"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 n.o.ble, 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 pet.i.tions 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 n.o.ble were quick, indeed, to reprehend the immorality of political discontent, though the conventional dignity of the cla.s.s suppressed all other ill-timed exhibition of dissatisfaction.
"Let the next compet.i.tor 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 pet.i.tion 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 s.p.a.ce 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 mult.i.tude 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 ca.n.a.ls or thy gondola could never have outstripped those of the readiest oarsmen. Thou servest a n.o.ble 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 s.p.a.ce they covered on the water presented one compact ma.s.s 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 mult.i.tude, 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 pa.s.sions, 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 ca.n.a.ls were laughed to scorn, and the ears of even the haughty n.o.bles 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 pa.s.sing 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 a.s.sembled 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 pa.s.sion, 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.