"A secretary has communicated to me the disappearance of the Duca di
Sant' Agata also," observed the third; "nor is the felucca, usually
employed in distant and delicate missions, any longer at her anchors."
The two old men regarded each other as if the truth was beginning to
dawn upon their suspicions. They saw that the case was hopeless, and as
theirs was altogether a practical duty, no time was lost in useless
regrets.
"We have two affairs which press," observed the elder. "The body of the
old fisherman must be laid quietly in the earth with as little risk of
future tumult as may be; and we have this notorious Jacopo to dispose
of."
"The latter must first be taken," said the Signor Soranzo.
"That has been done already. Would you think it, Sirs he was seized in
the very palace of the Doge!"
"To the block with him without delay!"
The old men again looked at each other, and it was quite apparent that,
as both of them had been in previous councils, they had a secret
intelligence, to which their companion was yet a stranger. There was
also visible in their glances something like a design to manage his
feelings before they came more openly to the graver practices of their
duties.
"For the sake of blessed St. Mark, Signori, let justice be done openly
in this instance!" continued the unsuspecting member of the Three. "What
pity can the bearer of a common stiletto claim? and what more lovely
exercise of our authority than to make public an act of severe and
much-required justice?"
The old senators bowed to this sentiment of their colleague, which was
uttered with the fervor of young experience, and the frankness of an
upright mind; for there is a conventional acquiescence in received
morals which is permitted, in semblance at least, to adorn the most
tortuous.
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