r, varlet. What meaneth this idle trifling at a moment like
this?"

Don Camillo leaped a fearful distance, and happily he reached the
gondola. To pass the men and rush into the canopy needed but a moment;
to perceive that it was empty was the work of a glance.

"Villains, have you dared to be false!" cried the confounded noble.

At that instant the clock of the city began to tell the hour of two,
and it was only as that appointed signal sounded heavy and melancholy on
the night-air, that the undeceived Camillo got a certain glimpse of the
truth.

"Gino," he said, repressing his voice, like one summoning a desperate
resolution--"are thy fellows true?"

"As faithful as your own vassals, Signore."

"And thou didst not fail to deliver the note to my agent?"

"He had it before the ink was dry, eccellenza."

"The mercenary villain! He told thee where to find the gondola, equipped
as I see it?"

"Signore, he did; and I do the man the justice to say that nothing is
wanting, either to speed or comfort."

"Aye, he even deals in duplicates, so tender is his care!" muttered Don
Camillo between his teeth. "Pull away, men; your own safety and my
happiness now depend on your arms. A thousand ducats if you equal my
hopes--my just anger if you disappoint them!"

Don Camillo threw himself on the cushions as he spoke, in bitterness of
heart, though he seconded his words by a gesture which bid the men
proceed. Gino, who occupied the stern and managed the directing oar,
opened a small window in the canopy which communicated with the
interior, and bent to take his master's directions as the boat sprang
ahead. Rising from his stooping posture, the practised gondolier gave a
sweep with his blade, which caused the sluggish element of the narrow
canal to whirl in eddies, and then the gondola glided into the great
canal, as if it obeyed an instinct.

CHAPTER XVII.

"Why liest thou so on the green earth?
'Tis not the hour of slumber:--why so pale?"
CAIN.

Notwithstanding his apparent decision, the Duke of Sant' Agata was
completely at a loss in what manner to direct his future movements. That
he had been duped by one or more of the agents to whom he had been
compelled to confide his necessary preparations for the flight he had
meditated several days, was too certain to admit of his deceiving
himself with the hopes that some unaccountable mistake was the cause of
his loss. He saw at o