RETRIBUTION. 157 



Marco as its passenger, and, strange as it might seem, the 

 two seamen (who, after the unhappy father, had been the 

 first discoverers of the murder,) had also been permitted to 

 sail without their evidence being taken. Concerning the 

 manner of poor Bianca's death there was of course much 

 talking, much surmise, even a slight mockery of investiga- 

 tion ; but the matter was soon hushed up. 



Murders at Genoa, if not quite so common as at the rival 

 city Venice, were of no rare occurrence ; and the voice, espe- 

 cially of plebeian blood, was too often, as elsewhere, accus- 

 tomed to cry unheeded from the ground. Nor in the case of 

 Bianca was there any one to sue for the justice not likely to 

 have been obtained ; for her old father, her only relative and 

 only friend, was now helpless, almost heedless as a child, and 

 so remained, till, in a few months, he slept beside her. Marco 

 never returned to Genoa, and fell in battle a few years after, 

 having taken service in the army of the French, at that time 

 allies and almost masters of the once proud Kepublic. And 

 the miserable Beatrice! what became of her? Never did 

 detected culprit, condemned by man's erring judgment to give 

 up life for life, suffer a penalty so dread as her's. The rank 

 and power which had served to shield her from public con- 

 demnation, did not stifle private suspicion: and though to 

 breathe a name like her's in conjunction with a deed of mur- 

 der, was more, perhaps, than any inhabitant of Genoa, noble 

 or plebeian, would have dared to do, yet on the city walls, 



