And now flashed upon the indignant signora a fearful reminiscence of Jurissa’s unheeded and forgotten warning, to hide her jewels for a time, and to beware of the Proveditore Marcello.  In utter dismay, and nearly fainting with alarm, she sank upon the sofa, and her eyes expanded into the wide stare of terror as she gazed at the menacing visage of the Venetian noble.  Unwilling to expose the conscience-striken woman before so numerous an assemblage, he seated himself beside her, and in tones inaudible to others thus whispered in her ear—­“Lady! but eight days back the jewels that you wear were mine.  That peacock was my own design, and made for my daughter by a cunning artificer in Candia.  Its like exists not in the world; for the mould was made by my order, and broken as soon as used.  ’Twas mine until the base Uzcoques plundered my baggage.  How thus quickly it passed from them to you, is as well known to me as to yourself.  But mark me, lady! if all these jewels are not delivered at my apartments in the west wing of the castle ere midnight, I will denounce your husband and his colleagues as long-suspected and now-proved partakers with the Pirates of Segna.  And, should redress be denied me here, the ambassador of Venice shall report this infamous collusion before a higher tribunal in Vienna.”

Struck dumb by this terrible denunciation, the fair culprit gasped for breath, and her evident distress having been watched in growing wonder by the assembled ladies and cavaliers, the latter began to mutter threats of vengeance.  One of them now stepped forward, and, grasping the hilt of his rapier, accused the Venetian of having insulted the wife of a nobleman high in the councils of the archduke, when the Proveditore, looking down upon the courtier with that riveted and intensely piercing gaze which staggers the beholder like a sudden blow, and may still be noted in many of Titian’s portraits, answered with brief and startling emphasis—­

“Signor! you do me grievous wrong.  ’Tis I, and not the lady, who am the injured party.”

Awed by his gathering brow, and the settled, stern, unsparing resolution which flashed from every feature, and indicated a man confident in his own resources, the courtiers did involuntary homage to his loftier spirit, and gave way.  The proud Venetian strode through the yielding circle and quitted the hall, while the counsellor’s wife, pleading illness and fatigue in reply to the pointed and numerous questions of surrounding friends and enemies, summoned her husband to attend her, and retired to her apartments.