ehood of the state better than I, and with my parting words I warn
you to be wary!"

"Thou speakest as if we were to meet no more, worthy Jacopo!"

The Bravo turned, and the action brought his features to the moon. There
was a melancholy smile, in which deep satisfaction at the success of the
lovers was mingled with serious forebodings for himself.

"We are certain only of the past," he said in a low voice.

Touching the hand of Don Camillo, he kissed his own and leaped hastily
into his gondola. The fast was thrown loose, and the felucca glided
away, leaving this extraordinary being alone on the waters. The
Neapolitan ran to the taffrail, and the last he saw of Jacopo, the
Bravo, was rowing leisurely back towards that scene of violence and
deception from which he himself was so glad to have escaped.

CHAPTER XXVI.

"My limbs are bowed, though not with toil,
But rusted with a vile repose,
For they have been a dungeon's spoil,
And mine hath been the fate of those
To whom the goodly earth and air
Are banned, and barred--forbidden fare."
PRISONER OF CHILLON.

When the day dawned on the following morning the square of St. Mark was
empty. The priests still chanted their prayers for the dead near the
body of old Antonio, and a few fishermen still lingered in and near the
cathedral, but half persuaded of the manner in which their companion had
come to his end. But as was usual at that hour of the day the city
appeared tranquil, for though a slight alarm had passed through the
canals at the movement of the rioters, it had subsided in that specious
and distrustful quiet, which is more or less the unavoidable consequence
of a system that is not substantially based on the willing support of
the mass.

Jacopo was again in the attic of the Doge's palace, accompanied by the
gentle Gelsomina. As they threaded the windings of the building, he
recounted to the eager ear of his companion all the details connected
with the escape of the lovers; omitting, as a matter of prudence, the
attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo on the life of Don Camillo. The unpractised
and single-hearted girl heard him in breathless attention, the color of
her cheek and the changeful eye betraying the force of her sympathies at
each turn in their hazardous adventure.

"And dost thou think they can yet escape from those up above?" murmured
Gelsomina, for few in Venice would trust their voices, by putting such