"Aye! Sire!" cried the youthful student of church history. "I shall do my best to free your capital from these invaders. May the God of Hosts be with us! My men salute you." So saying the valiant youth led his small and ill drilled company against the besiegers, and, so greatly did he harass his adversaries, that they abandoned the enterprise, at the end of six months; made peace; and retired. "Hail to Zeno!" cried many of the soldiers. "He is a leader well worth our respect. Without him the great city would have surely fallen. Yea! Hail to young Zeno." These words of praise reached the ears of a certain Greek Knight named Simon, and so roused his envy, that he audaciously accused Carlo of treachery, which was soon told to the hot-headed young warrior. He acted as one would well expect of him. "I challenge you to single combat," cried he. "The duel shall be fought in Naples under the eye of Queen Johanna." In vain Carlo's friends besought him to forgive the loose-tongued Simon--his patron, the Bishop, exhausted his eloquence in the endeavor to reconcile the two. The hot blood of youth would out. It was fight and no compromise. But before the trial, the bold and unyielding soldier threw up his position with the Church and married a rich and noble lady of Clarenta, whose fortune well supplanted the large income which he had forfeited by his resignation. Now honor called for deeds. Almost immediately he was obliged to leave for Naples in order to meet the detractor of his valor, and, to his surprise, the Queen spoke lightly of the quarrel. "It is a question of law," said she. "An inquiry shall be had. There must be no bloodshed." An inquiry was therefore in order, and it was a thorough one. "Simon is in the wrong," said the fellow acting as clerk for those sitting upon the case. "He must pay all the expenses to which Zeno has been put, and there shall be no duel." "My honor has been cleared," cried Zeno. "I must return to Greece." There--strange as it might seem--he was at once named Governor of a province, though not yet twenty-three. Events were going well with him. But his wife died, he was cheated of his dowry by her relations, and so he turned once more to Venice,--saddened, older and nearly penniless. The wheel of fortune had turned badly for this leader of fighting men and future general of white-winged galleons of the sea. But now there was a really good fight--such a fight as all true sailors love--a fight which tested the grit and courage of Zeno to the full. It was the first of those heroic deeds of arms which shed undying lustre on his name, and marked him as a seaman of the first rank,--a captain of true courage, resources and ambition.