him:

"Giovanni, bad man that you are, being thrown in prison by the august
clemency of the laws, you have spoken against those laws. You have
contrived with wicked men, chained in the same dungeon as yourself, a
plot to overthrow the order stablished in this city."

The holy man Giovanni made answer:

"Nay! I but spoke for Justice and Truth. If the laws of the city are
agreeable to Justice and Truth, I have not spoken against them. I have
only spoken words of loving-kindness. I said:

"'Strive not to destroy force by force. Be peaceable in the midst of
wars, to the end the spirit of God may rest on you like a little bird on
the top of a poplar in the valley that is flooded by the torrent.' I
said, 'Be gentle toward the men of violence.'"

Then the Judge cried out in anger:

"Speak! tell us who are the men of violence."

But the holy man said:

"You are for milking the cow that has given all her milk, and would
learn of me more than I know."

However the Judge imposed silence on the holy man, and he said:

"Your tongue has discharged the arrow of your discourse, and its shot
was aimed at the Republic. Only it has lighted lower, and turned back
upon yourself."

And the holy man said:

"You judge me, not by my acts and my words, which are manifest, but by
my motives, which are visible only to God's eye."

And the Judge replied:

"Nay! if we could not see the invisible and were not gods upon earth,
how would it be possible for us to judge folk? Do you not know a law
has just been passed in Viterbo, which punishes even men's secret
thoughts? For the police of cities is for ever being perfected, and the
wise Ulpian, who held the rule and the square in the days of Caesar,
would be astonished himself, if he could see our rules and squares,
improved as they are."

And the Judge said again:

"Giovanni, you have been conspiring in your prison against the common
weal."

But the holy man denied having ever conspired against the weal of
Viterbo. Then the Judge said:

"The gaoler has given testimony against you."

And the holy man asked the Judge:

"What weight will my testimony have in one scale, when that of the
gaoler is in the other?"

The Judge answered:

"Why! yours will kick the beam."

Wherefore the holy man held his peace henceforth.

Then the Judge declared:

"Anon you were talking, and the words you said proved your perfidy. Now
you say nothing, and your silence is the avowal of your crim