“There are too many of them,” answered Arisa, laying her hand anxiously upon his arm.  “And they are all armed.  Please do nothing so foolish.”

“If they are all like Contarini, I do not mind twenty of them or so,” laughed Aristarchi.  “They must have more than a thousand gold ducats amongst them.  That would be worth taking.”

“They are not all like Contarini,” said Arisa.  “There is Zuan Venier, for instance.”

“Zuan Venier?  Is he one of them?  I have heard of him.  I should like to see whether he could be frightened, for they say it is impossible.”

Aristarchi scratched his head, pushing his shaggy hair forward over his forehead, as he tried to think of an effectual scheme for producing the desired result.

“The Ten might pursue us for that, as well as for a murder,” said Arisa.

Meanwhile the friends assembled in the room downstairs had been occupied for a long time in hearing what Zuan Venier had to say to Jacopo Contarini, concerning the latter’s treatment of Zorzi.  For Venier had kept his word, and as soon as all were present he had boldly spoken his mind, in a tone which his friends were not accustomed to hear.  At first Contarini had answered with offended surprise, asking what concern it could be of Venier’s whether a miserable glass-blower were exiled or not, and he appealed to the others, asking whether it would not be far better for them all that such an outsider as Zorzi should be banished from Venice.  But Venier retorted that the Dalmatian had taken the same oath as the rest of the company, that he was an honest man, besides being a great artist as his master asseverated, and that he had the same right to the protection of each and all of them as Contarini himself.  To the latter’s astonishment this speech was received with unanimous approbation, and every man present, except Contarini, promised his help and that of his family, so far as he might obtain it.

“I have advised Beroviero,” Venier then continued, “if he can find the young artist, to make him go before the Council of Ten of his own free will, taking some of his works with him.  And now that this question is settled, I propose to you all that our society cease to have any political or revolutionary aim whatever, for I am of opinion that we are risking our necks for a game at dice and for nothing else, which is childish.  The only liberty we are vindicating, so far as I can see, is that of gaming as much as we please, and if we do that, and nothing more, we shall certainly not go between the red columns for it.  A fine or a few months of banishment to the mainland would be the worst that could happen.  As things are now, we are not only in danger of losing our heads at any moment, which is an affair of merely relative importance, but we may be tempted to make light of a solemn promise, which seems to me a very grave matter.”

Thereupon Venier looked round the table, and almost all the men were of his opinion.  Contarini flushed angrily, but he knew himself to be in the wrong and though he was no coward, he had not the sort of temper that faces opposition for its own sake.  He therefore began to rattle the dice in the box as a hint to all that the discussion was at an end.