that the newsmonger had been haunting
the purlieus of the Ducal Palace on the previous afternoon, enabled the
Ten to convict Jacopo. They alleged (Decree of X., March 26, 1451) that
other evidence ("_testificationes et scripturae_") was in their
possession, and they pointed to the prisoner's obstinate silence on the
rack--a silence unbroken save by "several incantations and magic words
which fell from him," as a confirmation of his guilt. Moreover, it was
"for the advantage of the State from many points of view" that convicted
and condemned he should be. The question of his innocence or guilt
(complicated by the report or tradition that one Nicolo Erizzo confessed
on his death-bed that he had assassinated Donato for reasons of his own)
is still under discussion. Berlan (_I due Foscari_, etc., 1852, p. 36)
sums up against him. It may, however, be urged in favour of Jacopo that
the Ten did not produce or quote the _scripturae et testificationes_
which convinced them of his guilt; that they stopped short of the
death-penalty, and pronounced a sentence inadequate to the crime; and,
lastly, that not many years before they had taken into consideration the
possibility and advisability of poisoning Filippo Visconti, an event
which would, no doubt, have been "to the advantage of the State from
many points of view."

Innocent or guilty, he was sentenced to perpetual banishment to the city
of Candia, on the north coast of the island of Crete; and, guilty or
innocent, Jacopo was not the man to make the best of what remained to
him and submit to fate. Intrigue he must, and, five years later (June,
1456), a report reached Venice that papers had been found in his
possession, some relating to the Duke of Milan, calculated to excite
"nuovi scandali e disordini," and others in cypher, which the Ten
could not read. Over and above these papers there was direct evidence
that Jacopo had written to the _Imperatore dei Turchi_, imploring him to
send his galley and take him away from Candia. Here was a fresh instance
of treachery to the Republic, and, July 21, 1456, Jacopo returned to
Venice under the custody of Lorenzo Loredano.

According to Romanin (_Storia, etc._, iv. 284), he was not put to the
torture, but confessed his guilt spontaneously, pleading, by way of
excuse, that the letter to the Duke of Milan had been allowed to fall
into the hands of spies, with a view to his being recalled to Venice and
obtaining a glimpse of his parents a