DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0045
VENICE—THE BALBI PALACE.
25
lingering consent was wrung from Bianca, and it was
agreed that next day they should sail down the river,
and, landing at some point near his domains, proceed
thither as fast as possible.
The next morning was one of exquisite beauty.
Never was there a more cloudless sky or a brighter $un.
The blue waves of the Adriatic seemed bluer than ever
the river, with its banks clothed with trees and verdure,
was a perfect paradise. Embarked in a gallant gondola,
with a numerous train of domestics, the stranger and
Bianca sailed down towards Pisa; and when evening was
approaching, the lady half trembled as she saw, rising on
one side of the stream, the domains of which she had
once been duchess. At length they approached where,
from the rocks that frowned above, a descent of a hun-
dred steps, hewn in the solid stone, conducted to a broad
landing-place. At the sight of this spot the stranger
turned from Bianca, with whom he had been conversing,
and wound a bugle-horn that hung by his side. A strange
suspicion crossed the mind of the Lady di Gonzaga, as,
in reply to this sound, another of a precisely similar na-
ture was heard above, and a hundred men came tramping
down the rocky pass, fully armed and weaponed. Alas I
these suspicions were but too true The strangei’ caught
hold of her in one arm, as he drew his sword with the
other, and leaped on shore from the prow of the gondola.
Safe on the land, he flung Bianca to the newly-arrived
soldiers, with a command to load her with chains. “ Fare-
well!” he exclaimed to the domestics in the boat; “ and
back to Venice as fast as you can. There, if the Doge
asks you the reason of my conduct, tell him, that for a
25
lingering consent was wrung from Bianca, and it was
agreed that next day they should sail down the river,
and, landing at some point near his domains, proceed
thither as fast as possible.
The next morning was one of exquisite beauty.
Never was there a more cloudless sky or a brighter $un.
The blue waves of the Adriatic seemed bluer than ever
the river, with its banks clothed with trees and verdure,
was a perfect paradise. Embarked in a gallant gondola,
with a numerous train of domestics, the stranger and
Bianca sailed down towards Pisa; and when evening was
approaching, the lady half trembled as she saw, rising on
one side of the stream, the domains of which she had
once been duchess. At length they approached where,
from the rocks that frowned above, a descent of a hun-
dred steps, hewn in the solid stone, conducted to a broad
landing-place. At the sight of this spot the stranger
turned from Bianca, with whom he had been conversing,
and wound a bugle-horn that hung by his side. A strange
suspicion crossed the mind of the Lady di Gonzaga, as,
in reply to this sound, another of a precisely similar na-
ture was heard above, and a hundred men came tramping
down the rocky pass, fully armed and weaponed. Alas I
these suspicions were but too true The strangei’ caught
hold of her in one arm, as he drew his sword with the
other, and leaped on shore from the prow of the gondola.
Safe on the land, he flung Bianca to the newly-arrived
soldiers, with a command to load her with chains. “ Fare-
well!” he exclaimed to the domestics in the boat; “ and
back to Venice as fast as you can. There, if the Doge
asks you the reason of my conduct, tell him, that for a