"Truly?"
"Truly, I do not know her; but if you ask Antonio, he will tell you."
With these few words Eugene turned away, and, in a low voice, promised a rich reward to his gondoliers if they would but touch the gondola of the Marquis Strozzi.
The elector beckoned to Antonio. "Who is that lady in the gilded gondola close by?" said he.
"Which one, your highness?"
"The one in red velvet,"
"That is the Countess Lucretia Canossa, sister of the Marquis de
Strozzi."
"Is she married?"
"Yes, your highness, to a man who has squandered her fortune; so that but for her brother she would be penniless."
The elector thanked Antonio, and leaped back into his own gondola. The Marquis de Villars, meanwhile, who knew that gondoliers were the news-givers of Venice, had ascertained quite as much of the position of the countess as Max Emmanuel had done during his short absence.