The conscious waterman swept the water with a back stroke of his blade, and the light gondola whirled away into the centre of the vacant spot, like a swan giving a sudden glance aside. "And who art thou?" demanded the official of the next that came. "Enrico, a gondolier of Fusina. I come to try my oar with the braggarts of the canals." "In whom is thy trust?" "Sant' Antonio di Padua?" "Thou wilt need his aid, though we commend thy spirit. Enter, and take place."--"And who art thou?" he continued, to another, when the second had imitated the easy skill of the first. "I am called Gino of Calabria, a gondolier in private service." "What noble retaineth thee?" "The illustrious and most excellent Don Camillo Monforte, Duca and Lord of Sant' Agata in Napoli, and of right a senator in Venice." "Thou should'st have come of Padua, friend, by thy knowledge of the laws! Dost thou trust in him thou servest for the victory?" There was a movement among the senators at the answer of Gino; and the half-terrified varlet thought he perceived frowns gathering on more than one brow. He looked around in quest of him whose greatness he had vaunted, as if he sought succor. "Wilt thou name thy support in this great trial of force?" resumed the herald. "My master," uttered the terrified Gino, "St. Januarius, and St. Mark." "Thou art well defended. Should the two latter fail thee, thou mayest surely count on the first!" "Signor Monforte has an illustrious name, and he is welcome to our Venetian sports," observed the Doge, slightly bending his head towards the young Calabrian noble, who stood at no great distance in a gondola of state, regarding the scene with a deeply-interested countenance. This cautious interruption of the pleasantries of the official was acknowledged by a low reverence, and the matter proceeded. "Take thy station, Gino of Calabria, and a happy fortune be thine," said the latter; then turning to another, he asked in surprise--"Why art thou here?" "I come to try my gondola's swiftness." "Thou art old, and unequal to this struggle; husband thy strength for daily toil. An ill-advised ambition hath put thee on this useless trial." The new aspirant had forced a common fisherman's gondola, of no bad shape, and of sufficient lightness, but which bore about it all the vulgar signs of its daily uses, beneath the gallery of the Bucentaur. He received the reproof meekly, and was about to turn his boat aside, though with a sorrowing and mortified eye, when a sign from the Doge arrested his arm. "Question him, as of wont," said the prince. "How art thou named?" continued the reluctant official, who, like all of subordinate condition, had far more jealousy of the dignity of the sports he directed, than his superior. "I am known as Antonio, a fisherman of the Lagunes." "Thou art old!" "Signore, none know it better than I. It is sixty summers since I first threw net or line into the water."