“What is the use of teaching the multitude to read and write?” he asked.  “Had not Franz Kauffman known how to write, could he have imitated his master’s hand, and would he have lost his head for mistaking another man’s name for his own? a little reflection shows us he would not.  Now, as for the other art, could the people read bad books had they never learned the alphabet?  If there is a man present who can say to the contrary, I absolve him from his respect, and invite him to speak boldly, for there is no Inquisition in Vaud, but we invite argument.  This is a free government, and a fatherly government, and a mild government, as ye all know; but it is not a government that likes reading and writing; reading that leads to the perusal of bad books, and writing that causes false signatures.  Fellow-citizens, for we are all equal, with the exception of certain differences that need not now be named, it is a government for your good, and therefore it is a government that likes itself, and whose first duty it is to protect itself and its officers at all hazards, even though it might by accident commit some seeming injustice.  Fellow, canst thou read?”

“Indifferently, worshipful bailiff,” returned Maso.  “There are those who get through a book with less trouble than myself.”

“I warrant you, now, he means a good book but, as for a bad one, I’ll engage the varlet goes through it like a wild boar!  This comes of education among the ignorant!  There is no more certain method to corrupt a community, and to rivet it in beastly practices, than to educate the ignorant.  The enlightened can bear knowledge, for rich food does not harm the stomach that is used to it, but it is hellebore to the ill-fed.  Education is an arm, for knowledge is power, and the ignorant man is but an infant, and to give him knowledge is like putting a loaded blunderbuss into the hands of a child.  What can an ignorant man do with knowledge?  He is as likely to use it wrong end uppermost as in any other manner.  Learning is a ticklish thing; it was said by Festus to have maddened even the wise and experienced Paul and what may we not expect it to do with your downright ignoramus?  What is thy name prisoner?”

“Tommaso Santi; sometimes known among my friends as San Tommaso; called by my enemies, Il Maledetto, and by my familiars, Maso.”

“Thou hast a formidable number of aliases, the certain sign of a rogue.  Thou hast confessed that thou canst read——­”

“Nay, Signor Bailiff, I would not be taken to have said——­”

“By the faith of Calvin, thou didst confess it, before all this goodly company!  Wilt thou deny thine own words, knave, in the very face of justice?  Thou canst read—­thou hast it in thy countenance, and I would go nigh to swear, too, that thou hast some inkling of the quill, were the truth honestly said.  Signor Grimaldi, I know not how you find this affair on the other side of the Alps, but with us, our greatest troubles come from these well-taught knaves, who, picking up knowledge fraudulently, use it with felonious intent, without thought of the wants and rights of the public.”