the flight of Bianca occasioned in the palace of the noble
Capello. During the whole of the first day they made no
pursuit, for they still, though with much anxiety, expected her
return. The day passed, however, without any news of the
fugitive; the flight, on the same morning, of Pietro
Bonaventuri was next reported; a thousand little incidents
which attracted no notice at the time were now brought back to
recollection, and the result of the whole was the clear
conviction that they had fled together. The influence of the
Capelli was such that the case was brought immediately before
the Council of Ten; and Pietro Bonaventuri was placed under the
ban of the Republic. The sentence of this tribunal was made
known to the government of Florence; and this government
authorized the Capelli, or the officers of the Venetian
Republic, to make all necessary search, not only in Florence,
but throughout all Tuscany. The search, however was unavailing.
Each one of the parties felt too great an interest in keeping
their secret, and Bianca herself never stirred from the
apartment.

"Three months passed in this melancholy concealment, yet she
who had been habituated from infancy to all the indulgences of
wealth, never once breathed a word of complaint. Her only
recreation was to look down into the street through the sloping
blind. Now, amongst those who frequently passed across the
Place of St Mark was the young grand-duke, who went every other
day to see his father at his castle of Petraja. Francesco was
young, gallant, and handsome; but it was not his youth or
beauty that preoccupied the thoughts of Bianca, it was the idea
that this prince, as powerful as he seemed gracious, might, by