With many allusions to their policy, but with no direct intimation of
their own intention, the seniors of the council continued the
conversation until the hour for the meeting in the Doge's palace drew
nigh. They then separated as privately as they had come together, in
order that no vulgar eye might penetrate the mystery of their official
character.
The most practised of the three appeared in an assembly of the
patricians, which noble and beautiful dames graced with their presence,
from which he disappeared in a manner to leave no clue to his motions.
The other visited the death-bed of a friend, where he discoursed long
and well with a friar, of the immortality of the soul and the hopes of a
Christian: when he departed, the godly man bestowing his blessing, and
the family he left being loud and eloquent in his praise.
The Signor Soranzo clung to the enjoyments of his own family circle
until the last moment. The Donna Giulietta had returned, fresher and
more lovely than ever, from the invigorating sea-breeze, and her soft
voice, with the melodious laugh of his first-born, the blooming,
ringlet-covered girl described, still rang in his ears, when his
gondolier landed him beneath the bridge of the Rialto. Here he masked,
and drawing his cloak about him, he moved with the current towards the
square of St. Mark, by means of the narrow streets. Once in the crowd
there was little danger of impertinent observation.
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