“Well, you ought to have done,” Francis replied.  “You had just as much to do with that fight on board Pisani’s galley as I had, only it happened I was in command.

“Oh, there is your brother’s tent!  I see there is a light burning, so I suppose he has not gone to bed yet.”

“All the better,” Matteo said.  “We shall get our hot wine all the quicker.  My teeth are chattering so, I hardly dare speak for fear of biting my tongue.”

Francis was warmly welcomed by Rufino Giustiniani.

“I need hardly ask you if you have succeeded in reconnoitring their positions, for I know you would not come back before morning had you not carried out your orders.

“Why, Matteo, what have you been doing—­wading in the mud, apparently?  Why, you are wet up to the waist.”

“We have captured an officer, and fourteen men, Rufino.  They will be here in a few minutes.  Their boat got stuck fast while it was chasing Francisco; so we waded out and took them.  They made some resistance, but beyond a few slashes, and two or three thumps from their oars, no harm was done.”

“That is right, Matteo.  I am glad you have had a skirmish with them at last.  Now go in and change your things.  I shall have you on my hands with rheumatism.”

“I will do that at once, and I hope you will have some hot spiced wine ready, by the time I have changed, for I am nearly frozen.”

The embers of a fire, outside the tent, were soon stirred together, and in a few minutes the wine was prepared.  In the meantime, Francis had been telling Rufino the incidents of his trip.  In half an hour, the message came that the gondola was again in the water, and Francis was soon on his way back to the city.

“I was beginning to be anxious about you,” was Pisani’s greeting, as, upon being informed of his return, he sprang from the couch, on which he had thrown himself for an hour’s sleep, and hurried downstairs.  “I reckoned that you might have been back an hour before this, and began to think that you must have got into some scrape.  Well, what have you discovered?”

“The Genoese have no idea that you are going to put to sea.  Their ships and galleys are, as usual, moored off the quays of Chioggia.  The entrance to the Canal of Lombardy, and the Brondolo passage, are both quite open, and there appear to be no troops anywhere near; but between Pelestrina and Brondolo they have rowboats watching the entrance, but no craft of any size.  There are a few troops there, but, so far as I could judge by the number of fires, not more than two hundred men or so.”

“Your news is excellent, Francisco.  I will not ask you more, now.  It is three o’clock already, and at five I must be up and doing; so get off to bed as soon as you can.  You can give me the details in the morning.”

The gondola was still waiting at the steps, and in a few minutes Francis arrived at the Palazzo Polani.  A servant was sleeping on a bench in the hall.  He started up as Francis entered.