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.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98