Chapter 21

"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 bridge. The others threw themselves on the
thwarts and seemed to repose.

He who quitted the boat threaded a few narrow but public alleys, such as
are to be found in every part of that confined town, and knocked lightly
at a window. It was not long before the casement opened, and a female
voice demanded the name of him without.

"It is I, Annina," returned Gino, who was not an unfrequent applicant
for admission at that private portal. "Open the door, girl, for I have
come on a matter of pressing haste."

Annina complied, though not without making sure that her suitor was
alone.

"Thou art come unseasonably, Gino," said the wine-seller's daughter; "I
was about to go to St. Mark's to breathe the evening air. My father and
brothers are already departed, and I only stay to make sure of the
bolts."

"Their gondola will hold a fourth?"

"They have gone by the footways."

"And thou walkest the streets alone at this hour, Annina?"

"I know not thy