Chapter 30 - Page 2

his holy calling and calm step, that he was some friar
employed in his usual and privileged office. By this easy, quiet method
did the Carmelite and his companion penetrate to the very ante-chamber
of the sovereign, a spot that thousands had been defeated in attempting
to reach, by means more elaborate.

There were merely two or three drowsy inferior officers of the household
in waiting. One arose quickly at the unexpected appearance of these
unknown visitors, expressing, by the surprise and the confusion of his
eye, the wonder into which he was thrown by so unlooked-for guests.

"His Highness waits for us, I fear?" simply observed Father Anselmo, who
had known how to quiet his concern, in a look of passive courtesy.

"Santa Maria! holy father, you should know best, but----"

"We will not lose more time in idle words, son, when there has already
been this delay--show us to the closet of his Highness."

"It is forbidden to usher any, unannounced, into the presence----"

"Thou seest this is not an ordinary visit. Go, inform the Doge that the
Carmelite he expects, and the youthful maiden, in whom his princely
bosom feels so parental an interest, await his pleasure."

"His Highness has then commanded----"

"Tell him, moreover, that time presses; for the hour is near when
innocence is condemned to suffer."

The usher was deceived by the gravity and assurance of the monk. He
hesitated, and then throwing open a door, he showed the visitors into an
inner room, where he requested them to await his return. After this, he
went on the desired commission to the closet of his master.

It has already been shown that the reigning Doge, if such a title can be
used of a prince who was merely a tool of the aristocracy, was a man
advanced in years. He had thrown aside the cares of the day, and, in the
retirement of his privacy, was endeavoring to indulge those human
sympathies that had so little play in the ordinary duties of his
factitious condition, by holding intercourse with the mind of one of the
classics of his country. His state was laid aside for lighter ease and
personal freedom. The monk could not have chosen a happier moment for
his object, since the man was undefended by the usual appliances of his
rank, and he was softened by communion with one who had known how to
mould and temper the feelings of his readers at will. So entire was the
abstraction of the Doge, at the moment, that the usher entered unheeded,
and had stood in respectful attention to his sovereign's pleasure, near
a minute before he was seen.

"What would'st thou, Marco?" demanded the prince, when his eye rose from
the page.