In fact, it took them ten days, for the roads
were very rough and the pack-beasts slow. Once, too, after they had
entered the territory of Venice, they were set on in a defile by four
thieves, and might have met their end had not Grey Dick's eyes been so
sharp. As it was he saw them coming, and, having his bow at hand, for he
did not like the look of the country or its inhabitants, leaped to earth
and shot two of them with as many arrows, whereon the other two ran
away. Before they went, however, they shot also and killed a pack-beast,
so that the Englishmen were obliged to throw away some of their gear and
go on with the one that remained.
At length, on the eleventh afternoon, they saw the lovely city of
Venice, sparkling like a cluster of jewels, set upon its many islands
amid the blue waters of the Adriatic. Having crossed some two miles of
open water by a ferry which plied for the convenience of travellers,
they entered the town through the western gate, and inquired as best
they could (for now they had no guide, the Genoese having left them long
before) for the house of Sir Geoffrey Carleon, the English Envoy. For
a long while they could make no one understand. Indeed, the whole place
seemed to be asleep, perhaps because of the dreadful heat, which lay
over it like a cloud and seemed to burn them to the very bones.
Perplexed and outworn, at last Hugh produced a piece of gold and held it
before a number of men who were watching them idly, again explaining in
French that he wished to be led to the house of the English ambassador.
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