manent and irresponsible body,
from whom there is no appeal. When this power is secretly exercised, the
abuses become still more grave. It is also worthy of remark, that in the
nations which submit, or have submitted, to these undue and dangerous
influences, the pretensions to justice and generosity are of the most
exaggerated character; for while the fearless democrat vents his
personal complaints aloud, and the voice of the subject of professed
despotism is smothered entirely, necessity itself dictates to the
oligarchist the policy of seemliness, as one of the conditions of his
own safety. Thus Venice prided herself on the justice of St. Mark, and
few states maintained a greater show or put forth a more lofty claim to
the possession of the sacred quality, than that whose real maxims of
government were veiled in a mystery that even the loose morality of the
age exacted.

CHAPTER XII.

"A power that if but named
In casual converse, be it where it might,
The speaker lowered at once his voice, his eyes,
And pointed upward as at God in heaven."
ROGERS.

The reader has probably anticipated, that Antonio was now standing in an
antechamber of the secret and stern tribunal described in the preceding
chapter. In common with all of his class, the fisherman had a vague idea
of the existence, and of the attributes, of the council before which he
was to appear; but his simple apprehension was far from comprehending
the extent or the nature of functions that equally took cognizance of
the most important interests of the Republic, and of the more trifling
concerns of a patrician family. While conjectures on the probable result
of the expected interview were passing through his mind, an inner door
opened, and an attendant signed for Jacopo to advance.

The deep and imposing silence which instantly succeeded the entrance of
the summoned into the presence of the Council of Three, gave time for a
slight examination of the apartment and of those it contained. The room
was not large for that country and climate, but rather of a size suited
to the closeness of the councils that had place within its walls. The
floor was tessellated with alternate pieces of black and white marble;
the walls were draped in one common and sombre dress of black cloth; a
single lamp of dark bronze was suspended over a solitary table in its
centre, which, like every other article of the scanty furniture, had