Only--if it be not granted,
they shall make a stand at the traghetti and _fight_----"
"Padrone, yes!"
"For--thou dost mark me, Antonio?--this Lady of the Giustiniani hath
been a saint among the people; she hath given them much in gifts--she
hath given almost her life in prayers and penances, that heaven may
avert its wrath from Venice, which she in truth believeth the Holy
Father--may the saints make him suffer for it!--hath brought upon the
people by his curse--may heaven forbid! And she, being now noble, hath
preferred the cause of the _people_ to the cause of the _nobles_, and
bringeth upon her the displeasure of the Signoria by her flight to
Rome. For--see it well, Antonio!--if the Senate hold the Lady of the
Giustiniani for fault in this,"--Piero paused and uttered the last words
with a slow, mysterious emphasis, while Antonio listened with an
intensity that missed no shading of meaning,--"_it will be the cause of
the people against the nobles_."
"If they harm her not," he resumed in his usual tone, after a moment's
pause, "my fate shall be avenged in the judgment and command of the
bancali of the Nicolotti only.
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