Perhaps no one had noticed those gondoliers! Only Father
Gianmaria, the Superior, and the Senator Giustinian Giustiniani, the
Chief of the Ten, were stern and angry; and Fra Paolo stood between
them--calm and inscrutable as ever.
Now, thought Fra Antonio, before the curiosity of the friars had been
satisfied,--while no one was thinking of him,--he must escape! But at
every passage leading out of the court a scarlet coat stood guard, save
only before the low doorway of the dormitory stair. Fra Giulio's eyes
were fixed earnestly, adoringly, upon his beloved Fra Paolo, and he had
moved a little way from the wall.
Fra Antonio stole softly in behind him, breathlessly anxious. He was
already under the archway when his unsteady foot stumbled in a hollow of
the worn brick pavement just within the opening--in another moment he
should be safe! But a voice, meant for him alone, leaped through all
that crowd and petrified him with horror; it was filled with a sarcastic
grace as it offered the courtesy.
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