e men of the Lagunes,
who speak with loud voices concerning this dragging of boys into the
service of the galleys."

"We will hear their opinions."

"Noble gentlemen, if I were to utter all they have said, word for word,
I might do some disfavor to your ears! Man is man, though the Virgin and
the saints listen to his aves and prayers from beneath a jacket of serge
and a fisherman's cap. But I know too well my duty to the senate to
speak so plainly. But, Signori, they say, saving the bluntness of their
language, that St. Mark should have ears for the meanest of his people
as well as for the richest noble; and that not a hair should fall from
the head of a fisherman, without its being counted as if it were a lock
from beneath the horned bonnet; and that where God hath not made marks
of his displeasure, man should not."

"Do they dare to reason thus?"

"I know not if it be reason, illustrious Signore, but it is what they
say, and, eccellenza, it is holy truth. We are poor workmen of the
Lagunes, who rise with the day to cast our nets, and return at night to
hard beds and harder fare; but with this we might be content, did the
senate count us as Christians and men. That God hath not given to all
the same chances in life, I well know, for it often happens that I draw
an empty net, when my comrades are groaning with the weight of their
draughts; but this is done to punish my sins, or to humble my heart,
whereas it exceeds the power of man to look into the secrets of the
soul, or to foretell the evil of the still innocent child. Blessed St.
Anthony knows how many years of suffering this visit to the galleys may
cause to the child in the end. Think of these things, I pray you,
Signori, and send men of tried principles to the wars."

"Thou mayest retire," rejoined the judge.

"I should be sorry that any who cometh of my blood," continued the
inattentive Antonio, "should be the cause of ill-will between them that
rule and them that are born to obey. But nature is stronger even than
the law, and I should discredit her feelings were I to go without
speaking as becomes a father. Ye have taken my child and sent him to
serve the state at the hazard of body and soul, without giving
opportunity for a parting kiss, or a parting blessing--ye have used my
flesh and blood as ye would use the wood of the arsenal, and sent it
forth upon the sea as if it were the insensible metal of the balls ye
throw against the infidel. Ye have shut y