The tale ran through the town, told by
high and low, by Jacopo's own trusted servant, and the old woman who had
waited on Arisa, and it had reached the market-place at an early hour,
so that the ballad-makers were busy with it. For many had known of the
existence of the beautiful Georgian slave and the subject was a good one
for a song--how she had caressed him to sleep and fostered his foolish
security while he loved her blindly, and how she and her mysterious
lover had bound him and shaved his head and face and made him a
laughing-stock, so that he must hide himself from the world for months,
and moreover how they had carried away by night all the precious gifts
he had heaped upon the woman since he had bought her in the
slave-market.
Last of all, his father heard it when he came home about an hour before
noon from the sitting of the Council of Ten, of which he was a member
for that year. He found Zuan Venier waiting in the hall of his house,
and the two remained closeted together for some time. For the young man
had promised Jacopo to tell old Contarini, though it was an ungrateful
errand, and one which, the latter might remember against him. But it was
a kind action, and Venier performed it as well as he could, telling the
story truthfully, but leaving out all such useless details as might
increase the father's anger.
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