that
moonlit night. But the sleeping domes were too far for human strength,
and the gondolas were sweeping madly towards the town. He turned, and
swimming feebly, for hunger and previous exertion had undermined his
strength, he bent his eye on the dark spot which he had constantly
recognised as the boat of the Bravo.

Jacopo had not ceased to watch the interview with the utmost intentness
of his faculties. Favored by position, he could see without being
distinctly visible. He saw the Carmelite pronouncing the absolution, and
he witnessed the approach of the larger boat. He heard a plunge heavier
than that of falling oars, and he saw the gondola of Antonio towing away
empty. The crew of the Republic had scarcely swept the Lagunes with
their oar-blades before his own stirred the water.

"Jacopo!--Jacopo!" came fearfully and faintly to his ears.

The voice was known, and the occasion thoroughly understood. The cry of
distress was succeeded by the rush of the water, as it piled before the
beak of the Bravo's gondola. The sound of the parted element was like
the sighing of a breeze. Ripples and bubbles were left behind, as the
driven scud floats past the stars, and all those muscles which had once
before that day been so finely developed in the race of the gondoliers,
were now expanded, seemingly in twofold volumes. Energy and skill were
in every stroke, and the dark spot came down the streak of light, like
the swallow touching the water with its wing.

"Hither, Jacopo--thou steerest wide!"

The beak of the gondola turned, and the glaring eye of the Bravo caught
a glimpse of the fisherman's head.

"Quickly, good Jacopo,--I fail!"

The murmuring of the water again drowned the stifled words. The efforts
of the oar were frenzied, and at each stroke the light gondola appeared
to rise from its element.

"Jacopo--hither--dear Jacopo!"

"The mother of God aid thee, fisherman!--I come."

"Jacopo--the boy!--the boy!"

The water gurgled; an arm was visible in the air, and it disappeared.
The gondola drove upon the spot where the limb had just been visible,
and a backward stroke, that caused the ashen blade to bend like a reed,
laid the trembling boat motionless. The furious action threw the Lagune
into ebullition, but, when the foam subsided, it lay calm as the blue
and peaceful vault it reflected.

"Antonio!"--burst from the lips of the Bravo.

A frightful silence succeeded the call. There was neither answer nor
hum