Negotiations are going on with Genoa and Constantinople, but I have little hope that anything will come of them.
"It is getting late in the season now, and the war will hardly break out until next spring; but I have no doubt the struggle will then begin, and preparations are going on with all speed in the dockyards.
We are endeavouring to obtain allies, but the combination is so strong against Venice that we are meeting with little success, and Ferrara is really the only friend on whom we can rely, and she is not in a position to aid us materially, in such a struggle as this will be.
"I am glad to tell you that the affair in which you were concerned, before you sailed, has now completely dropped.

Nothing has been heard of Mocenigo since he made his escape.
"A decree of banishment was passed against him, but where he is we know not.

That wretched woman was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, but upon my petition she will be released at the end of six months, on her promise that she will not again set foot in the territory of the republic.

As Mocenigo has not been brought to trial, there will be no further official inquiry into the matter, and I have not been further questioned as to the source from which I obtained my information as to the girls' hiding place.

Your share in the matter is therefore altogether unsuspected, and I do not think that there is any further danger to you from Mocenigo's partisans." "I should be glad enough to remain in Venice a fortnight or so, sir," Francis said.