The chaplain, roused by my screaming, comes down and finds me in convulsions.  In the hope that some diascordium would relieve me, the good old man runs to his room and brings it, but while he has gone for some water I hide the medicine.  After half an hour of wry faces, I say that I feel much better, and thanking all my friends, I beg them to retire, which everyone does, wishing me a quiet sleep.

The next morning I could not get up in consequence of my sprained ankle, although I had slept very well; the major was kind enough to call upon me before going to Venice, and he said that very likely my colic had been caused by the melon I had eaten for my dinner the day before.

The major returned at one o’clock in the afternoon.  “I have good news to give you,” he said to me, with a joyful laugh.  “Razetta was soundly cudgelled last night and thrown into a canal.”

“Has he been killed?”

“No; but I am glad of it for your sake, for his death would make your position much more serious.  You are accused of having done it.”

“I am very glad people think me guilty; it is something of a revenge, but it will be rather difficult to bring it home to me.”

“Very difficult!  All the same, Razetta swears he recognized you, and the same declaration is made by the Forlan who says that you struck his hand to make him drop his lantern.  Razetta’s nose is broken, three of his teeth are gone, and his right arm is severely hurt.  You have been accused before the avogador, and M. Grimani has written to the war office to complain of your release from the fortress without his knowledge.  I arrived at the office just in time.  The secretary was reading Grimani’s letter, and I assured his excellency that it was a false report, for I left you in bed this morning, suffering from a sprained ankle.  I told him likewise that at twelve o’clock last night you were very near death from a severe attack of colic.”

“Was it at midnight that Razetta was so well treated?”

“So says the official report.  The war secretary wrote at once to M. Grimani and informed him that you have not left the fort, and that you are even now detained in it, and that the plaintiff is at liberty, if he chooses, to send commissaries to ascertain the fact.  Therefore, my dear abbe, you must prepare yourself for an interrogatory.”

“I expect it, and I will answer that I am very sorry to be innocent.”

Three days afterwards, a commissary came to the fort with a clerk of the court, and the proceedings were soon over.  Everybody knew that I had sprained my ankle; the chaplain, the surgeon, my body-servant, and several others swore that at midnight I was in bed suffering from colic.  My alibi being thoroughly proved, the avogador sentenced Razetta and the Forlan to pay all expenses without prejudice to my rights of action.