THE PIRATES OF SEGNA. 369 



canals in the hope of again meeting with the mysteri- 

 ous being who had made such an impression on his 

 excitable fancy. Hitherto all his researches had been 

 fruitless ; but although day after day passed without 

 his finding the smallest trace of her he sought, his 

 repeated disappointments seemed only to increase the 

 obstinacy with which he continued the search. 



The incognita not only engrossed all his waking 

 thoughts, but she still haunted him in his dreams. 

 Scarcely a night passed that her wrinkled counte- 

 nance did not hover round his pillow, now partially 

 shrouded by the ample veil, then again fully exposed 

 and apparently exulting in its unearthly ugliness ; or 

 else peering at him from behind the drapery that 

 covered the walls of his apartment. In vain did he 

 attempt to address the vision, or to follow it as it grad- 

 ually receded and finally melted away into distance. 



It was from a dream of this description that he 

 was one morning awakened by his faithful gondolier 

 Jacopo. The sun was shining brightly through his 

 chamber windows, and he heard an unusual degree 

 of noise and bustle upon the canal without. 



" Up, signer rnio ! " cried the gondolier joyously, 

 and with a mixture of respect and affectionate famili- 

 arity in his tone and manner. " Up, Signor Antonio ! 

 You were not wont to over-sleep yourself on the day 

 of the Bridge Fight. All Venice is hastening thither. 

 Quick, quick ! or we shall never be able to make 

 our way through the press of gondolas." 



