“But thou, in canonized shoes, couldst walk but wearily, Fra Antonio, lest they should lead thee in unwonted ways!” one of the party retorted maliciously.

“Fra Paolo hath fear of no man, and that which he declareth he knoweth,” said another of the frati, lowering his voice and glancing about him furtively.  “And it hath chanced to him, more than once, to be wiser than the Serenissimo and the Ten themselves—­may San Marco have other uses for his ears!  But the day that our famous Signor Bragadin was summoned from his palace on the Giudecca to make his promised gold for the Signoria, I stood with the crowd in the Merceria to see him pass, with his two black dogs and their golden collars looking for all the world like powers of evil!  And our gold-maker himself going to the Senate like a noble, with his friends the Cornaro and the Dandolo in crimson robes—­the people thronging to see him pass!”

“Ay, Bragadin was a saintly man!” one of them retorted mockingly.  “Dost remember the tale how that he fooled the worshipful Signoria to leave him a week in peace, that he might take the blessed sacrament quietly, finding therein ‘a holy joy’ that should fit him to proceed to the service of Venice—­looking, meanwhile, for means of escape?”

“Davvero! but this was the hour of his highest favor, and I followed with the rest of the crowd till there was scarce breathing space under the clock tower, where the Magi were just coming forth to salute the Madonna and the Bambino at the stroke of the day; and the people were shouting so one could not hear the bell for cries of ’Gold! gold!  Bragadin!’

“We surged back against the doorway of the ‘Nave d’Oro,’ the people struggling with each other lest they should lose the sight as he passed through the Piazza, and suddenly there came a voice,—­cold, and scornful, and low, but no man lost the words,—­’Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels.  Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee!’ The people stopped their pushing and looked aghast to see who spake, but I could have sworn it was Fra Paolo’s voice.  I caught a glimpse of him standing quietly just inside the ’Nave d’Oro,’ while the other signori who go there to ridotto were out in the Merceria to see the show; and I made haste away lest the crowd should object to my habit for being like Fra Paolo’s—­they were so crazy for Bragadin, following in the footsteps of the Signoria, like good Venetians!”

“Who told the saying to the Signoria, when it might have crushed Fra Paolo?” Fra Giulio questioned jealously.

“It may well have been his Excellency the Signor Donato, who was of the Council in those days, but a man too strong to have a mind to the folly of the others, and who walked about the chamber giving sign of much displeasure while Bragadin made his gold.  And the next day Fra Paolo is commanded before the Signoria to meet the Provveditor of the Mint—­being the only man who hath dared speak his mind before the Signoria had proved the worthlessness of Bragadin’s promise.  And our fine gold-maker exchangeth his palace for a prison; for the test of the crucible is all too easy for Fra Paolo, who speaketh naught that he knoweth not.”