of Famagosta while
she taketh her leisure in dealing with the merchants of the East; for
the King of Cyprus must aye keep faith with the Republic."

"Yet let Venice beware," the other answered, lowering his voice to a
confidential tone. "It is not over-easy to hold His Majesty to any faith
or compact, by what one may guess from the talk of the Senate: but the
favor of Venice is needful to him."

"And none the less that there be those who favor him not. Genoa is wroth
at him for having chased them from Famagosta--the most marvellous
stronghold in the world, if one may credit Messer Andrea Cornaro, the
friend of the King."

"He spake truly, from what I myself should have guessed thereof--getting
no closer to the Fortress than any Cyprian might have done six years
ago, when I had gone with my fleet to the Syrian Coast for a marvellous
cargo of spices, and Cyprus tempted me to a voyage of pleasure, being
not so far--the sail of a day with a fair galley. The Genoese held the
great Fortress and the splendid city of Famagosta and the country for
miles around; an enemy entrenched in the very heart of a kingdom! Small
wonder that King Janus, being of a most laudable prowess, should claim
his own again--which won him laurels, for the Cyprians had been sore
over the matter. Aye; Cyprus is good for the commerce of Venice, and it
would be a hard day when the ships of the Republic might not harbor in
her waters. And if the good of Venice be the good of Cyprus,--the amity
is the more like to last!"

"Aye, for the commerce it is well--most truly well. But there will be
too many of our patrician daughters in the suite of the young queen when
she shall sail on the morrow. I could more easily have spared fewer."

"They are but charming childish faces; and they have left their sisters
behind them--they and the little Caterina; it is well that the bride
should make a brave showing at the court of Cyprus--which is held for a
marvel of splendor."

"Thou knowest it, Messer Querini, having been there?"

"Nay--not at court--it is Messer Andrea Cornaro who will tell of it. But
I passed some days at Nikosia, on my way back from Alexandria, and
verily the cities were twins for richness. The beauty of the
churches--one for each day of the year through,--we of Venice may not at
all equal, save in our Basilica of San Marco;--the precious altars
inlaid with gold and jewels,--like our Pala d'Oro that cometh not forth
of our treasury save on day