must be told; but, lord,before I tell it will you say to me once more what you have said--thatfor my sake, to be with me alone, you stand willing--nay, glad--to giveup your city and your rank and your friends? Will you say to me that I,woman of infamy though men call me, am dearer to you than everythingelse in the world?" She came close to him, putting out her two handsupon his breast, and her great eyes burned up into his, and her faceseemed for the instant to sharpen, to pale, and her lips trembled.
"Will you tell me once again?" she said, pleading.
"I could not--live without you--child," he said, and she cried out withjoy at the name. He had called her "child" on the night before when hedid not know who she was.
She stood away from him at arm's-length.
"Now then, at last," she said, "I will tell you what you must know.Lord, I--" Her voice failed suddenly as if she had been stricken ill,and all the rosy color which had risen to her cheeks began to dieslowly away. She seemed to be staring over young Zuan's shouldertowards the north. She raised her hand a little way, but it droppedagain weakly by her side. "The--ships!" she said, in a strainedwhisper. "The--ships!" Zuan turned to look.
Round a little wooded point of the island, scarcely more than a mileto the north of where they stood, came, before the wind, three greatVenetian galleys, looming high and stately in that narrow strait.
Zuan gave a great shout. "My ships!" he cried. "My galleys!" His voiceran up into an odd falsetto note which was almost a scream. "Trapanihas found Il Lupo, and they are going to attack the city by sea!"He sprang for his cloak, which lay near, as if he would wave it toattract the attention of those on the galleys, but the woman caught himby the arm, white-faced and breathless.
"No, no!" she cried, swiftly. "No! You--must not go. They must notattack--now. The city could be taken in an hour. Those men--fools!fools!--of ours have destroyed the--engines of defence. They did notknow how to use them. And they have--sunk the ships in the harbor.Lord, you must not let your ships attack. We must not lose the city.Oh, it would be cruel, cruel!" She clung to his arms, sobbing,panic-stricken, stumbling desperately over her words.
"Lord, they must not take Arbe!" she wailed. "All we have done--all_I_ have done--gone for nothing--nothing! It is not to be borne. Stopthem, lord! You would not be so cruel as to allow this. You do notknow--Oh, stop them! Stop them!" She was quite beside herself withterror, but Zuan put her out away from him at arm's-length and held herthere.
"Listen!" he said, sharply. "Listen to me!"
And her wild incoherence checked itself--dropped into breathlesssobbing.
"I cannot stop those galleys," he said. "They have come here to retakeArbe, which you seized from us, and if what you say is true they willtake it easily. Remember, nothing I can do will save the city for you.The city is lost to you already. You must let me signal to the galleysand go on board. You must let me lead this force in the attack, as Iwas to have done when I left Venice."
The woman cried out upon him again in a panic, but he quieted hersharply as before, speaking in quick, emphatic words as one speaks to aterrified child.
"You must let me go!" he said. "Surely you see that my honor is inthis. Whether I go or stay here in hiding, the result will be the samefor the city, but if I do not go I am dishonored for life. You wouldbe hurt by that as much as I, so let me go. If I retake the city,the council in Venice will perhaps allow me to marry you withoutbanishment. At any rate, there is the bare chance of it. Let me go!"
She stood away from him, drooping, downcast eyes averted, and she madean odd little despairing gesture--as it were of defeat. Arbe went fromher hands in that gesture. Triumph was renounced that her lover's honormight rest unstained.
"Yes," she said--"yes, you must go, lord. I will not dishonor you. Butoh, if there is a God who hears lovers' prayers, I pray that he willnot let you come to harm. If you are killed this day I shall not live."
The ships were drawing nearer, down the coast of the island.
"I shall be," said the woman of abomination, "in the city, lord, whenyou take it." She smiled again her wry smile, as if something grimlyamused her.
"No!" said he. "Wait here or in the wood north of the Land Gate. I willcome for you. You must not put yourself in danger."
"I shall be in the city, lord," she said again, "but not in danger. Oh,I pray God to keep you safe!"
