But there were two things which Strasolda and the Uzcoques had
forgotten to include in their calculations. These were, first, the
slavish obedience of the Venetian populace to the call of their
superiors--an obedience to which they were accustomed to sacrifice
every feeling and passion; secondly, the Argus eyes and omnipresent
vigilance of the Secret Tribunal. Scarcely was the ladder applied,
when the first gush of flame from the warehouses brought a deafening
peal from the alarm-bell; and at the same moment, the masked and armed
familiars of the Venetian police, rising as it seemed out of the very
earth, surrounded the ladder, and a fierce conflict began. Even the
watchfulness and precautions of the Inquisition, however, were to a
certain extent overmatched by Uzcoque cunning and foresight. Had it
not been necessary to ring the alarm bell on account of the fire, the
police, who were far the most numerous, and who each moment received
an accession to their numbers, could scarcely have failed to capture
some of their opponents, and thus have ascertained to a certainty what
the promoters and the object of this audacious attempt really were.
But before they could accomplish this, the small piazza where the
conflict was going on was thronged with the populace, half intoxicated
with the excitement of the scarcely less serious fight they had been
witnessing and sharing in. In the crush and confusion that ensued,
familiars and Uzcoques were separated; and the latter, mingling with
the crowd, and no longer distinguishable from the cloaked and masked
figures that surrounded them, easily succeeded in effecting their
escape.

When Antonio, who was pushed hither and thither by the mob, was able
to extricate himself sufficiently to get another view of the window,
the invalid nobleman, delivered from his assailants, had retired into