Still none answered.  The only spirit of their body, which had been capable of freeing itself from the trammels of usage and prejudice, had deserted the shell which lay on the lower step of the Giant’s Stairs.

“Will none speak! are ye so bold with your voices when unquestioned, and so silent when confronted?”

“Speak them fair, your highness,” whispered he of the council, who was commissioned to be a secret witness of the interview; “the Dalmatians are scarce yet apparelled.”

The prince bowed to advice which he well knew must be respected, and he assumed his former tone.

“If none will acquaint me with your wants, I must command you to retire, and while my parental heart grieves——­”

“Giustizia!” repeated the hidden member of the crowd.

“Name thy wants, that we may know them.”

“Highness! deign to look at this!”

One bolder than the rest had turned the body of Antonio to the moon, in a manner to expose the ghastly features, and, as he spoke, he pointed towards the spectacle he had prepared.  The prince started at the unexpected sight, and, slowly descending the steps, closely accompanied by his companions and his guards, he paused over the body.

“Has the assassin done this?” he asked, after looking at the dead fisherman, and crossing himself.  “What could the end of one like this profit a Bravo?  Haply the unfortunate man hath fallen in a broil of his class?”

“Neither, illustrious Doge! we fear that Antonio has suffered for the displeasure of St. Mark!”

“Antonio!  Is this the hardy fisherman who would have taught us how to rule in the state regatta!”

“Eccellenza, it is,” returned the simple laborer of the Lagunes, “and a better hand with a net, or a truer friend in need, never rowed a gondola to or from the Lido.  Diavolo!  It would have done your highness pleasure to have seen the poor old Christian among us, on a saint’s day, taking the lead in our little ceremonies, and teaching us the manner in which our fathers used to do credit to the craft!”

“Or to have been with us, illustrious Doge,” cried another, for, the ice once broken, the tongues of a mob soon grow bold, “in a merry-making on the Lido, when old Antonio was always the foremost in the laugh, and the discreetest in knowing when to be grave.”

The Doge began to have a dawning of the truth, and he cast a glance aside to examine the countenance of the unknown inquisitor.

“It is far easier to understand the merits of the unfortunate man, than the manner of his death,” he said, finding no explanation in the drilled members of the face he had scrutinized.  “Will any of your party explain the facts?”

The principal speaker among the fishermen willingly took on himself the office, and, in the desultory manner of one of his habits, he acquainted the Doge with the circumstances connected with the finding of the body.  When he had done, the prince again asked explanations, with his eye, from the senator at his side, for he was ignorant whether the policy of the state required an example, or simply a death.”