"I must go," said he, looking over his shoulder at the three highgalleys. "I must go, but oh, my dear, never doubt me! I shall come toyou if I have to crawl on hands and knees!" He took her into his armsand kissed her mouth. It was the first time. Then he caught up hismantle and stood, sharply outlined on the brink of the cliff, wavingit about his head, until through the still morning air he heard criesfrom the men of the nearest ship and saw that he had attracted theirattention.
Near where he stood a fissure rent the wall of rock--a watercourse halffilled with earth and shale and grown up with low shrubs. Down this hemade his way, plunging recklessly among bowlders, and so reached thetiny strip of beach at the cliff's foot. The first galley was alreadyhove to, and from it a skiff put out to take him aboard. In ten minutesmore the three ships bore away again southward, and Zuan Gradenigo wasin command.
And, after all, they had very little fighting for their pains--toolittle to please them. For it seems that an hour before the threeships came into sight of the city the Venetians and Arbesani of thegarrison, too carelessly guarded by their barbarian captors, rose, instreet and market-place and improvised prison--rose at a preconcertedsignal--and fell upon the Huns tooth and nail. Some of them hadweapons, some sticks or stones, one--an Arbesan called Spalatini, andhis name deserves to go down in history along with Messer Samson's--thethigh-bone of an ox which the Huns had killed and roasted whole in theVia Venezia.
When, therefore, the three galleys under Zuan Gradenigo drew intothe harbor and hurriedly made fast to the landing-place, a runninghand-to-hand fight was in progress from one end of the city to theother. It was not a battle, for it had no organization whatever. Itwas a disgraceful m?l?e. Naturally enough the Venetian reinforcementsincontinently decided the day. Something over three hundred of theban's barbarians--Huns, Slavs, and Croats--gave themselves up. Nearlytwo hundred killed themselves by leaping over the high westwardsea-wall, and a hundred more were killed in fight or escaped by water.It was an inglorious ending to a matter which had promised so fine astruggle.
An hour after the landing, as soon as ever his duties gave him amoment's breathing space, young Zuan made up the Via Venezia--thatsingle long street which runs north and south through the city--to thecastle which sits at the street's northern end, and under which is theLand Gate, the only means of entering the town except by sea.
In the loggia of the castle he came upon the count--Jacopo Corner--around old man with a red face, gouty, so that he went upon crutches. Atthis moment he was surrounded by a group of gentlemen--Arbesani for themost part, heads of the city's great families--De Dominis, Galzigna,Nemira, Zudeneghi, and such; but he turned from them to greet youngGradenigo.
"Ah, Zuan, my lad!" he cried out, "you come in the nick of time--youand your archers! You've saved the day, for those dogs were justgetting the better of us. Another hour and--St. Mark!--our heads wouldhave been on pike-staves!"
Young Zuan struggled to preserve a face of civil sympathy, but his eyeswere upon the open doors beyond. Old Jacopo seemed to read his thought.
"Ay, we have the queen bee in there! She's in my privateaudience-chamber, bound to a chair. Queen bee, say I? Hussy! Strumpet!Daughter of abomination! Mother of sins!" He shook a crutch at thebronze doors. "Ay, she's there!" he said. "But the wench has cheatedus, for all that. She has robbed me of the pleasure of tearing her evilbones apart--alive, that is."
Gradenigo, one hand on the door, turned slowly backward a masklikeface. He felt that he was shaking and swaying like a drunken man.
"What do you--mean?" he said, in a flat voice.
Old Jacopo hobbled nearer and touched the younger man's arm. "Eh, lad!"he cro
aked. "Come! come! You're not yourself. The sun has got to you.You've a bound-up head, I see. Better have a rest!"
"What was it you said?" asked young Gradenigo, looking down at theground, which swung slowly back and forth under him.
"Yaga?" said old Jacopo. "Oh, she's dead. The wanton's dead. She got aserving-maid to stab her while she sat bound in her--"
"Out of my way!" said young Zuan, in a great voice of agony, and hedashed the old man aside and sprang through the half-open doors of thecastle.
He knew where the private audience-room was, and ran there at speed.No soldier stood on guard at the door--all
The Island of Enchantment Page 5