“Venetians, you are determined to deliver me up to the axe of justice; there is for me no hope of mercy. ’Tis well, act as you please; but ere you sit in judgment over _me_, signors, I shall take the liberty of passing sentence upon some few of _you_. Now mark me, you see in me the murderer of Conari, the murderer of Paolo Manfrone, the murderer of Lomellino. I deny it not. But would you know the illustrious persons who paid me for the use of my dagger?”
With these words he put a whistle to his lips, sounded it, and instantly the doors flew open, the guards rushed in, and ere they had time to recollect themselves, the chief conspirators were in custody, and disarmed.
“Guard them well,” said Abellino, in a terrible voice to the sentinels; “you have your orders. Noble Venetians, look on these villains; it is to them that you are indebted for the loss of your three citizens. I accuse of those murders one, two, three, four, and my good Lord Cardinal there has the honour to be the fifth.”
Motionless and bewildered stood the accused; tale-telling confusion spoke in every feature that the charge was true, and no one was bold enough to contradict Abellino.
“What can all this mean?” asked the senators of each other, in the utmost surprise and confusion.
“This is all a shameful artifice,” the Cardinal at length contrived to say; “the villain, perceiving that he has no chance of escaping punishment, is willing, out of mere resentment, to involve us in his destruction.”
_Contarino_ (recovering himself).—In the wickedness of his life he has surpassed all former miscreants, and now he is trying to surpass them in the wickedness of his death.
_Abellino_ (with majesty).—Be silent. I know your whole plot, have seen your list of proscriptions, am well informed of your whole arrangement, and at the moment that I speak to you the officers of justice are employed, by my orders, in seizing the gentlemen with the white ribbons round their arms, who this very night intended to overturn Venice. Be silent, for defence were vain.
_Andreas_ (in astonishment)—Abellino, what is the meaning of all this?
_Abellino_.—Neither more nor less than that Abellino has discovered and defeated a conspiracy against the constitution of Venice and the life of its Doge! The bravo, in return for your kind intention of sending him to destruction in a few hours, has preserved you from it.