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Title: The Royal Pawn of Venice
A Romance of Cyprus

Author: Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

Release Date: March 8, 2008 [eBook #24784]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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THE ROYAL PAWN OF VENICE

[Illustration: CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS
FROM THE PAINTING BY TITIAN]

THE ROYAL PAWN OF VENICE

A Romance of Cyprus

by

MRS. LAWRENCE TURNBULL

Author of
"The Golden Book of Venice"

Philadelphia & London
J. B. Lippincott Company
1911

Copyright, 1911
by Francese Litchfield Turnbull

Published April, 1911

Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A.

DEDICATED

BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION OF

HER MAJESTY

TO

MARGHERITA OF SAVOY

THE BELOVED FIRST QUEEN OF UNITED ITALY

Time:

The latter half of the XV. Century.

_THE ROYAL PAWN
OF VENICE_

I

Among the day-dreams of the Rulers of Venice the island of Cyprus had
long loomed large and fair--Cyprus, the happy isle of romance, _l'isola
fortunata_, sea-girdled, clothed with dense forests of precious woods,
veined with inexhaustible mines of rich metals; a very garden of
luscious fruits, garlanded with ever-blooming flowers--a land flowing
with milk and honey and steeped in the fragrance of wines that a god
might covet.

_Kypros_--_Paphos_--a theme for poets, where Aphrodite rose from the
foam of the sea, and the fabled groves of the mysteries of Venus gave
place to primitive shrines of Christian worship, while innumerable
Grecian legends wer