lone."

"How can you say so, Maria?" Giulia said reproachfully.

"Well, my dear, there is no harm in that. For aught he knows, you may
be saying the most unkind things about him, all the time."

"I am sure he knows that I should not do that," Giulia said
indignantly.

"By the way, do you know, Francisco, that all Venice is in a state of
excitement! A proclamation has been issued by the doge, this morning,
that all should be in their galleys and at their posts at noon, under
pain of death. So everyone knows that something is about to be done, at
last."

"Then it is time for me to be off," Francis said, rising hastily, "for
it is ten o'clock already."

"Take your time, my lad," the merchant said. "There is no hurry, for
Pisani told me, privately, that they should not sail until after dark."

It was not, indeed, until nearly eight o'clock in the evening, that the
expedition started. At the hour of vespers, the doge, Pisani, and the
other leaders of the expedition, attended mass in the church of Saint
Mark, and then proceeded to their galleys, where all was now in
readiness.

Pisani led the first division, which consisted of fourteen galleys. The
doge, assisted by Cavalli, commanded in the centre; and Corbaro brought
up the rear, with ten large ships. The night was beautifully bright and
calm, a light and favourable breeze was blowing, and all Venice
assembled to see the departure of the fleet.

Just after it passed through the passage of the Lido, a thick mist came
on. Pisani stamped up and down the deck impatiently.

"If this goes on, it will ruin us," he said. "Instead of arriving in
proper order at the mouth of the passages, and occupying them before
the Genoese wake up to a sense of their danger, we shall get there one
by one, they will take the alarm, and we shall have their whole fleet
to deal with. It will be simply ruin to our scheme."

Fortunately, however, the fog speedily lifted. The vessels closed up
together, and, in two hours after starting, arrived off the entrances
to the channels. Pisani anchored until daylight appeared, and nearly
five thousand men were then landed on the Brondolo's shore, easily
driving back the small detachment placed there. But the alarm was soon
given, and the Genoese poured out in such overwhelming force that the
Venetians were driven in disorder to their boats, leaving behind them
six hundred killed, drowned, or prisoners.

But Pisani had not supposed that he would be