carlo; but surely, it is not common!"
+
+"We have found so much pleasure in each other, dear Gessina, that we
+have overlooked what ought to have caused alarm."
+
+"Alarm, Carlo!"
+
+"Or, at least, distrust; for these wily senators do no act of mercy
+without a motive. But it is now too late to recall the past if we would;
+and in that which relates to thee I would not lose the memory of a
+moment. Let us proceed."
+
+The slight cloud vanished from the face of the mild auditor of the
+Bravo; but still she did not move.
+
+"Few pass this bridge, they say," she added tremulously, "and enter the
+world again; and yet thou dost not even ask why we are here, Carlo!"
+
+There was a transient gleam of distrust in the hasty glance of the
+Bravo, as he shot a look at the undisturbed eye of the innocent being
+who put this question. But it scarcely remained long enough to change
+the expression of manly interest she was accustomed to meet in his look.
+
+"Since thou wilt have me curious," he said, "why hast thou come hither,
+and more than all, being here, why dost thou linger?"
+
+"The season is advanced, Carlo," she answered, speaking scarcely above
+her breath, "and we should look in vain among the cells."
+
+"I understand thee," he said; "we will proceed."
+
+Gelsomina lingered to gaze wistfully into the face of her companion, but
+finding no visible sign of the agony he endured she went on. Jacopo
+spoke hoarsely, but he was too long accustomed to disguise to permit the
+weakness to escape, when he knew how much it would pain the sensitive
+and faithful being who had yielded her affections to him with a
+singleness and devotion which arose nearly as much from her manner of
+life as from natural ingenuousness.
+
+In order that the reader may be enabled to understand the allusions,
+which seem to be so plain to our lovers, it may be necessary to explain
+another odious feature in the policy of the Republic of Venice.
+
+Whatever may be the pretension of a state, in its acknowledged theories,
+an unerring clue to its true character is ever to be found in the
+machinery of its practice. In those governments which are created for
+the good of the people, force is applied with caution and reluctance,
+since the protection and not the injury of the weak is their object:
+whereas the more selfish and exclusive the system becomes, the more
+severe and ruthless are the coercive means employed by those in power.
+Thus in Venice, whose whole political fabric reposed on the narrow
+foundation of an oligarchy, the jealousy of the Senate brought the
+engines of despotism in absolute contact with even the pageantry of
+their titular prince, and the palace of the Doge himself was polluted by
+the presence of the dungeons. The princely edifice had its summer and
+winter cells. The reader may be ready to believe that mercy had dictated
+some slight solace for the miserable in this arrangement. But this would
+be ascribing pity to a body which, to its latest moment, had no tie to
+subject it to the weakness of humanity. So far from consulting the
+sufferings of the captive, his winter cell was below the level of the
+canals, while his summers were to be passed beneath the leads exposed to
+the action of the burning sun of that climate. As the reader has
+probably anticipated already, that Jacopo was in the prison on an errand
+connected with some captive, this short explanation will enable him to
+understand the secret allusion of his companion. He they sought had, in
+truth, been recently conveyed from the damp cells where he had passed
+the winter and spring, to the heated chambers beneath the roof.
+
+Gelsomina continued to lead the way with a sadness of eye and feature
+that betrayed her strong sympathy with the sufferings of her companion,
+but without appearing to think further delay necessary. She had
+communicated a circumstance which weighed heavily on her own mind, and,
+like most of her mild temperament, who had dreaded such a duty, now that
+it was discharged she experienced a sensible relief. They ascended many
+flights of steps, opened and shut numberless doors, and threaded several
+narrow corridors in silence, before reaching the place of destination.
+While Gelsomina sought the key of the door before which they stopped, in
+the large bunch she carried, the Bravo breathed the hot air of the attic
+like one who was suffocating.
+
+"They promised me that this should not be done again!" he said. "But
+they forget their pledges, fiends as they are!"
+
+"Carlo! thou forgettest that this is the palace of the Doge!" whispered
+the girl, while she threw a timid glance behind her.
+
+"I forget nothing that is connected with the Republic! It is all here,"
+striking his flushed brow--"what is not there, is in my heart!"
+
+"Poor Carlo! this cannot last for ever--there will be an end!"
+
+"Thou art right," answered the Bravo hoarsely. "The end is nearer than
+thou thinkest. No matter; turn the key, that we may go in."
+
+The hand of Gelsomina lingered on the lock, but admonished by his
+impatient eye, she complied, and they entered the cell.
+
+"Father!" exclaimed the Bravo, hastening to the side of a pallet that
+lay on the floor.
+
+The attenuated and feeble form of an old man rose at the word, and an
+eye which, while it spoke mental feebleness, was at that moment even
+brighter than that of his son, glared on the faces of Gelsomina and her
+companion.
+
+"Thou hast not suffered, as I had feared, by this sudden change,
+father!" continued the latter, kneeling by the side of the straw. "Thine
+eye, and cheek, and countenance are better, than in the damp caves
+below!"
+
+"I am happy here," returned the prisoner; "there is light, and though
+they have given me too much of it, thou canst never know, my boy, the
+joy of looking at the day, after so long a night."
+
+"He is better, Gelsomina. They have not yet destroyed him. See! his eye
+is bright even, and his cheek has a glow!"
+
+"They are ever so, after passing the winter in the lower dungeons,"
+whispered the gentle girl.
+
+"Hast thou news for me, boy? What tidings from thy mother?"
+
+Jacopo bowed his head to conceal the anguish occasioned by this
+question, which he now heard for the hundredth time.
+
+"She is happy, father--happy as one can be, who so well loves thee, when
+away from thy side."
+
+"Does she speak of me often?"
+
+"The last word that I heard from her lips, was thy name."
+
+"Holy Maria bless her! I trust she remembers me in her prayers?"
+
+"Doubt it not, father, they are the prayers of an angel!"
+
+"And thy patient sister? thou hast not named her, son."
+
+"She, too, is well, father."
+
+"Has she ceased to blame herself for being the innocent cause of my
+sufferings?"
+
+"She has."
+
+"Then she pines no longer over a blow that cannot be helped."
+
+The Bravo seemed to search for relief in the sympathizing eye of the
+pale and speechless Gelsomina.
+
+"She has ceased to pine, father," he uttered with compelled calmness.
+
+"Thou hast ever loved thy sister, boy, with manly tenderness. Thy heart
+is kind, as I have reason to know. If God has given me grief, he has
+blessed me in my children!"
+
+A long pause followed, during which the parent seemed to muse on the
+past, while the child rejoiced in the suspension of questions which
+harrowed his soul, since those of whom the other spoke had long been the
+victims of family misfortune. The old man, for the prisoner was aged as
+well as feeble, turned his look on the still kneeling Bravo,
+thoughtfully, and continued.
+
+"There is little hope of thy sister marrying, for none are fond of tying
+themselves to the proscribed."
+
+"She wishes it not--she wishes it not--she is happy, with my mother!"
+
+"It is a happiness the Republic will not begrudge. Is there no hope of
+our being able to meet soon?"
+
+"Thou wilt meet my mother--yes, that pleasure will come at last!"
+
+"It is a weary time since any of my blood, but thee, have stood in my
+sight. Kneel, that I may bless thee."
+
+Jacopo, who had risen under his mental torture, obeyed, and bowed his
+head in reverence to receive the paternal benediction. The lips of the
+old man moved, and his eyes were turned to Heaven, but his language was
+of the heart, rather than that of the tongue. Gelsomina bent her head to
+her bosom, and seemed to unite her prayers to those of the prisoner.
+When the silent but solemn ceremony was ended, each made the customary
+sign of the cross, and Jacopo kissed the wrinkled hand of the captive.
+
+"Hast thou hope for me?" the old man asked, this pious and grateful duty
+done. "Do they still promise to let me look upon the sun again?"
+
+"They do. They promise fair."
+
+"Would that their words were true! I have lived on hope for a weary
+time--I have now been within these walls more than four years,
+methinks."
+
+Jacopo did not answer, for he knew that his father named the period only
+that he himself had been permitted to see him.
+
+"I built upon the expectation that the Doge would remember his ancient
+servant, and open my prison-doors."
+
+Still Jacopo was silent, for the Doge, of whom the other spoke, had long
+been dead.
+
+"And yet I should be grateful, for Maria and the saints have not
+forgotten me. I am not without my pleasures in captivity."
+
+"God be praised!" returned the Bravo. "In what manner dost thou ease thy
+sorrows, father?"
+
+"Look hither, boy," exclaimed the old man, whose eye betrayed a mixture
+of feverish excitement, caused by the recent change in his prison, and
+the growing imbecility of a mind that was gradually losing its powers
+for want of use; "dost thou see the rent in that bit of wood? It opens
+with the heat, from time to time, and since I have been an inhabitant
+here, that fissure has doubled in length--I sometimes fancy, that when
+it reaches the knot, the hearts of the senators will soften, and that my
+doors will open. There is a satisfaction in watching its increase, as it
+lengthens, inch by inch, year after year!"
+
+"Is this all?"
+
+"Nay, I have other pleasures. There was a spider the past year, that
+wove his web from yonder beam, and he was a companion, too, that I loved
+to see; wilt thou look, boy, if there is hope of his coming back?"
+
+"I see him not," whispered the Bravo.
+
+"Well, there is always the hope of his return. The flies will enter
+soon, and then he will be looking for his prey. They may shut me up on a
+false charge, and keep me weary years from my wife and daughter, but
+they cannot rob me of all my happiness!"
+
+The aged captive was mute and thoughtful. A childish impatience glowed
+in his eye, and he gazed from the rent, the companion of so many
+solitary summers, to the face of his son, like one who began to distrust
+his enjoyments.
+
+"Well, let them take it away," he said, burying his head beneath the
+covering of his bed: "I will not curse them!"
+
+"Father!"
+
+The prisoner made no reply.
+
+"Father!"
+
+"Jacopo!"
+
+In his turn the Bravo was speechless. He did not venture, even, to steal
+a glance towards the breathless and attentive Gelsomina, though his
+bosom heaved with longing to examine her guileless features.
+
+"Dost thou hear me, son?" continued the prisoner, uncovering his head:
+"dost thou really think they will have the heart to chase the spider
+from my cell?"
+
+"They will leave thee this pleasure, father, for it touches neither
+their power nor their fame. So long as the Senate can keep its foot on
+the neck of the people, and so long as it can keep the seemliness of a
+good name, it will not envy thee this."
+
+"Blessed Maria make me thankful!--I had my fears, child; for it is not
+pleasant to lose any friend in a cell!"
+
+Jacopo then proceeded to soothe the mind of the prisoner, and he
+gradually led his thoughts to other subjects. He laid by the bed-side a
+few articles of food, that he was allowed to bring with him, and again
+holding out the hope of eventual liberation, he proposed to take his
+leave.
+
+"I will try to believe thee, son," said the old man, who had good reason
+to distrust assurances so often made. "I will do all I can to believe
+it. Thou wilt tell thy mother, that I never cease to think of her, and
+to pray for her; and thou wilt bless thy sister, in the name of her poor
+imprisoned parent."
+
+The Bravo bowed in acquiescence, glad of any means to escape speech. At
+a sign from the old man he again bent his knee, and received the parting
+benediction. After busying himself in arranging the scanty furniture of
+the cell, and in trying to open one or two small fissures, with a view
+to admit more light and air, he quitted the place.
+
+Neither Gelsomina nor Jacopo spoke, as they returned by the intricate
+passages through which they had ascended to the attic, until they were
+again on the Bridge of Sighs. It was seldom that human foot trod this
+gallery, and the former, with female quickness, selected it as a place
+suited to their further conference.
+
+"Dost thou find him changed?" she asked, lingering on the arch.
+
+"Much."
+
+"Thou speakest with a frightful meaning!"
+
+"I have not taught my countenance to lie to thee, Gelsomina."
+
+"But there is hope.--- Thou told'st him there was hope, thyself."
+
+"Blessed Maria forgive the fraud! I could not rob the little life he has
+of its only comfort."
+
+"Carlo!--Carlo!--Why art thou so calm? I have never heard thee speak so
+calmly of thy father's wrongs and imprisonment."
+
+"It is because his liberation is near."
+
+"But this moment he was without hope, and thou speakest now of
+liberation!"
+
+"The liberation of death. Even the anger of the Senate will respect the
+grave."
+
+"Dost thou think his end near? I had not seen this change."
+
+"Thou art kind, good Gelsomina, and true to thy friends, and without
+suspicion of those crimes of which thou art so innocent: but to one who
+has seen as much evil as I, a jealous thought comes at every new event.
+The sufferings of my poor father are near their end, for nature is worn
+out; but were it not, I can foresee that means would be found to bring
+them to a close."
+
+"Thou can'st not suspect that any here would do him harm!"
+
+"I suspect none that belong to thee. Both thy father and thyself,
+Gelsomina, are placed here by the interposition of the saints, that the
+fiends should not have too much power on earth."
+
+"I do not understand thee, Carlo--but thou art often so.--Thy father
+used a word to-day that I could wish he had not, in speaking to thee."
+
+The eye of the Bravo threw a quick, uneasy, suspicious glance at his
+companion, and then averted its look with haste.
+
+"He called thee Jacopo!" continued the girl.
+
+"Men often have glimpses of their fate, by the kindness of their
+patrons."
+
+"Would'st thou say, Carlo, that thy father suspects the senate will
+employ the monster he named?"
+
+"Why not?--they have employed worse men. If report says true, he is not
+unknown to them."
+
+"Can this be so!--Thou art bitter against the Republic, because it has
+done injury to thy family; but thou canst not believe it has ever dealt
+with the hired stiletto."
+
+"I said no more than is whispered daily on the canals."
+
+"I would thy father had not called thee by this terrible name, Carlo!"
+
+"Thou art too wise to be moved by a word, Gelsomina. But what thinkest
+thou of my unhappy father?"
+
+"This visit has not been like the others thou hast made him in my
+company. I know not the reason, but to me thou hast ever seemed to feel
+the hope with which thou hast cheered the prisoner; while now, thou
+seemest to have even a frightful pleasure in despair."
+
+"Thy fears deceive thee," returned the Bravo, scarce speaking above his
+breath. "Thy fears deceive thee, and we will say no more. The senate
+mean to do us justice, at last. They are honorable Signori, of
+illustrious birth, and renowned names! 'Twould be madness to distrust
+the patricians! Dost thou not know, girl, that he who is born of gentle
+blood is above the weaknesses and temptations that beset us of base
+origin! They are men placed by birth above the weaknesses of mortals,
+and owing their account to none, they will be sure to do justice. This
+is reasonable, and who can doubt it!"
+
+As he ended, the Bravo laughed bitterly.
+
+"Nay, now thou triflest with me, Carlo; none are above the danger of
+doing wrong, but those whom the saints and kind Maria favor."
+
+"This comes of living in a prison, and of saying thy prayers night and
+morning! No--no--silly girl, there are men in the world born wise, from
+generation to generation; born honest, virtuous, brave, incorruptible,
+and fit in all things to shut up and imprison those who are born base
+and ignoble. Where hast thou passed thy days, foolish Gelsomina, not to
+have felt this truth in the very air thou breathest? 'Tis clear as the
+sun's light, and palpable--aye--palpable as these prison walls!"
+
+The timid girl recoiled from his side, and there was a moment when she
+meditated flight; for never before, during their numberless and
+confidential interviews, had she ever heard so bitter a laugh, or seen
+so wild a gleam in the eye of her companion.
+
+"I could almost fancy, Carlo, that my father was right in using the name
+he did," she said, as, recovering herself, she turned a reproachful look
+on his still excited features.
+
+"It is the business of parents to name their children;--but enough. I
+must leave thee, good Gelsomina, and I leave thee with a heavy heart."
+
+The unsuspecting Gelsomina forgot her alarm. She knew not why, but,
+though the imaginary Carlo seldom quitted her that she was not sad, she
+felt a weight heavier than common on her spirits at this declaration.
+
+"Thou hast thy affairs, and they must not be forgotten. Art fortunate
+with the gondola of late, Carlo?"
+
+"Gold and I are nearly strangers. The Republic throws the whole charge
+of the venerable prisoner on my toil."
+
+"I have little, as thou knowest, Carlo," said Gelsomina in a
+half-audible voice; "but it is thine. My father is not rich, as thou
+can'st feel, or he would not live on the sufferings of others, by
+holding the keys of the prison."
+
+"He is better employed than those who set the duty. Were the choice
+given me, girl, to wear the horned bonnet, to feast in their halls, to
+rest in their palaces, to be the gayest bauble in such a pageant as that
+of yesterday, to plot in their secret councils, and to be the heartless
+judge to condemn my fellows to this misery--or to be merely the keeper
+of the keys and turner of the bolts--I should seize on the latter
+office, as not only the most innocent, but by far the most honorable!"
+
+"Thou dost not judge as the world judges, Carlo. I had feared thou
+might'st feel shame at being the husband of a jailor's daughter; nay, I
+will not hide the secret longer, since thou speakest so calmly, I have
+wept that it should be so."
+
+"Then thou hast neither understood the world nor me. Were thy father of
+the Senate, or of the Council of Three, could the grievous fact be
+known, thou would'st have cause to sorrow. But, Gelsomina, the canals
+are getting dusky, and I must leave thee."
+
+The reluctant girl saw the truth of what he said, and applying a key,
+she opened the door of the covered bridge. A few turnings and a short
+descent brought the Bravo and his companion to the level of the quays.
+Here the former took a hurried leave and quitted the prison.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+  "But they who blunder thus are raw beginners."
+                              DON JUAN.
+
+
+The hour had come for the revels of the Piazza, and for the movement of
+the gondolas. Maskers glided along the porticoes as usual; the song and
+cry were heard anew, and Venice was again absorbed in delusive gaiety.
+
+When Jacopo issued from the prison on the quay, he mingled with the
+stream of human beings that was setting towards the squares, protected
+from observation by the privileged mask. While crossing the lower bridge
+of the canal of St. Mark, he lingered an instant, to throw a look at the
+glazed gallery he had just quitted, and then moved forward with the
+crowd--the image of the artless and confiding Gelsomina uppermost in his
+thoughts. As he passed slowly along the gloomy arches of the Broglio,
+his eye sought the person of Don Camillo Monforte. They met at the angle
+of the little square, and exchanging secret signs, the Bravo moved on
+unnoticed.
+
+Hundreds of boats lay at the foot of the Piazzetta. Among these Jacopo
+sought his own gondola, which he extricated from the floating mass, and
+urged into the stream. A few sweeps of the oar, and he lay at the side
+of La Bella Sorrentina. The padrone paced the deck, enjoying the cool of
+the evening with Italian indolence, while his people, grouped on the
+forecastle, sang, or rather chanted, a song of those seas. The greetings
+were blunt and brief, as is usual among men of that class. But the
+padrone appeared to expect the visit, for he led his guest far from the
+ears of his crew, to the other extremity of the felucca.
+
+"Hast thou aught in particular, good Roderigo?" demanded the mariner,
+who knew the Bravo by a sign, and yet who only knew him by that
+fictitious name. "Thou seest we have not passed the time idly, though
+yesterday was a festa."
+
+"Art thou ready for the gulf?"
+
+"For the Levant, or the pillars of Hercules, as shall please the Senate.
+We have got our yard aloft since the sun went behind the mountains, and
+though we may seem careless of delay, an hour's notice will fit us for
+the outside of the Lido."
+
+"Then take the notice."
+
+"Master Roderigo, you bring your news to an overstocked market. I have
+already been informed that we shall be wanted to-night."
+
+The quick movement of suspicion made by the Bravo escaped the
+observation of the padrone, whose eye was running over the felucca's
+gear, with a sailor's habitual attention to that part of his vessel,
+when there was question of its service.
+
+"Thou art right, Stefano. But there is little harm in repeated caution.
+Preparation is the first duty in a delicate commission."'
+
+"Will you look for yourself, Signor Roderigo?" said the mariner, in a
+lower tone. "La Bella Sorrentina is not the Bucentaur, nor a galley of
+the Grand Master of Malta; but, for her size, better rooms are not to be
+had in the palace of the Doge. When they told me there was a lady in the
+freight, the honor of Calabria was stirred in her behalf."
+
+"'Tis well. If they have named to thee all the particulars, thou wilt
+not fail to do thyself credit."
+
+"I do not say that they have shown me half of them, good Signore,"
+interrupted Stefano. "The secresy of your Venetian shipments is my
+greatest objection to the trade. It has more than once happened to me,
+that I have lain weeks in the canals, with my hold as clean as a
+friar's conscience, when orders have come to weigh, with some such cargo
+as a messenger, who has got into his berth as we cleared the port, to
+get out of it on the coast of Dalmatia, or among the Greek islands."
+
+"In such cases thou hast earned thy money easily."
+
+"Diamine! Master Roderigo, if I had a friend in Venice to give timely
+advice, the felucca might be ballasted with articles that would bring a
+profit on the other shore. Of what concern is it to the Senate, when I
+do my duty to the nobles faithfully, that I do my duty at the same time
+to the good woman and her little brown children left at home in
+Calabria?"
+
+"There is much reason in what thou sayest, Stefano; but thou knowest the
+Republic is a hard master. An affair of this nature must be touched with
+a gentle hand."
+
+"None know it better than I, for when they sent the trader with all his
+movables out of the city, I was obliged to throw certain casks into the
+sea, to make room for his worthless stuffs. The Senate owes me just
+compensation for that loss, worthy Signor Roderigo!"
+
+"Which thou would'st be glad to repair to-night?"
+
+"Santissima Maria! You may be the Doge himself, Signore, for anything I
+know of your countenance; but I could swear at the altar you ought to be
+of the Senate for your sagacity! If this lady will not be burdened with
+many effects, and there is yet time, I might humor the tastes of the
+Dalmatians with certain of the articles that come from the countries
+beyond the pillars of Hercules!"
+
+"Thou art the judge of the probability thyself, since they told thee of
+the nature of thy errand."
+
+"San Gennaro of Napoli open my eyes!--They said not a word beyond this
+little fact, that a youthful lady, in whom the Senate had great
+interest, would quit the city this night for the eastern coast. If it is
+at all agreeable to your conscience, Master Roderigo, I should be happy
+to hear who are to be her companions?"
+
+"Of that thou shalt hear more in proper season. In the meantime, I would
+recommend to thee a cautious tongue, for St. Mark makes no idle jokes
+with those who offend him. I am glad to see thee in this state of
+preparation, worthy padrone, and wishing thee a happy night, and a
+prosperous voyage, I commit thee to thy patron. But hold--ere I quit
+thee, I would know the hour that the land-breeze will serve?"
+
+"You are exact as a compass in your own matters, Signore, but of little
+charity to thy friends! With the burning sun of to-day we should have
+the air of the Alps about the turn of the night."
+
+"'Tis well. My eye shall be on thee. Once more, addio!"
+
+"Cospetto! and thou hast said nothing of the cargo?"
+
+"'Twill not be so weighty in bulk as in value," carelessly answered
+Jacopo, shoving his gondola from the side of the felucca. The fall of
+his oar into the water succeeded, and as Stefano stood, meditating the
+chances of his speculation on his deck, the boat glided away towards the
+quay with a swift but easy movement.
+
+Deceit, like the windings of that subtle animal the fox, often crosses
+its own path. It consequently throws out those by whom it is practised,
+as well as those who art meant to be its victims. When Jacopo parted
+from Don Camillo, it was with an understanding that he should adopt all
+the means that his native sagacity or his experience might suggest, to
+ascertain in what manner the council intended to dispose of the person
+of Donna Yioletta. They had separated on the Lido, and as none knew of
+their interview but him, and none would probably suspect their recent
+alliance, the Bravo entered on his new duty with some chances of
+success, that might otherwise have been lost. A change of its agents, in
+affairs of peculiar delicacy, was one of the ordinary means taken by the
+Republic to avoid investigation. Jacopo had often been its instrument
+in negotiating with the mariner, who, as has been so plainly intimated,
+had frequently been engaged in carrying into effect its secret, and
+perhaps justifiable measures of police; but in no instance had it ever
+been found necessary to interpose a second agent between the
+commencement and the consummation of its bargains, except in this. He
+had been ordered to see the padrone, and to keep him in preparation for
+immediate service; but since the examination of Antonio before the
+council, his employers had neglected to give him any further
+instructions. The danger of leaving the bride within reach of the agents
+of Don Camillo was so obvious, that this unusual caution had been
+considered necessary. It was under this disadvantage, therefore, that
+Jacopo entered on the discharge of his new and important duties.
+
+That cunning, as has just been observed, is apt to overreach itself, has
+passed into a proverb; and the case of Jacopo and his employers was one
+in point to prove its truth. The unusual silence of those who ordinarily
+sought him on similar occasions, had not been lost on the agent; and the
+sight of the felucca, as he strayed along the quays, gave an accidental
+direction to his inquiries. The manner in which they were aided by the
+cupidity of the Calabrian, has just been related.
+
+Jacopo had no sooner touched the quay and secured his boat, than he
+hastened again to the Broglio. It was now filled by maskers and the
+idlers of the Piazzetta. The patricians had withdrawn to the scenes of
+their own pleasures, or, in furtherance of that system of mysterious
+sway which it was their policy to maintain, they did not choose to
+remain exposed to the common eye, during the hours of license which were
+about to follow.
+
+It would seem that Jacopo had his instructions, for no sooner did he
+make sure that Don Camillo had retired, than he threaded the throng with
+the air of a man whose course was decided. By this time, both the
+squares were full, and at least half of those who spent the night in
+those places of amusement, were masked. The step of the Bravo, though so
+unhesitating, was leisurely, and he found time, in passing up the
+Piazzetta, to examine the forms, and, when circumstances permitted, the
+features of all he met. He proceeded, in this manner, to the point of
+junction between the two squares, when his elbow was touched by a light
+hand.
+
+Jacopo was not accustomed, unnecessarily, to trust his voice in the
+square of St. Mark, and at that hour. But his look of inquiry was
+returned by a sign to follow. He had been stopped by one whose figure
+was so completely concealed by a domino, as to baffle all conjecture
+concerning his true character. Perceiving, however, that the other
+wished to lead him to a part of the square that was vacant, and which
+was directly on the course he was about to pursue, the Bravo made a
+gesture of compliance and followed. No sooner were the two apart from
+the pressure of the crowd, and in a place where no eaves-dropper could
+overhear their discourse without detection, than the stranger stopped.
+He appeared to examine the person, stature, and dress of Jacopo, from
+beneath his mask, with singular caution, closing the whole with a sign
+that meant recognition. Jacopo returned his dumb show, but maintained a
+rigid silence.
+
+"Just Daniel!" muttered the stranger, when he found that his companion
+was not disposed to speak; "one would think, illustrious Signore, that
+your confessor had imposed a penance of silence, by the manner in which
+you refuse to speak to your servant."
+
+"What would'st thou?"
+
+"Here am I, sent into the piazza, among knights of industry, valets,
+gondoliers, and all other manner of revellers that adorn this Christian
+land, in search of the heir of one of the most ancient and honorable
+houses of Venice."
+
+"How knowest thou I am he thou seekest?"
+
+"Signore, there are many signs seen by a wise man, that escape the
+unobservant. When young cavaliers have a taste for mingling with the
+people in honorable disguise, as in the case of a certain patrician of
+this Republic, they are to be known by their air, if not by their
+voices."
+
+"Thou art a cunning agent, Hosea; but the shrewdness of thy race is its
+livelihood!"
+
+"It is its sole defence against the wrongs of the oppressor, young
+noble. We are hunted like wolves, and it is not surprising that we
+sometimes show the ferocity of the beasts yon take us for. But why
+should I tell the wrongs of my people to one who believes life is a
+masquerade!"
+
+"And who would not be sorry, ingenious Hosea, were it composed only of
+Hebrews! But thy errand; I have no gage unredeemed, nor do I know that I
+owe thee gold."
+
+"Righteous Samuel! your cavaliers of the Senate are not always mindful
+of the past, Signore, or these are words that might have been spared. If
+your excellency is inclined to forget pledges, the fault is not of my
+seeking; but as for the account that has been so long growing between
+us, there is not a dealer on the Rialto that will dispute the proofs."
+
+"Well, be it so--would'st thou dun my father's son in the face of the
+revellers in St. Mark?"
+
+"I would do no discredit to any come of that illustrious race, Signore,
+and therefore we will say no more of the matter; always relying that, at
+the proper moment, you will not question your own hand and seal."
+
+"I like thy prudence, Hebrew. It is a pledge thou comest on some errand
+less ungracious than common. As I am pressed for time, 'twill be a favor
+wert thou to name it."
+
+Hosea examined, in a covert but very thorough manner, the vacant spot
+around them, and drawing nearer to the supposed noble, he continued:
+
+"Signore, your family is in danger of meeting with a great loss! It is
+known to you that the Senate has altogether and suddenly removed Donna
+Violetta from the keeping of the faithful and illustrious senator your
+father."
+
+Though Jacopo started slightly, the movement was so natural for a
+disappointed lover, that it rather aided than endangered his disguise.
+
+"Compose yourself, young Signore," continued Hosea; "these
+disappointments attend us all in youth, as I know by severe trials. Leah
+was not gained without trouble, and next to success in barter, success
+in love is perhaps the most uncertain. Gold is a great make-weight in
+both, and it commonly prevails. But you are nearer to losing the lady of
+your love and her possessions than you may imagine, for I am sent
+expressly to say that she is about to be removed from the city."
+
+"Whither?" demanded Jacopo, so quickly as to do credit to his assumed
+character.
+
+"That is the point to learn, Signore. Thy father is a sagacious senator,
+and is deep at times in the secrets of the State. But judging from his
+uncertainty on this occasion, I think he is guided more by his
+calculations than by any assurance of his own knowledge. Just Daniel! I
+have seen the moments when I have suspected that the venerable patrician
+himself was a member of the Council of Three!"
+
+"His house is ancient and his privileges well established--why should he
+not?"
+
+"I say naught against it, Signore. It is a wise body, that doeth much
+good, and preventeth much harm. None speak evil of the secret councils
+on the Rialto, where men are more given to gainful industry that to wild
+discussions of their rulers' acts. But, Signore, be he of this or that
+council, or merely of the Senate, a heedful hint has fallen from his
+lips of the danger we are in of losing--"
+
+"We!--Hast thou thoughts of Donna Violetta, Hosea?"
+
+"Leah and the law forbid!--If the comely queen of Sheba herself were to
+tempt me, and a frail nature showed signs of weakness, I doubt that our
+rabbis would find reasons for teaching self-denial! Besides, the
+daughter of Levi is no favorer of polygamy, nor any other of our sex's
+privileges. I spoke in pluralities, Signore, because the Rialto has some
+stake in this marriage as well as the house of Gradenigo."
+
+"I understand thee. Thou hast fears for thy gold?"
+
+"Had I been easily alarmed, Signor Giacomo, in that particular, I might
+not have parted with it so readily. But, though the succession of thy
+illustrious father will be ample to meet any loan within my humble
+means, that of the late Signor Tiepolo will not weaken the security."
+
+"I admit thy sagacity, and feel the importance of thy warning. But it
+seems to have no other object or warranty than thy own fears."
+
+"With certain obscure hints from your honored father, Signore?"
+
+"Did he say more to the point?"
+
+"He spoke in parables, young noble, but having an oriental ear his words
+were not uttered to the wind. That the rich damsel is about to be
+conveyed from Venice am I certain, and for the benefit of the little
+stake I have myself in her movements, I would give the best turquoise in
+my shop to know whither."
+
+"Canst thou say with certainty, 'twill be this night?"
+
+"Giving no pledge for redemption in the event of mistake, I am so sure,
+young cavalier, as to have many unquiet thoughts."
+
+"Enough--I will look to my own interests and to thine."
+
+Jacopo waved his hand in adieu, and pursued his walk up the piazza.
+
+"Had I looked more sharply to the latter, as became one accustomed to
+deal with the accursed race," muttered the Hebrew, "it would be a
+matter of no concern to me if the girl married a Turk!"
+
+"Hosea," said a mask at his ear; "a word with thee in secret."
+
+The jeweller started, and found that in his zeal he had suffered one to
+approach within sound of his voice unseen. The other was in a domino
+also, and so well enveloped as to be effectually concealed.
+
+"What would'st thou, Signor Mask?" demanded the wary Jew.
+
+"A word in friendship and in confidence.--Thou hast moneys to lend at
+usury?"
+
+"The question had better be put to the Republic's treasury! I have many
+stones valued much below their weight, and would be glad to put them
+with some one more lucky than myself who will be able to keep them."
+
+"Nay, this will not suffice--thou art known to be abounding in sequins;
+one of thy race and riches will never refuse a sure loan with securities
+as certain as the laws of Venice. A thousand ducats in thy willing hand
+is no novelty"
+
+"They who call me rich, Signor Mask, are pleased to joke with the
+unhappy child of a luckless race. That I might have been above
+want--nay, that I am not downright needy, may be true; but when they
+speak of a thousand ducats, they speak of affairs too weighty for my
+burdened shoulders. Were it your pleasure to purchase an amethyst or a
+ruby, gallant Signore, there might possibly be dealings between us?"
