o his companion his apprehensions on
account of Donna Violetta, whose marriage, it will be remembered, was a
secret to all but the witnesses and the Council of Three, when to his
great joy he found that the gold was wanting to advance his own design
of removing her to some secret place. This immediately changed the whole
face of the bargain. As the pledges offered were really worth the sum to
be received, Hosea thought, taking the chances of recovering back his
ancient loans, from the foreign estates of the heiress, into the
account, the loan would be no bad investment of the pretended sequins of
his friend Levi.

As soon as the parties had come to a clear understanding, they left the
square together, to consummate their bargain.

CHAPTER XXI.

"We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade."
HENRY VI.

The night wore on. The strains of music again began to break through the
ordinary stillness of the town, and the boats of the great were once
more in motion on every canal. Hands waved timidly in recognition, from
the windows of the little dark canopies, as the gondolas glided by, but
few paused to greet each other in that city of mystery and suspicion.
Even the refreshing air of the evening was inhaled under an appearance
of restraint, which, though it might not be at the moment felt, was too
much interwoven with the habits of the people, ever to be entirely
thrown aside.

Among the lighter and gayer barges of the patricians, a gondola of more
than usual size, but of an exterior so plain as to denote vulgar uses,
came sweeping down the great canal. Its movement was leisurely, and the
action of the gondoliers that of men either fatigued or little pressed
for time. He who steered, guided the boat with consummate skill, but
with a single hand, while his three fellows, from time to time, suffered
their oars to trail on the water in very idleness. In short, it had the
ordinary listless appearance of a boat returning to the city from an
excursion on the Brenta, or to some of the more distant isles.

Suddenly the gondola diverged from the centre of the passage, down which
it rather floated than pulled, and shot into one of the least frequented
canals of the city. From this moment its movement became more rapid and
regular, until it reached a quarter of the town inhabited by the lowest
order of the Venetians. Here it stopped by the side of a warehouse, and
one of its crew ascended to a bridg