conquered Istria and Dalmatia under the rule of Peter Urseolus the
Second,24 and how this ceremony had its origin in that conquest But if
old Falieri heeded not the song, so now his tales were lost upon the
Dogess. She sat with her mind completely wrapped up in the sweet sounds
which came floating along the sea. When the song came to an end her
eyes wore a strange far-off look, as if she were awakening from a
profound dream and striving to see and interpret the images which
sportively mocked her efforts to hold them fast. "_Senza amare, senza
amare, non puo consolare_," she whispered softly, whilst the tears
glistened like bright pearls in her heavenly eyes, and sighs escaped
her breast as it heaved and sank with the violence of her emotions.
Still smirking and smiling and talking away, the old man, with the
Dogess at his side, stepped out upon the balcony of his house near San
Giorgio Maggiore, without noticing that Annunciata stood at his side
like one in a dream, speechless, her tearful eyes fixed upon some far-
off land, whilst her heart was agitated by feelings of a singular and
mysterious character. A young man in gondolier's costume blew a blast
on a conch-shaped horn, till the sounds echoed far away over the sea.
At this signal another gondola drew near. Meanwhile an attendant
bearing a sunshade and a maid had approached the Doge and Dogess; and
thus attended they went towards the palace. The second gondola came to
shore, and from it stepped forth Marino Bodoeri and several other
persons, amongst whom were merchants, artists, nay people out of the
lowest classes of the populace even; and they followed the Doge.
Antonio could hardly wait until the following evening, since he hoped
then to have the desired message from his beloved Annunciata. At last--
at last the old woman came limping in, dropped panting into the arm-
chair, and clapped her thin bony hands together again and again,
crying. "Tonino, O Tonino! what in the world has happened to our dear
darling? When I went into her room, there she lay on the couch with her
eyes half closed, her pretty head resting on her arm, neither
slumbering nor awake, neither sick nor well. I approached her: 'Oh!
noble lady,' said I, 'what misfortune has happened to you? Does your
scarce-healed wound hurt you still?' But she looked at me, oh! with
such eyes, Antonio--I have never seen anything like them. And directly
I looked down into the humid moonlight that was in them, they withdrew
behind the dark clouds of their silken lashes. Then sighing a sigh that
came from the depths of her heart, she turned her lovely pale face to
the wall and whispered softly--so softly, but oh! so sadly! that I was
cut right to the heart, '_Amare--amare--ah! senza amare!_' I fetched a
little chair and sat down beside her, and began to talk about you. She
buried herself in the cushions; and her breathing, coming quicker and
quicker and quicker, turned to sighing. I told her candidly that you
had been in the gondola disguised, and that I would now at once without
delay take you, who were dying of love and longing, to see her. Then
she suddenly started up from the cushions, and whilst the scalding
tears streamed down her cheeks, she exclaimed vehemently, 'For God's
sake! By all the Holy Saints! no--no--I cannot see him, old woman. I
conjure you, tell him he is never--never again to come near me--never.
Tell him he is to leave Venice, to go away at once!' 'So then you will
let my poor Antonio die?' I interposed. Then she sank back upon the
cushions, apparently smarting from the most unutterable anguish, and
her voice was almost choked with tears as she sobbed out, 'Shall not I
also die the bitterest of deaths?' At this point old Falieri entered
the room, and at a sign from him I had to withdraw." "She has rejected
me--away--away into the sea!" cried Antonio, giving way to utter
despair. The old woman chuckled and laughed in her usual way, and went
on, "You simple child! you simple child! don't you see that lovely
Annunciata loves you with all the intensity, with all the agonised love
of which a woman's heart is capable? You simple boy! Late to-morrow
evening slip into the Ducal Palace; you will find me in the second
gallery on the right from the great staircase, and then we will see
what's to be done."
