mainland, every conveyance was in motion and no other boat to be had for
a week; while as for the "bucentaur" or public bark, which was just then
getting under way, it was already packed to the gunwale with Jews,
pedlars and such vermin, and the captain swore by the three thousand
relics of Saint Justina that he had no room on board for so much as a
hungry flea.

Odo, who had accompanied Cantapresto to the water-side, was listening to
these assurances and to the soprano's vain invectives, when a
well-dressed young man stepped up to the group. This gentleman, whose
accent and dress showed him to be a Frenchman of quality, told Odo that
he was come from Vicenza, whither he had gone to engage a company of
actors for his friend the Procuratore Bra, who was entertaining a
distinguished company at his villa on the Brenta; that he was now
returning with his players, and that he would be glad to convey Odo so
far on his road to Venice. His friend's seat, he added, was near Oriago,
but a few miles above Fusina, where a public conveyance might always be
found; so that Odo would doubtless be able to proceed the same night to
Venice.

This civil offer Odo at once accepted, and the Frenchman thereupon
suggested that, as the party was to set out the next day at sunrise, the
two should sup together and pass the intervening hours in such
diversions as the city offered. They returned to the inn, where the
actors were also lodged, and Odo's host having ordered a handsome
supper, proposed, with his guest's permission, to invite the leading
members of the company to partake of it. He departed on this errand; and
great was Odo's wonder, when the door reopened, to discover, among the
party it admitted, his old acquaintance of Vercelli, the Count of
Castelrovinato. The latter, whose dress and person had been refurbished,