air.

"Thy errand?" he simply repeated.

"Is to beg your interest, Signore, to obtain the release of my grandson
from the galleys. They have seized the lad in his fourteenth year, and
condemned him to the wars with the Infidels, without thought of his
tender years, without thought of evil example, without thought of my age
and loneliness, and without justice; for his father died in the last
battle given to the Turk."

As he ceased, the fisherman riveted his look on the marble countenance
of his auditor, wistfully endeavoring to trace the effect of his words.
But all there was cold, unanswering, and void of human sympathy. The
soulless, practised, and specious reasoning of the state, had long since
deadened all feeling in the senator on any subject that touched an
interest so vital as the maritime power of the Republic. He saw the
hazard of innovation in the slightest approach to interests so delicate,
and his mind was drilled by policy into an apathy that no charity could
disturb, when there was question of the right of St. Mark to the
services of his people.

"I would thou hadst come to beg masses, or gold, or aught but this,
Antonio!" he answered, after a moment of delay. "Thou hast had the
company of the boy, if I remember, from his birth, already."

"Signore, I have had that satisfaction, for he was an orphan born; and I
would wish to have it until the child is fit to go into the world armed
with an honesty and faith that shall keep him from harm. Were my own
brave son here, he would ask no other fortune for the lad than such
counsel and aid as a poor man has a right to bestow on his own flesh and
blood."

"He fareth no worse than others; and thou knowest that the Republic hath
need of every arm."

"Eccellenza, I saw the Signor Giacomo land from his gondola, as I
entered the palace."

"Out upon thee, fellow! dost thou make no distinction between the son of
a fisherman, one trained to the oar and toil, and the heir of an ancient
house? Go to, presuming man, and remember thy condition, and the
difference that God hath made between our children."

"Mine never gave me sorrow but the hour in which they died," said the
fisherman, uttering a severe but mild reproof.

The Signor Gradenigo felt the sting of this retort, which in no degree
aided the cause of his indiscreet foster-brother. After pacing the room
in agitation for some time, he so far conquered his resentment as to
answer more mildly, as became his r