He was occasionally occupied in thrumming a guitar, and
seemed ennuye to the very death, as at intervals he gave directions
for the recovery of his child. Stupefied and aghast, I had myself no
power to move from the upright position I had assumed upon first
hearing the shriek, and must have presented to the eyes of the
agitated group a spectral and ominous appearance, as with pale
countenance and rigid limbs, I floated down among them in that
funereal gondola.
All efforts proved in vain. Many of the most energetic in the search
were relaxing their exertions, and yielding to a gloomy sorrow.
There seemed but little hope for the child; (how much less than for
the mother!) but now, from the interior of that dark niche which has
been already mentioned as forming a part of the Old Republican prison,
and as fronting the lattice of the Marchesa, a figure muffled in a
cloak, stepped out within reach of the light, and, pausing a moment
upon the verge of the giddy descent, plunged headlong into the
canal. As, in an instant afterwards, he stood with the still living
and breathing child within his grasp, upon the marble flagstones by
the side of the Marchesa, his cloak, heavy with the drenching water,
became unfastened, and, falling in folds about his feet, discovered to
the wonder-stricken spectators the graceful person of a very young
man, with the sound of whose name the greater part of Europe was
then ringing.
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