who entered, and I strained my sight so that I seemed to see behind as well as in front, and then it was I longed for my poignard, for I should not have heeded being in a church.’  But the constable, it soon appeared, was not looking for Bibboni.  So he gathered up his courage, and ran for the Church of San Spirito, where the Padre Andrea Volterrano was preaching to a great congregation.  He hoped to go in by one door and out by the other, but the crowd prevented him, and he had to turn back and face the sbirri.  One of them followed him, having probably caught sight of the blood upon his hose.  Then Bibboni resolved to have done with the fellow, and rushed at him, and flung him down with his head upon the pavement, and ran like mad, and came at last, all out of breath to San Marco.

It seems clear that before Bibboni separated from Bebo they had crossed the water, for the Sestiere di San Polo is separated from the Sestiere di San Marco by the Grand Canal.  And this they must have done at the traghetto di San Spirito.  Neither the church nor the traghetto are now in existence, and this part of the story is therefore obscure.[226]

[Footnote 226:  So far as I can discover, the only church of San Spirito in Venice was a building on the island of San Spirito, erected by Sansavino, which belonged to the Sestiere di S. Croce, and which was suppressed in 1656.  Its plate and the fine pictures which Titian painted there were transferred at that date to S. M. della Salute.  I cannot help inferring that either Bibboni’s memory failed him, or that his words were wrongly understood by printer or amanuensis.  If for S. Spirito, we substitute S. Stefano, the account would be intelligible.]

Having reached San Marco, he took a gondola at the Ponte della Paglia, where tourists are now wont to stand and contemplate the Ducal Palace and the Bridge of Sighs.  First, he sought the house of a woman of the town who was his friend; then changed purpose, and rowed to the palace of the Count Salici da Collalto.  ’He was a great friend and intimate of ours, because Bebo and I had done him many and great services in times past.  There I knocked; and Bebo opened the door, and when he saw me dabbled with blood, he marveled that I had not come to grief and fallen into the hands of justice; and, indeed, had feared as much because I had remained so long away.’  It appears, therefore, that the Palazzo Collalto was their rendezvous.  ’The Count was from home; but being known to all his people, I played the master and went into the kitchen to the fire, and with soap and water turned my hose, which had been white, to a grey color.’  This is a very delicate way of saying that he washed out the blood of Alessandro and Lorenzino!