+
+"I have need of gold, old man, and can spare thee jewels myself at need.
+My wants are urgent at this moment, and I have little time to lose in
+words--name thy conditions."
+
+"One should have good securities, Signore, to be so peremptory in a
+matter of money."
+
+"Thou hast heard that the laws of Venice are not more certain. A
+thousand sequins, and that quickly. Thou shalt settle the usury with
+thine own conscience."
+
+Hosea thought that this was giving ample room to the treaty, and he
+began to listen more seriously.
+
+"Signore," he said, "a thousand ducats are not picked up at pleasure
+from the pavement of the great square. He who would lend them must first
+earn them with long and patient toil; and he who would borrow----"
+
+"Waits at thy elbow."
+
+"Should have a name and countenance well known on the Rialto."
+
+"Thou lendest on sufficient pledges to masks, careful Hosea, or fame
+belies thy generosity."
+
+"A sufficient pledge gives me power to see the way clearly, though the
+borrower should be as much hidden as those up above. But here is none
+forthcoming. Come to me to-morrow, masked or not, as may suit your own
+pleasure, for I have no impertinent desire to pry into any man's secrets
+beyond what a regard to my own interests requires, and I will look into
+my coffers; though those of no heir-apparent in Venice can be emptier."
+
+"My necessities are too urgent to brook delay. Hast thou the gold, on
+condition of naming thine own usury?"
+
+"With sufficient pledges, in stones of price, I might rake together the
+sum among our dispersed people, Signore. But he who goes on the island
+to borrow, as I shall be obliged to do, should be able to satisfy all
+doubts concerning the payment."
+
+"The gold can then be had--on that point I may be easy?"
+
+Hosea hesitated, for he had in vain endeavored to penetrate the other's
+disguise, and while he thought his assurance a favorable omen, with a
+lender's instinct he disliked his impatience.
+
+"I have said, by the friendly aid of our people," he answered, with
+caution.
+
+"This uncertainty will not answer my need. Addio, Hosea--I must seek
+elsewhere."
+
+"Signore, you could not be more hurried were the money to pay the cost
+of your nuptials. Could I find Isaac and Aaron within, at this late
+hour, I think I might be safe in saying, that part of the money might be
+had."
+
+"I cannot trust to this chance."
+
+"Nay, Signore, the chance is but small, since Aaron is bed-ridden, and
+Isaac never fails to look into his affairs after the toil of the day is
+ended. The honest Hebrew finds sufficient recreation in the employment,
+though I marvel at his satisfaction, since nothing but losses have come
+over our people the year past!"
+
+"I tell thee, Jew, no doubt must hang over the negotiation. The money,
+with pledges, and thine own conscience for arbiter between us; but no
+equivocal dealings, to be followed by a disappointment, under the
+pretence that second parties are not satisfied."
+
+"Just Daniel! to oblige you, Signore, I think I may venture. The well
+known Hebrew, Levi of Livorno, has left with me a sack, containing the
+very sum of which there is question, and, under the conditions named, I
+will convert it to my uses, arid repay the good jeweller his gold, with
+moneys of my own, at a later day."
+
+"I thank thee for the fact, Hosea," said the other, partially removing
+his mask, but as instantly replacing it. "It will greatly shorten our
+negotiations. Thou hast not that sack of the Jew of Livorno beneath thy
+domino?"
+
+Hosea was speechless. The removal of the mask had taught him two
+material facts. He had been communicating his distrust of the Senate's
+intentions, concerning Donna Violetta, to an unknown person, and,
+possibly, to an agent of the police; and he had just deprived himself of
+the only argument he had ever found available, in refusing the attempts
+of Giacomo Gradenigo to borrow, by admitting to that very individual
+that he had in his power the precise sum required.
+
+"I trust the face of an old customer is not likely to defeat our
+bargain, Hosea?" demanded the profligate heir of the senator, scarce
+concealing the irony in which the question was put.
+
+"Father Abraham! Had I known it had been you, Signor Giacomo, we might
+have greatly shortened the treaty."
+
+"By denying that thou hadst the money, as thou hast so often done of
+late!"
+
+"Nay, nay, I am not a swallower of my own words, young Signore; but my
+duty to Levi must not be forgotten. The careful Hebrew made me take a
+vow, by the name of our tribe, that I would not part with his gold to
+any that had not the means of placing its return beyond all chances."
+
+"This assurance is not wanting, since thou art the borrower, thyself, to
+lend to me."
+
+"Signore, you place my conscience in an awkward position. You are now my
+debtor some six thousand sequins, and were I to make this loan of money
+in trust, and were you to return it--two propositions I make on
+supposition--a natural love for my own might cause me to pass the
+payment to account, whereby I should put the assets of Levi in
+jeopardy."
+
+"Settle that as thou wilt with thy conscience, Hosea--thou hast
+confessed to the money, and here are jewels for the pledge--I ask only
+the sequins."
+
+It is probable that the appeal of Giacomo Gradenigo would not have
+produced much effect on the flinty nature of the Hebrew, who had all the
+failings of a man proscribed by opinion; but having recovered from his
+surprise, he began to explain to his companion his apprehensions on
+account of Donna Violetta, whose marriage, it will be remembered, was a
+secret to all but the witnesses and the Council of Three, when to his
+great joy he found that the gold was wanting to advance his own design
+of removing her to some secret place. This immediately changed the whole
+face of the bargain. As the pledges offered were really worth the sum to
+be received, Hosea thought, taking the chances of recovering back his
+ancient loans, from the foreign estates of the heiress, into the
+account, the loan would be no bad investment of the pretended sequins of
+his friend Levi.
+
+As soon as the parties had come to a clear understanding, they left the
+square together, to consummate their bargain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  "We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade."
+                             HENRY VI.
+
+
+The night wore on. The strains of music again began to break through the
+ordinary stillness of the town, and the boats of the great were once
+more in motion on every canal. Hands waved timidly in recognition, from
+the windows of the little dark canopies, as the gondolas glided by, but
+few paused to greet each other in that city of mystery and suspicion.
+Even the refreshing air of the evening was inhaled under an appearance
+of restraint, which, though it might not be at the moment felt, was too
+much interwoven with the habits of the people, ever to be entirely
+thrown aside.
+
+Among the lighter and gayer barges of the patricians, a gondola of more
+than usual size, but of an exterior so plain as to denote vulgar uses,
+came sweeping down the great canal. Its movement was leisurely, and the
+action of the gondoliers that of men either fatigued or little pressed
+for time. He who steered, guided the boat with consummate skill, but
+with a single hand, while his three fellows, from time to time, suffered
+their oars to trail on the water in very idleness. In short, it had the
+ordinary listless appearance of a boat returning to the city from an
+excursion on the Brenta, or to some of the more distant isles.
+
+Suddenly the gondola diverged from the centre of the passage, down which
+it rather floated than pulled, and shot into one of the least frequented
+canals of the city. From this moment its movement became more rapid and
+regular, until it reached a quarter of the town inhabited by the lowest
+order of the Venetians. Here it stopped by the side of a warehouse, and
+one of its crew ascended to a bridge. The others threw themselves on the
+thwarts and seemed to repose.
+
+He who quitted the boat threaded a few narrow but public alleys, such as
+are to be found in every part of that confined town, and knocked lightly
+at a window. It was not long before the casement opened, and a female
+voice demanded the name of him without.
+
+"It is I, Annina," returned Gino, who was not an unfrequent applicant
+for admission at that private portal. "Open the door, girl, for I have
+come on a matter of pressing haste."
+
+Annina complied, though not without making sure that her suitor was
+alone.
+
+"Thou art come unseasonably, Gino," said the wine-seller's daughter; "I
+was about to go to St. Mark's to breathe the evening air. My father and
+brothers are already departed, and I only stay to make sure of the
+bolts."
+
+"Their gondola will hold a fourth?"
+
+"They have gone by the footways."
+
+"And thou walkest the streets alone at this hour, Annina?"
+
+"I know not thy right to question it, if I do," returned the girl with
+spirit. "San Theodore be praised, I am not yet the slave of a
+Neapolitan's servitor!"
+
+"The Neapolitan is a powerful noble, Annina, able and willing to keep
+his servitors in respect."
+
+"He will have need of all his interest--but why hast thou come at this
+unseasonable hour? Thy visits are never too welcome, Gino, and when I
+have other affairs they are disagreeable."
+
+Had the passion of the gondolier been very deep or very sensitive, this
+plain dealing might have given him a shock; but Gino appeared to take
+the repulse as coolly as it was given.
+
+"I am used to thy caprices, Annina," he said, throwing himself upon a
+bench like one determined to remain where he was. "Some young patrician
+has kissed his hand to thee as thou hast crossed San Marco, or thy
+father has made a better day of it than common on the Lido; thy pride
+always mounts with thy father's purse."
+
+"Diamine! to hear the fellow one would think he had my troth, and that
+he only waited in the sacristy for the candles to be lighted to receive
+my vows! What art thou to me, Gino Tullini, that thou takest on thee
+these sudden airs?"
+
+"And what art thou to me, Annina, that thou playest off these worn-out
+caprices on Don Camillo's confidant?"
+
+"Out upon thee, insolent! I have no time to waste in idleness."
+
+"Thou art in much haste to-night, Annina."
+
+"To be rid of thee. Now listen to what I say, Gino, and let every word
+go to thy heart, for they are the last thou wilt ever hear from me. Thou
+servest a decayed noble, one who will shortly be chased in disgrace from
+the city, and with him will go all his idle servitors. I choose to
+remain in the city of my birth."
+
+The gondolier laughed in real indifference at her affected scorn. But
+remembering his errand, he quickly assumed a graver air, and endeavored
+to still the resentment of his fickle mistress by a more respectful
+manner.
+
+"St. Mark protect me, Annina!" he said. "If we are not to kneel before
+the good priore together, it is no reason we should not bargain in
+wines. Here have I come into the dark canals, within stone's throw of
+thy very door, with a gondola of mellow Lachryma Christi, such as honest
+'Maso, thy father, has rarely dealt in, and thou treatest me as a dog
+that is chased from a church!"
+
+"I have little time for thee or thy wines to-night, Gino. Hadst thou not
+stayed me, I should already have been abroad and happy."
+
+"Close thy door, girl, and make little ceremony with an old friend,"
+said the gondolier, officiously offering to aid her in securing the
+dwelling. Annina took him at his word, and as both appeared to work with
+good will, the house was locked, and the wilful girl and her suitor were
+soon in the street. Their route lay across the bridge already named.
+Gino pointed to the gondola as he said, "Thou art not to be tempted,
+Annina?"
+
+"Thy rashness in leading the smugglers to my father's door will bring us
+to harm some day, silly fellow!"
+
+"The boldness of the act will prevent suspicion."
+
+"Of what vineyard is the liquor?"
+
+"It came from the foot of Vesuvius, and is ripened by the heat of the
+volcano. Should my friends part with it to thy enemy, old Beppo, thy
+father will rue the hour!"
+
+Annina, who was much addicted to consulting her interests on all
+occasions, cast a longing glance at the boat. The canopy was closed, but
+it was large, and her willing imagination readily induced her to fancy
+it well filled with skins from Naples.
+
+"This will be the last of thy visits to our door, Gino?"
+
+"As thou shalt please. But go down and taste."
+
+Annina hesitated, and, as a woman is said always to do when she
+hesitates, she complied. They reached the boat with quick steps, and
+without regarding the men who were still lounging on the thwarts, Annina
+glided immediately beneath the canopy. A fifth gondolier was lying at
+length on the cushions, for, unlike a boat devoted to the contraband,
+the canopy had the usual arrangement of a barque of the canals.
+
+"I see nothing to turn me aside!" exclaimed the disappointed girl. "Wilt
+thou aught with me, Signore?"
+
+"Thou art welcome. We shall not part so readily as before."
+
+The stranger had arisen while speaking, and as he ended, he laid a hand
+on the shoulder of his visitor, who found herself confronted with Don
+Camillo Monforte.
+
+Annina was too much practised in deception to indulge in any of the
+ordinary female symptoms, either of real or of affected alarm.
+Commanding her features, though in truth her limbs shook, she said with
+assumed pleasantry--
+
+"The secret trade is honored in the services of the noble Duke of St.
+Agata!"
+
+"I am not here to trifle, girl, as thou wilt see in the end. Thou hast
+thy choice before thee, frank confession or my just anger."
+
+Don Camillo spoke calmly, but in a manner that plainly showed Annina she
+had to deal with a resolute man.
+
+"What confession would your eccellenza have from the daughter of a poor
+wine-seller?" she asked, her voice trembling in spite of herself.
+
+"The truth--and remember that this time we do not part until I am
+satisfied. The Venetian police and I are now fairly at issue, and thou
+art the first fruits of my plan."
+
+"Signor Duca, this is a bold step to take in the heart of the canals!"
+
+"The consequences be mine. Thy interest will teach thee to confess."
+
+"I shall make no great merit, Signore, of doing that which is forced
+upon me. As it is your pleasure to know the little I can tell you, I am
+happy to be permitted to relate it."
+
+"Speak then; for time presses."
+
+"Signore, I shall not pretend to deny you have been ill-treated.
+Capperi! how ill has the council treated you! A noble cavalier, of a
+strange country, who, the meanest gossip in Venice knows, has a just
+right to the honors of the Senate, to be so treated is a disgrace to the
+Republic! I do not wonder that your eccellenza is out of humor with
+them. Blessed St. Mark himself would lose his patience to be thus
+treated!"
+
+"A truce with this, girl, and to your facts."
+
+"My facts, Signor Duca, are a thousand times clearer than the sun, and
+they are all at your eccellenza's service. I am sure I wish I had more
+of them, since they give you pleasure."
+
+"Enough of this profession. Speak to the facts themselves."
+
+Annina, who in the manner of most of her class in Italy, that had been
+exposed to the intrigues of the towns, had been lavish of her words, now
+found means to cast a glance at the water, when she saw that the boat
+had already quitted the canals, and was rowing easily out upon the
+Lagunes. Perceiving how completely she was in the power of Don Camillo,
+she began to feel the necessity of being more explicit.
+
+"Your eccellenza has probably suspected that the council found means to
+be acquainted with your intention to fly from the city with Donna
+Violetta?"
+
+"All that is known to me."
+
+"Why they chose me to be the servitor of the noble lady is beyond my
+powers to discover. Our Lady of Loretto! I am not the person to be sent
+for, when the state wishes to part two lovers!"
+
+"I have borne with thee, Annina, because I would let the gondola get
+beyond the limits of the city; but now thou must throw aside thy
+subterfuge, and speak plainly. Where didst thou leave my wife?"
+
+"Does your eccellenza then think the state will admit the marriage to be
+legal?"
+
+"Girl, answer, or I will find means to make thee. Where didst thou leave
+my wife?"
+
+"Blessed St. Theodore! Signore, the agents of the Republic had little
+need of me, and I was put on the first bridge that the gondola passed."
+
+"Thou strivest to deceive me in vain. Thou wast on the Lagunes till a
+late hour in the day, and I have notice of thy having visited the prison
+of St. Mark as the sun was setting; and this on thy return from the boat
+of Donna Violetta."
+
+There was no acting in the wonder of Annina.
+
+"Santissima Maria! You are better served, Signore, than the council
+thinks!"
+
+"As thou wilt find to thy cost, unless the truth be spoken. From what
+convent did'st thou come?"
+
+"Signore, from none. If your eccellenza has discovered that the Senate
+has shut up the Signora Tiepolo in the prison of St. Mark, for
+safe-keeping, it is no fault of mine."
+
+"Thy artifice is useless, Annina," observed Don Camillo, calmly. "Thou
+wast in the prison, in quest of forbidden articles that thou hadst long
+left with thy cousin Gelsomina, the keeper's daughter, who little
+suspected thy errand, and on whose innocence and ignorance of the world
+thou hast long successfully practised. Donna Violetta is no vulgar
+prisoner, to be immured in a jail."
+
+"Santissima Madre di Dio!"
+
+Amazement confined the answer of the girl to this single, but strong
+exclamation.
+
+"Thou seest the impossibility of deception. I am acquainted with so much
+of thy movements as to render it impossible that thou should'st lead me
+far astray. Thou art not wont to visit thy cousin; but as thou entered
+the canals this evening----"
+
+A shout on the water caused Don Camillo to pause. On looking out he saw
+a dense body of boats sweeping towards the town as if they were all
+impelled by a single set of oars. A thousand voices were speaking at
+once, and occasionally a general and doleful cry proclaimed that the
+floating multitude, which came on, was moved by a common feeling. The
+singularity of the spectacle, and the fact that his own gondola lay
+directly in the route of the fleet, which was composed of several
+hundred boats, drove the examination of the girl, momentarily, from the
+thoughts of the noble.
+
+"What have we here, Jacopo?" he demanded, in an under-tone, of the
+gondolier who steered his own barge.
+
+"They are fishermen, Signore, and by the manner in which they come down
+towards the canals, I doubt they are bent on some disturbance. There has
+been discontent among them since the refusal of the Doge to liberate the
+boy of their companion from the galleys."
+
+Curiosity induced the people of Don Camillo to linger a minute, and then
+they perceived the necessity of pulling out of the course of the
+floating mass, which came on like a torrent, the men sweeping their
+boats with that desperate stroke which is so often seen among the
+Italian oarsmen. A menacing hail, with a command to remain, admonished
+Don Camillo of the necessity of downright flight, or of obedience. He
+chose the latter, as the least likely to interfere with his own plans.
+
+"Who art thou?" demanded one, who had assumed the character of a leader.
+"If men of the Lagunes and Christians, join your friends, and away with
+us to St. Mark for justice!"
+
+"What means this tumult?" asked Don Camillo, whose dress effectually
+concealed his rank, a disguise that he completed by adopting the
+Venetian dialect. "Why are you here in these numbers, friends?"
+
+"Behold!"
+
+Don Camillo turned, and he beheld the withered features and glaring eyes
+of old Antonio, fixed in death. The explanation was made by a hundred
+voices, accompanied by oaths so bitter, and denunciations so deep, that
+had not Don Camillo been prepared by the tale of Jacopo, he would have
+found great difficulty in understanding what he heard.
+
+In dragging the Lagunes for fish, the body of Antonio had been found,
+and the result was, first, a consultation on the probable means of his
+death, and then a collection of the men of his calling, and finally the
+scene described.
+
+"Giustizia!" exclaimed fifty excited voices, as the grim visage of the
+fisherman was held towards the light of the moon; "Giustizia in Palazzo
+e paue in Piazza!"
+
+"Ask it of the Senate!" returned Jacopo, not attempting to conceal the
+derision of his tones.
+
+"Thinkest thou our fellow has suffered for his boldness yesterday?"
+
+"Stranger things have happened in Venice!"
+
+"They forbid us to cast our nets in the Canale Orfano, lest the secrets
+of justice should be known, and yet they have grown bold enough to drown
+one of our own people in the midst of our gondolas!"
+
+"Justice, justice!" shouted numberless hoarse throats.
+
+"Away to St. Mark's! Lay the body at the feet of the Doge! Away,
+brethren, Antonio's blood is on their souls!"
+
+Bent on a wild and undigested scheme of asserting their wrongs, the
+fishermen again plied their oars, and the whole fleet swept away, as if
+it was composed of a single mass.
+
+The meeting, though so short, was accompanied by cries, menaces, and all
+those accustomed signs of rage which mark a popular tumult among those
+excitable people, and it had produced a sensible effect on the nerves of
+Annina. Don Camillo profited by her evident terror to press his
+questions, for the hour no longer admitted of trifling.
+
+The result was, that while the agitated mob swept into the mouth of the
+Great Canal, raising hoarse shouts, the gondola of Don Camillo Monforte
+glided away across the wide and tranquil surface of the Lagunes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  "A Clifford, a Clifford! we'll follow the king and Clifford."
+                                        HENRY VI.
+
+
+The tranquillity of the best ordered society may be disturbed, at any
+time, by a sudden outbreaking of the malcontents. Against such a
+disaster there is no more guarding than against the commission of more
+vulgar crimes; but when a government trembles for its existence, before
+the turbulence of popular commotion, it is reasonable to infer some
+radical defect in its organization. Men will rally around their
+institutions, as freely as they rally around any other cherished
+interest, when they merit their care, and there can be no surer sign of
+their hollowness than when the rulers seriously apprehend the breath of
+the mob. No nation ever exhibited more of this symptomatic terror, on
+all occasions of internal disturbance, than the pretending Republic of
+Venice. There was a never-ceasing and a natural tendency to dissolution,
+in her factious system, which was only resisted by the alertness of her
+aristocracy, and the political buttresses which their ingenuity had
+reared. Much was said of the venerable character of her polity, and of
+its consequent security, but it is in vain that selfishness contends
+with truth. Of all the fallacies with which man has attempted to gloss
+his expedients, there is none more evidently false than that which
+infers the duration of a social system, from the length of time it has
+already lasted. It would be quite as reasonable to affirm that the man
+of seventy has the same chances for life as the youth of fifteen, or
+that the inevitable fate of all things of mortal origin was not
+destruction. There is a period in human existence when the principle of
+vitality has to contend with the feebleness of infancy, but this
+probationary state passed, the child attains the age when it has the
+most reasonable prospect of living. Thus the social, like any other
+machine, which has run just long enough to prove its fitness, is at the
+precise period when it is least likely to fail, and although he that is
+young may not live to become old, it is certain that he who is old was
+once young. The empire of China was, in its time, as youthful as our own
+republic, nor can we see any reason for believing that it is to outlast
+us, from the decrepitude which is a natural companion of its years.
+
+At the period of our tale, Venice boasted much of her antiquity, and
+dreaded, in an equal degree, her end. She was still strong in her
+combinations, but they were combinations that had the vicious error of
+being formed for the benefit of the minority, and which, like the mimic
+fortresses and moats of a scenic representation, needed only a strong
+light to destroy the illusion. The alarm with which the patricians heard
+the shouts of the fishermen, as they swept by the different palaces, on
+their way to the great square, can be readily imagined. Some feared that
+the final consummation of their artificial condition, which had so long
+been anticipated by a secret political instinct, was at length arrived,
+and began to bethink them of the savest means of providing for their own
+security. Some listened in admiration, for habit had so far mastered
+dulness, as to have created a species of identity between the state and
+far more durable things, and they believed that St. Mark had gained a
+victory, in that decline, which was never exactly intelligible to their
+apathetic capacities. But a few, and these were the spirits that
+accumulated all the national good which was vulgarly and falsely
+ascribed to the system itself, intuitively comprehended the danger,
+with a just appreciation of its magnitude, as well as of the means to
+avoid it.
+
+But the rioters were unequal to any estimate of their own force, and had
+little aptitude in measuring their accidental advantages. They acted
+merely on impulse. The manner in which their aged companion had
+triumphed on the preceding day, his cold repulse by the Doge, and the
+scene of the Lido, which in truth led to the death of Antonio, had
+prepared their minds for the tumult. When the body was found, therefore,
+after the time necessary to collect their forces on the Lagunes, they
+yielded to passion, and moved away towards the palace of St. Mark, as
+described, without any other definite object than a simple indulgence of
+feeling.
+
+On entering the canal, the narrowness of the passage compressed the
+boats into a mass so dense, as, in a measure, to impede the use of oars,
+and the progress of the crowd was necessarily slow. All were anxious to
+get as near as possible to the body of Antonio, and, like all mobs, they
+in some degree frustrated their own objects by ill-regulated zeal. Once
+or twice the names of offensive senators were shouted, as if the
+fishermen intended to visit the crimes of the state on its agents; but
+these cries passed away in the violent breath that was expended. On
+reaching the bridge of the Rialto, more than half of the multitude
+landed, and took the shorter course of the streets to the point of
+destination, while those in front got on the faster, for being
+disembarrassed of the pressure in the rear. As they drew nearer to the
+port, the boats began to loosen, and to take something of the form of a
+funeral procession.
+
+It was during this moment of change that a powerfully manned gondola
+swept, with strong strokes, out of a lateral passage into the Great
+Canal. Accident brought it directly in front of the moving phalanx of
+boats that was coming down the same channel. Its crew seemed staggered
+by the extraordinary appearance which met their view, and for an
+instant its course was undecided.
+
+"A gondola of the Republic!" shouted fifty fishermen. A single voice
+added--"Canale Orfano!"
+
+The bare suspicion of such an errand, as was implied by the latter
+words, and at that moment, was sufficient to excite the mob. They raised
+a cry of denunciation, and some twenty boats made a furious
+demonstration of pursuit. The menace, however, was sufficient; for
+quicker far than the movements of the pursuers, the gondoliers of the
+Republic dashed towards the shore, and leaping on one of those passages
+of planks which encircle so many of the palaces of Venice, they
+disappeared by an alley.
+
+Encouraged by this success, the fishermen seized the boat as a waif, and
+towed it into their own fleet, filling the air with cries of triumph.
+Curiosity led a few to enter the hearse-like canopy, whence they
+immediately reissued dragging forth a priest.
+
+"Who art thou?" hoarsely demanded he who took upon himself the authority
+of a leader.
+
+"A Carmelite, and a servant of God!"
+
+"Dost thou serve St. Mark? Hast thou been to the Canale Orfano to shrive
+a wretch?"
+
+"I am here in attendance on a young and noble lady, who has need of my
+counsel and prayers. The happy and the miserable, the free and the
+captive, are equally my care!"
+
+"Ha! Thou art not above thy office? Thou wilt say the prayers for the
+dead in behalf of a poor man's soul?"
+
+"My son, I know no difference, in this respect, between the Doge and the
+poorest fisherman. Still I would not willingly desert the females."
+
+"The ladies shall receive no harm. Come into my boat, for there is need
+of thy holy office."
+
+Father Anselmo--the reader will readily anticipate that it was
+he--entered the canopy, said a few words in explanation to his
+trembling companions, and complied. He was rowed to the leading gondola,
+and, by a sign, directed to the dead body.
+
+"Thou see'st that corpse, father?" continued his conductor. "It is the
+face of one who was an upright and pious Christian!"
+
+"He was."
+
+"We all knew him as the oldest and the most skilful fisherman of the
+Lagunes, and one ever ready to assist an unlucky companion."
+
+"I can believe thee!"
+
+"Thou mayest, for the holy books are not more true than my words:
+yesterday he came down this very canal in triumph, for he bore away the
+honors of the regatta from the stoutest oars in Venice."
+
+"I have heard of his success."
+
+"They say that Jacopo, the Bravo--he who once held the best oar in the
+canals--was of the party! Santa Madonna! such a man was too precious to
+die!"
+
+"It is the fate of all--rich and poor, strong and feeble, happy and
+miserable, must alike come to this end."
+
+"Not to this end, reverend Carmelite, for Antonio having given offence
+to the Republic, in the matter of a grandson that is pressed for the
+galleys, has been sent to purgatory without a Christian hope for his
+soul."
+
+"There is an eye that watcheth on the meanest of us, son; we will
+believe he was not forgotten."
+
+"Cospetto! They say that those the Senate look black upon get but little
+aid from the church! Wilt thou pray for him, Carmelite, and make good
+thy words?"
+
+"I will," said Father Anselmo, firmly. "Make room, son, that no decency
+of my duty be overlooked."
+
+The swarthy, expressive faces of the fishermen gleamed with
+satisfaction, for, in the midst of the rude turmoil, they all retained a
+deep and rooted respect for the offices of the church in which they had
+been educated. Silence was quickly obtained, and the boats moved on with
+greater order than before.
+
+The spectacle was now striking. In front rowed the gondola which
+contained the remains of the dead. The widening of the canal, as it
+approached the port, permitted the rays of the moon to fall upon the
+rigid features of old Antonio, which were set in such a look as might be
+supposed to characterize the dying thoughts of a man so suddenly and so
+fearfully destroyed. The Carmelite, bare-headed, with clasped hands, and
+a devout heart, bowed his head at the feet of the body, with his white
+robes flowing in the light of the moon. A single gondolier guided the
+boat, and no other noise was audible but the plash of the water, as the
+oars slowly fell and rose together. This silent procession lasted a few
+minutes, and then the tremulous voice of the monk was heard chanting the
+prayers for the dead. The practised fishermen, for few in that
+disciplined church, and that obedient age, were ignorant of those solemn
+rites, took up the responses in a manner that must be familiar to every
+ear that has ever listened to the sounds of Italy, the gentle washing of
+the element, on which they glided, forming a soft accompaniment.
+Casement after casement opened while they passed, and a thousand curious
+and anxious faces crowded the balconies as the funeral cortege swept
+slowly on.
+
+The gondola of the Republic was towed in the centre of the moving mass
+by fifty lighter boats, for the fishermen still clung to their prize. In
+this manner the solemn procession entered the port, and touched the quay
+at the foot of the Piazzetta. While numberless eager hands were aiding
+in bringing the body of Antonio to land, there arose a shout from the
+centre of the ducal palace, which proclaimed the presence already of the
+other part of their body in its court.
+
+The squares of St. Mark now presented a novel picture. The quaint and
+oriental church, the rows of massive and rich architecture, the giddy
+pile of the Campanile, the columns of granite, the masts of triumph, and
+all those peculiar and remarkable fixtures, which had witnessed so many
+scenes of violence, of rejoicing, of mourning, and of gaiety, were
+there, like landmarks of the earth, defying time; beautiful and
+venerable in despite of all those varying exhibitions of human passions
+that were daily acted around them.
+
+"But the song, the laugh, and the jest, had ceased. The lights of the
+coffee-houses had disappeared, the revellers had fled to their homes,
+fearful of being confounded with those who braved the anger of the
+Senate, while the grotesque, the ballad-singers, and the buffoon, had
+abandoned their assumed gaiety for an appearance more in unison with the
+true feelings of their hearts.
+
+"Giustizia!--" cried a thousand deep voices, as the body of Antonio was
+borne into the court--"Illustrious Doge! Giustizia. in palazzo, e pane
+in piazza! Give us justice! We are beggars for justice!"
+
+The gloomy but vast court was paved with the swarthy faces and
+glittering eyes of the fishermen. The corpse was laid at the foot of the
+Giant's Stairs, while the trembling halberdier at the head of the
+flight, scarce commanded himself sufficiently to maintain that air of
+firmness which was exacted by discipline and professional pride. But
+there was no other show of military force, for the politic power which
+ruled in Venice, knew too well its momentary impotency, to irritate when
+it could not quell. The mob beneath was composed of nameless rioters,
+whose punishment could carry no other consequences than the suppression
+of immediate danger, and for that, those who ruled were not prepared.
+
+The Council of Three had been apprised of the arrival of the excited
+fishermen. When the mob entered the court, it was consulting in secret
+conclave, on the probabilities of the tumult having a graver and more
+determined object, than was apparent in the visible symptoms. The
+routine of office had not yet dispossessed the men already presented to
+the reader, of their dangerous and despotic power.
+
+"Are the Dalmatians apprised of this movement?" asked one of the secret
+tribunal, whose nerves were scarcely equal to the high functions he
+discharged. "We may have occasion for their volleys, ere this riot is
+appeased."
+
+"Confide in the ordinary authorities for that, Signore," answered the
+Senator Gradenigo. "I have only concern, lest some conspiracy, which may
+touch the fidelity of the troops, lies concealed beneath the outcry."
+
+"The evil passions of man know no limits! What would the wretches have?
+For a state in the decline, Venice is to the last degree prosperous. Our
+ships are thriving; the bank flourishes with goodly dividends; and I do
+assure you, Signore, that, for many years, I have not known so ample
+revenues for most of our interests, as at this hour. All cannot thrive
+alike!"
+
+"You are happily connected with flourishing affairs, Signore, but there
+are many that are less lucky. Our form of government is somewhat
+exclusive, and it is a penalty that we have ever paid for its
+advantages, to be liable to sudden and malevolent accusations, for any
+evil turn of fortune that besets the Republic."
+
+"Can nothing satisfy these exacting spirits? Are they not free--are they
+not happy?"
+
+"It would seem that they want better assurance of these facts, than our
+own feelings, or our words."
+
+"Man is the creature of envy! The poor desire to be rich--the weak,
+powerful."
+
+"There is an exception to your rule, at least, Signore, since the rich
+rarely wish to be poor, or the powerful, weak."
+
+"You deride my sentiments to-night, Signor Gradenigo. I speak, I hope,
+as becomes a Senator of Venice, and in a manner that you are not
+unaccustomed to hear!"
+
+"Nay, the language is not unusual. But I fear me there is something
+unsuited to a falling fortune, in the exacting and narrow spirit of our
+laws. When a state is eminently flourishing, its subjects overlook
+general defects in private prosperity, but there is no more fastidious
+commentator on measures than your merchant of a failing trade."
