of poor Francesca of Rimini was not one of those expurgated by
Rusticiano!' [33]

Marco Polo was released from prison (there must have been mourning in
the palaces of Genoa) and returned to Venice at the end of a year.
Sometimes hereafter his name occurs in the records of Venice, as he
moves about on his lawful occasions.[34] In 1305 we find 'Nobilis
Marchus Polo Milioni' standing surety for a wine smuggler; in 1311 he is
suing a dishonest agent who owes him money on the sale of musk (he,
Marco, had seen the musk deer in its lair); and in 1323 he is concerned
in a dispute about a party wall. We know too, from his will, that he had
a wife named Donata, and three daughters, Fantina, Bellela, and Moreta.
Had he loved before, under the alien skies where his youth was spent,
some languid, exquisite lady of China, or hardy Tartar maid? Had he
profited himself from the strange marriage customs of Tibet, of which he
remarks (with one of his very rare gleams of humour), 'En cele contree
aurent bien aler les jeume de seize anz en vingt quatre'? Had Fantina,
Bellela, and Moreta half-brothers, flying their gerfalcons at the quails
by the shores of the 'White Lake' where the Khan hunted, and telling
tales of the half legendary father, who sailed away for ever when they
were boys in the days of Kublai Khan? These things we cannot know, nor
can we ever guess whether he regretted that only daughters sprang from
his loins in the city of the lagoons, and no Venetian son to go
venturing again to the far-distant country where assuredly he had left a
good half of his heart. Perhaps he talked of it sometimes to Peter, his
Tartar servant, whom he freed at his death 'from all bondage as
completely as I pray God to release mine own soul from all sin and
guilt'. Some have thought that he brought Peter the Tartar with him from
the East, and the thought is a pleasant one; but it is more likely that
he bought him in Italy, for the Venetians were inveterate slave-owners,