"I did so. I said at once that Signor Ruggiero Mocenigo could not have been the man who led the assailants, because had he been so he would assuredly have borne a mark from the blow on the left temple."
"Look at the clothes. Do you see anything there which could lead you to identify him with your assailant?"
"My assailant was dressed in dark clothes, as this one was. There was but one distinguishing mark that I noticed, and this is wanting here. The light of the torch fell upon the handle of a dagger in his girdle. I saw it but for a moment, but I caught the gleam of gems. It was only a passing impression, but I could swear that he carried a small gold or yellow metal-handled dagger, and I believe that it was set with gems, but to this I should not like to swear."
"Produce the dagger found upon the dead man," one of the council said to an official.
And the officer produced a small dagger with a fine steel blade and gold handle, thickly encrusted with gems.
"Is this the dagger?" the senator asked Francis.
"I cannot say that it is the dagger," Francis replied; "but it closely resembles it, if it is not the same."
"You have no doubt, I suppose, seeing that wound on the temple, the dagger found in the girdle, and the fact that the body has evidently only been a few days in the water, that this is the man whom you struck down in the fray on the canal?"
"No, signor, I have no doubt whatever that it is the same person."
"That will do," the council said. "You can retire; and we thank you, in the name of justice, for the evidence you have given."