+
+"This is their gratitude! Have we not converted these muddy isles into a
+mart for half Christendom, and now they are dissatisfied that they
+cannot retain all the monopolies that the wisdom of our ancestors has
+accumulated."
+
+"They complain much in your own spirit, Signore,--but you are right in
+saying the present riot must be looked to. Let us seek his highness, who
+will go out to the people, with such patricians as may be present, and
+one of our number as a witness: more than that might expose our
+character."
+
+The Secret Council withdrew to carry this resolution into effect, just
+as the fishermen in the court received the accession of those who
+arrived by water.
+
+There is no body so sensible of an increase of its members as a mob.
+Without discipline, and dependent solely on animal force for its
+ascendency, the sentiment of physical power is blended with its very
+existence. When they saw the mass of living beings which had assembled
+within the wall of the ducal palace, the most audacious of that throng
+became more hardy, and even the wavering grew strong. This is the
+reverse of the feeling which prevails among those who are called on to
+repress this species of violence, who generally gain courage as its
+exhibition is least required.
+
+The throng in the court was raising one of its loudest and most menacing
+cries as the train of the Doge appeared, approaching by one of the long
+open galleries of the principal floor of the edifice.
+
+The presence of the venerable man who nominally presided over that
+factitious state, and the long training of the fishermen in habits of
+deference to authority, notwithstanding their present tone of
+insubordination, caused a sudden and deep silence. A feeling of awe
+gradually stole over the thousand dark faces that were gazing upwards,
+as the little cortege drew near. So profound, indeed, was the stillness
+caused by this sentiment, that the rustling of the ducal robes was
+audible, as the prince, impeded by his infirmities, and consulting the
+state usual to his rank, slowly advanced. The previous violence of the
+untutored fishermen, and their present deference to the external state
+that met their eyes, had its origin in the same causes;--ignorance and
+habit were the parents of both.
+
+"Why are ye assembled here, my children?" asked the Doge, when he had
+reached the summit of the Giant's Stairs, "and most of all, why have ye
+come into the palace of your prince with these unbefitting cries?"
+
+The tremulous voice of the old man was clearly audible, for the lowest
+of its tones were scarcely interrupted by a breath. The fishermen gazed
+at each other, and all appeared to search for him who might be bold
+enough to answer. At length one in the centre of the crowded mass, and
+effectually concealed from observation, cried, "Justice!"
+
+"Such is our object," mildly continued the prince; "and such, I will
+add, is our practice. Why are ye assembled here, in a manner so
+offensive to the state, and so disrespectful to your prince?"
+
+Still none answered. The only spirit of their body, which had been
+capable of freeing itself from the trammels of usage and prejudice, had
+deserted the shell which lay on the lower step of the Giant's Stairs.
+
+"Will none speak! are ye so bold with your voices when unquestioned, and
+so silent when confronted?"
+
+"Speak them fair, your highness," whispered he of the council, who was
+commissioned to be a secret witness of the interview; "the Dalmatians
+are scarce yet apparelled."
+
+The prince bowed to advice which he well knew must be respected, and he
+assumed his former tone.
+
+"If none will acquaint me with your wants, I must command you to retire,
+and while my parental heart grieves----"
+
+"Giustizia!" repeated the hidden member of the crowd.
+
+"Name thy wants, that we may know them."
+
+"Highness! deign to look at this!"
+
+One bolder than the rest had turned the body of Antonio to the moon, in
+a manner to expose the ghastly features, and, as he spoke, he pointed
+towards the spectacle he had prepared. The prince started at the
+unexpected sight, and, slowly descending the steps, closely accompanied
+by his companions and his guards, he paused over the body.
+
+"Has the assassin done this?" he asked, after looking at the dead
+fisherman, and crossing himself. "What could the end of one like this
+profit a Bravo? Haply the unfortunate man hath fallen in a broil of his
+class?"
+
+"Neither, illustrious Doge! we fear that Antonio has suffered for the
+displeasure of St. Mark!"
+
+"Antonio! Is this the hardy fisherman who would have taught us how to
+rule in the state regatta!"
+
+"Eccellenza, it is," returned the simple laborer of the Lagunes, "and a
+better hand with a net, or a truer friend in need, never rowed a gondola
+to or from the Lido. Diavolo! It would have done your highness pleasure
+to have seen the poor old Christian among us, on a saint's day, taking
+the lead in our little ceremonies, and teaching us the manner in which
+our fathers used to do credit to the craft!"
+
+"Or to have been with us, illustrious Doge," cried another, for, the ice
+once broken, the tongues of a mob soon grow bold, "in a merry-making on
+the Lido, when old Antonio was always the foremost in the laugh, and the
+discreetest in knowing when to be grave."
+
+The Doge began to have a dawning of the truth, and he cast a glance
+aside to examine the countenance of the unknown inquisitor.
+
+"It is far easier to understand the merits of the unfortunate man, than
+the manner of his death," he said, finding no explanation in the drilled
+members of the face he had scrutinized. "Will any of your party explain
+the facts?"
+
+The principal speaker among the fishermen willingly took on himself the
+office, and, in the desultory manner of one of his habits, he acquainted
+the Doge with the circumstances connected with the finding of the body.
+When he had done, the prince again asked explanations, with his eye,
+from the senator at his side, for he was ignorant whether the policy of
+the state required an example, or simply a death."
+
+"I see nothing in this, your highness," observed he of the council, "but
+the chances of a fisherman. The unhappy old man has come to his end by
+accident, and it would be charity to have a few masses said for his
+soul."
+
+"Noble senator!" exclaimed the fisherman, doubtingly, "St. Mark was
+offended!"
+
+"Rumor tells many idle tales of the pleasure and displeasure of St.
+Mark, If we are to believe all that the wit of men can devise, in
+affairs of this nature, the criminals are not drowned in the Lagunes,
+but in the Canale Orfano."
+
+"True, eccellenza, and we are forbidden to cast our nets there, on pain
+of sleeping with the eels at its bottom."
+
+"So much greater reason for believing that this old man hath died by
+accident. Is there mark of violence on his body? for though the state
+could scarcely occupy itself with such as he, some other might. Hath the
+condition of the body been looked to?"
+
+"Eccellenza, it was enough to cast one of his years into the centre of
+the Lagunes. The stoutest arm in Venice could not save him."
+
+"There may have been violence in some quarrel, and the proper authority
+should be vigilant. Here is a Carmelite! Father, do you know aught of
+this?"
+
+The monk endeavored to answer, but his voice failed. He stared wildly
+about him, for the whole scene resembled some frightful picture of the
+imagination, and then folding his arms on his bosom, he appeared to
+resume his prayers.
+
+"Thou dost not answer, Friar?" observed the Doge, who had been as
+effectually deceived, by the natural and indifferent manner of the
+inquisitor, as any other of his auditors. "Where didst thou find this
+body?"
+
+Father Anselmo briefly explained the manner in which he had been pressed
+into the service of the fishermen.
+
+At the elbow of the prince there stood a young patrician, who, at the
+moment, filled no other office in the state than such as belonged to his
+birth. Deceived, like the others, by the manner of the only one who knew
+the real cause of Antonio's death, he felt a humane and praiseworthy
+desire to make sure that no foul play had been exercised towards the
+victim.
+
+"I have heard of this Antonio," said this person, who was called the
+Senator Soranzo, and who was gifted by nature with feelings that, in any
+other form of government, would have made him a philanthropist, "and of
+his success in the regatta. Was it not said that Jacopo, the Bravo, was
+his competitor?"
+
+A low, meaning, and common murmur ran through the throng.
+
+"A man of his reputed passions and ferocity may well have sought to
+revenge defeat by violence!"
+
+A second and a louder murmur denoted the effect this suggestion had
+produced.
+
+"Eccellenza, Jacopo deals in the stiletto!" observed the half-credulous
+but still doubting fisherman.
+
+"That is as may be necessary. A man of his art and character may have
+recourse to other means to gratify his malice. Do you not agree with me,
+Signore?"
+
+The Senator Soranzo put this question, in perfect good faith, to the
+unknown member of the secret council. The latter appeared struck with
+the probability of the truth of his companion's conjecture, but
+contented himself with a simple acknowledgment to that effect, by
+bowing.
+
+"Jacopo! Jacopo!" hoarsely repeated voice after voice in the
+crowd--"Jacopo has done this! The best gondolier in Venice has been
+beaten by an old fisherman, and nothing but blood could wipe out the
+disgrace!"
+
+"It shall be inquired into, my children, and strict justice done," said
+the Doge, preparing to depart. "Officers, give money for masses, that
+the soul of the unhappy man be not the sufferer. Reverend Carmelite, I
+commend the body to thy care, and thou canst do no better service than
+to pass the night in prayer by its side."
+
+A thousand caps were waved in commendation of this gracious command, and
+the whole throng stood in silent respect, as the prince, followed by his
+retinue, retired as he had approached, through the long, vaulted gallery
+above.
+
+A secret order of the Inquisition prevented the appearance of the
+Dalmatians.
+
+A few minutes later and all was prepared. A bier and canopy were brought
+out of the adjoining cathedral, and the corpse was placed upon the
+former. Father Anselmo then headed the procession, which passed through
+the principal gate of the palace into the square, chanting the usual
+service. The Piazzetta and the piazza were still empty. Here and there,
+indeed, a curious face, belonging to some agent of the police, or to
+some observer more firm than common, looked out from beneath the arches
+of the porticoes on the movements of the mob, though none ventured to
+come within its influence.
+
+But the fishermen were no longer bent on violence. With the fickleness
+of men little influenced by reflection, and subject to sudden and
+violent emotions, a temperament which, the effect of a selfish system,
+is commonly tortured into the reason why it should never be improved,
+they had abandoned all idea of revenge on the agents of the police, and
+had turned their thoughts to the religious services, which, being
+commanded by the prince himself, were so flattering to their class.
+
+It is true that a few of the sterner natures among them mingled menaces
+against the Bravo with their prayers for the dead, but these had no
+other effect on the matter in hand, than is commonly produced by the
+by-players on the principal action of the piece.
+
+The great portal of the venerable church was thrown open, and the solemn
+chant was heard issuing, in responses, from among the quaint columns and
+vaulted roofs within. The body of the lowly and sacrificed Antonio was
+borne beneath that arch which sustains the precious relics of Grecian
+art, and deposited in the nave. Candles glimmered before the altar and
+around the ghastly person of the dead, throughout the night; and the
+cathedral of St. Mark was pregnant with all the imposing ceremonials of
+the Catholic ritual, until the day once more appeared.
+
+Priest succeeded priest, in repeating the masses, while the attentive
+throng listened, as if each of its members felt that his own honor and
+importance were elevated by this concession to one of their number. In
+the square the maskers gradually reappeared, though the alarm had been
+too sudden and violent, to admit a speedy return to the levity which
+ordinarily was witnessed in that spot, between the setting and the
+rising of the sun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  "'Tis of a lady in her earliest youth,
+  The very last of that illustrious race."
+                              ROGERS.
+
+
+When the fishermen landed on the quay, they deserted the gondola of the
+state to a man. Donna Violetta and her governess heard the tumultuous
+departure of their singular captors with alarm, for they were nearly in
+entire ignorance of the motive which had deprived them of the protection
+of Father Anselmo, and which had so unexpectedly made them actors in the
+extraordinary scene. The monk had simply explained that his offices were
+required in behalf of the dead, but the apprehension of exciting
+unnecessary terror prevented him from adding that they were in the power
+of a mob. Donna Florinda, however, had ascertained sufficient, by
+looking from the windows of the canopy and from the cries of those
+around her, to get a glimmering of the truth. Under the circumstances,
+she saw that the most prudent course was to keep themselves as much as
+possible from observation. But when the profound stillness that
+succeeded the landing of the rioters announced that they were alone,
+both she and her charge had an intuitive perception of the favorable
+chance which fortune had so strangely thrown in their way.
+
+"They are gone!" whispered Donna Florinda, holding her breath in
+attention, as soon as she had spoken.
+
+"And the police will be soon here to seek us!"
+
+No further explanation passed, for Venice was a town in which even the
+young and innocent were taught caution. Donna Florinda stole another
+look without.
+
+"They have disappeared, Heaven knows where! Let us go!"
+
+In an instant the trembling fugitives were on the quay. The Piazzetta
+was without a human form, except their own. A low, murmuring sound arose
+from the court palace, which resembled the hum of a disturbed hive; but
+nothing was distinct or intelligible.
+
+"There is violence meditated," again whispered the governess; "would to
+God that Father Anselmo were here!"
+
+A shuffling footstep caught their ears, and both turned towards a boy,
+in the dress of one of the Lagunes, who approached from the direction of
+the Broglio.
+
+"A reverend Carmelite bid me give you this," said the youth, stealing a
+glance behind him, like one who dreaded detection. Then putting a small
+piece of paper in the hand of Donna Florinda, he turned his own swarthy
+palm, in which a small silver coin glittered, to the moon, and vanished.
+
+By the aid of the same light the governess succeeded in tracing
+pencil-marks, in a hand that had been well known to her younger days.
+
+"Save thyself, Florinda--There is not an instant to lose. Avoid public
+places, and seek a shelter quickly."
+
+"But whither?" asked the bewildered woman, when she had read aloud the
+scroll.
+
+"Anywhere but here," rejoined Donna Violetta; "follow me."
+
+Nature frequently more than supplies the advantages of training and
+experience, by her own gifts. Had Donna Florinda been possessed of the
+natural decision and firmness of her pupil, she would not now have been
+existing in the isolated condition which is so little congenial to
+female habits, nor would Father Anselmo have been a monk. Both had
+sacrificed inclination to what they considered to be duty, and if the
+ungenial life of the governess was owing to the tranquil course of her
+ordinary feelings, it is probable that its impunity was to be ascribed
+to the same respectable cause. Not so with Violetta. She was ever more
+ready to act than to reflect, and though, in general, the advantage
+might possibly be with those of a more regulated temperament, there are
+occasions that form exceptions to the rule. The present moment was one
+of those turns in the chances of life, when it is always better to do
+anything than to do nothing.
+
+Donna Violetta had scarcely spoken, before her person was shadowed
+beneath the arches of the Broglio. Her governess clung to her side, more
+in affection than in compliance with the warnings of the monk, or with
+the dictates of her own reason. A vague and romantic intention of
+throwing herself at the feet of the Doge, who was a collateral
+descendant of her own ancient house, had flashed across the mind of the
+youthful bride, when she first fled; but no sooner had they reached the
+palace, than a cry from the court acquainted them with its situation,
+and consequently with the impossibility of penetrating to the interior.
+
+"Let us retire, by the streets, to thy dwelling, my child," said Donna
+Florinda, drawing her mantle about her in womanly dignity. "None will
+offend females of our condition; even the Senate must, in the end,
+respect our sex."
+
+"This from thee, Florinda! Thou, who hast so often trembled for their
+anger! But go, if thou wilt--I am no longer the Senate's. Don Camillo
+Monforte has my duty."
+
+Donna Florinda had no intention of disputing this point, and as the
+moment had now arrived when the most energetic was likely to lead, she
+quietly submitted herself to the superior decision of her pupil. The
+latter took the way along the portico, keeping always within its
+shadows. In passing the gateway which opened towards the sea, the
+fugitives had a glimpse of what was going on in the court. The sight
+quickened their steps, and they now flew, rather than ran, along the
+arched passage. In a minute they were on the bridge which crosses the
+canal of St. Mark, still flying with all their force. A few mariners
+were looking from their feluccas and gazing in curiosity, but the sight
+of two terrified females, seeking refuge from a mob, had nothing in
+itself likely to attract notice.
+
+At this moment, a dark mass of human bodies appeared advancing along the
+quay in the opposite direction. Arms glittered in the moon-beams, and
+the measured tread of trained men became audible. The Dalmatians were
+moving down from the arsenal in a body. Advance and retreat now seemed
+equally impossible to the breathless fugitives. As decision and
+self-possession are very different qualities, Donna Violetta did not
+understand so readily as the circumstances required, that it was more
+than probable the hirelings of the Republic would consider the flight
+perfectly natural, as it had appeared to the curious gazers of the port.
+
+Terror made them blind, and as shelter was now the sole object of the
+fugitives, they would probably have sought it in the chamber of doom
+itself, had there been an opportunity. As it was, they turned and
+entered the first, and indeed the only gate which offered. They were met
+by a girl, whose anxious face betrayed that singular compound of
+self-devotion and terror, which probably has its rise in the instinct of
+feminine sympathies.
+
+"Here is safety, noble ladies," said the youthful Venetian, in the soft
+accent of her native islands; "none will dare do you harm within these
+walls."
+
+"Into whose palace have I entered?" demanded the half-breathless
+Violetta. "If its owner has a name in Venice, he will not refuse
+hospitality to a daughter of Tiepolo."
+
+"Signora, you are welcome," returned the gentle girl, curtsying low, and
+still leading the way deeper within the vast edifice. "You bear the name
+of an illustrious house!"
+
+"There are few in the Republic of note, from whom I may not claim,
+either the kindness of ancient and near services, or that of kindred.
+Dost thou serve a noble master?"
+
+"The first in Venice, lady."
+
+"Name him, that we may demand his hospitality as befits us."
+
+"Saint Mark."
+
+Donna Violetta and her governess stopped short.
+
+"Have we unconsciously entered a portal of the palace?"
+
+"That were impossible, lady, since the canal lies between you and the
+residence of the Doge. Still is St. Mark master here. I hope you will
+not esteem your safety less, because it has been obtained in the public
+prison, and by the aid of its keeper's daughter."
+
+The moment for headlong decision was passed, and that of reflection had
+returned.
+
+"How art thou called, child?" asked Donna Florinda, moving ahead of her
+pupil and taking the discourse up, where in wonder the other had
+permitted it to pause. "We are truly grateful for the readiness with
+which thou threw open the gate for our admission, in a moment of such
+alarm--How art thou called?"
+
+"Gelsomina," answered the modest girl. "I am the keeper's only
+child--and when I saw ladies of your honorable condition fleeing on the
+quay, with the Dalmatians marching on one side, and a mob shouting on
+the other, I bethought me that even a prison might be welcome."
+
+"Thy goodness of heart did not mislead thee."
+
+"Had I known it was a lady of the Tiepolo, I should have been even more
+ready; for there are few of that great name now left to do us honor."
+
+Violetta curtsied to the compliment, but she seemed uneasy that haste
+and pride of rank had led her so indiscreetly to betray herself.
+
+"Canst thou not lead us to some place less public?" she asked,
+observing that her conductor had stopped in a public corridor to make
+this explanation.
+
+"Here you will be retired as in your own palaces, great ladies,"
+answered Gelsomina, turning into a private passage, and leading the way
+towards the rooms of her family, from a window of which she had first
+witnessed the embarrassment of her guests. "None enter here, without
+cause, but my father and myself; and my father is much occupied with his
+charge."
+
+"Hast thou no domestic?"
+
+"None, lady. A prison-keeper's daughter should not be too proud to serve
+herself."
+
+"Thou sayest well. One of thy discretion, good Gelsomina, must know it
+is not seemly for females of condition to be thrown within walls like
+these, even by accident, and thou wilt do us much favor, by taking more
+than common means to be certain that we are unseen. We give thee much
+trouble, but it shall not go unrequited. Here is gold."
+
+Gelsomina did not answer, but as she stood with her eyes cast to the
+floor, the color stole to her cheeks, until her usually bloodless face
+was in a soft glow.
+
+"Nay, I have mistaken thy character!" said Donna Florinda, secreting the
+sequins, and taking the unresisting hand of the silent girl. "If I have
+pained thee by my indiscretion, attribute the offer to our dread of the
+disgrace of being seen in this place."
+
+The glow deepened, and the lips of the girl quivered.
+
+"Is it then a disgrace to be innocently within these walls, lady?" she
+asked, still with an averted eye. "I have long suspected this, but none
+has ever before said it, in my hearing!"
+
+"Holy Maria pardon me! If I have uttered a syllable to pain thee,
+excellent girl, it has been unwittingly and without intention!"
+
+"We are poor, lady, and the needy must submit to do that which their
+wishes might lead them to avoid. I understand your feelings, and will
+make sure of your being secret, and Blessed Maria will pardon a greater
+sin than any you have committed here."
+
+While the ladies were wondering, at witnessing such proofs of delicacy
+and feeling in so singular a place, the girl withdrew.
+
+"I had not expected this in a prison!" exclaimed Violetta.
+
+"As all is not noble or just in a palace, neither is all to be condemned
+unheard, that we find in a prison. But this is, in sooth, an
+extraordinary girl for her condition, and we are indebted to blessed St.
+Theodore (crossing herself) for putting her in our way."
+
+"Can we do better than by making her a confidante and a friend?"
+
+The governess was older, and less disposed than her pupil to confide in
+appearances. But the more ardent mind and superior rank of the latter
+had given her an influence that the former did not always successfully
+resist. Gelsomina returned before there was time to discuss the prudence
+of what Violetta had proposed.
+
+"Thou hast a father, Gelsomina?" asked the Venetian heiress, taking the
+hand of the gentle girl, as she put her question.
+
+"Holy Maria be praised! I have still that happiness."
+
+"It is a happiness--for surely a father would not have the heart to sell
+his own child to ambition and mercenary hopes! And thy mother?"
+
+"Has long been bed-ridden, lady. I believe we should not have been here,
+but we have no other place so suitable for her sufferings as this jail."
+
+"Gelsomina, thou art happier than I, even in thy prison. I am
+fatherless--motherless--I could almost say, friendless."
+
+"And this from a lady of the Tiepolo!"
+
+"All is not as it seems in this evil world, kind Gelsomina. We have had
+many Doges, but we have had much suffering. Thou mayest have heard that
+the house of which I come is reduced to a single, youthful girl like
+thyself, who has been left in the Senate's charge?"
+
+"They speak little of these matters, lady, in Venice; and, of all here,
+none go so seldom into the square as I. Still have I heard of the beauty
+and riches of Donna Violetta. The last I hope is true; the first I now
+see is so."
+
+The daughter of Tiepolo colored, in turn, but it was not in resentment.
+
+"They have spoken in too much kindness for an orphan," she answered;
+"though that fatal wealth is perhaps not over-estimated. Thou knowest
+that the state charges itself with the care and establishment of all
+noble females, whom Providence has left fatherless?"
+
+"Lady, I did not. It is kind of St. Mark to do it!"
+
+"Thou wilt think differently, anon. Thou art young, Gelsomina, and hast
+passed thy time in privacy?"
+
+"True, lady. It is seldom I go further than my mother's room, or the
+cell of some suffering prisoner."
+
+Violetta looked towards her governess, with an expression which seemed
+to say, that she anticipated her appeal would be made in vain, to one so
+little exposed to the feelings of the world.
+
+"Thou wilt not understand, then, that a noble female may have little
+inclination to comply with all the Senate's wishes, in disposing of her
+duties and affections?"
+
+Gelsomina gazed at the fair speaker, but it was evident that she did not
+clearly comprehend the question. Again Violetta looked at the governess
+as if asking aid.
+
+"The duties of our sex are often painful," said Donna Florinda,
+understanding the appeal with female instinct. "Our attachments may not
+always follow the wishes of our friends. We may not choose, but we
+cannot always obey."
+
+"I have heard that noble ladies are not suffered to see those to whom
+they are to be wedded, Signora, if that is what your eccellenza means,
+and, to me, the custom has always seemed unjust, if not cruel."
+
+"And are females of thy class permitted to make friends among those who
+may become dearer at any other day?" asked Violetta.
+
+"Lady, we have that much freedom even in the prisons."
+
+"Then art thou happier than those of the palaces! I will trust thee,
+generous girl, for thou canst not be unfaithful to the weakness and
+wrongs of thy sex."
+
+Gelsomina raised a hand, as if to stop the impetuous confidence of her
+guest, and then she listened intently.
+
+"Few enter here," she said; "but there are many ways of learning secrets
+within these walls which are still unknown to me. Come deeper into the
+rooms, noble ladies, for here is a place that I have reason to think is
+safe, even from listeners."
+
+The keeper's daughter led the way into the little room in which she was
+accustomed to converse with Jacopo.
+
+"You were saying, lady, that I had a feeling for the weakness and
+helplessness of our sex, and surely you did me justice."
+
+Violetta had leisure to reflect an instant, in passing from one room to
+the other, and she began her communications with more reserve. But the
+sensitive interest that a being of the gentle nature and secluded habits
+of Gelsomina took in her narrative, won upon her own natural frankness,
+and, in a manner nearly imperceptible to herself, she made the keeper's
+daughter mistress of most of the circumstances under which she had
+entered the prison.
+
+The cheek of Gelsomina became colorless as she listened and when Donna
+Violetta ceased, every limb of her slight frame trembled with interest.
+
+"The Senate is a fearful power to resist!" she said, speaking so low as
+hardly to be audible. "Have you reflected, lady, on the chances of what
+you do?"
+
+"If I have not, it is now too late to change my intentions, I am the
+wife of the Duke of Sant' Agata, and can never wed another."
+
+"Gesu! This is true. And yet, methinks, I would choose to die a nun
+rather than offend the council!"
+
+"Thou knowest not, good girl, to what courage the heart of even a young
+wife is equal. Thou art still bound to thy father, in the instruction
+and habits of childhood, but thou mayest live to know that all thy hopes
+will centre in another."
+
+Gelsomina ceased to tremble, and her mild eye brightened.
+
+"The council is terrible," she answered, "but it must be more terrible
+to desert one to whom you have vowed duty and love at the altar!"
+
+"Hast thou the means of concealing us, kind girl," interrupted Donna
+Florinda, "and canst thou, when this tumult shall be quieted, in any
+manner help us to further secresy or flight?"
+
+"Lady, I have none. Even the streets and squares of Venice are nearly
+strangers to me. Santissima Maria! what would I give to know the ways of
+the town as well as my cousin Annina, who passes at will from her
+father's shop to the Lido, and from St. Mark's to the Rialto, as her
+pleasure suits. I will send for my cousin, who will counsel us in this
+fearful strait!"
+
+"Thy cousin! Hast thou a cousin named Annina?"
+
+"Lady, Annina. My mother's sister's child."
+
+"The daughter of a wine-seller called Tomaso Torti?"
+
+"Do the noble dames of the city take such heed of their inferiors! This
+will charm my cousin, for she has great desires to be noted by the
+great."
+
+"And does thy cousin come hither?"
+
+"Rarely, lady--we are not of much intimacy. I suppose Annina finds a
+girl, simple and uninstructed as I, unworthy of her company. But she
+will not refuse to aid us in a danger like this. I know she little loves
+the Republic, for we have had words on its acts, and my cousin has been
+bolder of speech about them, than befits one of her years, in this
+prison."
+
+"Gelsomina, thy cousin is a secret agent of the police, and unworthy of
+thy confidence--"
+
+"Lady!"
+
+"I do not speak without reason. Trust me, she is employed in duties that
+are unbecoming her sex, and unworthy of thy confidence."
+
+"Noble dames, I will not say anything to do displeasure to your high
+rank and present distress, but you should not urge me to think thus of
+my mother's niece. You have been unhappy, and you may have cause to
+dislike the Republic, and you are safe here--but I do not desire to hear
+Annina censured."
+
+Both Donna Florinda and her less experienced pupil knew enough of human
+nature, to consider this generous incredulity as a favorable sign of the
+integrity of her who manifested it, and they wisely contented themselves
+with stipulating that Annina should on no account be made acquainted
+with their situation. After this understanding, the three discussed more
+leisurely the prospect of the fugitives being able to quit the place,
+when ready, without detection.
+
+At the suggestion of the governess, a servitor of the prison was sent
+out by Gelsomina, to observe the state of the square. He was
+particularly charged, though in a manner to avoid suspicion, to search
+for a Carmelite of the order of the bare-footed friars. On his return,
+the menial reported that the mob had quitted the court of the palace,
+and was gone to the cathedral, with the body of the fisherman who had so
+unexpectedly gained the prize in the regatta of the preceding day.
+
+"Repeat your aves and go to sleep, Bella Gelsomina," concluded the
+sub-keeper, "for the fishermen have left off shouting to say their
+prayers. Per Diana! The bare-headed and bare-legged rascals are as
+impudent as if St. Mark were their inheritance! The noble patricians
+should give them a lesson in modesty, by sending every tenth knave among
+them to the galleys. Miscreants! to disturb the quiet of an orderly town
+with their vulgar complaints!"
+
+"But thou hast said nothing of the friar; is he with the rioters?"
+
+"There is a Carmelite at the altar--but my blood boiled at seeing such
+vagabonds disturb the peace of respectable persons, and I took little
+note of his air or years."
+
+"Then thou failedst to do the errand on which I sent thee. It is now too
+late to repair thy fault. Thou canst return to thy charge."
+
+"A million pardons, Bellissima Gelsomina, but indignation is the
+uppermost feeling, when one in office sees his rights attacked by the
+multitude. Send me to Corfu, or to Candia, if you please, and I will
+bring back the color of every stone in their prisons, but do not send me
+among rebels. My gorge rises at the sight of villany!"
+
+As the keeper's daughter withdrew, while her father's assistant was
+making this protestation of loyalty, the latter was compelled to give
+vent to the rest of his indignation in a soliloquy.
+
+One of the tendencies of oppression is to create a scale of tyranny,
+descending from those who rule a state, to those who domineer over a
+single individual. He, who has been much accustomed to view men, need
+not be told that none are so arrogant with their inferiors, as those who
+are oppressed by their superiors; for poor human nature has a secret
+longing to revenge itself on the weak for all the injuries it receives
+from the strong. On the other hand, no class is so willing to render
+that deference, when unexacted, which is the proper meed of virtue, and
+experience, and intelligence, as he who knows that he is fortified on
+every side against innovations on his natural rights. Thus it is, that
+there is more security against popular violence and popular insults in
+these free states, than in any other country on earth, for there is
+scarcely a citizen so debased as not to feel that, in assuming the
+appearance of a wish to revenge the chances of fortune, he is making an
+undue admission of inferiority.
+
+Though the torrent may be pent up and dammed by art, it is with the
+constant hazard of breaking down the unnatural barriers; but left to its
+own course, it will become the tranquil and the deep stream, until it
+finally throws off its superfluous waters into the common receptacle of
+the ocean.
+
+When Gelsomina returned to her visitors, it was with a report favorable
+to their tranquillity. The riot in the court of the palace, and the
+movement of the Dalmatians, had drawn all eyes in another direction; and
+although some errant gaze might have witnessed their entrance into the
+gate of the prison, it was so natural a circumstance, that no one would
+suspect females of their appearance of remaining there an instant longer
+than was necessary. The momentary absence of the few servants of the
+prison, who took little heed of those who entered the open parts of the
+building, and who had been drawn away by curiosity, completed their
+security. The humble room they were in was exclusively devoted to the
+use of their gentle protector, and there was scarcely a possibility of
+interruption, until the council had obtained the leisure and the means
+of making use of those terrible means, which rarely left anything it
+wished to know concealed.
+
+With this explanation Donna Violetta and her companion were greatly
+satisfied. It left them leisure to devise means for their flight, and
+kindled a hope, in the former, of being speedily restored to Don
+Camillo. Still there existed the cruel embarrassment of not possessing
+the means of acquainting the latter with their situation. As the tumult
+ceased, they resolved to seek a boat, avored by such disguises as the
+means of Gelsomina could supply, and to row to his palace; but
+reflection convinced Donna Florinda of the danger of such a step, since
+the Neapolitan was known to be surrounded by the agents of the police.
+Accident, which is more effectual than stratagem in defeating intrigues,
+had thrown them into a place of momentary security, and it would be to
+lose the vantage-ground of their situation to cast themselves, without
+the utmost caution, into the hazards of the public canals.
+
+At length the governess bethought her of turning the services of the
+gentle creature, who had already shown so much sympathy in their behalf,
+to account. During the revelations of her pupil, the feminine instinct
+of Donna Florinda had enabled her to discover the secret springs which
+moved the unpractised feelings of their auditor. Gelsomina had listened
+to the manner in which Don Camillo had thrown himself into the canal to
+save the life of Violetta, with breathless admiration; her countenance
+was a pure reflection of her thoughts, when the daughter of Tiepolo
+spoke of the risks he had run to gain her love, and woman glowed in
+every lineament of her mild face, when the youthful bride touched on the
+nature of the engrossing tie which had united them, and which was far
+too holy to be severed by the Senate's policy.
+
+"If we had the means of getting our situation to the ears of Don
+Camillo," said the governess, "all might yet be saved; else will this
+happy refuge in the prison avail us nothing."
+
+"Is the cavalier of too stout a heart to shrink before those up above?"
+demanded Gelsomina.
+
+"He would summon the people of his confidence, and ere the dawn of day
+we might still be beyond their power. Those calculating senators will
+deal with the vows of my pupil as if they were childish oaths, and set
+the anger of the Holy See itself at defiance, when there is question of
+their interest."
