e. So you
have confessed your guilt twice over."

And the Magistrate they entitled the Accuser rose and said:

"The illustrious city of Viterbo speaks by my voice, and my voice shall
be grave and calm, because it is the public voice. And you will think
you are listening to a bronze statue speaking, for I make accusation not
with my heart and bowels, but with the tables of bronze whereon the Law
is inscribed."

And straightway he began to gesticulate furiously and utter a raging
torrent of words. And he declaimed the argument of a play, in imitation
of Seneca the Tragedian: and this drama was filled full of crimes
committed by the holy man Giovanni. And the Accuser represented in
succession all the characters of the tragedy. He mimicked the groans of
the victims and the voice of Giovanni, the better to strike awe into his
audience, who seemed to hear and see Giovanni himself, intoxicated with
hate and evildoing. And the Accuser tore his hair and rent his gown and
fell back exhausted on his august seat of office.

And the Judge who had questioned the accused before took up the word
again and said:

"It is meet a citizen defend this man. For none, so says the law of
Viterbo, may be condemned without having been first defended."

Thereupon an Advocate of Viterbo got up on a stool and spoke in these
terms:

"If this monk has said and done what is laid to his charge, he is very
wicked. But we have no proof that he has spoken and acted in the manner
supposed. Moreover, good sirs, had we this proof, it would behove us to
consider further the extreme simplicity of the man and the feebleness of
his understanding. He was the laughing-stock of the children in the
Public Square. He is ignorant; he has done a thousand extravagances. For
my own part I believe he is beside himself. What he says is worthless
nonsense, and there is nothing sensible he can do. I think he has been
frequenting seditious societies; and goes about repeating what he heard
there, without understanding a word of it. He is too dull-witted to be
punished. Look out for his instructors; it is they are to blame. There
are many difficulties in the matter, and the wise man has told us, 'In
doubt, refrain from action.'"

Having so said, the Advocate stepped down from his stool. And Brother
Giovanni received his death sentence. And he was informed he was to be
hanged in the Square where the peasant women come to sell fruit and
vegetables and the children to pla