"I cannot endure it," he cried. "Your Excellency must forgive
me. The tribunal can act without me. I am ill.
I am mad." He flung his hands out with a furious gesture and
rushed from the room.
"Let him go! Let him go!" said the president. "It is, indeed,
more than can be asked of flesh and blood that he should remain
under this roof. But he is a true Venetian, and when the first
agony is over he will understand that it could not be otherwise."
I had been forgotten during this episode, and though I am not a
man who is accustomed to being overlooked I should have been all
the happier had they continued to neglect me. But now the old
president glared at me again like a tiger who comes back to his
victim.
"You shall pay for it all, and it is but justice that you
should," he said. "You, an upstart adventurer and foreigner,
have dared to raise your eyes in love to the grand daughter of a
Doge of Venice who was already betrothed to the heir of the
Loredans. He who enjoys such privileges must pay a price for
them.
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