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Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 342, April, 1844 by Various
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trace of her he sought, his repeated disappointments seemed only to
increase the obstinacy with which he continued the search.

The incognita not only engrossed all his waking thoughts, but she
still haunted him in his dreams. Scarcely a night passed that her
wrinkled countenance did not hover round his pillow, now partially
shrouded by the ample veil, then again fully exposed and apparently
exulting in its unearthly ugliness; or else peering at him from behind
the drapery that covered the walls of his apartment. In vain did he
attempt to address the vision, or to follow it as it gradually receded
and finally melted away into distance.

It was from a dream of this description that he was one morning
awakened by his faithful gondolier Jacopo. The sun was shining
brightly through his chamber windows, and he heard an unusual degree
of noise and bustle upon the canal without.

"Up, Signor mio!" cried the gondolier joyously, and with a mixture of
respect and affectionate familiarity in his tone and manner. "Up,
Signor Antonio! You were not wont to oversleep yourself on the day of
the Bridge Fight. All Venice is hastening thither. Quick, quick! or we
shall never be able to make our way through the press of gondolas."

The words of the gondolier reminded Antonio that this was the day
appointed for the celebration of a festival, which for weeks past had
been looked forward to with the greatest impatience and interest, by
Venetians of all ranks, ages, and sexes; a festival which he himself
was in the habit of regularly attending, though on this occasion his
preoccupied thoughts and feelings had made him utterly unconscious
that it was so near at hand.
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