in going about in his gondola and restlessly traversing the
squares. But his footsteps involuntarily turned time after time in the
direction of the Ducal Palace. One day he saw Pietro standing on the
bridge close to the back part of the Palace, opposite the prisons,
leaning on a gay-coloured oar, whilst a gondola, fastened to one of the
pillars, was rocking on the Canal. Although small, it had a comfortable
little deck, was adorned with tasteful carvings, and even decorated
with the Venetian flag, so that it bore some resemblance to the
Bucentaur. As soon as Pietro saw his former comrade he shouted out to
him, "Hi! Signor Antonio, the best of good greetings to you; your
sequins have brought me good luck." Antonio asked somewhat absently
what sort of good luck he meant, and learned the important intelligence
that nearly every evening Pietro had to take the Doge and Dogess in his
gondola across to Giudecca, where the Doge had a nice house not far
from San Giorgio Maggiore. Antonio stared at Pietro, and then burst out
spasmodically, "Comrade, you may earn another ten sequins and more if
you like. Let me take your place; I will row the Doge over." But Pietro
informed him that he could not think of doing so, for the Doge knew him
and would not trust himself with anybody else. At length when Antonio,
his mind excited by all the tortures of love, began to give way to
unbridled anger, and violently importune him, and to swear in an insane
and ridiculous fashion that he would leap after the gondola and drag it
down under the sea, Pietro replied laughing, "Why, Signor Antonio,
Signor Antonio, why, I declare you have quite lost yourself in the
Dogess's beautiful eyes." But he consented to allow Antonio to go with
him as his assistant in rowing; he would excuse it to old Falieri on
the ground of the weight of the boat, as well, as being himself a
little weak and unwell, and old Falieri did always think the gondola
went too slowly on this trip. Off Antonio ran, and he only just
returned to the bridge in time, dressed in coarse oarsman's clothing,
his face stained, and with a long moustache stuck above his lips, for
the Doge came down from the Palace with the Dogess, both attired most
splendidly and magnificently. "Who's that stranger fellow there?" began
the Doge angrily to Pietro; and it required all Pietro's most solemn
asseverations that he really required an assistant, before the old man
could be induced to allow Antonio to help r