"Ay, your Highness. And he told them it would not sail for Babylon or any port in Paynimry."
"This year?" amended the Doge.
"Nay, any year," he said.
"Said he so?" Dandolo murmured. "And then?"
"He said it would sail against Constantinople."
The Doge's gaunt frame snapped upright in his chair, and a light seemed to flash from his face.
"Why did you conceive it necessary to tell me this?"
"Because it seemed to me, your Highness, that it touched the honour of the Republic—ay, of all Christendom."
"You have repeated it to no one else?"
"No."