+
+"But the sacrament of marriage is not of man; that, at least, they will
+respect!"
+
+"Believe it not. There is no obligation so solemn as to be respected,
+when their policy is concerned. What are the wishes of a girl, or what
+the happiness of a solitary and helpless female, to their fortunes? That
+my charge is young, is a reason why their wisdom should interfere,
+though it is none to touch their hearts with the reflection that the
+misery to which they would condemn her, is to last the longer. They take
+no account of the solemn obligations of gratitude; the ties of affection
+are so many means of working upon the fears of those they rule, but none
+for forbearance; and they laugh at the devotedness of woman's love, as a
+folly to amuse their leisure, or to take off the edge of disappointment
+in graver concerns."
+
+"Can anything be more grave than wedlock, lady?"
+
+"To them it is important, as it furnishes the means of perpetuating
+their honors and their proud names. Beyond this, the council looks
+little at domestic interests."
+
+"They are fathers and husbands!"
+
+"True, for to be legally the first, they must become the last. Marriage
+to them is not a tie of sacred and dear affinity, but the means of
+increasing their riches and of sustaining their names," continued the
+governess, watching the effect of her words on the countenance of the
+guileless girl. "They call marriages of affection children's games, and
+they deal with the wishes of their own daughters, as they would traffic
+with their commodities of commerce. When a state sets up an idol of gold
+as its god, few will refuse to sacrifice at its altar!"
+
+"I would I might serve the noble Donna Violetta!"
+
+"Thou art too young, good Gelsomina, and I fear too little practised in
+the cunning of Venice."
+
+"Doubt me not, lady; for I can do my duty like another, in a good
+cause."
+
+"If it were possible to convey to Don Camillo Monforte a knowledge of
+our situation--but thou art too inexperienced for the service!"
+
+"Believe it not, Signora," interrupted the generous Gelsomina, whose
+pride began to stimulate her natural sympathies with one so near her own
+age, and one too, like herself, subject to that passion which engrosses
+a female heart. "I may be apter than my appearance would give reason to
+think."
+
+"I will trust thee, kind girl, and if the Sainted Virgin protects us,
+thy fortunes shall not be forgotten!"
+
+The pious Gelsomina crossed herself, and, first acquainting her
+companions with her intentions, she went within to prepare herself,
+while Donna Florinda penned a note, in terms so guarded as to defy
+detection in the event of accident, but which might suffice to let the
+lord of St. Agata understand their present situation.
+
+In a few minutes the keeper's daughter reappeared. Her ordinary attire,
+which was that of a modest Venetian maiden of humble condition, needed
+no concealment; and the mask, an article of dress which none in that
+city were without, effectually disguised her features. She then received
+the note, with the name of the street, and the palace she was to seek, a
+description of the person of the Neapolitan, with often-repeated
+cautions to be wary, and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  "Which is the wiser here?--Justice or iniquity?"
+                              MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
+
+
+In the constant struggle between the innocent and the artful, the latter
+have the advantage, so long as they confine themselves to familiar
+interests. But the moment the former conquer their disgust for the study
+of vice, and throw themselves upon the protection of their own high
+principles, they are far more effectually concealed from the
+calculations of their adversaries than if they practised the most
+refined of their subtle expedients. Nature has given to every man enough
+of frailty to enable him to estimate the workings of selfishness and
+fraud, but her truly privileged are those who can shroud their motives
+and intentions in a degree of justice and disinterestedness, which
+surpass the calculations of the designing. Millions may bow to the
+commands of a conventional right, but few, indeed, are they who know how
+to choose in novel and difficult cases. There is often a mystery in
+virtue. While the cunning of vice is no more than a pitiful imitation of
+that art which endeavors to cloak its workings in the thin veil of
+deception, the other, in some degree, resembles the sublimity of
+infallible truth.
+
+Thus men too much practised in the interests of life, constantly
+overreach themselves when brought in contact with the simple and
+intelligent; and the experience of every day proves that, as there is no
+fame permanent which is not founded on virtue, so there is no policy
+secure which is not bottomed on the good of the whole. Vulgar minds may
+control the concerns of a community so long as they arc limited to
+vulgar views; but woe to the people who confide on great emergencies in
+any but the honest, the noble, the wise, and the philanthropic; for
+there is no security for success when the meanly artful control the
+occasional and providential events which regenerate a nation. More than
+half the misery which has defeated as well as disgraced civilization,
+proceeds from neglecting to use those great men that are always created
+by great occasions.
+
+Treating, as we are, of the vices of the Venetian system, our pen has
+run truant with its subject, since the application of the moral must be
+made on the familiar scale suited to the incidents of our story. It has
+already been seen that Gelsomina was intrusted with certain important
+keys of the prison. For this trust there had been sufficient motive with
+the wily guardians of the jail, who had made their calculations on her
+serving their particular orders, without ever suspecting that she was
+capable of so far listening to the promptings of a generous temper, as
+might induce her to use them in any manner prejudicial to their own
+views. The service to which they were now to be applied proved that the
+keepers, one of whom was her own father, had not fully known how to
+estimate the powers of the innocent and simple.
+
+Provided with the keys in question, Gelsomina took a lamp and passed
+upwards from the mezzinino in which she dwelt, to the first floor of the
+edifice, instead of descending to its court. Door was opened after door,
+and many a gloomy corridor was passed by the gentle girl, with the
+confidence of one who knew her motive to be good. She soon crossed the
+Bridge of Sighs, fearless of interruption in that unfrequented gallery,
+and entered the palace. Here she made her way to a door that opened on
+the common and public vomitories of the structure. Moving with
+sufficient care to make impunity from detection sure, she extinguished
+the light and applied the key. At the next instant she was on the vast
+and gloomy stairway. It required but a moment to descend it, and to
+reach the covered gallery which surrounded the court. A halberdier was
+within a few feet of her. He looked at the unknown female with interest;
+but as it was not his business to question those who issued from the
+building, nothing was said. Gelsomina walked on. A half-repenting but
+vindictive being was dropping an accusation in the lion's mouth.
+Gelsomina stopped involuntarily until the secret accuser had done his
+treacherous work and departed. Then, when she was about to proceed, she
+saw that the halberdier at the head of the Giant's stairway was smiling
+at her indecision, like one accustomed to such scenes.
+
+"Is there danger in quitting the palace?" she asked of the rough
+mountaineer.
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! There might have been an hour since, Bella Donna; but
+the rioters are muzzled and at their prayers."
+
+Gelsomina hesitated no longer. She descended the well known flight, down
+which the head of Faliero had rolled, and was soon beneath the arch of
+the gate. Here the timid and unpractised maid again stopped, for she
+could not venture into the square without assuring herself, like a deer
+about to quit its cover, of the tranquillity of the place into which she
+was to enter.
+
+The agents of the police had been too much alarmed by the rising of the
+fishermen not to call their usual ingenuity and finesse into play, the
+moment the disturbance was appeased. Money had been given to the
+mountebanks and ballad singers to induce them to reappear, and groups of
+hirelings, some in masks and others without concealment, were
+ostentatiously assembled in different parts of the piazza. In short,
+those usual expedients were resorted to which are constantly used to
+restore the confidence of a people, in those countries in which
+civilization is so new, that they are not yet considered sufficiently
+advanced to be the guardians of their own security. There are few
+artifices so shallow that many will not be their dupes. The idler, the
+curious, the really discontented, the factious, the designing, with a
+suitable mixture of the unthinking, and of those who only live for the
+pleasure of the passing hour, a class not the least insignificant for
+numbers, had lent themselves to the views of the police; and when
+Gelsomina was ready to enter the Piazzetta, she found both the squares
+partly filled. A few excited fishermen clustered about the doors of the
+cathedral, like bees swarming before their hive; but, on that side,
+there was no very visible cause of alarm. Unaccustomed as she was to
+scenes like that before her, the first glance assured the gentle girl of
+the real privacy which so singularly distinguishes the solitude of a
+crowd. Gathering her simple mantle more closely about her form, and
+settling her mask with care, she moved with a swift step into the centre
+of the piazza.
+
+We shall not detail the progress of our heroine, as, avoiding the
+commonplace gallantry that assailed and offended her ear, she went her
+way on her errand of kindness. Young, active, and impelled by her
+intentions, the square was soon passed, and she reached the place of San
+Nico. Here was one of the landings of the public gondolas. But at the
+moment there was no boat in waiting, for curiosity or fear had induced
+the men to quit their usual stand. Gelsomina had ascended the bridge,
+and was on the crown of its arch, when a gondolier came sweeping lazily
+in from the direction of the Grand Canal. Her hesitation and doubting
+manner attracted his attention, and the man made the customary sign
+which conveyed the offer of his services. As she was nearly a stranger
+in the streets of Venice, labyrinths that offer greater embarrassment to
+the uninitiated than perhaps the passages of any other town of its size,
+she gladly availed herself of the offer. To descend to the steps, to
+leap into the boat, to utter the word "Rialto," and to conceal herself
+in the pavilion, was the business of a minute. The boat was instantly in
+motion.
+
+Gelsomina now believed herself secure of effecting her purpose, since
+there was little to apprehend from the knowledge or the designs of a
+common boatman. He could not know her object, and it was his interest to
+carry her in safety to the place she had commanded. But so important was
+success, that she could not feel secure of attaining it while it was
+still unaccomplished. She soon summoned sufficient resolution to look
+out at the palaces and boats they were passing, and she felt the
+refreshing air of the canal revive her courage. Then turning with a
+sensitive distrust to examine the countenance of the gondolier, she saw
+that his features were concealed beneath a mask that was so well
+designed, as not to be perceptible to a casual observer by moonlight.
+
+Though it was common on occasions for the servants of the great, it was
+not usual for the public gondoliers to be disguised. The circumstance
+itself was one justly to excite slight apprehension, though, on second
+thoughts, Gelsomina saw no more in it than a return from some expedition
+of pleasure, or some serenade perhaps, in which the caution of a lover
+had compelled his followers to resort to this species of concealment.
+
+"Shall I put you on the public quay, Signora," demanded the gondolier,"
+or shall I see you to the gate of your own palace?"
+
+The heart of Gelsomina beat high. She liked the tone of the voice,
+though it was necessarily smothered by the mask, but she was so little
+accustomed to act in the affairs of others, and less still in any of so
+great interest, that the sounds caused her to tremble like one less
+worthily employed.
+
+"Dost thou know the palace of a certain Don Camillo Monforte, a lord of
+Calabria, who dwells here in Venice?" she asked, after a moment's pause.
+The gondolier sensibly betrayed surprise, by the manner in which he
+started at the question.
+
+"Would you be rowed there, lady?"
+
+"If thou art certain of knowing the palazzo."
+
+The water stirred, and the gondola glided between high walls. Gelsomina
+knew by the sound that they were in one of the smaller canals, and she
+augured well of the boatman's knowledge of the town. They soon stopped
+by the side of a water-gate, and the man appeared on the step, holding
+an arm to aid her in ascending, after the manner of people of his craft.
+Gelsomina bade him wait her return, and proceeded.
+
+There was a marked derangement in the household of Don Camillo, that one
+more practised than our heroine would have noted. The servants seemed
+undecided in the manner of performing the most ordinary duties; their
+looks wandered distrustfully from one to another, and when their
+half-frightened visitor entered the vestibule, though all arose, none
+advanced to meet her. A female masked was not a rare sight in Venice,
+for few of that sex went upon the canals without using the customary
+means of concealment; but it would seem by their hesitating manner that
+the menials of Don Camillo did not view the entrance of her who now
+appeared with the usual indifference.
+
+"I am in the dwelling of the Duke of St. Agata, a Signore of Calabria?"
+demanded Gelsomina, who saw the necessity of being firm.
+
+"Signora, si----"
+
+"Is your lord in the palace?"
+
+"Signora, he is--and he is not. What beautiful lady shall I tell him
+does him this honor?"
+
+"If he be not at home it will not be necessary to tell him anything. If
+he is, I could wish to see him."
+
+The domestics, of whom there were several, put their heads together,
+and seemed to dispute on the propriety of receiving the visit. At this
+instant a gondolier in a flowered jacket entered the vestibule.
+Gelsomina took courage at his good-natured eye and frank manner.
+
+"Do you serve Don Camillo Monforte?" she asked, as he passed her, on his
+way to the canal.
+
+"With the oar, Bellissima Donna," answered Gino, touching his cap,
+though scarce looking aside at the question.
+
+"And could he be told that a female wishes earnestly to speak to him in
+private?--A female."
+
+"Santa Maria! Bella Donna, there is no end to females who come on these
+errands in Venice. You might better pay a visit to the statue of San
+Teodore, in the piazza, than see my master at this moment; the stone
+will give you the better reception."
+
+"And this he commands you to tell all of my sex who come!"
+
+"Diavolo! Lady, you are particular in your questions. Perhaps my master
+might, on a strait, receive one of the sex I could name, but on the
+honor of a gondolier he is not the most gallant cavalier of Venice, just
+at this moment."
+
+"If there is one to whom he would pay this deference, you are bold for a
+servitor. How know you I am not that one?"
+
+Gino started. He examined the figure of the applicant, and lifting his
+cap, he bowed.
+
+"Lady, I do not know anything about it," he said; "you may be his
+Highness the Doge, or the ambassador of the emperor. I pretend to know
+nothing in Venice of late----"
+
+The words of Gino were cut short by a tap on the shoulder from the
+public gondolier, who had hastily entered the vestibule. The man
+whispered in the ear of Don Camillo's servitor.
+
+"This is not a moment to refuse any," he said. "Let the stranger go up."
+
+Gino hesitated no longer. With the decision of a favored menial he
+pushed the groom of the chambers aside, and offered to conduct Gelsomina
+himself to the presence of his master. As they ascended the stairs,
+three of the inferior servants disappeared.
+
+The palace of Don Camillo had an air of more than Venetian gloom. The
+rooms were dimly lighted, many of the walls had been stripped of the
+most precious of their pictures, and in other respects a jealous eye
+might have detected evidence of a secret intention, on the part of its
+owner, not to make a permanent residence of the dwelling. But these were
+particulars that Gelsomina did not note, as she followed Gino through
+the apartments, into the more private parts of the building. Here the
+gondolier unlocked a door, and regarding his companion with an air,
+half-doubting, half-respectful, he made a sign for her to enter.
+
+"My master commonly receives the ladies here," he said. "Enter,
+eccellenza, while I run to tell him of his happiness."
+
+Gelsomina did not hesitate, though she felt a violent throb at the heart
+when she heard the key turning in the lock behind her. She was in an
+ante-chamber, and inferring from the light which shone through the door
+of an adjoining room that she was to proceed, she went on. No sooner had
+she entered the little closet than she found herself alone, with one of
+her own sex.
+
+"Annina!" burst from the lips of the unpractised prison-girl, under the
+impulse of surprise.
+
+"Gelsomina! The simple, quiet, whispering, modest Gelsomina!" returned
+the other.
+
+The words of Annina admitted but of one construction. Wounded, like the
+bruised sensitive plant, Gelsomina withdrew her mask for air, actually
+gasping for breath, between offended pride and wonder.
+
+"Thou here!" she added, scarce knowing-what she uttered.
+
+"Thou here!" repeated Annina, with such a laugh as escapes the degraded
+when they believe the innocent reduced to their own level.
+
+"Nay, I come on an errand of pity."
+
+"Santa Maria! we are both here with the same end!"
+
+"Annina! I know not what thou would'st say! This is surely the palace of
+Don Camillo Monforte! a noble Neapolitan, who urges claims to the honors
+of the Senate?"
+
+"The gayest, the handsomest, the richest, and the most inconstant
+cavalier in Venice! Hadst thou been here a thousand times thou could'st
+not be better informed!"
+
+Gelsomina listened in horror. Her artful cousin, who knew her character
+to the full extent that vice can comprehend innocence, watched her
+colorless cheek and contracting eye with secret triumph. At the first
+moment she had believed all that she insinuated, but second thoughts and
+a view of the visible distress of the frightened girl gave a new
+direction to her suspicions.
+
+"But I tell thee nothing new," she quickly added. "I only regret thou
+should'st find me, where, no doubt, you expected to meet the Duca di
+Sant' Agata himself."
+
+"Annina!--This from thee!"
+
+"Thou surely didst not come to his palace to seek thy cousin!"
+
+Gelsomina had long been familiar with grief, but until this moment she
+had never felt the deep humiliation of shame. Tears started from her
+eyes, and she sank back into a seat, in utter inability to stand.
+
+"I would not distress thee out of bearing," added the artful daughter of
+the wine-seller. "But that we are both in the closet of the gayest
+cavalier of Venice, is beyond dispute."
+
+"I have told thee that pity for another brought me hither."
+
+"Pity for Don Camillo."
+
+"For a noble lady--a young, a virtuous, and a beautiful wife--a daughter
+of the Tiepolo--of the Tiepolo, Annina!"
+
+"Why should a lady of the Tiepolo employ a girl of the public prisons!"
+
+"Why!--because there has been injustice by those up above. There has
+been a tumult among the fishermen--and the lady and her governess were
+liberated by the rioters--and his Highness spoke to them in the great
+court--and the Dalmatians were on the quay--and the prison was a refuge
+for ladies of their quality, in a moment of so great terror--and the
+Holy Church itself has blessed their love--"
+
+Gelsomina could utter no more, but breathless with the wish to vindicate
+herself, and wounded to the soul by the strange embarrassment of her
+situation, she sobbed aloud. Incoherent as had been her language, she
+had said enough to remove every doubt from the mind of Annina. Privy to
+the secret marriage, to the rising of the fishermen, and to the
+departure of the ladies from the convent on a distant island, where they
+had been carried on quitting their own palace, the preceding night, and
+whither she had been compelled to conduct Don Camillo, who had
+ascertained the departure of those he sought without discovering their
+destination, the daughter of the wine-seller readily comprehended, not
+only the errand of her cousin, but the precise situation of the
+fugitives.
+
+"And thou believest this fiction, Gelsomina?" she said, affecting pity
+for her cousin's credulity. "The characters of thy pretended daughter of
+Tiepolo and her governess are no secrets to those who frequent the
+piazza of San Marco."
+
+"Hadst thou seen the beauty and innocence of the lady, Annina, thou
+would'st not say this!"
+
+"Blessed San Teodoro! What is more beautiful than vice! 'Tis the
+cheapest artifice of the devil to deceive frail sinners. This thou hast
+heard of thy confessor, Gelsomina, or he is of much lighter discourse
+than mine."
+
+"But why should a woman of this life enter the prisons?"
+
+"They had good reasons to dread the Dalmatians, no doubt. But it is in
+my power to tell thee more, of these thou hast entertained, with such
+peril to thine own reputation. There are women in Venice who discredit
+their sex in various ways, and of these more particularly she who calls
+herself Florinda, is notorious for her agency in robbing St. Mark of his
+revenue. She has received a largess from the Neapolitan, of wines grown
+on his Calabrian mountains, and wishing to tamper with my honesty, she
+offered the liquor to me, expecting one like me to forget my duty, and
+to aid her in deceiving the Republic."
+
+"Can this be true, Annina!"
+
+"Why should I deceive thee! Are we not sisters' children, and though
+affairs on the Lido keep me much from thy company, is not the love
+between us natural! I complained to the authorities, and the liquors
+were seized, and the pretended noble ladies were obliged to hide
+themselves this very day. 'Tis thought they wish to flee the city with
+their profligate Neapolitan. Driven to take shelter, they have sent thee
+to acquaint him with their hiding-place, in order that he may come to
+their aid."
+
+"And why art thou here, Annina?"
+
+"I marvel that thou didst not put the question sooner. Gino, the
+gondolier of Don Camillo, has long been an unfavored suitor of mine, and
+when this Florinda complained of my having, what every honest girl in
+Venice should do, exposed her fraud to the authorities, she advised his
+master to seize me, partly in revenge, and partly with the vain hope of
+making me retract the complaint I have made. Thou hast heard of the
+bold violence of these cavaliers when thwarted in their wills."
+
+Annina then related the manner of her seizure, with sufficient
+exactitude, merely concealing those facts that it was not her interest
+to reveal.
+
+"But there is a lady of the Tiepolo, Annina!"
+
+"As sure as there are cousins like ourselves. Santa Madre di Dio! that
+woman so treacherous and so bold should have met one of thy innocence!
+It would have been better had they fallen in with me, who am too
+ignorant for their cunning, blessed St. Anna knows!--but who have not to
+learn their true characters."
+
+"They did speak of thee, Annina!"
+
+The glance which the wine-seller's daughter threw at her cousin, was
+such as the treacherous serpent casts at the bird; but preserving her
+self-possession she added--
+
+"Not to my favor; it would sicken me to hear words of favor from such as
+they!"
+
+"They are not thy friends, Annina."
+
+"Perhaps they told thee, child, that I was in the employment of the
+council?"
+
+"Indeed they did."
+
+"No wonder. Your dishonest people can never believe one can do an act of
+pure conscience. But here comes the Neapolitan.--Note the libertine,
+Gelsomina, and thou wilt feel for him the same disgust as I!"
+
+The door opened, and Don Camillo Monforte entered. There was an
+appearance of distrust in his manner, which proved that he did not
+expect to meet his bride. Gelsomina arose, and, though bewildered by the
+tale of her cousin, and her own previous impressions, she stood
+resembling a meek statue of modesty, awaiting his approach. The
+Neapolitan was evidently struck by her beauty, and the simplicity of her
+air, but his brow was fixed, like that of a man who had steeled his
+feelings against deceit.
+
+"Thou would'st see me?" he said.
+
+"I had that wish, noble Signore, but--Annina--"
+
+"Seeing another, thy mind hath changed."
+
+"Signore, it has."
+
+Don Camillo looked at her earnestly, and with manly regret.
+
+"Thou art young for thy vocation--here is gold. Retire as thou
+earnest.--But hold--dost thou know this Annina?"
+
+"She is my mother's sister's daughter, noble Duca.
+
+"Per Diana! a worthy sisterhood! Depart together, for I have no need of
+either. But mark me," and as he spoke, Don Camillo took Annina by the
+arm, and led her aside, when he continued with a low but menacing
+voice--"Thou seest I am to be feared, as well as thy Councils. Thou
+canst not cross the threshold of thy father without my knowledge. If
+prudent, thou wilt teach thy tongue discretion. Do as thou wilt, I fear
+thee not; but remember, prudence."
+
+Annina made an humble reverence, as if in acknowledgment of the wisdom
+of his advice, and taking the arm of her half-unconscious cousin, she
+again curtsied, and hurried from the room. As the presence of their
+master in his closet was known to them, none of the menials presumed to
+stop those who issued from the privileged room. Gelsomina, who was even
+more impatient than her wily companion to escape from a place she
+believed polluted, was nearly breathless when she reached the gondola.
+Its owner was in waiting on the steps, and in a moment the boat whirled
+away from a spot which both of those it contained were, though for
+reasons so very different, glad to quit.
+
+Gelsomina had forgotten her mask in her hurry, and the gondola was no
+sooner in the great canal than she put her face at the window of the
+pavilion in quest of the evening air. The rays of the moon fell upon her
+guileless eye, and a cheek that was now glowing, partly with offended
+pride, and partly with joy at her escape from a situation she felt to
+be so degrading. Her forehead was touched with a finger, and turning she
+saw the gondolier making a sign of caution. He then slowly lifted his
+mask.
+
+"Carlo!" had half burst from her lips, but another sign suppressed the
+cry.
+
+Gelsomina withdrew her head, and, after her beating heart had ceased to
+throb, she bowed her face and murmured thanksgivings at finding herself,
+at such a moment, under the protection of one who possessed all her
+confidence.
+
+The gondolier asked no orders for his direction. The boat moved on,
+taking the direction of the port, which appeared perfectly natural to
+the two females.
+
+Annina supposed it was returning to the square, the place she would have
+sought had she been alone, and Gelsomina, who believed that he whom she
+called Carlo, toiled regularly as a gondolier for support, fancied, of
+course, that he was taking her to her ordinary residence.
+
+But though the innocent can endure the scorn of the world, it is hard
+indeed to be suspected by those they love. All that Annina had told her
+of the character of Don Camillo and his associates came gradually across
+the mind of the gentle Gelsomina, and she felt the blood creeping to her
+temples, as she saw the construction her lover might put on her conduct.
+A dozen times did the artless girl satisfy herself with saying inwardly,
+"he knows me and will believe the best," and as often did her feelings
+prompt her to tell the truth. Suspense is far more painful, at such
+moments, than even vindication, which, in itself, is a humiliating duty
+to the virtuous. Pretending a desire to breathe the air, she left her
+cousin in the canopy. Annina was not sorry to be alone, for she had need
+to reflect on all the windings of the sinuous path on which she had
+entered.
+
+Gelsomina succeeded in passing the pavilion, and in gaining the side of
+the gondolier.
+
+"Carlo!"--she said, observing that he continued to row in silence.
+
+"Gelsomina!"
+
+"Thou hast not questioned me!"
+
+"I know thy treacherous cousin, and can believe thou art her dupe. The
+moment to learn the truth will come."
+
+"Thou didst not know me, Carlo, when I called thee from the bridge?"
+
+"I did not. Any fare that would occupy my time was welcome."
+
+"Why dost thou call Annina treacherous?"
+
+"Because Venice does not hold a more wily heart, or a falser tongue."
+
+Gelsomina remembered the warning of Donna Florinda. Possessed of the
+advantage of blood, and that reliance which the inexperienced always
+place in the integrity of their friends, until exposure comes to destroy
+the illusion, Annina had found it easy to persuade her cousin of the
+unworthiness of her guests. But here was one who had all her sympathies,
+who openly denounced Annina herself. In such a dilemma the bewildered
+girl did what nature and her feelings suggested. She recounted, in a low
+but rapid voice, the incidents of the evening, and Annina's construction
+of the conduct of the females whom she had left behind in the prison.
+
+Jacopo listened so intently that his oar dragged in the water.
+
+"Enough," he said, when Gelsomina, blushing with her own earnestness to
+stand exculpated in his eyes, had done; "I understand it all. Distrust
+thy cousin, for the Senate itself is not more false."
+
+The pretended Carlo spoke cautiously, but in a firm voice. Gelsomina
+took his meaning, though wondering at what she heard, and returned to
+Annina within. The gondola proceeded, as if nothing had occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  "Enough.
+  I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee;
+  Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee:
+  Remember."
+                                 KING JOHN.
+
+
+Jacopo was deeply practised in the windings of Venetian deceit. He knew
+how unceasingly the eyes of the Councils, through their agents, were on
+the movements of those in whom they took an interest, and he was far
+from feeling all the advantage circumstances had seemingly thrown in his
+way. Annina was certainly in his power, and it was not possible that she
+had yet communicated the intelligence, derived from Gelsomina, to any of
+her employers. But a gesture, a look in passing the prison-gates, the
+appearance of duresse, or an exclamation, might give the alarm to some
+one of the thousand spies of the police. The disposal of Annina's person
+in some place of safety, therefore, became the first and the most
+material act. To return to the palace of Don Camillo, would be to go
+into the midst of the hirelings of the Senate; and although the
+Neapolitan, relying on his rank and influence, had preferred this step,
+when little importance was attached to the detention of the girl, and
+when all she knew had been revealed, the case was altered, now that she
+might become the connecting link in the information necessary to enable
+the officers to find the fugitives.
+
+The gondola moved on. Palace after palace was passed, and the impatient
+Annina thrust her head from a window to note its progress. They came
+among the shipping of the port, and her uneasiness sensibly increased.
+Making? pretext similar to that of Gelsomina, the wine-seller's daughter
+quitted the pavilion, to steal to the side of the gondolier.
+
+"I would be landed quickly at the water-gate of the Doge's palace," she
+said, slipping a piece of silver into the hand of the boatman.
+
+"You shall be served, Bella Donna. But--Diamine! I marvel that a girl of
+thy wit should not scent the treasures in yonder felucca!"
+
+"Dost thou mean the Sorrentine?"
+
+"What other padrone brings as well flavored liquors within the Lido!
+Quiet thy impatience to land, daughter of honest old Maso, and traffic
+with the padrone, for the comfort of us of the canals."
+
+"How! Thou knowest me, then?"
+
+"To be the pretty wine-seller of the Lido. Corpo di Bacco! Thou art as
+well known as the sea-wall itself to us gondoliers."
+
+"Why art thou masked? Thou canst not be Luigi!"
+
+"It is little matter whether I am called Luigi, or Enrico, or Giorgio; I
+am thy customer, and honor the shortest hair of thy eyebrows. Thou
+knowest, Annina, that the young patricians have their frolics, and they
+swear us gondoliers to keep secret till all danger of detection is over;
+were any impertinent eyes following me, I might be questioned as to the
+manner of having passed the earlier hours."
+
+"Methinks it would be better to have given thee gold, and to have sent
+thee at once to thy home."
+
+"To be followed like a denounced Hebrew to my door. When I have
+confounded my boat with a thousand others it will be time to uncover.
+Wilt thou to the Bella Sorrentina?"
+
+"Nay, 'tis not necessary to ask, since thou takest the direction of
+thine own will?"
+
+The gondolier laughed and nodded his head, as if he would give his
+companion to understand that he was master of her secret wishes. Annina
+was hesitating in what manner she should make him change his purpose,
+when the gondola touched the felucca's side.
+
+"We will go up and speak to the padrone," whispered Jacopo.
+
+"It is of no avail; he is without liquors."
+
+"Trust him not; I know the man and his pretences,"
+
+"Thou forgettest my cousin."
+
+"She is an innocent and unsuspecting child."
+
+Jacopo lifted Annina, as he spoke, on the deck of the Bella Sorrentina,
+in a manner between gallantry and force, and leaped after her. Without
+pausing, or suffering her to rally her thoughts, he led her to the cabin
+stairs, which she descended, wondering at his conduct, but determined
+not to betray her own secret wrongs on the customs to a stranger.
+
+Stefano Milano was asleep in a sail on deck. A touch aroused him, and a
+sign gave him to understand that the imaginary Roderigo stood before
+him.
+
+"A thousand pardons, Signore," said the gaping mariner; "is the freight
+come?"
+
+"In part only. I have brought thee a certain Annina Torti, the daughter
+of old Tommaso Torti, a wine-seller of the Lido."
+
+"Santa Madre! does the Senate think it necessary to send one like her
+from the city in secret?"
+
+"It does; and it lays great stress on her detention. I have come hither
+with her, without suspicion of my object, and she has been prevailed on
+to enter thy cabin, under a pretence of some secret dealings in wines.
+According to our former understanding, it will be thy business to make
+sure of her presence."
+
+"That is easily done," returned Stefano, stepping forward and closing
+the cabin-door, which he secured by a bolt.
+
+"She is alone, now, with the image of our Lady, and a better occasion
+to repeat her aves cannot offer."
+
+"This is well, if thou canst keep her so. It is now time to lift thy
+anchors, and to go beyond the tiers of the vessels with the felucca."
+
+"Signore, there wants but five minutes for that duty, since we are
+ready."
+
+"Then perform it, in all speed, for much depends on the management of
+this delicate duty. I will be with thee anon. Harkee, Master Stefano;
+take heed of thy prisoner, for the Senate makes great account of her
+security."
+
+The Calabrian made such a gesture, as one initiated uses, when he would
+express a confidence in his own shrewdness. While the pretended Roderigo
+re-entered his gondola, Stefano began to awaken his people. As the
+gondola entered the canal of San Marco, the sails of the felucca fell,
+and the low Calabrian vessel stole along the tiers towards the clear
+water beyond.
+
+The boat quickly touched the steps of the water-gate of the palace.
+Gelsomina entered the arch, and glided up the Giant's Stairway, the
+route by which she had quitted the palace. The halberdier was the same
+that watched as she went out. He spoke to her, in gallantry, but offered
+no impediment to her entrance.
+
+"Haste, noble ladies, hasten for the love of the Holy Virgin!" exclaimed
+Gelsomina, as she burst into the room in which Donna Violetta and her
+companion awaited her appearance. "I have endangered your liberty by my
+weakness, and there is not a moment to lose. Follow while you may, nor
+stop to whisper even a prayer."
+
+"Thou art hurried and breathless," returned Donna Florinda; "hast thou
+seen the Duca di Sant' Agata?"
+
+"Nay, question me not, but follow, noble dames." Gelsomina seized the
+lamp, and casting a glance that appealed strongly to her visitors for
+tacit compliance, she led the way into the corridors. It is scarcely
+necessary to say that she was followed.
+
+The prison was left in safety, the Bridge of Sighs was passed, for it
+will be remembered that Gelsomina was still mistress of the keys, and
+the party went swiftly by the great stairs of the palace into the open
+gallery. No obstruction was offered to their progress, and they all
+descended to the court, with the quiet demeanor of females who went out
+on their ordinary affairs.
