daughter of the Ragusan Senator Volutich. Butbefore Zuan had reached Ragusa to make his visit of ceremony and seehis prospective bride, the girl, riding with her women a little waybeyond the land gate of the town, had been stolen by brigands. Suchthings were by no means extraordinary. Nothing had been heard of hersince, save that, a fortnight after her capture, a letter, couched inmost insulting terms, had come to Ragusa from the Princess Yaga, thatinfamous favorite of the ban, saying that the girl was in her householdand somewhat preferred it to her former home.
"It's beyond bearing!" said young Zuan again, and he was so angry thathis voice shook. Then, after the two had for a moment stared into eachother's eyes, he threw out his hands with a little laugh of sheerexasperation.
"But what can we do?" he cried. "Madonna Santissima, what can we do?With this war upon our hands the council will never consent to sendingaid to Arbe, which is, after all, of importance to only a few families."
"They _must_ consent!" said the doge, fiercely. "I will not lose Arbe!Look you! Who are the families concerned? Loredan, Morosini, Dandolo,Celsi, Venier, Contarini, Corner. All of them members of the Ten. Iwill see them, and, among us, we shall be able to arrange it. The thingmust remain a private matter. We who love Arbe must go to Arbe's aidunofficially. Three galleys will suffice. They must leave to-night,and the council must not know of it until after they have sailed."
Young Zuan looked up with a certain awe, for the scheme, when oneconsidered the state of internal affairs in Venice at that time, wasalmost madness.
"It is a desperate plan," he said, gravely. "You must feel very deeplyto risk such a scheme, after the Faliero affair."
Old Giovanni Gradenigo beat his yellow hand upon the table before him,and once again the two spots of color came out upon his sunken cheeks.
"I will not lose Arbe!" he cried for the third time. "Leave the riskand the arrangements to me. As for you, Zuan, you must go at the headof the expedition. I want a Gradenigo to rescue my island, and you arethe only one of the house who is experienced in warfare."
"Oh yes, of course I should go," said Zuan. "I have the best right."He rose to take his leave. "I shall have a busy day of it," he said,"but I can have the three galleys ready before midnight, and secretlyat that. I shall take Il Lupo with me. He is very faithful and a betterman than I. When shall I come to you for instructions and authority? Imust have authority to clear the galleys, of course."
"Come to-night when I send for you," said the doge. "Everything shallbe ready for you." He had sunk wearily back in his great chair oncemore, and all signs of life had faded from his face. It seemed to hisnephew that he looked more than ever like a dead man. He raised onefeeble hand a little way as if in sign of dismissal, but the handdropped back upon the carved wood of the chair-arm with a sort of dryrattle, and Zuan left him so, still, silent, deathly, with the bars ofcolored light from the high window slanting across his velvet robes inbillets and lozenges of vert and gules and azure.
* * * * *
The three galleys which slipped gently out of the canal of the Giudeccathat night bore southward before a favoring maestrale. Of one galleyyoung Zuan Gradenigo held the command, of another the German called IlLupo, and of the third a Venetian captain whose name does not matter.By noon of the next day they were off Lussin Grande, and hove to, wellout of sight of land, to await the darkness. They saw during the daynothing to disturb them. No ship passed save a Venetian fishing-boator two, high-prowed and with colored triangular sails painted withsome device; also, in the afternoon, three great trabacoli south boundfrom Trieste or Pola, bluff-bowed craft, with hawse-ports painted torepresent ferocious eyes.
Towards evening the maestrale died away, as it so often does inthese waters, and from the south a sirocco arose, bringing a rackof clouds over the sky and a heavy dampness to the air. Before darkit was freshening fast and a fine rain was beginning to drive. Thethree galleys pitched and plunged heavily in the mounting sea. YoungGradenigo signalled to the two other ships, and, leading the wayhimself, ran for the southern point of Lussin. He knew that, oncewithin the shelter of the islands and scoglie, he would be well outof danger, for there is never a sea there, even though a storm may beraging outside.
