Hosea was about to return the seal as beyond his knowledge, when this remark fell casually from the lips of the Signor Gradenigo.  In a moment his eyes were fortified with a glass of microscopic power, and the paper was again before the lamp.

“I disposed of a cornelian of no great price, which bore this conceit, to the wife of the emperor’s ambassador, but conceiving there was no more in the purchase than some waywardness of fancy, I took no precaution to note the stone.  A gentleman in the family of the Legate of Ravenna, also trafficked with me for an amethyst of the same design, but with him neither did I hold it important to be particular.  Ha! here is a private mark, that in truth seemeth to be of my own hand!”

“Dost thou find a clue?  What is the sign of which thou speakest?”

“Naught, noble senator, but a slur in a letter, which would not be apt to catch the eye of an over-credulous maiden.”

“And thou parted with the seal to——?”

Hosea hesitated, for he foresaw some danger of losing his reward by a too hasty communication of the truth.

“If it be important that the fact be known, Signore,” he said, “I will consult my books.  In a matter of this gravity, the senate should not be misled.”

“Thou sayest well.  The affair is grave, and the reward a sufficient pledge that we so esteem it.”

“Something was said, illustrious Signore, of a hundred sequins; but my mind taketh little heed of such particulars when the good of Venice is in question.”

“A hundred is the sum I promised.”

“I parted with a signet-ring, bearing some such design, to a female in the service of the Nuncio’s first gentleman.  But this seal cannot come of that, since a woman of her station——­”

“Art sure?” eagerly interrupted the Signor Gradenigo.

Hosea looked earnestly at his companion; and reading in his eye and countenance that the clue was agreeable, he answered promptly,—­

“As that I live under the law of Moses!  The bauble had been long on hand without an offer, and I abandoned it to the uses of my money.”

“The sequins are thine, excellent Jew!  This clears the mystery of every doubt.  Go; thou shalt have thy reward; and if thou hast any particulars in thy secret register, let me be quickly possessed of them.  Go to, good Hosea, and be punctual as of wont.  I tire of these constant exercises of the spirit.”

The Hebrew, exulting in his success, now took his leave, with a manner in which habitual cupidity and subdued policy completely mastered every other feeling.  He disappeared by the passage through which he had entered.

It seemed, by the manner of the Signor Gradenigo, that the receptions for that evening had now ended.  He carefully examined the locks of several secret drawers in his cabinet, extinguished the lights, closed and secured the doors, and quitted the place.  For some time longer, however, he paced one of the principal rooms of the outer suite, until the usual hour having arrived, he sought his rest, and the palace was closed for the night.