or the traghetti if I be not there to work them--Art listening,
Antonio?" he questioned feverishly.

Antonio's eyes were fastened upon his. "Padrone, yes!" he answered
breathlessly.

"With my token thou canst command the loyalty of every Nicolotto--is it
thine oar that made that rustle?--and perchance, if there were a rising
of the traghetti to demand aught of the Signoria--come nearer,
Antonio!--the Castellani also, if they willed to join with their
traghetti in asking for justice--would not serve under my token the less
heartily for the word, confided low to their bancali--dost
understand?--_that if their taxes and their fines oppress them_, these
also, I being free, will pay this year to the maledetto Avvogadoro del
Commun."

Antonio gravely bowed his head in assent.

"This at thy discretion--thou understandest, Antonio--and so that no
violence come from the massing of the people, but only the proof of its
will and of the numbers who make the demand. Only--if it be not granted,
they shall make a stand at the traghetti and _fight_----"

"Padrone, yes!"

"For--thou dost mark me, Antonio?--this Lady of the Giustiniani hath
been a saint among the people; she hath given them much in gifts--she
hath given almost her life in prayers and penances, that heaven may
avert its wrath from Venice, which she in truth believeth the Holy
Father--may the saints make him suffer for it!--hath brought upon the
people by his curse--may heaven forbid! And she, being now noble, hath
preferred the cause of the _people_ to the cause of the _nobles_, and
bringeth upon her the displeasure of the Signoria by her flight to
Rome. For--see it well, Antonio!--if the Senate hold the Lady of the
Giustiniani for fault in this,"--Piero paused and uttered the last words
with a slow, mysterious emphasis, while Antonio listened with an
intensity that missed no shading of meaning,--"_it will be the cause of
the people against the nobles_."

"If they harm her not," he resumed in his usual tone, after a moment's
pause, "my fate shall be avenged in the judgment and command of the
bancali of the Nicolotti only. They shall not risk the people's good for
the poor life of one leader!"

"Padrone!" Antonio cried, with flashing eyes. "Commandi altro?" ("Hast
thou other commands?")

"None, save that if I return not--and not otherwise--thou shalt seek
with my token the Master Girolamo Magagnati; thou shalt tell him of this
my confidence, holding nothing bac