IL BANCOLO. 427 
ward by my love of mankind. Judge, Sir, therefore, if I can shrink 
at a single voyage, the object of which is the deliverance of all our 
unhappy brethren.” ‘Meet me, then, next year,” said the son of 
the captive, “on the evening of the day preceding Ash-Wednesday, 
at the palace of Orsini, in the Square of St. Mark, at Venice; you 
will find me there. Remember, my reverend father, that the fate of 
our brethren in Africa depends on your punctuality.” 
After having again tenderly embraced the excellent Father of 
Mercy, the elder and the younger Bancolo bade adieu to him, and 
departed. A splendid equipage awaited them at the door of the con- 
vent, and bore them rapidly towards Italy. 
On the evening of Shrove Tuesday the following year, the Theatre 
of Fenici, at Venice, presented an appearance the most splendid that 
imagination can conceive. The eight ranks of boxes were filled by 
spectators, who comprised all that was most distinguished in Italy 
for youth, for beauty, opulence, and rank. The dazzling lustre dif- 
fused by twenty-five thousand lamps of silver, heightened by the re- 
flection of diamonds, rubies, pearls, amethysts, and bracelets of virgin 
gold, produced an effect so striking that it seemed that all Italy, as 
with one consent, had met that night at the Theatre of Fenici, with 
the design of uniting in one spot the highest effect of every art. The 
Roman ladies might be known by the distinctness of their features, 
and the Bolognians by the loveliness of the exquisite smile which 
perpetually played upon the countenance and irradiated the expres- 
sion; the Milan lady might be recognized by the slender beauty of her 
waist ; the Neapolitan, by the ardent fervour beaming from her eye ; 
the Mantuan, by the transparent whiteness of her skin; the Floren- 
tine, by the glossy blackness of her hair ; and the Venetian, by the 
graceful bend of her recumbent figure. Amongst the spectators 
might be seen scions of many of the most illustrious families of both 
ancient and modern Italy: the descendants of Gracchus, Scipio, 
Sforce, and Medici, the successors of Michael Angelo, of Titian, of 
Caravages and Bernin, were on that evening united in the Theatre of 
Fenici. All that was most illustrious in science, the arts, in rank, in 
office, in political power and intellectual greatness, was here assem- 
bled by Pleasure, that gentle and benificent goddess, whose power is 
recognized throughout the world, and who on that evening, from her 
throne of sapphires, where she was supported by her attendants, Fa- 
shion and Good Taste, diffused her gracious influences over this en- 
chanted paradise. 
The picturesque and poetic costumes which, at an early period of 
