The happy and the miserable, the free and the
captive, are equally my care!"
"Ha! Thou art not above thy office? Thou wilt say the prayers for the
dead in behalf of a poor man's soul?"
"My son, I know no difference, in this respect, between the Doge and the
poorest fisherman. Still I would not willingly desert the females."
"The ladies shall receive no harm. Come into my boat, for there is need
of thy holy office."
Father Anselmo--the reader will readily anticipate that it was
he--entered the canopy, said a few words in explanation to his
trembling companions, and complied. He was rowed to the leading gondola,
and, by a sign, directed to the dead body.
"Thou see'st that corpse, father?" continued his conductor. "It is the
face of one who was an upright and pious Christian!"
"He was."
"We all knew him as the oldest and the most skilful fisherman of the
Lagunes, and one ever ready to assist an unlucky companion."
"I can believe thee!"
"Thou mayest, for the holy books are not more true than my words:
yesterday he came down this very canal in triumph, for he bore away the
honors of the regatta from the stoutest oars in Venice."
"I have heard of his success."
"They say that Jacopo, the Bravo--he who once held the best oar in the
canals--was of the party! Santa Madonna! such a man was too precious to
die!"
"It is the fate of all--rich and poor, strong and feeble, happy and
miserable, must alike come to this end.
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