368 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



feet, enjoying, with many thanks to Allah, the fresh 

 air of heaven and the consciousness of escape from 

 captivity. The gates of the palace gardens being un- 

 guarded during the festival, the liberated prisoners 

 reached the coast without an obstacle, compelled a 

 fisherman to take them in his bark across the Adriatic, 

 and land them on the Lido, which forms the outward 

 limit of the port of Venica Then making free with 

 an unwatched gondola, they sped across the bay, and 

 were soon in safety, beneath the roof of a Turkish 

 trader and correspondent of Hassan. 



Before their escape was discovered on the following 

 morning, the indignant Proveditore had departed for 

 Venice, and Strasolda had disappeared. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE. 



The time occupied by the events detailed in the 

 preceding chapters had been passed by Antonio 

 in a state of self -exile from his master's studio. 

 Conscious of having disobeyed the earnest injunc- 

 tions of Contarini, the weakness of his character 

 withheld him alike from confessing his fault, and 

 from encountering the penetrating gaze of the old 

 painter. Neglecting thus his usual occupation, ho 

 passed his days in his gondola, wandering about the 



