any petitions to the bounty of the senate."

"Thou speakest vaguely. What is thy will?"

"Justice, mighty Prince. They have forced the only vigorous branch from
the dying trunk--they have lopped the withering stem of its most
promising shoot--they have exposed the sole companion of my labors and
pleasures, the child to whom I have looked to close my eyes, when it
shall please God to call me away, untaught, and young in lessons of
honesty and virtue, a boy in principle as in years, to all the
temptation, and sin, and dangerous companionship of the galleys!"

"Is this all? I had thought thy gondola in the decay, or thy right to
use the Lagunes in question!"

"Is this all?" repeated Antonio, looking around him in bitter
melancholy. "Doge of Venice, it is more than one, old, heart-stricken,
and bereaved, can bear?"

"Go to; take thy golden chain and oar, and depart among thy fellows in
triumph. Gladden thy heart at a victory, on which thou could'st not, in
reason, have counted, and leave the interests of the state to those that
are wiser than thee, and more fitted to sustain its cares."

The fisherman arose with an air of rebuked submission, the result of a
long life passed in the habit of political deference; but he did not
approach to receive the proffered reward.

"Bend thy head, fisherman, that his Highness may bestow the prize,"
commanded an officer.

"I ask not for gold, nor any oar, but that which carries me to the
Lagunes in the morning, and brings me back into the canals at night.
Give me my child, or give me nothing."

"Away with him!" muttered a dozen voices; "he utters sedition! let him
quit the galley."

Antonio was hurried from the presence, and forced into his gondola with
very unequivocal signs of disgrace. This unwonted interruption of the
ceremonies clouded many a brow, for the sensibilities of a Venetian
noble were quick, indeed, to reprehend the immorality of political
discontent, though the conventional dignity of the class suppressed all
other ill-timed exhibition of dissatisfaction.

"Let the next competitor draw near," continued the sovereign, with a
composure that constant practice in dissimulation rendered easy.

The unknown waterman to whose secret favor Antonio owed his success,
approached, still concealed by the licensed mask.

"Thou art the gainer of the second prize," said the Prince, "and were
rigid justice done, thou should'st receive the first also, since our
favor is not to