I felt reassured on learning
that everything depended on the examination of the papers, as I had no
doubt they were of a sufficiently innocent character. The shock,
however, had been enough to mar my power of enjoying Venice. We did,
indeed, go about to see the usual sights; and even the shadow-like
attendance of the policeman ceased at length to give us much
annoyance. But I saw everything through an unpleasant medium, and
heartily wished myself out of a region where the government of pure
force seems the only one attainable. At the end of a fortnight, we
received back our papers, with many apologies for their detention, and
for the scrutiny to which we had been exposed; which, however, it too
truly appeared, had been brought upon us by that one incautious
expression of Claudia at Verona. Very soon after, we left Venice, and
regained the safe shores of England with little further adventure.
[_Note._--Let no one suppose that this is in any degree an
exaggeration of the present state of things in Venice. Only about a
month after the adventure of the two ladies, two individuals of that
city were condemned for having been in correspondence with political
exiles. One, a nobleman, had his sentence commuted to the galleys, at
the intercession of a Spanish princess, daughter of Don Carlos; the
other, a bookseller in the Piazza di San Marco, was hanged on the
morning of Saturday the 11th October, during the whole of which day
his body was exposed to the public gaze.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83