I know the boat." "Poor Jacopo! what a curse is a tender conscience! Thou hast been kind to me in my need, and if prayers from a sincere heart can do thee service, thou shalt not want them." "Antonio!" cried the other, causing his boat to whirl away, and then pausing an instant like a man undecided--"I can stay no longer--trust them not--they are false as fiends--there is no time to lose--I must away." The fisherman murmured an ejaculation of pity, as he waved a hand in adieu.
"Holy St.Anthony, watch over my own child, lest he come to some such miserable life!" he added, in an audible prayer--"There hath been good seed cast on a rock, in that youth, for a warmer or kinder heart is not in man.

That one like Jacopo should live by striking the assassin's blow!" The near approach of the strange gondola now attracted the whole attention of the old man.

It came swiftly towards him, impelled by six strong oars, and his eye turned feverishly in the direction of the fugitive.

Jacopo, with a readiness that necessity and long practice rendered nearly instinctive, had taken a direction which blended his wake in a line with one of those bright streaks that the moon drew on the water, and which, by dazzling the eye, effectually concealed the objects within its width.

When the fisherman saw that the Bravo had disappeared, he smiled and seemed at ease.
"Aye, let them come here," he said; "it will give Jacopo more time.