Chapter 9 - Page 2

ere thou puttest thyself in the way of so
much mortification. Defeat will not cause the people to treat thee more
tenderly."

"If my sinews are old and stiffened, Signor Mask, they are long used to
toil. As to shame, if it is a shame to be below the rest of mankind in
fortune, it will not now come for the first time. A heavy sorrow hath
befallen me, and this race may lighten the burden of grief. I shall not
pretend that I hear this laughter, and all these scornful speeches, as
one listens to the evening breeze on the Lagunes--for a man is still a
man, though he lives with the humblest, and eats of the coarsest. But
let it pass, Sant' Antonio will give me heart to bear it."

"Thou hast a stout mind, fisherman, and I would gladly pray my patron
to grant thee a stronger arm, but that I have much need of this victory
myself. Wilt thou be content with the second prize, if, by any manner of
skill, I might aid thy efforts? for, I suppose, the metal of the third
is as little to thy taste as it is to my own."

"Nay, I count not on gold or silver."

"Can the honor of such a struggle awaken the pride of one like thee?"

The old man looked earnestly at his companion, but he shook his head
without answer. Fresh merriment, at his expense, caused him to bend his
face towards the scoffers, and he perceived they were just then passing
a numerous group of his fellows of the Lagunes, who seemed to feel that
his unjustifiable ambition reflected, in some degree, on the honor of
their whole body.

"How now, old Antonio!" shouted the boldest of the band, "is it not
enough that thou hast won the honors of the net, but thou would'st have
a golden oar at thy neck?"

"We shall yet see him of the senate!" cried a second.

"He standeth in need of the horned bonnet for his naked head," continued
a third. "We shall see the brave Admiral Antonio sailing in the
Bucentaur, with the nobles of the land!"

Their sallies were succeeded by coarse laughter. Even the fair in the
balconies were not uninfluenced by these constant jibes, and the
apparent discrepancy between the condition and the means of so unusual a
pretender to the honors of the regatta. The purpose of the old man
wavered, but he seemed goaded by some inward incentive that still
enabled him to maintain his ground. His companion closely watched the
varying expression of a countenance that was far too little trained in
deception to conceal the feelings within; and, as they approached the
place of starting, he again spoke.

"Thou mayest yet withdraw," he said; "why should one of thy years make
the little time he has to stay bitter, by