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"Let him be summoned and honorably discharged; he hath done no harm that may be compared with the disaffection of the traghetti." "Rather, let them receive him back, appointed by the Senate to honor, as Condottiere of the border forces"; a second Chief hastened to respond, for the moment was grave, "and the command will most excellently fit the gastaldo."

It was three days since the storm, and the gastaldo had not yet been released, he also was simply detained, without ignominy or discomfort in rooms set apart for prisoners of State before they had been brought to trial; for the events of these days had been too absorbing to permit of an examination of his case.

"To-day," said Piero to himself, "it is this poor devil who cried to me to shield him when I was forced to denounce him to the Signoria; to-morrow, for some caprice of their Excellencies it may be Piero Salin!" But the gastaldo relapsed easily into such philosophy as he knew.

And again, when Piero essayed to prove himself equal to his honors, his few words dropped without sound upon the storm of vivas "We do not want talking for our gastaldo but doing!"

Thou must escape, unseen, while they lay hands upon the lady and me, whom first they will secure before they give thee a thought." Antonio instantly touched his stiletto, and looked his question with a fearless glance. "Nay," said the gastaldo scornfully, and drawing a line quickly about his own throat. "Thou wilt serve me better with thy head in its place.

It was in this canal that the victims of the Inquisition mysteriously disappeared, and Marina had repressed a shudder while she answered, "Thou wilt come to me, Piero, if the purse of the Nicolotti weighs little; thou shalt not fail, for this, of wearing the honor of gastaldo grande.

"By San Marco and San Teodoro," Antonio responded readily, crossing himself devoutly as he spoke, "I swear to do thy bidding, Messer Gastaldo." "And thou wilt die for the people against the nobles if need should be?" "If thou leadest, Gastaldo Grande." "Hast thou a pouch beneath thy stiletto where thou mayest defend with thy life what I shall give thee?" Antonio displayed it silently.

Was he not their own representative elected by the very voice of the people, as in those lost days of their freedom the doges had been? And did not the rival faction so stand in awe of the new gastaldo that from the moment of his nomination there had been disaffection in their ranks?

And a license is not little to buy for a poor barcariol who would be his own man; one pays three hundred lire not less. Does it drop into one's hand with the first fare? One must belong to the Guilds it is less robbery!" "But for your gastaldo, your great man, for him it is much honor " "Eccellenza, believe it not. If the taxes are not there for the provveditori, it is the gastaldo who pays.

No wonder that the enthusiasm of the populace was wild enough to bring the frankest delight to his handsome sun-bronzed face as they rushed upon him in a frenzy of appreciation and bore him aloft on their shoulders around the Piazza San Nicolò, almost dizzied with their haste and the smallness of the circle opened to them in the little square by the throng who pressed eagerly around him to grasp his hand to wave their banners, to shout themselves hoarse for the Nicolotti, for San Nicolò and San Raffaele, for Piero, gastaldo grande, for Venezia, for San Marco, with "Bravi," "Felicitazioni," and every possible childish demonstration of delight.