But in the street behind the Dogano I found one open, and the
jeweller asked no questions. It appeared that he was used to such
women, and, having examined the stone through his magnifying-glass,
he counted me out three hundred livres.
"I ran back, faster than I had come, and climbed to the loft, hand
over hand, with the money weighing me down. It was in my mind to
bribe one of the market-women, through Gioconda, to smuggle you out
through the North Gate, under the baskets in her cart. But the day
had scarcely broken before Gioconda came (and she had never come yet
until evening) with terrible news. She said that I must count on her
no more, for the accursed clericals (as she called them) had made
interest with the Genoese Government to clear all the stews, and that
she and her sisters by the gateway had orders to be quit of the city
within twenty-four hours; in fact her sisters had begun to pack
already, and the whole party would drive away, with their belongings,
soon after night-fall. I asked her whither. 'To Milan,' she said;
for at Turin the Church was even stronger and more bigoted than in
Genoa.
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