The Bravo | Page 6

to loosen the tongue of yonder
man in that rude manner."
"But they say, Gino, that thy Council of Three has a fashion of feeding
the fishes of the Lagunes, which might throw the suspicion of his death
on some unhappy Ancona-man, were the body ever to come up again."
"Well, no need of bawling it aloud, as if thou wert hailing a Sicilian
through thy trumpet, though the fact should be so. To say the truth,
there are few men in business who are thought to have more custom
than he who has just gone up the piazzetta."
"Two sequins!" rejoined the Calabrian, enforcing his meaning by a
significant grimace.
"Santa Madonna! Thou forgettest, Stefano, that not even the confessor
has any trouble with a job in which he has been employed. Not a
caratano less than a hundred will buy a stroke of his art. Your blows,
for two sequins, leave a man leisure to tell tales, or even to say his
prayers half the time."
"Jacopo!" ejaculated the other, with an emphasis which seemed to be a
sort of summing up of all his aversion and horror.
The gondolier shrugged his shoulders with quite as much meaning as a

man born on the shores of the Baltic could have conveyed by words;
but he too appeared to think the matter exhausted.
"Stefano Milano," he added, after a moment of pause, 'there are things
in Venice which he who would eat his maccaroni in peace, would do
well to forget. Let thy errand in port be what it may, thou art in good
season to witness the regatta which will be given by the state itself
to-morrow."
"Hast thou an oar for that race?"
"Giorgio's, or mine, under the patronage of San Teodoro. The prize will
be a silver gondola to him who is lucky or skilful enough to win; and
then we shall have the nuptials with the Adriatic."
"Thy nobles had best woo the bride well; for there are heretics who lay
claim to her good will. I met a rover of strange rig and miraculous
fleetness, in rounding the headlands of Otranto, who seemed to have
half a mind to follow the felucca in her path towards the Lagunes."
"Did the sight warm thee at the soles of thy feet, Gino dear?"
"There was not a turbaned head on his deck, but every sea-cap sat upon
a well covered poll and a shorn chin. Thy Bucentaur is no longer the
bravest craft that floats between Dalmatia and the islands, though her
gilding may glitter brightest. There are men beyond the pillars of
Hercules who are not satisfied with doing all that can be done on their
own coasts, but who are pretending to do much of that which can be
done on ours."
"The republic is a little aged, caro, and years need rest. The joints of the
Bucentaur are racked by time and many voyages to the Lido. I have
heard my master say that the leap of the winged lion is not as far as it
was, even in his young days."
"Don Camillo has the reputation of talking boldly of the foundation of
this city of piles, when he has the roof of old Sant' Agata safely over his
head. Were he to speak more reverently of the horned bonnet, and of

the Council of Three, his pretensions to succeed to the rights of his
forefathers might seem juster in the eyes of his judges. But distance is a
great mellower of colors and softener of fears. My own opinion of the
speed of the felucca, and of the merits of a Turk, undergo changes of
this sort between port and the open sea; and I have known thee, good
Gino, forget San Teodoro, and bawl as lustily to San Gennaro, when at
Naples, as if thou really fancied thyself in danger from the mountain."
"One must speak to those at hand, in order to be quickest heard,"
rejoined the gondolier, casting a glance that was partly humorous, and
not without superstition, upwards at the image which crowned the
granite column against whose pedestal he still leaned. "A truth which
warns us to be prudent, for yonder Jew cast a look this way, as if he felt
a conscientious scruple in letting any irreverent remark of ours go
without reporting. The bearded old rogue is said to have other dealings
with the Three Hundred besides asking for the moneys he has lent to
their sons. And so, Stefano, thou thinkest the republic will never plant
another mast of triumph in San Marco, or bring more trophies to the
venerable church?"
"Napoli herself, with her constant change of masters, is as likely to do a
great act on the sea as thy winged beast just