"And thou wilt die for the people against the n.o.bles if need should be?"
"If thou leadest, Gastaldo Grande."
"Hast thou a pouch beneath thy stiletto where thou mayest defend with thy life what I shall give thee?"
Antonio displayed it silently.
"This for the need of the cause in thy hand," said Piero, pa.s.sing him a purse of gold. "But gold is worthless to this token which shall win thee the hearing of the bancali, and the aid of every loyal son of San Nicol, and shall be proof that thou bearest my orders and my trust."
The trust was great--the bancali were the governing board of the traghetti.
Antonio unfastened his doublet and secured the precious token under his belt.
"Command then, caro padrone."
"Slacken thy pace, for this may be our last speech together. Are those who follow true as thou?"
"Messer Gastaldo," Antonio answered with reluctance, "by signs which be but trifles to relate,--by a word dropped in Padua, and not for mine ear,--one of them--I know not which--hath, perchance, affair with a master mightier than thou." He made the usual gesture which indicated the Three of that terrible Inquisition whose name was better left unsaid--a sign much used in Venice where the very walls had ears.
It was a blow to Piero, but he wasted no words.
"They then--both--are apart from this and all my counsel. It shall be for thee alone, Antonio."
"So safer, Messer Gastaldo. I listen--and forget, save as it shall serve thee."
"First, then, Antonio; I have sworn to escort the Lady of the Giustiniani in safety to Rome, from which naught shall keep me--save if the Ten have other plans, the Madonna doth forgive the broken vow!"
It was a strange admission from a man stalwart and fearless like Piero, but he made it without shame, as a soldier acquiescing in destiny.
"Santissima Maria!" Antonio e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed with unusual fervor and crossing himself in full realization of the meaning.
"At Brondolo a brig is waiting--orange and yellow of sail, device of a blazing sun; a hunchback, with doublet of orange above the mast for luck, and a fine figure of a _gobbo_ upon the deck--a living hunchback--by which thou shalt know it for mine, and bound to my order whether it come by me or by my token. If we reach and board her it shall be well--and Rome, so will it heaven, before us all! But if the dreaded ones are on the search and overtake us----"
Again the sign.
The tragedy of the situation was in his face as he looked steadily at Antonio, who did not flinch.
"Thy duty, then, Antonio, shall lie elsewhere. Thou must escape, unseen, while they lay hands upon the lady and me, whom first they will secure before they give thee a thought."
Antonio instantly touched his stiletto, and looked his question with a fearless glance.
"Nay," said the gastaldo scornfully, and drawing a line quickly about his own throat. "Thou wilt serve me better with thy head in its place.
Thou shalt return to Venice--by Fusina or Brondolo, as thy wit shall serve thee--leaving the precious gondolieri to prove whether their silken sashes be badges of men or traitors! Art thou listening?"
"Command me, padrone!"
"Within two days, if I be free, the bancali shall have news of me.
Listen well, Antonio,"--again the hand and eyes went up with the dreaded unmistakable sign,--"if thou seest THEM seize me before thou takest leave, wait no longer than to plan with the bancali to come and demand my release. Thou shalt tell the bancali that I sent thee; thou shalt tell them there are affairs of moment for the Nicolotti which shall go hard for the traghetti if I be not there to work them--Art listening, Antonio?" he questioned feverishly.
Antonio"s eyes were fastened upon his. "Padrone, yes!" he answered breathlessly.
"With my token thou canst command the loyalty of every Nicolotto--is it thine oar that made that rustle?--and perchance, if there were a rising of the traghetti to demand aught of the Signoria--come nearer, Antonio!--the Castellani also, if they willed to join with their traghetti in asking for justice--would not serve under my token the less heartily for the word, confided low to their bancali--dost understand?--_that if their taxes and their fines oppress them_, these also, I being free, will pay this year to the maledetto Avvogadoro del Commun."
Antonio gravely bowed his head in a.s.sent.
"This at thy discretion--thou understandest, Antonio--and so that no violence come from the ma.s.sing of the people, but only the proof of its will and of the numbers who make the demand. Only--if it be not granted, they shall make a stand at the traghetti and _fight_----"
"Padrone, yes!"
"For--thou dost mark me, Antonio?--this Lady of the Giustiniani hath been a saint among the people; she hath given them much in gifts--she hath given almost her life in prayers and penances, that heaven may avert its wrath from Venice, which she in truth believeth the Holy Father--may the saints make him suffer for it!--hath brought upon the people by his curse--may heaven forbid! And she, being now n.o.ble, hath preferred the cause of the _people_ to the cause of the _n.o.bles_, and bringeth upon her the displeasure of the Signoria by her flight to Rome. For--see it well, Antonio!--if the Senate hold the Lady of the Giustiniani for fault in this,"--Piero paused and uttered the last words with a slow, mysterious emphasis, while Antonio listened with an intensity that missed no shading of meaning,--"_it will be the cause of the people against the n.o.bles_."
"If they harm her not," he resumed in his usual tone, after a moment"s pause, "my fate shall be avenged in the judgment and command of the bancali of the Nicolotti only. They shall not risk the people"s good for the poor life of one leader!"
