Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844

ccurred to Antonio that he would seek his old master, and, after confessing his disobedience, relate to him the events of the day, and make him the confidant of h

made more startling the sudden appearance of several blazing torches, borne by masked and hooded f

Antonio Marcello!" exclai

cenes of a phantasmagoria before the mental vision of the young painter. He at once conjectured the cause for which they were seeking him. He had doubtless been taken for the youth who, by his energy and promptitude, had rescued the mysterious old woman from the mob, and who bore so striking and unaccountable resemblance to himself; and it must be on suspicion of his being connected with the attack on the Malipieri palace, that the ministers of justice were hunting him out. Nor di

ttle; but, with a Proveditore for your father, you may arrange matters if you only take time before you become their prisoner. Quick, then, to the palazzo! Don't you see old Cont

with the numerous windings and intricacies of the Venetian canals, he threaded them with unhesitating confidence; and, fa

d by the agents of the Inquisition, might bear false but fatal witness against him. With pallid cheek, and still trembling with alarm, he was hurrying to his chamber t

tricken Antonio. "For the love of Heaven, sta

f forced him to a seat in a part of the room, when the red blaze from the l

have been seeking you here-you, the last person whose name I should expect to hear in such mouths. Alarm me it did not

cting his scattered thoughts, he proceeded to narrate all that had occurred to him, not only on that day, but since his first meeting

r!" he concluded; "it may be found,

narrative, and to the confession of his weakness and disobedience to the injunctions of his aged teac

ct, for the attainment of which you scrupled not to disobey your venerable instructor. What the kind entreaties and remonstrances of Contarini could not induce you to abandon, you are ready to annihilate on the very first symptom of danger. Oh, Venice!" exclaimed the Proveditore, his fine counte

s weak and irresolute nature, hurried to his chamber, and presently returned with a roll of canvass in his hand, which he unfolded and spread before the Proveditore-then, dreading to encounter his father's ridicule, he shrunk back out of the firelight

" continued he, addressing the picture, and with looks and tones strangely at variance with his usually stern and imperturbable deportment. "

father?" the astonished A

d me many bitter moments of remorse; though, God knows, the deed was lawful and justifiable, done in the execution of my duty to the republic. And yet she lives," he continued musingly. "How could she have been saved? True, she had not been hanging long when we left the place. Some of her people, doubtless, were co

al desire, father

attack on the Malipieri palace. What was its object? A hostage?-Ay, I see it all, and our prisoner is none other than

ncomprehensible to the bewildered Antonio, the Proveditore h

picture, hideous though it be. It may prove the me

left the apartment; and, taking with him the mysterious portr

r. Upon a larger stage, and under circumstances more favourable to the fair development of his natural powers and dispositions, the pirate Dansowich would have become one of the most distinguished and admirable men of his time. Placed by the accident of birth upon the frontiers of Christian Europe, and cherishing from early youth a belief that the highest interests of the human race were involved in the struggle between the Crescent and the Cross, he had embraced the glorious cause with that enth

ns, had impaired his health, and his sleep was broken by harassing and painful dreams. In that from which he now awoke, with the sweat of anguish on his brow, he had fancied himself before the tribunal of the Inquisition. The rack was shown to him, and they bade him choose between confession and torture. He t

had caused the name of Nicolo Dansowich to be repeated several times in a deep hollow voice. Aware of the superstitious credulity of the Uzcoques, the wily Venetian had devised this stratagem as one likely to produce a startling

reams," said he, "if you wish our tribuna

led by the ominous coincidence between Marcello's

heir knowledge. More than once have they heard you revealing in your sleep that which, during your waking

netian tribunals obtained confessions from their prisoners. With an intuitive keenness of perception, he in a moment saw through the Proveditore's

their vigils with the wine flask," said he. "Their draughts must

eited; and, if you persist in your denials, you will never leave this dungeon but for the rack or scaffold. On the other hand, the senate respects you as a brave and honourable, although misguided man, and would gladly see you turn from the error of your ways. Now is the time to ensure yourself a tranquil and respected old age. Hearken to the proposals I am empowered to make you. The Signoria offers you life, freedom, and a

held out by the Proveditore seemed to ha

refore, if I wished it, buy my life by the treachery demanded of me; and if the woivodes of Segna think as I do, they will let the

lect. Your hair is silvered by time, and even should you escape your present peril, you will still, ere many years are past, have to render an account to a higher tribunal than ours. By an u

he Crescent bowed down to the dust. Those were the days when, on the ruins of Spalatro, we swore to live like eagles, amidst barren cliffs and naked rocks, the better to harass the heathen-the days when the power of the Moslem quailed and fled before us. And had not your sordid Venetian traders stepped in, courting the infidel for love of gain, the Cross would still be worshipped on all the shores of the Adriatic, and the Uzcoques would still combat for honour and victory instead of revenge and plunder. But your hand has ever been against us. Your long

a degree of cold reserve and cunning which had baffled his examiners, was becoming visibly excited, and losing his power of self-control. This was

fact the worst foe, he who openly attacks you, or he who makes you his tool to sow discord amongst Christians, and to excite t

that?" demande

for the shelter you receive from Austria? At what

t with the Emperor, as soldiers of the Archduke, bound to defend the post confided to us against t

awful and unlawful, are wrested from you by the archducal counsellors, in whose hands you are mere puppets. 'Twas they who prompted you to tell the Turks that you were in league with Venice; that the republic encouraged your misdeeds, and shared the p

emed about to fly at his interlocutor; his fingers clutched and tore the straw upon which he was sitting; and his fetters clanked as his whole frame

r wrath, for we are freemen and brook no tyranny. If we are poor individually, it is because we yield up our booty into the hands of our woivodes, to be used for the common good of seven hundred families. No, Signor! if the republic has to complain of us, let her remember the provocations received at her hands, the persecutions which convert

c market-place of the Austrian town of Segna, that you were the friends and allies of Venice? This

ge and significant gleam as the Proveditore

ngeance against the republic. And when did it occur?" he continued with rising fury. "Was it not shortly after the day in which that heartless villain, the

as he concluded. The Proveditore smiled. The favourable moment he had been waiting had arrived, the moment when he doubted not that Dansowich would betray himself. Taking Antonio's d

"Does that resemble

ned, but he had not well calculated a

er!" And bounding forward with a violence that at once freed him from his fetters, which fell clattering on the dungeon floor, he clut

pe that threatened to prove as efficacious and nearly as speedy in its operation as the bow-string of the Turk. In vain did Marcello struggle violently to free himself from the crushing pressure of the pirate's fingers. Although a very powerful man, and in the full vigour of his strength, the disadvantage at which he had been taken

at the guards were disposed to handle the Uzcoque somewhat roughly; "the secret

ad been effected was sought for and discovered, and the prisoner, having been doubly manacled, was again left to the solitude of his cell. After directing al