"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 ca.n.a.ls--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 n.o.ble stood, in a musing att.i.tude, 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 ca.n.a.l.
"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 n.o.ble 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 mult.i.tude of craft, of all sizes and uses, which it met in its pa.s.sage. Palace after palace had been pa.s.sed, and more than one of the princ.i.p.al ca.n.a.ls, 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 pa.s.sed 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 ma.s.sive rustic bas.e.m.e.nt 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 alt.i.tude that is little known, except in the dwellings of princes. Colonnades, medallions, and ma.s.sive cornices overhung the ca.n.a.l, 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sing 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 ca.n.a.l. 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 ca.n.a.l. Still they were all such as denoted the residence of a n.o.ble 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 grat.i.tude 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 a.r.s.enal?"
"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.