Zeno argued and pleaded and stormed, but all to no purpose, and, finally, he was compelled to climb down again alone and make his way home.
No sooner was Carlo Yhomuas alone again, however, than his courage came back to him, and the gaoler’s wife was entrusted with another communication for the young Venetian, to which the latter replied instantly, spurred by the proposal which Carlo Yhomuas made to present Venice with the island of Tenedos, in his will.
This time, though, Fate was against them. It is very rarely that the hussy smiles upon a second attempt, if her favour has been too lightly treated during the first one, and now she turned her face away spitefully. The gaoler’s wife had hidden Carlo’s note in her shoe and, just as she was reaching Carlo Yhomuas’ room, the shoe slipped off and the sentry pounced upon the paper.
In an hour she was in the torture room and in an hour and a half she had given up her secret, while Zeno (upon whom, as soon as the accident occurred, Fate smiled again, as upon a well-loved child, who has caused his parent a momentary displeasure by the company he has been keeping, but who, once rescued from his friends, immediately becomes the adored offspring again) escaped to sea and got on board a Venetian warship, which happened to be visiting the port, and showed the will of Carlo Yhomuas to the officer commanding.
It did not take this latter worthy long to come to the conclusion that, since Carlo Yhomuas was the rightful Emperor, and, also, since he was not likely ever to reach his youngest son, that the Venetians might as well take possession at Tenedos before Andronicus could exercise his illegally obtained power and make a present of the island to his friend, the Genoese.
Fortune still smiled upon her son, for, when the fleet came to Tenedos, they found it to be held by an officer of Carlo Yhomuas, well fortified, and stocked with provisions; and he, having heard everything and seen his Emperor’s will in his own handwriting, was easily persuaded to place the island under the protection of Venice. That done, and the seeds of a pleasant and profitable war with Genoa sown, they garrisoned the island as heavily as they could, and sailed for Venice.
The Senate, as it was to be expected, disapproved gravely and openly of the whole affair—and promptly sent a fleet to Tenedos to hold it against all comers! With this fleet sailed Carlo Zeno. After a brisk but useless ruffle under the walls of Constantinople, Carlo returned to Tenedos with three ships, just in time to get his men ashore and his defences arranged before the Genoese swooped down upon him with twenty-two ships. I cannot be quite sure if, on this occasion, he had Michel Steno with him, though it is certain that the latter was, at one time, his assistant in the island; but, if he had, the subsequent rout of the Genoese becomes more understandable. Two such minds as Carlo’s and Michel’s were worth a good many hundred men. Be that as it may, the Genoese were repulsed, twice running in two successive days, and that so fiercely and with such loss that they left the island in a hurry. Nor did they come back, and Carlo, as soon as his wounds, of which he had received three in the two days’ fighting, would permit of it, returned to Venice in a blaze of glory.
Venice, at the time of his return, had a half-finished quarrel with the Carrara upon her hands, and Carlo was immediately despatched to the scene of hostilities.
In 1378, he was made military governor of Negroponti, but the sea called him again, soon after, and from that time until the Genoese siege of Chioggia he spent his time upon his favourite element and at his favourite business—to wit, fighting the Genoese.
During the interminable wars that occupied the next thirty years, Carlo became the one shining star in the State’s skies that no cloud or storm could dim or hide. Vittor Pisani, his nominal superior, had his ups and downs, and proved himself to be almost if not entirely Zeno’s equal, but Zeno was the popular idol.