the heads of the
different magistracies, and immediately seizing such ringleaders as
had been denounced. These were taken, at their own houses, without
resistance. Precautions were adopted against any tumultuous gathering
of the mechanics of the Arsenal, and strict orders were issued to the
keeper of the _Campanile_ not on any account to toll the bells.

In the course to be pursued with the lesser malefactors, no difficulty
was likely to arise: the rack and the gibbet were their legal portion.
But for the doge, the law afforded no precedent; and, upon a crime which
it had not entered into the mind of man to conceive (as with that nation
which, having never contemplated parricide, had neglected to provide
any punishment for it), no tribunal known to the constitution was
competent to pass judgment. The Council of X. demanded the assistance of
a _giunta_ of twenty nobles, who were to give advice, but not to
ballot; and this body having been constituted, "they sent for my Lord
Marino Faliero the Duke, and my Lord was then consorting in the palace
with people of great estate, gentlemen, and other good men, none of whom
knew yet how the fact stood."

The ringleaders were immediately hanged between the Red Columns on the
_Piazzetta_--some singly, some in couples; and the two chiefs of
them, Bertuccio Israello and Calendaro, with a cruel precaution not
uncommon in Venice, were previously gagged. Nor was the process of the
highest delinquent long protracted. He appears neither to have denied
nor to have extenuated his guilt; and, 'on Friday the 16th day of April,
judgment was given in the Council of X. that my Lord Marino Faliero the
Duke should have his head cut off, and that the execution should be done
on the landing-place of the stone staircase, the Giant's Stairs, where
the doges take their oath when they first enter the palace. On the
following day, the doors of the palace being shut, the duke had his head
cut off, about the hour of noon; and the cap of estate was taken from
the duke's head before he came down the staircase. When the execution
was over, it is said, that one of the chiefs of the Council of X. went
to the columns of the palace against the Piazza, and, displaying the
bloody sword, exclaimed, "Justice has fallen on the traitor!" and, the
gates being then opened, the populace eagerly rushed in to see the doge
who had been executed.'

The body of Faliero was conveyed, by torchlight, in a gondola, and
unatten