"
"There is but one who bears it now in Venice. All mean the same when
they say Jacopo."
"I have heard of a monster of that name. Surely he hath not dared to
show himself among the nobles, on such a festa!"
"Gessina, we live in an unaccountable country! The man walks the piazza
with a step as lordly as the Doge, at his pleasure, and yet none say
aught to him! I have seen him, at noonday, leaning against the triumphal
mast, or the column of San Theodoro, with as proud an air as if he were
put there to celebrate a victory of the Republic!"
"Perhaps he is master of some terrible secret, which they fear he will
reveal?"
"Thou knowest little of Venice, child! Holy Maria! a secret of that kind
is a death-warrant of itself. It is as dangerous to know too much as it
is to know too little, when one deals with St. Mark. But they say Jacopo
was there, standing eye to eye with the Doge, and scaring the Senators
as if he had been an uncalled spectre from the vaults of their fathers.
Nor is this all; as I crossed the Lagunes this morning, I saw the body
of a young cavalier drawn from the water, and those who were near it
said it had the mark of his fatal hand!"
The timid Gelsomina shuddered.
"They who rule," she said, "will have to answer for this negligence to
God, if they let the wretch longer go at large."
"Blessed St. Mark protect his children! They say there is much of this
sort of sin to answer for--but see the body I did, with my own eyes, in
entering the canals this morning.
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