CHAPTER III.

“What well appointed leader fronts us here?”
King Henry VI.

The presence of Annina was a grave embarrassment to Gino.  He had his secret wishes and limited ambition, like other men, and among the strongest of the former, was the desire to stand well in the favor of the wine-seller’s daughter.  But the artful girl, in catering to his palate with a liquor that was scarcely less celebrated among people of his class for its strength than its flavor, had caused a momentary confusion in the brain of Gino, that required time to disperse.  The boat was in the Grand Canal, and far on its way to the place of its destination, before this happy purification of the intellects of the gondolier had been sufficiently effected.  By that time, however, the exercise of rowing, the fresh air of the evening, and the sight of so many accustomed objects, restored his faculties to the necessary degree of coolness and forethought.  As the boat approached the end of the canal he began to cast his eyes about him in quest of the well known felucca of the Calabrian.

Though the glory of Venice had departed, the trade of the city was not then at its present low ebb.  The port was still crowded with vessels from many distant havens, and the flags of most of the maritime states of Europe were seen, at intervals, within the barrier of the Lido.  The moon was now sufficiently high to cast its soft light on the whole of the glittering basin, and a forest composed of lateen yards, of the slender masts of polaccas, and of the more massive and heavy hamper of regularly rigged ships, was to be seen rising above the tranquil element.

“Thou art no judge of a vessel’s beauty, Annina,” said the gondolier to his companion, who was deeply housed in the pavilion of the boat, “else should I tell thee to look at this stranger from Candia.  ’Tis said that a fairer model has never entered within the Lido than that same Greek!”

“Our errand is not with the Candian trader, Gino; therefore ply thy oar, for time passes.”

“There’s plenty of rough Greek wine in his hold; but, as thou sayest, we have naught with him.  Yon tall ship, which is moored without the smaller craft of our seas, is the vessel of a Lutheran from the islands of Inghilterra.  ’Twas a sad day for the Republic, girl, when it first permitted the stranger to come into the waters of the Adriatic!”

“Is it certain, Gino, that the arm of St. Mark was strong enough to keep him out?”

“Mother of Diana!  I would rather thou didst not ask that question in a place where so many gondoliers are in motion!  Here are Ragusans, Maltese, Sicilians, and Tuscans without number; and a little fleet of French lie near each other there, at the entrance of the Giudecca.  They are a people who get together, afloat or ashore, for the benefit of the tongue.  Here we are, at the end of our journey.”