The following evening as Antonio, trembling with expectant happiness,
stole up the great staircase, his conscience suddenly smote him, as
though he were about to commit some great crime. He was so dazed, and
he trembled and shook so, that he was scarcely able to climb the
stairs. He had to stop and rest by leaning himself against a column
immediately in front of the gallery that had been indicated to him. All
at once he was plunged in the midst of a bright glare of torches, and
before he could move from the place old Bodoeri stood in front of him,
accompanied by some servants, who bore the torches. Bodoeri fixed his
eyes upon the young man, and then said, "Ha! you are Antonio; you have
been assigned this post, I know; come, follow me." Antonio, convinced
that his proposed interview with the Dogess was betrayed, followed, not
without trembling. But imagine his astonishment when, on entering a
remote room, Bodoeri embraced him and spoke of the importance of the
post that had been assigned to him, and which he would have to maintain
with courage and firm resolution that very night. But his amazement
increased to anxious fear and dismay when he learned that a conspiracy
had been long ripening against the Seignory, and that at the head of it
was the Doge himself. And this was the night in which, agreeably to the
resolutions come to in Falieri's house on Giudecca, the Seignory was to
fall and old Marino Falieri was to be proclaimed sovereign Duke of
Venice.
Antonio stared at Bodoeri without uttering a word; Bodoeri interpreted
the young man's silence as a refusal to take part in the execution of
the formidable conspiracy, and he cried incensed, "You cowardly fool!
You shall not leave this palace again; you shall either take up arms on
our side or die--but talk to this man first" A tall and noble figure
stepped forward from the dark background of the apartment. As soon as
Antonio saw the man's face, which he could not do until he came into
the light of the torches, and recognised it, he threw himself upon his
knees and cried, completely losing his presence of mind at seeing him
whom he never dreamt of seeing again, "O good God! my father, Bertuccio
Nenolo! my dear foster-parent." Nenolo raised the young man up, clasped
him in his arms, and said in a gentle voice, "Aye, of a verity I am
Bertuccio Nenolo, whom you perhaps thought lay buried at the bottom of
the sea, but I have only quite recently escaped from my shameful
captivity at the hands of the savage Morbassan. Yes, I am the Bertuccio
Nanolo who adopted you. And I never for a moment dreamt that the stupid
servants whom Bodoeri sent to take possession of the villa, which he
had bought of me, would turn you out of the house. You infatuated
youth! Do you hesitate to take up arms against a despotic caste whose
cruelty robbed you of a father? Ay! go down to the quadrangle of the
Fontego, and the stains which you will there see on the stone pavements
are the stains of your father's blood. The Seignory when making over to
the German merchants the _dépôt_ and exchange which you know under the
name of the Fontego, forbade all those who had offices assigned to them
to take the keys with them when they went away; they were to leave them
with the official in charge of the Fontego. Your father acted contrary
to this law, and had therefore incurred a heavy penalty. But now when
the offices were opened on your father's return, there was found
amongst his wares a chest of false Venetian coins. He vainly protested
his innocence; it was only too evident that some malicious fiend,
perhaps the official in charge himself, had smuggled in the chest in
order to ruin your father. The inexorable judges, satisfied that the
chest had been found in your father's offices, condemned him to death.
He was executed in the quadrangle of the Fontego; nor would you now be
living if faithful Margaret had not saved you. I, your father's truest
friend, adopted you; and in order that you might not betray yourself to
the Seignory, you were not told what was your father's name. But now--
now, Anthony Dalbirger,--now is the time--now, to seize your arms and
revenge upon the heads of the Seignory your father's shameful death."
Antonio, fired by the spirit of vengeance, swore to be true to the
conspirators and to act with invincible courage. It is well known that
it was the affront put upon Bertuccio Nenolo by Dandulo when he was
appointed to superintend the naval preparations, and on the occasion of
a quarrel struck Nenolo in the face, that induced him to join with his
ambitious son-in-law in his conspiracy against the Seignory. Both
Nenolo and Bodoeri were desirous for old Falieri to assume the princely
mantle in order that they might themselves rise along with him. The
conspirators' plan was to spread abroad the news that the Genoese fleet
lay before the Lagune. Then when night came the great bell in St.
Mark's Tower was to be rung, and the town summoned to arms, under the
false pretext of defence. This was to be the signal for the
conspirators, whose numbers were considerable, and who were scattered
throughout all Venice, to occupy St. Mark's Square, make themselves
masters of the remaining principal squares of the town, murder the
leading men of the Seignory, and proclaim the Doge sovereign Duke of
Venice.
