use
he had seen the misery in her eyes with her great love for Venice, and
because the Council had so declared its vote for the State that he could
afford to be magnanimous. Nay, since even the Senator Marcantonio had
not flinched before that wonderful agonized white face, he need not
confine her, as he had intended, in a convent for decorous keeping; he
was glad of the change in her favor which would prevent the harshness
that might have increased her influence to the degree of danger. He
sent, instead, a gracious message by his secretary--"Might the father
pay a visit to his daughter of the Republic to inquire of her welfare
and assure her of his favor, before she returned to her palace?"

But the message of courtesy, sent by the Doge himself, had been stayed
on the threshold of his own state salon.

* * * * *

The Republic had, indeed, quitted herself nobly in her vote; so valiant
a blow had she struck for the rights of princes that this consciousness
rang out in the bold tones of her announcement to the courts of
Europe--"Which things we have thought best to tell you for your sole
information, so that if mention be made of them to you, and not else,
you may be able to answer to the purpose and to justify this our most
righteous cause."

And from the moment that the Senate had been unofficially apprised by
Nani that the terrible Interdict was already printed and would presently
be fulminated, every possible precaution of self-defense had been put in
operation throughout the dominions of Venice, with an ingenuity, a
foresight, and a celerity which the watching courts of Europe not only
viewed with amazement, but accepted as an evidence of the conscious
power and justice of the Republic. Overtures came fast from England,
from Spain, from France--every monarch wished some share in the
pacification between these courts of Rome and Venice.

Meanwhile, in Venice life went on superbly. There was no question of any
spiritual disfranchisement; these sons of the Church were not under
interdict, having committed no sin which laid them open to that charge.
Moreover, no ban had been _published_ throughout the wide extent of
their domain. Hence, for the Venetians, there was no interdict, whatever
awful anathema might be affixed to those distant doors of Saint Peter's
in Rome; with whatever voice of anger its terrors might be thundered at
the Holy See, against rulers, people, priests, and sacrame