st dungeons as a fisherman who has done the same; but in other
respects there is naturally some difference."

"Why naturally?" Francis retorted. "You belong to a powerful family,
Giustiniani, and my father is only a trader, but I don't see that
naturally you have any more right to get me stabbed in the back, than I
have to get you put out of the way."

"Naturally perhaps not," Matteo laughed; "but you see it has become a
second nature to us here in Venice. But seriously I admit that the
present state of things has grown to be a scandal, and that the doings
of some of our class ought to be put down with a strong hand."

"Well, I shall say goodnight now," the English boy said. "My father
doesn't like my being out after ten. He keeps up his English habits of
shutting up early, and has not learned to turn night into day as you do
here in Venice."

"The bell has just tolled the hour, Francis," his father said as he
entered.

"I didn't think it was quite so late, father; the Piazza is crowded. I
really do not think there is one person in Venice who goes to bed so
early as we do. It is so pleasant in the moonlight after the heat of
the day."

"That is true enough, Francis, but men are meant to sleep at night and
to work in the day. I think our fathers carried this too far when they
rang the curfew at eight; but ten is quite late enough for any honest
man to be about in the streets, and the hours of the early morning are
just as pleasant and far more healthy than those of the evening,
especially in a place like this where the mists rise from the water, to
say nothing of the chance of meeting a band of wild gallants on their
way homewards heated with wine, or of getting a stab in the back from
some midnight assassin. However, I do not blame Venice for enjoying
herself while she can. She will have more serious matters to attend to
soon."

"But she is at peace with every one at present, father. I thought when
she signed the treaty with Austria after a year's fighting, she was
going to have rest for a time."

"That was only the beginning of the trouble, Francis, and the council
knew it well; that was why they made such terms with Austria as they
did. They knew that Austria was only acting in accord with Hungary, and
Padua, and Genoa. The others were not ready to begin, so Austria came
on her own account to get what booty and plunder she could. But the
storm is gathering, and will burst before long. But do not let us stand