One would hardly have thought that a reasoning man in Zeno’s position would have worried his head with such foolishness. The insult might well have been the occasion of a righteous wrath and contempt, but that is all. Carlo, however, did not see it in that light, and, despite the protests of his more sensible friends and the pleadings of his Bishop, he challenged his traducer, and, by so doing, threw up his ecclesiastical ambitions and took the sword in perpetuity. Free now, and without friends, he lost no time in marrying a rich and noble lady who had fallen in love with him, at Chiavenna; her he left, after a short honeymoon, in order to meet Sir Simon, according to arrangement, at Naples. That kingdom being in its usual condition, it was no easy task to penetrate to its Capital or arrive there, even by sea, in anything like safety. But Carlo was not a person lightly to be deterred when the prospect of a fight was in question, and in due time he arrived in the presence of Queen Joanna, who had been selected as an umpire. But she, in the meanwhile, had come to the decision that it was a case for damages rather than for a duel, and, a court having sat upon it, the Greek was ordered to refund Carlo for his expenses. There being nothing else to keep him, he returned to his wife in Greece, where he was soon made governor of a province. Soon after his wife died, and he, being unable to retain her dowry, reëmbarked for Venice, where he struck out anew as a bachelor. It was not long, though, before he married again, and his second wife, the daughter of the Admiral, Marco Giustiniani, had a sufficiently large fortune to permit of his establishing himself as a merchant in the East. Either he must have left his wife behind on undertaking this expedition or else he sent her home later, for the adventures through which he passed at Constantinople would have been too risky, even for him, had he had any “incumbrances” with him. Constantinople, at that time, was in the hands of a usurper, Andronicus, who had deposed his father, Carlo Yhomuas. Now Carlo Yhomuas was a friend to Venice and had gone out of his way, while he was on the throne, to show favour to Zeno’s father. When it came to his ears that Zeno was in the city, it seemed to him that here was a chance to escape from his fortress and retake the crown, and that since the wife of his gaoler was an old “friend” of his, and still devoted to him, she would make an excellent go-between. It was no very desirable undertaking for a woman, since Andronicus had filled the court with spies, and discovery would mean certain torture and death; but she accomplished her mission, and Zeno, to whom such adventures were the salt of life, fell in with the idea instantly and joyfully.