nd in my sleep, thinking to find that very jewel entangled in its
meshes, or embowelled by some fish. What I have so often fancied has at
last happened. I am an old man, Signore, and there are few pools or
banks between Fusina and Giorgio, that my lines of my nets have not
fathomed or covered. The spot to which the Bucentoro is wont to steer in
these ceremonies is well known to me, and I had a care to cover the
bottom round about with all my nets in the hope of drawing up the ring.
When his highness cast the jewel, I dropped a buoy to mark the
spot--Signore, this is all--my accomplice was St. Anthony."

"For doing this you had a motive?"

"Holy Mother of God! Was it not sufficient to get back my boy from the
gripe of the galleys?" exclaimed Antonio, with an energy and a
simplicity that are often found to be in the same character. "I thought
that if the Doge and the senate were willing to cause pictures to be
painted, and honors to be given to one poor fisherman for the ring, they
might be glad to reward another, by releasing a lad who can be of no
great service to the Republic, but who is all to his parent."

"Thy petition to his Highness, thy strife in the regatta, and thy search
for the ring, had the same object?"

"To me, Signore, life has but one."

There was a slight but suppressed movement among the council.

"When thy request was refused by his Highness as ill-timed--"

"Ah! eccellenza, when one has a white head and a failing arm, he cannot
stop to look for the proper moment in such a cause!" interrupted the
fisherman, with a gleam of that impetuosity which forms the true base of
Italian character.

"When thy request was denied, and thou hadst refused the reward of the
victor, thou went among thy fellows and fed their ears with complaints
of the injustice of St. Mark, and of the senate's tyranny?"

"Signore, no. I went away sad and heart-broken, for I had not thought
the Doge and nobles would have refused a successful gondolier so light a
boon."

"And this thou didst not hesitate to proclaim among the fishermen and
idlers of the Lido?"

"Eccellenza, it was not needed--my fellows knew my unhappiness, and
tongues were not wanting to tell the worst."

"There was a tumult, with thee at its head, and sedition was uttered,
with much vain-boasting of what the fleet of the Lagunes could perform
against the fleet of the Republic."

"There is little difference, Signore, between the two, except that the
men