t is no use our thinking of anything
until we know what has really been done, and you are sure to be able to
learn, at home, what steps have been taken."

On reaching home Matteo learned that Polani, accompanied by two members
of the council, had already started in one of the swiftest of the state
galleys for the mainland. A council had been hastily summoned, and,
upon hearing Polani's narrative, had dispatched two of their number,
with an official of the republic, to Botonda. If Ruggiero was found to
be still there, he was to be kept a prisoner in the house in which he
was staying, under the strictest watch. If he had left, orders were to
be sent, to every town in the Venetian dominions on the mainland, for
his arrest when discovered, and in that case he was to be sent a
prisoner, strongly guarded, to Venice.

Other galleys had been simultaneously dispatched to the various ports,
ordering a strict search of every boat arriving or leaving, and
directing a minute investigation to be made as to the occupants of
every boat that had arrived during the evening or night. The fact that
a thousand ducats were offered, for information which would lead to the
recovery of the girls, was also to be published far and wide.

The news of the abduction had spread, and the greatest indignation was
excited in the city. The sailors from the port of Malamocco came over
in great numbers. They regarded this outrage on the family of the great
merchant as almost a personal insult. Stones were thrown at the windows
of the Palazzo Mocenigo, and an attack would have been made upon it,
had not the authorities sent down strong guards to protect it. Persons
belonging to that house, and the families connected with it, were
assaulted in the streets, and all Venice was in an uproar.

"There is one comfort," Giuseppi said, when he heard from Francis what
had taken place. "Just at present, Mocenigo will have enough to think
about his own affairs without troubling about you. I have been in a
tremble ever since that day, and have dreamed bad dreams every night."

"You are more nervous for me than I am for myself, Giuseppi; but I have
been careful too, for although Ruggiero himself was away his friends
are here, and active, too, as you see by this successful attempt. But I
think that at present they are likely to let matters sleep. Public
opinion is greatly excited over the affair, and as, if I were found
with a stab in my back, it would, after what has