But it was not the will of Heaven that this murderous scheme should
succeed, nor that the fundamental constitution of the harassed state
should be trampled in the dust by old Falieri--a man inflamed with
pride and haughtiness. The meetings in Falieri's house on Giudecca had
not escaped the watchfulness of the Ten; but they failed altogether to
learn any reliable intelligence. But the conscience of one of the
conspirators, a fur-merchant of Pisa, Bentian by name, pricked him; he
resolved to save from destruction his friend and gossip, Nicolas Leoni,
a member of the Council of Ten. When twilight came on, he went to him
and besought him not to leave his house during the night, no matter
what occurred. Leoni's suspicion was aroused; he detained the
fur-merchant, and on pressing him closely learned the whole scheme. In
conjunction with Giovanni Gradenigo and Marco Cornaro he called the
Council of Ten together in St. Salvador's (church); and there, in less
than three hours, measures were taken calculated to stifle all the
efforts of the conspirators on the first sign of movement.
Antonio's commission was to take a body of men and go to St. Mark's
Tower, and see that the bell was tolled. Arrived there, he found the
tower occupied by a large force of Arsenal troops, who, on his
attempting to approach, charged upon him with their halberds. His own
band, seized with a sudden panic, scattered like chaff; and he himself
slipped away in the darkness of the night. But he heard the footsteps
of a man following close at his heels; he felt him lay hands upon him,
and he was just on the point of cutting his pursuer down when by means
of a sudden flash of light he recognised Pietro. "Save yourself," cried
he, "save yourself, Antonio,--here in my gondola. All is betrayed.
Bodoeri--Nenolo--are in the power of the Seignory; the doors of the
Ducal Palace are closed; the Doge is confined a prisoner in his own
apartment--watched like a criminal by his own faithless guards. Come
along--make haste--get away." Almost stupefied, Antonio suffered
himself to be dragged into the gondola. Muffled voices--the clash of
weapons--single cries for help--then with the deepest blackness of the
night there followed a breathless awful silence. Next morning the
populace, stricken with terror, beheld a fearful sight; it made every
man's blood run cold in his veins. The Council of the Ten had that very
same night passed sentence of death upon the leaders of the conspiracy
who had been seized. They were strangled, and suspended from the
balcony at the side of the Palace overlooking the Piazzetta, the one
whence the Doge was in the habit of witnessing all ceremonies,--and
where, alas! Antonio had hovered in the air before the lovely
Annunciata, and where she had received from him the nosegay of flowers.
Amongst the corpses were those of Marino Bodoeri and Bertuccio Nenolo.
Two days later old Marino Falieri was sentenced to death by the Council
of Ten, and executed on the so-called Giant Stairs of the Palace.
Antonio wandered about unconsciously, like a man in a dream; no one
laid hands upon him, for no one recognised him as having been of the
number of the conspirators. On seeing old Falieri's grey head fall, he
started up, as it were, out of his death-like trance. With a most
unearthly scream--with the shout, "Annunciata!" he rushed storming in
the Palace, and along the passages. Nobody stopped him; the guards, as
if stupefied by the terrible thing that had just taken place, only
stared after him. The old crone came to meet him, loudly lamenting and
complaining; she seized his hand and--a few steps more, and along with
her he entered Annunciata's room. There she lay, poor thing, on the
couch, as if already dead. Antonio rushed towards her and covered her
hands with burning kisses, calling her by the sweetest and tenderest
names.
Then she slowly opened her lovely heavenly eyes and saw Antonio; at
first, however, it appeared as if it cost her an effort to call him to
mind; but speedily she raised herself up, threw both her arms around
his neck, and drew him to her bosom, showering down her hot tears upon
him and kissing his cheeks--his lips. "Antonio--my Antonio--I love you,
oh! more than I can tell you--yes, yes, there _is_ a heaven on earth.
What are my father's and my uncle's and my husband's death in
comparison with the blissful joy of your love? Oh! let us flee--flee
from this scene of blood and murder." Thus spake Annunciata, her heart
rent by the bitterest anguish, as well as by the most passionate love.
Amid thousands of kisses and never-ending tears, the two lovers
mutually swore eternal fidelity; and, forgetting the fearful events of
the terrible day that was past, they turned their eyes from the earth
and looked up into the heaven which the spirit of love had unfolded to
their view. The old woman advised them to flee to Chiozza; thence
Antonio intended to travel in an opposite direction by land towards his
own native country.
