XXVI
Fra Paolo was fast becoming a centre of romance, so many were the attempts from suspicious quarters to manage private interviews which the Senate had thought necessary to frustrate; and the fact that he was known to have declined the escort of guards which the Senate urged upon him as means of safety endowed him with a sort of heroic halo in the eyes of the lesser multitude. \"Fate largo a Fra Paolo,\" they called in the Merceria if the people pressed him too closely—\"Make way for Fra Paolo!\"—and a strange youthfulness, as of satisfied affections, was beginning to grow upon his calm face. He had had no cravings, feeling that duty sufficed; yet, through this absolute yielding of himself to express the message with which his life was charged, his heart had warmed within him, and now, unsought, the people loved him, magnifying the interest of every minor happening of his life and zealously gathering anecdotes of the days before he was great.
A group of his brother friars were strolling back and forth under the fretted colonnades of the greater court of the Servi one evening before vespers, a glow of relish on their genial, cowled faces, rehearsing the tale of Fra Paolo''''s unconventional slippers; for it was the hour of small gossip, and the day had been warm.
\"They were scarlet, like an eminence''''s,\" explained Fra Giulio, who had secured this choice bit for the entertainment of his special cronies; \"for all colors are one to Fra Paolo, who hath no distinction for trifles.\"
\"Because he spendeth himself in scheming for honors that belong elsewhere,\" interposed a disaffected brother who had strolled up and joined the group uninvited; he belonged to another chapter of the Servi, and had but recently come among them; honors had passed him by and duties attracted him less, and he had made no friends within the convent, though he professed great interest in all that concerned Fra Paolo, and had even offered to wait upon him in chapel or in his cell.
\"Thou, Fra Antonio, seek thine own friends!\" Fra Giulio retorted, with unusual asperity; \"for this tale is too good for thine hearing, being another triumph for Fra Paolo in the days when he was only a frate of the Servi.\"
\" Ebbene , and then?\" urged the eager auditors, crowding around the speaker, for the incongruity of the grave padre, in his frayed and rusty gown attempting to usurp a decoration, lent interest to the petty happening.
\" Ebbene , and then his Eminence of Borromeo—for it seemeth that only the illustrious play parts in this farce\"—Fra Giulio continued with keen enjoyment, \"his Eminence of Borromeo hath explained at Rome that Fra Paolo was innocent of contempt of rule.\"
\"Verily, the fault might have been counted to one who hath no sins of the body to atone for!\" sneered Fra Antonio, who could not be converted to the prevailing tone of admiration for this abnormal being who walked among them not as other men, and toward whom his own attitude was a singular compound of obsequiousness and cynicism. \"Even the slippers of your saint can do no wrong,\" he added venomously.
\"But thou, in canonized shoes, couldst walk but wearily, Fra Antonio, lest they should lead thee in unwonted ways!\" one of the party retorted maliciously.
\"Fra Paolo hath fear of no man, and that which he declareth he knoweth,\" said another of the frati, lowering his voice and glancing about him furtively. \"And it hath chanced to him, more than once, to be wiser than the Serenissimo and the Ten themselves—may San Marco have other uses for his ears! But the day that our famous Signor Bragadin was summoned from his palace on the Giudecca to make his promised gold for the Signoria, I stood with the crowd in the Merceria to see him pass, with his two black dogs and their golden collars looking for all the world like powers of evil! And our gold-maker himself going to the Senate like a noble, with his friends the Cornaro and the Dandolo in crimson robes—the people thronging to see him pass!\"
\"Ay, Bragadin was a saintly man!\" one of them retorted mockingly. \"Dost remember the tale how that he fooled the worshipful Signoria to leave him a week in peace, that he might take the blessed sacrament quietly, finding therein ''''a holy joy'''' that should fit him to proceed to the service of Venice—looking, meanwhile, for means of escape?\"
\" Davvero ! but this was the hour of his highest favor, and I followed with the rest of the crowd till there was scarce breathing space under the clock tower, where the Magi were just coming forth to salute the Madonna and the Bambino at the stroke of the day; and the people were shouting so one could not hear the bell for cries of ''''Gold! gold! Bragadin!''''
\"We surged back against the doorway of the ''''Nave d''''Oro,'''' the people struggling with each other lest they should lose the sight as he passed through the Piazza, and suddenly there came a voice,—cold, and scornful, and low, but no man lost the words,—''''Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee!'''' The people stopped their pushing and looked aghast to see who spake, but I could have sworn it was Fra Paolo''''s voice. I caught a glimpse of him standing quietly just inside the ''''Nave d''''Oro,'''' while the other signori who go there to ridotto were out in the Merceria to see the show; and I made haste away lest the crowd should object to my habit for being like Fra Paolo''''s—they were so crazy for Bragadin, following in the footsteps of the Signoria, like good Venetians!\"
\"Who told the saying to the Signoria, when it might have crushed Fra \"It may well have been his Excellency the Signor Donato, who was of the Council in those days, but a man too strong to have a mind to the folly of the others, and who walked about the chamber giving sign of much displeasure while Bragadin made his gold. And the next day Fra Paolo is commanded before the Signoria to meet the Provveditor of the Mint—being the only man who hath dared speak his mind before the Signoria had proved the worthlessness of Bragadin''''s promise. And our fine gold-maker exchangeth his palace for a prison; for the test of the crucible is all too easy for Fra Paolo, who speaketh naught that he knoweth not.\"
\"Santa Maria! here cometh the ''''bride,''''\" some one exclaimed warningly; for none of Fra Paolo''''s friends had the courage for frivolity in his grave presence, harmless as it might appear in his absence, and this watchword was often heard in the cloister as he approached.
He was conversing earnestly with his secretary, Fra Fulgenzio, evidently on business of the Senate, having remained in the convent all day, contrary to his usual custom; Fra Fulgenzio had been to and fro with messages, and once had returned from the Ducal Palace escorting several grave personages who had gone to Fra Paolo''''s cell for some conference, which gave rise to pleasant comment in the convent—since the Serenissimo could not dispense with the personal service of its Consultore for a single day, and every honor shown to Fra Paolo was dear to the hearts of the Servi.