+
+Jacopo awaited at the water-gate. In less than a minute he was driving
+his gondola across the port, following the course of the felucca, whose
+white sail was visible in the moonlight, now bellying in the breeze, and
+now flapping as the mariners checked her speed. Gelsomina watched their
+progress for a moment in breathless interest, and then she crossed the
+bridge of the quay, and entered the prison by its public gate.
+
+"Hast thou made sure of the old 'Maso's daughter?" demanded Jacopo, on
+reaching the deck of the Bella Sorrentina again.
+
+"She is like shifting ballast, Master Roderigo; first on one side of the
+cabin, and then on the other; but you see the bolt is undrawn."
+
+"'Tis well: here is more of thy freight; thou hast the proper passes for
+the galley of the guard?"
+
+"All is in excellent order, Signore; when was Stefano Milano out of rule
+in a matter of haste? Diamine! let the breeze come, and though the
+Senate should wish us back again, it might send all its sbirri after us
+in vain."
+
+"Excellent, Stefano! fill thy sails, then, for our masters watch your
+movements, and set a value on your diligence."
+
+While the Calabrian complied, Jacopo assisted the females to come up out
+of the gondola. In a moment the heavy yards swung off, wing and wing,
+and the bubbles that appeared to glance past the side of the Bella
+Sorrentina, denoted her speed.
+
+"Thou hast noble ladies in thy passengers," said Jacopo to the padrone,
+when the latter was released from the active duties of getting his
+vessel in motion; "and though policy requires that they should quit the
+city for a time, thou wilt gain favor by consulting their pleasures."
+
+"Doubt me not, Master Roderigo; but thou forgettest that I have not yet
+received my sailing instructions; a felucca without a course is as badly
+off as an owl in the sun."
+
+"That in good time; there will come an officer of the Republic to settle
+this matter with thee. I would not have these noble ladies know, that
+one like Annina is to be their fellow-passenger, while they are near the
+port; for they might complain of disrespect. Thou understandest,
+Stefano?"
+
+"Cospetto! am I a fool? a blunderer? if so, why does the Senate employ
+me? the girl is out of hearing, and there let her stay. As long as the
+noble dames are willing to breathe the night air, they shall have none
+of her company."
+
+"No fear of them. The dwellers of the land little relish the pent air of
+thy cabin. Thou wilt go without the Lido, Stefano, and await my coming.
+If thou should'st not see me before the hour of one, bear away for the
+port of Ancona, where thou wilt get further tidings."
+
+Stefano, who had often previously received his instructions from the
+imaginary Roderigo, nodded assent, and they parted. It is scarcely
+necessary to add, that the fugitives had been fully instructed in the
+conduct they were to maintain.
+
+The gondola of Jacopo never flew faster, than he now urged it towards
+the land. In the constant passage of the boats, the movements of one
+were not likely to be remarked; and he found, when he reached the quay
+of the square, that his passing and repassing had not been observed. He
+boldly unmasked and landed. It was near the hour when he had given Don
+Camillo a rendezvous in the piazza, and he walked slowly up the smaller
+square, towards the appointed place of meeting.
+
+Jacopo, as has been seen in an earlier chapter, had a practice of
+walking near the columns of granite in the first hours of the night. It
+was the vulgar impression that he waited there for custom in his bloody
+calling, as men of more innocent lives take their stands in places of
+mark. When seen on his customary stand, he was avoided by all who were
+chary of their character, or scrupulous of appearances.
+
+The persecuted and yet singularly tolerated Bravo, was slowly pacing the
+flags on his way to the appointed place, unwilling to anticipate the
+moment, when a laquais thrust a paper into his hand, and disappeared as
+fast as legs would carry him. It has been seen that Jacopo could not
+read, for that was an age when men of his class were studiously kept in
+ignorance. He turned to the first passenger who had the appearance of
+being likely to satisfy his wishes, and desired him to do the office of
+interpreter.
+
+He had addressed an honest shop-keeper of a distant quarter. The man
+took the scroll, and good-naturedly commenced reading its contents
+aloud. "I am called away, and cannot meet thee, Jacopo!" At the name of
+Jacopo, the tradesman dropped the paper and fled.
+
+The Bravo walked slowly back again towards the quay, ruminating on the
+awkward accident which had crossed his plans; his elbow was touched, and
+a masker confronted him when he turned.
+
+"Thou art Jacopo Frontoni?" said the stranger.
+
+"None else."
+
+"Thou hast a hand to serve an employer faithfully?"
+
+"I keep my faith."
+
+"'Tis well, thou wilt find a hundred sequins in this sack."
+
+"Whose life is set against this gold?" asked Jacopo, in an under tone.
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte."
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte!"
+
+"The same; dost thou know the rich noble!"
+
+"You have well described him, Signore. He would pay his barber this for
+letting blood."
+
+"Do thy job thoroughly, and the price shall be doubled."
+
+"I want the security of a name. I know you not, Signore."
+
+The stranger looked cautiously around him, and raising his mask for an
+instant, he showed the countenance of Giacomo Gradenigo.
+
+"Is the pledge sufficient?"
+
+"Signore, it is. When must this deed be done?"
+
+"This night. Nay, this hour, even."
+
+"Shall I strike a noble of his rank in his palace--in his very
+pleasures?"
+
+"Come hither, Jacopo, and thou shalt know more. Hast thou a mask?"
+
+The Bravo signified his assent.
+
+"Then keep thy face behind a cloud, for it is not in favor here, and
+seek thy boat. I will join thee."
+
+The young patrician, whose form was effectually concealed by his attire,
+quitted his companion, with a view of rejoining him anew, where his
+person should not be known. Jacopo forced his boat from among the crowd
+at the quay, and having entered the open space between the tiers, he lay
+on his oar, well knowing that he was watched, and that he would soon be
+followed. His conjecture was right, for in a few moments a gondola
+pulled swiftly to the side of his own, and two men in masks passed from
+the strange boat into that of the Bravo, without speaking.
+
+"To the Lido," said a voice, which Jacopo knew to be that of his new
+employer.
+
+He was obeyed, the boat of Giacomo Gradenigo following at a little
+distance. When they were without the tiers, and consequently beyond the
+danger of being overheard, the two passengers came out of the pavilion,
+and made a sign to the Bravo to cease rowing.
+
+"Thou wilt accept the service, Jacopo Frontoni?" demanded the profligate
+heir of the old senator.
+
+"Shall I strike the noble in his pleasures, Signore?"
+
+"It is not necessary. We have found means to lure him from his palace,
+and he is now in thy power, with no other hope than that which may come
+from his single arm and courage. Wilt thou take the service?"
+
+"Gladly, Signore--It is my humor to encounter the brave."
+
+"Thou wilt be gratified. The Neapolitan has thwarted me in my--shall I
+call it love, Hosea; or hast thou a better name?"
+
+"Just Daniel! Signor Giacomo, you have no respect for reputations and
+surety! I see no necessity for a home thrust, Master Jacopo; but a smart
+wound, that may put matrimony out of the head of the Duca for a time at
+least, and penitence into its place, would be better--"
+
+"Strike to the heart!" interrupted Giacomo. "It is the certainty of thy
+blow which has caused me to seek thee."
+
+"This is usurious vengeance, Signor Giacomo," returned the less resolute
+Jew. "'Twill be more than sufficient for our purposes, if we cause the
+Neapolitan to keep house for a month."
+
+"Send him to his grave. Harkee, Jacopo, a hundred for thy blow--a second
+for insurance of its depth--a third if the body shall be buried in the
+Orfano, so that the water will never give back the secret."
+
+"If the two first must be performed, the last will be prudent caution,"
+muttered the Jew, who was a wary villain, and who greatly preferred such
+secondary expedients as might lighten the load on his conscience. "You
+will not trust, young Signore, to a smart wound?"
+
+"Not a sequin. 'Twill be heating the fancy of the girl with hopes and
+pity. Dost thou accept the terms, Jacopo?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then row to the Lido. Among the graves of Hosea's people--why dost thou
+pull at my skirts, Jew! would'st thou hope to deceive a man of this
+character with a flimsy lie--among the graves of Hosea's people thou
+wilt meet Don Camillo within the hour. He is deluded by a pretended
+letter from the lady of our common pursuit, and will be alone, in the
+hopes of flight; I trust to thee to hasten the latter, so far as the
+Neapolitan is concerned. Dost take my meaning?"
+
+"Signore, it is plain."
+
+"'Tis enough. Thou knowest me, and can take the steps necessary for thy
+reward as thou shalt serve me. Hosea, our affair is ended."
+
+Giacomo Gradenigo made a sign for his gondola to approach, and dropping
+a sack which contained the retainer in this bloody business, he passed
+into it with the indifference of one who had been accustomed to consider
+such means of attaining his object lawful. Not so Hosea: he was a rogue
+rather than a villain. The preservation of his money, with the
+temptation of a large sum which had been promised him by both father and
+son in the event of the latter's success with Violetta, were
+irresistible temptations to one who had lived contemned by those around
+him, and he found his solace for the ruthless attempt in the acquisition
+of those means of enjoyment which are sought equally by Christian and
+Jew. Still his blood curdled at the extremity to which Giacomo would
+push the affair, and he lingered to utter a parting word to the Bravo.
+
+"Thou art said to carry a sure stiletto, honest Jacopo," he whispered.
+"A hand of thy practice must know how to maim as well as to slay.
+Strike the Neapolitan smartly, but spare his life. Even the bearer of a
+public dagger like thine may not fare the worse, at the coming of
+Shiloh, for having been tender of his strength on occasion."
+
+"Thou forgettest the gold, Hosea!"
+
+"Father Abraham! what a memory am I getting in my years! Thou sayest
+truth, mindful Jacopo; the gold shall be forthcoming in any
+event--always provided that the affair is so managed as to leave my
+young friend a successful adventurer with the heiress."
+
+Jacopo made an impatient gesture, for at that moment he saw a gondolier
+pulling rapidly towards a private part of the Lido. The Hebrew joined
+his companion, and the boat of the Bravo darted ahead. It was not long
+ere it lay on the strand of the Lido. The steps of Jacopo were rapid, as
+he moved towards those proscribed graves among which he had made his
+confession to the very man he was now sent to slay.
+
+"Art thou sent to meet me?" demanded one who started from behind a
+rising in the sands, but who took the precaution to bare his rapier as
+he appeared.
+
+"Signor Duca, I am," returned the Bravo, unmasking.
+
+"Jacopo! This is even better than I had hoped. Hast thou tidings from my
+bride?"
+
+"Follow, Don Camillo, and you shall quickly meet her."
+
+Words were unnecessary to persuade, when there was such a promise. They
+were both in the gondola of Jacopo, and on their way to one of the
+passages through the Lido which conducts to the gulf, before the Bravo
+commenced his explanation. This, however, was quickly made, not
+forgetting the design of Giacomo Gradenigo on the life of his auditor.
+
+The felucca, which had been previously provided with the necessary pass
+by the agents of the police itself, had quitted the port under easy sail
+by the very inlet through which the gondola made its way into the
+Adriatic. The water was smooth, the breeze fresh from the land, and in
+short all things were favorable to the fugitives. Donna Violetta and her
+governess were leaning against a mast, watching with impatient eyes the
+distant domes and the midnight beauty of Venice. Occasionally strains of
+music came to their ears from the canals, and then a touch of natural
+melancholy crossed the feelings of the former as she feared they might
+be the last sounds of that nature she should ever hear from her native
+town. But unalloyed pleasure drove every regret from her mind when Don
+Camillo leaped from the gondola and folded her in triumph to his heart.
+
+There was little difficulty in persuading Stefano Milano to abandon for
+ever the service of the Senate for that of his feudal lord. The promises
+and commands of the latter were sufficient of themselves to reconcile
+him to the change, and all were convinced there was no time to lose. The
+felucca soon spread her canvas to the wind and slid away from the beach.
+Jacopo permitted his gondola to be towed a league to sea before he
+prepared to re-enter it.
+
+"You will steer for Ancona, Signor Don Camillo," said the Bravo, leaning
+on the felucca's side, still unwilling to depart, "and throw yourself at
+once under the protection of the Cardinal Secretary. If Stefano keep the
+sea he may chance to meet the galleys of the Senate."
+
+"Distrust us not--but thou, my excellent Jacopo--what wilt thou become
+in their hands?"
+
+"Fear not for me, Signore. God disposes of all as he sees fit. I have
+told your eccellenza that I cannot yet quit Venice. If fortune favor me,
+I may still see your stout castle of Sant' Agata."
+
+"And none will be more welcome within its secure walls; I have much fear
+for thee, Jacopo!"
+
+"Signore, think not of it. I am used to danger--and to misery--and to
+hopelessness. I have known a pleasure this night, in witnessing the
+happiness of two young hearts, that God, in his anger, has long denied
+me. Lady, the Saints keep you, and God, who is above all, shield you
+from harm!"
+
+He kissed the hand of Donna Violetta, who, half ignorant still of his
+services, listened to his words in wonder.
+
+"Don Camillo Monforte," he continued, "distrust Venice to your dying
+day. Let no promises--no hopes--no desire of increasing your honors or
+your riches, ever tempt you to put yourself in her power. None know the
+falsehood of the state better than I, and with my parting words I warn
+you to be wary!"
+
+"Thou speakest as if we were to meet no more, worthy Jacopo!"
+
+The Bravo turned, and the action brought his features to the moon. There
+was a melancholy smile, in which deep satisfaction at the success of the
+lovers was mingled with serious forebodings for himself.
+
+"We are certain only of the past," he said in a low voice.
+
+Touching the hand of Don Camillo, he kissed his own and leaped hastily
+into his gondola. The fast was thrown loose, and the felucca glided
+away, leaving this extraordinary being alone on the waters. The
+Neapolitan ran to the taffrail, and the last he saw of Jacopo, the
+Bravo, was rowing leisurely back towards that scene of violence and
+deception from which he himself was so glad to have escaped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  "My limbs are bowed, though not with toil,
+    But rusted with a vile repose,
+  For they have been a dungeon's spoil,
+    And mine hath been the fate of those
+  To whom the goodly earth and air
+    Are banned, and barred--forbidden fare."
+                          PRISONER OF CHILLON.
+
+
+When the day dawned on the following morning the square of St. Mark was
+empty. The priests still chanted their prayers for the dead near the
+body of old Antonio, and a few fishermen still lingered in and near the
+cathedral, but half persuaded of the manner in which their companion had
+come to his end. But as was usual at that hour of the day the city
+appeared tranquil, for though a slight alarm had passed through the
+canals at the movement of the rioters, it had subsided in that specious
+and distrustful quiet, which is more or less the unavoidable consequence
+of a system that is not substantially based on the willing support of
+the mass.
+
+Jacopo was again in the attic of the Doge's palace, accompanied by the
+gentle Gelsomina. As they threaded the windings of the building, he
+recounted to the eager ear of his companion all the details connected
+with the escape of the lovers; omitting, as a matter of prudence, the
+attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo on the life of Don Camillo. The unpractised
+and single-hearted girl heard him in breathless attention, the color of
+her cheek and the changeful eye betraying the force of her sympathies at
+each turn in their hazardous adventure.
+
+"And dost thou think they can yet escape from those up above?" murmured
+Gelsomina, for few in Venice would trust their voices, by putting such a
+question aloud. "Thou knowest the Republic hath at all times its galleys
+in the Adriatic!"
+
+"We have had thought of that, and the Calabrian is advised to steer for
+the mole of Ancona. Once within the States of the Church the influence
+of Don Camillo and the rights of his noble wife will protect them. Is
+there a place here whence we can look out upon the sea?"
+
+Gelsomina led the Bravo into an empty room of the attic which commanded
+a view of the port, the Lido, and the waste of water beyond. The breeze
+came in strong currents over the roofs of the town, and causing the
+masts of the port to rock, it lighted on the Lagunes, without the tiers
+of the shipping. From this point to the barrier of sand, it was apparent
+by the stooping sails and the struggles of the gondoliers who pulled
+towards the quay, that the air was swift. Without the Lido itself, the
+element was shadowed and fitful, while further in the distance the
+troubled waters, with their crests of foam, sufficiently proved its
+power.
+
+"Santa Maria be praised!" exclaimed Jacopo, when his understanding eye
+had run over the near and distant view--"they are already far down the
+coast, and with a wind like this they cannot fail to reach their haven
+in a few hours. Let us go to the cell."
+
+Gelsomina smiled when he assured her of the safety of the fugitives, but
+her look saddened when he changed the discourse. Without reply, however,
+she did as he desired, and in a very few moments they were standing by
+the side of the prisoner's pallet. The latter did not appear to observe
+their entrance, and Jacopo was obliged to announce himself.
+
+"Father!" he said, with that melancholy pathos which always crept into
+his voice when he addressed the old man, "it is I."
+
+The prisoner turned, and though, evidently much enfeebled since the
+last visit, a wan smile gleamed on his wasted features.
+
+"And thy mother, boy?" he asked, so eagerly as to cause Gelsomina to
+turn hastily aside.
+
+"Happy, father--happy."
+
+"Happy without me?"
+
+"She is ever with thee in spirit, father. She thinks of thee in her
+prayers. Thou hast a saint for an intercessor in my mother--father."
+
+"And thy good sister?"
+
+"Happy too--doubt it not, father. They are both patient and resigned."
+
+"The Senate, boy?"
+
+"Is the same: soulless, selfish, and pretending!" answered Jacopo
+sternly; then turning away his face, in bitterness of heart, though
+without permitting the words to be audible, he cursed them.
+
+"The noble Signori were deceived in believing me concerned in the
+attempt to rob their revenues," returned the patient old man; "one day
+they will see and acknowledge their error."
+
+Jacopo made no answer, for unlettered as he was, and curtailed of that
+knowledge which should be, and is bestowed on all by every paternal
+government, the natural strength of his mind had enabled him to
+understand that a system, which on its face professed to be founded on
+the superior acquirements of a privileged few, would be the least likely
+to admit the fallacy of its theories, by confessing it could err.
+
+"Thou dost the nobles injustice, son; they are illustrious patricians,
+and have no motive in oppressing one like me."
+
+"None, father, but the necessity of maintaining the severity of the
+laws, which make them senators and you a prisoner."
+
+"Nay, boy, I have known worthy gentlemen of the Senate! There was the
+late Signor Tiepolo, who did me much favor in my youth. But for this
+false accusation, I might now have been one of the most thriving of my
+craft in Venice."
+
+"Father, we will pray for the soul of the Tiepolo."
+
+"Is the senator dead?"
+
+"So says a gorgeous tomb in the church of the Redentore."
+
+"We must all die at last," whispered the old man, crossing himself.
+"Doge as well as patrician--patrician as well as gondolier,--Jaco--"
+
+"Father!" exclaimed the Bravo, so suddenly as to interrupt the coming
+word; then kneeling by the pallet of the prisoner, he whispered in his
+ear, "thou forgettest there is reason why thou should'st not call me by
+that name. I have told thee often if thus called my visits must stop."
+
+The prisoner looked bewildered, for the failing of nature rendered that
+obscure which was once so evident to his mind. After gazing long at his
+son, his eye wandered between him and the wall, and he smiled
+childishly.
+
+"Wilt thou look, good boy, if the spider is come back?"
+
+Jacopo groaned, but he rose to comply.
+
+"I do not see it, father; the season is not yet warm."
+
+"Not warm! my veins feel heated to bursting. Thou forgettest this is the
+attic, and that these are the leads, and then the sun--oh! the sun! The
+illustrious senators do not bethink them of the pain of passing the
+bleak winter below the canals, and the burning summers beneath hot
+metal."
+
+"They think of nothing but their power," murmured Jacopo--"that which is
+wrongfully obtained, must be maintained by merciless injustice--but why
+should we speak of this, father; hast thou all thy body needs?"
+
+"Air--son, air!--give me of that air, which God has made for the meanest
+living thing."
+
+The Bravo rushed towards those fissures in the venerable but polluted
+pile he had already striven to open, and with frantic force he
+endeavored to widen them with his hands. The material resisted, though
+blood flowed from the ends of his fingers in the desperate effort.
+
+"The door, Gelsomina, open wide the door!" he cried, turning away from
+the spot, exhausted with his fruitless exertions.
+
+"Nay, I do not suffer now, my child--it is when thou hast left me, and
+when I am alone with my own thoughts, when I see thy weeping mother and
+neglected sister, that I most feel the want of air--are we not in the
+fervid month of August, son?"
+
+"Father, it is not yet June."
+
+"I shall then have more heat to bear! God's will be done, and blessed
+Santa Maria, his mother undefiled!--give me strength to endure it."
+
+The eye of Jacopo gleamed with a wildness scarcely less frightful than
+the ghastly look of the old man, his chest heaved, his fingers were
+clenched, and his breathing was audible.
+
+"No," he said, in a low, but in so determined a voice, as to prove how
+fiercely his resolution was set, "thou shalt not await their torments:
+arise, father, and go with me. The doors are open, the ways of the
+palace are known to me in the darkest night, and the keys are at hand. I
+will find means to conceal thee until dark, and we will quit the
+accursed Republic for ever."
+
+Hope gleamed in the eye of the old captive, as he listened to this
+frantic proposal, but distrust of the means immediately altered its
+expression.
+
+"Thou forgettest those up above, son."
+
+"I think only of One truly above, father."
+
+"And this girl--how canst thou hope to deceive her?"
+
+"She will take thy place--she is with us in heart, and will lend
+herself to a seeming violence. I do not promise for thee idly, kindest
+Gelsomina?"
+
+The frightened girl, who had never before witnessed so plain evidence of
+desperation in her companion, had sunk upon an article of furniture,
+speechless. The look of the prisoner changed from one to the other, and
+he made an effort to rise, but debility caused him to fall backwards,
+and not till then did Jacopo perceive the impracticability, on many
+accounts, of what, in a moment of excitement, he had proposed. A long
+silence followed. The hard breathing of Jacopo gradually subsided, and
+the expression of his face changed to its customary settled and
+collected look.
+
+"Father," he said, "I must quit thee; our misery draws near a close."
+
+"Thou wilt come to me soon again?"
+
+"If the saints permit--thy blessing, father."
+
+The old man folded his hands above the head of Jacopo, and murmured a
+prayer. When this pious duty was performed, both the Bravo and Gelsomina
+busied themselves a little time in contributing to the bodily comforts
+of the prisoner, and then they departed in company.
+
+Jacopo appeared unwilling to quit the vicinity of the cell. A melancholy
+presentiment seemed to possess his mind, that these stolen visits were
+soon to cease. After a little delay, however, they descended to the
+apartments below, and as Jacopo desired to quit the palace without
+re-entering the prisons, Gelsomina prepared to let him out by the
+principal corridor.
+
+"Thou art sadder than common, Carlo," she observed, watching with
+feminine assiduity his averted eye. "Methinks thou should'st rejoice in
+the fortunes of the Neapolitan, and of the lady of the Tiepolo."
+
+"That escape is like a gleam of sunshine in a wintry day. Good girl--but
+we are observed! who is yon spy on our movements?"
+
+"'Tis a menial of the palace; they constantly cross us in this part of
+the building: come hither, if thou art weary. The room is little used,
+and we may again look out upon the sea."
+
+Jacopo followed his mild conductor into one of the neglected closets of
+the second floor, where, in truth, he was glad to catch a glimpse of the
+state of things in the piazza, before he left the palace. His first look
+was at the water, which was still rolling southward, before the gale
+from the Alps. Satisfied with this prospect, he bent his eye beneath. At
+the instant, an officer of the Republic issued from the palace gate,
+preceded by a trumpeter, as was usual, when there was occasion to make
+public proclamation of the Senate's will. Gelsomina opened the casement,
+and both leaned forward to listen. When the little procession had
+reached the front of the cathedral, the trumpet sounded, and the voice
+of the officer was heard.
+
+"Whereas many wicked and ruthless assassinations have of late been
+committed on the persons of divers good citizens of Venice,"--he
+proclaimed--"the Senate, in its fatherly care of all whom it is charged
+to protect, has found reason to resort to extraordinary means of
+preventing the repetition of crimes so contrary to the laws of God and
+the security of society. The illustrious Ten therefore offer, thus
+publicly, a reward of one hundred sequins to him who shall discover the
+perpetrator of any of these most horrible assassinations; and, whereas,
+during the past night, the body of a certain Antonio, a well known
+fisherman, and a worthy citizen, much esteemed by the patricians, has
+been found in the Lagunes, and, whereas, there is but too much reason to
+believe that he has come to his death by the hands of a certain Jacopo
+Frontoni, who has the reputation of a common Bravo, but who has been
+long watched in rain by the authorities, with the hope of detecting him
+in the commission of some one of the aforesaid horrible assassinations;
+now, all good and honest citizens of the Republic are enjoined to assist
+the authorities in seizing the person of the said Jacopo Frontoni, even
+though he should take sanctuary: for Venice can no longer endure the
+presence of one of his sanguinary habits, and for the encouragement of
+the same, the Senate, in its paternal care, offers the reward of three
+hundred sequins." The usual words of prayer and sovereignty closed the
+proclamation.
+
+As it was not usual for those who ruled so much in the dark to make
+their intentions public, all near listened with wonder and awe to the
+novel procedure. Some trembled, lest the mysterious and much-dreaded
+power was about to exhibit itself; while most found means of making
+their admiration of the fatherly interest of their rulers audible.
+
+None heard the words of the officer with more feeling than Gelsomina.
+She bent her body far from the window, in order that not a syllable
+should escape her.
+
+"Did'st thou hear, Carlo?" demanded the eager girl, as she drew back her
+head; "they proclaim, at last, money for the monster who has committed
+so many murders!"
+
+Jacopo laughed; but to the ears of his startled companion the sounds
+were unnatural.
+
+"The patricians are just, and what they do is right," he said. "They are
+of illustrious birth, and cannot err! They will do their duty."
+
+"But here is no other duty than that they owe to God, and to the
+people."
+
+"I have heard of the duty of the people, but little is said of the
+Senate's."
+
+"Nay, Carlo, we will not refuse them credit when in truth they seek to
+keep the citizens from harm. This Jacopo is a monster, detested by all,
+and his bloody deeds have too long been a reproach to Venice. Thou
+hearest that the patricians are not niggard of their gold, when there is
+hope of his being taken. Listen! they proclaim again!"
+
+The trumpet sounded, and the proclamation was repeated between the
+granite columns of the Piazzetta, and quite near to the window occupied
+by Gelsomina and her unmoved companion.
+
+"Why dost thou mask, Carlo?" she asked, when the officer had done; "it
+is not usual to be disguised in the palace at this hour."
+
+"They will believe it the Doge, blushing to be an auditor of his own
+liberal justice, or they may mistake me for one of the Three itself."
+
+"They go by the quay to the arsenal; thence they will take boat, as is
+customary, for the Rialto."
+
+"Thereby giving this redoubtable Jacopo timely notice to secrete
+himself! Your judges up above are mysterious when they should be open;
+and open when they should be secret. I must quit thee, Gelsomina; go,
+then, back to the room of thy father, and leave me to pass out by the
+court of the palace."
+
+"It may not be, Carlo--thou knowest the permission of the authorities--I
+have exceeded--why should I wish to conceal it from thee--but it was not
+permitted to thee to enter at this hour."
+
+"And thou hast had the courage to transgress the leave for my sake,
+Gelsomina?"
+
+The abashed girl hung her head, and the color which glowed about her
+temples was like the rosy light of her own Italy.
+
+"Thou would'st have it so," she said.
+
+"A thousand thanks, dearest, kindest, truest Gelsomina; but doubt not my
+being able to leave the palace unseen. The danger was in entering. They
+who go forth do it with the air of having authority."
+
+"None pass the halberdiers masked by day, Carlo, but they who have the
+secret word."
+
+The Bravo appeared struck with this truth, and there was great
+embarrassment expressed in his manner. The terms of his admittance were
+so well understood to himself, that he distrusted the expediency of
+attempting to get upon the quays by the prison, the way he had entered,
+since he had little doubt that his retreat would be intercepted by those
+who kept the outer gate, and who were probably, by this time, in the
+secret of his true character. It now appeared that egress by the other
+route was equally hazardous. He had not been surprised so much by the
+substance of the proclamation, as by the publicity the Senate had seen
+fit to give to its policy, and he had heard himself denounced, with a
+severe pang, it is true, but without terror. Still he had so many means
+of disguise, and the practice of personal concealment was so general in
+Venice, that he had entertained no great distrust of the result until he
+now found himself in this awkward dilemma. Gelsomina read his indecision
+in his eye, and regretted that she should have caused him so much
+uneasiness.
+
+"It is not so bad as thou seemest to think, Carlo," she observed; "they
+have permitted thee to visit thy father at stated hours, and the
+permission is a proof that the Senate is not without pity. Now that I,
+to oblige thy wishes, have forgotten one of their injunctions, they will
+not be so hard of heart as to visit the fault as a crime."
+
+Jacopo gazed at her with pity, for well did he understand how little she
+knew of the real nature and wily policy of the state.
+
+"It is time that we should part," he said, "lest thy innocence should be
+made to pay the price of my mistake. I am now near the public corridor,
+and must trust to my fortune to gain the quay."
+
+Gelsomina hung upon his arm, unwilling to trust him to his own guidance
+in that fearful building.
+
+"It will not do, Carlo; thou wilt stumble on a soldier, and thy fault
+will be known; perhaps they will refuse to let thee come again; perhaps
+altogether shut the door of thy poor father's cell."
+
+Jacopo made a gesture for her to lead the way, and followed. With a
+beating, but still lightened heart, Gelsomina glided along the passages,
+carefully locking each door, as of wont, behind her, when she had passed
+through it. At length they reached the well known Bridge of Sighs. The
+anxious girl went on with a lighter step, when she found herself
+approaching her own abode, for she was busy in planning the means of
+concealing her companion in her father's rooms, should there be hazard
+in his passing out of the prison during the day.
+
+"But a single minute, Carlo," she whispered, applying the key to the
+door which opened into the latter building--the lock yielded, but the
+hinges refused to turn. Gelsomina paled as she added--"They have drawn
+the bolts within!"
+
+"No matter; I will go down by the court of the palace, and boldly pass
+the halberdier unmasked."
+
+Gelsomina, after all, saw but little risk of his being known by the
+mercenaries who served the Doge, and, anxious to relieve him from so
+awkward a position, she flew back to the other end of the gallery.
+Another key was applied to the door by which they had just entered, with
+the same result. Gelsomina staggered back, and sought support against
+the waft.
+
+"We can neither return nor proceed!" she exclaimed, frightened she knew
+not why.
+
+"I see it all," answered Jacopo, "we are prisoners on the fatal bridge."
+
+As he spoke, the Bravo calmly removed his mask, and showed the
+countenance of a man whose resolution was at its height.
+
+"Santa Madre di Dio! what can it mean?"
+
+"That we have passed here once too often, love. The council is tender of
+these visits."
+
+The bolts of both doors grated, and the hinges creaked at the same
+instant. An officer of the inquisition entered armed, and bearing
+manacles. Gelsomina shrieked, but Jacopo moved not limb or muscle, while
+he was fettered and chained.
+
+"I too!" cried his frantic companion. "I am the most guilty--bind
+me--cast me into a cell, but let poor Carlo go."
+
+"Carlo!" echoed an officer, laughing unfeelingly.
+
+"Is it such a crime to seek a father in his prison! They knew of his
+visits--they permitted them--he has only mistaken the hour."
+
+"Girl, dost thou know for whom thou pleadest?"
+
+"For the kindest heart--the most faithful son in Venice! Oh! if ye had
+seen him weep as I have done, over the sufferings of the old captive--if
+ye had seen his very form shivering in agony, ye would have pity on
+him!"
+
+"Listen," returned the officer, raising a finger for attention.
+
+The trumpeter sounded on the bridge of St. Mark, immediately beneath
+them, and proclamation was again made, offering gold for the arrest of
+the Bravo.
+
+"'Tis the officer of the Republic, bidding for the head of one who
+carries a common stiletto," cried the half-breathless Gelsomina, who
+little heeded the ceremony at that instant; "he merits his fate."
+
+"Then why resist it?"
+
+"Ye speak without meaning!"
+
+"Doting girl, this is Jacopo Frontoni!"
+
+Gelsomina would have disbelieved her ears, but for the anguished
+expression of Jacopo's eye. The horrible truth burst upon her mind, and
+she fell lifeless. At that moment the Bravo was hurried from the bridge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+  "Let us lift up the curtain, and observe
+  What passes in that chamber."
+                                 ROGERS.
+
+
+There were many rumors uttered in the fearful and secret manner which
+characterized the manner of the town, in the streets of Venice that day.