"Padrone!" Antonio cried, with flashing eyes. "Commandi altro?" ("Hast thou other commands?")
"None, save that if I return not--and not otherwise--thou shalt seek with my token the Master Girolamo Magagnati; thou shalt tell him of this my confidence, holding nothing back; and thou shalt pray him, of his honor, to discharge the debt which may be found lacking in the treasury of the Nicolotti,--since the moneys have been taken for the need of the lady on her journey,--the which, if I return, I have means, and more, to repay."
The two men grasped hands and looked into each other"s eyes for a brief recording moment, having each touched that _best_ in the other which was not shown to all men, and so begotten trust each in each.
"By the Holy Madonna and San Nicol, I will not fail!" Antonio promised, and in a moment had seized his oar again and was springing forward on the bridge of his gondola, as if his thoughts were light and rhythmic as his motions.
They sped on with a few swift, silent strokes--then, "Brondolo!" he cried brightly; but a sudden desperate steadying of resolution was felt in the fierce stroke which sent the gondola forward with a jerk.
The fishing-skiffs of Chioggia fluttered like gaudy b.u.t.terflies before them, dipping their wings of orange and crimson and every conceivable sunset tint to catch the breeze; and the air was suddenly vibrant with sounds of traffic and busy life. Men called to each other with song and jest from heavily laden barks, while they waited the hour of sailing; or lay at ease on the top of their wares, smoking luxurious draughts of content from their comrade pipes,--lords of their craft, though their couch was but a pile of cabbages or market produce,--exchanging some whimsical comment upon the affairs of busier neighbors which brimmed these frequent hours of _dolce far niente_ with unflagging interest.
And there, among the lighter shipping, was the brig bound to the order of the gastaldo grande, with the yellow sails and device of the rising sun--with the gobbo in orange doublet on the masthead for good luck, and the gobbo on the deck to make it sure. Piero turned and looked for it, as they pa.s.sed the lock. And there too----
"_Corpo di San Marco_!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Antonio under his breath, for he stood higher than Piero upon the bridge of the gondola and facing forward.
There, full in sight, and riding proudly at anchor, the beautiful curves of her swan-like prows made cannon proof with plates of shining steel,--and below, in lieu of figurehead to promise victory, those letters of dread omen, C.D.X.,--with thirty oars-men from the a.r.s.enal of Venice, to ensure her speed, each ready at his oar-lock to wield his oar, with a band of marksmen trained to finest tempered arms to quell the resistance which no Venetian would dare offer with those letters on the prow; the gold and scarlet banner of San Marco, for good fortune, at her masthead; the wind swelling her impatient sail, as the curb but frets the steed--_the galley of the Ten was not waiting without a purpose_!
The shock of the boats as they pa.s.sed through the lock had roused the sleepers rudely, and Piero had time but for a swift glance of command to Antonio, bidding him escape, when a gondola bearing the ducal colors floated out from the sea of small waiting craft and saluted them courteously. The dignified signor who addressed them wore the violet robe and stole of a secretary of the Doge, and his face was the face of that secretary in whose silken hand the gastaldo"s had lain prisoned when he took the oath of office!
Resistance was impossible.
"Messer Gastaldo," said the secretary suavely, "it hath pleased those who have ever the welfare of Venice at heart to provide for the most n.o.ble Lady of the Giustiniani an escort which better fitteth her rank than the size of thy _barchetta_ permitteth, and a dwelling more honorable than the "Osteria del Buon Pesce," where, in company of the Lady Beata Tagliapietra, she hath pa.s.sed the night."
The secretary paused and placidly noted the effect of his words upon Piero, who could have gnashed his teeth for anger at those talking walls of Venice which had betrayed him--so cautiously had he told his secret to the Lady Beata only, in that short moonlight stroll!
At a sign from the secretary a second gondola, wearing the ducal livery and filled with the gorgeous costumes of the palace guards, came out from the floating ma.s.s and approached the gondola of the people, where the Lady Marina sat trembling like a frightened fawn.
There was a struggle among the lesser craft to draw closer to this dramatic centre; they jostled each other unceremoniously; a splash, like a falling oar, was heard, but scarce noted in the absorbing interest of the moment; only a bare-legged boy jumped off from a tiny fishing-skiff near which the oar had floated, and swam with it to to the gondola from which it had fallen--since it was this boat which was making the carnival for them! Piero, alone, had slightly turned his head and noted that no one now stood on the _ponte piede_ behind the felze of his gondola.
"The galley waits to receive the n.o.ble ladies to whom I am commissioned _by those who have sent me_ to offer my respectful homage," said the secretary, bowing low before the felze. "The n.o.ble ladies will proceed thither in the ducal gondola which attends them. And thou, Messer Gastaldo, wilt graciously aid me in their escort--since, verily, they owe much to thy chivalry."
It was a pleasant scene for the onlookers.
But the Lady Marina sat motionless, and gave neither word nor sign in response to the invitation of the ducal secretary.