ies are
willing to hear, you will find that I am no less willing to tell the
manner in which I got the ring."

"Speak, then, and trifle not."

"I know not, Signori, whether you are used to hearing untruths, that you
caution me so much not to deal with them; but we of the Lagunes are not
afraid to say what we have seen and done, for most of our business is
with the winds and waves, which take their orders from God himself.
There is a tradition, Signori, among us fishermen, that in times past,
one of our body brought up from the bay the ring with which the Doge is
accustomed to marry the Adriatic. A jewel of that value was of little
use to one who casts his nets daily for bread and oil, and he brought it
to the Doge, as became a fisherman into whose hands the saints had
thrown a prize to which he had no title, as it were to prove his
honesty. This act of our companion is much spoken of on the Lagunes and
at the Lido, and it is said there is a noble painting done by some of
our Venetian masters, in the halls of the palace, which tells the story
as it happened, showing the prince on his throne, and the lucky
fisherman with his naked legs rendering back to his highness that which
had been lost. I hope there is foundation for this belief, Signore,
which greatly flatters our pride, and is not without use in keeping some
among us truer to the right, and better favored in the eyes of St.
Anthony than might otherwise be."

"The fact was so."

"And the painting, excellent Signore? I hope our vanity has not deceived
us concerning the picture, neither?"

"The picture you mention is to be seen within the palace."

"Corpo di Bacco! I have had my misgivings on that point, for it is not
common that the rich and happy should take such note of what the humble
and the poor have done. Is the work from the hands of the great Tiziana
himself, eccellenza?"

"It is not; one of little name hath put his pencil to the canvas."

"They say that Tiziano had the art of giving to his work the look and
richness of flesh, and one would think that a just man might find, in
the honesty of the poor fisherman, a color bright enough to have
satisfied even his eye. But it may be that the senate saw danger in thus
flattering us of the Lagunes."

"Proceed with the account of thine own fortune with the ring."

"Illustrious nobles, I have often dreamed of the luck of my fellow of
the old times; and more than once have I drawn the nets with an eager
ha