+Hundreds passed near the granite columns, as if they expected to see the
+Bravo occupying his accustomed stand, in audacious defiance of the
+proclamation, for so long and so mysteriously had he been permitted to
+appear in public, that men had difficulty in persuading themselves he
+would quit his habits so easily. It is needless to say that the vague
+expectation was disappointed. Much was also said, vauntingly, in behalf
+of the Republic's justice, for the humbled are bold enough in praising
+their superiors; and he, who had been dumb for years on subjects of a
+public nature, now found his voice like a fearless freeman.
+
+But the day passed away without any new occurrence to call the citizens
+from their pursuits. The prayers for the dead were continued with little
+intermission, and masses were said before the altars of half the
+churches for the repose of the fisherman's soul. His comrades, a little
+distrustful, but greatly gratified, watched the ceremonies with jealousy
+and exultation singularly blended. Ere the night set in again, they were
+among the most obedient of those the oligarchy habitually trod upon; for
+such is the effect of this species of domination, that it acquires a
+power to appease, by its flattery, the very discontents created by its
+injustice. Such is the human mind: a factitious but deeply-seated
+sentiment of respect is created by the habit of submission, which gives
+the subject of its influence a feeling of atonement, when he who has
+long played the superior comes down from his stilts, and confesses the
+community of human frailties!
+
+The square of St. Mark filled at the usual hour, the patricians deserted
+the Broglio as of wont, and the gaieties of the place were again
+uppermost, before the clock had struck the second hour of the night.
+Gondolas, filled with noble dames, appeared on the canals; the blinds of
+the palaces were raised for the admission of the sea-breeze;--and music
+began to be heard in the port, on the bridges, and under the balconies
+of the fair. The course of society was not to be arrested, merely
+because the wronged were unavenged, or the innocent suffered.
+
+There stood, then, on the grand canal, as there stand now, many palaces
+of scarcely less than royal magnificence. The reader has had occasion to
+become acquainted with one or two of these splendid edifices, and it is
+now our duty to convey him, in imagination, to another.
+
+The peculiarity of construction, which is a consequence of the watery
+site of Venice, gives the same general character to all the superior
+dwellings of that remarkable town. The house to which the thread of the
+narrative now leads us, had its water-gate, its vestibule, its massive
+marble stairs, its inner court, its magnificent suites of rooms above,
+its pictures, its lustres, and its floors of precious stones embedded in
+composition, like all those which we have already found it necessary to
+describe.
+
+The hour was ten, according to our own manner of computing time. A small
+but lovely family picture presented itself, deep within the walls of the
+patrician abode to which we have alluded. There was a father, a
+gentleman who had scarcely attained the middle age, with an eye in which
+spirit, intelligence, philanthropy, and, at that moment, paternal
+fondness were equally glowing. He tossed in his arms, with paternal
+pride, a laughing urchin of some three or four years, who rioted in the
+amusement which brought him, and the author of his being, for a time
+seemingly on a level. A fair Venetian dame, with golden locks and
+glowing cheeks, such as Titian loved to paint her sex, reclined on a
+couch nigh by, following the movements of both, with the joint feelings
+of mother and wife, and laughing in pure sympathy with the noisy
+merriment of her young hope. A girl, who was the youthful image of
+herself, with tresses that fell to her waist, romped with a crowing
+infant, whose age was so tender as scarcely to admit the uncertain
+evidence of its intelligence. Such was the scene as the clock of the
+piazza told the hour. Struck with the sound, the father set down the boy
+and consulted his watch.
+
+"Dost thou use thy gondola to-night, love?" he demanded.
+
+"With thee, Paolo?"
+
+"Not with me, dearest; I have affairs which will employ me until
+twelve."
+
+"Nay, thou art given to cast me off, when thy caprices are wayward."
+
+"Say not so. I have named to-night for an interview with my agent, and I
+know thy maternal heart too well, to doubt thy being willing to spare me
+for that time, while I look to the interests of these dear ones."
+
+The Donna Giulietta rang for her mantle and attendants. The crowing
+infant and the noisy boy were dismissed to their beds, while the lady
+and the eldest child descended to the gondola. Donna Giulietta was not
+permitted to go unattended to her boat, for this was a family in which
+the inclinations had fortunately seconded the ordinary calculations of
+interest when the nuptial knot was tied. Her husband kissed her hand
+fondly, as he assisted her into the gondola, and the boat had glided
+some distance from the palace ere he quitted the moist stones of the
+water-gate.
+
+"Hast thou prepared the cabinet for my friends?" demanded the Signor
+Soranzo, for it was the same Senator who had been in company with the
+Doge when the latter went to meet the fishermen.
+
+"Signore, si."
+
+"And the quiet, and the lights--as ordered?"
+
+"Eccellenza, all will be done."
+
+"Thou hast placed seats for six--we shall be six."
+
+"Signore, there are six arm-chairs."
+
+"'Tis well: when the first of my friends arrive, I will join them."
+
+"Eccellenza, there are already two cavaliers in masks within."
+
+The Signor Soranzo started, again consulted his watch, and went hastily
+towards a distant and very silent part of the palace. He reached a small
+door unattended, and closing it, found himself at once in the presence
+of those who evidently awaited his appearance.
+
+"A thousand pardons, Signori," cried the master of the house; "this is
+novel duty to me, at least--I know not what may be your honorable
+experience--and the time stole upon me unmarked. I pray for grace,
+Messires; future diligence shall repair the present neglect."
+
+Both the visitors were older men than their host, and it was quite
+evident by their hardened visages they were of much longer practice in
+the world. His excuses were received with courtesy, and, for a little
+time, the discourse was entirely of usage and convention.
+
+"We are in secret here, Signore?" asked one of the guests, after some
+little time had been wasted in this manner.
+
+"As the tomb. None enter here unbidden but my wife, and she has this
+moment taken boat for better enjoyment of the evening."
+
+"The world gives you credit, Signor Soranzo, for a happy menage. I hope
+you have duly considered the necessity of shutting the door even against
+the Donna Giulietta to-night?"
+
+"Doubt me not, Signore; the affairs of St. Mark are paramount."
+
+"I feel myself thrice happy, Signori, that in drawing a lot for the
+secret council, my good fortune hath given me so excellent colleagues.
+Believe me, I have discharged this awful trust, in my day, in less
+agreeable company."
+
+This flattering speech, which the wily old senator had made regularly to
+all whom chance had associated with him in the inquisition, during a
+long life, was well received, and it was returned with equal
+compliments.
+
+"It would appear that the worthy Signor Alessandro Gradenigo was one of
+our predecessors," he continued, looking at some papers; for though the
+actual three were unknown, at the time being, to all but a few
+secretaries and officers of the state, Venetian policy transmitted their
+names to their successors, as a matter of course,--"a noble gentleman,
+and one of great devotion to the state!"
+
+The others assented, like men accustomed to speak with caution.
+
+"We were about to have entered on our duties at a troublesome moment,
+Signori," observed another. "But it would seem that this tumult of the
+fishermen has already subsided. I understand the knaves had some reason
+for their distrust of the state."
+
+"It is an affair happily settled," answered the senior of the three, who
+was long practised in the expediency of forgetting all that policy
+required should cease to be remembered after the object was attained.
+"The galleys must be manned, else would St. Mark quickly hang his head
+in shame."
+
+The Signor Soranzo, who had received some previous instruction in his
+new duties, looked melancholy; but he, too, was merely the creature of a
+system.
+
+"Is there matter of pressing import for our reflection?" he demanded.
+
+"Signori, there is every reason to believe that the state has just
+sustained a grievous loss. Ye both well know the heiress of Tiepolo, by
+reputation at least, though her retired manner of life may have kept you
+from her company."
+
+"Donna Giulietta is eloquent in praise of her beauty," said the young
+husband.
+
+"We had not a better fortune in Venice," rejoined the third inquisitor.
+
+"Excellent in qualities, and better in riches, as she is, I fear we have
+lost her, Signori! Don Camillo Monforte, whom God protect until we have
+no future use for his influence! had come near to prevail against us;
+but just as the state baffled his well laid schemes, the lady has been
+thrown by hazard into the hands of the rioters, since which time there
+is no account of her movements!"
+
+Paolo Soranzo secretly hoped she was in the arms of the Neapolitan.
+
+"A secretary has communicated to me the disappearance of the Duca di
+Sant' Agata also," observed the third; "nor is the felucca, usually
+employed in distant and delicate missions, any longer at her anchors."
+
+The two old men regarded each other as if the truth was beginning to
+dawn upon their suspicions. They saw that the case was hopeless, and as
+theirs was altogether a practical duty, no time was lost in useless
+regrets.
+
+"We have two affairs which press," observed the elder. "The body of the
+old fisherman must be laid quietly in the earth with as little risk of
+future tumult as may be; and we have this notorious Jacopo to dispose
+of."
+
+"The latter must first be taken," said the Signor Soranzo.
+
+"That has been done already. Would you think it, Sirs he was seized in
+the very palace of the Doge!"
+
+"To the block with him without delay!"
+
+The old men again looked at each other, and it was quite apparent that,
+as both of them had been in previous councils, they had a secret
+intelligence, to which their companion was yet a stranger. There was
+also visible in their glances something like a design to manage his
+feelings before they came more openly to the graver practices of their
+duties.
+
+"For the sake of blessed St. Mark, Signori, let justice be done openly
+in this instance!" continued the unsuspecting member of the Three. "What
+pity can the bearer of a common stiletto claim? and what more lovely
+exercise of our authority than to make public an act of severe and
+much-required justice?"
+
+The old senators bowed to this sentiment of their colleague, which was
+uttered with the fervor of young experience, and the frankness of an
+upright mind; for there is a conventional acquiescence in received
+morals which is permitted, in semblance at least, to adorn the most
+tortuous.
+
+"It may be well, Signore Soranzo, to do this homage to the right,"
+returned the elder. "Here have been sundry charges found in different
+lions' mouths against the Neapolitan, Signor Don Camillo Monforte. I
+leave it to your wisdom, my illustrious colleagues, to decide on their
+character."
+
+"An excess of malice betrays its own origin," exclaimed the least
+practised member of the Inquisition. "My life on it, Signori, these
+accusations come of private spleen, and are unworthy of the state's
+attention. I have consorted much with the young lord of Sant' Agata, and
+a more worthy gentleman does not dwell among us."
+
+"Still hath he designs on the hand of old Tiepolo's daughter!"
+
+"Is it a crime in youth to seek beauty? He did great service to the
+lady in her need, and that youth should feel these sympathies is nothing
+strange."
+
+"Venice hath her sympathies, as well as the youngest of us all,
+Signore."
+
+"But Venice cannot wed the heiress!"
+
+"True. St. Mark must be satisfied with playing the prudent father's
+part. You are yet young, Signore Soranzo, and the Donna Giulietta is of
+rare beauty! As life wears upon ye both, ye will see the fortunes of
+kingdoms, as well as of families, differently. But we waste our breath
+uselessly in this matter, since our agents have not yet reported their
+success in the pursuit. The most pressing affair, just now, is the
+disposition of the Bravo. Hath his Highness shown you the letter of the
+sovereign pontiff, in the question of the intercepted dispatches,
+Signore?"
+
+"He hath. A fair answer was returned by our predecessors, and it must
+rest there."
+
+"We will then look freely into the matter of Jacopo Frontoni. There will
+be necessity of our assembling in the chamber of the Inquisition, that
+we may have the prisoner confronted to his accusers. 'Tis a grave trial,
+Signori, and Venice would lose in men's estimation, were not the highest
+tribunal to take an interest in its decision."
+
+"To the block with the villain!" again exclaimed the Signor Soranzo.
+
+"He may haply meet with that fate, or even with the punishment of the
+wheel. A mature examination will enlighten us much on the course which
+policy may dictate."
+
+"There can be but one policy when the protection of the lives of our
+citizens is in question. I have never before felt impatience to shorten
+the life of man, but in this trial I can scarce brook delay."
+
+"Your honorable impatience shall be gratified, Signor Soranzo: for,
+foreseeing the urgency of the case, my colleague, the worthy senator who
+is joined with us in this high duty, and myself, have already issued
+the commands necessary to that object. The hour is near, and we will
+repair to the chamber of the Inquisition in time to our duty."
+
+The discourse then turned on subjects of a more general concern. This
+secret and extraordinary tribunal, which was obliged to confine its
+meetings to no particular place, which could decide on its decrees
+equally in the Piazza or the palace, amidst the revelries of the
+masquerade or before the altar, in the assemblies of the gay or in their
+own closets, had of necessity much ordinary matter submitted to its
+inspection. As the chances of birth entered into its original
+composition, and God hath not made all alike fit for so heartless a
+duty, it sometimes happened, as in the present instance, that the more
+worldly of its members had to overcome the generous disposition of a
+colleague, before the action of the terrible machine could go on.
+
+It is worthy of remark, that communities always establish a higher
+standard of justice and truth, than is exercised by their individual
+members. The reason is not to be sought for, since nature hath left to
+all a perception of that right, which is abandoned only under the
+stronger impulses of personal temptation. We commend the virtue we
+cannot imitate. Thus it is that those countries, in which public opinion
+has most influence, are always of the purest public practice. It follows
+as a corollary from this proposition, that a representation should be as
+real as possible, for its tendency will be inevitably to elevate
+national morals. Miserable, indeed, is the condition of that people,
+whose maxims and measures of public policy are below the standard of its
+private integrity, for the fact not only proves it is not the master of
+its own destinies, but the still more dangerous truth, that the
+collective power is employed in the fatal service of undermining those
+very qualities which are necessary to virtue, and which have enough to
+do, at all times, in resisting the attacks of immediate selfishness. A
+strict legal representation of all its interests is far more necessary
+to a worldly than to a simple people, since responsibility, which is the
+essence of a free government, is more likely to keep the agents of a
+nation near to its own standard of virtue than any other means. The
+common opinion that a Republic cannot exist without an extraordinary
+degree of virtue in its citizens, is so flattering to our own actual
+condition, that we seldom take the trouble to inquire into its truth;
+but, to us, it seems quite apparent that the effect is here mistaken for
+the cause. It is said, as the people are virtually masters in a
+Republic, that the people ought to be virtuous to rule well. So far as
+this proposition is confined to degrees, it is just as true of a
+Republic as of any other form of government. But kings do rule, and
+surely all have not been virtuous; and that aristocracies have ruled
+with the very minimum of that quality, the subject of our tale
+sufficiently shows. That, other things being equal, the citizens of a
+Republic will have a higher standard of private virtue than the subjects
+of any other form of government, is true as an effect, we can readily
+believe; for responsibility to public opinion existing in all the
+branches of its administration, that conventional morality which
+characterizes the common sentiment, will be left to act on the mass, and
+will not be perverted into a terrible engine of corruption, as is the
+case when factitious institutions give a false direction to its
+influence.
+
+The case before us was in proof of the truth of what has here been said.
+The Signor Soranzo was a man of great natural excellence of character,
+and the charities of his domestic circle had assisted in confirming his
+original dispositions. Like others of his rank and expectations, he had,
+from time to time, made the history and polity of the self-styled
+Republic his study, and the power of collective interests and specious
+necessities had made him admit sundry theories, which, presented in
+another form, he would have repulsed with indignation. Still the Signor
+Soranzo was far from understanding the full effects of that system
+which he was born to uphold. Even Venice paid that homage to public
+opinion, of which there has just been question, and held forth to the
+world but a false picture of her true state maxims. Still, many of those
+which were too apparent to be concealed were difficult of acceptance,
+with one whose mind was yet untainted with practice; and the young
+senator rather shut his eyes on their tendency, or, as he felt their
+influence in every interest which environed him, but that of poor,
+neglected, abstract virtue, whose rewards were so remote, he was fain to
+seek out some palliative, or some specious and indirect good as the
+excuse for his acquiescence.
+
+In this state of mind the Signor Soranzo was unexpectedly admitted a
+member of the Council of Three. Often, in the day-dreams of his youth,
+had he contemplated the possession of this very irresponsible power as
+the consummation of his wishes. A thousand pictures of the good he would
+perform had crossed his brain, and it was only as he advanced in life,
+and came to have a near view of the wiles which beset the
+best-intentioned, that he could bring himself to believe most of that
+which he meditated was impracticable. As it was, he entered into the
+council with doubts and misgivings. Had he lived in a later age, under
+his own system modified by the knowledge which has been a consequence of
+the art of printing, it is probable that the Signor Soranzo would have
+been a noble in opposition, now supporting with ardor some measure of
+public benevolence, and now yielding gracefully to the suggestions of a
+sterner policy, and always influenced by the positive advantages he was
+born to possess, though scarcely conscious himself he was not all he
+professed to be. The fault, however, was not so much that of the
+patrician as that of circumstances, which, by placing interest in
+opposition to duty, lures many a benevolent mind into still greater
+weaknesses.
+
+The companions of the Signor Soranzo, however, had a more difficult
+task to prepare him for the duties of the statesman, which were so very
+different from those he was accustomed to perform as a man, than they
+had anticipated. They were like two trained elephants of the east,
+possessing themselves all the finer instincts and generous qualities of
+the noble animal, but disciplined by a force quite foreign to their
+natural condition into creatures of mere convention, placed one on each
+side of a younger brother, fresh from the plains, and whom it was their
+duty to teach new services for the trunk, new affections, and haply the
+manner in which to carry with dignity the howdah of a Rajah.
+
+With many allusions to their policy, but with no direct intimation of
+their own intention, the seniors of the council continued the
+conversation until the hour for the meeting in the Doge's palace drew
+nigh. They then separated as privately as they had come together, in
+order that no vulgar eye might penetrate the mystery of their official
+character.
+
+The most practised of the three appeared in an assembly of the
+patricians, which noble and beautiful dames graced with their presence,
+from which he disappeared in a manner to leave no clue to his motions.
+The other visited the death-bed of a friend, where he discoursed long
+and well with a friar, of the immortality of the soul and the hopes of a
+Christian: when he departed, the godly man bestowing his blessing, and
+the family he left being loud and eloquent in his praise.
+
+The Signor Soranzo clung to the enjoyments of his own family circle
+until the last moment. The Donna Giulietta had returned, fresher and
+more lovely than ever, from the invigorating sea-breeze, and her soft
+voice, with the melodious laugh of his first-born, the blooming,
+ringlet-covered girl described, still rang in his ears, when his
+gondolier landed him beneath the bridge of the Rialto. Here he masked,
+and drawing his cloak about him, he moved with the current towards the
+square of St. Mark, by means of the narrow streets. Once in the crowd
+there was little danger of impertinent observation. Disguise was as
+often useful to the oligarchy of Venice as it was absolutely necessary
+to elude its despotism, and to render the town tolerable to the citizen.
+Paolo saw swarthy, bare-legged men of the Lagunes, entering occasionally
+into the cathedral. He followed, and found himself standing near the
+dimly lighted altar at which masses were still saying for the soul of
+Antonio.
+
+"This is one of thy fellows?" he asked of a fisherman, whose dark eye
+glittered in that light, like the organ of a basilisk.
+
+"Signore, he was--a more honest or a more just man did not cast his net
+in the gulf."
+
+"He has fallen a victim to his craft?"
+
+"Cospetto di Bacco! none know in what manner he came by his end. Some
+say St. Mark was impatient to see him in paradise, and some pretend he
+has fallen by the hand of a common Bravo, named Jacopo Frontoni."
+
+"Why should a Bravo take the life of one like this?"
+
+"By having the goodness to answer your own question, Signore, you will
+spare me some trouble. Why should he, sure enough? They say Jacopo is
+revengeful, and that shame and anger at his defeat in the late regatta,
+by one old as this, was the reason."
+
+"Is he so jealous of his honor with the oar?"
+
+"Diamine! I have seen the time when Jacopo would sooner die than lose a
+race; but that was before he carried a stiletto. Had he kept to his oar
+the thing might have happened, but once known for the hired blow, it
+seems unreasonable he should set his heart so strongly on the prizes of
+the canals."
+
+"May not the man have fallen into the Lagunes by accident?"
+
+"No doubt, Signore. This happens to some of us daily; but then we think
+it wiser to swim to the boat than to sink. Old Antonio had an arm in
+youth to carry him from the quay to the Lido."
+
+"But he may have been struck in falling, and rendered unable to do
+himself this good office."
+
+"There would be marks to show this, were it true, Signore!"
+
+"Would not Jacopo have used the stiletto?"
+
+"Perhaps not on one like Antonio. The gondola of the old man was found
+in the mouth of the Grand Canal, half a league from the body and against
+the wind! We note these things, Signore, for they are within our
+knowledge."
+
+"A happy night to thee, fisherman."
+
+"A most happy night, eccellenza," said the laborer of the Lagunes,
+gratified with having so long occupied the attention of one he rightly
+believed so much his superior. The disguised senator passed on. He had
+no difficulty in quitting the cathedral unobserved, and he had his
+private means of entering the palace, without attracting any impertinent
+eye to his movements. Here he quickly joined his colleagues of the
+fearful tribunal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+  "_There_ the prisoners rest together;
+  they hear not the voice of the oppressor."
+                                     JOB.
+
+
+The manner in which the Council of Three held its more public meetings,
+if aught connected with that mysterious body could be called public, has
+already been seen. On the present occasion there were the same robes,
+the same disguises, and the same officers of the inquisition, as in the
+scene related in a previous chapter. The only change was in the
+character of the judges, and in that of the accused. By a peculiar
+arrangement of the lamp, too, most of the light was thrown upon the spot
+it was intended the prisoner should occupy, while the side of the
+apartment on which the inquisitors sat, was left in a dimness that well
+accorded with their gloomy and secret duties. Previously to the opening
+of the door by which the person to be examined was to appear, there was
+audible the clanking of chains, the certain evidence that the affair in
+hand was considered serious. The hinges turned, and the Bravo stood in
+presence of those unknown men who were to decide on his fate.
+
+As Jacopo had often been before the council, though not as a prisoner,
+he betrayed neither surprise nor alarm at the black aspect of all his
+eye beheld. His features were composed, though pale, his limbs
+immovable, and his mien decent. When the little bustle of his entrance
+had subsided, there reigned a stillness in the room.
+
+"Thou art called Jacopo Frontoni?" said the secretary, who acted as the
+mouth-piece of the Three, on this occasion.
+
+"I am."
+
+"Thou art the son of a certain Ricardo Frontoni, a man well known as
+having been concerned in robbing the Republic's customs, and who is
+thought to have been banished to the distant islands, or to be otherwise
+punished?"
+
+"Signore--or otherwise punished."
+
+"Thou wert a gondolier in thy youth?"
+
+"I was a gondolier."
+
+"Thy mother is----"
+
+"Dead," said Jacopo, perceiving the other paused to examine his notes.
+
+The depth of the tone in which this word was uttered, caused a silence,
+that the secretary did not interrupt, until he had thrown a glance
+backwards at the judges.
+
+"She was not accused of thy father's crime?"
+
+"Had she been, Signore, she is long since beyond the power of the
+Republic."
+
+"Shortly after thy father fell under the displeasure of the state, thou
+quittedst thy business of a gondolier?"
+
+"Signore, I did."
+
+"Thou art accused, Jacopo, of having laid aside the oar for the
+stiletto?"
+
+"Signore, I am."
+
+"For several years, the rumors of thy bloody deeds have been growing in
+Venice, until, of late, none have met with an untimely fate that the
+blow has not been attributed to thy hand?"
+
+"This is too true, Signor Segretario--I would it were not!"
+
+"The ears of his highness, and of the Councils, have not been closed to
+these reports, but they have long attended to the rumors with the
+earnestness which becomes a paternal and careful government. If they
+have suffered thee to go at large, it hath only been that there might
+be no hazard of sullying the ermine of justice, by a premature and not
+sufficiently supported judgment."
+
+Jacopo bent his head, but without speaking. A smile so wild and meaning,
+however, gleamed on his face at this declaration, that the permanent
+officer of the secret tribunal, he who served as its organ of
+communication, bowed nearly to the paper he held, as it might be to look
+deeper into his documents. Let not the reader turn back to this page in
+surprise, when he shall have reached the explanation of the tale, for
+mysticisms quite as palpable, if not of so ruthless a character, have
+been publicly acted by political bodies in his own times.
+
+"There is now a specific and a frightful charge brought against thee,
+Jacopo Frontoni," continued the secretary; "and, in tenderness of the
+citizen's life, the dreaded Council itself hath taken the matter in
+hand. Didst thou know a certain Antonio Vecchio, a fisherman here in our
+Lagunes?"
+
+"Signore, I knew him well of late, and much regret that it was only of
+late."
+
+"Thou knowest, too, that his body hath been found, drowned in the bay?"
+
+Jacopo shuddered, signifying his assent merely by a sign. The effect of
+this tacit acknowledgment on the youngest of the three was apparent, for
+he turned to his companions, like one struck by the confession it
+implied. His colleagues made dignified inclinations in return, and the
+silent communication ceased.
+
+"His death has excited discontent among his fellows, and its cause has
+become a serious subject of inquiry for the illustrious Council."
+
+"The death of the meanest man in Venice should call forth the care of
+the patricians, Signore."
+
+"Dost thou know, Jacopo, that thou art accused of being his murderer?"
+
+"Signore, I do."
+
+"It is said that thou earnest among the gondoliers in the late regatta,
+and that, but for this aged fisherman, thou would'st have been winner of
+the prize?"
+
+"In that, rumor hath not lied, Signore."
+
+"Thou dost not, then, deny the charge!" said the examiner, in evident
+surprise.
+
+"It is certain that, but for the fisherman, I should have been the
+winner."
+
+"And thou wished it, Jacopo?"
+
+"Signore, greatly," returned the accused, with a show of emotion, that
+had not hitherto escaped him. "I was a man condemned of his fellows, and
+the oar had been my pride, from childhood to that hour."
+
+Another movement of the third inquisitor betrayed equally his interest
+and his surprise.
+
+"Dost thou confess the crime?"
+
+Jacopo smiled, but more in derision than with any other feeling.
+
+"If the illustrious senators here present will unmask, I may answer that
+question, haply, with greater confidence," he said.
+
+"Thy request is bold and out of rule. None know the persons of the
+patricians who preside over the destinies of the state. Dost thou
+confess the crime?"
+
+The entrance of an officer, in some haste, prevented a reply. The man
+placed a written report in the hands of the inquisitor in red, and
+withdrew. After a short pause, the guards were ordered to retire with
+their prisoner.
+
+"Great senators!" said Jacopo, advancing earnestly towards the table, as
+if he would seize the moment to urge what he was about to say;--"Mercy!
+grant me your authority to visit one in the prisons, beneath the
+leads!--I have weighty reasons for the wish, and I pray you, as men and
+fathers, to grant it!"
+
+The interest of the two, who were consulting apart on the new
+intelligence, prevented them from listening to what he urged. The other
+inquisitor, who was the Signer Soranzo, had drawn near the lamp, anxious
+to read the lineaments of one so notorious, and was gazing at his
+striking countenance. Touched by the pathos of his voice, and agreeably
+disappointed in the lineaments he studied, he took upon himself the
+power to grant the request.
+
+"Humor his wish," he said to the halberdiers; "but have him in
+readiness to reappear."
+
+Jacopo looked his gratitude, but fearful that the others might still
+interfere to prevent his wish, he hurried from the room.
+
+The march of the little procession, which proceeded from the chamber of
+the inquisition to the summer cells of its victims, was sadly
+characteristic of the place and the government.
+
+It went through gloomy and secret corridors, that were hid from the
+vulgar eye, while thin partitions only separated them from the
+apartments of the Doge, which, like the specious aspect of the state,
+concealed the nakedness and misery within, by their gorgeousness and
+splendor! On reaching the attic, Jacopo stopped, and turned to his
+conductors.
+
+"If you are beings of God's forming," he said, "take off these clanking
+chains, though it be but for a moment."
+
+The keepers regarded each other in surprise, neither offering to do the
+charitable office.
+
+"I go to visit, probably for the last time," continued the prisoner, "a
+bed-ridden--I may say--a dying father, who knows nothing of my
+situation,--will ye that he should see me thus?"
+
+The appeal which was made, more with the voice and manner, than in the
+words, had its effect. A keeper removed the chains, and bade him
+proceed. With a cautious tread, Jacopo advanced, and when the door was
+opened he entered the room alone, for none there had sufficient
+interest in an interview between a common Bravo and his father, to
+endure the glowing warmth of the place, the while. The door was closed
+after him, and the room became dark.
+
+Notwithstanding his assumed firmness, Jacopo hesitated when he found
+himself so suddenly introduced to the silent misery of the forlorn
+captive. A hard breathing told him the situation of the pallet, but the
+walls, which were solid on the side of the corridor, effectually
+prevented the admission of light.
+
+"Father!" said Jacopo with gentleness.
+
+He got no answer.
+
+"Father!" he repeated in a stronger voice.
+
+The breathing became more audible, and then the captive spoke.
+
+"Holy Maria hear my prayers!" he said feebly. "God hath sent thee, son,
+to close my eyes!"
+
+"Doth thy strength fail thee, father?"
+
+"Greatly--my time is come--I had hoped to see the light of the day again
+to bless thy dear mother and sister--God's will be done!"
+
+"They pray for us both, father. They are beyond the power of the
+Senate."
+
+"Jacopo, I do not understand thee!"
+
+"My mother and sister are dead; they are saints in Heaven, father."
+
+The old man groaned, for the tie of earth had not yet been entirely
+severed. Jacopo heard him murmuring a prayer, and he knelt by the side
+of his pallet.
+
+"This is a sudden blow!" whispered the old man. "We depart together."
+
+"They are long dead, father."
+
+"Why hast thou not told me this before, Jacopo?"
+
+"Hadst thou not sorrows enough without this? Now that thou art about to
+join them, it will be pleasant to know that they have so long been
+happy."
+
+"And thou?--thou wilt be alone--give me thy hand--poor Jacopo!"
+
+The Bravo reached forth and took the feeble member of his parent; it was
+clammy and cold.
+
+"Jacopo," continued the captive, whose mind still sustained the body, "I
+have prayed thrice within the hour: once for my own soul--once for the
+peace of thy mother--lastly, for thee!"
+
+"Bless thee, father!--bless thee! I have need of prayer!"
+
+"I have asked of God favor in thy behalf. I have bethought me of all thy
+love and care--of all thy devotion to my age and sufferings. When thou
+wert a child, Jacopo, tenderness for thee tempted me to acts of
+weakness: I trembled lest thy manhood might bring upon me pain and
+repentance. Thou hast not known the yearnings of a parent for his
+offspring, but thou hast well requited them. Kneel, Jacopo, that I may
+ask of God, once more, to remember thee."
+
+"I am at thy side, father."
+
+The old man raised his feeble arms, and with a voice whose force
+appeared reviving, he pronounced a fervent and solemn benediction.
+
+"The blessing of a dying parent will sweeten thy life, Jacopo," he added
+after a pause, "and give peace to thy last moments."
+
+"It will do the latter, father."
+
+A rude summons at the door interrupted them.
+
+"Come forth, Jacopo," said a keeper, "the Council seeks thee!"
+
+Jacopo felt the convulsive start of his father, but he did not answer.
+
+"Will they not leave thee--a few minutes longer?" whispered the old
+man--"I shall not keep thee long!"
+
+The door opened, and a gleam from the lamp fell on the group in the
+cell. The keeper had the humanity to shut it again, leaving all in
+obscurity. The glimpse which Jacopo obtained, by that passing light, was
+the last look he had of his father's countenance. Death was fearfully on
+it, but the eyes were turned in unutterable affection on his own.
+
+"The man is merciful--he will not shut thee out!" murmured the parent.
+
+"They cannot leave thee to die alone, father!"
+
+"Son, I am with my God--yet I would gladly have thee by my side!--Didst
+thou say--thy mother and thy sister were dead!"
+
+"Dead!"
+
+"Thy young sister, too?"
+
+"Father, both. They are saints in Heaven."
+
+The old man breathed thick, and there was silence. Jacopo felt a hand
+moving in the darkness, as if in quest of him. He aided the effort, and
+laid the member in reverence on his own head.
+
+"Maria undefiled, and her Son, who is God!--bless thee, Jacopo!"
+whispered a voice, that to the excited imagination of the kneeling Bravo
+appeared to hover in the air. The solemn words were followed by a
+quivering sigh. Jacopo hid his face in the blanket, and prayed. After
+which there was deep quiet.
+
+"Father!" he added, trembling at his own smothered voice.
+
+He was unanswered; stretching out a hand, it touched the features of a
+corpse. With a firmness that had the quality of desperation, he again
+bowed his head and uttered fervently a prayer for the dead.
+
+When the door of the cell opened, Jacopo appeared to the keepers, with a
+dignity of air that belongs only to character, and which was heightened
+by the scene in which he had just been an actor. He raised his hands,
+and stood immovable while the manacles were replaced. This office done,
+they walked away together in the direction of the secret chamber. It was
+not long ere all were again in their places, before the Council of
+Three.
+
+"Jacopo Frontoni," resumed the secretary, "thou art suspected of being
+privy to another dark deed that hath had place of late within our city.
