"And Gabriele--"
"Fash not thyself for a man of his measure, that is fitter to 'beat the
fishes' like a galley-slave than to serve an honest gondola!" Piero
interrupted scornfully.
"But Piero, Gabriele hath sold his license to one worse than he, and
there was great talk of quarrels along the Riva, and how that yesterday
they sent for Padre Gervasio from San Gregorio to bring the Host to
quiet them."
"Ah, the Castellani!" said Piero, with the contempt that was always
ready for any mention of this great rival faction of the people whose
division into one or other of these factions was absolute.
"But the Nicolotti have their scandal also," Marina asserted,
uncompromisingly; "among themselves it is told they break the laws like
men not bound by vows! Some say there will be an appeal to the
Consiglio."
"Nay," said Piero, with an ominous frown; "the _bancali_ and _gastaldi_
are enough; we need no bossing by crimson robes."
This question of the traghetti and their abuses had lately grown to
large proportions among the people, and it possessed a deep interest for
all classes quite apart from the antiquity and picturesqueness of these
honorable institutions of the Republic--since all must use the ferries
and wish for safety in their water-streets.
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