She was taken by surprise, and for a moment the words would not come.

'Wilt thou take this man?' he asked again, but more softly now, and nearer to her lips, though he did not see them; for he thought he saw her soul in her brave brown eyes, and as for her answer, he knew it.

Now the rest of Zeno's life, with much of what the story-teller has told here, is extant in very bad Latin, written by one of his grandsons, the good bishop Jacopo Zeno of Belluno: how he sailed down the Dardanelles, and made good the Emperor John's gift of Tenedos to the Republic; and how the Genoese tried hard to take it from him; and how he fought like the hero he was, with a handful of men against a host, and drove them off and saved the island; and also how he lived to save Venice herself from them when all seemed lost, and broke their power for ever afterwards; and how he did many other glorious and great things, all after he had taken Bianca Giustiniani to wife.

Mr. F. MARION CRAWFORD'S NOVELS

THE SARACINESCA SERIES

_In the binding of the Uniform Edition, each, $1.50_

=Saracinesca=

"The work has two distinct merits, either of which would serve to make it great,--that of telling a perfect story in a perfect way, and of giving a graphic picture of Roman society in the last days of the Pope's temporal power.... The story is exquisitely told."--_Boston Traveler._

=Sant' Ilario.= A Sequel to "Saracinesca"

"A singularly powerful and beautiful story.... It fulfils every requirement of artistic fiction. It brings out what is most impressive in human action, without owing any of its effectiveness to sensationalism or artifice. It is natural, fluent in evolution, accordant with experience, graphic in description, penetrating in a.n.a.lysis, and absorbing in interest."--_New York Tribune._

=Don Orsino.= A Sequel to "Sant' Ilario"

"Perhaps the cleverest novel of the year.... There is not a dull paragraph in the book, and the reader may be a.s.sured that once begun, the story of _Don Orsino_ will fascinate him until its close."--_The Critic._

=Taquisara=

"To Mr. Crawford's Roman novels belongs the supreme quality of uniting subtly drawn characters to a plot of uncommon interest."--_Chicago Tribune._

=Corleone=

"Mr. Crawford is the novelist born ... a natural story-teller, with wit, imagination, and insight added to a varied and profound knowledge of social life."--_The Inter-Ocean_, Chicago.

=Casa Braccio.=

_In two volumes, $2.00._ Ill.u.s.trated by A. Castaigne Like _Taquisara_ and _Corleone_, it is closely related in plot to the fortunes of the Saracinesca family.

"Mr. Crawford's books have life, pathos, and insight; he tells a dramatic story with many exquisite touches."--_New York Sun._

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

PUBLISHERS, 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

Mr. F. MARION CRAWFORD'S NOVELS

NOVELS OF ROMAN SOCIAL LIFE

_In decorated cloth covers, each, $1.50_

=A Roman Singer=

"One of the earliest and best works of this famous novelist....

None but a genuine artist could have made so true a picture of human life, crossed by human pa.s.sions and interwoven with human weakness. It is a perfect specimen of literary art."--_The Newark Advertiser._

=Marzio's Crucifix=

"We have repeatedly had occasion to say that Mr. Crawford possesses in an extraordinary degree the art of constructing a story. It is as if it could not have been written otherwise, so naturally does the story unfold itself, and so logical and consistent is the sequence of incident after incident. As a story, Marzio's Crucifix is perfectly constructed."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._

=Heart of Rome.= A Tale of the Lost Water

"Mr. Crawford has written a story of absorbing interest, a story with a genuine thrill in it; he has drawn his characters with a sure and brilliant touch, and he has said many things surpa.s.singly well."--_New York Times Sat.u.r.day Review._

=Cecilia.= A Story of Modern Rome

"That F. Marion Crawford is a master of mystery needs no new telling.... His latest novel, _Cecilia_, is as weird as anything he has done since the memorable _Mr. Isaacs_.... A strong, interesting, dramatic story, with the picturesque Roman setting beautifully handled as only a master's touch could do it."--_Philadelphia Evening Telegraph._

=Whosoever Shall Offend=

"It is a story sustained from beginning to end by an ever increasing dramatic quality."--_New York Evening Post._

=Pietro Ghisleri=

"The imaginative richness, the marvellous ingenuity of plot, the power and subtlety of the portrayal of character, the charm of the romantic environment,--the entire atmosphere, indeed,--rank this novel at once among the great creations."--_The Boston Budget._

=To Leeward=

"The four characters with whose fortunes this novel deals, are, perhaps, the most brilliantly executed portraits in the whole of Mr. Crawford's long picture gallery, while for subtle insight into the springs of human pa.s.sion and for swift dramatic action none of the novels surpa.s.ses this one."--_The News and Courier._

=A Lady of Rome=

Mr. Crawford has no equal as a writer of brilliant cosmopolitan fiction, in which the characters really belong to the chosen scene and the story interest is strong. His novels possess atmosphere in a high degree.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

PUBLISHERS, 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK