CATARINA OF VENICE:
THE GIRL OF THE GRAND CANAL.
[Afterward known as Queen of Cyprus and "Daughter of the
Republic."] A.D. 1466.
"Who is he? Why do you not know, Catarina mia? 'T is his Most
Puissant Excellency, the mighty Lord of Lusignan, the runaway
Heir of Jerusalem, the beggar Prince of Cyprus, with more titles
to his name--ho ho, ho!--than he hath jackets to his back; and
with more dodging than ducats, so 't is said, when the time to
pay for his lodging draweth nigh. Holo, Messer Principino! Give
you good-day, Lord of Lusignan! Ho, below there here is tribute
for you."
And down upon the head of a certain sad-faced, seedy-looking
young fellow in the piazza, or square, beneath, descended a
rattling shower of bonbons, thrown by the hand of the speaker, a
brown-faced Venetian lad of sixteen.
But little Catarina Cornaro, just freed from the imprisonment of
her convent-school at Padua, felt her heart go out in pity
towards this homeless young prince, who just now seemed to be the
butt for all the riot and teasing of the boys of the Great
Republic.
"Nay, nay, my Giorgio," she said to her brother; " 't is neither
fair nor wise so to beset one in dire distress.
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