ut the holy man Giovanni answered him:

"What matter for Justice being in the Laws, if it is not in men's
hearts? And if men's hearts are unjust, what gain shall it be that
Equity reign in the Courts of Law?

"Say not, 'We will stablish just laws, and we will render to every man
what is his due.' For no one is just, and we know not what is meet for
men. We are no less ignorant what is good for them and what is evil. And
whensoever the Princes of the People and the Chiefs of the Commonwealth
have loved Justice, they have caused the slaying of many folk.

"Give not the compass and the level to the false measurer; for with true
instruments, he will make untrue apportionments. And he will say: 'See,
I carry on me the level, the rule and the square, and I am a good
measurer.' So long as men shall be covetous and cruel, will they make
the most merciful laws cruel, and will rob their brethren with words of
love on their lips. This is why it is vain to reveal to them the words
of love and the laws of gentleness.

"Set not up laws against laws, nor raise tables of marble and tables of
brass before men's eyes. For whatever is written on the tables of the
Law, is written in letters of blood."

So spoke the holy man. And the other prisoner,--he who had committed
startling murders, and contrived the ruin that was to save the city,
approved his words and said:

"Comrade, you have spoken well. Know you, I will never set up law
against law, right rule against crooked rule; my wish is to destroy the
law by violence and compel the citizens to live thenceforth in happy
freedom. And know further that I have slain both judges and soldiers,
and have committed many crimes for the public good."

Hearing these words, the man of the Lord rose, stretched out his
manacled arms in the heavy darkness and cried:

"Ill betide the violent! for violence ever begets violence. Whosoever
acts like you is sowing the earth with hate and fury, and his children
shall tear their feet with the wayside briars, and serpents shall bite
their heel.

"Ill betide you! for you have shed the blood of the unjust judge and the
brutal soldier, and lo! you are become like the soldier and the judge
yourself. Like them you bear on your hands the indelible stain.

"A fool the man who says, 'We will do evildoing in our turn, and our
heart shall be comforted. We will be unjust, and it shall be the
beginning of justice.' Evildoing is in evil desiring. Desire nothing,