+Hast thou any knowledge of a noble Calabrian, who hath high claim to the
+senate's honors, and who hath long had his abode in Venice?"
+
+"Signore, I have."
+
+"Hast thou had aught of concern with him?"
+
+"Signore, yes."
+
+A movement of common interest made itself apparent among the auditors.
+
+"Dost thou know where the Don Camillo Monforte is at present."
+
+Jacopo hesitated. He so well understood the means of intelligence
+possessed by the Council, that he doubted how far it might be prudent to
+deny his connexion with the flight of the lovers. Besides, at that
+moment, his mind was deeply impressed with a holy sentiment of truth.
+
+"Canst thou say, why the young duca is not to be found in his palace?"
+repeated the secretary.
+
+"Illustrissimo, he hath quitted Venice for ever."
+
+"How canst thou know this?--Would he make a confidant of a common
+Bravo?"
+
+The smile which crossed the features of Jacopo was full of superiority;
+it caused the conscious agent of the Secret Tribunal to look closely at
+his papers, like one who felt its power.
+
+"Art thou his confidant--I ask again?"
+
+"Signore, in this, I am--I have the assurance from the mouth of Don
+Camillo Monforte himself, that he will not return."
+
+"This is impossible, since it would involve a loss of all his fair
+hopes and illustrious fortunes."
+
+"He consoled himself, Signore, with the possession of the heiress of
+Tiepolo's love, and with her riches."
+
+Again there was a movement among the Three, which all their practised
+restraint, and the conventional dignity of their mysterious functions,
+could not prevent.
+
+"Let the keepers withdraw," said the inquisitor of the scarlet robe. So
+soon as the prisoner was alone with the Three, and their permanent
+officer, the examination continued; the Senators themselves, trusting to
+the effect produced by their masks, and some feints, speaking as
+occasion offered.
+
+"This is important intelligence that thou hast communicated, Jacopo,"
+continued he of the robe of flame. "It may yet redeem thy life, wert
+thou wise enough to turn it to account."
+
+"What would your eccellenza at my hands? It is plain that the Council
+know of the flight of Don Camillo, nor will I believe that eyes, which
+so seldom are closed, have not yet missed the daughter of the Tiepolo."
+
+"Both are true, Jacopo; but what hast thou to say of the means?
+Remember, that as thou findest favor with the council, thine own fate
+will be decided."
+
+The prisoner suffered another of those freezing gleams to cross his
+face, which invariably caused his examiners to bend their looks aside.
+
+"The means of escape cannot be wanting to a bold lover, Signore," he
+replied. "Don Camillo is rich, and might employ a thousand agents, had
+he need of them."
+
+"Thou art equivocating; 'twill be the worse for thee, that thou triflest
+with the Council--who are these agents?"
+
+"He had a generous household, Eccellenza;--many hardy gondoliers, and
+servitors of all conditions."
+
+"Of these we have nothing to learn. He hath escaped by other means--or
+art thou sure he hath escaped at all?"
+
+"Signore, is he in Venice?"
+
+"Nay, that we ask of thee. Here is an accusation, found in the lion's
+mouth, which charges thee with his assassination."
+
+"And the Donna Violetta's, too, eccellenza?"
+
+"Of her, we have heard nothing. What answer dost make to the charge?"
+
+"Signore, why should I betray my own secrets?"
+
+"Ha! art thou equivocating and faithless? Remember that we have a
+prisoner beneath the leads, who can extract the truth from thee."
+
+Jacopo raised his form to such an altitude as one might fancy to express
+the mounting of a liberated spirit. Still his eye was sad, and, spite of
+an effort to the contrary, his voice melancholy.
+
+"Senators," he said, "your prisoner beneath the leads is free."
+
+"How! thou art trifling, in thy despair!"
+
+"I speak truth. The liberation, so long delayed, hath come at last."
+
+"Thy father----"
+
+"Is dead," interrupted Jacopo, solemnly.
+
+The two elder members of the Council looked at each other in surprise,
+while their junior colleague listened with the interest of one who was
+just entering on a noviciate of secret and embarrassing duties. The
+former consulted together, and then they communicated as much of their
+opinions to the Signor Soranzo, as they deemed necessary to the
+occasion.
+
+"Wilt thou consult thine own safety, Jacopo, and reveal all thou knowest
+of this affair of the Neapolitan?" continued the inquisitor, when this
+by-play was ended.
+
+Jacopo betrayed no weakness at the menace implied by the words of the
+senator; but, after a moment's reflection, he answered writh as much
+frankness as he could have used at the confessional.
+
+"It is known to you, illustrious senator," he said, "that the state had
+a desire to match the heiress of Tiepolo, to its own advantage; that she
+was beloved of the Neapolitan noble; and that, as is wont between young
+and virtuous hearts, she returned his love as became a maiden of her
+high condition and tender years. Is there anything extraordinary in the
+circumstance that two of so illustrious hopes should struggle to prevent
+their own misery? Signori, the night that old Antonio died, I was alone,
+among the graves of the Lido, with many melancholy and bitter thoughts,
+and life had become a burden to me. Had the evil spirit which was then
+uppermost, maintained its mastery, I might have died the death of a
+hopeless suicide. God sent Don Camillo Monforte to my succor. Praised be
+the immaculate Maria, and her blessed Son, for the mercy! It was there I
+learned the wishes of the Neapolitan, and enlisted myself in his
+service. I swore to him, senators of Venice, to be true--to die in his
+cause, should it be necessary, and to help him to his bride. This pledge
+have I redeemed. The happy lovers are now in the States of the Church,
+and under the puissant protection of the cardinal secretary, Don
+Camillo's mother's brother."
+
+"Fool! why did'st thou this? Had'st thou no thought for thyself?"
+
+"Eccellenza, but little. I thought more of finding a human bosom to pour
+out my sufferings to, than of your high displeasure. I have not known so
+sweet a moment in years, as that in which I saw the lord of Sant' Agata
+fold his beautiful and weeping bride to his heart!"
+
+The inquisitors were struck with the quiet enthusiasm of the Bravo, and
+surprise once more held them in suspense. At length the elder of the
+three resumed the examination.
+
+"Wilt thou impart the manner of this escape, Jacopo?" he demanded.
+"Remember, thou hast still a life to redeem!"
+
+"Signore, it is scarce worth the trouble. But to do your pleasure,
+nothing shall be concealed."
+
+Jacopo then recounted in simple and undisguised terms, the entire means
+employed by Don Camillo in effecting his escape--his hopes, his
+disappointments, and his final success. In this narrative nothing was
+concealed but the place in which the ladies had temporarily taken
+refuge, and the name of Gelsomina. Even the attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo
+on the life of the Neapolitan, and the agency of the Hebrew, were fully
+exposed. None listened to this explanation so intently as the young
+husband. Notwithstanding his public duties, his pulses quickened as the
+prisoner dwelt on the different chances of the lovers, and when their
+final union was proclaimed, he felt his heart bound with delight. On the
+other hand, his more practised colleagues heard the detail of the Bravo
+with politic coolness. The effect of all factitious systems is to render
+the feelings subservient to expediency. Convention and fiction take
+place of passion and truth, and like the Mussulman with his doctrine of
+predestination, there is no one more acquiescent in defeat, than he who
+has obtained an advantage in the face of nature and justice; his
+resignation being, in common, as perfect as his previous arrogance was
+insupportable. The two old senators perceived at once that Don Camillo
+and his fair companion were completely beyond the reach of their power,
+and they instantly admitted the wisdom of making a merit of necessity.
+Having no farther occasion for Jacopo, they summoned the keepers, and
+dismissed him to his cell.
+
+"It will be seemly to send letters of congratulation to the cardinal
+secretary, on the union of his nephew with so rich an heiress of our
+city," said the Inquisitor of the Ten, as the door closed on the
+retiring group. "So great an interest as that of the Neapolitan should
+be propitiated."
+
+"But should he urge the state's resistance to his hopes?" returned the
+Signor Soranzo, in feeble objection to so bold a scheme.
+
+"We will excuse it as the act of a former council. These misconceptions
+are the unavoidable consequences of the caprices of liberty, Signore.
+The steed that ranges the plains in the freedom of nature, cannot be
+held to perfect command, like the dull beast that draws the car. This is
+the first of your sittings in the Three; but experience will show you
+that excellent as we are in system, we are not quite perfect in
+practice. This is grave matter of the young Gradenigo, Signori!"
+
+"I have long known his unworthiness," returned his more aged colleague.
+"It is a thousand pities that so honorable and so noble a patrician
+should have produced so ignoble a child. But neither the state nor the
+city can tolerate assassination."
+
+"Would it were less, frequent!" exclaimed the Signore Soranzo, in
+perfect sincerity.
+
+"Would it were, indeed! There are hints in our secret information, which
+tend to confirm the charge of Jacopo, though long experience has taught
+us to put full faith in his reports."
+
+"How! Is Jacopo, then, an agent of the police!"
+
+"Of that more at our leisure, Signor Soranzo. At present we must look to
+this attempt on the life of one protected by our laws."
+
+The Three then entered into a serious discussion of the case of the two
+delinquents. Venice, like all despotic governments, had the merit of
+great efficiency in its criminal police, when it was disposed to exert
+it. Justice was sure enough in those instances in which the interests of
+the government itself were not involved, or in which bribery could not
+well be used. As to the latter, through the jealousy of the state, and
+the constant agency of those who were removed from temptation, by being
+already in possession of a monopoly of benefits, it was by no means as
+frequent as in some other communities in which the affluent were less
+interested. The Signor Soranzo had now a fair occasion for the exercise
+of his generous feelings. Though related to the house of Gradenigo, he
+was not backward in decrying the conduct of its heir. His first impulses
+were to make a terrible example of the accused, and to show the world
+that no station brought with it, in Venice, impunity for crime. From
+this view of the case, however, he was gradually enticed by his
+companions, who reminded him that the law commonly made a distinction
+between the intention and the execution of an offence. Driven from his
+first determination by the cooler heads of his colleagues, the young
+inquisitor next proposed that the case should be sent to the ordinary
+tribunals for judgment. Instances had not been wanting in which the
+aristocracy of Venice sacrificed one of its body to the seemliness of
+justice; for when such cases were managed with discretion, they rather
+strengthened than weakened their ascendency. But the present crime was
+known to be too common, to permit so lavish an expenditure of their
+immunities, and the old inquisitors opposed the wish of their younger
+colleague with great plausibility, and with some show of reason. It was
+finally resolved that they should themselves decide on the case.
+
+The next question was the degree of punishment. The wily senior of the
+council began by proposing a banishment for a few months, for Giacomo
+Gradenigo was already obnoxious to the anger of the state on more
+accounts than one. But this punishment was resisted by the Signor
+Soranzo with the ardor of an uncorrupted and generous mind. The latter
+gradually prevailed, his companions taking care that their compliance
+should have the air of a concession to his arguments. The result of all
+this management was, that the heir of Gradenigo was condemned to ten
+years' retirement in the provinces, and Hosea to banishment for life.
+Should the reader be of opinion that strict justice was not meted out to
+the offenders, he should remember, that the Hebrew ought to be glad to
+have escaped as he did.
+
+"We must not conceal this judgment, nor its motive," observed the
+Inquisitor of the Ten, when the affair was concluded. "The state is
+never a loser for letting its justice be known."
+
+"Nor for its exercise, I should hope," returned the Signor Soranzo. "As
+our affairs are ended for the night, is it your pleasures, Signori, that
+we return to our palaces?"
+
+"Nay, we have this matter of Jacopo."
+
+"Him may we now, surely, turn over to the ordinary tribunals!"
+
+"As you may decide, Signori; is this your pleasure?"
+
+Both the others bowed assent, and the usual preparations were made for
+departure.
+
+Ere the two seniors of the Council left the palace, however, they held a
+long and secret conference together. The result was a private order to
+the criminal judge, and then they returned, each to his own abode, like
+men who had the approbation of their own consciences.
+
+On the other hand, the Signor Soranzo hastened to his own luxurious and
+happy dwelling. For the first time in his life he entered it with a
+distrust of himself. Without being conscious of the reason, he felt sad,
+for he had taken the first step in that tortuous and corrupting path,
+which eventually leads to the destruction of all those generous and
+noble sentiments, which can only flourish apart from the sophistry and
+fictions of selfishness. He would have rejoiced to have been as light of
+heart as at the moment he handed his fair-haired partner into the
+gondola that night; but his head had pressed the pillow for many hours,
+before sleep drew a veil over the solemn trifling with the most serious
+of your duties, in which he had been an actor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+  "Art thou not guilty! No, indeed, I am not."
+                                     ROGERS.
+
+
+The following morning brought the funeral of Antonio. The agents of the
+police took the precaution to circulate in the city, that the Senate
+permitted this honor to the memory of the old fisherman, on account of
+his success in the regatta, and as some atonement for his unmerited and
+mysterious death. All the men of the Lagunes were assembled in the
+square at the appointed hour, in decent guise, flattered with the notice
+that their craft received, and more than half disposed to forget their
+former anger in the present favor. Thus easy is it for those who are
+elevated above their fellow-creatures by the accident of birth, or by
+the opinions of a factitious social organization, to repair the wrongs
+they do in deeds, by small concessions of their conventional
+superiority.
+
+Masses were still chanted for the soul of old Antonio before the altar
+of St. Mark. Foremost among the priests was the good Carmelite, who had
+scarce known hunger or fatigue, in his pious desire to do the offices of
+the church in behalf of one whose fate he might be said to have
+witnessed. His zeal, however, in that moment of excitement passed
+unnoticed by all, but those whose business it was to suffer no unusual
+display of character, nor any unwonted circumstance to have place,
+without attracting their suspicion. As the Carmelite finally withdrew
+from the altar, previously to the removal of the body, he felt the
+sleeve of his robe slightly drawn aside, and yielding to the impulse,
+he quickly found himself among the columns of that gloomy church, alone
+with a stranger.
+
+"Father, thou hast shrived many a parting soul!" observed, rather than
+asked, the other.
+
+"It is the duty of my holy office, son."
+
+"The state will note thy services; there will be need of thee when the
+body of this fisherman is committed to the earth."
+
+The monk shuddered, but making the sign of the cross, he bowed his pale
+face, in signification of his readiness to discharge the duty. At that
+moment the bearers lifted the body, and the procession issued upon the
+great square. First marched the usual lay underlings of the cathedral,
+who were followed by those who chanted the offices of the occasion.
+Among the latter the Carmelite hastened to take his station. Next came
+the corpse, without a coffin, for that is a luxury of the grave even now
+unknown to the Italians of old Antonio's degree. The body was clad in
+the holiday vestments of a fisherman, the hands and feet being naked. A
+cross lay on the breast; the grey hairs were blowing about in the air,
+and, in frightful adornment of the ghastliness of death, a bouquet of
+flowers was placed upon the mouth. The bier was rich in gilding and
+carving, another melancholy evidence of the lingering wishes and false
+direction of human vanity.
+
+Next to this characteristic equipage of the dead walked a lad, whose
+brown cheek, half-naked body, and dark, roving eye, announced the
+grandson of the fisherman. Venice knew when to yield gracefully, and the
+boy was liberated unconditionally from the galleys, in pity, as it was
+whispered, for the untimely fate of his parent. There was the aspiring
+look, the dauntless spirit, and the rigid honesty of Antonio, in the
+bearing of the lad; but these qualities were now smothered by a natural
+grief; and, as in the case of him whose funeral escort he followed,
+something obscured by the rude chances of his lot. From time to time
+the bosom of the generous boy heaved, as they marched along the quay,
+taking the route of the arsenal; and there were moments in which his
+lips quivered, grief threatening to overcome his manhood.
+
+Still not a tear wetted his cheek, until the body disappeared from his
+view. Then nature triumphed, and straying from out the circle, he took a
+seat apart and wept, as one of his years and simplicity would be apt to
+weep, at finding himself a solitary wanderer in the wilderness of the
+world.
+
+Thus terminated the incident of Antonio Vecchio, the fisherman, whose
+name soon ceased to be mentioned in that city of mysteries, except on
+the Lagunes, where the men of his craft long vaunted his merit with the
+net, and the manner in which he bore away the prize from the best oars
+of Venice. His descendant lived and toiled, like others of his
+condition, and we will here dismiss him, by saying, that he so far
+inherited the native qualities of his ancestor, that he forbore to
+appear, a few hours later, in the crowd, which curiosity and vengeance
+drew into the Piazzetta.
+
+Father Anselmo took boat to return to the canals, and when he landed at
+the quay of the smaller square it was with the hope that he would now be
+permitted to seek those of whose fate he was still ignorant, but in whom
+he felt so deep an interest. Not so, however. The individual who had
+addressed him in the cathedral was, apparently, in waiting, and knowing
+the uselessness as well as the danger of remonstrance, where the state
+was concerned, the Carmelite permitted himself to be conducted whither
+his guide pleased. They took a devious route, but it led them to the
+public prisons. Here the priest was shown into the keeper's apartment,
+where he was desired to wait a summons from his companion.
+
+Our business now leads us to the cell of Jacopo. On quitting the
+presence of the Three, he had been remanded to his gloomy room, where he
+passed the night like others similarly situated. With the appearance of
+the dawn the Bravo had been led before those who ostensibly discharged
+the duties of his judges. We say ostensibly, for justice never yet was
+pure under a system in which the governors have an interest in the least
+separated from that of the governed; for in all cases which involve the
+ascendency of the existing authorities, the instinct of
+self-preservation is as certain to bias their decision as that of life
+is to cause man to shun danger. If such is the fact in countries of
+milder sway, the reader will easily believe in its existence in a state
+like that of Venice. As may have been anticipated, those who sat in
+judgment on Jacopo had their instructions, and the trial that he
+sustained was rather a concession to appearances than a homage to the
+laws. All the records were duly made, witnesses were examined, or said
+to be examined, and care was had to spread the rumor in the city that
+the tribunals were at length occupied in deciding on the case of the
+extraordinary man who had so long been permitted to exercise his bloody
+profession with impunity even in the centre of the canals. During the
+morning the credulous tradesmen were much engaged in recounting to each
+other the different flagrant deeds that, in the course of the last three
+or four years, had been imputed to his hand. One spoke of the body of a
+stranger that had been found near the gaming-houses frequented by those
+who visited Venice. Another recalled the fate of the young noble who had
+fallen by the assassin's blow even on the Rialto, and another went into
+the details of a murder which had deprived a mother of her only son, and
+the daughter of a patrician of her love. In this manner, as one after
+another contributed to the list, a little group, assembled on the quay,
+enumerated no less than five-and-twenty lives which were believed to
+have been taken by the hand of Jacopo, without including the vindictive
+and useless assassination of him whose funeral rites had just been
+celebrated. Happily, perhaps, for his peace of mind, the subject of all
+these rumors and of the maledictions which they drew upon his head, knew
+nothing of either. Before his judges he had made no defence whatever,
+firmly refusing to answer their interrogatories.
+
+"Ye know what I have done, Messires," he said haughtily. "And what I
+have not done, ye know. As for yourselves, look to your own interests."
+
+When again in his cell he demanded food, and ate tranquilly, though with
+moderation. Every instrument which could possibly be used against his
+life was then removed, his irons were finally and carefully examined,
+and he was left to his thoughts. It was in this situation that the
+prisoner heard the approach of footsteps to his cell. The bolts turned,
+and the door opened. The form of a priest appeared between him and the
+day. The latter, however, held a lamp, which, as the cell was again shut
+and secured, he placed on the low shelf that held the jug and loaf of
+the prisoner.
+
+Jacopo received his visitor calmly, but with the deep respect of one who
+reverenced his body office. He arose, crossed himself, and advanced as
+far as the chains permitted, to do him honor.
+
+"Thou art welcome, father," he said; "in cutting me off from earth, the
+Council, I see, does not wish to cut me off from God."
+
+"That would exceed their power, son. He who died for them, shed his
+blood for thee, if thou wilt not reject his grace. But--Heaven knows I
+say it with reluctance! thou art not to think that one of thy sins,
+Jacopo, can have hope without deep and heartfelt repentance!"
+
+"Father, have any?"
+
+The Carmelite started, for the point of the question, and the tranquil
+tones of the speaker, had a strange effect in such an interview.
+
+"Thou art not what I had supposed thee, Jacopo!" he answered. "Thy mind
+is not altogether obscured in darkness, and thy crimes have been
+committed against the consciousness of their enormity."
+
+"I fear this is true, reverend monk."
+
+"Thou must feel their weight in the poignancy of grief--in the--" Father
+Anselmo stopped, for a sob at that moment apprised them that they were
+not alone. Moving aside, in a little alarm, the action discovered the
+figure of the shrinking Gelsomina, who had entered the cell, favored by
+the keepers, and concealed by the robes of the Carmelite. Jacopo groaned
+when he beheld her form, and turning away, he leaned against the wall.
+
+"Daughter, why art thou here--and who art thou?" demanded the monk.
+
+"'Tis the child of the principal keeper," said Jacopo, perceiving that
+she was unable to answer, "one known to me, in my frequent adventures in
+this prison."
+
+The eye of Father Anselmo wandered from one to the other. At first its
+expression was severe, and then, as it saw each countenance in turn, it
+became less unkind, until it softened at the exhibition of their mutual
+agony.
+
+"This comes of human passions!" he said, in a tone between consolation
+and reproof. "Such are ever the fruits of crime."
+
+"Father," said Jacopo, with earnestness, "I may deserve the word; but
+the angels in Heaven are scarce purer than this weeping girl!"
+
+"I rejoice to hear it. I will believe thee, unfortunate man, and glad am
+I that thy soul is relieved from the sin of having corrupted one so
+youthful."
+
+The bosom of the prisoner heaved, while Gelsomina shuddered.
+
+"Why hast thou yielded to the weakness of nature, and entered the cell?"
+asked the good Carmelite, endeavoring to throw into his eye a reproof,
+that the pathos and kindness of his tones contradicted. "Didst thou know
+the character of the man thou loved?"
+
+"Immaculate Maria!" exclaimed the girl--"no--no--no--no!"
+
+"And now that thou hast learned the truth, surely thou art no longer the
+victim of wayward fancies!"
+
+The gaze of Gelsomina was bewildered, but anguish prevailed over all
+other expression. She bowed her head, partly in shame, but more in
+sorrow, without answering.
+
+"I know not, children, what end this interview can answer," continued
+the monk. "I am sent hither to receive the last confession of a Bravo,
+and surely, one who has so much cause to condemn the deception he has
+practised, would not wish to hear the details of such a life?"
+
+"No--no--no--" murmured Gelsomina again, enforcing her words with a wild
+gesture of the hand.
+
+"It is better, father, that she should believe me all that her fancy can
+imagine as monstrous," said Jacopo, in a thick voice: "she will then
+learn to hate my memory."
+
+Gelsomina did not speak, but the negative gesture was repeated
+franticly.
+
+"The heart of the poor child hath been sorely touched," said the
+Carmelite, with concern. "We must not treat so tender a flower rudely.
+Hearken to me, daughter, and consult thy reason, more than thy
+weakness."
+
+"Question her not, father; let her curse me, and depart."
+
+"Carlo!" shrieked Gelsomina.
+
+A long pause succeeded. The monk perceived that human passion was
+superior to his art, and that the case must be left to time; while the
+prisoner maintained within himself a struggle more fierce than any which
+it had yet been his fate to endure. The lingering desires of the world
+conquered, and he broke silence.
+
+"Father," he said, advancing to the length of his chain, and speaking
+both solemnly and with dignity, "I had hoped--I had prayed that this
+unhappy but innocent creature might have turned from her own weakness
+with loathing, when she came to know that the man she loved was a Bravo.
+But I did injustice to the heart of woman! Tell me, Gelsomina, and as
+thou valuest thy salvation deceive me not--canst thou look at me without
+horror?"
+
+Gelsomina trembled, but she raised her eyes, and smiled on him as the
+weeping infant returns the earnest and tender regard of its mother. The
+effect of that glance on Jacopo was so powerful that his sinewy frame
+shook, until the wondering Carmelite heard the clanking of his chains.
+
+"'Tis enough," he said, struggling to command himself, "Gelsomina, thou
+shalt hear my confession. Thou hast long been mistress of one great
+secret, none other shall be hid from thee."
+
+"Antonio!" gasped the girl. "Carlo! Carlo! what had that aged fisherman
+done that thy hand should seek his life?"
+
+"Antonio!" echoed the monk; "dost thou stand charged with his death, my
+son?"
+
+"It is the crime for which I am condemned to die."
+
+The Carmelite sank upon the stool of the prisoner, and sat motionless,
+looking with an eye of horror from the countenance of the unmoved Jacopo
+to that of his trembling companion. The truth began to dawn upon him,
+though his mind was still enveloped in the web of Venetian mystery.
+
+"Here is some horrible mistake!" he whispered. "I will hasten to thy
+judges and undeceive them."
+
+The prisoner smiled calmly, as he reached out a hand to arrest the
+zealous movement of the simple Carmelite.
+
+"'Twill be useless," he said; "it is the pleasure of the Three that I
+should suffer for old Antonio's death."
+
+"Then wilt thou die unjustly! I am a witness that he fell by other
+hands."
+
+"Father!" shrieked Gelsomina, "oh! repeat the words; say that Carlo
+could not do the cruel deed!"
+
+"Of that murder, at least, he is innocent."
+
+"Gelsomina!" said Jacopo, struggling to stretch forth his arms towards
+her, and yielding to a full heart, "and of every other!"
+
+A cry of wild delight burst from the lips of the girl, who in the next
+instant lay senseless on his bosom.
+
+We draw the veil before the scene that followed. Near an hour must pass
+before we can again remove it. The cell then exhibited a group in its
+centre, over which the lamp shed its feeble light, marking the
+countenances of the different personages with strong tints and deep
+shadows, in a manner to bring forth all the force of Italian expression.
+The Carmelite was seated on the stool, while Jacopo and Gelsomina knelt
+beside him. The former of the two last was speaking earnestly, while his
+auditors caught each syllable that issued from his lips, as if interest
+in his innocence were still stronger than curiosity.
+
+"I have told you, father," he continued, "that a false accusation of
+having wronged the customs brought my unhappy parent under the Senate's
+displeasure, and that he was many years an innocent inhabitant of one of
+these accursed cells, while we believed him in exile among the islands.
+At length we succeeded in getting such proof before the Council, as
+ought to have satisfied the patricians of their own injustice. I am
+afraid that when men pretend that the chosen of the earth exercise
+authority, they are not ready to admit their errors, for it would be
+proof against the merit of their system. The Council delayed a weary
+time to do us justice--so long, that my poor mother sank under her
+sufferings. My sister, a girl of Gelsomina's years, followed her
+soon--for the only reason given by the state, when pressed for proof,
+was the suspicion that one who sought her love was guilty of the crime
+for which my unhappy father perished."
+
+"And did they refuse to repair their injustice?" exclaimed the
+Carmelite.
+
+"They could not do it, father, without publishing their fallibility. The
+credit of certain great patricians was concerned, and I fear there is a
+morality in these Councils which separates the deed of the man from
+those of the senators, putting policy before justice."
+
+"This may be true, son; for when a community is grounded on false
+principles, its interests must, of necessity, be maintained by sophisms.
+God will view this act with a different eye!"
+
+"Else would the world be hopeless, father! After years of prayers and
+interest, I was, under a solemn oath of secresy, admitted to my father's
+cell. There was happiness in being able to administer to his wants--in
+hearing his voice--in kneeling for his blessing. Gelsomina was then a
+child approaching womanhood. I knew not their motive, though after
+thoughts left it no secret, and I was permitted to see my father through
+her means. When they believed that I was sufficiently caught in their
+toils, I was led into that fatal error which has destroyed my hopes, and
+brought me to this condition."
+
+"Thou hast affirmed thy innocence, my son!"
+
+"Innocent of shedding blood, father, but not of lending myself to their
+artifices. I will not weary you, holy monk, with the history of the
+means by which they worked upon my nature. I was sworn to serve the
+state, as its secret agent, for a certain time. The reward was to be my
+father's freedom. Had they taken me in the world, and in my senses,
+their arts would not have triumphed; but a daily witness of the
+sufferings of him who had given me life, and who was now all that was
+left me in the world, they were too strong for my weakness, They
+whispered to me of racks and wheels, and I was shown paintings of dying
+martyrs, that I might understand the agony they could inflict.
+Assassinations were frequent, and called for the care of the police; in
+short, father"--Jacopo hid his face in the dress of Gelsomina--"I
+consented to let them circulate such tales as might draw the eye of the
+public on me. I need not add, that he who lends himself to his own
+infamy will soon attain his object."
+
+"With what end was this miserable falsehood invented?"
+
+"Father, I was applied to as a public Bravo, and my reports, in more
+ways than one, answered their designs, That I saved some lives is at
+least a consolation for the error or crime into which I fell!"
+
+"I understand thee, Jacopo. I have heard that Venice did not hesitate to
+use the ardent and brave in this manner. Holy St. Mark! can deceit like
+this be practised under the sanction of thy blessed name!"
+
+"Father, it is, and more. I had other duties connected with the
+interests of the Republic, and of course I was practised in their
+discharge. The citizens marvelled that one like me should go at large,
+while the vindictive and revengeful took the circumstance as a proof of
+address. When rumor grew too strong for appearances, the Three took
+measures to direct it to other things; and when it grew too faint for
+their wishes it was fanned. In short, for three long and bitter years
+did I pass the life of the damned--sustained only by the hope of
+liberating my father, and cheered by the love of this innocent!"
+
+"Poor Jacopo, thou art to be pitied! I will remember thee in my
+prayers."
+
+"And thou, Gelsomina?"
+
+The keeper's daughter did not answer. Her ears had drunk in each
+syllable that fell from his lips, and now that the whole truth began to
+dawn on her mind, there was a bright radiance in her eye that appeared
+almost supernatural to those who witnessed it.
+
+"If I have failed in convincing thee, Gelsomina," continued Jacopo,
+"that I am not the wretch I seemed, would that I had been dumb!"
+
+She stretched a hand towards him, and dropping her head on his bosom,
+wept.
+
+"I see all thy temptations, poor Carlo," she said, softly; "I know how
+strong was thy love for thy father."
+
+"Dost thou forgive me, dearest Gelsomina, for the deception on thy
+innocence?"
+
+"There was no deception; I believed thee a son ready to die for his
+father, and I find thee what I thought thee."
+
+The good Carmelite regarded this scene with eyes of interest and
+indulgence; tears wetted his cheeks.
+
+"Thy affection for each other, children," he said, "is such as angels
+might indulge. Has thy intercourse been of long date?"
+
+"It has lasted years, father."
+
+"And thou, daughter, hast been with Jacopo in the cell of his parent?"
+
+"I was his constant guide on these holy errands, father."
+
+The monk mused deeply. After a silence of several minutes he proceeded
+to the duties of his holy office. Receiving the spiritual confession of
+the prisoner he gave the absolution with a fervor which proved how
+deeply his sympathies were enlisted in behalf of the youthful pair. This
+duty done, he gave Gelsomina his hand, and there was a mild confidence
+in his countenance as he took leave of Jacopo.
+
+"We quit thee," he said; "but be of heart, son. I cannot think that even
+Venice will be deaf to a tale like thine! Trust first to thy God, and
+believe that neither this faithful girl nor I will abandon thee without
+an effort."
+
+Jacopo received this assurance like one accustomed to exist in extreme
+jeopardy. The smile which accompanied his own adieux had in it as much
+of incredulity as of melancholy. It was, however, full of the joy of a
+lightened heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                    "Your heart
+  is free, and quick with virtuous wrath to accuse
+  Appearances; and views a criminal
+  In innocence's shadow."
+                                     WERNER.
+
+
+The Carmelite and Gelsomina found the keepers in waiting, and when they
+quitted the cell its door was secured for the night. As they had no
+further concerns with the jailors they passed on unquestioned. But when
+the end of the corridor which led towards the apartments of the keeper
+was reached, the monk stopped.
+
+"Art thou equal to a great effort, in order that the innocent shall not
+die?" he suddenly asked, though with a solemnity that denoted the
+influence of a high and absorbing motive.
+
+"Father!"
+
+"I would know if thy love for the youth can sustain thee in a trying
+scene; for without this effort he will surely perish!"
+
+"I would die to save Jacopo a pang!"
+
+"Deceive not thyself, daughter! Canst thou forget thy habits; overstep
+the diffidence of thy years and condition; stand and speak fearlessly in
+the presence of the great and dreaded?"
+
+"Reverend Carmelite, I speak daily without fear, though not without awe,
+to one more to be dreaded than any in Venice."
+
+The monk looked in admiration at the gentle being, whose countenance
+was glowing with the mild resolution of innocence and affection, and he
+motioned for her to follow.
+
+"We will go, then, before the proudest and the most fearful of earth,
+should there be occasion," he resumed. "We will do our duty to both
+parties, to the oppressor and the oppressed, that the sin of omission
+lie not on our souls."
