ge!" said the examiner, in evident
surprise.

"It is certain that, but for the fisherman, I should have been the
winner."

"And thou wished it, Jacopo?"

"Signore, greatly," returned the accused, with a show of emotion, that
had not hitherto escaped him. "I was a man condemned of his fellows, and
the oar had been my pride, from childhood to that hour."

Another movement of the third inquisitor betrayed equally his interest
and his surprise.

"Dost thou confess the crime?"

Jacopo smiled, but more in derision than with any other feeling.

"If the illustrious senators here present will unmask, I may answer that
question, haply, with greater confidence," he said.

"Thy request is bold and out of rule. None know the persons of the
patricians who preside over the destinies of the state. Dost thou
confess the crime?"

The entrance of an officer, in some haste, prevented a reply. The man
placed a written report in the hands of the inquisitor in red, and
withdrew. After a short pause, the guards were ordered to retire with
their prisoner.

"Great senators!" said Jacopo, advancing earnestly towards the table, as
if he would seize the moment to urge what he was about to say;--"Mercy!
grant me your authority to visit one in the prisons, beneath the
leads!--I have weighty reasons for the wish, and I pray you, as men and
fathers, to grant it!"

The interest of the two, who were consulting apart on the new
intelligence, prevented them from listening to what he urged. The other
inquisitor, who was the Signer Soranzo, had drawn near the lamp, anxious
to read the lineaments of one so notorious, and was gazing at his
striking countenance. Touched by the pathos of his voice, and agreeably
disappointed in the lineaments he studied, he took upon himself the
power to grant the request.

"Humor his wish," he said to the halberdiers; "but have him in
readiness to reappear."

Jacopo looked his gratitude, but fearful that the others might still
interfere to prevent his wish, he hurried from the room.

The march of the little procession, which proceeded from the chamber of
the inquisition to the summer cells of its victims, was sadly
characteristic of the place and the government.

It went through gloomy and secret corridors, that were hid from the
vulgar eye, while thin partitions only separated them from the
apartments of the Doge, which, like the specious aspect of the state,
concealed the nakedness and misery within, by t