“Thou mayest depart,” said one of the Three.

“Not yet, Signore, I have still more to say of the men of the Lagunes, who speak with loud voices concerning this dragging of boys into the service of the galleys.”

“We will hear their opinions.”

“Noble gentlemen, if I were to utter all they have said, word for word, I might do some disfavor to your ears!  Man is man, though the Virgin and the saints listen to his aves and prayers from beneath a jacket of serge and a fisherman’s cap.  But I know too well my duty to the senate to speak so plainly.  But, Signori, they say, saving the bluntness of their language, that St. Mark should have ears for the meanest of his people as well as for the richest noble; and that not a hair should fall from the head of a fisherman, without its being counted as if it were a lock from beneath the horned bonnet; and that where God hath not made marks of his displeasure, man should not.”

“Do they dare to reason thus?”

“I know not if it be reason, illustrious Signore, but it is what they say, and, eccellenza, it is holy truth.  We are poor workmen of the Lagunes, who rise with the day to cast our nets, and return at night to hard beds and harder fare; but with this we might be content, did the senate count us as Christians and men.  That God hath not given to all the same chances in life, I well know, for it often happens that I draw an empty net, when my comrades are groaning with the weight of their draughts; but this is done to punish my sins, or to humble my heart, whereas it exceeds the power of man to look into the secrets of the soul, or to foretell the evil of the still innocent child.  Blessed St. Anthony knows how many years of suffering this visit to the galleys may cause to the child in the end.  Think of these things, I pray you, Signori, and send men of tried principles to the wars.”

“Thou mayest retire,” rejoined the judge.

“I should be sorry that any who cometh of my blood,” continued the inattentive Antonio, “should be the cause of ill-will between them that rule and them that are born to obey.  But nature is stronger even than the law, and I should discredit her feelings were I to go without speaking as becomes a father.  Ye have taken my child and sent him to serve the state at the hazard of body and soul, without giving opportunity for a parting kiss, or a parting blessing—­ye have used my flesh and blood as ye would use the wood of the arsenal, and sent it forth upon the sea as if it were the insensible metal of the balls ye throw against the infidel.  Ye have shut your ears to my prayers, as if they were words uttered by the wicked, and when I have exhorted you on my knees, wearied my stiffened limbs to do ye pleasure, rendered ye the jewel which St. Anthony gave to my net, that it might soften your hearts, and reasoned with you calmly on the nature of your acts, you turn from me coldly, as if I were unfit to stand forth in defence of the offspring that God hath left my age!  This is not the boasted justice of St. Mark, Venetian senators, but hardness of heart and a wasting of the means of the poor, that would ill become the most grasping Hebrew of the Rialto!”