His friend, Pietro, procured him a small boat and had it brought to the
bridge behind the Palace. When night came, Annunciata, enveloped in a
thick shawl, crept stealthily down the steps with her lover, attended
by old Margaret, who bore some valuable jewel caskets in her hood. They
reached the bridge unobserved, and unobserved they embarked in their
small craft. Antonio seized the oar, and away they went at a quick and
vigorous rate. The bright moonlight danced along the waves in front of
them like a gladsome messenger of love. They reached the open sea. Then
began a peculiar whistling and howling of the wind far above their
heads; black shadows came trooping up and hung themselves like a dark
veil over the bright face of the moon. The dancing moonshine, the
gladsome messenger of love, sank in the black depths of the sea amongst
its muttering thunders. The storm came on and drove the black piled-up
masses of clouds in front of it with wrathful violence. Up and down
tossed the boat. "O help us! God, help us!" screamed the old woman.
Antonio, no longer master of the oar, clasped his darling Annunciata in
his arms, whilst she, aroused by his fiery kisses, strained him to her
bosom in the intensity of her rapturous affection. "O my Antonio!"--"O
my Annunciata!" they whispered, heedless of the storm which raged and
blustered ever more furiously. Then the sea, the jealous widow of the
beheaded Doge Falieri, stretched up her foaming waves as if they were
giant arms, and seized upon the lovers, and dragged them, along with
the old woman, down, down into her fathomless depths.
As soon as the man in the mantle had thus concluded his narrative, he
jumped up quickly and left the room with strong rapid strides. The
friends followed him with their eyes, silently and very much
astonished; then they went to take another look at the picture. The old
Doge again looked down upon them with a smirk, in his ridiculous finery
and foppish vanity; but when they carefully looked into the Dogess's
face they perceived quite plainly that the shadow of some unknown
pain--a pain of which she only had a foreboding--was throned upon her
lily brow, and that dreamy aspirations of love gleamed from behind her
dark lashes, and hovered around her sweet lips. The Hostile Power
seemed to be threatening death and destruction from out the distant sea
and the vaporous clouds which enshrouded St. Mark's. They now had a
clear conception of the deeper significance of the charming picture;
but so often as they looked upon it again, all the sympathetic sorrow
which they had felt at the history of Antonio and Annunciata's love
returned upon them and filled the deepest recesses of their souls with
its pleasurable awe.
FOOTNOTES TO "THE DOGE AND DOGESS."
Footnote 1 Written for the _Taschenbuch der Liebe und Freundschaft
gewidmet_, 1819; edited by S. Schütze, Frankfort-on-Main.]
Footnote 2 C W. Kolbe, junr., historical and genre painter, was born in
1781 and died in 1853.]
Footnote 3 The story _Turandot_ has a history. Its prototype is in the
Persian poet Nizámí (1141-1203). From Gozzi it was translated into
German by Werthes; and it was from his translation that Schiller worked
up his play in November and December, 1801. The proud Turandot,
daughter of the Emperor of China, entertains such loathing of marriage
that she rejects all suitors, until on her father's threatening to
compel her to wed, she institutes a kind of version of the caskets in
the _Merchant of Venice_. Any prince may woo for her, but in a peculiar
way. He must solve three riddles in the full assembly of the court. If
he succeeds, he wins the princess; if he does not succeed, he loses his
own head. In Gozzi the three riddles are about the Year, the Sun, and
(extremely inapposite to the circumstances) the Lion of the Adriatic.
The two last Schiller replaced by riddles about the Eye and the
Plough.]
Footnote 4 Calaf, Prince of Astrakhan, successfully solves the riddles
and wins the Princess Turandot.]
Footnote 5 The story of this Doge's conspiracy has furnished materials
for a tragedy to Byron (1821), Casimir Delavinge (1829), and Albert
Lindner (1875). A translation of the story is given by Mr. F. Cohen
(Sir F. Palgrave) from Sanuto's _Chronicle_, in the Appendix to the
play in Byron's works.]
