It was three days since the storm, and the gastaldo had not yet been released, he also was simply detained, without ignominy or discomfort in rooms set apart for prisoners of State before they had been brought to trial; for the events of these days had been too absorbing to permit of an examination of his case. And now, in the gray dawn which broke upon that night of anxiety and excitement, alternating between hope and fear as frequent messengers, each guarded by a detachment of palace guards, appeared with fresh news from the convent, the weary senators strolled up and down in the great chambers opening on the sea façade of the Ducal Palace discussing the event in a more desultory way—its meaning, its dangers, the achievements of the great man who might, even now, be receiving the viaticum in the convent of the Servi.
He was first named with terms of endearment strange upon the lips of that stately assembly—\"Il caro Padre,\" \"Teologo amato di Venezia\"—yet the guards had failed to seize those villains who lay in wait at the Ponte della Pugna! The bridges and traghetti must be closely watched.—Ah—the gastaldo grande!
\"Hath one yet been named Condottiere for this frontier service?\" questioned one of the older senators, among a group of the more important men who had detached themselves from the others and strolled out into the great loggia on the sea façade for a reviving breath of the morning air. \"For such an employ there is none like Piero Salin for daring and intrigue; and the assassins may linger long in hiding on the route to Rome.\"
And so they first remembered Piero in these crowded days and discussed his fault with a degree of leniency that would have been foreign to the traditions of Venice had he not been needed for important secret service.
Meanwhile, Fra Paolo was still the theme among the senators at large in the Council Chamber. \"Il miracolo del suo secolo,\" they called him, as they rehearsed the opinions of the learned men of their age in every field of science.
\"It cannot be from knowledge, acquired as all men learn, that he taketh this position in such varied sciences,\" said the Senator Morosini; \"for a life-time doth suffice to few men for such attainment in one field as he hath reached in all. It must be that the marvel of his mind doth hold some central truth which maketh all science cognate.\"
\"Else were he not ''''friend and master'''' to Galileo of Padua.\"
\"And it is told that Acquapendente, who hath been summoned by the Signoria to bestow his skill, hath learned of him some matters which he taught in the medical school of Bologna. The world hath not his equal for learning.\"
\"By the blessed San Marco!\" ejaculated one under his breath, who had been idly leaning on the balustrade, as he crossed himself and looked furtively around to note whether he had been overheard.
But the others of the group, keenly alive to danger, had instantly joined him.
\"Was this some new intrigue?\" \"Was the night not already full with horror?\" they questioned of each other, thrilled with dread and superstition.
Dawn was growing over the water, and the gray and oily surface of the lagoon was closely dotted with gondolas, distinct and black in the morning twilight; they came sweeping on from San Nicolò and Castello—black and red, breast to breast—gathering impetus as they neared the Piazzetta, in numbers which must have left every traghetto of Venice deserted; Nicolotti and Castellani— allies , since they never had been friends! It was some intrigue of the people, or some favor they had come to ask— to-day , when the Senate might not spare one thought for disorder among the masses!
Weary and overwrought, after their night of sorrowful labor, they looked at each other in consternation.
\"It is their gastaldo whom they are come to seek,\" a secretary of the Ten confided by inspiration to his Chief, as an old man, wearing the robe of a bancalo, was escorted from the landing by a band of gondoliers with black and crimson sashes, who disappeared under the entrance to the palace courtyard.
\"Let him be summoned and honorably discharged; he hath done no harm that may be compared with the disaffection of the traghetti.\"
\"Rather, let them receive him back, appointed by the Senate to honor, as Condottiere of the border forces\"; a second Chief hastened to respond, for the moment was grave, \"and the command will most excellently fit the gastaldo.\"
\"And for the Lady of the Giustiniani, it matters little—Rome or Venice,\" said an old senator, compassionately, as he followed his colleagues into the Council Chamber. \"She hath so spent herself in grieving that she knoweth naught. For the Senator Marcantonio hath vainly sought to teach her that the interdict hath been lifted; yet even this she comprehendeth not.\"
\"We are come, your Excellencies, for news of our Gastaldo Grande, whose presence is verily needful for the traghetti,\" said the white-haired bancalo, when an audience had been granted him.
\"How many of you have come as escort?\" the secretary questioned carelessly.
\"Eccellenza, we are enough,\" the bancalo answered fearlessly, and with a significant pause, \" to prove the will of the people—as well Nicolotti as Castellani . And to escort our Gastaldo Grande with honor, since it hath pleased your excellencies to receive him— as a guest —in the Ducal Palace.\"
He was the eldest of the officers of the traghetti, accustomed to respect, upheld by the united forces of the people; this man of the people and this mouthpiece of the nobles measured each other fearlessly as they looked into each other''''s faces—each coolly choosing his phrases to carry so much as the other might count wise.
\"It is well,\" said the secretary of the Ten, after a brief private conference with his Chiefs, \"that ye are come in numbers to do him honor. Since the Senate hath need of his brave service and hath named Piero Salin, for exigencies of the Republic, Condottiere, with honors and men of artillery to do him service.\"
And so it chanced, that because of the stress of the time, Piero Salin floated off in triumph to Murano, named General of the Border Forces, with secret orders from the Ten.