"Gino!" cried the bewildered bridegroom.
"Signore mio?" answered the faithful domestic.
"Draw nearer, varlet. What meaneth this idle trifling at a moment like
this?"
Don Camillo leaped a fearful distance, and happily he reached the
gondola. To pass the men and rush into the canopy needed but a moment;
to perceive that it was empty was the work of a glance.
"Villains, have you dared to be false!" cried the confounded noble.
At that instant the clock of the city began to tell the hour of two,
and it was only as that appointed signal sounded heavy and melancholy on
the night-air, that the undeceived Camillo got a certain glimpse of the
truth.
"Gino," he said, repressing his voice, like one summoning a desperate
resolution--"are thy fellows true?"
"As faithful as your own vassals, Signore."
"And thou didst not fail to deliver the note to my agent?"
"He had it before the ink was dry, eccellenza."
"The mercenary villain! He told thee where to find the gondola, equipped
as I see it?"
"Signore, he did; and I do the man the justice to say that nothing is
wanting, either to speed or comfort."
"Aye, he even deals in duplicates, so tender is his care!" muttered Don
Camillo between his teeth. "Pull away, men; your own safety and my
happiness now depend on your arms. A thousand ducats if you equal my
hopes--my just anger if you disappoint them!"
Don Camillo threw himself on the cushions as he spoke, in bitterness of
heart, though he seconded his words by a gesture which bid the men
proceed.
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