Night—the chiefs of police—who had committed the accused for trial believed him guilty and determined to examine the papers relating to the trial.
THE DOGANA
With this intention they made a search in the house of the Avogador and confiscated the private accounts in which he set down the profit and loss of his judicial industry; for he was a very careful man. Surely enough, the Signors found an entry of one hundred and fifty sequins (£112. 10s.) received for acquitting the thief.
About the same time there was a very beautiful dancer called the Cellini at the theatre of San Cassian.
Mutinelli, Ult. 144.
A magistrate who exercised the righteous functions of an ‘Executor against Blasphemy’ became anxious to get into her good graces, but as she would have nothing to do with him, he brought an accusation against her in his own court, tried her, and condemned her to a severe penalty. But she appealed to the Council of Ten, proved her innocence, and was acquitted. Thereupon the Venetians began to swear ‘by the holy Virgin Cellini.’
With such a state of things in Venice, it was only to be expected that the condition of justice in the provinces should be still worse. When
Mut. Ult.
Goldoni was Secretary to the Chancery of Feltre, in the Venetian territory, there was a huge scandal about a whole forest cut down and sold without any order or authority from the government. An inquiry was attempted and begun; it was found that more than two hundred persons were implicated, and as it soon became apparent that the same thing had been done before them, within the century, it was judged better to draw a veil over the whole affair.