By the time he reached the tranquil shelter between Lussin and Pagothe night had fallen, black dark. It rained in spells, but once in awhile the driving rack overhead parted for a moment and a flash ofmoonlight came down. Young Zuan ordered the galley brought to, andwaited for one of these momentary floods of light. The light came,touching with silver the great, tumbling seas outside the barrier reef,but the seas were empty. There were no galleys making for the southernpoint of Lussin. Gradenigo turned with an oath of surprise to the oldsailing-master who stood beside him, sheltering his eyes from the windwith one brown hand.
"They have been driven northward," he said. "They'll have to runbetween Cherso and the main-land and beat south again by Veglia." Thesailing-master shook his head gloomily.
"It is a bad night, lord," said he. "That sea will be hell in anotherhour." And he moved off forward to give orders to his men.
There seemed nothing for it but to go on, and, in the sheltered coveat the north of Arbe, where the disembarkment was to take pace, awaitthe other ships. Young Zuan felt no great anxiety over them; he wassure that they had merely been driven northward, and would have toround Cherso, and then make their way down again through the sheltered"canal" between that island and Veglia. His only fear was that theymight not reach Arbe before morning, in which case the relief of thecity--granting always that the ban's expedition had already occupiedit--would have to be delayed until another night.
He put about again, and, running before the strong sirocco (the wind,of course, reaches these sheltered waters, somewhat abated, thoughthere is no sea), made out the lights of Arbe within two hours. Inanother hour, leaving the galley well to the west of the island andhidden in the gloom, he was in a skiff, rowed by two strong sailor-men,creeping round the walls of the city.
Now it has been said that the city occupies a southward-jutting clawof rock. The villas and streets, indeed, crowd to the very edge of thenarrow ridge. On the western side the sea-wall, a hundred feet high,rises sheer from the water, and is continued upward by the walls ofthe buildings. Eastward, however, round the point, the land slopeslower, and here is a sheltered cove in the crook of the rocky claw,with a mole and landing-place of hewn stone. Upon the landing-placeopens a public square.
Young Zuan in his skiff crept round the point, and, always underthe shelter of the sea-wall, into the still harbor where was thelanding-place. Fifty yards from the point where the sea-wall dropped tothe water's level and the open square began, he halted. From the wallnear by lion heads of carved stone projected, and in each beast's mouthhung a great bronze ring for mooring ships. One of the two sailor-menlaid hold of a ring and held the skiff steady, and Zuan rose to hisfeet to look.
Far over his head the wind--driving a thin rain before it oncemore--shrieked and whistled past the roofs of Arbe, and flapped the gayawnings which hung over the marble balconies. Once, above the wind'snoise, a woman's shriek rose and held and then died suddenly. Beyond,in the open square, a great fire blazed on the flags, and hurrying menin strange dress threw armfuls of fuel upon it. Others held hands anddanced about the fire in a ring, like devils, singing a weird and wildchant. It was a fine chant and stirring, and these Huns sang it well,but to young Zuan Gradenigo's ears it was the baying of unclean dogs.
He dropped back upon the thwart of his skiff with a sobbing curse. Theban's Magyar strumpet was set where the ban had sworn to set her.
"Row to the galley!" he said, and as the two sailor-men bent to theirwork, standing at their oars gondolier fashion, and the skiff leapedforward through the wet gloom, he laid his face in his hands and ittwisted and worked bitterly. He was by no means a coward, and he wasnot a particularly imaginative man, but the picture of that leapingfire and the leaping, chanting devils about it persisted before hiseyes, and he look
ed forward to the struggle which was to come, and anodd premonition of disaster took possession of him and would not bedriven away.
In the tiny sheltered cove of rendezvous, two miles above the city,they anchored the galley and disembarked. There is a rocky headlandbeside the cove, high at its outer end, and here certain trustyofficers took their station, with lanterns muffled in their cloaks, towatch for the approach of the other two ships. Young Zuan went withina deserted fisherman's hut which stood where wood and beach met, andthere held council with his sailing-master and his chief lieutenant. Hewas still strong in the belief that Il Lupo's ship and the other weresafe and would arrive in a few hours--it was by now somewhat aftermidnight--but the old sailing-master again shook a gloomy head. He hadserved Venice for forty years on
The Island of Enchantment Page 2
