The French army was almost entirely cut in pieces, and the Venetians lost nearly the whole of their principal nobility, and half of their mercenary troops. Frangipani, though himself wounded, had gone with a deputation to the camp of the haughty conqueror, and on learning that Ursino was to set out as a special messenger for Venice, though he had no opportunity of speaking to him, he sent a note by him for the countess.
Camillo, on landing from the gondola, and crossing the Place of St. Mark to the palace of the Doge, observed to his astonishment the insignia of mourning waving at the door of almost every mansion. He could not have believed the loss of the Venetians to be so great; and on entering the Doge’s antechamber, he perceived that the lamentable tidings had arrived before him. Sorrow and dismay were legible in every countenance; and even the Doge himself, Andrea Gritti, a lofty, austere man, on receiving the report, had great difficulty to repress his feelings, and to preserve his dignity in the presence of the young soldier. The Doge intimated to him that in a few days he should return to the army; meanwhile he might rest and recruit himself in the lodging allotted to him. It so happened that he was quartered in the Frangipani palace. He was not personally acquainted with the count, and knew nothing of his domestic circumstances;
