ripening among pine-trees and ivy-wreaths.

Nevertheless I lost no word of his speech, and could have listened to
him till morning should dawn again. And while we thus sat, or paced
the room arm-in-arm, I heard many matters, and yet not enough of Gotz's
adventurous fate, and of the happy turn my brothers' concerns had taken
with his good help. And what we now learned from his clear and plain
report, answering our much questioning, was that, after separating from
his home, he had taken service as a soldier of the Venice Republic, and
had done great deeds under the name of Silvestri, which is to say "of the
Woods." Of all the fine things he had done before Salonica and
elsewhere, fighting against Sultan Mourad and the Osmanli, yea, and in
many fights against other infidels, thereby winning the favor of his
general, the great Pietro Loredano--of all this he would tell us at great
length another day. Not long since he had been placed as chief, at the
head of the armed force on board the fleet sent forth by the Republic to
Alexandria to treat with the Sultan as concerning the King of Cyprus, who
was held a prisoner. With him likewise, on the greatest of the galleys,
were there sundry great gentlemen of the most famous families of Venice,
and chief of them all, Marino Cavallo, Procurator of Saint Mark; inasmuch
as that the Council desired to ransom the King of Cyprus with Venice
gold, and to that end had sent Angelo Michieli with the embassy, he being
the Senior of one of the most powerful and wealthy merchants' houses in
the East.

With all of these Gotz, as a hero in war, was on right friendly terms,
and when they landed at Alexandria, Anselmo Giustiniani, the Consul, had
given them all fine quarters in the Fondaco.

Here, then, my new lover had met Ursula; howbeit, he made not himself