+
+Father Anselmo, without further explanation, led the obedient girl into
+that part of the palace which was known to be appropriated to the
+private uses of the titular head of the Republic.
+
+The jealousy of the Venetian patricians on the subject of their Doge is
+matter of history. He was, by situation, a puppet in the hands of the
+nobles, who only tolerated his existence, because the theory of their
+government required a seeming agent in the imposing ceremonies that
+formed part of their specious system, and in their intercourse with
+other states. He dwelt in his palace like the queen-bee in the hive,
+pampered and honored to the eye, but in truth devoted to the objects of
+those who alone possess the power to injure, and perhaps we might add,
+like the insect named, known for consuming more than a usual portion of
+the fruits of the common industry.
+
+Father Anselmo was indebted to his own decision, and to the confidence
+of his manner, for reaching the private apartments of a prince, thus
+secluded and watched. He was permitted to pass by various sentinels, who
+imagined, from his holy calling and calm step, that he was some friar
+employed in his usual and privileged office. By this easy, quiet method
+did the Carmelite and his companion penetrate to the very ante-chamber
+of the sovereign, a spot that thousands had been defeated in attempting
+to reach, by means more elaborate.
+
+There were merely two or three drowsy inferior officers of the household
+in waiting. One arose quickly at the unexpected appearance of these
+unknown visitors, expressing, by the surprise and the confusion of his
+eye, the wonder into which he was thrown by so unlooked-for guests.
+
+"His Highness waits for us, I fear?" simply observed Father Anselmo, who
+had known how to quiet his concern, in a look of passive courtesy.
+
+"Santa Maria! holy father, you should know best, but----"
+
+"We will not lose more time in idle words, son, when there has already
+been this delay--show us to the closet of his Highness."
+
+"It is forbidden to usher any, unannounced, into the presence----"
+
+"Thou seest this is not an ordinary visit. Go, inform the Doge that the
+Carmelite he expects, and the youthful maiden, in whom his princely
+bosom feels so parental an interest, await his pleasure."
+
+"His Highness has then commanded----"
+
+"Tell him, moreover, that time presses; for the hour is near when
+innocence is condemned to suffer."
+
+The usher was deceived by the gravity and assurance of the monk. He
+hesitated, and then throwing open a door, he showed the visitors into an
+inner room, where he requested them to await his return. After this, he
+went on the desired commission to the closet of his master.
+
+It has already been shown that the reigning Doge, if such a title can be
+used of a prince who was merely a tool of the aristocracy, was a man
+advanced in years. He had thrown aside the cares of the day, and, in the
+retirement of his privacy, was endeavoring to indulge those human
+sympathies that had so little play in the ordinary duties of his
+factitious condition, by holding intercourse with the mind of one of the
+classics of his country. His state was laid aside for lighter ease and
+personal freedom. The monk could not have chosen a happier moment for
+his object, since the man was undefended by the usual appliances of his
+rank, and he was softened by communion with one who had known how to
+mould and temper the feelings of his readers at will. So entire was the
+abstraction of the Doge, at the moment, that the usher entered unheeded,
+and had stood in respectful attention to his sovereign's pleasure, near
+a minute before he was seen.
+
+"What would'st thou, Marco?" demanded the prince, when his eye rose from
+the page.
+
+"Signore," returned the officer, using the familiar manner in which
+those nearest to the persons of princes are permitted to indulge--"here
+are the reverend Carmelite, and the young girl, in waiting."
+
+"How sayest thou? a Carmelite, and a girl!"
+
+"Signore, the same. Those whom your Highness expects."
+
+"What bold pretence is this!"
+
+"Signore, I do but repeat the words of the monk. 'Tell his Highness,'
+said the father, 'that the Carmelite he wishes to see, and the young
+girl in whose happiness his princely bosom feels so parental an
+interest, await his pleasure.'"
+
+There passed a glow, in which indignation was brighter than shame, over
+the wasted cheek of the old prince, and his eye kindled.
+
+"And this to me--even in my palace!"
+
+"Pardon, Signore. This is no shameless priest, like so many that
+disgrace the tonsure. Both monk and girl have innocent and harmless
+looks, and I do suspect your Highness may have forgotten."
+
+The bright spots disappeared from the prince's cheeks and his eye
+regained its paternal expression. But age, and experience in his
+delicate duties, had taught the Doge of Venice caution. He well knew
+that memory had not failed him, and he at once saw that a hidden meaning
+lay concealed beneath an application so unusual. There might be a device
+of his enemies, who were numerous and active, or, in truth, there might
+be some justifiable motive to warrant the applicant in resorting to a
+measure so hardy.
+
+"Did the Carmelite say more, good Marco?" he asked, after deep
+reflection.
+
+"Signore, he said there was great urgency, as the hour was near when the
+innocent might suffer. I doubt not that he comes with a petition in
+behalf of some young indiscreet, for there are said to be several young
+nobles arrested for their follies in the carnival. The female may be a
+sister disguised."
+
+"Bid one of thy companions come hither; and when I touch my bell, do
+thou usher these visitors to my presence."
+
+The attendant withdrew, taking care to pass into the antechamber by
+doors that rendered it unnecessary to show himself too soon to those who
+expected his return. The second usher quickly made his appearance, and
+was immediately dispatched in quest of one of the Three, who was
+occupied with important papers in an adjoining closet. The senator was
+not slow to obey the summons, for he appeared there as a friend of the
+prince, having been admitted publicly, and with the customary honors.
+
+"Here are visitors of an unusual character, Signore," said the Doge,
+rising to receive him whom he had summoned in precaution to himself,
+"and I would have a witness of their requests."
+
+"Your Highness does well to make us of the Senate share your labors;
+though if any mistaken opinion of the necessity has led you to conceive
+it important to call a councillor each time a guest enters the
+palace----"
+
+"It is well, Signore," mildly interrupted the prince, touching the bell.
+"I hope my importunity has not deranged you. But here come those I
+expect."
+
+Father Anselmo and Gelsomina entered the closet together. The first
+glance convinced the Doge that he received strangers. He exchanged looks
+with the member of the secret council, and each saw in the other's eye
+that the surprise was mutual.
+
+When fairly in the presence, the Carmelite threw back his cowl, entirely
+exposing the whole of his ascetic features; while Gelsomina, awed by the
+rank of him who received them, shrank abashed, partly concealed by his
+robes.
+
+"What means this visit?" demanded the prince, whose finger pointed to
+the shrinking form of the girl, while his eye rested steadily on that of
+the monk, "and that unusual companion? Neither the hour, nor the mode,
+is customary."
+
+Father Anselmo stood before the Venetian sovereign for the first time.
+Accustomed, like all of that region, and more especially in that age, to
+calculate his chances of success warily, before venturing to disburden
+his mind, the monk fastened a penetrating look on his interrogator.
+
+"Illustrious prince," he said, "we come petitioners for justice. They
+who are thus commissioned had need be bold, lest they do their own
+character, and their righteous office, discredit."
+
+"Justice is the glory of St. Mark, and the happiness of his subjects.
+Thy course, father, is not according to established rules and wholesome
+restraints, but it may have its apology--name thy errand."
+
+"There is one in the cells, condemned of the public tribunals, and he
+must die with the return of day, unless your princely authority
+interfere to save him."
+
+"One condemned of the tribunals may merit his fate."
+
+"I am the ghostly adviser of the unhappy youth, and in the execution of
+my sacred office I have learned that he is innocent."
+
+"Didst thou say, condemned of the common judges-father?"
+
+"Sentenced to die, highness, by a decree of the criminal tribunals."
+
+The prince appeared relieved. So long as the affair had been public,
+there was at least reason to believe he might indulge his love of the
+species, by listening further, without offence to the tortuous policy of
+the state. Glancing his eye at the motionless inquisitor, as if to seek
+approbation, he advanced a step nearer to the Carmelite, with increasing
+interest in the application.
+
+"By what authority, reverend priest, dost thou impeach the decision of
+the judges?" he demanded.
+
+"Signore, as I have just said, in virtue of knowledge gained in the
+exercise of my holy office. He has laid bare his soul to me, as one
+whose feet were in the grave; and, though offending, like all born of
+woman, towards his God, he is guiltless as respects the state."
+
+"Thinkest thou, father, that the law would ever reach its victim, were
+we to listen only to self-accusations? I am old, monk, and have long
+worn that troublesome cap," pointing to the horned bonnet, which lay
+near his hand, the symbol of his state, "and in my day, I do not recall
+the criminal that has not fancied himself the victim of untoward
+circumstances."
+
+"That men apply this treacherous solace to their consciences, one of my
+vocation has not to learn. Our chief task is to show the delusion of
+those, who, while condemning their own sins by words of confession and
+self-abasement, make a merit of humility; but, Doge of Venice, there is
+still a virtue in the sacred rite I have this evening been required to
+perform, which can overcome the mounting of the most exalted spirit.
+Many attempt to deceive themselves at the confessional, while, by the
+power of God, few succeed."
+
+"Praised be the blessed mother and the incarnate son, that it is so!"
+returned the prince, struck by the mild faith of the monk, and crossing
+himself reverently. "Father, thou hast forgotten to name the condemned?"
+
+"It is a certain Jacopo Frontoni;--a reputed bravo," The start, the
+changing color, and the glance of the prince of Venice, were full of
+natural surprise.
+
+"Callest thou the bloodiest stiletto that ever disgraced the city, the
+weapon of a reputed bravo? The arts of the monster have prevailed over
+thy experience, monk!--the true confession of such a wretch would be but
+a history of bloody and revolting crimes."
+
+"I entered his cell with this opinion, but I left it convinced that the
+public sentiment has done him wrong. If your Highness will deign hear
+his tale, you will think him a fit subject for your pity, rather than
+for punishment."
+
+"Of all the criminals of my reign, this is the last in whose favor I
+could have imagined there was aught to be said!--Speak freely,
+Carmelite; for curiosity is as strong as wonder."
+
+So truly did the Doge give utterance to his feelings, that he
+momentarily forgot the presence of the inquisitor, whose countenance
+might have shown him that the subject was getting to be grave.
+
+The monk ejaculated a thanksgiving, for it was not always easy, in that
+city of mystery, to bring truth to the ears of the great. When men live
+under a system of duplicity, more or less of the quality gets interwoven
+with the habits of the most ingenuous, although they may remain
+themselves unconscious of the taint. Thus Father Anselmo, as he
+proceeded with the desired explanation, touched more tenderly on the
+practices of the state, and used more of reserve in alluding to those
+usages and opinions, which one of his holy calling and honest nature,
+under other circumstances, would have fearlessly condemned.
+
+"It may not be known to one of your high condition, sovereign prince,"
+resumed the Carmelite, "that an humble but laborious mechanic of this
+city, a certain Francesco Frontoni, was long since condemned for frauds
+against the Republic's revenue. This is a crime St. Mark never fails to
+visit with his heavy displeasure, for when men place the goods of the
+world before all other considerations, they mistake the objects which
+have brought them together in social union."
+
+"Father, thou wert speaking of a certain Francesco Frontoni?"
+
+"Highness, such was his name. The unhappy man had taken into his
+confidence and friendship, one who, pretending to his daughter's love,
+might appear to be the master of his secrets. When this false suitor
+stood on the verge of detection, for offences against the customs, he
+laid a snare of deception, which, while he was permitted to escape, drew
+the anger of the state on his too confiding friend. Francesco was
+condemned to the cells, until he might reveal facts which never had an
+existence."
+
+"This is a hard fate, reverend friar, could it be but proved!"
+
+"'Tis the evil of secresy and intrigue, great Doge, in managing the
+common interests!--"
+
+"Hast thou more of this Francesco, monk?"
+
+"His history is short, Signore; for at the age when most men are active
+in looking to their welfare, he was pining in a prison."
+
+"I remember to have heard of some such accusation; but it occurred in
+the reign of the last Doge, did it not, father?"
+
+"And he has endured to near the close of the reign of this, Highness!"
+
+"How? The Senate, when apprised of the error of its judgment, was not
+slow to repair the wrong!"
+
+The monk regarded the prince earnestly, as if he would make certain
+whether the surprise he witnessed was not a piece of consummate acting.
+He felt convinced that the affair was one of that class of acts, which,
+however oppressive, unjust, and destructive of personal happiness, had
+not sufficient importance to come before them, who govern under systems
+which care more for their own preservation than for the good of the
+ruled. "Signor Doge," he said, "the state is discreet in matters that
+touch its own reputation. There are reasons that I shall not presume to
+examine, why the cell of poor Francesco was kept closed, long after the
+death and confession of his accuser left his innocence beyond dispute."
+
+The prince mused, and then he bethought him to consult the countenance
+of his companion. The marble of the pilaster, against which he leaned,
+was not more cold and unmoved than the face of the inquisitor. The man
+had learned to smother every natural impulse in the assumed and
+factitious duties of his office.
+
+"And what has this case of Francesco to do with the execution of the
+Bravo?" demanded the Doge, after a pause, in which he had in vain
+struggled to assume the indifference of his counsellor.
+
+"That I shall leave this prison-keeper's daughter to explain. Stand
+forth, child, and relate what you know, remembering, if you speak before
+the Prince of Venice, that you also speak before the King of Heaven!"
+
+Gelsomina trembled, for one of her habits, however supported by her
+motives, could not overcome a nature so retiring without a struggle. But
+faithful to her promise, and sustained by her affection for the
+condemned, she advanced a step, and stood no longer concealed by the
+robes of the Carmelite.
+
+"Thou art the daughter of the prison-keeper?" asked the prince mildly,
+though surprise was strongly painted in his eye.
+
+"Highness, we are poor, and we are unfortunate: we serve the state for
+bread."
+
+"Ye serve a noble master, child. Dost thou know aught of this Bravo?"
+
+"Dread sovereign, they that call him thus know not his heart! One more
+true to his friends, more faithful to his word, or more suppliant with
+the saints, than Jacopo Frontoni, is not in Venice!"
+
+"This is a character which art might appropriate, even to a bravo. But
+we waste the moments. What have these Frontoni in common?"
+
+"Highness, they are father and son. When Jacopo came to be of an age to
+understand the misfortunes of his family, he wearied the senators with
+applications in his father's behalf, until they commanded the door of
+the cell to be secretly opened to a child so pious. I well know, great
+prince, that they who rule cannot have all-seeing eyes, else could this
+wrong never have happened. But Francesco wasted years in cells, chill
+and damp in winter, and scorching in summer, before the falsehood of the
+accusation was known. Then, as some relief to sufferings so little
+merited, Jacopo was admitted."
+
+"With what object, girl?"
+
+"Highness, was it not in pity? They promised too, that in good time the
+service of the son should buy the father's liberty. The patricians were
+slow to be convinced, and they made terms with poor Jacopo, who agreed
+to undergo a hard service that his father might breathe free air before
+he died."
+
+"Thou dealest in enigmas."
+
+"I am little used, great Doge, to speak in such a presence, or on such
+subjects. But this I know, that for three weary years hath Jacopo been
+admitted to his father's cell, and that those up above consented to the
+visits, else would my father have denied them. I was his companion in
+the holy act, and will call the blessed Maria and the saints------"
+
+"Girl, didst thou know him for a bravo?"
+
+"Oh! Highness, no. To me he seemed a dutiful child, fearing God and
+honoring his parent. I hope never to feel another pang, like that which
+chilled my heart when they said, he I had known as the kind Carlo was
+hunted in Venice as the abhorred Jacopo! But it is passed, the Mother of
+God be praised!"
+
+"Thou art betrothed to this condemned man?"
+
+The color did not deepen on the cheek of Gelsomina at this abrupt
+question, for the tie between her and Jacopo had become too sacred for
+the ordinary weaknesses of her sex.
+
+"Highness, yes; we were to be married, should it have pleased God, and
+those great senators who have so much influence over the happiness of
+the poor, to permit it."
+
+"And thou art still willing, knowing the man, to pledge thy vows to one
+like Jacopo?"
+
+"It is because I do know him to be as he is, that I most reverence him,
+great Doge. He has sold his time and his good name to the state, in
+order to save his imprisoned father, and in that I see nothing to
+frighten one he loves."
+
+"This affair needs explanation, Carmelite. The girl has a heated fancy,
+and she renders that obscure she should explain."
+
+"Illustrious prince, she would say that the Republic was content to
+grant the son the indulgence of visiting the captive, with some
+encouragement of his release, on condition that the youth might serve
+the police by bearing a bravo's reputation."
+
+"And for this incredible tale, father, you have the word of a condemned,
+criminal!"
+
+"With the near view of death before his eyes. There are means of
+rendering truth evident, familiar to those who are often near the dying
+penitents, that are unknown to those of the world. In any case, Signore,
+the matter is worthy of investigation."
+
+"In that thou art right. Is the hour named for the execution?"
+
+"With the morning light, prince."
+
+"And the father?"
+
+"Is dead."
+
+"A prisoner, Carmelite!"
+
+"A prisoner, Prince of Venice."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"Hast thou heard of the death of one named Antonio?"
+
+"Signore, yes. By the sacred nature of my holy office, do I affirm that
+of this crime is Jacopo innocent! I shrived the fisherman."
+
+The Doge turned away, for the truth began to dawn upon him, and the
+flush which glowed on his aged cheek contained a confession that might
+not be observed by every eye. He sought the glance of his companion, but
+his own expression of human feeling was met by the disciplined features
+of the other, as light is coldly repelled from polished stone.
+
+"Highness!" added a tremulous voice.
+
+"What would'st thou, child?"
+
+"There is a God for the Republic, as well as for the gondolier! Your
+Highness will turn this great crime from Venice?"
+
+"Thou art of plain speech, girl!"
+
+"The danger of Carlo has made me bold. You are much beloved by the
+people, and none speak of you, that they do not speak of your goodness,
+and of your desire to serve the poor. You are the root of a rich and
+happy family, and you will not--nay, you cannot if you would, think it a
+crime for a son to devote all to a father. You are our father, and we
+have a right to come to you, even for mercy--but, Highness, I ask only
+for justice."
+
+"Justice is the motto of Venice."
+
+"They who live in the high favor of Providence do not always know what
+the unhappy undergo. It has pleased God to afflict my own poor mother,
+who has griefs that, but for her patience and Christian faith, would
+have been hard to bear. The little care I had it in my power to show,
+first caught Jacopo's eye, for his heart was then full of the duty of
+the child. Would your Highness consent to see poor Carlo, or to command
+him to be brought hither, his simple tale would give the lie to every
+foul slander they have dared to say against him."
+
+"It is unnecessary--it is unnecessary. Thy faith in his innocence, girl,
+is more eloquent than any words of his can prove."
+
+A gleam of joy irradiated the face of Gelsomina, who turned eagerly to
+the listening monk, as she continued--
+
+"His Highness listens," she said, "and we shall prevail! Father, they
+menace in Venice, and alarm the timid, but they will never do the deed
+we feared. Is not the God of Jacopo my God, and your God?--the God of
+the senate and of the Doge?--of the Council and of the Republic? I would
+the secret members of the Three could have seen poor Jacopo, as I have
+seen him, coming from his toil, weary with labor and heart-broken with
+delay, enter the winter or the summer cell--chilling or scorching as the
+season might be--struggling to be cheerful, that the falsely accused
+might not feel a greater weight of misery. Oh! venerable and kind
+prince, you little know the burden that the feeble are often made to
+carry, for to you life has been sunshine; but there are millions who are
+condemned to do that they loathe, that they may not do that they dread."
+
+"Child, thou tell'st me nothing new."
+
+"Except in convincing you, Highness, that Jacopo is not the monster they
+would have him. I do not know the secret reasons of the councils for
+wishing the youth to lend himself to a deception that had nigh proved so
+fatal; but all is explained, we have naught now to fear. Come, father;
+we will leave the good and just Doge to go to rest, as suits his years,
+and we will return to gladden the heart of Jacopo with our success, and
+thank the blessed Maria for her favor."
+
+"Stay!" exclaimed the half-stifled old man. "Is this true that thou
+tellest me, girl:--Father, can it be so!"
+
+"Signore, I have said all that truth and my conscience have prompted."
+
+The prince seemed bewildered, turning his look from the motionless girl
+to the equally immovable member of the Three.
+
+"Come hither, child," he said, his voice trembling as he spoke. "Come
+hither, that I may bless thee." Gelsomina sprang forward, and knelt at
+the feet of her sovereign. Father Anselmo never uttered a clearer or
+more fervent benediction than that which fell from the lips of the
+Prince of Venice. He raised the daughter of the prison-keeper, and
+motioned for both his visitors to withdraw. Gelsomina willingly
+complied, for her heart was already in the cell of Jacopo, in the
+eagerness to communicate her success; but the Carmelite lingered to cast
+a look behind, like one better acquainted with the effects of worldly
+policy, when connected with the interests of those who pervert
+governments to the advantage of the privileged. As he passed through the
+door, however, he felt his hopes revive, for he saw the aged prince,
+unable any longer to suppress his feelings, hastening towards his still
+silent companion, with both hands extended, eyes moistening with tears,
+and a look that betrayed the emotions of one anxious to find relief in
+human sympathies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+      "On--on--
+  It Is our knell, or that of Venice.--On."
+                              MARINO FALIERO.
+
+
+Another morning called the Venetians to their affairs. Agents of the
+police had been active in preparing the public mind, and as the sun rose
+above the narrow sea, the squares began to fill. There were present the
+curious citizen in his, cloak and cap, bare-legged laborers in wondering
+awe, the circumspect Hebrew in his gaberdine and beard, masked
+gentlemen, and many an attentive stranger from among the thousands who
+still frequented that declining mart. It was rumored that an act of
+retributive justice was about to take place, for the peace of the town
+and the protection of the citizen. In short, curiosity, idleness, and
+revenge, with all the usual train of human feelings, had drawn together
+a multitude eager to witness the agonies of a fellow-creature.
+
+The Dalmatians were drawn up near the sea, in a manner to inclose the
+two granite columns of the Piazzetta. Their grave and disciplined faces
+fronted inwards towards the African pillars, those well known landmarks
+of death. A few grim warriors of higher rank paced the flags before the
+troops, while a dense crowd filled the exterior space. By special favor
+more than a hundred fishermen were grouped within the armed men,
+witnesses that their class had revenge. Between the lofty pedestals of
+St. Theodore and the winged lion lay the block and the axe, the basket
+and the saw-dust; the usual accompaniments of justice in that day. By
+their side stood the executioner.
+
+At length a movement in the living mass drew every eye towards the gate
+of the palace. A murmur arose, the multitude wavered, and a small body
+of the Sbirri came into view. Their steps were swift like the march of
+destiny. The Dalmatians opened to receive these ministers of fate into
+their bosom, and closing their ranks again, appeared to preclude the
+world with its hopes from the condemned. On reaching the block between
+the columns the Sbirri fell off in files, waiting at a little distance,
+while Jacopo was left before the engines of death attended by his
+ghostly counsellor, the Carmelite. The action left them open to the gaze
+of the throng.
+
+Father Anselmo was in the usual attire of a bare-footed friar of his
+order. The cowl of the holy man was thrown back, exposing his mortified
+lineaments and his self-examining eye to those around. The expression of
+his countenance was that of bewildered uncertainty, relieved by frequent
+but fitful glimmerings of hope. Though his lips were constant in prayer,
+his looks wandered, by an irrepressible impulse, from one window of the
+Doge's palace to another. He took his station near the condemned,
+however, and thrice crossed himself fervently.
+
+Jacopo had tranquilly placed his person before the block. His head was
+bare, his cheek colorless, his throat and neck uncovered from the
+shoulders, his body in its linen, and the rest of his form was clad in
+the ordinary dress of a gondolier. He kneeled with his face bowed to the
+block, repeated a prayer, and rising he faced the multitude with dignity
+and composure. As his eye moved slowly over the array of human
+countenances by which he was environed, a hectic glowed on his features,
+for not one of them all betrayed sympathy in his sufferings. His breast
+heaved, and those nearest to his person thought the self-command of the
+miserable man was about to fail him. The result disappointed
+expectation. There was a shudder, and the limbs settled into repose.
+
+"Thou hast looked in vain among the multitude for a friendly eye?" said
+the Carmelite, whose attention had been drawn to the convulsive
+movement.
+
+"None here have pity for an assassin."
+
+"Remember thy Redeemer, son. He suffered ignominy and death for a race
+that denied his Godhead, and derided his sorrows."
+
+Jacopo crossed himself, and bowed his head in reverence.
+
+"Hast thou more prayers to repeat, father?" demanded the chief of the
+Sbirri; he who was particularly charged with the duty of the hour."
+Though the illustrious councils are so sure in justice, they are
+merciful to the souls of sinners."
+
+"Are thy orders peremptory?" asked the monk, unconsciously fixing his
+eye again on the windows of the palace. "Is it certain that the prisoner
+is to die?"
+
+The officer smiled at the simplicity of the question, but with the
+apathy of one too much familiarized with human suffering to admit of
+compassion.
+
+"Do any doubt it?" he rejoined. "It is the lot of man, reverend monk;
+and more especially is it the lot of those on whom the judgment of St.
+Mark has alighted. It were better that your penitent looked to his
+soul."
+
+"Surely thou hast thy private and express commands! They have named a
+minute when this bloody work is to be performed?"
+
+"Holy Carmelite, I have. The time will not be weary, and you will do
+well to make the most of it, unless you have faith already in the
+prisoner's condition."
+
+As he spoke, the officer threw a glance at the dial of the square, and
+walked coolly away. The action left the priest and the prisoner again
+alone between the columns. It was evident that the former could not yet
+believe in the reality of the execution.
+
+"Hast thou no hope, Jacopo?" he asked.
+
+"Carmelite, in my God.
+
+"They cannot commit this wrong! I shrived Antonio--I witnessed his fate,
+and the Prince knows it!"
+
+"What is a Prince and his justice, where the selfishness of a few rules!
+Father, thou art new in the Senate's service."
+
+"I shall not presume to say that God will blast those who do this deed,
+for we cannot trace the mysteries of his wisdom. This life and all this
+world can offer, are but specks in his omniscient eye, and what to us
+seems evil may be pregnant with good.--Hast thou faith in thy Redeemer,
+Jacopo?"
+
+The prisoner laid his hand upon his heart and smiled, with the calm
+assurance that none but those who are thus sustained can feel.
+
+"We will again pray, my son."
+
+The Carmelite and Jacopo kneeled side by side, the latter bowing his
+head to the block, while the monk uttered a final appeal to the mercy of
+the Deity. The former arose, but the latter continued in the suppliant
+attitude. The monk was so full of holy thoughts that, forgetting his
+former wishes, he was nearly content the prisoner should pass into the
+fruition of that hope which elevated his own mind. The officer and
+executioner drew near, the former touching the arm of Father Anselmo,
+and pointing towards the distant dial.
+
+"The moment is near," he whispered, more from habit than in any
+tenderness to the prisoner.
+
+The Carmelite turned instinctively towards the palace, forgetting in the
+sudden impulse all but his sense of earthly justice. There were forms at
+the windows, and he fancied a signal to stay the impending blow was
+about to be given.
+
+"Hold!" he exclaimed. "For the love of Maria of most pure memory, be not
+too hasty!"
+
+The exclamation was repeated by a shrill female voice, and then
+Gelsomina, eluding every effort to arrest her, rushed through the
+Dalmatians, and reached the group between the granite columns. Wonder
+and curiosity agitated the multitude, and a deep murmur ran through the
+square.
+
+"'Tis a maniac!" cried one.
+
+"'Tis a victim of his arts!" said another, for when men have a
+reputation for any particular vice, the world seldom fails to attribute
+all the rest.
+
+Gelsomina seized the bonds of Jacopo, and endeavored frantically to
+release his arms.
+
+"I had hoped thou would'st have been spared this sight, poor Gessina!"
+said the condemned.
+
+"Be not alarmed!" she answered, gasping for breath. "They do it in
+mockery; 't is one of their wiles to mislead--but they cannot--no, they
+dare not harm a hair of thy head, Carlo!"
+
+"Dearest Gelsomina!"
+
+"Nay, do not hold me; I will speak to the citizens, and tell them all.
+They are angry now, but when they know the truth they will love thee,
+Carlo, as I do."
+
+"Bless thee--bless thee!--I would thou hadst not come."
+
+"Fear not for me! I am little used to such a crowd, but thou wilt see
+that I shall dare to speak them fair, and to make known the truth
+boldly. I want but breath."
+
+"Dearest! Thou hast a mother--a father to share thy tenderness. Duty to
+them will make thee happy!"
+
+"Now I can speak, and thou shalt see how I will vindicate thy name."
+
+She arose from the arms of her lover, who, notwithstanding his bonds,
+released his hold of her slight form with a reluctance greater than that
+with which he parted with life. The struggle in the mind of Jacopo
+seemed over. He bowed his head passively to the block, before which he
+was kneeling; and it is probable, by the manner in which his hands were
+clasped, that he prayed for her who left him. Not so Gelsomina. Parting
+her hair over her spotless forehead with both hands, she advanced
+towards the fishermen, who were familiar to her eye by their red caps
+and bare limbs. Her smile was like that which the imagination would
+bestow on the blessed, in their intercourse of love.
+
+"Venetians!" she said, "I cannot blame you; ye are here to witness the
+death of one whom ye believe unfit to live----"
+
+"The murderer of old Antonio!" muttered several of the group.
+
+"Aye, even the murderer of that aged and excellent man. But when you
+hear the truth, when you come to know that he whom you have believed an
+assassin, was a pious child, a faithful servant of the Republic, a
+gentle gondolier, and a true heart, you will change your bloody purpose
+for a wish for justice."
+
+A common murmur drowned her voice, which was so trembling and low as to
+need deep stillness to render the words audible. The Carmelite had
+advanced to her side, and he motioned earnestly for silence.
+
+"Hear her, men of the Lagunes!" he said; "she utters holy truth."
+
+"This reverend and pious monk, with Heaven, is my witness. When you
+shall know Carlo better, and have heard his tale, ye will be the first
+to cry out for his release. I tell you this, that when the Doge shall
+appear at yon window and make the signal of mercy, you need not be
+angry, and believe that your class has been wronged. Poor Carlo----"
+
+"The girl raves!" interrupted the moody fishermen. "Here is no Carlo,
+but Jacopo Frontoni, a common bravo."
+
+Gelsomina smiled, in the security of the innocent, and regaining her
+breath, which nervous agitation still disturbed, she resumed--
+
+"Carlo or Jacopo--Jacopo or Carlo--it matters little."
+
+"Ha! There is a sign from the palace!" shouted the Carmelite,
+stretching both his arms in that direction, as if to grasp a boon. The
+clarions sounded, and another wave stirred the multitude. Gelsomina
+uttered a cry of delight, and turned to throw herself upon the bosom of
+the reprieved. The axe glittered before her eyes, and the head of Jacopo
+rolled upon the stones, as if to meet her. A general movement in the
+living mass denoted the end.
+
+The Dalmatians wheeled into column, the Sbirri pushed aside the throng
+on their way to their haunts; the water of the bay was dashed upon the
+flags; the clotted saw-dust was gathered; the head and trunk, block,
+basket, axe, and executioner disappeared, and the crowd circulated
+around the fatal spot.
+
+During this horrible and brief moment neither Father Anselmo nor
+Gelsomina moved. All was over, and still the entire scene appeared to be
+delusion.
+
+"Take away this maniac!" said an officer of the police, pointing to
+Gelsomina as he spoke.
+
+He was obeyed with Venetian readiness, but his words proved prophetic
+before his servitors had quitted the square. The Carmelite scarce
+breathed. He gazed at the moving multitude, at the windows of the
+palace, and at the sun which shone so gloriously in the heavens.
+
+"Thou art lost in this crowd!" whispered one at his elbow. "Reverend
+Carmelite, you will do well to follow me."
+
+The monk was too much subdued to hesitate. His conductor led him by many
+secret ways to a quay, where he instantly embarked in a gondola for the
+main. Before the sun reached the meridian the thoughtful and trembling
+monk was on his journey towards the States of the Church, and ere long
+he became established in the castle of Sant' Agata.
+
+At the usual hour the sun fell behind the mountains of the Tyrol, and
+the moon reappeared above the Lido. The narrow streets of Venice again
+poured out their thousands upon the squares. The mild light fell athwart
+the quaint architecture and the giddy tower, throwing a deceptive glory
+on the city of islands.
+
+The porticoes became brilliant with lamps, the gay laughed, the reckless
+trifled, the masker pursued his hidden purpose, the cantatrice and the
+grotesque acted their parts, and the million existed in that vacant
+enjoyment which distinguishes the pleasures of the thoughtless and the
+idle. Each lived for himself, while the state of Venice held its vicious
+sway, corrupting alike the ruler and the ruled, by its mockery of those
+sacred principles which are alone founded in truth and natural justice.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bravo, by J. Fenimore Cooper
+
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