“I have seen him since he returned,” Francis replied; “and though it was only absolutely settled this morning, he has had several interviews with my father on the subject.  I believe he and my father thought that it was better to get me away as soon as possible, as Ruggiero’s friends may put down the disgrace which has befallen him to my interference in his first attempt to carry off the girls.”

“Well, I think you are a lucky fellow anyhow, Francisco, and I hope that I may be soon doing something also.  I shall speak to my father about it, and ask him to get Polani to let me take some voyages in his vessels, so that I may be fit to become an officer in one of the state galleys, as soon as I am of age.  Where are you going now?”

“I am going round to the School of Arms, to say goodbye to our comrades.  After that I am going to Signor Polani’s to pay my respects to the signoras.  Then I shall be at home with my father till it is time to go on board.  He will have left here before I return from my voyage, as he is going to wind up his affairs at once and return to England.”

“Well, I will accompany you to the school and to my cousin’s,” Matteo said.  “I shall miss you terribly here, and shall certainly do all I can to follow your example, and get afloat.  You may have all sorts of adventures, for we shall certainly be at war with Genoa before many weeks are over, and you will have to keep a sharp lookout for their war galleys.  Polani’s ships are prizes worth taking, and you may have the chance of seeing the inside of a Genoese prison before you return.”

After a visit to the School of Arms, the two friends were rowed to Signor Polani’s.  The merchant himself was out, but they were at once shown up to the room where the girls were sitting.

“My dear cousins,” Matteo said as he entered, “I am delighted to see you back safe and well.  All Venice is talking of your return.  You are the heroines of the day.  You do not know what an excitement there has been over your adventure.”

“The sooner people get to talk about something else the better, Matteo,” Maria said, “for we shall have to be prisoners all day till something else occupies their attention.  We have not the least desire to be pointed at, whenever we go out, as the maidens who were carried away.  If the Venetians were so interested in us, they had much better have set about discovering where we were hidden away before.”

“But everyone did try, I can assure you, Maria.  Every place has been ransacked, high and low.  Every gondolier has been questioned and cross questioned as to his doings on that day.  Every fishing village has been visited.  Never was such a search, I do believe.  But who could have thought of your being hidden away all the time at San Nicolo!  As for me, I have spent most of my time in a gondola, going out and staring up at every house I passed, in hopes of seeing a handkerchief waved from a casement.  And so has Francisco; he has been just as busy in the search as anyone, I can assure you.”