Max Pemberton

“ The bells of the city rang joyously; bright fires were lit on all the open places; candles were set in the windows of every house. In the great church itself the priests sang a Te Deum, and countless lights burned before the altars, and thanksgiving was offered for the safety of Venice and the death of her enemies. Outside in the square a vast throng swarmed about one whom stalwart arms held up, about a dancing girl whom they had crowned with flowers and carried, as often they carried images, high above the people on a golden throne.
"Viva, Nina, the daughter of Barbarino!" ”

“ Nina started to her feet and ran from the chapel to the great nave of the church. She was not quite sure yet that she had not dreamed the thing. She began to argue with herself again, asking who would come to the monastery when Venice slept. A repetition of the sound froze the argument upon her lips. No longer was there any opportunity to doubt.
She heard the door of the sacristy creak upon its hinges. She heard the whisper of voices, the muted tread of men who crossed the marble pavement of the ambulatory, and were coming to the nave of the church. ”

“ Truth to tell, he held his lantern high, and listened intently while some seconds passed; but the sound was not repeated, and, eager to be reassured, the trembling monk turned the heavy key in the lock and fled that holy place of spirits and of shadows.
"Old Nicolo could have sworn that he heard a sound as of the pattering of little feet."
"What a thing to imagine," he said to himself, as he crossed the cloister and drew his hood about his ears, for the wind blew cold upon Venice from the mountains. "Surely I am growing old, and will be the better for a cup of wine. ”

“ Carmagnola heard him as one who hears sentence of death.
"And if I do not accept them?"
The priest answered him by leading him to the balcony of the house, and pointing across the water to the great Piazza, of St. Mark. Dawn was breaking, and the domes of the church were already capped with the golden light of the new day.
"Look yonder, my lord," he said grimly, "listen to those cries. They are the shouts of the people who tell each other that two of the enemies of Venice are enemies no more." ”

“ Carmagnola shrugged his shoulders. It was grotesque, he said to himself, that he should have followed this dancing girl at all. The homage that she paid to her friar galled his pride.
"Pah," he said; "what can a friar do when the police are not your friends? Nevertheless——"
She would have answered him, but the door of the palace opened as he spoke, and the Friar himself stood before them. He held a taper in his hand; his capuce was drawn about his ears. The meagre face, seen in that wan light, was such a face as the old painters gave to their saints. ”

“ He unbarred the door swiftly, and followed the girl through it to the broad leads of the monastery. Venice lay beneath; Venice awakened. The bells of many churches were ringing. A panic of night become day had begun to seize upon the city. The fugitives could see the boats of the police at the steps of the southern porch. A great crowd had gathered from all the neighbouring houses; men shouted to men that an enemy was in the palace, and that the Doge was killed. Women stood at the windows of the lighted houses.
Carmagnola watched the scene while he could have counted ten. ”

“ She buried her face in her hands, while the Count of Carmagnola stood regarding her with a new amazement. He had hardly seen a more beautiful face in all Venice. The girl, he thought, was like one of the children in the picture above the high altar. He asked himself how he could have lived in the city for three years, and have passed her by. And a pretty face could always win upon his generosity. ”

“ The priest raised his hand and pointed to the jewels upon the breast of the other.
"That you strip those jewels from you, and give them to the poor; that you leave Venice at dawn and never look upon her spires again; that neither you nor your children's children shall dwell in the house you have built; that Italy shall know you no more—that as a beggar you shall go out, and as a beggar you shall live. ”

“ Augustine, and were kneeling there in an effort, as the girl saw, to raise a great slab of marble which covered one of the altar tombs. When they had lifted it, they took a parchment from the tomb and began to scrutinise it closely, one of them holding up a taper that they might decipher the writing more readily.
Nina said to herself, as she watched them, that this must be the instant of her flight. Swiftly, as a shadow in the moonlight, she darted across the nave and sought a new hiding-place in the ambulatory. ”

“ II It wanted an hour to dawn on the second day of March, in the year 1703, when little Nina, followed quickly by the Count of Carmagnola, stepped from a gondola which had carried them from Rialto to the island of the Jews, and rang at the great bell before Frà Giovanni's gloomy palace.
"Frà Giovanni will save you, my lord," she had said again and again during those anxious moments of flight; "there is none so powerful as he. ”

“ The third followed with slower steps; and when he came to the chancel arch, he stood an instant with the moonbeams falling full upon his face.
Nina, who saw him thus for the first time, knew in that moment why they had called him Count. She looked upon the lord of Carmagnola himself—upon him of whom she had dreamed through many a weary night of cold and hunger. Her lover, as she, the dancing girl, had called him, stood before her on the threshold of death, she said. And she had killed him! In five minutes, in ten, the police would come! ”

“ With this she crossed the nave and mounted the winding staircase by which the organ loft was reached. She remembered that her nights in the church had shown to her a wicket-gate in the wall behind the organ, and once she had unbarred that gate and passed out, to find herself upon the leads of the monastery. From these she had gone on until she came to an old stone staircase, at the foot of which flowed one of the narrowest waterways in all Venice. That staircase should save the man's life, she said. ”

“ And there were such queer sights and sounds in that lonely fane when all the tapers were out and the dim red lamps cast shadows before the altars, and the very effigies of dead martyrs seemed reanimated and living. ”