mitted o'er the threshold.

_Sen._ And
Even if she be so, cannot save her husband.
But, see, the officer returns.
[_The Officer passes over the stage with another person_.

_Mem._ I hardly 280
Thought that "the Ten" had even this touch of pity,
Or would permit assistance to this sufferer.

_Sen._ Pity! Is't pity to recall to feeling
The wretch too happy to escape to Death
By the compassionate trance, poor Nature's last
Resource against the tyranny of pain?

_Mem._ I marvel they condemn him not at once.

_Sen._ That's not their policy: they'd have him live,
Because he fears not death; and banish him,
Because all earth, except his native land, 290
To him is one wide prison, and each breath
Of foreign air he draws seems a slow poison,
Consuming but not killing.

_Mem._ Circumstance
Confirms his crimes, but he avows them not.

_Sen._ None, save the Letter, which, he says, was written
Addressed to Milan's duke, in the full knowledge
That it would fall into the Senate's hands,
And thus he should be re-conveyed to Venice.[45]

_Mem._ But as a culprit.

_Sen._ Yes, but to his country;
And that was all he sought,--so he avouches. 300

_Mem._ The accusation of the bribes was proved.

_Sen._ Not clearly, and the charge of homicide
Has been annulled by the death-bed confession
Of Nicolas Erizzo, who slew the late
Chief of "the Ten."[46]

_Mem._ Then why not clear him?

_Sen._ That
They ought to answer; for it is well known
That Almoro Donato, as I said,
Was slain by Erizzo for private vengeance.

_Mem._ There must be more in this strange process than
The apparent crimes of the accused disclose-- 310
But here come two of "the Ten;" let us retire.
[_Exeunt_ MEMMO _and Senator_.

_Enter_ LOREDANO _and_ BARBARIGO.

_Bar._ (_addressing_ LOR.).
That were too much: believe me, 'twas not meet
The trial should go further at this moment.

_Lor._ And so the Council must break up, and Justice
Pause in her full career, because a woman