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B Y ORDER OF THE CZAR. 265

though he had not seen either of them on the canal for years ; curious men ; Jews he thought, born in Venice, but of a roving disposition ; fought in the war, brave enough, but rolling stones, never know where to have them ; and so on, Beppo talking to himself as much as to Walter and the rest.

The reader of the first chapter of this section of our story has already met one of the men of whom Beppo was speaking Paul Petroski (with the strange sinister face that was comedy on one side, tragedy on the other), com- missioned for Venice by Anna Klosstock in the room of a back street in Soho. The other man was the friend he had mentioned at the London meeting of the Brotherhood, and both are here to obey the orders of Anna Klosstock and Andrea Ferrari, in a great cause.

CHAPTER XXXV.

PLOTTERS IN COUNCIL.

THE two gondoliers of whom Beppo had spoken in com- plimentary-aerms as to their skill and bravery passed the Milbanke party in the hall of the Beau Rivage after ifce procession had broken up. They were guests in the house, as the Milbankes and Philip were ; but they occupied apartments with the servants of the hotel, and took their meals humbly with them, supplementing, however, their polenta and fish with a bottle or two of Chianti, and enter- taining their fellows with stories of the war, and incidents of their apocryphal travels. They all agreed that the King was worthy of his father, and that Italy enjoyed an exceptional liberty, won by the courage and with the blaod of the sovereign people.

While Paul Petroski and his comrade were discussing politics and Chianti, the Milbankes were recalling the