Other galleys had been simultaneously dispatched to the various ports, ordering a strict search of every boat arriving or leaving, and directing a minute investigation to be made as to the occupants of every boat that had arrived during the evening or night.  The fact that a thousand ducats were offered, for information which would lead to the recovery of the girls, was also to be published far and wide.

The news of the abduction had spread, and the greatest indignation was excited in the city.  The sailors from the port of Malamocco came over in great numbers.  They regarded this outrage on the family of the great merchant as almost a personal insult.  Stones were thrown at the windows of the Palazzo Mocenigo, and an attack would have been made upon it, had not the authorities sent down strong guards to protect it.  Persons belonging to that house, and the families connected with it, were assaulted in the streets, and all Venice was in an uproar.

“There is one comfort,” Giuseppi said, when he heard from Francis what had taken place.  “Just at present, Mocenigo will have enough to think about his own affairs without troubling about you.  I have been in a tremble ever since that day, and have dreamed bad dreams every night.”

“You are more nervous for me than I am for myself, Giuseppi; but I have been careful too, for although Ruggiero himself was away his friends are here, and active, too, as you see by this successful attempt.  But I think that at present they are likely to let matters sleep.  Public opinion is greatly excited over the affair, and as, if I were found with a stab in my back, it would, after what has passed, be put down to them, I think they will leave me alone.”

“I do hope, father,” Francis said at breakfast the next morning, “that there may be no opportunity of sending me back to England, until something is heard of the Polanis.”

“I have somewhat changed my mind, Francis, as to that matter.  After what Signor Polani said the other day, I feel that it would be foolish for me to adhere to that plan.  With his immense trade and business connections he can do almost anything for you, and such an introduction into business is so vastly better than your entering my shop in the city, that it is best, in every way, that you should stay here for the present.  Of course, for the time he will be able to think of nothing but his missing daughters; but at any rate, you can remain here until he has leisure to pursue the subject, and to state, further than he did the other day, what he proposes for you.  My own business is a good one for a London trader, but it is nothing by the side of the transactions of the merchant princes at Venice, among the very first of whom Signor Polani is reckoned.”

Francis was greatly pleased at his father’s words.  He had, ever since Polani had spoken to him, been pondering the matter in his mind.  He knew that to enter business under his protection would be one of the best openings that even Venice could afford; but his father was slow to change his plans, and Francis greatly feared that he would adhere to his original plan.