ng his way through the crowd
with this intention, when the object of the popular fury turned her
head towards him. Her veil was for a moment partially drawn aside,
affording a glimpse of her features in profile; and Antonio, still the
slave of his diseased imagination, fancied that her yellow shriveled
features had been metamorphosed into a countenance of regular beauty;
such a countenance, in short, as befitted the graceful and symmetrical
form to which it belonged. Confused and bewildered, the naturally weak
and undecided youth stood deliberating and uncertain whether he should
attempt the rescue, which would have been by no means difficult to
accomplish by the display of a little boldness and promptitude. Whilst
he was thus hesitating, there suddenly broke through the crowd a
young man, attired like himself in a black dress, and holding a naked
rapier in his hand. The new comer had probably lost his mask in the
tumult and confusion, for his features were uncovered, and Antonio
saw, to his inexpressible consternation and astonishment, that they
were the exact counterpart of his own. Before he could recover from
this new shock, the stranger, by the aid of his fierce and determined
demeanour, and the rapid play of his weapon, had made his way to the
mysterious old woman, whose back was turned towards him, and seizing
her round the waist he again forced a passage through the throng to
the nearest gondola, which happened to be that of the young painter.
The crowd pressed after him, and Antonio was hurried along with it to
the edge of the quay. But at the very moment that, to avoid being
pushed into the water by the throng, he sprang into one end of his
gondola, he saw the stranger, who had just entered it at the other,
gaze with a look of disgust and dismay on the features of her he had
rescued, and then with a cry of horror, leap into another boat, which
immediately rowed rapidly away. At the same instant Jacopo, by a
strong sweep of the oar, spun the gondola round, and shot into a
narrow canal which soon led them out of sight and sound of the scene
of confusion they had just left.

These various events had succeeded each other so rapidly, that Antonio
could hardly credit his senses when he found himself in this strange
manner the deliverer of the mysterious being who now sat under the
awning of his gondola, her frightful countenance, unveiled in the
struggle and no longer seen through the beautifying prism of the young