Footnote 6 Paganino Dona, one of the greatest of Genoese admirals, took
and burnt Parenzo, a town on the west coast of Istria, on the 11th of
August, 1354. At this period the rivalry between the two republics,
Venice and Genoa, in their commercial relations with the East and in
the Black Sea, was especially bitter, and they were almost constantly
at war with each other.]
Footnote 7 Andrea Dandolo (1307-1354), Doge from 1343 to 1354. During
his reign Venice actively extended her commercial conquests in the
Black Sea and the countries around the Levant, engaged part of the time
in active hostilities with the Genoese.]
Footnote 8 The sequin was a gold coin of Venice and Tuscany, worth
about 9s. 3d. It is sometimes used as equivalent to ducat (Note, page
63, Vol. i.)
Footnote 9 Pope Innocent VI., Pope at Avignon, from 1352 to 1362.]
Footnote 10 Hoffmann states that he derived his materials for this
story from Le Bret's "History of Venice,"--a book which, unfortunately,
up to the time of going to press, the translator had not been able to
obtain.]
Footnote 11 Nicolo Pisani, a very active naval commander in the third
war with Genoa (1350-1355), fought battles in the Bosphorus, off
Sardinia, and at Porto Longo, near Modon (Greece).]
Footnote 12 Sardinia was for many, many years an object of contention
between Pisa, Genoa, and the Aragonese. At this time (1354) it belonged
to the latter, but the Genoese were constantly endeavouring to stir up
the people of the island to revolt against the Aragonese; hence we may
see reason for Pisani's being in Sardinian waters.]
Footnote 13 Equivalent to "Governor," Chioggia was an old town thirty
miles south of Venice, at the southern extremity of the Lagune. Chiozza
= Chioggia.]
Footnote 14 The state barge of Venice; the word means "little golden
boat." Pope Alexander III. bestowed upon the Doge Sebastian Ziani, for
his victory over Frederick Barbarossa near Parenzo on Ascension Day,
1177, a ring in token of the suzerainty of Venice over the Adriatic.
From this time dates the observance of the annual ceremony of the
Doge's marrying the Adriatic from the Bucentaur.]
Footnote 15 San Giorgio Maggiore. Venice, as everybody knows, is not
built upon the mainland but upon islands. The two largest, whose
greatest length is from east to west, are divided by the Grand Canal,
upon which axe situated most of the palaces and important public
buildings. South of these two principal islands, and separated from
them by the Giudecca Canal, are the islands of Giudecca and San Giorgio
Maggiore close together, the latter on the east and opposite the south
entrance to the Grand Canal, beyond which are the Piazetta and St.
Mark's Square.]
Footnote 16 This is larger than the gondola, and also more modern; it
is calculated to hold six persons, and even luggage.]
Footnote 17 The Fondaco de' Tedeschi, erected in 1506, on the Grand
Canal. It was formerly decorated externally with paintings by Titian
and his pupils. At first it served as _dépôt_ for the wares of German
merchants (whence its name), but is now used as a custom-house.]
Footnote 18 Louis I. the Great of Hungary (1342-1382). The Dalmatian
and Istrian sea-board formed a fruitful source of contention between
the Venetians and Hungary, Louis proving a very formidable opponent to
the Republic.]
Footnote 19 At this epoch Venice was the mart and mediatory between the
West and the East, the commercial riches of the latter having been
opened up to the feudal civilisation of Europe, chiefly through the
Crusades. Hence the cosmopolitan character of the merchants on the
Rialto.]
Footnote 20 In the year 1348, Venice was visited by an earthquake, and
this was followed by the plague (the Black Death). In order to complete
the roll of the republic's misfortunes in this gloomy year, it may be
added that she also lost almost the whole of her Black Sea fleet to the
Genoese.]
Footnote 21 It may perhaps be interesting to observe that a precisely
similar occurrence forms the central feature in H. v. Kleist's
"Erdbeben in Chili" (1810), perhaps one of the best of his short
stories.]
Footnote 22 Narrated in the translation of the Chronicle of Sanuto by
Sir Francis Palgrave in Byron's notes to "Marino Faliero."]
Footnote 23 On the island of Sapenzia, south-west of the Morea.]
Footnote 24 Pietro Urseolo I. was Doge from 991 to 1009; Dalmatia was
subdued in 997.]
_MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER,
AND HIS JOURNEYMAN._1