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.
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