Latin was almost universally
spoken by educated men in southern Europe, and Greeks, Italians,
Spaniards, and Frenchmen were able to converse in this common medium.
French Francis understood, for it was the language in use in the court
and among the upper classes in England. Italian he picked up naturally
during his residence, and spoke it with the facility of a native. He
could now converse freely in Latin, and had some knowledge of German.
At the same school were many lads of good Venetian families, and it was
here that he had first made the acquaintance of Matteo Giustiniani, who
was now his most intimate friend.

Matteo, like all the young nobles of Venice, was anxious to excel in
military exercises, but he had none of the ardour for really hard work
which distinguished his friend. He admired the latter's strength and
activity, but could not bring himself to imitate him, in the exercises
by which that strength was attained, and had often remonstrated with
him upon his fondness for rowing.

"It is not seemly, Francisco, for a gentleman to be labouring like a
common gondolier. These men are paid for doing it; but what pleasure
there can be in standing up working that oar, till you are drenched
with perspiration, I cannot understand. I don't mind getting hot in the
School of Arms, because one cannot learn to use the sword and dagger
without it, but that's quite another thing from tugging at an oar."

"But I like it, Matteo; and see how strong it has made my muscles, not
of the arm only, but the leg and back. You often say you envy me my
strength, but you might be just as strong if you chose to work as I do.
Besides, it is delightful, when you are accustomed to it, to feel the
gondola flying away under your stroke."

"I prefer feeling it fly away under some one else's stroke, Francisco.
That is pleasant enough, I grant; but the very thought of working as
you do throws me into a perspiration. I should like to be as strong as
you are, but to work as a gondolier is too high a price to pay for it."

That evening, Francis crossed the lagoon in the gondola with Giuseppi,
to inspect the boat he had heard of. It was just what he wanted. In
appearance it differed in no way from an ordinary gondola, but it was a
mere shell. The timbers and planking were extremely light, and the
weight of the boat was little more than a third of that of other craft.
She had been built like a working gondola, instead of in the form of
those mos